Dean Kamen & the Norwegian company ‘Think’ are working together on a project that sounds extremely similar to the Mr Fusion engine from Back to the Future. Over the last 10 years Kamen has spent around $40 million developing the Stirling engine, which can use virtually any fuel source to heat a sealed container containing a fixed quantity of gas – most commonly hydrogen or helium – that expands and contracts to drive a piston and produce electricity.
These engines are already being used in developing countries, but Kamen started to realise that the engines would never be economical until they were mass produced.
That’s where the Norwegian ‘Think’ car comes in. By combining the two together, you could basically use any combustible material, for example: Diesel, vegetable oil, paper, fast food, timber, cow manure etc.. to help keep the batteries charged. So instead of throwing your rubbish away, you would just use it to power your car. Not only would this extend the Thinks range by hundreds of miles, it would also turn the car into a mobile generator. When electricity demand peaks during the day, thousands of ‘Thinks’ plugged in at office parks could feed power back to the grid. If you have enough ‘Thinks’ out there you would literally change the architecture of the grid, says Kamen
At the moment the Stirling electric hybrid prototype only generates around 1Kilowatt of power unfortunately that’s nowhere near the 1.21 Gigawatts required for time travel.
Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon, eluded scientists for years but was finally made in the laboratory in 2004 with the help of everyday, store-bough transparent tape. This research is an important first step, For developing a way to mass produce metallic graphene that could one day replace copper as the primary interconnect material on nearly all computer chips.
Dean Kamen and DEKA Research are working with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), in an attempt to create the next-generation robotic prosthesis for soldiers wounded in battle, and it looks like they have succeeded. At a recent conference in Honolulu, Hawaii As part of his presentation Kamen gave a little background information on the project and showed a short video clip of the arm in action.
Titled “Gen X – Separate Exo Control” two team member demonstrated the robotic arm grasping a water bottle, & preforming delicate tasks such as picking up a pen and scratching a nose. weighing less than nine pounds this is a really impressive piece of technology and a needed leap forward for prosthetics.
NASA and Ohio Aerospace Institute have been working on designs for a solid-state unmanned aircraft that mimics the flight of a bird. Using thin-film solar arrays and an ionic polymer-metal composite material that can deform in an electric field like an artificial muscle and return to its original shape when the field is removed, Combining the unique characteristics of these materials the vehicle would be able to flap its wings without using conventional mechanical parts.
With a flight profile similar to that of a hawk or eagle, the Solid State Aircraft will be able to soar for long periods of time, utilize its flapping motion to regain lost altitude. It could have a number of uses such as gathering data, relaying communications, and surveying terrain. It could even be used on other planets in atmospheres that would ground conventional aircraft’s.
Using a technique called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) scientists were able to send a harmless magnetic signal through the scalp and skull and into the brain, where it activates electrical impulses. In response to each burst of magnetism, the subjects’ brains immediately produced slow waves typical of deep sleep. With a single pulse, they were able to induce a wave that looks identical to the waves the brain makes normally during sleep.
The Ontario government has given approval for a California company to construct a massive 40MW solar power plant near Sarnia that will blanket an area larger than all three Toronto islands with hundreds of thousands of solar panels. It will be the largest solar power station in North America and among the most expansive in the world to use photovoltaic cells. Once complete, the 40-megawatt Sarnia project will be able to supply enough emission-free electricity to power between 10,000 and 15,000 homes on sunny days. If all goes according to schedule, the Sarnia solar plant will be fully functional in 2010 and will continue supplying clean electricity to the grid for the next 30 to 50 years.
Researchers from the IBM Almaden research lab and the University of Nevada have created a simulation that was as big and as complex as half of a mouse brain on the BlueGene L supercomputer. Half a real mouse brain is thought to have about eight million neurons each one of which can have up to 8,000 connections. Using the BlueGene L supercomputer the researchers created half a virtual mouse brain that had 8,000 neurons & had up to 6,300 connections.
In other smaller simulations the researchers say they have seen characteristics of thought patterns observed in real mouse brains. In these other tests the team saw the groups of neurons form spontaneously into groups. The researchers say that although the simulation shared some similarities with a mouse’s mental make-up in terms of nerves and connections it lacked the structures seen in real mice brains. For future tests the team aims to speed up the simulation, and make it more neurobiologically faithful, by adding structures seen in real mouse brains
Researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center have developed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to visualize nanoscale objects. The new techniques are a major milestone in the quest to build a microscope that could “see” individual atoms in three dimensions. Using Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM), IBM researchers have captured two-dimensional images of objects as small as 90 nanometers.
MRFM offers imaging 60,000 times more sensitive than current MRI technology. MRFM uses what is known as force detection to extend the limits of conventional MRI and view structures that would otherwise be too small to be detected.
If you think that future NASA’s moon camps need to have a science fiction look, you might be disappointed. Today, NASA is testing small inflatable structures. In fact, if these expandable ‘tents’ receive positive reviews, astronauts will ‘camp’ on the moon as early as 2020. These 12-foot (3.65 meter) diameter inflatable units could be used as building blocks for a future lunar base. Right now, a prototype is tested at NASA’s Langley Research Center. But NASA also wants to test other inflatable structures in the not-too-friendly environment of the Antarctic next year. Still, it’s too early to know if NASA’s first habitable lunar base will use inflatable or rigid structures.
This This Saturday March 3rd a total lunar eclipse will be visible from nearly all inhabited parts of the world. A shadow will stretch across the surface of the moon, eventually casting it in an eerie red glow as sunlight filters through our atmosphere onto the lunar surface. Viewers in Europe and Africa will have the best vantage point, able to watch the entire eclipse in action, while observers in most of the western hemisphere can see it eclipsed as it rises just after sunset.
These engines are already being used in developing countries, but Kamen started to realise that the engines would never be economical until they were mass produced.
