OK – I think the term “hover car” is a bit misleading, but the idea is cool none-the-less. It’s actually a suspended passive Maglev system with 2 passenger cars. The cars hang from an overhead rail, and can travel up to 150 mph.
Materials Scientists have designed a micro-lattice structure that’s 100 times better than its closest competition presaging a sea-change in ultra-lightweight ultra-strong materials.
Materials typically get weaker as they get less dense. Pretty obvious right? Stiffness and strength can be maintained however if you form your desired objects into specific structures like lattices and trusses. This recent design breakthrough was mathematically determined to maximize stiffness yet be as light as possible. That wasn’t the hard part apparently because it took years to turn that geometric structure into a 3D-printed object.
Scientists are now using an ultrafast laser to tease out for the first time the details of water’s bizarre super-cooled behavior and structure.
Water is wonderful and weird. It’s more dense than ice, it holds tremendous heat, and its surface tension is so strong it’s like a force field…sort of.
HP announced recently in Vegas a completely new computer architecture design called “The Machine” that may just be worthy of the word Revolution.
The Machine (yes, I know, totally lame name) is different from any computer for three fundamental reasons.
Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a small, low-power pressure sensor that can potentially (with improvements) be incorporated into an artificial lens used to replace lenses fogged over by cataracts. These pressure sensors can then monitor the pressure inside the eye and convey that information wirelessly to a radio receiver.
Artificial Cells have been made that can control bacterial cells. This opens up an entirely new approach to synthetic biology and genetic engineering.
Why re-invent the wheel when nature already did the research and development over the past countless millenia? Geckos (and spiders) are among nature’s most skilled climbers, easily adhering to and scampering over most surfaces. How do they do it?
A computer has finally officially passed the Turing Test! I’ve waited for this day much of my life but I gotta admit, I’m disappointed.