Here's one from this year's International Geneva Motor Show you may have overlooked. We first caught a whiff of EDAG's Light Car concept
in the September of 2009, when the open source project was in
preliminary development. At Geneva this year, EDAG unveiled the third
member of what's fast becoming a full range of all-electric Light Cars:
the EDAG Light Car - Sharing. Hmm. Let's call it the LC-S for short. A
markedly different animal to the Light Cars before it, the LC-S is aimed
at inner-city car hire fleets. Read More
A significant step on the path to quantum
computing has been taken by an international team of researchers
applying a 22-year old theory. They have succeeded in creating quantum
bits within a semiconductor for the very first time. Read More
With the cost of fuel hitting family
budgets harder and harder, Ford of Europe has commenced production of
its most fuel efficient (and lowest CO2 emissions) passenger car ever.
The company’s new Fiesta ECOnetic Technology is powered by a 1.6-liter
Duratorq TDCi diesel engine providing 205 Nm of torque that offers fuel
economy figures of 3.3 l/100 km with CO2 emissions of 87 g/km. Read More 
Growing out a of a research project led by
Kenmochi Hideki at Spain’s Pompeu Fabra University in 2000, Yamaha’s
Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer that lets those with a voice like
Roseanne Barr after a big night out synthesize more pleasing vocals by
inputting lyrics and melody. While the current commercial version of
Vocaloid 3 requires these inputs to be prepared on a PC prior to a
performance, Yamaha has now developed a Vocaloid keyboard prototype that
lets users input lyrics and melody and generate a singing voice in real
time. Read More
Germany’s IBA stands for “Internationale
Bauausstellung,” which translates as international building exhibition.
But the IBA_Hamburg site located on the Elbe islands of Hamburg isn’t
just a place to showcase buildings, it also serves as a seven-year
real-time research and development project aimed at delivering
CO2-neutral city development. Central to the site is the IBA information
center, known as the IBA_Dock, which is constructed upon a floating
pontoon and integrates numerous renewable energy technologies. Read More
On March 26 at 7:52am local time, film
maker/explorer James Cameron entered the history books and became the
first person to visit the ocean's deepest point alone. Just two weeks
ago, we reported on his previous solo-dive record
of 26,791 feet (8,166m), which he handily smashed by plunging 35,756
feet (10,898m) into the Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep southwest of
Guam. If the handful of contenders still vying for the record want to
beat Cameron, they'll now have to excavate, because that's as deep as it
gets. Read More
Hollywood isn’t the only industry fascinated with
remakes, reimagining and sequels these days. The motor world has its
share of revivals and updates too. Case in point, Italian car maker Alfa
Romeo and the Milan-based coachbuilding firm Carrozzeria Touring have
teamed to unveil their latest collaboration: the Alfa Romeo Disco
Volante 2012. Created as part of Alfa Romeo's centenary celebration, the
Disco Volante 2012 dips back into the past to draw inspiration from one
of the true classics of 20th century motoring, the 1952 Alfa Romeo C52
Disco Volante. However, where the original was a concept series with a
run of only four, the 2012 version will be offered for sale later this
year as a very limited series two-seater coupé that, in the words of
Alfa Romeo, blend the ingredients of “innovation, emotion and
aerodynamic properties into a timeless and essential shape”. Read More
Like many digital file hoarders, I keep copies of
my numerous albums of multi-megapixel photos, High Definition videos,
audiophile-quality digital music files and important documents on an
external hard drive to safeguard against hardware failure. Despite
having lots of storage space available on my laptop's hard drive, I also
move rarely-used files off my device and into an external vault -
probably a habit picked up when storage space was still counted in
megabytes. It's not practical to carry something like WD's MyBook
storage solution around with me when I'm on the move but the company's
newly-improved line of My Passport mini drives are a good fit,
particularly when they're now available with up to 2TB of storage
capacity. Read More
Amplify your kitchen cool with the Marshall Fridge
By Paul Ridden
March 25, 2012
Much like NAMM
in the U.S., Germany's Musikmesse is a chance for the music industry to
showcase both old favorites and new technology. Among the rows of
classic amps on show at Marshall's booth this year is something that may
look like an amp from the Jim Marshall signature series, but which is
nothing of the sort. The authentic Marshall amp head and cabinet facing
of the prototype Marshall Fridge open up to reveal 4.4 cubic feet (124
liters) of can or bottle chilling storage space, with handy can storage
on the inside of the door and a mini freezer to feed users with a steady
supply of ice cubes. Read More
Nobody likes potholes, but it often seems that
they’re one of those hardships we just have to put up with until they
get almost impassable ... after all, it’s a big deal to send out a road
crew who will have to block one or two lanes of traffic for half an hour
or more, while they risk being struck by inattentive drivers.
