Rob Reid at the US Air Force Research Lab is collaborating with the Carnegie Mellon team to develop even smaller prototype robots. Reid and colleagues can fold flat silicon shapes into 3D forms as little as a few hundred microns diameter. “We will drive those using electric forces too, by patterning circuits and devices into the silicon design,”
Tonight’s decision by BHP on whether to press the go button on a £61bn takeover of Rio Tinto is not just a big event for these two monsters of the mining industry.
It’s also a big “who-runs-the-world?” moment.
This takeover contest may no longer be decided in a conventional way by the shareholders of the two companies and competition regulators in assorted jurisdictions.
The reason is that on Friday the state-owned Chinese mining and metals group, Chinalco, snapped up 8% of Rio through a daring stock-market raid. And it exercises control over 9% of Rio, through a partnership with Alcoa of the US.
This was more than £6bn of Chinese government money saying no to the BHP deal.
When the idea of a low carbon economy first raised its head some expected a sea change in
public attitudes. This change would impact the regulatory framework, acknowledge the
responsibilities of businesses, encourage development of sustainable practices and generally save the world from itself. It seems that some observers are surprised at the slowness of the sea change. Perhaps the level of innovation required is not materialsing because the need, in fact, is not urgent enough in the minds of business, government or consumers. Over the last decade, governments have put in place frameworks for action, but the timing is over many years - a serious commitment which should encourage. On the other hand, perhaps we should not expect a huge change in lifestyle look and feel as we grow into an efficient low carbon society.
A TASER is a non-lethal, gun-shaped device that shoots two metal prongs connected to copper wires into a suspect. The TASER uses the copper wires to generate a 50,000 volt, low amperage electrical current into a person’s muscles and stops voluntary movement. The device turns off after five seconds.
The Tindo bus is the stuff of car-free, green, geeky dreams: It epitomizes efficient urban transportation and energy use, and to top it all off, it’s free. Our friends at EcoGeek first tipped up off to the story.
World firsts are always interesting. Here, a bus network in Adelaide, Australia will operate using a solar photovoltaic system. Of course, the region has enough sun to keep energy levels topped up. In regard to using solar for other city systems, it will be interesting to see how this model works .
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Talk about a knee-jerk reaction. Scientists in the United States and Canada said on Thursday they have developed a unique device that can be strapped on the knee that exploits the mechanics of human walking to generate a usable supply of electricity.
Biofuels, once seen as a useful way of combating climate change, could actually increase greenhouse gas emissions, say two major new studies.
And it may take tens or hundreds of years to pay back the "carbon debt" accrued by growing biofuels in the first place, say researchers. The calculations join a growing list of studies questioning whether switching to biofuels really will help combat climate change.
Fluxxlab studio has developed a creative way to capture wasted human energy. You might be asking yourself, what? And how so? Their Revolution Door is claimed to capture otherwise wasted energy from revolving doors seen usually at large buildings.
With input from people around the world -- much of it on this website -- an international group of leading technological thinkers were asked to identify the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century. Now their conclusions are revealed on this website.
A practical vision of the digital home of the future. Controlling home
functionality more closely may lead to more efficient use of services.
From this articles view it seems that there will be increased demand
for electronic equipmnent such as monitors in the hom eof the future.
Some Penn State researchers are taking a cue from nature and have built the first solar cell that can effectively split water to harvest the hydrogen
ty gritty of dye usage and other such nonsense, we do know that such a system could eventually attain 15% or so efficiency, providing a nice and clean way to gather power for that fuel cell car of the future.
Another advance on the solar energy front. The article itself summarises the importance of this article "while we do not pretend to understand the nitty gritty of dye usage and other such nonsense, we do know that such a
system could eventually attain 15% or so efficiency, providing a nice
and clean way to gather power for that fuel cell car of the future".