Record Breaker – Page 4

Hyperloop, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Toronto to Montreal Hyperloop Train in under 40 minutes

December 26, 2019

Toronto to Montreal Hyperloop Train – Would you like to get from Montreal to Toronto in 39 minutes, in a futuristic vehicle propelling you through a low-pressure tube at up to 1080 kilometers per hour? Well, that soon may very well be possible with the Toronto to Montreal Hyperloop Train.

Toronto and Montreal are finalists in Hyperloop One’s global competition to build the first ‘hyperloop high-speed transportation system’. The Toronto to Montreal route is one of their top choices. The two cities are major contenders where the company would build one of their first routes in the world.

The proposed route would connect Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto and would travel 2-3 times faster than high-speed rail and magnetic levitation trains and 10-15 times faster than traditional rail.

Continue reading… “Toronto to Montreal Hyperloop Train in under 40 minutes”

China, drones, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Chinese scientists create ‘game-changer’ methanol battery that keeps drone in the air for 12 hours

December 26, 2019

Developers of FY-36 say they overcame ‘tons of problems’ to create alcohol-fuelled battery that allows 15kg (33lb)6 drone to fly for up to 12 hours

With 15 test flights under their belt, Chinese team achieve methanol-powered flight before German company

Scientists working on a drone development programme created a “game-changing” methanol-powered fuel system that kept their UAV in the air for 12 hours.

It took them more than two years to get the FY-36 unmanned aerial vehicle to the flying prototype stage, said Zhang Wenyu, general manager of Feye UAV Technology, a Tianjin-based drone manufacturer that collaborated with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in northeastern Liaoning province.

At 15 kilograms (33 pounds), the low-noise FY-36 can be lifted by an adult or transported in a pickup truck, and designers said its hybrid aerodynamic shape – with four vertical propellers – can allow it to cruise at speeds as high as 90km/h, or 56mph.

Continue reading… “Chinese scientists create ‘game-changer’ methanol battery that keeps drone in the air for 12 hours”

Aviation, drones, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Jet-powered VTOL drone is like a quadcopter on steroids

December 13, 2019

The current AB5 JetQuad prototype has a claimed top speed of 250 mph (402 km/h)FusionFlight

While propeller planes certainly do have their place, sometimes the extra speed and thrust of a jet engine is what’s really needed. Dallas, Texas-based FusionFlight has applied that sort of thinking to quadcopter-style drones, resulting in the AB5 JetQuad.

According to the company, the AB5 is “the world’s smallest and most powerful jet-powered drone with vertical take-off and landing [VTOL] capabilities.”

Instead of the usual four electric motors and propellers, the current prototype has four diesel-powered microturbine jet engines which produce a combined 200 horsepower (149 kW) at full throttle. Thanks to a proprietary vectoring system known as the H-Configuration, the thrust from these engines can be directed either to move the drone vertically when taking off and landing, or horizontally while in flight.

Continue reading… “Jet-powered VTOL drone is like a quadcopter on steroids”

Business, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News, Startup

The world’s most valuable company

December 11, 2019

After multiple delays, Saudia Arabia is finally making it happen.

A much-watched step in the country’s goals to modernize and privatize parts of its economy, its state-owned oil business, Saudi Aramco, raised $25.6 billion in the world’s largest IPO ever after pricing 3 billion shares at 32 riyals ($8.53) apiece.

The raise beats the largest yet—that of Alibaba’s in 2014—by about $600 million. It also crowns the company as the most valuable among publicly-traded companies right now.

Continue reading… “The world’s most valuable company”

Aviation, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News, Travel

London to Sydney flight breaks world record

November 20, 2019

Sydney (CNN) — Until someone invents a device to teleport humans from one side of the Earth to the other, this is the next best thing.

An experimental research flight operated by Australian airline Qantas touched down in Sydney on Friday, after flying nonstop from London — a journey that pushes the frontier of modern aircraft capabilities — smashing two aviation records and witnessing a rare double sunrise along the way.

Flight QF7879 became the world’s longest passenger flight by a commercial airline both for distance, at 17,800 kilometers (about 11,060 miles), and for duration in the air, at 19 hours and 19 minutes.

The achievement could help usher in a new generation of so-called ultra long haul flights that will directly connect far-flung Sydney with destinations across Europe and the United States.

The 50 or so people onboard departed London’s Heathrow on Thursday in the pitch dark of pre-dawn, having sucked down their last lungfuls of rain-drenched November air.

Two sunrises later, they emerged blinking into a bright, warm Friday afternoon on the east coast of Australia. At least three whole hours sooner than if they’d had to change aircraft en route.

Continue reading… “London to Sydney flight breaks world record”

3D Printer, Architecture, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Watch a massive 3D-printed building take shape

November 8, 2019

Dubai is now home to the world’s largest 3D-printed two-story building.

On Wednesday, officials in the city’s Warsan neighborhood unveiled the building, which is 9.5 meters (31 feet) tall and has a total area of 640 square meters (6,889 square feet). The structure’s concrete walls were constructed in place using a massive 3D printer — and the entire building serves as a testament to the power of 3D printing in construction.

