Category: Science & Technology News

In a recent beakthrough, SoloTrek has achieved about 27 hours of tethered-hover flight testing. By design, the maximum altitude has been limited to about 12 inches, and the longest ‘flight’ had an endurance of about 15 seconds. They are being very careful to walk before they run. More Here
Continue reading… “SoloTrek – Tethered-Hover Flight Testing”

This is a far cry from the old deep sea diving bells. Deep Flight I is an experimental, one-person sub that was built to prove the concept of underwater flight and has broken through to an entirely new class of submersible craft which operate on the principles of dynamic wing forces and flight control rather than the static system of ballast adjustment and vectored thrust of conventional submersibles. More Here
Continue reading… “Underwater At Its Best”

Since we already have powerlines running all over the country, why not just send data down them as well? Media Fusion claim to have a technology that does just this. The technology let you send data at GB/s, hundred of km’s over ordinary powerlines. It uses the magnetic fields generated by the power lines as a waveguide for a microwave signal. More Here

Continue reading… “Powerline Dataline”

Lawrence Livermore scientists have recently developed a new approach to magnetically levitating high-speed trains that is fundamentally much simpler in design and operation (requiring no superconducting coils or stability control circuits), potentially much less expensive, and more widely adaptable than other maglev systems. The new technology, called Inductrack, employs special arrays of permanent magnets that induce strong repulsive currents in a "track" made up of coils, pushing up on the cars and levitating them.
Continue reading… “New approach to levitating trains”

Its maker, Italian fashion house Corpo Nove, calls it “memory metal.” We call it high-tech fashion. The Oricalco shirt, unveiled this year, is made from a lightweight half-titanium alloy that recovers any preprogrammed shape with a simple application of heat. Crumple it up, stuff it in your carry-on, fall asleep wearing it — a simple blast from a hair dryer ren-ders it wrinkle free. Of course, you’ll pay for such couture: $4,000 (that’d buy a lot of irons). The company is now working on a shirt that automatically rolls up its sleeves in hot weather. More Here
Continue reading… “Hot Shirt Smoothes Wrinkles”

Hydrogen warms the hearts in Colorado and fattens the wallets unexpectantly.

Primary personal energy investigator makes a stunning breakthrough over the Holidays. Miniature power sources that will enable smart clothes with heating, cooling and electric power generation from a renewable abundant fuel source.

Remarkably the fuel is transportated as innocent water and is converted to fuel on demand as needed.

A recent high altitude photo revealed a single line of investors snakeig across the continental divide with their black trench coats silouetted in the white snow, clenching check books in outstretched hands.

More on this enabling technology in our next issue with photos of the implosion pump from HydroLarc that powers this quantum leap in personal, wearable energy systems and the inexpensive alternative to challenge Fuel cells.
Continue reading… “Power Gets Personal and Upclose”

Cast your vote! Who do you think is the greatest inventor of all times?
Continue reading… “Inventor’s Survey”

When you have kids, you need eyes in the back of your head. Likewise, it helps if you have them in the back of your car too. The all-new Infiniti Q45 does — it’s the first car equipped with rear-view television. Shift into reverse, and a screen on the instrument panel — which doubles as the navigation display — shows what’s behind you so you don’t hit it.
http://www.popsci.com/bown/auto_57_infinitiq45.html
Continue reading… “Innovation We Get Behind”

A major reason you don’t drive a fuel cell car already: There’s nowhere to get a tankful of hydrogen. This infrastructure problem is not lost on General Motors engineers, who’ve found a new source: the local filling station. They developed a catalytic device that strips hydrogen from regular gasoline. It’s not as efficient as pure hydrogen, but it produces 50 percent better fuel economy. Demonstrated in a prototype Chevy S-10 this year, the advance brings fuel cells one step closer to the family car.
http://www.popsci.com/bown/auto_60_gmcfuelcell.html

Continue reading… “Fuel Cells Take a Big Step”

Not only are this plane’s wings made of plastic, they inflate like a balloon . . . in midflight. No, it’s not some daredevil stunt; it’s a NASA plane that may someday be dropped from spacecraft orbiting other planets. During a successful flight earlier this year, a nitrogen canister inflated the I2000’s 32-inch-long wings in a third of a second. It marked the first time an aircraft’s wings have ever been inflated in flight.
http://www.popsci.com/bown/aviation_51_wing.html
Continue reading… “Inflatables Catch Some Air”

The world altitude record for nonrocket-powered aircraft, formerly held by the Air Force’s mighty SR-71 Blackbird, was shattered this summer by a flying wing. The unmanned Helios aircraft, made up of 14 propellers and 65,000 solar cells, averaged 25 miles an hour as it climbed 96,500 feet over the Hawaiian islands, three times the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner and 10,000 feet past the previous record. Next, engineers are planning to equip it with a fuel cell, allowing for multiday flights above 50,000 feet. http://www.popsci.com/bown/aviation_53_helios.html
Continue reading… “King of the High Society”

Boeing’s X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) is the first of its type — a fighter plane without a pilot. Military experts say UCAVs will play a key role in future warfare, because they are smaller, lighter, cheaper, and more agile than piloted aircraft. Unmanned combat planes are envisioned as a “first day of the war” strike force capable of attacking enemy air defenses without risking pilots’ lives. Boeing’s UCAV, sponsored by DARPA and the Air Force, underwent ground tests this year and may have begun flight tests by the time you read this. A Navy UCAV designed by Northrop Grumman will soon follow. UCAVs could enter service as early as 2010.
Continue reading… “Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles”