Diamond and Cubic Boron Nitride Alloy Form Superhard Material

Diamonds are forever, except when they oxidize while cutting through iron, cobalt, nickel, chromium, or vanadium at high temperatures. Conversely, cubic boron nitride possesses superior chemical inertness but only about half of the hardness of diamonds. In an attempt to create a superhard material better suited for a wide variety of materials on an industrial scale, researchers at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, have created an alloy composed of diamonds and cubic boron nitride (cBN) that boasts the benefits of both.

"Diamond and cubic boron nitride could readily form alloys that can potentially fill the performance gap because of their affinity in structure lattices and covalent bonding character," said Duanwei He, a professor at Sichauan University's Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics. "However, the idea has never been demonstrated because samples obtained in previous studies are too small to test their practical performance."

In the image above, both A and B a bulk diamond-cubic boron nitride (cBN) alloy samples synthesized at 20 GPa/2200 °C with a diameter of ~3 mm, over a copper screen to exhibit its transparency. Image C and D show polished rake faces of diamond-cBN alloy cutters.

Ordinary Cars Go Green and Reduce Carbon Footprint

Product Advancements Let Drivers Go Green Without a New Car.

With gas prices soaring, environmental concerns and technological advancements in the auto and energy industry, ecological cars (eco cars) are slowly entering the mainstream market. Eco cars are vehicles that do not solely rely on fossil fuels for energy.

The most popularly used energy source for eco cars is electricity. Fuel cells (usually lithium-ion battery cells) power an electric engine that drives the car. Hybrid engines use both a gasoline engine and a battery operated one that alternates between each other depending on the most optimal choice. There are also pure electric vehicles but are limited in terms of range and use.

These type of vehicles have come into focus because of the movement to reduce the global carbon footprint. Carbon footprint can be simplified as the greenhouse gas emissions in an area, by an event, product, or person(s). The largest source of emissions come from driving fossil fueled vehicles (gasoline use). Reducing the carbon footprint from driving can be done primarily by driving less, or at the moment, developing more environment-friendly cars.

Aside from engine and power plant, there are also other ways for vehicles to go green. Taking alternative transportation (public transportation, bicycles, walking) when the distance is not too far, scheduling trips during lean traffic hours, Using more environment-friendly products can also benefit the green movement and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

MIT News: New Digital Based Woodworking Tool Can Cut Accurate Shapes

From left to right: Ilan E. Moyer, Alec Rivers, Frédo Durand.
Photo: Frédo Durand

New router enhances the precision of woodworking

Anyone who has tried to build a piece of furniture from scratch knows the frustration of painstakingly cutting pieces of wood, only to discover that they won’t fit together because the cutting was not quite accurate enough.

That’s exactly what happened to Alec Rivers, a PhD student in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, when he attempted to build a simple picture frame using woodworking equipment he had inherited from his grandfather. Despite measuring and aligning his tools as best he could by hand, Rivers found that he could not produce shapes with enough precision to make them all fit together. “I was getting incredibly frustrated, because just as with any home project I would cut things out and they would look about right, but none of the pieces would line up,” Rivers says.

But rather than simply throwing the pieces of wood into the trash and settling for a store-bought picture frame, Rivers decided there had to be a better way. So he and colleagues Fredo Durand, an associate professor at CSAIL, and Ilan Moyer, a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, began developing a new kind of woodworking router — a drill-like cutting tool — that could automatically cut out accurate shapes from a piece of material by following a digital design. The result is a handheld device that can adjust its position to precisely follow a digital plan when the user moves the router roughly around the shape to be cut.

The team will present its device this week at the Siggraph conference in Los Angeles.

“You load the system up with a digital plan that you would like it to follow, and then you are only responsible for getting it to within a quarter-inch or so of that plan,” Rivers says. “The device then adjusts the position of the cutting bit within the tool to keep it to the plan.”

For the device to follow the design, it must know exactly where it is on the sheet of material at all times. So before beginning to cut, the user first moves the device over the raw material, while an on-board camera films the surface and then stitches together all the video frames it sees into a single cohesive 2-D map of the piece. To ensure that the system can locate itself even when the material has no distinctive pattern or markings, the user simply places stickers containing a black and white contrast pattern on the sheet to be cut.

