NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Japanese Floating Train of the Future Has Arrived

Just when you weren't sure whether Japanese trains could get any faster or more convenient, the Central Japan Railway Company unveils the prototype for a floating maglev train designed to hit 311 miles per hour.

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Granted the train isn't scheduled for use until, oh, 2027, but the specs are impressive. The train manufacturer, known as JR Tokai for short, recently showed the public its "Series L0" prototype. With a 92-foot-long front car and a lengthy aerodynamic nose, the 14-carriage train will float above the tracks.

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This frictionless train will use magnetic levitation -- maglev -- to take passengers from central Tokyo to the western city Nagoya in about 40 minutes. For a bullet train, that trip currently takes closer to 90 minutes. By car, the distance between the two cities is a little over 200 miles.

Magnetic levitation promises insanely smooth, quiet and high-speed transportation. But, as Gizmodo's Andrew Tarantola rightfully pointed out, maglev trains are far more expensive and technically challenging to build. This particular project will ultimately cost a mind-boggling $112 billion, Engadget's Nicole Lee reported. For perspective, Boston's Big Dig project cost $24.3 billion, including interest.

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Once the Tokyo-Nagoya leg is completed, the plan is to extend it to Osaka by 2045. Maybe at that point Japanese train prototypes will just be teleporting passengers. A girl can dream, right?

Photo: Central Japan Railway Company's Series L0 prototype is designed to travel at 311 miles per hour. Credit: Phys.org.

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Vibrator Gives Hands-Free O-vation

Most hacks are done in the name of hacking with the end result rarely being put to good use, if ever leading to an orgasm. With a simple declaration, one woman took matters into her own hands by removing them from the equation. Her goal: create a hands-free vibrator.

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"I wanted to hack something I actually use: my vagina," writes Beth, author of Scanlime, a blog documenting her forays into improvisational engineering.

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Using a sonar sensor and Arduino software, Beth created a haptic device with two parts: a transmitter that wirelesslessly links up with the vibrator on the receiving end. Here's how she describes it:

The two black circles are ultrasonic transducers. One of them transmits short “chirps” at a frequency too high for humans to hear. The other listens for echoes. The 4-digit display gives another satisfying bit of feedback, in visceral high-contrast blue LED light. The external antenna gives it quite a bit more radio range than the original remote, and the exposed serial port on the left makes it easy to reprogram the remote using the Arduino IDE.

Additionally, Beth says the toy becomes more than the sum of its parts and begins to enter the realm of virtual reality:

This toy serves as a kind of analog bridge between two remote spaces: the column of ultrasonically oscillating air in front of the remote, and whatever body part happens to be in contact with the vibrator. Touch that invisible space above the remote, and the vibrator touches you.

In fact, it does start to feel like there’s a palpable object in space above the remote’s sensors. Move your body close to it and it reacts. Press into it lightly, or tease the edges. Flick your hand through it, or make graceful waves back and forth. You can use your whole body to touch it, almost like a big fuzzy vibrating cone floating in air.

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Check out Beth's tutorial video below to see what all the buzz is about. For those of you hoping the tutorial strays into more intimate territory, keep hoping. However, if you're arroused by dinnerware, then you might want to dim the lights and draw the curtains.

via Tech News Daily

Credit: Scamlime

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3-D Printing Changes Everything: Gotta-See Video

You may have heard of 3-D printing, but do you know how it works?

Here, the BBC explores how industrial 3-D printers can go from a nylon plastic powder to any conceivable shape.

3-D printing could revolutionize almost any industry. If the technology is taken to a ridiculously science fiction-like conclusion, you could print everything from a pizza to a new car. And there are people working on both.

At this factory in the United Kingdom, engineers are going to try to produce a bicycle in one go. They're not talking about producing each part and then assembling it; they want to take it out of the machine ready to ride. See what happens... via YouTube

Want to recommend a video? Tweet it to @Discovery_News with the hashtag #GottaSeeVideos.

Don't miss today's Must-Read DNews Nuggets and you can watch Discovery Curiosity video here.

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Gigantic Mouse Trap Game: Gotta-See Video

Results of art and engineering coming together are often sights to see, but in this case you've already seen the sight, only smaller.

Artist and science nerd Mark Perez created a larger-than-life Mouse Trap game. The Rube Goldberg board game is familiar to most American families and has been around since the late 1960s, but Perez turned it into a spectacle for the annual DIY Maker Faire.

