New and Emerging Technology News part 91 ~ NEW GEN TECH LIFE : new generation technology news

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

New and Emerging Technology News part 91

The solar-powered public EV charging station
The lack of support infrastructure is one of the major hurdles for alternative fuel vehicles that use batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. Honda’s vision for solar-powered home-based hydrogen production station is one effort to ease the transition from fossil to alternative fuels and now the company has revealed plans to trial a solar-powered public EV charging station and conduct testing of a range of electric vehicles and technologies in real-world urban transportation environments, starting with Japan.  Read More
Dzdock One
Created by an 11 year old boy from Pennsylvania, USA, Dzdock One is a one-size-fits-all dock for iPhone, iPad, Kindle and other styles of tablets or smart phones. The design started off as a father son challenge, where young Dino Zaharakis’ was promised that if he could design an iPad dock and web-site to market it, he could get a phone. A big challenge for anyone, the youngster took it all the way and has successfully designed, manufactured and marketed the Dzdock One.  Read More
A new algorithmic system that automatically identifies underwater sounds in real time has ...
It’s always upsetting to hear about whales beaching themselves, and one of the leading theories on the phenomenon suggests that it may sometimes be due to noise pollution in the oceans. Whales navigate and communicate via sound, so it’s entirely possible that human-introduced noises (such as those produced by ships, oil rigs, or naval navigational beacons) could confuse them, and throw them off course – it has even been posited that noises such as military sonar could deafen or kill them. In an effort to better understand the link between ocean noises and whale well-being, researchers from Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) have developed a first-ever system that identifies undersea sounds – both human and cetacean – in real time.  Read More
The GO Collection of solar charging clothing from Silvr Lining
Portable solar chargers like the U-Powered solar charger from Kiwi Choice are a handy way to keep mobile devices like smartphones, cameras and media players topped up with electricity while on the go. But if you’re looking for a more convenient way to carry a solar charger with you then the GO Solar Power Collection line of clothing from Silvr Lining could prove a good fit. It comprises a range of clothing items that feature pockets to house solar panels to charge up mobile electronic devices.  Read More
The MINI Paceman concept
If there’s one model of car that has generated more than its fair share of concept vehicles it’s the MINI. The 2008 Paris Motor Show saw the debut of the MINI Crossover, the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show brought us the MINI Coupé, and a year ago the MINI Beachcomber was revealed ahead of its public debut at the 2010 NAIAS. A year on from the Beachcomber and ahead of its public debut at the 2011 NAIAS, MINI is unveiling the MINI Paceman Concept, a vehicle it calls “the first Sports Activity Coupé in the premium small segment."  Read More
 i-Tree software provides analysis, benefit-calculations and assessment tools to quantify ...
Trees make a huge contribution to the green infrastructure of our towns and cities, both in carbon sequestration and aesthetics, yet the economical value of them is often forgotten leading them to be undervalued or seen as a nuisance. The i-Tree tool aims to change the way people see trees – it is a freely available software suite from the US Forest Service which provides analysis, benefit-calculations and assessment tools to quantify the contribution made by trees in the urban environment to allow communities to understand the economic benefit of protecting our urban forests.  Read More
Preliminary results of a study on how wind turbines interact with surrounding farm land ha...
Researchers from the Ames Laboratory and the University of Colorado have spent a few months wandering through corn fields on farms in the Midwest to gather information on how wind turbines interact with surrounding farm land. The data collected so far indicates that the turbines may offer more than the sustainable production of electricity, they may also benefit surrounding crops by helping them stay cooler and dryer, fight off attack from fungi and toxins and improve CO2 extraction.  Read More
The BMW 1 Series M Coupe
There's a new member of the racetrack-inspired BMW M club – the BMW 1 Series M Coupe. While the compact 2-door might be pitched at a broader "everyday use" market than its predecessors, fans who fear the diluting of the M series pedigree need not worry, as high-performance is still high-priority. The M Coupe packs a 250 kW/340 bhp punch from its in-line 6-cylinder TwinPower Turbo petrol engine (that's 25% more than the original M1 produced in the late 70's) and reaches 62 mph (100 km/h) from a standing start in 4.9 seconds.  Read More
Research from Carnegie Mellon University shows that thinking about food can actually decre...
