With China successfully landing a robotic rover
on the Moon, there’s been speculation in some circles as to whether or
not a new space race between China and the United States will start
soon. That’s as maybe, but if Space Race Mk II does happen, the American
landing craft might be owned and operated by a private firm. Lending
strength to this argument is NASA's recent announcement of its Lunar
Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar CATALYST)
initiative, which aims at kickstarting private development of commercial
lunar transports through partnerships with the space agency. Read More
Like the Higgs Boson,
dark matter is one of those things in the Universe that evidence points
to, but is very difficult to pin down. A team of researchers is looking
to verify the existence of this most elusive of ingredients that is
thought to make up 23 percent of the Universe using powerful detectors
buried deep in an Italian mountain. Read More
Nixie tubes have experienced something of a
resurgence in popularity in recent times, as the charm of combining new
and old technologies continues to draw in retro-minded designers.
ThinkGeek's DIY Nixie Tube Desk clock and the Nixie tube chess set
are examples of this, but in applying the smart treatment to the
gas-filled display tubes, electrical engineer Tyler Nehowig has truly
given them a modern technological makeover. Read More
Not satisfied with the accuracy of the "quantum logic clock"
(which only gains or loses one second every 3.7 billion years), the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and JILA have
unveiled an even more precise timekeeper. The strontium lattice clock
sets new standards for precision and stability, only gaining or losing
one second about every five billion years. Read More
For motorcycle lovers, this is where dreams are
made. Ducati's resident historian Livio Lodi takes us on a tour of the
Ducati Factory near Bologna, Italy, talking us through the production of
the 1199 Panigale superbike
from start to finish, and showing us the techniques Ducati has used to
vastly improve its efficiency, output and reliability. Read More
A team of international researchers has turned to
stem cells in a quest to find an a more effective treatment for
patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis. The new method being
investigated involves using the patients’ own bone marrow mesenchymal
stromal cells (MSCs) to boost immune response and heal damaged tissue.
Read More
"Cute circuitry" is not a term you hear often –
if at all – but it could be used to describe Chibitronics, which is a
crafty merging of electronics and paper. The system combines familiar
adhesive stickers with electronic components, such as LEDs, sensor
circuits, and even a programmable microcontroller, to create a play set
that educates while adding some flash to one’s works of art or otherwise
mundane birthday cards. Read More
New materials mimic electronic properties of graphene in 3D
By Brian Dodson
January 22, 2014
Exciting times are ahead in the high-tech
industries with the discovery by three independent groups that a new
class of materials mimic the special electronic properties of graphene
in 3D. Research into these superfast massless charge carriers opens up a
wide range of potential applications in electronics, including smaller
hard drives with more storage capacity, faster transistors and more
efficient optical sensors. Read More
As some readers may already know, Volvo recently developed a system that uses an in-vehicle radar system
to alert drivers to the presence of pedestrians and cyclists on the
road in front of them. Now, Germany's Technische Universitaet Muenchen
has come up with a system of its own, that can even detect pedestrians
that aren't within line of sight of the car. Read More
Turkeys may not be everyone's idea of beautiful
birds, but they certainly have colorful skin on their heads. What's
more, that skin changes color with the animal's mood.
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have now copied
the process by which those color changes occur, and used it to create a
biosensor that could be used to detect airborne toxins. Read More
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