Continue reading… “Watch a massive 3D-printed building take shape”

Automation, Automobiles, Driverless vehicles, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Robocar: Watch the world’s fastest autonomous car reach its record-breaking 282 km/h

November 6, 2019

Autonomous cars are set to take over the world’s roads, transforming the way we travel.

Leading the pack is Robocar, a futuristic self-driving electric vehicle from British start-up Roborace.

Roborace demonstrated its robot’s capabilities by taking the car to 282.42 km/h (175.49 mph) – an average confirmed by the UK Timing Association – at RAF Elvington, Yorkshire, UK, claiming the record for fastest autonomous car.

Continue reading… “Robocar: Watch the world’s fastest autonomous car reach its record-breaking 282 km/h”

Google, quantum computing, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Google says its quantum computer has just completed a 10,000-year task in less than four minutes

November 1, 2019

‘This achievement is the result of years of research and the dedication of many people,’ Google engineering director Hartmut Neven said in a blog post

(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc.’s Google said it’s built a computer that’s reached “quantum supremacy,” performing a computation in 200 seconds that would take the fastest supercomputers about 10,000 years.

The results of Google’s tests, which were conducted using a quantum chip it developed in-house, were published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.

“This achievement is the result of years of research and the dedication of many people,” Google engineering director Hartmut Neven said in a blog post. “It’s also the beginning of a new journey: figuring out how to put this technology to work. We’re working with the research community and have open-sourced tools to enable others to work alongside us to identify new applications.”

The idea behind quantum computing is to exponentially improve the processing speed and power of computers to be able to simulate large systems, driving advances in physics, chemistry and other fields. Rather than storing information in binary 0s or 1s like classical computers, quantum computers rely on “qubits”, which can be both 0 and 1 simultaneously, dramatically increasing the amount of information that can be encoded.

Continue reading… “Google says its quantum computer has just completed a 10,000-year task in less than four minutes”

Google, quantum computing, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Google quantum computer leaves old-school supercomputers in the dust

November 1, 2019

Google’s Sycamore chip powers a quantum computer

The era of practical quantum computers has begun — at least on one speed test showing “quantum supremacy.”

A Google quantum computer has far outpaced ordinary computing technology, an achievement called quantum supremacy that’s an important milestone for a revolutionary way of processing data. Google disclosed the results in the journal Nature on Wednesday. The achievement came after more than a decade of work at Google, including the use of its own quantum computing chip, called Sycamore.

“Our machine performed the target computation in 200 seconds, and from measurements in our experiment we determined that it would take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to produce a similar output,” Google researchers said in a blog post about the work.

Continue reading… “Google quantum computer leaves old-school supercomputers in the dust”

3D Printer, Green Friendly, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Watch the world’s largest 3D-printer spit out a 25 foot boat

October 25, 2019

…and how this is really about using wood to replace metal

If you’re shopping for a 3D printer, a key consideration is bed size; what’s the largest object you’d realistically need to print?

For the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, size limitations aren’t so much of an issue. That’s because they’ve got a gantry-style 3D printer that can spit out pieces that are 22×100.

Twenty-two by 100 feet. And ten feet tall.

Continue reading… “Watch the world’s largest 3D-printer spit out a 25 foot boat”

Computer Security, Google, quantum computing, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Here’s what quantum supremacy does—and doesn’t—mean for computing

September 29, 2019

Google has reportedly demonstrated for the first time that a quantum computer is capable of performing a task beyond the reach of even the most powerful conventional supercomputer in any practical time frame—a milestone known in the world of computing as “quantum supremacy.”

The ominous-sounding term, which was coined by theoretical physicist John Preskill in 2012, evokes an image of Darth Vader–like machines lording it over other computers. And the news has already produced some outlandish headlines, such as one on the Infowars website that screamed, “Google’s ‘Quantum Supremacy’ to Render All Cryptography and Military Secrets Breakable.” Political figures have been caught up in the hysteria, too: Andrew Yang, a presidential candidate, tweeted that “Google achieving quantum computing is a huge deal. It means, among many other things, that no code is uncrackable.”

Nonsense. It doesn’t mean that at all. Google’s achievement is significant, but quantum computers haven’t suddenly turned into computing colossi that will leave conventional machines trailing in the dust. Nor will they be laying waste to conventional cryptography in the near future—though in the longer term, they could pose a threat we need to start preparing for now.

Continue reading… “Here’s what quantum supremacy does—and doesn’t—mean for computing”

Computer Security, quantum computing, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

IBM’s new 53-qubit quantum ‘mainframe’ is live in the cloud

September 27, 2019

IBM has boosted its growing stable of quantum computers with a new 53-quantum bit (qubit) device, the most powerful ever offered for commercial use.

Google announced a more powerful 72-qubit ‘Bristlecone’ model last year, but that was for its internal techies only. IBM’s, by contrast, feels significant because it can be used by absolutely anyone who can find a use for such a computer.

The new and still-to-be-named computer will sit in the company’s Quantum Computation Center in Poughkeepsie, New York State, which has recently turned into a hotbed for commercial development.

Continue reading… “IBM’s new 53-qubit quantum ‘mainframe’ is live in the cloud”