320 Tons of Gold Worth US$21B Used Annually For Electronic Devices

Urban Mining is the process of reclaiming compounds and elements from products, buildings and waste. The term is synonymous to recycling but generally refers to recycling of industrial and electronic products for minerals and metals.

Urban mining is gaining interest now since its yield of metals per ton is higher than in traditional mining. Gold for instance yields around 150 grams per ton in cell phone circuitry while traditional mining only yields 5 grams per ton of gold ore.

Not only does the circuitry contain gold, it also has other precious metals that can be "mined" such as copper (100kg per ton) and silver (3kg per ton). Aside from these, other elements that can be found in circuit boards are iron, manganese, nickel, palladium, platinum, tin and zinc.

E-waste: Annual gold, silver 'deposits' in new high-tech goods worth $21B; less than 15% recovered

A staggering 320 tons of gold and more than 7,500 tons of silver are now used annually to make PCs, cell phones, tablet computers and other new electronic and electrical products worldwide, adding more than $21 billion in value each year to the rich fortunes in metals eventually available through "urban mining" of e-waste, experts say.

Manufacturing these high-tech products requires more than $16 billion in gold and $5 billion in silver: a total of $21 billion -- equal to the GDP of El Salvador -- locked away annually in e-products. Most of those valuable metals will be squandered, however; just 15% or less is recovered from e-waste today in developed and developing countries alike.

Electronic waste now contains precious metal "deposits" 40 to 50 times richer than ores mined from the ground, experts told participants from 12 countries at last week's first-ever GeSI and StEP e-Waste Academy for policymakers and small businesses, co-organized in Accra, Ghana by the United Nations University and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).

Using Graphene And Nanotechnology To Build A Faster Edison Battery

An electric battery is a device (called a cell) that converts stored chemical energy into electrical energy. It was invented by Italian physicist, Alessandro Volta in 1800.

There are two kinds of batteries: primary batteries and secondary batteries.

Primary batteries are batteries that are designed to be used once until the stored charge is all used up. Once the battery is empty, it is discarded. Primary batteries are also known as disposable batteries.

Secondary batteries are also called rechargeable batteries. As the name implies, these are batteries that can be recharged multiple times when needed.

The Edison battery is a secondary battery that is composed of a nickel-oxide-hydroxide cathode and an iron anode. It is referred to as a nickel-iron(NiFe) battery. The active materials of the Edison battery are held in nickel-plated steel tube.

Energy in the battery is used when oxygen travels from the anode through the electrolyte, to the cathode. When they travel in the opposite direction, the battery is recharged. This type of cell is sometimes called an oxygenlift cell. In a charged cell the active material of the positive plates is superoxidized, and that of the negative plates is in a spongy or deoxidized state

These are known to be very durable batteries that could last 50 years of use. But because of its low energy output, poor charge retention and high cost of production, other kinds of rechargeable batteries have replaced the use of nickel-iron batteries.

Edison batteries are ecological and environmentally safe since it does not contain lead or cadmium that most other battery cells contain.

Stanford scientists spark new interest in the century-old Edison battery

Stanford University scientists have breathed new life into the nickel-iron battery, a rechargeable technology developed by Thomas Edison more than a century ago.

Designed in the early 1900s to power electric vehicles, the Edison battery largely went out of favor in the mid-1970s. Today only a handful of companies manufacture nickel-iron batteries, primarily to store surplus electricity from solar panels and wind turbines.

"The Edison battery is very durable, but it has a number of drawbacks," said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. "A typical battery can take hours to charge, and the rate of discharge is also very slow."

Now, Dai and his Stanford colleagues have dramatically improved the performance of this century-old technology. The Stanford team has created an ultrafast nickel-iron battery that can be fully charged in about 2 minutes and discharged in less than 30 seconds. The results are published in the June 26 issue of the journal Nature Communications.

New Process in Manufacturing Denim Jeans More Economical, Efficient, and Environment Friendly

Jeans are pants that are made from denim. Although in popular culture, these are referred to as denim jeans, blue jeans, or just jeans.

Denim jeans are identified with American culture especially the cowboy westerns. This is because jeans were popularized as work trousers during the California gold rush when Levi Strauss introduced them with copper rivets. The rivets served a purpose in that it made jeans more durable, giving more sturdiness at stress points such as pocket corners.

