MIT chemists have devised an inexpensive, portable sensor that can detect gases emitted by rotting meat, allowing consumers to determine whether the meat in their grocery store or refrigerator is safe to eat. The sensor, which consists of chemically modified carbon nanotubes, could be deployed in “smart packaging” that would offer much more accurate safety …
The Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015), prepared by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), presents long-term annual projections of energy supply, demand, and prices through 2040. The projections, focused on U.S. energy markets, are based on results from EIA’s National Energy Modeling System (NEMS). NEMS enables EIA to make projections under alternative, internally-consistent sets of …
Liquid water collects in the Martian soil each night, before evaporating during the day, according to NASA’s Curiosity rover. If future missions can confirm this water cycle, it means astronauts could one day farm moisture to provide drinking water on Mars. Planetary scientists have seen a lot of evidence for frozen water at the Martian …
CEO Elon Musk’s mysterious tweet a teaser about a new non-car product offering from Tesla Motors that will be announced with great fanfare April 30. Major new Tesla product line — not a car — will be unveiled at our Hawthorne Design Studio on Thurs 8pm, April 30 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2015 …
Harvard geneticist George Church and his colleagues used a gene-editing technique known as CRISPR to insert mammoth genes for small ears, subcutaneous fat, and hair length and color into the DNA of elephant skin cells. The work has not yet been published in a scientific journal, and has yet to be reviewed by peers in …
Piezoelectric materials such as ZnO, as well as several others, have the ability to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy, and vice versa. “ZnO nanostructures are particularly suitable as nanogenerator functional elements, thanks to their numerous virtues including transparency, lead-free biocompatibility, nanostructural formability, chemical stability, and coupled piezoelectric and semiconductor properties,” noted Yoon. The key …
Google says its self driving cars should be on public roads within five years without having to drive through a thicket of regulatory red tape. Speaking at a conference in Detroit, the chief of the software giant’s autonomous-car project, Chris Urmson, indicated widespread auto industry concern about regulation of self-driving cars is overblown. The onus, …
hina Cwill broaden the definition of a deposit in 2015, boosting the lending capacity of Chinese banks that have to cap loans at 75 percent of funds held. The relaxation, reported by the official Xinhua News Agency yesterday, could make an additional 5 trillion yuan ($800 billion) to 5.5 trillion yuan available, according to analysts …
The Roadster 3.0 package applies what Tesla has learned in Model S to Roadster. No new Model S battery pack or major range upgrade is expected in the near term. Battery technology has continued a steady improvement in recent years, as has Tesla experience in optimizing total vehicle efficiency through Model S development. Tesla has …
Airborne wind energy seem simple. You would use kites, gliders, rotors or lighter than air constructs (different air filled shapes) to capture wind energy at higher altitudes. The wind is stronger and more consistent at higher altitudes and the systems could use 100 times less material than conventional wind turbine systems. Many promising possibilities remain …
In April 2014, Ontario became the first jurisdiction in North America to fully eliminate coal as a source of electricity generation. The Thunder Bay Generating Station, Ontario’s last remaining coal-fired facility, has burned its last supply of coal. Ontario has fulfilled its commitment to end coal generation in advance of its target of the end …