Dordrecht : Springer, [2007]

Dordrecht : Springer, [2006]

Producer/Editor: Annaliza Savage Camera: Somali Pirates

Preorder a Tesla today—but don’t expect to get behind the wheel for another 2-3 months. We go inside Tesla’s rigorous quality testing that each of its vehicles must undergo before hitting the road. From water and drive tests to a 101-point checklist, see the exhaustive inspection these electric beauties go through.

With American exceptionalism waning, is the U.S. destined to be left in the dust? Bill Gates and President Bill Clinton talk about the significance of building a future of shared success and responsibility in order to create a thriving global economy. For more from Bill Gates and President Clinton, check out the December 2013 issue of WIRED.

Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza sits down with the To Do List’s writer-director Maggie Carey, and co-star Alia Shawkat to talk about starring in the coming-of-age comedy, and how she used the director’s high school diaries for inspiration in her role.

To create the world of Asgard in Thor: The Dark World, filmmaker Alan Taylor enlisted the help of digital effects company The Third Floor. Using a process called previsualization, The Third Floor created fully rendered low-res CG sets and characters, allowing the director to see, plan out, and experiment with scenes before shooting them.

Is the education system ready for a revolution? In this World Economic Forum discussion Jose Ferreira, CEO and founder of Knewton, explains how a more personalized, adaptive program would increase access to education and improve the quality of teaching.

Angry Nerd is ready to demote Captain America from his current rank to lieutenant. In the Marvel superhero’s newest movie adaptation, his vibranium shield defies everything that physics and materials science has taught us. Angry Nerd calls blasphemy on the ingredient-altered shield.

20 winners. $100,000 each. The chance to bring an idea to life. We follow 40 student finalists as they compete for a coveted and controversial Thiel Fellowship. Their projects range from cancer research to new app technology, but there's just one catch if they win—they'll have to drop out of school. Meet the 2014 Thiel Fellowship finalists.

The 1990s saw the rise—and fall—of virtual reality. While everyone could imagine a technology that allowed us to be somewhere else, no one was able to make it happen. No one, that is, until an 18-year-old named Palmer Luckey invented the Oculus Rift. We speak with Luckey and other Oculus employees about how they managed to crack one of technology's toughest riddles and make VR feasible for the first time. Music: "Disco Kerosene" Performed By Circa Tapes (http://circatapes.bandcamp.com/)

After Roland Emmerich missed the mark with Godzilla in 1998, we had reason to be skeptical of Gareth Edwards’ new remake. Fxguide’s Mike Seymour goes inside the special effects behind the latest incarnation, in which effects company MPC designed the largest Godzilla yet, featuring an animalistic appearance with anthropomorphized traits.

The lightning pitches are over, but the finalists continue to sweat in the mentor matches. Judges and industry head honchos meet with each of the 40 students to find out more about their projects. Can the fellowship finalists effectively articulate their concepts and business plans, or will the tough questions and high-pressure one-on-ones prove to be too much?

After a weekend of activities and final pitches, the 40 students get ready to pack up their things and head back to reality until the 20 fellowships are awarded. In this episode, the students reflect back on what they’ve learned over the past few days, and what they’ll do if chosen as a 2014 Thiel Fellow.

CEO and co-founder of Motif Investing, Hardeep Walia, explains the concept behind his company, which allows users to invest in ideas on one of the first social investing platforms.

Eighteen-year-old Darby Schumacher is trying to create a safer and healthier world for newborns. The 2014 Thiel Fellowship finalist is working to develop an alert system that tracks vital signs in babies to help combat Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The Tennessee native explains what prompted her to start the project and why she wants to become an entrepreneur.

In the latest incarnation of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell deliver human motion-capture performances to help bring the realistic apes to life. Shot with a combination of high-speed cameras, Mike Seymour breaks down the tech behind shooting the motion-capture scenes on location versus on a sound stage.

Watch Matt Winston and the crew assemble the giant creature on Hollywood Boulevard before its big reveal on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Plus, watch Kimmel and his sidekick Guillermo take the nearly 14-foot tall, 2,000-pound creature for a ride. Watch the Kimmel segment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plmBWOL5LBw

Why drive a regular cop car when you can patrol the streets in a massive beast? Watch what happens when the San Diego police department upgrades their regular vehicle to Bodock the Giant Creature.

Just how does a giant creature get its realistic, custom fur? Find out, as we break down the process of fur fabrication for this year's massive beast.

The new Denzel Washington crime thriller, The Equalizer, is based on the 1980s show of the same name. And while Angry Nerd doesn't really remember much about the show, he does remember the killer opening title sequence.

In the new series “Agent Carter” Marvel expands its universe to the small screen with help from Industrial Light & Magic. Creating high-quality visual effects was nothing new for the the award-winning team, but working against grueling weekly delivery dates proved to be a monstrous challenge. Mike Seymour finds out how they did it.

The new DreamWorks film “Home” commits the worst of all CGI sins. In an attempt to make cute, kid-friendly characters, “Home” ended up with shapeless purple blobs and uninteresting features. What happened to strange and kind of creepy aliens like E.T.?

More people are using bikes for transportation and electric bikes can make the trip a lot easier. While expensive, the Faraday Porteur is one of the most elegant and zippy e-bikes we’ve tried.

California is in an unprecedented drought, but you gotta eat, right? Well, some foods use way more water than others. We chewed through a ton of data to make this bite-sized video. For you! -Brent

“Jurassic World” debuted with a record-shattering opening weekend, netting nearly half a billion dollars. See how Industrial Light & Magic used motion capture to help design the complex dinosaurs, including the genetically modified Indominus rex.

Scientists don't know exactly how the larva of the Reclinervellus nielseni wasp mind-controls spiders into building a special web to protect it but they do know that they eat their hosts and steal their webs.

Consider it a Moscow mule with a twist—mixologist David Alan shows you how to make a Jalisco mule using lime juice, ginger beer, and Patrón Reposado. Sponsored by Patrón Tequila

Eli Roth’s new horror film The Green Inferno delves into the world of cannibalism as only Roth can. Ahead of the new movie, the director breaks down his rules for engaging in cannibalism and shares the type of person he’d want to eat.

Following Cabin Fever and Hostel, The Green Inferno is the latest film in Eli Roth’s travel trilogy. The director explains what inspired his new cannibalistic horror movie, and how he achieved a realistic look and feel while shooting on set in the Amazon.

Andrew Wasserman from Strivr explains how virtual reality helps top athletes get better, and how the technology is getting more and more realistic.

At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory visualization specialist Robert Hurt breaks down the plausibility of sci-fi planets and galaxies in “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” and “Alien."