The denim cloth gets its name from the city of Nimes in France (de Nimes). It is a rugged cotton twill textile. One particular feature of denim is that it fades over time. In denim jeans, fading occurs at stress areas such as the upper thighs, the knees, and ankles. People tend to favor this and it is not peculiar to see new jeans that have undergone processes to make it look old,used, and/or faded.

Now, denim jeans are available in most any color. But it is primarily known for being dyed blue using Indigo. Indigo is a natural dye extracted from plants with a distinctive blue color. The cotton fibers in denim were difficult to dye using other dyes, so traditionally Indigo became the primary dye used for cotton. Today, almost all indigo dye used in manufacturing is synthetic. The few companies using natural indigo charge a premium for their product because of this.

Sustainable denim manufacturing process creates 'green' jeans

Some estimates suggest that producing one pair of jeans requires more than 2,500 gallons of water, nearly a pound of chemicals and vast amounts of energy. Multiply that by 2 billion — the number of jeans produced worldwide every year — and you get a snapshot of an industry that contributes a hefty share of wastewater and greenhouse gases to the environment.

But an emerging greener chemistry process, described at the 16th annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, could help change all of that. The conference is sponsored by the American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry Institute® (ACS GCI).

The process, called Advanced Denim, can produce a pair of jeans using up to 92 percent less water and up to 30 percent less energy than conventional denim manufacturing methods, according to Miguel Sanchez, a textile engineer at Clariant, a specialty chemical company based in Muttenz (near Basel), Switzerland, that developed Advanced Denim. In addition, it generates up to 87 percent less cotton waste (which is often burned, adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere) and virtually no wastewater.

Subglacial Lake Ellsworth 'Advance Party' Returns After Antarctic Expedition

Lake Ellsworth is a subglacial lake under approximately 3.4 km of ice in West Antarctica, A subglacial lake is a lake under a glacier, typically an ice cap or ice sheet. Lake Ellsworth is approximately 10 km long and is estimated to be tens of meters in depth. It is strongly considered as a site for direct exploration due to the possibility that it may harbor unique life forms as well as its relatively easy accessibility.

After being granted permission in March 2009 to study the lake by the Natural Environment Research Council, a team of four British engineers has returned to the UK after completing the gruelling journey.

Lake Ellsworth is one of the most remote and hostile locations on the planet. The team's mission is to put in place equipment and supplies for an ambitious project later this year. Enduring temperatures of minus 35°C the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth 'Advance Party' has successfully paved the way to explore an ancient lake buried beneath 3 km of Antarctic ice. A powerful 'tractor-train' towed nearly 70 tonnes of equipment across Antarctica's ice over deep snow and steep mountain passes. In December a science and engineering team will make the 16,000 km journey from the UK to collect water and sediments from the buried lake.

More than 400 subglacial lakes have so far been discovered beneath Antarctica's vast ice sheet. The most well-known of these is Lake Vostok in East Antarctica. A Russian team hopes to penetrate and collect samples from this lake soon

Lake Ellsworth will be the first Antarctic subglacial lake to be measured and sampled directly through the design and manufacture of space-industry standard 'clean technology'; the first of its kind to be developed. Scientists have been planning for more than 15 years to access the lake in the quest to yield new knowledge about the evolution of life on Earth and other planets. Lake-bed sediments could also provide vital clues about the Earth's past climate. Through a bore hole, drilled using high-pressure hot water, the team will lower a titanium probe to measure and sample the water, followed by a corer to extract sediment from the lake.

World's Lightest Material is a Metal

Engineers have developed the world's lightest material. It is about one hundred times lighter than Styrofoam(tm) and is made from the metal, nickel.

The joint team from the University of California, Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology published their research in latest edition of Science. Dr. Tobias Schaedler of HRL is the lead author.

The material is made out of tiny hollow metallic tubes arranged into a micro-lattice - a criss-crossing diagonal pattern with small open spaces between the tubes. Dr. Schaedler says, "The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,"

The material's design allows complete recovery from compression and very high energy absorption. After being compressed to just 50% of it's thickness, the material regained 98% of its original height and resumed its original shape.

Video: Actual material being compressed to 50% of its thickness

According to their publication, "These materials are fabricated by starting with a template formed by self-propagating photopolymer waveguide prototyping, coating the template by electroless nickel plating, and subsequently etching away the template..."