The piece takes days to set up, took fifteen years to build and requires a whole truck to move. All so in the end, we can see a two-ton bank safe crush a car. When asked why he created it Perez responded, "For you!" via CNN

Want to recommend a video? Tweet it to @Discovery_News with the hashtag #GottaSeeVideos.

Don't miss today's Must-Read DNews Nuggets and you can watch Discovery Curiosity video here.

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How Do Hotels Keep Hot Water: Gotta-See Video

Showering in the morning can be a gamble in some apartments and households. If you're the first one up, you're fine, but if not, you may have a cold morning.

The Science Channel looked into how hotels keep enough hot water on hand for all of the guests. They don't store it in a tank like in most American homes, instead they heat the water and constantly pump it throughout the building, ensuring everyone uses it at the same time. The process is intricate and complex, but without it we would all be out in the cold on our next vacation. via Science Channel

Want to recommend a video? Tweet it to @Discovery_News with the hashtag #GottaSeeVideos.

Don't miss today's Must-Read News Nuggets and you can watch Discovery Curiosity video here.

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Freshwater Ecosystem Lives Off Seawater

Over half of the world's population lives and works within 120 miles from a coastline. Regardless of your views on climate change, it's safe to say that rising sea levels would present nothing short of a catastrophe. 

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In the event that the ivory towers of denial do start to surround with sea water, detractors will be happy to know that Studiomobile won't leave you high and dry.

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Billing themselves as makers of art and technology for architecture and urban research, the firm came up Networking Nature, an ecosystem that lives off seawater and produces fresh drinking water.

Glass tanks anchored near the coast would fill with seawater where a series of solar-powered stills would extract fresh water. Heat produced by small lamps would evaporate the saltwater and convert the condensed steam into fresh water. That water would then be collected in reservoirs near the coast and distributed to those who need it.

Here's how Studiomobile explains it:

However, water is not produced in isolated systems under central control. The new model provides for a large ecological infrastructure as well as small local production units connected to a network able to integrate the production of fresh water and to supply it where needed. It's a Smart Water Network controlled by sensors that read the local lack of water and, through an Arduino board, activate the pumps providing the water where there is a peak of demand. The Smart Water Network will be a layer of the ecological network as well as the Smart Power Grid and the communications network. This strategy not only gives response to the preservation of the environment, but it is also a radically new model that ensures free and democratic access to the resources to everybody.

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Networking Nature was created for the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale.

via Inhabitat

credit: Studiomobile

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Levitation May Improve Drugs VIDEO: DNews Nugget

Levitation May Help Make Better Drugs: Levitation, it's not just for Harry Potter anymore.

The Argonne National Laboratory has found a way to make drugs that don't sit in petri dishes, test tubes, or on any surface at all, really.

These droplets of potential pharmacuticals are suspended in the air, not by magic, but by sound waves.

The device, called an Acoustic Levitator, was "developed for NASA to simulate microgravity conditions," says PhysOrg.

It works by shooting inaudible sound waves from two juxtaposed speakers. When the speakers are precisely aligned, the waves collide and create "nodes" where the effect of gravity is essentially cancelled out. Without gravity, these small drops can be left to float at these nodes, and scientists can experiment with the drugs without any outside contact. via PhysOrg

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Nano Fiber Film Detects Landmines

According to the United Nations, there are more than 100 million active land mines buried underground in 64 countries around the world. The presence of the mines not only endangers the lives of the people that live near them, it also affects their livelihood. Acres of land that could be used for farming or infrastructure are avoided because of the potential threat of mines or improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Laying mines is usually a straightforward and easy process, but detecting and disarming them is quite another.

Current methods of detection use dogs or robots. But “...with animals, you can't switch them on and off like a machine and they are sometimes difficult to work with," said Erik Tollefsen, advisor for stockpile destruction, EOD and technology for the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining.

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Researchers from the University of Connecticut are working on a solution that involves a fluorescent nanofiberous film. The film they developed contains chemicals that detect trace levels of explosive vapors from mines underground. The idea is that the nanofilm could be rolled out over a piece of land like out a giant roll of paper towels. Because the film is so light, there would be no threat of setting off a potential mine.

After laying over the ground for about 30 minutes,the chemical sensing system is activated by an ultra-violet light to detect the organic compounds that explosives like TNT emit. The system can even sense plastic explosives like HMX, a compound used in explosives during World War II. When emissions are sensed, the fluorescent color darkens and a circle appears, identifying where the vapors are coming from.

