WATCH: This 'flying boat' is set to break a transpacific speed record

WATCH: This 'flying boat' is set to break a transpacific speed record

The little flying boat that could.

 

Named the Hydroptère, this plane-boat is one of the fastest sailing boats in the world, and is set to break the speed record between Los Angeles and Honolulu in Hawaii this week, cruising at speeds of up to 83 km/h.
The brainchild of French architect, Jean Nouvel, the 18-metre-long Hydroptère lifts itself 5 metres above the surface of the ocean using its so-called 'marine wings' - or foils - which generate an upward thrust with a reduced drag when the craft hits 10 knots. It’s the same principle that gets aeroplanes up off the ground, and it allows this flying boat to go from 37 to 83 km/h in just 10 seconds, with only 2.5 m² of it still in contact with the water.
But don’t let all that smooth sailing fool you: the boat's wings are resisting pressures twice as high as what the wings of a fighter jet have to withstand. To make them super-sturdy, Nouvel’s team built them from composite materials such as carbon fibres mixed with epoxy and titanium. "To meet the laws of hydrodynamics, the shape of the boat has been optimised to ensure a greater efficiency of the sails while minimising air friction on the structure of the craft," Design Boom reports.
Describing how they perfected the craft over a number of decades at the Hydroptère website, Nouvel and his team say they’ve installed 100 sensors on board to measure the pressures and speeds it's undergoing. "The data acquired are modelled in a flight simulator to analyse every reaction of the boat and to improve adjustments," the team explains. "Thousands of calculations … reduce the problems of hydrodynamic flow: when Hydroptère reaches 50 knots (92 km/h), the water begins to boil around the foils, which reduces the lift and stability."
In an effort to raise awareness about climate change, Nouvel and his team will set out off the coast of Los Angeles this week and try to reach Honolulu in Hawaii in under 4.19 days. If they do it, it will be the second speed sailing record under their belt, with the craft hitting speeds of over 50 knots back in 2009. "We want that record," one of the crew, Alain Thebault, told the AFP.
All I can think about is the technological monstrosity marvel that would come from these ambitious Frenchmen teaming up with this guy.

Man sets hoverboard flight world record on a device he made himself

WATCH: Man sets hoverboard flight world record on a device he made himself

The future is now.

 

A Canadian inventor has set a new benchmark for awesome, and a Guinness World Record in the process, by hovering a distance of almost 300 metres across a Canadian lake on a home-made hoverboard.
The irony here is that the hoverboards in Back to The Future II that started our obsession with the technology famously didn't work over water because the rider couldn't generate any momentum (unless you’ve got POWER, right?). This new prototype, on the other hand, can work over any terrain, as creator Catalin Alexandru Duru told the Guinness World Records team.
"The prototype can be used anywhere but is usually tested over water because of how dangerously high it can fly,” Duru explains in the video of the record-breaking attempt below.
The video was only released on Friday, although the record was set on 24 August 2014 over Quebec's Lake Oureau. Unfortunately, details on exactly how the hoverboard actually works are scarce, other than the fact that it's a propeller-based system - from the footage it looks as though it's a quadcopter-type set-up.
This is a different approach to other attempts, which have used the power of magnets repelling each other, or water power to levitate off the ground. There's no word on when (or if) this prototype might be commercialised, but we're sure it's something Duru will be looking into, given the hype surrounding hoverboards.
The flight lasted a distance of 275.9 metres (905.2 feet) at a height of almost five metres. Given that Duru only had to reach 50 metres to make the record, he smashed it. Cnet confirmed the authenticity of the record and the video over email with the team over at Guinness World Records.
Watch the footage of the record attempt below. We have to admit, it makes us pretty excited for the future.

NASA scientists have discovered(300 trillion Suns) the most luminous galaxy to date

NASA scientists have discovered the most luminous galaxy to date

It’s bursting with the light of more than 300 trillion Suns.