Good news for dieters everywhere – stop trying not to think about that yummy treat because imagining eating it may actually reduce your desire to eat it! New research from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) contradicts the recognized wisdom that thinking about food will increase cravings, as their study suggests that simply imagining the consumption of a food decreases ones appetite for it.  Read More
EMILY is an electric remote-control motorized rescue buoy, that shore-based lifeguards can...
Riptides can carry hapless swimmers out into the ocean very quickly – by the time a lifeguard is able swim out to rescue them, it may be too late. Using a Jet Ski to reach struggling swimmers is one option, although such watercraft can be expensive, problematic to store on-site, and difficult to launch for one person. Now, seaside municipalities can get something cheaper and easier for reaching those swimmers-in-distress: an electric remote-control motorized rescue buoy called EMILY.  Read More

 
Professor Green's 'Coming to Get Me' video clip, presented in 360-degree interactive video
We've written before about 360-degree video (here demonstrated with an awesome interactive video that puts you in a base-jumper's shoes) - it's effectively like watching a video in Google Street View mode, where you can look any direction you like using the mouse. Now, Dutch 360-degree video company yellowBird has announced a hookup with YouTube that lets users post 360-degree videos in their YouTube channels. And the first major production is a 360-degree music video clip that challenges the role of the film director and stretches the boundaries of interactive entertainment.  Read More
Following on from research that found dogs could literally sniff out cancer, researchers h...
A 2008, researchers led by György Horvath MD, PhD, found that dogs could be trained to literally sniff out cancer. In their study, the researchers were able to train dogs to distinguish different types and grades of ovarian cancer, including borderline tumors. Horvath, together with professor Thomas Linblad from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and researcher Jose Chilo from Gävle University, has now created an electronic nose that can accomplish the same task.  Read More
The Mission R electric superbike
It seems electric racebikes are starting to come of age; Mission One has unveiled a new machine for its 2011 TTXGP campaign, and it takes a giant step forward in aesthetics from the blunt, overly futuristic look of the original Mission One. This is an electric racer with real class and presence, not to mention 160 mph performance and superbike-spec Swedish suspension bits. The Mission R is one of a new breed of electric superbikes with a custom-built frame, rather than gutting a petrol-powered sportsbike and stuffing it with battery cells. And it's proof positive that next-generation green performance machines will have every bit the loin-stirring ability of their fossil-fueled forebears.  Read More
The Horological Machine No. 4 Thunderbolt is a titanium and sapphire watch inspired by air...
If you enjoy building model airplanes as a boy, and become a designer of high-end watches as an adult, what do you end up doing? If you're Maximilian Büsser, you create a watch that resembles an airplane – and that costs as much as one, too. That’s the story behind the new watch from Switzerland’s MB&F (Maximilian Büsser & Friends), the Horological Machine No. 4 Thunderbolt. The 50-jewel titanium and sapphire timepiece looks like it might wrench itself free of your wrist and start performing inside loops in the sky ... given that it sells for a mind-blowing 150,000 euro (US$196,812), however, you’d probably want to keep it close at hand.  Read More
Telenor Connexion is the European provider for wireless connectivity of the Nissan LEAF
Nissan has announced that its CARWINGS Information and Communication Technology system (ICT) for EVs will come as standard with the Nissan LEAF in the U.S. and Europe. The system, which allows users to use a mobile phone or PC to remotely check their electric vehicle’s status and control some onboard systems at any time – even when the vehicle is switched off – has been available to Japanese customers since 2007. While it hasn’t been revealed who will provide the wireless connectivity for the system in the U.S., the company has confirmed Telenor Connexion has been chosen as the European connectivity supplier for the vehicle.  Read More
The IceCube team poses in front of the deployment tower following completion of the IceCub...