Apparently, however, pothole-filling needn’t be such an involved
process. Cities now have the option of using the Python 5000, which is a
vehicle that is operated by one person from inside its cab, and that
can patch a two-foot (0.6-meter) pothole in about two minutes. Read More
Breast implant with nanoscale "bed-of-nails" surface shown to deter cancer cells
March 24, 2012
It's a sad reality of our time that breast cancer
affects more women around the world than any other form of cancer. Even
more disturbing is the fact that up to ten years after surgery, the
cancer returns in nearly 20 percent of those deemed to have had
successful tumor-removal operations. Now, researchers at Brown
University (BU) in Providence, Rhode Island, led by engineering
professor Thomas Webster, have developed an implant which they believe
can appreciably lower that relapse rate by simultaneously inhibiting
cancer cell growth and attracting healthy breast cells. Read More
Filling up your hydration pack just got a little
easier ... not that it necessarily needed to. The Source Universal Tap
Adapter is a simple attachment that lets you refill your hydration
reservoir through the drink tube rather than the opening in back. You
can fill up on the go without ever taking your pack off. Read More
When it comes to groups that work together to get
a job done, ants have pretty much got the process perfected. That’s why
computer scientist Marco Dorigo studied the creatures’ behavior, and
created his Ant Colony Optimization model – an algorithmic
technique that can be applied to human endeavors, when efficiency is the
order of the day. Scientists from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for
Material Flow and Logistics have now applied these algorithms to a swarm
of 50 autonomous shuttle robots working in a parts warehouse, in an
effort to create a new and better type of materials-handling system.
Read More
Imagine if every window of the 828-meter (2,717-foot) high Burj Khalifa in Dubai was capable of generating electricity just like a PV panel. That's the promise of solar window technology like the RSi and Sphelar cells
systems. Rather than using costly silicon for window-based collection
of solar energy, Dr Mark Bissett proposes using a very thin layer of
carbon nanotubes instead. Read More
Scientists have discovered that
lignin, a plentiful byproduct of the pulp and paper industry, can be
used to store an electrical charge. They've used the material to create a
prototype lignin-based rechargeable battery, and suggest that it could
one day be used as a less expensive, safer alternative to the precious
metals currently utilized in battery cathodes. Read More 
Let's play a game of word association. If I said
to you "LED lighting", the chances are the first thing you'd say would
be ... well, honestly, I have no idea. But if I were to guess, I think a
lot of people would say bright, or efficient, perhaps cool, or possibly colorful. I would too. My hunch is that the word beautiful
would be used much less frequently. But that's a perception that might
soon change, if London design studio Troika has anything to say in the
matter. Which it does. Its mechanized, kinetic and grand LED chandelier,
named Thixotropes, is, quite simply, a beautiful vision of the lighting of the future. Read More
Although there are similarities to the Startram concept we looked at recently, this take on maglev-like transport is all on terra firma
and, if it ever eventuates, would take passengers from New York to
Beijing in just two hours. Advocates of Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT)
claim it is silent, cheaper than planes, trains or cars and faster than
jets. Read More
You may remember – pun intended – that earlier in
the week we reported on research that may provide an explanation of how memories are stored in the brain.
In related news, a team consisting of researchers from the Scripps
Research Institute, the University of Oregon and the University of North
Carolina has found a way to partially control a specific memory in mice
by turning neurons in their brains on and off. Although the research is
in its early stages, the scientists say it could lead to a better
understanding of how memories form and maybe even provide ways to change
people’s thought patterns. Read More
Old inkjet printers are an important tool for bioprinting.