 

NASA scientists have found the brightest-known galaxy in the Universe thanks to their hard working Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope.
WISE has been assisting scientists in compiling infrared images of the cosmos since 2009, and over the course of its mission, has discovered a whole new class of objects - extremely luminous infrared galaxies, otherwise known as ELIRGs. These are some of the most luminous systems in the Universe.
In a new report published this week in The Astrophysical Journal, an international team of astronomers has described 20 such ELIRGs, including one that dazzles brighter than any found before. Given the rather oblique name of WISE J224607.57-052635.0, this galaxy must have a ridiculously massive black hole in its belly, the team suggests.
"We are looking at a very intense phase of galaxy evolution," said the report's lead author Chao-Wei Tsai in a press statement. "This dazzling light may be from the main growth spurt of the galaxy’s black hole."
Galaxies often have supermassive black holes in their cores. They draw gas and matter into a spinning disk around them, and it heats to millions of degrees, radiating super-bright light of various types. However, this light is blocked by dust, which then emits infrared light as it heats up. And this infrared radiance is what WISE has been detecting.
What’s not yet clear is why the black holes powering ELIRGs are as big as they are. The researchers outline three possible causes in their report. It could be that the black holes simply started out bigger than we thought possible, or perhaps these supermassive black holes have been gobbling on gas faster than we thought was theoretically possible, bending or even breaking a principle called the Eddington limit. 
According to this limit, a black hole can only devour so much matter before the light it blasts out pushes the 'food' out of reach. But if the limit is broken, a black hole could balloon like crazy in no time. "Another way for a black hole to grow this big is for it to have gone on a sustained binge, consuming food faster than typically thought possible," said Tsai in the press statement. "This can happen if the black hole isn't spinning that fast."
Or, the black holes in ELIRGs could be eating up more matter over a longer period of time. "It's like winning a hot-dog-eating contest lasting hundreds of millions of years," as the study's co-author, Andrew Blain, puts it.
Astronomers are now setting out to do more research on these shiny galaxies to determine the masses of their black holes, thus unravelling more knowledge about their history.

Here’s what living in a world without smell is like

Here’s what living in a world without smell is like

It's much harder than you think.

 

At some point, most of us have probably been asked the question: "Would you prefer to be blind or deaf?" While we tend to consider sight and sound as our two main senses - and often take our sense of smell for granted - a life without functioning olfactory nerves would not be easy, by any measure.
"We generally do not think about our sense of smell too often," writes geneticist Darren Logan of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK. "Yet it contributes hugely to the multi-sensory perception of our world."
Writing on the institute's blog, Logan says that 80 percent of the flavour we taste in food relies on smell. "Without it we are restricted to just five basic tastes,” he says. "In addition, we routinely use smell to warn of danger and signal safety, to attract partners and customers (think ‘new car smell’) and to evoke memories."
Smell is so integral to our functioning as humans that an inability to smell certain smells can even predict how long you’ll live. Sarah Kathleen Page, a memebr of a charity called Fifth Sense, dedicated to supporting people who can't smell, explained her life without smell to Logan:
"We cannot smell the gas leak slowly filling up our home, we cannot smell our newly born daughter, we cannot fully enjoy the sensory pleasures most people take for granted. We hope for a doctor that believes us when we say we cannot smell and long for a friend that never forgets. Without someone to say, 'I understand, I believe you and I will do my best to help' we live in a very lonely world."
It's such a debilitating condition that Logan is now investigating what causes people to be lose their sense of smell. The condition - known as anosmia - is thought to affect some two million Americans, though concrete data are hard to come by.
At the blog, Logan describes how one's sense of smell is largely controlled by genetics. "In fact, olfaction, the technical term for our sense of smell, is sufficiently important to us that the molecular odour receptors in our nose are encoded by the largest single family of genes in our genomes," he says.
Partnering with researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia, the team launched a social media campaign (#longlostsmell) to find families where people have ansomia. "In one case, we found a family with anosmia across five generations; each time, the condition was inherited from parent to child," Logan writes.
They mapped each participant’s family tree, collected saliva, and are now sequencing their genomes. The team then plans to compare the genes of family members who can and can’t smell to locate the precise gene responsible for smelling.
But identifying the genetic causes of anosmia is only the first step in a long journey towards finding a cure, says Logan: "We aim to press on and investigate how these genes contribute to the complex neural circuits that connect our noses and brains. Only then can we evaluate them as potential targets for clinical intervention."
We can’t wait to hear about the results, because safety concerns aside, no one should have to miss out on the pleasures of smelling sizzling bacon, freshly brewed coffee, or rain on a dewy morning.

Poor signals on your phone? Here is how you can find better connectivity in low network coverage areas

 

Many of us, at times, find ourselves stuck in areas with limited or no cellular connectivity. In such situations, making calls or sending messages becomes a pesky task. We move around (sometimes, with one arm stretched up in the air) hoping for at least one bar (one dot in case of iPhones) on the signal strength indicator positioned at the top of the phone's screen to turn active. While some of the times, we end up successfully with our phone connected to the network, at other times we just keep wandering in a huff - but to no avail. The reason is that we have no clue as to where we might get the signals, and, therefore, we keep moving based on sheer guesswork. But what if a few taps on your phone can alert you which direction you need to go in to get better connectivity or say, some connectivity in dead zones? A simple, little-known feature in your smartphone can help you address signal woes.
It has been observed that bars on the top of your phone's screen are not a true indicator of the phone's signals, but the signal strength feature in your phone gives you an exact picture by putting across information in numbers.