After five years of construction, an international team has put the finishing touches on the University of Wisconsin’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Located in Antarctica, the observatory is looking specifically for high-energy neutrinos, which are created in violent cosmic events such as super novae and gamma ray bursts. As neutrinos collide with water molecules in the pitch black, ultra-clear ice, a blue flash of light results, which is detected by the sensors. Ever since neutrinos were discovered in 1956, scientists have hoped to decipher the information these astronomical messengers carry about distant cosmic events and the completion of the observatory marks an important step towards tracing their origins.  Read More
Mission Control Center during the Apollo 13 oxygen cell failure (Photo: NASA)
NASA space missions have always been a source of fascination amongst the general public and films like Apollo 13 have tried to encapsulate the experience of space travel. The famous words “Houston, we've had a problem,” uttered by Lovell on the second day of what was to be the USA's third lunar landing mission, remains just as famous at the aborted mission itself. Now, thanks to British programmer Andrew Godwin, it is possible to view the actual NASA transcripts online. Spacelog.org has published the radio transcripts of the earliest manned NASA missions to space. Currently the site hosts the Apollo 13 transcripts along with Mercury-Atlas 6, John Glenn's mission aboard Friendship 7 as the first American to reach orbit.  Read More
The Beer Bike is a custom-built cargo bicycle that features two beer kegs, a wooden bar wi...
Handbuilt bicycles, draught beer, pizza and music – chances are that almost everyone has a passion for at least one of these things. Now, Portland, Oregon-based Metrofiets Cargo Bikes has combined all four in an ingenious little vehicle unofficially known as the Beer Bike. The custom-built bicycle, inspired by Dutch cargo bikes, has space for two full-sized pressurized beer kegs, and features 50 feet (15 meters) of cooling coils per keg, an ice tray, an inlaid wooden bar with two beer taps, a rear rack designed for carrying pizza boxes, and a solar-powered custom wooden boom box that mounts like a pannier.  Read More
Life Technologies has announced the release of Ion Torrent's Personal Genome Machine, whic...
Having just recently snapped up Ion Torrent, Life Technologies has now announced the availability of a benchtop DNA sequencing device based on its PostLight semiconductor technology. The company says that this ground-breaking and disruptive platform creates a direct link between chemical bases and digital information, and negates the need for light-based detection technology currently used in other sequencing solutions.  Read More
LG will initially release the Optimus 2X in Korea, with Europe and Asia following shortly ...
Korean electronics giant LG is getting ready to release the world's first smartphone with a dual core processor. Promising better handling of multimedia, full 1080p high definition video and benefiting from both front and rear facing cameras, the Optimus 2X will initially be released with Android 2.2 but with an upgrade to Gingerbread coming shortly after.  Read More

GEAR4's UnityRemote turns an iOS device into a universal remote
UK-based GEAR4, a company better known for its iPod and iPhone audio docks, today announced the U.S. availability of its UnityRemote that turns an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad into a universal remote control. To get around the fact these Apple devices don’t pack an infrared transmitter, the GEAR4 setup consists of an app available for free from the iTunes Store and a small cylindrical device that receives a Bluetooth signal from an iOS device and then sends an infrared command to control the various components of your home entertainment setup.  Read More
Hyundai's Tucson ix Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
While plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) like the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt are currently making a play for eco-conscious consumers’ attention, some automobile manufacturers believe hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the way of the future as they can be filled-up in minutes as opposed to the hours it takes to recharge EVs. One of the companies set on bringing Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles to showrooms is Hyundai, which has just completed development of its Tucson ix Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV). Hyundai will begin testing the vehicle next year, with the goal of starting mass production in 2015.  Read More
A new technology called 'video DNA matching' is able to identify pirated movies, based on ...
Presently, most automated systems can only identify copyrighted video material if it’s a direct copy, still bearing the unique digital signature of the original. This can sometimes be circumvented by altering the copy, or creating the copy optically using a video camera to shoot a movie off the screen. A new anti-piracy technology called “video DNA matching,” however, sees past such deception.  Read More
Ford's SYNC AppLink, which will allow drivers to control smartphone apps through their veh...
SYNC is Ford's in-vehicle communications and entertainment system that lets drivers make hands-free phone calls, and control things such as their music player via voice commands. Instead of trying to cram more and more functions into SYNC’s virtual brain, Ford engineers have taken a more flexible approach – they’ve created smartphone apps that drivers can control through SYNC, using voice commands or steering wheel buttons. Existing SYNC systems will first require a download of the AppLink software, which will debut on 2011 Ford Fiestas.  Read More
The hands-free interface developed by the Virtopsy research project to review medical imag...