Recently, researchers from Clemson University discovered that inkjet
bioprinting disrupts the membranes of the cells being printed, leaving
them open to having proteins inserted ... and opening up new avenues of
research in the field. Read More 
Three of the world’s biggest
aircraft manufacturers have set aside their differences in an effort to
accelerate the development of biofuel for commercial aviation. In a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed this week, Boeing, Airbus and
Embraer say they have agreed to work together on the development of
drop-in, affordable aviation biofuels that will help the aviation
industry reduce its carbon footprint. Read More
The wonders of graphene seem to know no bounds. Not only is it one of the strongest materials known, is both highly conductive and piezoelectric, it can generate electricity from flowing water
and now it is being used to make better supercapacitors. Using a DVD
writer, a team of UCLA researchers has invented a new process for making
high quality graphene electrodes and used these electrodes to make a
new species of supercapacitor. Though the work is in the early stages of
development, it could lay a foundation for supercapacitor-based energy
storage systems suitable for flexible portable electronic devices. Read More
To stand out from the crowd these
days, iPhone cases need to do more than simply protect an iPhone from
various bumps and scrapes - whether it be the inclusion of a physical keyboard, wall charger, lens filters or, in the case of the MagniCase, a flip-out Fresnel lens that magnifies the iPhone’s display by up to 1.5 times. Read More 
Imagine the convenience of brewing a creamy,
steaming cup of espresso right in your car and you'll get a sense for
the impetus behind the latest creation from Handpresso. The company has
added to its range of mobile espresso machines
with the Handpresso Auto, a well-designed in-car gadget which is
designed to turn just about anyone into a mobile barista. Read More
While we’ve looked at the development of solar cell technologies that employ nanoscale 3D structures
to trap light and increase the amount of solar energy absorbed, MIT
researchers have now used 3D on the macro scale to achieve power output
that is up to 20 times greater than traditional fixed flat solar panels
with the same base area. The approach developed by the researchers
involves extending the solar cells upwards in a three-dimensional tower
or cube configuration to enable them to better capture the sun's rays
when it is lower on the horizon. Read More
Thermoelectric materials work by converting
differences in temperature into electric voltage. If two parts of such a
material experience significantly different temperatures, electrons
within it will flow from the warmer part to the cooler, creating an
electrical current in the process. Using these materials, electricity
could be generated by the temperature differences on the inside and outside of jackets, within car engines, or even between the human body and the air around it
... just to list a few examples. An international team of scientists
have now discovered that an existing material, which behaves like a
liquid but isn't one, displays particularly impressive thermoelectric properties. Read More
Cardo BK-1 turns your bike helmet into a walkie talkie
By C.C. Weiss
March 26, 2012
Cardo Systems, Inc. has long specialized in radio communications systems for motorcycles.
Now the company has turned to the bike market in building what it calls
the "world's first Bluetooth communications and entertainment system
for bicycle helmets." Read More
Japan’s Hitachi Kokusai Electric has
developed a surveillance system that can automatically detect a face in
either a provided photo or video footage, then search for that same
face in other video provided by networked cameras. While such facial
recognition systems have been seen before, this one is able to compare
the target face against others at an astounding rate of 36 million faces
per second. Read More 
The fact that most major manufacturers are now
investing serious amounts of time and money in battery electric vehicle
(BEV) development is proof positive that an electric automotive future
will soon be upon us. While some, like Mitsubishi and Nissan, are
already leading the charge onto the driveways of more and more folks
around the globe, others prefer to take a more considered approach. Such
is the case with Volkswagen. After giving us a glimpse of its plans for
an electric Golf
back in 2010, the company has now announced that a nine-month pilot
scheme is to start next month in the U.S., to evaluate a prototype
electric version of the company's popular hatchback ahead of commercial
production. Read More
Aerogels are among the lightest
solid materials in existence, and are created by replacing the liquid
component of a gel with a gas – this results in their extremely low
density, and has earned them the nickname of “frozen smoke.” Now,
scientists have created a new type of aerogel that is inspired by the
feet of the water strider. The material is reportedly so buoyant, that a
boat made from one pound (454 grams) of it could carry about 1,000
pounds (454 kg) of cargo. Read More 
We were almost afraid to click on the link for a
"human backpack" that we recently came across. Turns out, though, it's
not a horror movie prop, but a backpack designed to carry humans. It's a
military/survival accessory created to carry your buddy out of the
field on your back. Read More
Wind turbines are exposed to a wide
variety of wind conditions, from zephyrs to gales, and ensuring the
maximum amount of power is extracted from the turbine across a range of
wind speeds is a difficult task. Chinese researchers have now developed a
biologically inspired control system that uses “memory” of past
experience to learn how to best adapt to changing conditions. Read More
According to the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission, every year about 165,000 Americans are
treated for ladder-related injuries. It’s probably safe to assume that
the majority of those injuries involve people being on unstable ladders
that fall over, and it is those kinds of accidents that a new product
known as the Thor-Stand is designed to keep from happening. Read More
Gizmag regulars will be well-used to the idea of self-healing materials, and even materials that repair themselves when exposed to light;
but a new plastic demonstrated to the American Chemical Society on
Monday purports to be the first self-healing material to incorporate a
damage-reporting mechanism, almost akin to the bleeding of human skin.