A few taps on your phone can alert you which direction you need to go in to get better connectivity or say, some connectivity in dead zones.

The ways to access this feature vary from phone to phone, but the numbers, that are expressed in negative, have more or less the same meaning. The closer the number is to 0, the stronger is the signal strength. In other words, the lower the number, the better the signal (ignore the minus sign when evaluating). For instance, -65 is better than -85. So the next time you face such an issue, you know which direction to move.
The number is said to vary from - 40 to -130, where -40 depicts the best signal and -130 no signal. (Remember that these numbers deal with the phone reception and do not reflect the 3G/4G strength).
Here we have listed guides to access this feature on your iPhone, Android, Windows and BlackBerry phones.
For iPhone
iPhone users can have access to this feature by visiting a hidden app - Field Test Mode - on their phones. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
1. Go to the Phone app on your iPhone and dial *3001#12345#*.
2. As you tap the call button, the Field Test Mode opens up on your screen, converting the signal strength dots on the top left into numbers. For instance, -67.
3. You can exit the Field Test Mode by simply tapping the home button.
4. But if you want to go through the numbers without going through the hassle of following the entire process every time you want to take a look at them, you can set it up. If you want it to be a permanent feature (which can be disabled anytime) skip the third step. Instead of pressing the Home button to exit, hold down the power/sleep button until the ‘slide to power off' bar appears.
5. Then press down on the Home button which will close the app and bring you to the home screen. You can now toggle between numbers and signal strength dots with just a tap there.
6. You can get back to the default bars permanently by simpling pressing the Home button after the Field Test Mode appears on dialing *3001#12345#*.
For Android
Android users have the signal strength feature hidden deep down in Settings. Go to the Settings app > About phone > Status > SIM status > Signal Strength. You will see numbers expressed in dBm (decibel milliwatts). The process remains the same for KitKat and Lollipop versions. It may slightly differ for versions below KitKat.
For BlackBerry
Earlier BlackBerry users could check the mobile network signal strength in numbers by holding down the ALT key and typing the letters NMLL in the same order. But BlackBerry seems to have done away with this feature with its latest upgrade. Users can now access it by downloading a third-party app from BlackBerry World. One such app is Signal.

For Windows Phone
Just like the iPhone, Windows Phone users can check the signal strength in numbers by going to the Field Test mode. Unlike the iPhones that have a common number to visit Field Test, the number for Windows Phone devices differs between models.
Most of the Lumia phones let you access the signal strength feature by dialling ##3282#. This number, however, is not applicable for all Windows Phone devices.

The Archer's Paradox in slow motion ever!!

WATCH: The Archer's Paradox in slow motion

Because arrows don't actually fly straight.

 

If you're anything like me, you probably think that an arrow shoots pretty straight - hence the saying 'straight as an arrow', right? But it turns out, that's not the case at all, as Destin reveals so spectacularly in the latest episode of Smarter Every Day, where he sets out to uncover the physics behind the Archer's Paradox.
So what is this paradox? In order to shoot an arrow, you need to place it either to the right or left of your bow. But in order to hit your target, you need your arrow to fly in a straight line. So somehow archers manage to curve their arrows around that obstacle in order to hit their target... and as Destin proved in another recent episode, archers are able to hit some incredibly tiny targets.
To figure it out, Destin sets up his Phantom slow-motion camera, and experiments with a range of different bows. What he finds is that the solution to this paradox all comes down to the arrow, which actually isn't rigid at all. In fact, it not only bends once to get around the bow, once it's released, it curves the whole way to the target, creating a wave pattern complete with nodal points through the air, which keeps it on a straight path.
But how do archers know how their arrow's spine is going to curve in order to have such incredible accuracy? That's actually a pretty cool process, which requires some serious science. Watch the episode above to find out, and fully appreciate how talented archers really are.

Science says sleep plays an important role in memory

Science says sleep plays an important role in memory

Why all-night cramming doesn't work.