Compared to aerogels (the world's lightest solid), the material's design is ordered in nature because of the lattice. Aerogels are formed with random cellular structures making them "less stiff, strong, energy absorptive or conductive than the bulk of the raw materials that they are made out of..".

The manager of the architected materials group at HRL, William Carter, compared the new material to larger, familiar structures, "Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architecture. We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales."

This new material can be used for thermal insulation, battery electrodes, shock absorbers, and sound dampeners.

Advances in Lithium Ion Batteries: 1 Week Power on a 15 Minute Charge

A team of engineers at Northwestern University have created an electrode that allows a lithium ion (li ion) battery to carry a charge for one week on a single 15 minute recharge.

Energy in the battery is used when the lithium ions travel from the anode, through the electrolyte, to the cathode. When they travel in the opposite direction, the battery is recharged. The duration that the battery can maintain it's charge depends on how many lithium ions can be packed into the anode or cathode. The speed at which the li ions can move from the electrolyte to the anode dictates how fast the battery can recharge.
An anode is one of the two ends of a battery, the other end is called the cathode. The third and last primary component is the electrolyte which is a lithium salt in an organic solvent containing the lithium ions.
Currently, li ion batteries are charged when electrons move from the electrolyte into the anode. Anodes are now made of graphene which allows one lithium atom to pass per six carbon atoms. Before graphene, silicon was used as the material for anodes since it allows four lithium atoms to pass per one silicon atom. Although silicon, because of this, is considered superior, it contracts and expands during charging which results in fragmentation in the battery.

What Harold H. Kung did was sandwich clusters of silicon between the graphene sheets. The research team claimed it will make more ions to stay in the anode or cathode (increasing the duration of the charge) and would eliminate or minimize the fragmentation. Using nanotechnology, they also drilled 10 to 20 nano-meter holes in the sheets to speed up the recharging process by as much as ten times. Kung, lead author of the paper, is a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also a Dorothy Ann and Clarence L. Ver Steeg Distinguished Research Fellow.

Video: How Lithium Ion batteries are made

Kung says, "We have found a way to extend a new lithium-ion battery's charge life by 10 times. Even after 150 charges, which would be one year or more of operation, the battery is still five times more effective than lithium-ion batteries on the market today."

Lithium-ion batteries are common in most electronic devices as well as in hybrid and electric cars. They are popular because of their energy density and maintain a slow loss of charge when not in use.

Last year, Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also discovered a process using nanotechnology and carbon nanotubes to create a powerful wave of energy. This discovery may one day lead the way to create a new environmentally friendly battery.

What Does 4G Technology Do For Mobile Phones?

A phone call or an SMS text message is still the same in a 4G network. What's the big buzz with 4G?

Starting from 1981, cellular phone or mobile phone technology advances a generation (G) every ten years. 1981 came out with the 1G or 1st Generation network (Analog). In 1992, the 2G came out using digital signals. Around 2001 to 2002, mobile phone networks upgraded to the 3G system which introduced broadband data services to mobile users. 3G data speeds are around 1 to 3 megabits per second (Mbps). Although, actual speeds for 3G has been said to just hit 144 kilobits to 2 megabits.

In 2012, it is expected that most mobile carriers will be switching to 4G technology. Early 4G systems have been introduced with mobile data speeds of around 3 to 5 Mbps. These are the available speed at the low end of the spectrum for 4G. 4G speeds are touted to go up to 100Mbs and over in the long run. The current given speed starts at 3 Mbps to 5 Mbps which is already comparable to cable and DSL broadband internet speeds.


What 4G actually offers is faster data speeds for accessing the internet. Streaming HD quality movies or even playing multiplayer video games can now be possible with a 4G phone.

A 4G system offers digital broadband packet data over an IP (Internet Protocol) network. This is already available but not with mobile phones. Skype and other voice messaging services uses IP networks (Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP). 4G allows the user to be constantly connected to the internet at higher speeds.

This opens up a lot of possibilities in terms of interacting with the internet on a mobile phone. This is already being done with social media such as Facebook and Twitter updates. But with the given speed of 4G, it can be much more.

