China Reveals Solar Sail Plan To Prevent Apophis Hitting Earth in 2036
• TechnologyReview.comA small shove could prevent a global catastrophe, according to Chinese plans
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Inventions
GE Invests in Solar Thermal Company
• Tyler Hamilton via TechnologyReview.comThe company thinks adding solar-thermal technology to its natural-gas plants will make them run more cheaply and efficiently
Third Rail's Powered iPhone Case Is Shockingly Clever
• Michael S. Lasky via WIRED.comThe high-voltage third rail that runs next to a set of train tracks is, of course, something to be avoided. The Third Rail System for the iPhone 4, however, is to be welcomed.
Sandia's Gemini-Scout: A Rescue Robot Optimized for Mining Disasters
• Clay Dillow via PopSci.comAt AUVSI’s (Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) massive robot conference in D.C. this week there is no shortage of robots designed to seek out--and in some cases destroy--human targets.
Putting the Ferrari FF Through Its Paces, High in the Italian Alps
• Lawrence Ulrich via PopSci.comA snowy K-Mart parking lot would have worked fine. But this being Ferrari, and the star its tradition-shredding FF – a $300,000 all-wheel-drive station wagon -- a little high-altitude showboating seemed in order.
'Epidermal Electronics' Paste Peelable Circuitry On Your Skin, Just Like A Temporary Tattoo
• Rebecca Boyle via PopSci.comSomeday soon, hospital patients won’t be hooked up to wires and monitors -- instead, electronic patches will be temporarily tattooed onto their bodies. Doctors will be able to monitor their vital signs without poking and prodding
New Air Force Jet Concept: Like a Prius, But With Lasers
• David Axe via WIRED.comThe jet fighter of the future could fire lasers, evade radars and heat-detecting sensors, and slip software viruses into enemy computer networks. All this while flying farther and more often, and using less gas.
Latest Phantom Camera Shoots Hi-Def Video More Than Twice As Slow As Before
• Dan Nosowitz via PopSci.comVision Research, makers of the Phantom line of cameras that we love so thoroughly, just announced two new additions to the Phantom family, the v1210 and the laughably powerful v1610.
NASA Selects Visionary Advanced Technology Concepts For Study
• David E. Steitz via NASA.comThe advanced concepts selected for study under NIAC were chosen based on their potential to transform our future space missions, enable new capabilities or significantly alter current approaches to launching, building and operating space systems.
Students' Innovative 3-D Vision System Wins Prize
• Jacob Ward via PopSci.comFor those who don’t know, NI builds the software and systems by which an engineer can test and prototype pretty much anything, from an irrigation system to a rocket.
A Sensor-Packed Shipping Container That Folds Flat in 30 Seconds
• Rena Marie Pacella via PopSci.comIn the half-century since Malcom McLean, an entrepreneurial former trucker from North Carolina, first began packing freight onto ships in uniform steel boxes, shipping containers have transformed the way we move most of the goods on Earth.
Nanoscale Pillars Could Have a Big Role in Future Batteries
• Katherine Bourzac via TechnologyReview.comTin, silicon and a few other elements have long been languishing on chemists' list of electrode materials that could help lithium-ion batteries hold more energy. A new way of structuring these materials could at last allow them to be used in this way
Every Bug, Every Gas, Right Now: Air Force Wants Instant WMD Detector
• Lena Groeger via WIRED.comSpurred by the anthrax hysteria of 2001, the U.S. government has thrown billions of dollars into developing new equipment and technologies to detect chemical and biological warfare agents.
Tiny Battery Embedded In a Nanowire Is the Smallest Battery Yet
• Rebecca Boyle viaNanotechnology promises to enable tiny, intricate circuits powering devices on any surface. But unless they’re harvesting energy from something like a heartbeat, the devices can only be as small as the smallest battery.
Cop Block Door Hangers make it clear.
DrewGet people thinking! Use the new Cop Block door hanger to let the government bullies know that their services are NOT needed in your residence! Now the police can’t say that you consented to any searches, the presence of the door hanger makes it cle
Will We Ever Have a Fully Digital Brain?
• David Zax via TechnologyReview.comBritish researchers are using a million ARM processing cores to simulate the human brain—or 1 percent of it, at least.
Three-Dimensional Photonic Crystals Shine
• Katherine Bourzac via TechnologyReview.comIn work that could improve solar cells and LEDs, researchers have, for the first time, made practical working devices out of three-dimensional photonic crystals.
UK Engineers Print and Fly the World's First Working 3-D Printed Aircraft
• Clay Dillow via PopSci.comEngineers at the University of Southampton in the UK have designed, printed, and sent skyward the world’s first aircraft manufactured almost entirely via 3-D printing technology.
Crowd-Sourced Tanks Roll Closer
• Graham Warwick via AresDARPA is continuing its crusade to change the way we make things, selecting Vanderbilt University to set up the vehicleforge.mil website to enable software-style "open source" development of military systems, beginning with a ground combat vehicle.
AMG Honors the Race Car That Made Its Rep
• Chuck Squatriglia via WIRED.comForty years ago, an automotive upstart called AMG raced a Mercedes-Benz sedan in the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. It was an unusual entry for the company’s first race, and few expected much from it.
How to Make a Giant Chain Gun Even Deadlier: Give It a Laser Cannon
• Clay Dillow via PopSci.comBAE System’s Mk 38 chain gun was already a formidable opponent: a 250millimeter cannon capable of putting 180 rounds per minute into the air from the deck of a naval ship, urging those without clearance to keep safe distance (of about 2,000 yards).
A New Artificial Lung Can Breathe Regular Air Rather Than Purified Oxygen
• Clay Dillow via PopSci.comThe technology makes possible the idea of a man-made lung that is far more portable--and possibly implantable--for the nearly 200 million people suffering from some degree of lung disease.
It's Coming: A True Replacement for Paper
• Christopher Mims via TechnologyReview.comWhether or not NoteSlate ever produces a real product, no barriers remain to a competitor building a tablet purpose-built for sketching and note-taking.
A Semiconductor DNA Sequencer
• Emily Singer via TechnologyReview.comUnlike other systems, Ion Torrent's technology promises to improve in step with advances in electronics—and it's already proving useful for public health.
NIST Posts Adjusted Values of the Physical Constants, Tweaking Gravity to Make Science More Precise
• Clay Dillow via PopSci.comThe results: Gravity is a bit weaker, the electromagnetic force a smidgeon stronger, and the whole of physics a little less uncertain.
MacBook Pros, Hit the Bench: The Air Is Gaining Muscle
• Christina Bonnington via WIRED.comIf you bought a MacBook Pro last year, tough beans: It just got outflanked by its slimmer, smaller cousin, the MacBook Air.
The Hybrid Ferrari of Tomorrow
• Alexander George viaWhen the top brass at Ferrari like your car design, you’re onto something.
Inflatable antenna you can stick in your backpack
• Jesse Emspak via NewScientist.comA big issue in setting up satellite communications networks is the antennas – it takes time to set them up. In the wake of a big disaster cell networks can be damaged when the towers fall and take months to repair.
Soft Memory Device Opens Door To New Biocompatible Electronics
• ncsu.eduResearchers from North Carolina State University have developed a memory device that is soft and functions well in wet environments – opening the door to a new generation of biocompatible electronic devices.
Tomorrow's Transistor, Built Atom by Atom
• Katherine Bourzac via TechnologyReview.comApplied Materials, the world's leading supplier of manufacturing equipment to chipmakers, has announced a new system for making one of the most critical layers of the transistors found in logic circuits.
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