 

Sleeping plays an important role in forming lasting memories, but controversy remains over whether the brain helps to create these by deleting unnecessary connections or by strengthening important ones.
Now the latest research suggests that both processes occur during sleep.
A study in the journal PLOS Computational Biology suggests that sleeping triggers the synapses in our brain to both strengthen and weaken which prompts the forgetting, strengthening or modification of our memories in a process known as long-term potentiation (LTP).
Scientists led by Sidarta Ribeiro at the Brain Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, measured the levels of a protein related to LTP during the sleep cycle of rats.
The results show that sleep can have different effects depending on whether LTP is present or not.
A lack leads to memory erasure while the presence of LTP can either strengthen memories or prompt the emergence of new ones.
The research provides a framework to understand the mechanisms underlying the complex role of sleep for learning, which involves selective remembering as well as creativity.

Handgrip strength offers cheap, simple way to predict heart attack and stroke risk

Handgrip strength offers cheap, simple way to predict heart attack and stroke risk

It's an even better predictor of death than a blood pressure test.

 

We all know that a strong handshake can help you in a job interview, but it turns out it’s not just potential employers who will judge you on your handshake - doctors might soon do so too.
An international study involving 140,000 adults from 17 different countries has associated a weak grip with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, and a shorter survival time when diagnosed with a serious disease.
The study also found that grip strength is an even better predictor of death than blood pressure, leading the team to suggest that it could be a good screening tool for doctors. "Grip strength could be an easy and inexpensive test to assess an individual’s risk of death and cardiovascular disease," the study’s lead author, cardiologist Darryl Leong from McMaster University in Canada, said in a press release.
The study, published in The Lancet, followed adults aged between 35 and 70 years from culturally and economically diverse countries for an average of four years. Their grip was assessed using a machine known as a handgrip dynamometer, which measures strength in kilogram weight.
"Reduced muscular strength, which can be measured by grip strength, has been consistently linked with early death, disability, and illness," says Leong. "But until now, information on the prognostic value of grip strength was limited, and mainly obtained from select high-income countries."
The study found that for every 5 kilograms a person is weaker, they have a 17 percent greater risk of both cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular disease deaths (e.g. cancer), suggesting that "muscle strength can predict the risk of death in people who develop a major illness," says Leong in the press release.
It also increased the chance of having a heart attack by 7 percent and a stroke by 9 percent, and predicted a 16 percent increased risk of death from any cause.
These associations remained even after accounting for age, education level, employment status, physical activity level, and tobacco and alcohol use.
With heart disease killing more than 17 million people each year -  80 percent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries - coming up with a cheap, non-invasive, and quick diagnosis tool is an exciting development. Next up, Leong wants to figure out if improving muscle strength - such as by doing weights - can reduce their risk of dying from a disease, heart attack or stroke.

LG G5 rumored to feature new eye-scanning technology

 

Fingerprint scanning smartphones are become more and more popular, but the dream of an eye scanning handset—that works well—is still on the horizon. A new report from WhoWiredKorea claims that LG’s flagship phone for 2016, presumably called the LG G5, will feature an iris reading sensor.
LG may already have the technology it needs thanks to IRIENCE, a Korean company focused on eye scanning sensors. The firm apparently needs a few more months to improve its recognition rate, which may explain why the feature won’t be included in LG’s upcoming flagship expected later this year.
Once the LG G5 does launch, it could put a big focus on security, especially when it comes to mobile payments, thanks to that built-in eye scanner. Of course there’s no guarantee the technology will actually make it into the final product. This is just a rumor, so we wouldn’t take it as fact until LG actually unveils an iris-reading smartphone.
Still, it’s exciting to think about. Just a few years ago a smartphone with a built-in fingerprint reader seemed like science fiction. Now it’s quickly becoming the industry standard. In a few more years the same may be true for iris scanners.

This SMS can make iPhone crash and switch off

This SMS can make iPhone crash and switch off

The iPhone is arguably the world's most advanced smartphone. But despite all the magic packed into it, the phone is also surprisingly vulnerable to a strange bug that results in crashing of the phone when a particular message is received.
According to reports, if you send the following message to an iPhone user, it would crash the device of the receiver. The phone will freeze when it receives this and will then reboot.

A website called 9to5Mac, which reports on Apple-related matters, said that Apple was aware of the bug and was working on a fix.

