Commentary Tesla Motors is helping destroy the notion that electric vehicles are green cars with unfortunate compromises.
The company last night unveiled the Model X, a sleek-looking cross between a minivan and SUV with clever "falcon wing" doors and a new electric all-wheel drive system. People can start placing reservations tomorrow for the Model X, which is expected to be available late next year with prices in the $55,000 to $75,000 range before tax incentives and rebates.
Beyond making an attractive crossover, Tesla has shown how electric vehicles open up new design possibilities. The Model X isn't
Scientists led by physiologist Jian Feng took skin cells from healthy control subjects and people with a particular type of Parkinson's disease and transformed them into a type of primordial cell--technically, an "induced pluripotent stem cell." Such iPS cells, as they're known, can be coaxed into developing as almost any type of cell in the body.
Researchers have created the smallest room-temperature laser, a breakthrough that could lead to faster optical computers.
A group at the University of California at San Diego published a paper in Nature today that describes a new method for making lasers smaller than ever before. The technique allows for low-power lasers smaller than one micron in diameter. A human hair is about 600 microns wide and air-borne particles such as pollen are as small as 10 microns.
SolarReserve has completed the central point of a solar project that uses molten salt storage to deliver power to the grid well after the sun has gone down.
The startup company today said it has completed the 540-foot tower of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah, Nev., which is expected to start delivering 110 megawatts by the end of 2013. When it comes online, it's projected to have 10 hours of storage, the longest full-load storage capacity for a solar plant.
Adding storage turns solar into a continuous power source and allows project developers to earn more more
Check out this video of a high-powered marshmallow cannon fired by President Obama and eighth grader Joey Hudy at the White House.
The second White House Science Fair yesterday gave 100 student winners of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competitions from across 45 states the opportunity to show off neat science projects to the president, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and several well-respected educators and leaders from the science and engineering community.
Perhaps the viral star of the expose is 14-year-old Hudy's "Extreme Marshmallow Cannon," a compressed air-powered weapon that can launch the tasty confections more than 170 feet. The president helped Hudy pump the cannon to 30psi, and then shot the marshmallow across the State Dining Room.
Nest Labs today said it will "vigorously defend" itself from a patent infringement lawsuit filed by thermostat giant Honeywell.
The startup issued a statement two days after it got hit with the suit along with Best Buy, which sells its smart thermostat. The lawsuit seeks damages and an injunction to halt the sales of Nest's Learning Thermostat.
Nest Labs' statement from today is:
"We at Nest are proud of creating products that bring true innovation to home efficiency and we are continuing to innovate and bring products to market. The Nest Learning Thermostat is already making a difference, saving
What do you do if you're an injured astronaut and your doctor absolutely refuses to make Mars calls?
Well, the European Space Agency is trying to address that question. The ESA is testing a wearable augmented-reality device that might one day enable astronauts who aren't doctors to perform surgery on ailing colleagues.
Astronauts haven't whipped out the scalpels just yet--the device is currently being tested as a tool for ultrasound examinations that let users look patients over and diagnose a medical condition. But the agency said in a recent post to its Web site that "in principle [it] could guide other procedures."
In a nutshell, the device--the Computer Assisted Medical Diagnosis and Surgery System, or Camdass--works as follows. While moving an ultrasound probe along the patient, the user wears a headset that displays a 3D image of healthy tissue along with the ultrasound images of the patient.
The device, according to the ESA, "precisely [combines] computer-generated graphics with the wearer's view." Hence, differences--and problems--can be spotted.
Remember the original BigDog? That funny robot pack animal? Well, a supersized version has been let off the leash--and it ain't so funny anymore.
We last saw the brute when Boston Dynamics unveiled the AlphaDog prototype last year. Even in a harness, it looked pretty mean and could haul 400 pounds without even panting.
This latest incarnation, though, makes its predecessor look quite poodle-like. As seen in the video below, DARPA recently took AlphaDog, aka the Legged Squad Support System, or LS3, out for a walk in the woods and probably scared off every living creature for miles around. more
How fast can you go up? Mitsubishi Electric recently unveiled technologies for new high-speed elevators that will climb at a vertiginous rate of roughly 40 mph when they enter service in China.
The elevators will be installed in the 632-meter (2,073-foot) Shanghai Tower, which is being erected in Shanghai's Pudong area.
Designed by U.S. architectural firm Gensler, the 128-story skyscraper will be the tallest structure in China when complete and second only in the world to Dubai's Burj Khalifa.
The elevators could travel as fast as 1,080 meters, or 3,543 feet, per minute--roughly 40.2 mph.
A team of researchers have designed a material durable enough to operate on a microscopically small scale, a step toward fabricating nanoscale biosensors and optical equipment.
IBM Zurich today announced the results of a collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Wisconsin-Madison to build an ultra-small probe tip, which is 10,000 times smaller than a pencil point. Because it's substantially harder than previous designs, it's hard enough to be a component in microscopic mechanical machines.
For example, these tips could be part of in-body monitors to track glucose levels in diabetic patients or sensors more
A German judge has ruled in favor of Apple in one of several patent suits with Motorola, finding that iPhone maker did not violate a patent related to 3G/UMTS wireless communications.
A hack discovered yesterday can easily access the account of a Google Wallet user by requesting a new pin number and using it to grab the user's funds.
After large numbers of longtime 'Burners' failed to get tickets during the event's recent selection process, many claimed organizers had failed to adopt a sensible system. Now, those organizers are trying to calm community anger.
Keep up-to-date on cutting-edge research and what's new in a wide range of areas, from robotics, space ventures, nanotechnology, and general science, to automobile design and solar energy.