"A UV light may be applied as a searchlight and coupled with a digital camera, so the results could be transmitted back to the control center," said Ying Wang, a scientist on the project.

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If no threat is found, the film maintains its fluorescence and doesn't get darker. The process takes minutes and is relatively cheap thanks to the thin and lightweight material than can span a large area. Engineers from UConn point out the sensor could even be incorporated into a small paper test strip for a low-cost method of detection. Further testing will be under way soon. Dr. Wang told Discovery News that a large-scale field test in Sweden is in the process. 

Credit: University of Connecticut

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'Iron Man' Exoskeletons Go Soft

Forget Iron Man armor and exoskeletons. They're so last year. This season, augmenting human strength has moved to stretchable, flexible suits.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has shelled out $2.6 million to Harvard's Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering to build a "smart suit" that enhances the strength of soldiers in the field.

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The amount of gear that the average trooper has to carry -- in addition to the body armor -- has gone up in the past few years. The modern soldier has a lot of sophisticated equipment now, but that stuff is also pretty heavy. So it's no surprise that the military is interested in boosting the amount of time that a person can carry all that stuff.

Thus far, most designs for exoskeletons, such as Raytheon's XOS, or the Human Universal Load Carrier, have relied on rigid struts and require a lot of power to operate. That's a big limiting factor -- a soldier wouldn't want to be on a long hike in Afghanistan and have the batteries run out. Also, the suits aren't (yet) as flexible and easy to use as a lot of military planners would like.

The Wyss Institute design takes a different approach. Instead of using rigid systems to simply boost strength, the smart suit relies on soft, stretchable sensors that detect fatigue. To help a person maintain their posture, the suit might give a small vibrations to soothe leg muscles, not unlike a massager. That would keep soldiers walking and moving longer.

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Being stretchable and soft  would make a big difference to the wearer, of course, as it would be a lot more comfortable (and not chafe). As important, it could be worn under a uniform.

The project is still in the early stages, so the details of which technologies will be brought to bear haven't been worked out yet. The DARPA funding will go to a team headed by Conor Walsh, assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

via: Wyss Institute

Image: Wyss Institute

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Geoengineering Soaring To New Heights

I come from a pasty Norwegian breed. In my younger, devil-may-care years, I used to scoff at wearing sunscreen with the belief that the quickest way to skin cancer a bronzed bod was roasting myself at the beach without a drop of SPF in sight.

Not any more. I've read the reports and even witnessed my dad, who has a similar complexion, receive skin test results that came back malignant. Now I'm a liberal sunscreen applier when I go out. Plus, sunscreen makes you smell like you just came from the beach, and I like that. It's my new cologne.

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In some ways, our planet is of a pasty breed and needs adequate protection from the sun, too. Many scientists say our planet is getting hotter, compliments of us industrious folks who call Earth home.

Here in Missouri, the grass is brown and the leaves on the trees are wilted. The USDA has declared every county in the state as disaster area because of the drought. Just a random old hot-and-dry summer or the consequences of human-induced climate change?

Well, a couple of Harvard engineers aren't waiting around for your opinion. David Keith and James Anderson are preparing to spray thousands of tons of sun-reflecting sulphate aerosols into the sky over Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Why? They believe the particles will reflect the sun's rays back into space and help lower the Earth's temperature.

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They plan to do so by using a balloon flying 80,000 feet above the Fort Sumner. The geoengineering project aims to mimic the effects of volcanoes spewing sulphuric ash into the air.

Keith says the project could be an inexpensive way to slow down climate change, however other scientists warn that his methods could have dire effects on the planet's weather systems and food supplies. Environmentalists fear Keith's method is merely a stopgap that undermines efforts to accurately fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions.

The experiment will take place in a year and see the release of tens or hundreds of kilograms of particles that, besides measuring impacts on ozone chemistry, will also find ways to make the sulphate aerosols the correct size.

"The objective is not to alter the climate, but simply to probe the processes at a micro scale," Keith told the Guardian. "The direct risk is very small.

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However, Pat Mooney, executive director of the technology watchdog ETC Group, begs to differ:

"Impacts include the potential for further damage to the ozone layer, and disruption of rainfall, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions – potentially threatening the food supplies of billions of people. It will do nothing to decrease levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or halt ocean acidification. And solar geoengineering is likely to increase the risk of climate-related international conflict -- given that the modelling to date shows it poses greater risks to the global south."

What say you? Let the balloon fly or pop it with a BB gun before lifts off?

via the Guardian

Credit: NASA/Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS

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