General science advances thread

[ScienceRocks]

Flying car completes first public demo flight

Flying car completes first public demo flight | DVICE

It's been quite a while in coming, but the Terrafugia Transition just fulfilled the dream of everyone who's ever had a fantasy about the future. At the EAA AirVenture airshow in Wisconsin, the flying car completed two laps around the airfield — one on the pavement, and one in the air. The whole thing went off without a hitch, and even the namesake transition between laps worked smoothly. And, believe it or not, that just might mark the beginning of the era of the flying car.

No longer is Terrafugia's invention simply a theoretical device, nor something undergoing tests in some far-off secret lab. It's real, it works, and people have seen it. It might not be quite as slick as what we've all been imagining, but it's here, it's real, and soon enough, you'll be able to buy one, for a totally worth it $300,000.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers invent the world’s smallest terahertz detector

Molecules could soon be “scanned” in a fashion similar to imaging screenings at airports, thanks to a detector developed by Univ. of Pittsburgh physicists.

The detector, featured in a recent issue of Nano Letters, may have the ability to chemically identify single molecules using terahertz radiation—a range of light far below what the eye can detect.

Researchers invent the world?s smallest terahertz detector

 

[ScienceRocks]

What's the beef? Cultured meat remains a distant dream
What's the beef? Cultured meat remains a distant dream - environment - 06 August 2013 - New Scientist

"It's an intense taste, close to meat but not as juicy," says Hanni Rützler between mouthfuls. "Perfect consistency, but I miss salt and pepper."

Rützler, an Austrian nutrition scientist, is the first person in history to tuck into a burger made by turning cells from live animals into meat in the lab. She was part of a tasting panel convened in London yesterday for the cooking and eating of the world's first lab-grown burger. The consensus was that the burger tasted of meat, but lacked meat's delectable fatty juiciness.

It took five years of research and a charitable donation of €250,000 from Google co-founder Sergey Brin to get to yesterday's demonstration, but turning lab-grown meat into a commercial proposition still seems a distant dream. Two years ago, Mark Post from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, the researcher behind the prototype burger, predicted it would possible to produce a sausage or burger within six months to a year. Now he reckons it will take 10 to 20 years to make it commercially viable.

If that does happen, aside from the obvious boon of producing slaughter-free meat, there could also be huge environmental benefits.

A study published two years ago by Hanna Tuomisto of the University of Oxford and M. Joost Teixeira de Mattos of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands compared the environmental costs of producing 1000 kilograms of farmed and lab-grown beef. It concluded that cultured meat would require less than 1 per cent of the land needed to produce the equivalent amount of beef. What's more, producing lab beef would consume about 4 per cent of the water and about half the energy needed for the same amount of farmed beef, and would produce only 4 per cent of the greenhouse emissions.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers remove oil from water using copper cones inspired by cactus spines (w/ Video)

(Phys.org) —A team of researchers working at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, has developed a new way to remove oil from water—using a design inspired by nature. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the team describes how an array of their cones could be used to help clean up oil spills.

Read more at: Researchers remove oil from water using copper cones inspired by cactus spines (w/ Video)


Cree $99 LED streetlight could come to a city near you

City planners across the U.S. are dropping the streetlights of yesteryear for brighter, more energy-efficient lights. Here's the scoop on a super-cheap LED streetlight that could come to your city sooner than later.

One day in the not too distant future, the familiar orange and yellow glow of a streetlight may become nothing more than a distant memory. Why? Cities en masse are switching to brighter, whiter LED streetlights, and Cree has a new low-cost LED that could accelerate municipal adoption of these highly efficient illuminators.

Starting at $99, the new Cree XSPR LED residential street light comes in two flavors -- 25-watt (2,722 lumen) and 42-watt (4,109 lumen) -- that uses 65-percent less energy than the common high-pressure sodium streetlight. Cities can replace up to 100-watt streetlights with these LED units, and Cree notes that the light could deliver payback in less than one year.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57597262-76/cree-$99-led-streetlight-could-come-to-a-city-near-you/

 

[ScienceRocks]

Q-glasses could be a new class of solids

There may be more kinds of stuff than we thought. A team of researchers has reported possible evidence for a new category of solids, things that are neither pure glasses, crystals nor even exotic quasicrystals. Something else.

"Very weird. Strangest material I ever saw," says materials physicist Lyle Levine of NIST.

Q-glasses could be a new class of solids

 

[ScienceRocks]

European countries to join in building particle accelerator in Russia

MOSCOW, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Germany, Bulgaria and three former Soviet republics say they have agreed to help Russia construct a heavy-ion collider in a Moscow suburb.

The parties signed a letter of intent Thursday to cooperate on building the collider, planned for 2017, on the premises of the already existing Nuclotron particle accelerator in the town of Dubna, RIA Novosti reported.