"We are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update," Apple reportedly said in a statement.
The bug, which includes symbols and Arabic characters, was first reported by Apple news blog MacRumors on Tuesday night, adding that it was noticed on social news hub Reddit earlier in the day.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/this-sms-can-make-iphone-crash-and-switch-off/1/440678.html

Spherical camera rig for VR, and a drone

In case you were wondering what the next move is for GoPro as it keeps its action cameras one step ahead of cellphones and DSLRs, we have answers: virtual reality and drones. CEO Nick Woodman announced both projects tonight during an interview at the Code Conference. GoPro showed off a spherical camera rig after it acquired Kolor last month, a company that specializes in stiching together the resulting footage so it can be experience in VR. The Six-camera Spherical Array should arrive later this year, and a GoPro-branded quadcopter is planned for next year. There's fewer details available about that, but rumors late last year pointed to a model priced between $500 and $1,000.

Scientists develop biodegradable computer chips made from wood

Scientists develop biodegradable computer chips made from wood

Imagine a future filled with biodegradable electronics.

 

Right now, about 70 percent of our discarded electronics end up in landfill, amounting to a record-breaking 41.8 million tonnes of e-waste dumped around the world last year. And not only is this huge build-up a complete waste of space, all of those discarded electronics are constantly leaking dangerous levels of toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment.
So researchers in the US are developing something that just might put a dent in that colossal amount of e-waste - a high-performance semiconductor chip made almost entirely out of wood. "The majority of material in a chip is support. We only use less than a couple of micrometers for everything else,” one of the team, engineer Zhenqiang Ma from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a press release. "Now the chips are so safe you can put them in the forest and fungus will degrade it. They become as safe as fertiliser."
The chip works by having its normal support layer replaced by a flexible and biodegradable layer of cellulose nanofibril (CNF) - a strong and transparent material that's derived from wood when you break it down to its nanoscale fibres.
Ma and his team have spent over a decade trying to figure out how to get the surface of a biodegradeabe material smooth enough to work as a support layer for the chip, and with the capacity for thermal expansion. They found that CNF worked the best for this over the petroleum-based polymers they tried.
"You don't want it to expand or shrink too much. Wood is a natural hydroscopic material and could attract moisture from the air and expand," one of the team, Shaoqin Gong said. "With an epoxy coating on the surface of the CNF, we solved both the surface smoothness and the moisture barrier."
The team’s next challenge was to show that even a wood-based chip could perform just as well as existing gallium arsenide-based microwave chips - one of the most commonly used chips in consumer electronics. So far, it’s looking good.
"I've made 1,500 gallium arsenide transistors in a 5-by-6 millimetre chip," says one of the team, Yei Hwan Jung, said in the release. "Typically for a microwave chip that size, there are only eight to 40 transistors. The rest of the area is just wasted. We take our design and put it on CNF using 'deterministic assembly technique', then we can put it wherever we want and make a completely functional circuit with performance comparable to existing chips."
Publishing in Nature Communications, the team says it's this flexibility, and the fact that it’s completely biodegradable, that they hope will make it an attractive option for electronics companies in the future. "Mass-producing current semiconductor chips is so cheap, and it may take time for the industry to adapt to our design," said Ma. "But flexible electronics are the future, and we think we're going to be well ahead of the curve."

This could be the official flag of Earth that we'll plant on Mars

This could be the official flag of Earth that we'll plant on Mars

Gather round, Earthlings! Time to judge our new flag.

 

You’re looking at the proposed design for the flag that our intrepid Earthling explorers will plant on the surface of Mars when they hopefully make it there by mid-2030.
The brains behind the design is graphic designer, Oskar Pernefeldt, from Beckmans College of Design in Sweden, who came up with it as part of his graduation project called 'The International Flag of Planet Earth.' According to Michael Rundle at Wired, companies such as LG and BSmart helped him formalise his design, and NASA appears to be involved, but it’s not clear exactly how.
While we’re a long way off actually having a discussion, as a global population, about what flag to plant on Mars, and whether there’s actually any point, considering how unlikely it is that anyone else will actually see it, it’s still a pretty fun exercise. It’s a chance for us to consider what things planet Earth would project to someone looking at it from the outside in.
Pernefeldt explains the thinking behind the design:
"Centred in the flag, seven rings form a flower - a symbol of the life on Earth. The rings are linked to each other, which represents how everything on our planet, directly or indirectly, [is] linked.
The blue field represents water which is essential for life - also as the oceans cover most of our planet's surface. The flower's outer rings form a circle which could be seen as a symbol of Earth as a planet and the blue surface could represent the Universe."
Watch the video below to hear Pernefeldt talk about how he came up with the design, and check out the images he’s put together of the flag in a whole bunch of different scenarios. I can’t help but feel a little patriotic about our little blue dot of a planet.
Beckmans College of Design
Beckmans College of Design
Beckmans College of Design

Yes! A test track is being built for Elon Musk’s 1,200-km/h train

Yes! A test track is being built for Elon Musk’s 1,200-km/h train

It could take you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes.