Video: 4G Systems (Note: Watch other video below for an in-depth explanation)

The two main technologies associated with 4G is LTE (Long Term Evolution) and Mobile WIMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). Although both can give peak speeds of 100Mbps and up to 1 Gbps (gigabits per second), experts are saying that this may be available in five to seven years but not now.

HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) technologies are considered not 4G but more 3.5G or 3.9G. The Apple iPhone 3G uses EDGE technology and HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) for the later models.

Of course, without the necessary hardware, 4G wouldn't be as exciting. Mobile phones also would have to catch up with the technology. Advances in industrial materials such as graphene, OLED and the use of nanotechnology will maximize the benefits of 4G.

Video: Great Explanation on Different Mobile Systems from 1G to 4G

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New Development in Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Production

OLED. The name doesn't really excite people but what it is will surely turn the world upside down in terms of viewing technology.

But imagine a television or computer screen you can roll up like a newspaper or even a light bulb as thin as a picture frame.

OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode. Not to be confused with LCD screens, OLED do not need to be backlit with LEDs or lamps.

They produce light on their own and ar thin and flexible.

These are already used in TV screens, monitors, mobile phones, and tablet computers. Some commercial visual displays also use OLED screens. Most of these screens use AMOLED (Active Matrix OLED) technology as they have a higher resolution than Passive Matrix OLEDs. An AMOLED screen has a thin-film transistor that switches each individual pixel on or off giving it better control and clarity of the image. Current manufacturing costs are what hinders this type of screen of breaking into the mainstream market.

According to Physics World, Paul Blom and Ton van Mol from the Holst Centre in Eindhoven are studying a way of creating thin and flexible OLED sheets thru a newspaper style process of printing. The process the two are looking into is to dissolve the OLED in a liquid solvent and spray it into a thin roll of flexible plastic foil. It is similar to how a newspaper in a printing press is printed, "roll to roll".

Video: OLED

With this process, OLED may jump from the display screen category to the lighting industry. OLED lamps and lightbulbs.

"Traditional LEDs have so far failed to become a viable alternative to light bulbs because, despite being highly efficient, they have to be fabricated in clean rooms and so are expensive to make. But with about 20 per cent of the electricity the world consumes going on lighting, Blom and Van Mol state that any new, more-efficient lighting technology could greatly reduce global energy consumption... OLEDs are poised to take over from the light bulb as their spray-on production makes them a faster and cheaper alternative to traditional LEDs and can be produced en mass through the "roll-to-roll" newspaper technique..."
Source: Physics World

Blom and Van Mol writes, "Many companies recognize the potential of OLEDs and are investing heavily in research and development in the hope that when this technology finally takes off, they will be in pole position to take advantage,"

Samsung unveiled the world's thinnest OLED display last October 2008. Measuring just 0.05mm, they announced that it was "thinner than paper". They also showcased a 40 inch OLED TV with full HD resolution of 1920x1080. Currently, their Samsung Galaxy S uses the latest AMOLED Display.

Not to be outdone, Sony is also releasing its OLED based products. Their PlayStation Vita handheld game console will feature a 5-inch OLED screen. LG Electronics has also announced a 55 inch prototype for 2012.

It will be just a matter of time when we see lighting products with this technology.

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Steve Jobs Next Big Thing?

Steve Jobs has a penchant for re-imagining an existing idea and making it cool.If he didn't pass on, what would Apple's next thing under his leadership?

Apple re-did the mp3 player with the iPod. And the music industry turned upside down. After releasing the iPhone, Steve Jobs made the company a serious contender in the mobile phone market. The iPad created a market segment that Microsoft failed to do with its Windows Tablet PC when it was introduced years ago.

It's really misleading to say that Steve Jobs invented these. They were existing long before Apple went into it. He just tinkered around with it and made it more acceptable to the public. Let's look at what made these devices "cooler".

With the iPod, Apple introduced iTunes which made it easier to organize music files. The iPhone introduced apps that made it more than a phone. The iPad, well, it liberated browsing from the computer and made the internet accessible from anywhere.

Here's a Forbes video on the seven principles of what drives Steve Jobs:

Given these, what would have been Steve Job's next big thing? What would be Steve's next invention?

Well, we know that Apple doesn't really invent, they re-invent. So the new device should incorporate existing technology. Looking at the last 3 devices, it should be portable, accessible, easy to use, interactive and most specially, cool.

