Eco-driving: strategic, tactical, and operational decisions of the driver that improve vehicle fuel economy (19 pages) Researchers calculated that a car that could get 36 mpg will experience a reduction to 19.8 mpg in actual fuel economy (a reduction of 45%) as a result of disregarding all eco-driving practices. This report presents information about the …
Discovery Air Innovations Inc. (DAI)and Hybrid Air Vehicles Limited (HAV) have entered into a commercial agreement which identifies DAI as the launch customer for HAV’s Commercial Heavy Lift programme. They plan to buy around 45 new hybrid air vehicles. These aircraft will be used across Canada’s Northwest Territories. The airships will be produced and deployed …
Adding a powder that contains several vitamins and minerals, including iron, zinc and vitamin A, to the semi-solid foods taken by infants and children between six months and two years of age, can reduce their risk of anaemia and iron deficiency. This is the conclusion of a new Cochrane Systematic Review. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies, …
New Scientist – Ayusman Sen of Pennsylvania State University in University Park and his colleagues have created the self-propelling microspiders using spheres less than a micrometre wide. Each sphere is made up of two halves – one hemisphere is gold, the other silica – and looks like a gold-and-silver Christmas bauble. Sen hopes to develop …
Researchers have created a high-performance hybrid LED (light emitting diode), comprised of both organic and QD-based (Quantum dot) layers. Until recently, however, engineers have been vexed by a manufacturing problem that hindered commercial development. An industrial process known as vacuum deposition is the common way to put the necessary organic molecules in place to carry …
A nanoparticle-infused film brings innovative lighting and display technologies closer to reality. A moisture-resistant coating that extends the lifetime and reliability of plastic electronic devices, such as organic solar cells or flexible displays, has garnered the intense interest of developers of next-generation lighting materials. By cranking out large sheets of polymers bearing electronic circuitry using …
Technology Review – Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and one of the largest manufacturers of computer memory, Samsung, have created a new kind of flash memory that uses graphene—atom-thick sheets of pure carbon—along with silicon to store information. Incorporating graphene could help extend the viability of flash memory technology for years to …
A technique that uses hydrogen to improve transistor performance on real-world graphene devices has been demonstrated on the wafer-scale by researchers in Penn State’s Electro-Optics Center (EOC). The researchers demonstrated a 3 times improvement in electron mobility of epitaxial graphene grown on the silicon face of a 100 mm silicon carbide wafer, as well as …
MIT – Concrete is one of the most extensively used materials worldwide — on average, more than two tons per year of the rock-like stuff is produced for every man, woman and child on Earth, making its use second only to water. And that vast amount of new concrete is responsible for somewhere between 5 …
Fresh research indicates people don’t even know what a creative idea looks like and that creativity, hailed as a positive change agent, actually makes people squirm. In the journal Psychological Science there is a report on two 2010 experiments at the University of Pennsylvania involving more than 200 people. The studies’ findings include: * Creative …
Future Pundit discusses interstellar travel and asks why would humanity send a manned mission. Randall Parker and most other people make several mistaken assumptions when they analyze interstellar travel. They implicitly assume that humanity is sending a manned mission with very little changes to our society except that there is the added capability of interstellar …