The development of open source drivers for Microsoft's Kinect motion-controller is already opening up new (if not entirely unpredictable) applications for the device. This example, developed by members of the Virtopsy research project at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland, is a functional prototype using Kinect that provides users with a hands-free way to review radiological images.  Read More
Rendering of the C-Explorer 5 five-seater submarine
Personal submarine maker U-Boat Worx has commenced development work on its C-Explorer 5 submersible. Designed to send four passengers and one pilot to depths of up to 100 meters (328 ft.), the latest member of the company’s C-Explorer line of submersibles features a full 360-degree acrylic pressure hull to give everyone on board clear views of the underwater sights.  Read More
Panasonic's display at the Eco Products 2010 exhibition in Tokyo was devoted to demonstrat...
Our readers see more than a few eco-products featured here on a regular basis. Very seldom, however, do we have an opportunity to see a "big picture" vision for how an eco-friendly lifestyle can be achieved on a larger scale. Panasonic attempted to give us such a glimpse at the Eco Products 2010 exhibition in Tokyo, devoting an entire booth to demonstrating the company's "comprehensive energy solutions for entire towns."  Read More
The Nissan LEAF Aero Style Concept
Nissan has provided a peak at the goodies it has in store for January's Tokyo Auto Salon aftermarket show. The vehicles from Nissan and its subsidiaries Autech and NISMO range from styling concepts to production racecars and includes makeovers for the just-out-of-the-blocks all-electric LEAF and mini-crossover JUKE.  Read More
The prototype pen, that is reportedly able to identify and reduce stress in its user (Phot...
Industrial Design PhD student Miguel Bruns Alonso from the Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology has created a prototype pen that he claims can identify short-term stress in its user, and that can then proceed to alleviate some of that stress. The “anti-stress pen” doesn’t measure a persons heart rate or their galvanic skin response – instead, it detects when it’s being fidgeted with, and gets the user to stop.  Read More
LiteLocker in its open and closed states
Putting up outdoor Christmas lights is a hassle, especially if you end up doing it in the winter. It’s enough of a hassle that many people just put them up once and then leave them, but then they’re stuck with out-of-season lights on their house for the rest of the year. A Canadian company, however, has what it thinks is the solution to this problem in the form of LiteLocker. The lights used in the system stand out on display at Christmas time, but fold up and get hidden behind a protective cover once the New Year’s Eve hangover wears off.  Read More

Recreational drug usage in the wild: stoned reindeer and junkie monkeys
You don’t need an IQ much larger than your shoe size to realize that humanity is forever questing for an alternative reality. Apart from the behemoth industries peddling legalized drugs (alcohol, tobacco and caffeine), the extraordinary profitability of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and the rapidly growing number of synthetics now constitute the single largest income stream of criminal and terrorist organizations worldwide. Human drug usage began at the dawn of civilization and we may have sought out the first mind-altering substances by watching the behavior of animals which indulged.  Read More
The Thrustmaster T500 RS wheel packaging
One of the many things that Gran Turismo 5 is particularly good at is displaying the many shortcomings of Sony's Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers. Logitech's official Driving Force GT wheel is a fantastic solution for gamers on a budget, but the small plastic pedals leave a lot to be desired for many lounge-room racers. The latest racing wheel with official Gran Turismo cred is the Thrustmaster T500 RS, and it looks to set the benchmark for some time.  Read More
The D-Premier amplifier from Devialet marries the raw power of Class D amplification techn...
When you think of high-end amplifiers, something like the NAD Master Series M2 Direct Digital Amplifier probably springs to mind. While not particularly unattractive, it's clear that function has taken priority over form. Happily, French company Devialet has injected some Parisian style into its slimline D-Premier amplifier, with utterly gorgeous results. It's no slouch in the sound department either, the company claiming that its newly-developed Analogue/Digital Hybrid (ADH) amplification technology is the next best thing to actually being in the studio or concert hall.  Read More
A University of Luxembourg researcher has demonstrated a new type of attack against mobile...
Hackers equipped with inexpensive radio hardware and open source software can compromise your mobile phone, listen to your conversations, intercept your data, or rack up huge bills on premium services, all without you knowing. Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, a cryptologist at the University of Luxembourg Laboratory of Cryptology and Security, has discovered a new type of over-the-air attack on mobile phones, and at the 2010 DeepSec conference in Vienna demonstrated how the exploit could be used against nearly any mobile phone.  Read More
French company Lekki has secured a supply of classic, second-hand mobile phones from the 1...