They introduced Siri. A voice based interface module if you think about it. It understands what you say and follows voice commands. Voice commands have been in existence for a long time now so it really isn't ground breaking. What Apple did was improve on it and gave that voice some character. There are also rumors that Apple will get into the Google Map market. Add to this, the core product of Apple, the iMac seems to be in the background all this time.

It would be logical that Apple may make some sort of GPS device. But it limits the device to the car. Nothing really cool about a device that tells you where to go. And there's not much interactivity.

What we're looking for is something that would tie up all these devices together and something from way off left field.

Now, the way I'm looking at it, we just need to add one more existing device, the Roomba, by iRobot and we may be looking at what Apple under Steve Jobs may be planning.

An Apple Droid. A robot that helps you around the house; the electronic butler.

Think about it. A robot that takes care of your house when you're not around. You can tie up all the other stuff like RFID technology to keep track of what's in your ref and catalog your stuff. It can call you in the office or wherever you are if there's something important going on. Even answer your calls and alerts you. With apps, you can have thousands of different uses for it like ordering online for groceries, tell you what's interesting on TV or the movies, and even guard your house at night. With Apple Maps, it can track where you are and tell other family members how long before you get home!

Of course, something like this doesn't have to move around, but what's cool with that? An Apple Droid would be visual. People see it. Can call it. Talk to it.

The possibilities are endless. Plus of course, most everyone has had this dream of owning a droid or robot.

It's like R2-D2! But with Siri technology, you can talk to it and it will interact with you not with beeps and whistles but with actual words. And the growth and development is not just limited with apps, Apple can start producing other devices that will connect and interact with this. Cameras, sensors, even RFID tags. The brain of the operations? Well, the iMac of course. Live in a multilevel house? Well, the cheaper option is if Apple can integrate a rotor/propeller into it then we have a floating/hovering robot that can go anywhere inside. It also can go real expensive and do it like Honda's Asimo robot.


But this is all conjecture. Cost may still be prohibitive. Design should be spot on and Apple can go other ways right now. But the way I see it, the robotic technology is already there. Artificially Intelligent computers may be a decade away. This is something Steve would think about doing. And hmm... what would you name the robot?

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The Eco Friendly Hybrid Car

It has been treated a joke the last few years; the Hybrid car. But now with rising oil prices, economic troubles and increased awareness on the fragile Earth environment, these vehicles are definitely showing on the mainstream market.

They have crossed from being a trendy choice to an acceptable one. Years ahead, they may even outpace and replace their fossil fuel counterparts.

Most if not all eco friendly cars at the moment are hybrids. They run on both fuel and electricity. We still haven't reached the kind of technology where we can really be fossil fuel free.The engine decides which power source to use depending on the use of the vehicle and the condition of the power source. Some hybrids even use special fuels that are also Earth friendly or 'green'.

As oil supplies dwindle and prices go up, people understand that inevitably there will be a switch on energy consumption. There have been forays into algae produced gasoline, solar power, wind power, and even a project to harvest minerals on the moon for nuclear fusion.

Video: How a hybrid car works:

Cars and how they are powered is what impacts us directly. And with oil situation of supply and cost, it is the best time to switch and acclimate to these new technologies. But what are the factors in choosing the right hybrid? There are so many out there and each have different technologies running them that it may be quite confusing.

• Consider what powers the car. Are the alternative fuel stations that the vehicle need easily accessible?
• Battery performance. How long does it last? How long does it take to charge?
• Car insurance. Hybrids fall into a special category and being informed of how insurance companies treat these vehicles will come in handy.
• Family size. Currently, family size vans aren't really an option for eco friendly vehicles at the moment. Hopefully this will change.
• Use. Sometimes practical is not economical. Hybrids are good for the normal office commute but as mentioned in number 4, a traditional vehicle may be needed for those who do regular cross country or heavy traveling.

At the moment, the The Toyota Prius is the top selling hybrid car with 2.36 million units sold worldwide as of Aug 2011. The EPA and California Air Resources Board (CARB) rate the vehicle as one of the cleanest cars sold in the U.S. based on smog forming and toxic emissions. But other brands are also gaining momentum and focus such as the Chevy Volt and the Honda Insight.