Read more: Germany, Bulgaria and three former Soviet republics in collider pact - UPI.com

 

[ScienceRocks]

Personal jetpack gets flight permit for manned test

The New Zealand developers of a personalised jetpack said Tuesday that aviation regulators have issued the device with a flying permit, allowing for manned test flights.

Martin Aircraft chief executive Peter Coker said the certification was a significant milestone in the development of the jetpack, which the company hopes to begin selling next year.

"For us it's a very important step because it moves it out of what I call a dream into something which I believe we're now in a position to commercialise and take forward very quickly," Coker told AFP.

Read more at: Personal jetpack gets flight permit for manned test

 

[ScienceRocks]

Wireless devices go battery-free with new communication technique

We might be one step closer to an Internet-of-things reality. University of Washington engineers have created a new wireless communication system that allows devices to interact with each other without relying on batteries or wires for power.

The new communication technique, which the researchers call "ambient backscatter," takes advantage of the TV and cellular transmissions that already surround us around the clock. Two devices communicate with each other by reflecting the existing signals to exchange information. The researchers built small, battery-free devices with antennas that can detect, harness and reflect a TV signal, which then is picked up by other similar devices.

The technology could enable a network of devices and sensors to communicate with no power source or human attention needed.

"We can repurpose wireless signals that are already around us into both a source of power and a communication medium," said lead researcher Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. "It's hopefully going to have applications in a number of areas including wearable computing, smart homes and self-sustaining sensor networks."

Wireless devices go battery-free with new communication technique | e! Science News

 

[ScienceRocks]

A greener, more sustainable source of ingredients for widely used plastics

A new process can convert a wide variety of vegetable and animal fats and oils – ranging from lard to waste cooking oil – into a key ingredient for making plastics that currently comes from petroleum, scientists say. Their report on the first-of-its-kind process appears in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

Douglas Neckers and Maria Muro-Small explain that many of the plastics found in hundreds of everyday products begin with a group of chemical raw materials, termed olefins, that come from petroleum. They include ethylene, propylene and butadiene, which are building blocks for familiar plastics like polyethylene, polyester, polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene. The scientists sought a more sustainable alternative source of olefins.

Their report describes use of “UV-C” light – used in sanitising wands to kill bacteria and viruses around the house – to change lard, tallow, olive oil, canola oil and waste canola cooking oil into olefins. Neckers and Muro-Small say that this is the first report on use of this photochemical process to make olefins.

A greener, more sustainable source of ingredients for widely used plastics

 

[ScienceRocks]

New approach assembles big structures from small interlocking pieces

MIT researchers have developed a lightweight structure whose tiny blocks can be snapped together much like the bricks of a child's construction toy. The new material, the researchers say, could revolutionize the assembly of airplanes, spacecraft, and even larger structures, such as dikes and levees.

Read more at: New approach assembles big structures from small interlocking pieces

 

[ScienceRocks]

Carbyne: A new form of carbon that’s stronger than graphene

A new form of carbon, dubbed carbyne, is stronger and stiffer than any known material. In fact, carbyne is about two times stronger than graphene and carbon nanotubes, which until now were the strongest materials by some margin. Carbyne has a long list of unusual and highly desirable properties that make it an interesting material for a wide range of applications, from nanoelectronic/spintronic devices to hydrogen storage to higher-density batteries.

Carbyne: A new form of carbon that?s stronger than graphene | ExtremeTech

 

[ScienceRocks]

Carbyne: A new form of carbon that’s stronger than graphene
Carbyne: A new form of carbon that?s stronger than graphene | ExtremeTech

A new form of carbon, dubbed carbyne, is stronger and stiffer than any known material. In fact, carbyne is about two times stronger than graphene and carbon nanotubes, which until now were the strongest materials by some margin. Carbyne has a long list of unusual and highly desirable properties that make it an interesting material for a wide range of applications, from nanoelectronic/spintronic devices to hydrogen storage to higher-density batteries.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Laser weapons inch closer to battlefield

Who wouldn’t want a ray gun?

The military aims to turn lasers weapons from science fiction into reality for everything from space platforms to Humvees.

“RELI” is the Department of Defense’s relatively new Robust Electric Laser Initiative, which is meant to create next-generation lightweight, compact laser weapons.

Weaponized lasers will bring nearly instant, extremely precise strikes to the battlefield. And with “deep magazines” of laser-ness, they remove the worry of running out of ammunition. Plus lasers can be calibrated to the scale of the threat, ranging from a non-lethal blow through to taking out a missile.

That’s why several big defense companies are taking a fresh look at lasers.

Thin Disk Laser
This week, Boeing announced that its “Thin Disk Laser” system surpassed the DoD’s requirements for the RELI system. It takes a series of commercial solid-state lasers and integrates them to produce one concentrated high-energy beam.