Read More
With most major pizza chains
equipped with online ordering and smartphone apps, having a pizza
delivered is faster and easier than ever before. But that still may not
be quick enough if you get a craving for your favorite pizza from your
favorite pizzeria. That may be why one Dubai-based pizza shop is making
things even easier on its customers by offering Bluetooth-enabled
refrigerator magnets that can place an order for delivery at the push of
a button. Read More
A gun accident fifteen years ago
left Richard Lee Norris without his lips, nose, and with limited
movement of his mouth. Now after a marathon 36-hour surgical procedure
described as "the most extensive full face transplant completed to
date," a team led by Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez at the University of Maryland
has restored Mr. Norris' quality of life. Read More
Australian owners of the "new" iPad
are being offered full refunds by Apple after the country's consumer
watchdog found Apple had misled customers as to the device's 4G
capabilities in the region. Read More
A collision between Earth and an asteroid a few
kilometers in diameter would release as much energy as the simultaneous
detonation of several million nuclear bombs, and with the impact of an
asteroid estimated at around 6.2 miles in diameter believed to be
responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs, numerous strategies have been
devised to try and avoid such devastation. The latest idea comes from
engineers at Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde who suggest that a
swarm of laser-wielding satellites could nudge Earth-bound asteroids off
their collision course. Read More
Wind turbines are exposed to a wide
variety of wind conditions, from zephyrs to gales, and ensuring the
maximum amount of power is extracted from the turbine across a range of
wind speeds is a difficult task. Chinese researchers have now developed a
biologically inspired control system that uses “memory” of past
experience to learn how to best adapt to changing conditions. Read More Galileo lets you remotely pan and tilt an iPhone
By Ben Coxworth
March 27, 2012
With their built-in cameras, microphones and
speakers, iPhones can be very handy for video conferencing. Should you
be trying to talk to a boardroom full of people through a phone that’s
propped up on the table, however, it can be kind of frustrating – you’re
stuck with the stationary shot provided by the phone, and can’t see
people who are outside of that shot unless you get someone to move the
phone for you. Well, that’s where Galileo comes in. It’s a motorized
iPhone holder, that allows a remote user to pan or tilt the phone 360
degrees. Read More
Similar to the Auto Rucksack,
the Rightline Cargo Saddlebag takes your cargo off the roof and throws
it on the rear-end of your car. Unlike the Auto Rucksack, a pack aimed
at small cars, the Cargo Saddlebag is designed for larger vehicles like
SUVs, minivans and crossovers. It's basically a backpack for your
vehicle, that hauls all sorts of gear and toys. Read More
World's largest paper airplane flies over desert
By Ben Coxworth
March 27, 2012
At a length of 45 feet (13.7 meters), a wingspan
of 24 feet (7.3 m), and a weight of 800 pounds (363 kg), Arturo’s Desert
Eagle is claimed to be the largest paper airplane ever made. Its design
was based on that of a much smaller paper airplane, created by
12 year-old Arturo Valdenegro of Tucson, Arizona. Valdenegro was the
winner of a contest held by the Pima Air & Space Museum, in which
children competed to see whose airplane could fly the farthest. A team
of engineers proceeded to recreate his winning plane on a grand scale,
and last week managed to fly it after releasing it from a helicopter
over the Arizona desert. Read More
Electronic waste is a huge global problem, and
its often devastating impact on our environment is not going to lessen
any time soon – in fact, it's predicted to get worse.
Faced with a panorama of mountainous e-waste when passing an immense
landfill site in suburban Phnom Penh, Cambodia and seeing young children
working there instead of going to school, a researcher at Keio-NUS CUTE
Center and Mixed Reality Lab in Singapore came up with a novel idea to
help tackle both issues. His plan involves creating simple and
cheap-to-produce edutainment kit modules that could be shipped out to
those unfortunate areas of the world where e-waste is transported for
disposal, where they would be paired up with discarded but functional
tech such as PS/2 keyboards and mice, speakers and old CRT monitors.
Read More
According to the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission, every year about 165,000 Americans are
treated for ladder-related injuries. It’s probably safe to assume that
the majority of those injuries involve people being on unstable ladders
that fall over, and it is those kinds of accidents that a new product
known as the Thor-Stand is designed to keep from happening. Read More
Gizmag regulars will be well-used to the idea of self-healing materials, and even materials that repair themselves when exposed to light;
but a new plastic demonstrated to the American Chemical Society on
Monday purports to be the first self-healing material to incorporate a
damage-reporting mechanism, almost akin to the bleeding of human skin.