 

Plans to build Elon Musk's proposed Hyperloop train, which could theoretically travel faster than an airplane, are getting excitingly real, with a company signing a deal to build the world's first Hyperloop test track in central California.
The 8-km (5-mile) pilot project won't be long enough to reach the proposed 1,200 km/h (800 mph) speeds of the Hyperloop train, but it's a crucial first step, and is expected to begin construction at the start of next year.
The Hyperloop was first proposed by Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, in 2013, and works by transporting passengers through low-pressure tubes inside little pods at incredibly high speeds - sort of like the way mail used to be sucked around building using pneumatic tubes. This system, in theory, is incredibly cheap and energy-efficient to run, and could comfortably take passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a mind-blowing 30 minutes.
But despite coming up with a 57-page white paper outlining the idea, Musk admitted that he didn't have time to work on the project, and at the end of last year, a group of engineers called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc began crowd-funding their own Hyperloop research. And they're wasting not any time, with Ryan Citron over at Navigant Research Blog reporting that they've struck a deal with landowners to build an estimated US$100 million pilot track along California's Interstate 5 highway, which connects LA with San Francisco.
The Hyperloop works by creating a partial vacuum inside a giant tube, which allow pods to accelerate without friction to incredible speeds, guided by magnets. The pods will be cushioned against the walls of the tubes using a series of fans on each side, and the whole thing will be powered by solar panels running along the length of the tube, according to Musk's original designs.
Along a roughly 160-km (100-mile) track, this system should be able to reach speeds of 1,200 km/h, but the engineers behind the project told Wired last year that the train could get even faster, potentially reaching up to 6,500 km/h (4,000 mph) - a speed that would take you from New York to China in two hours. You can see a digital demonstration of the system below:
While the science behind the system seems pretty solid, questions remain over whether it'll actually work in practice, and if it'll be safe for people to be whizzed around the country at such incredible speeds.
"The whole system is vulnerable to a single-point failure," retired physicist and co-inventor of the superconducting maglev concept, James Powell, told Tanya Lewis over at LiveScience. "The guideway [track] has to be built to very fine tolerances, because if the position of the wall deviates from straightness by a few thousandths of an inch, you could crash."
This new test track will hopefully help the team nut out some of these issues. With the potential to reach 322 km/h (200 mph), the pilot system will be considerably slower than the world's fastest maglev trains, but it's still enough to prove whether the system will work or not. Musk has also announced that he'll be building a Hyperloop test track, most likely in Texas, for companies and students to experiment with.
After the initial proof of concept, the challenge will be scaling-up the project. Given the current construction costs, it would require around US$8 billion to build a track from LA to San Francisco. That sounds like a lot, but it's still cheaper than the proposed US$67.7 billion California High-Speed Rail project.
Although we've still got a long way to go before we're hopping in our own little pods and zipping off to China in the time it takes to watch two episodes of Game of Thrones, we can't help but get excited. After all, in two short years the Hyperloop has gone from a crazy idea to a test track agreement. Who knows where we'll be in another 24 months? Watch this space.

 

Audi has made a synthetic, high-grade fuel from plant sugars

Audi has made a synthetic, high-grade fuel from plant sugars

Making petroleum-based fuel a thing of the past.

 