It won't be long when car manufacturers can produce hybrids that cover each and every category for vehicle use. Using a hybrid is a smart decision but knowing when to shift and what to shift to will even be the smarter thing.

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The Wonders of Graphene

The most amazing discovery in terms of material technology in the last decade is graphene. Graphene is a super-conductive form of carbon, made from single-atom-thick sheets.

A graphene circuit can operate at high frequencies of up to 10GHz (10 billion cycles per second), and at temperatures of up to 127°C. It is the most transparent, strongest and most conductive material on Earth. Because of this, graphene could be an ideal candidate for Transmission Electron Microscopy.

Professor Andrea Ferrari of Cambridge University says that besides being totally flexible, graphene could give great feedback when used as a touch screen of a phone or a tablet. "Your phone will be able to sense if you're touching it, will sense the environment around - you won't have to press a button to turn it on or off, it will recognise if you're using it or not.", he says.

Video: What is Graphene and what is graphene used for?

Everyday, scientists and researchers are discovering new ways that this material can be used.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have discovered a new method to synthesize high quality graphene in a controlled manner. Their process opens up a more economical and mass produced high quality graphene that electronic manufacturers can use. Currently, the stumbling block in the use of graphene is that it is tedious and expensive to manufacture it. But with this latest discovery, it opens up a more industry-friendly way to creat the material.

Kaustav Banerjee, a professor with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department and Director of the Nanoelectronics Research Lab at UCSB. He is the lead scientist in this experiment. "There is no doubt graphene is a superior material. Intrinsically it is amazing," says Professor Banerjee. "It is up to us, the scientists and engineers, to show how we can use graphene and harness its capabilities. There are challenges in how to grow it, how to transfer or not to transfer and pattern it, and how to tailor its properties for specific applications. But these challenges are fertile grounds for exciting research in the future."

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Helium 3 to be Mined in the Moon

We're almost close to be going back to the moon again.

And this time, it's not for scientific purposes. It's more industrial. We are going to be mining the moon! Check the video below on the benefits on mining on the moon.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has partnered with Astrobotic Technology, a spinoff of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. The purpose of the partnership is to mine the moon for water and fuel. With the recent budget cuts NASA received due to a slowing US economy, the space agency has been going to private companies to augment its funding and even research. Aside from Astrobotic, NASA has also partnered up with the Sierra Nevada Corporation to produce a Space Taxi (The Dream Chaser) that would ferry passengers to space and back.

Reports say they have negotiated 7 contracts with Astrobotic, including one that will develop an excavator and also others to give NASA info on how they will help achieve its mission and conduct mining operations at a low cost. Aside from water, their mining operation will also target minerals such as methane and ammonia. Researchers are sure that these exist beneath the moon's surface. They just have to study how much and what form these minerals take in the lunar landscape.

David Gump, president of Astrobotic says, "We'll have a field-tested robot that will be able to go to the poles... The readings ... indicate there’s pretty substantial water at the poles, but we won’t know more until you go and take samples. So we’ll both confirm the readings taken from orbit and discover how the resource is spread out."

Video: Helium 3 and why its best to mine it on the moon

They also have secured corporate sponsorship in exchange for bringing cargo of around 240 pounds to the moon. These include scientific instruments needed to test the lunar surface. Also, if successful, they will also win Google's Lunar X Prize of US$20 Million for returning to the moon.

Another thing the company wants to focus in is the mysterious Helium 3. A rare element on the moon deposited by the solar winds. Many believe that is going to be a major element for fusion reactors. Current reactors use fission. This involves radioactive fuel and creates huge quantities of heat. Mining this mineral would certainly benefit energy production here on Earth if research holds true.

Gump says, "If we can convert to a fusion fuel cycle, it’s carbon free and radiation free... It could really improve things on Earth and be the basis for a very benign and cost-effective way to stabilize our civilization."

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Futuristic Taxi Cab in New York City by 2014

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Update: Mayor Bloomberg has announced that the winning entry for the New York Taxi contest is the Nissan NV200.
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New York City! Central Park, The Empire State Building, and yellow taxi cabs from Turkey.

Turkey? Turkey, the country Turkey? eh?

Yep.

If all goes well, Turkey, a country 5,000 miles away will be making the city's world renowned taxi cabs. Turkish car maker, Karsan is one of three finalists in NYC's search for the taxi of the future. Their entry is a glass roofed, eco-friendly vehicle built from scratch. Actually the Karsan V1 is the only entry that's built and designed from scratch.

If they win, their winning entry will be New York City's exclusive taxi cab for ten years or so. And yep, it will still be in yellow.

Turkey isn't really known for making cars. It doesn't even register as a country that makes one. But that's because all cars that the country makes are built under license for other major car makers such as Hyundai, Peugeot, Citroen and Renault. Winning this entry will certainly put them on the map.

Jan Nahum, executive director of Karsan says, "Having a vehicle designed and built in Turkey being used as a New York taxi would be a very strong branding opportunity for the Turkish automotive industry,"

Video: The Karsan V1:

The Karsan V1 is designed to be wheelchair accessible, have enough room to hold five passengers and a stroller, as well as a glass roof to give passengers a view of New York's skyscrapers. It can run on gasoline, natural gas, or by fuel cells if it goes electric. The engine will depend on which technology is the most efficient at the time..

Currently, there are 16 different vehicles from nine manufacturers in the current fleet of around 13,000 taxicabs. The winner of the "Taxi of Tomorrow" contest will be the first ever custom-built New York taxi. "...this project marks the first time ever -- anywhere -- that such an exercise will be backed up by an automotive manufacturer that can turn these concepts into tangible reality," New York Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky said in a statement.

The winner will be announced early next year and the vehicles are expected to be on the road by 2014.

Aside from Karsan, Ford and Nissan are included in the top 3. Ford's entry is the Transit Connect while Nissan's design is based on the Nissan Van. Ironically, if Ford wins, the Transit Connect will be built in Turkey and adapted in the United States.

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Aerogels

It is known as "frozen smoke", "solid smoke", "solid air" and even "blue smoke" due to its translucency. Aerogel is a material with the lowest bulk density of any known porous solid. It is light and contrary to popular belief, it breaks easily when pressed firmly enough. It is strong structurally but like glass, it will shatter when deliberate force is applied to it.

Despite their name, aerogels are rigid, dry materials and do not resemble a gel in their physical properties; the name comes from the fact that they are derived from gels. Pressing softly on an aerogel typically does not leave a mark; pressing more firmly will leave a permanent depression. Pressing firmly enough will cause a catastrophic breakdown in the sparse structure, causing it to shatter like glass—a property known as friability; although more modern variations do not suffer from this. Despite the fact that it is prone to shattering, it is very strong structurally. Its impressive load bearing abilities are due to the dendritic microstructure, in which spherical particles of average size 2–5 nm are fused together into clusters.
Source: Wikipedia

If you have time, check this video about Aerogels by the University of California. This material has chemists, physicists, astronomers, and materials scientists utilizing its properties in a myriad of applications (ff to 3:49 to skip the introduction):

Aerogels are created by removing the liquid from gels. In 1931, Samuel Stephens Kistler discovered this material over a bet whether or not liquid can be replaced with gas on jellies without causing shrinkage. This is achieved by extracting the liquid component through supercritical drying. Although the first and popular aerogels were produced from silica gels, other elements can be used such as aluminum, chromium, tin oxide and carbon.

The main problem with other elements is that they may cause toxic reactions to people handling them. Even if silicon based aerogels are safe, it can still be an irritant to the eyes, skin, respiratory tract, and digestive system. It is recommended that protective handling gear such as goggles and gloves be worn whenever handling aerogels.

Students and researchers at Union college patented a process that can produce aerogels at a fraction of a time that the usual process take. Instead of using an autoclave to extract the liquid, the students used a hot press.

Much of their research is also conducted on the characterization of aerogels. Past projects have focused on their density, surface area, morphology and photolytic qualities.

Since over 90% of the material is made up of air, it is a very good insulator and is its most popular use. As stated in wikipedia, the first residential use of aerogel as an insulator is in the Georgia Institute of Technology's Solar Decathlon House where it is used as an insulator in the semi-transparent roof. Commercial companies have now introduced aerogel infused materials for building structures.

Aside from that, NASA uses the material to trap space dust particles aboard the Stardust spacecraft. Even clothing manufacturers have used aerogel in its products. Shiver Shield, a brand of cold weather garments that is insulated with encapsulated aerogel, was recently introduced to the market in 2011.

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