Read more: Laser weapons inch closer to battlefield | Fox News

 

[ScienceRocks]

A ‘universal smart window’ for instant control of lighting and heat

A ?universal smart window? for instant control of lighting and heat | KurzweilAI

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed a new material to make smart windows even smarter.

The material is a thin coating of nanocrystals embedded in glass that can dynamically modify sunlight as it passes through a window.

Unlike existing technologies, the coating provides selective control over visible light and heat-producing near-infrared (NIR) light independently, so windows can maximize both energy savings and occupant comfort in a wide range of climates.

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2013/08/14/raising-the-iq-of-smart-windows/

 

[ScienceRocks]

Boeing solid-state laser weapon system outshines expectations

By David Szondy

August 18, 2013

The likelihood of lasers appearing on the battlefield was boosted last week when Boeing announced that its Thin Disk Laser system had achieved unexpected levels of power and efficiency. In a recent demonstration for the US Department of Defense, the laser’s output was 30 percent higher than project requirements and had greater beam quality, a result which paves the way toward a practical tactical laser weapon.
As it says on the tin, the Boeing Thin Disk Laser system uses a thin disc laser. Also known as an active mirror laser, this type of solid state laser was first developed in the 1990s. Instead of rods, as is found in most solid-state lasers, the thin disk laser uses a layer of lasing material with a thickness less than the diameter of the beam it emits. This layer acts as both the gain medium or amplifier of the laser and as the mirror that reflects the beam.

Boeing solid-state laser weapon system outshines expectations

 

[ScienceRocks]

Russian Military to Receive Nano-Armor by 2015 - Report

MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian company is developing nanotechnology that would allow production of light-weight ceramic armor for the military and police as early as by the end of 2015, the Izvestia newspaper said Tuesday.

Ceramic armor plates manufactured with the use of boron carbide powder will be used to make bulletproof vests, armor protection for combat vehicles and even for combat aircraft as they would be four times lighter than the existing armor plates.

“The effectiveness of protection…will be 5-6 times higher than that of existing armor while the price will drop by up to 25 percent compared to existing models,” Izvestia cited officials from the Novosibirsk-based NEVZ-Soyuz company.

According to the company, boron carbide armor plates used in bulletproof vests would ensure effective protection from 7.62-mm rounds while vehicle armor would be able stop 12.7-mm and 14.5-mm rounds.

Russian Military to Receive Nano-Armor by 2015 - Report | Defense | RIA Novosti

 

[ScienceRocks]

Affordable Self Driving cars will be technologically solved by about 2020 and will become globally dominant as fast as the laws and regulations will allow

Navigant Research forecasts that vehicles with autonomous driving modes will gradually gain traction in the market over the coming two decades, from about 4% of the global light-duty vehicle market in 2025, rising to roughly 41% in 2030 and 75% by 2035—about 95.4 million units annually by then.

Basically it will be like a more regulated version of the transition from dumb feature phones to smartphones. This transition has taken about two decades. This is counting the time from the mid-1990s with the first Palm and Nokia smartphones and then the blackberry. The huge success of the iPhone in 2007 followed by the Android. The cost to transition to self driving cars will be made faster more affordable with cameras and electronics that only cost a few hundred dollars or even $100-150. The Oxford Mobile Robotics Group (MRG team) sees an immediate future in production cars modified for autonomous driving only part of the time on frequently driven routes. They estimate that the cost of the system can be brought down from its current £5,000 ($7700) to only £100 (US$155).

Affordable Self Driving cars will be technologically solved by about 2020 and will become globally dominant as fast as the laws and regulations will allow

 

[ScienceRocks]

How to print wall-sized displays

August 22, 2013

Adapting conventional printing technology, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a way to rapidly and inexpensively make uniform arrays of high-performing transistors out of carbon nanotubes on flexible plastic sheets, MIT Technology Review reports.

The process could eventually lead to a tool for manufacturing large-area, low-power sensor arrays and displays.

How to print wall-sized displays | KurzweilAI

 

[ScienceRocks]

Prehistoric giant fish could grow more than 16 metres long

The skeletal remains of the biggest fish ever to have swum the seas have revealed just how massive the prehistoric creature could grow.

The skeletal remains of the biggest fish ever to have swum the seas have revealed just how massive the prehistoric creature could grow.

Read more at: Prehistoric giant fish could grow more than 16 metres long

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers develop molecular switch that changes liquid crystal colors

5 hours ago

Dartmouth researchers have developed a molecular switch that changes a liquid crystal's readout color based on a chemical input. This new development may open the way for using liquid crystals in detecting harmful gases, pathogens, explosives and other chemical substances.

Read more at: Researchers develop molecular switch that changes liquid crystal colors