Remember a simpler time when people used mobile phones to make calls? When just about everyone owned a Nokia, and most of those were a model with cutting-edge features like an internal antenna, vibrate call alert and the facility to create your own ringtones? If you're too young to remember the iconic Nokia 3210 or were too set in your ways to own a mobile back in the dark ages of the late 1990s, then a French company called Lëkki is now offering you a second chance. Refurbished and revamped, there are currently two legendary phones on offer as part of the company's Back to Basics ethic.  Read More
The Stairscraper
One of the big drawbacks for high-rise living is the lack of outdoor space, which in the best case is usually limited to a small balcony, or in the worst cases a window flowerbox ... or nothing at all. An innovative skyscraper design by Barcelona-based firm Nabito Architects solves this problem with a corkscrew design that makes the roof of the unit below an outdoor space for the unit above.  Read More
BAE Systems has presented the fruits of its Future Protected Vehicle program (FPV) to the ...
BAE Systems has presented the fruits of its Future Protected Vehicle program (FPV) to the U.K. Ministry of Defence, and it's an intiguing glimpse of the what we can expect to see in tomorrow's high-tech battlefield. With input from over 35 organizations, the FPV study is aimed at identifying "innovative technologies and concepts for short, medium and long term exploitation into future lightweight land platforms." Hundreds of new technologies were canvassed in the study and seven platform concept vehicles have been floated to showcase the most significant of these, including the use of electronic ink camouflage systems, microwave weapons, floating electro-magnetic armor and a type of mechanical "sweat" that reduces thermal signature.  Read More
The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
With cameras pretty much standard equipment on mobile phones nowadays, a lot of people don’t bother with the extra hassle of carrying around a separate one, even if it means sacrificing picture quality for convenience. While we can’t comment on the picture quality, the Poco PRO from Iain Sinclair certainly seems to tick the right boxes in the specs department and won’t be too much trouble to cart around thanks to its credit card-like dimensions.  Read More
Elephant seal with CTD tag. Photo credit: Chris Oosthuizen
Australian climate and ocean scientists are studying some of the planet's most remote areas using a multi-million dollar array of high-tech underwater equipment that provides data vital for the monitoring of almost one-third of the world's oceans. The kit of technology includes sensor floats and autonomous underwater vehicles, which combine with sensor tagged animals, moored scientific stations and satellite remote sensing to form the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). All data collected is made available online, which represents a big step forward in climate science. Gizmag's Grant Banks takes a closer look at what makes IMOS tick.  Read More
Top 10 things you CAN'T have for Christmas 2010
It's getting a little late for a last minute Christmas shopping list, but not to worry, most of us outside the Forbes Top 100 couldn't afford any of these anyway! Still, it's fascinating to look at what's possible if the word "budget" isn't in your vocabulary, so here's our annual look at what you won't be getting for Christmas this year – the most outrageous examples of high-end overkill that have graced Gizmag's pages throughout 2010.  Read More

Infographic courtesy of Nextweb
In the beginning, the language of the World Wide Web was English. Times change though, and the United States’ military’s gift to civilization knows no national boundaries, and growing worldwide adoption of the Internet has changed the audience make-up to such an extent that the dominant language of the internet is about to become Chinese. That’s not to say the Chinese are all that comfortable with this either. There has just been an official decree requiring the use of Chinese translations for all English words and phrases in newspapers, magazines and web sites. While all countries have watched the unregulated global nature of the internet erode traditional cultural values and the integrity of national languages, it seems the Chinese powers-that-be have concluded that the purity of the Chinese language needs to be preserved.  Read More
'Build Your Own Underwater Robot' teaches children - and adults - how to build the SeaPerc...
If you like gadgets, and you like the ocean, then you must like ROVs – it’s just that simple. For the uninitiated, ROVs (Remote Operated Vehicles) are small unmanned submarines that are used for underwater operations deemed too deep, dangerous or difficult for human divers. They’re tethered to a support ship, from which a human operator controls them in real time, watching a live video feed from an onboard camera. It’s all incredibly appealing to those of us who are fascinated by the prospect of what secrets lurk beneath the surface of the ocean... or of the local pond. A few dedicated souls go so far as to trying to create their own homebuilt ROVs, many of them turning to what has become the bible on the subject, Build Your Own Underwater Robot and other Wet Projects. Gizmag had a chance to talk to the two authors of the book, and found out what inspired them to pursue such an unlikely project.  Read More
The prototype solar reactor that directly converts the Sun's rays into fuel
Because conventional photovoltaic panels produce electricity directly from sunlight, the energy they generate must either be used as it is produced or stored – either in batteries or by using the electricity to produce a fuel that acts as a storage medium for the energy. Now U.S. and Swiss researchers have developed a prototype device that directly converts the Sun’s rays into fuels that can be stored, allowing the energy to be used at night or transported to locations where it is needed.  Read More
Dr. Dawn Wesson, with the traps that attract egg-carrying female mosquitoes (Image: Tulane...
After malaria, dengue fever is the most serious mosquito-borne disease in the world. In an effort to curb its spread, researchers from New Orleans’ Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine have developed mosquito traps that attract and kill egg-bearing females. Using a US$4.6 million grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the scientists plan to distribute 10,000 of the traps in Peru’s Iquitos region, an area known for dengue fever.  Read More
Students Chin Jung Cheng, Charlie Matlack, Penny Huang and Jacqueline Linnes designed a wa...
The worldwide shortage of clean drinking water is a serious problem, although in many cases there’s a relatively simple solution – just leave the tainted water outside in clear plastic bottles, and let the sun’s heat and ultraviolet rays purify it. This approach is known as SODIS (SOlar DISinfection of water in plastic bottles), and it removes 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses – results similar to those obtained by chlorine. Unfortunately, however, there’s been no reliable way of knowing when the water has reached a safe level of purity. Now, four engineering students from the University of Washington have created a simple, inexpensive device that does just that... and they won US$40,000 in the process.  Read More
Kitara digital guitar
Not too long ago, Gizmag featured a futuristic digital guitar which replaced the strings of a traditional axe with rows of six buttons on the neck and a resistive touch interface for tweaking tones. Now, the designer has announced that a production model is available for pre-order. The internals have been upgraded, the touchscreen in now capacitive, there's now an onboard polyphonic synthesizer, and the digitar has been given a name – the Kitara.  Read More
The current 2010-2011 third-generation Prius
The 2011 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is rapidly approaching and the pre-show teasers are racking-up. Toyota is responsible for getting the hybrid ball rolling with the launch of the first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle back in 1997, so one of our first stops on the show floor will be the company’s unveiling of the first all-new edition to the Prius Family.  Read More
Scientists have used biosynthetic muscle fibers to observe the changes that polymers exhib...
Scientists tasked with creating better plastic films have been at a loss when it comes to observing how synthetic polymers react under mechanical stress – the polymers are just too small for a microscope to keep track of while being stretched. Now a team of physicists from Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) has come up with a solution. They’re using a muscle filament protein to build polymer networks that can be observed by a microscope, and by doing so have already determined why some polymers get tougher with repeated stress, while others get softer.  Read More
BAE is developing a parallel version of its HybriDrive system for medium and heavy-duty tr...
The HybriDrive series propulsion system developed by BAE Systems is currently enhancing the fuel efficiency and cutting emissions on more than 3,000 transit buses in cities around the world, including New York and London. The system is specifically suited to the driving patterns of urban transport, which involve low average speeds and frequent stopping and starting. To meet the needs of applications that have higher operating speeds and less frequent stops, BAE is developing a new parallel hybrid propulsion system to bring the fuel-saving benefits of its technology to medium and heavy-duty trucks.  Read More
Thijs van Oudheusden with his 'poor man's X-FEL' (Photo: Bart van Overbeeke)
If you want to obtain moving images of high-speed molecular processes at an atomic scale, one of the best facilities in the world is the X-ray Free Electron Laser (X-FEL) at Stanford University. Should you wish to use it, however, you’ll have get on a waiting list, then bring your materials to its California home once it’s your turn. If you’re thinking of building your own, you’d better start saving now – Stanford’s laser reportedly cost several hundred million dollars to build, and the cost of a new European X-FEL has been set at one billion euro (US$1.3 billion). Researchers from the Netherlands’ Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), however, have recently announced the development of a tabletop “poor man’s X-FEL.” It performs some of the same key functions as the big laser, but costs under half a million euro (US$656,006).  Read More

1 comment:

  1. SunnyBAG is a fashionable shoulder bag or backpack with integrated flexible solar panels. Those panels convert sunlight into electrical power to charge your mobile devices. the SunnyBAG PowerStick (a Li-lon battery) comes optionally with your bag and can be used to store the energy.

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