Read More
If you ever had more than one type of toy for
building things as a child (LEGO, Tinkertoys, Duplo, etc.), odds are you
tried to mix the sets together at some point with creative, though
disastrous, results. Apparently the folks at F.A.T. Lab and Sy-Lab had
the same experience and have created the Free Universal Construction Kit
to solve this childhood dilemma. By downloading free designs and using a
3D printer, you could have your very own pieces to connect ten
different brands of building toys to each other and construct even more
elaborate contraptions and structures. Read More
Round performance numbers aren't necessarily
important milestones, but they do exude an undeniable aura of
accomplishment. This was the case when researchers at Los Alamos
National Laboratory (LANL) used their largest pulsed magnet to crack the
100 Tesla mark (roughly 2 million times larger than the Earth's
magnetic field) by generating a 100.75 Tesla magnetic pulse without
damaging the magnet. Read More
Mention the name Les Paul, and most people will think of Gibson's famous guitar
and not the extraordinary person after which it was named. To mark what
would have been the 97th birthday of the accomplished guitarist and
visionary inventor born Lester Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 1915,
Julien's Auctions will host an auction of some of Les Paul's personal
estate. All proceeds from the sale will go to the Les Paul Foundation, a
charity that encourages young people to pursue their curiosity and
innovation about music, sound and engineering. Read More
Specialized has just announced its new Turbo
electric bicycle, which it claims is the fastest e-bike ever made ... a
claim that the makers of the BlackTrail
e-bike would likely dispute. Whatever the case, the Turbo's top
motor-assisted speed of 45 km/h (28 mph) should definitely limit where
it will be sold – in the U.S., Britain and most of Europe, for instance,
it would be illegal. Nonetheless, limited numbers of the bike should
reportedly be available for sale (although it hasn’t been stated in
which countries) as of May. Read More
Altaeros Energies has announced the first testing
of its Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) prototype that resembles a sort of
blimp windmill. The test took place at the Loring Commerce Center in
Limestone, Maine, USA where the AWT floated 350 feet (107 meters) into
the sky and successfully produced power, before coming back to earth in a
controlled landing. The turbine was deployed into the air from a
towable docking trailer, while demonstrating that it can produce over
twice the power at high altitudes than generated at conventional tower
height Read More
With most major pizza chains
equipped with online ordering and smartphone apps, having a pizza
delivered is faster and easier than ever before. But that still may not
be quick enough if you get a craving for your favorite pizza from your
favorite pizzeria. That may be why one Dubai-based pizza shop is making
things even easier on its customers by offering Bluetooth-enabled
refrigerator magnets that can place an order for delivery at the push of
a button. Read More
The strength of the world's emerging economies
was on display at the opening of the Thai Motor Show today. For the next
10 days, 170,000 people a day will visit the show, and despite the
country having been largely under water for much of 2011, the Thai motor
industry looks more buoyant than ever. Almost every major manufacturer
had something on show we haven't seen before. Great picture gallery.
Read More
As GM's marquee brand, Cadillac is the launch
vessel for the automaker's technological advancements. The newest
Cadillac technology that GM has announced is a vibrating driver's seat
that provides tactile feedback to help keep drivers safer. While the
vibrating recliner you have at home is designed to keep you comfortable
and relaxed, in contrast GM is using a vibrating seat to keep you alert.
The Cadillac Safety Alert Seat comes equipped with dual vibration zones
that are connected to the car's sensor-based safety systems. Read More
NASA launched five rockets in five minutes early
on Tuesday morning, as part of its ongoing ATREX mission to study the
winds of the upper level jet stream. The rockets carry an onboard
chemical which, when released, form clouds revealing wind patterns at
outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere. And as you can see from the
resulting photography, some striking cloud formations occurred. Read More
A gun accident fifteen years ago
left Richard Lee Norris without his lips, nose, and with limited
movement of his mouth. Now after a marathon 36-hour surgical procedure
described as "the most extensive full face transplant completed to
date," a team led by Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez at the University of Maryland
has restored Mr. Norris' quality of life. Read More
Australian owners of the "new" iPad
are being offered full refunds by Apple after the country's consumer
watchdog found Apple had misled customers as to the device's 4G
capabilities in the region. Read More Giant plug for sealing off subway tunnels in a hurry
By Darren Quick
March 27, 2012
What’s the best way to plug a giant hole? Why
with a giant plug, of course. That’s the thinking of the Department of
Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T),
which has created just such a giant plug to contain flooding or
dangerous gases in mass transit tunnels. Measuring roughly 32 feet (9.7
m) long and with a diameter of 16 feet (4.9 m), the giant plug is an
enormous inflatable cylinder that can be filled with air or water in
minutes to quickly seal off a section of tunnel in the event of an
accident, natural disaster or terrorist attack. Read More
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