Just last month, German car manufacturer Audi invented a carbon-neutral diesel fuel, made from water, carbon dioxide and renewable energy sources, and they say their pilot plant in Dresden will pump out 160 litres of the of the stuff every day in the coming months to power their Audi A8 cars.
Now, they’ve announced the development of another new type of environmentally friendly, petroleum-free synthetic fuel, which they’re calling 'e-benzin'. Manufactured in France by Audi’s partner company, Global Bioenergies, the fuel is produced by converting corn-derived glucose - a renewable source of biomass sugar - into isobutane gas.
Commonly used in refrigeration systems and aerosols, isobutane gas is also one of the staples of the petrochemical industry. About 13 million tonnes of it is extracted annually from oil, and used to produce various types of fuels, plastics and elastomers. In this case, the team at Global Bioenergies refined it into a clear, high-grade, 'unleaded’ fuel.
"The next step in the process was to run the material through a conditioning and purification process, allowing it to be collected and stored in liquid form under pressure," Eric Mack reports for Gizmag. "Some of it was then sent to Germany to be converted into isooctane fuel, creating a pure, 100 octane gasoline."
That last point refers to the octane rating of the fuel, which is the standard measure for how much compression a type of engine or aviation fuel can withstand before it ignites. While a low octane rating is better for diesel engines, a high rating is required for gasoline engines, and the higher the rating, the more efficient it is to use.
The team says their Isooctane fuel can be used as an additive to regular unleaded fuel to make it more efficient, or can be used on its own as a fuel. And because their new fuel contains no benzene or sulphur, they say it burns very cleanly. While the next step of the process will be figuring out how to produce the fuel in large quantities, the company also aims to modify the manufacturing process so that no biomass is required - just water, hydrogen, CO2 and sunlight, like how they're producing their new 'e-diesel' fuel.
"We're thinking we're bringing green-ness to a field that desperately needs green-ness," Rick Bockrath, vice president for chemical engineering at Global Bioenergies, told Gizmag. "It's basically how we're moving away from an oil-based economy towards something that has a renewable, sustainable future to it."
With an 'e-gas'- or synthetic methane - being made on an industrial scale already, and projects dedicated to getting 'e-ethanol’, Audi 'e-diesel' and Audi 'e-benzin' on the market in the coming years, it’s hard not to be impressed by a car company that appears to be so invested in making petroleum-based fuels a thing of the past.

This portable capsule lets you live off the grid anywhere in the world

This portable capsule lets you live off the grid anywhere in the world

Perfect for the zombie apocalypse or your next getaway.

 

Love the great outdoors, but not quite ready to go Into The Wild-style and give up hot water and electricity just yet? Slovakian architects have just revealed a super-compact capsule that promises to deliver a nomadic lifestyle, with all the renewable-powered comforts of home. And we really want one.
The whole thing is pretty cramped, measuring just 2.55 m x 4.45 m x 2.25 m, but it's designed to be entirely self-sufficient for two adults, and is kitted out with a retractable 750 W wind turbine and 2.6 square-metres of solar panels.
The egg-shaped abode, which has been named the Ecocapsule, also has a 9,744 Watt hours battery to store all that power for a rainy (or cloudy) day. The pod is specially shaped to help collect rainwater and dew and funnel it down into a tank below the pod's floor, filtering it with a clever surface membrane along the way to remove any bacteria.
Inside, there's a toilet and shower, mini-kitchen, bed, table and storage. The walls are super-insulated to help keep the pod at a comfortable temperature and the home is even capable of charging up your electric car while you tow it.
 
The design will be on display next week at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, and will reportedly be available to the public later this year (although no word as yet on the price).
Obviously we'd love to see some more research and data on how the Ecocapsule fares in a range of different environments, but it's a pretty promising design that will hopefully get people thinking about the future of sustainable living. I, for one, wouldn't mind living in a world where we all carry our homes around with us like some giant hermit crabs. Just imagine the places we'll go...

World's first disposable mobile phone

Phone-Card-Phone - the world's first disposable mobile phone

 

In November 1999, Randice-Lisa 'Randi' Altschul was issued a series of patents for the world's first disposable cell phone. Trademarked the Phone-Card-Phone, the device had the thickness of three credit cards and made from recycled paper products.

(Getty Images)
This was a real cell phone (outgoing messages only) with 60 minutes of calling time and a hands free attachment.
The 2-inch by 3-inch mobile phone was manufactured by Altschul's Cliffside Park, New Jersey, US company, Dieceland Technologies. The entire phone body, touch pad and circuit board was made of paper substrate. The paper-thin cell phone used an elongated flexible circuit which was one piece with the body of the phone, part of the patented Stttm technology. The ultra thin circuitry was made by applying metallic conductive inks to paper.

The Spooky House Of Shady Lane, An Horror movie- Trailer

The Spooky House Of Shady Lane - Trailer

 

Three young minds(Shreya, Neha, Lasya) came up with an idea to make a movie with great effort which aroused enthusiasm among their peers. Their creativity paved way or this Spooky Movie.

                                                        "MOVIE COMING SOON"

Cast : Suma, Anish, Amit, Akshit, Sanjana, Shreya, Neha, Lasya 

 Direction department : Shreya, Neha, Lasya

   Cameraman : Akshit

Editing : Akshit, Shreya

Dialogues : Lasya

Sound Effects : Akshit

Produced by Brahmarouthu

Story,Screenplay,Direction: Shreya, Neha, Lasya

                                                     "A Must Watch Movie"

 

Watch lightning get trapped in this tiny glass box forever

Watch lightning get trapped in this tiny glass box forever

Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space.

 

Up to 24,000 people around the world die every year from lightning-related incidents, so you might think this natural phenomenon is something to be feared and avoided. That's not always the case, however. For example, check this out:
This is an example of what is called a Lichtenberg figure, which occurs when an electrical charge - like a bolt of lightning - strikes a type of material and gets trapped.
The material can be made of any type of insulating substance - like glass, acrylic, or even human flesh. By nature, insulators are poor conductors of electricity, so how do you get them to host such a powerful electric charge like lightning? The simple yet counterintuitive answer is that you transform them from a poor conductor into a good one.
To understand how this works, think about how a lightning bolt forms in the sky:
You need two oppositely charged ends, like a negatively charged cloud and the positively charged ground. When the charges grow strong enough they generate a powerful discharge in a brilliant display of white, heated gas.
In the example above, someone has placed an insulating material (most likely glass or acrylic) under a device called a cathode ray tube, which produces a powerful beam of negatively charged electrons traveling at 99 percent the speed of light.
In order to get the electrons to discharge inside of the glass or acrylic, you must first insert charged particles into the material through a process called irradiation.
Then, that sets up the same conditions that lead to a lightning strike: When the electrons from the cathode ray meet the charged portions of the insulating material, those portions instantly become electrically conductive and you get a miniature, but powerful, lightning strike.

Octopuses are able to 'see' with their skin

Octopuses are able to 'see' with their skin

Cephalopods are so cool.

 

Skulking around in the murky depths of the ocean means you need eyesight that's as good as it possibly can be, and scientists have discovered that the octopus has a great trick to visualise its surroundings. New research indicates that the creature's skin contains the same pigment proteins found in its eyes, so it responds to light and can help it 'see' what's nearby.
University of California evolutionary biologists Desmond Ramirez and Todd Oakley have published their findings in the Journal of Experimental Biology, building on previous theories that had been put forward but never properly verified.
As Sandhya Sekar reports for the BBC, the researchers removed patches of skin from 11 octopuses before using light-emitting diodes to test their reactions. Sure enough, the skin adapted differently to different types of light.
These deep-sea cephalopods are well known for changing colour to match their surroundings, thus evading predators and sneaking up on food sources. What the new findings prove is that the octopus' skin isn't just responding to instructions from the brain and eyes - it's actually reacting to light and changing colour itself.
It's all thanks to the chromatophores under the skin of an octopus: very small, pigmented organs packed with chemicals. As the muscles around them expand and contract, the colour they display changes. Thousands of these chromatophores are packed just below the top layer of skin.
Ramirez and Oakley found that the chromatophores reacted most strongly to blue light, and hardly responded at all when red light was used. The fact that this happened after the skin had been removed from the octopus proves its ability to operate independently.
What's more, Ramirez and Oakley found specialised proteins in the skin called opsins that matched those found in octopus eyes, providing further proof that an octopus doesn't just have to rely on its sight to know what's happening.
The findings suggest that these opsins are loosely arranged under the skin - that means they can detect brightness changes, but can't build up a detailed picture of what's around the octopus. Nevertheless, they can be crucial in detecting and responding to an underwater environment.
A second study in the same journal by biologist Thomas Cronin from the University of Maryland in the US suggests the same kind of skin perception might be happening in other cephalopods too. In other words, these creatures can feel changes in light as well as see them.
"What we do not yet know is how these two inputs come together to control chromatophores in the whole animal," Ramirez told the BBC.

Audi’s new synthetic gasoline will put petrol in history

Audi, the well-known car maker, has been up to something behind the curtains. Car and Driver reports that the auto giant has managed to create a synthetic gasoline which is completely zero-petroleum and uses nothing but water, hydrogen, sunlight, and carbon dioxide.
The new form of fuel, e-benzin, is a 100-octane synthetic gasoline, which has zero-carbon byproduct, safe for the environment. They have managed to create a small batch of the synthetic gasoline without making use of any petroleum. Additionally, they are working to tweak the whole process to create the fuel, which contains no sulphur or benzene. Audi, along with research partner Global Bioenergies, figured out how to create the synthetic fuel from biomass, or plant material, making the fuel carbon-neutral.
An Audi spokesperson told Car and Driver that presently they have managed to only produce a small batch of the fuel. They are currently testing the energy power of the new fuel in internal combustion engines and lab settings. The synthetic gasoline project is to figure out how to completely eliminate the biomass requirement entirely and make petroleum a thing of the past.