New Florida homes withstood last year’s four hurricanes better than their older counterparts — thanks in large measure to continued improvements in the state’s hurricane building code, say University of Florida engineers.

UF engineering researchers have completed one of the most extensive studies of how homes built before and after Florida’s latest building code held up against Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan.

Their conclusion: Homes built under the Flor

What if all the vehicles now on the road in the United States were suddenly powered by hydrogen fuel cells? Stanford researchers say in a June 24 article in the journal Science that such a conversion would improve air quality, health and climate–especially if wind were used to generate the electricity needed to split water and make hydrogen in a pollutionless process.

Similarly to how gas is pumped into tanks, hydrogen would be pumped into fuel cells, which rely on chemistry, not

Neste Oil’s new, proprietary NExBTL technology for producing biodiesel marks an important step forward in efforts to meet the growing demand for this type of fuel, as it offers not only valuable production-related benefits, but also results in a fuel with excellent product properties, particularly at low temperatures.

Various companies have experimented with the idea of combining a natural raw material with an oil refining process to produce a biofuel capable of competing with hyd

There is no doubt that steel is one of the materials that has largely contributed to the technological and economical development of the twentieth century. Its mechanical and magnetic properties are determined by its chemical composition and the microstructure obtained in its manufacturing process. Traditionally, it has been necessary to mechanically destroy the material in order to analyze its microstructure by means of a microscope, i.e. to get a small sample, to polish it and to attack it wit

A team of chemists at Penn State has developed a new type of ultrathin film, which has unusual properties that could improve the fabrication of increasingly smaller and more intricate electronic and sensing devices. The material, a single layer made from spherical cages of carbon atoms, could enable more precise patterning of such devices with a wider range of molecular components than now is possible with conventional self-assembled monolayers. The research is published in the current issue of

A new article publishing in the latest issue of Review of Policy Research examines the evolution and devolution of speed limit laws and their effects on fatality rates. The author did not find a significant increase in fatalities per miles driven after speed limit laws ceased to be national and states could, and some did, increase their highway limit to more than fifty-five miles per hour. “Automobile safety features and enforcement emerge as important factors in increasing highway safety; sp

Integrated onto the backs of chips

A new technique for fabricating liquid cooling channels onto the backs of high-performance integrated circuits could allow denser packaging of chips while providing better temperature control and improved reliability.

Developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the wafer-level fabrication technique includes polymer pipes that will allow electronic and cooling interconnections to be made simultaneously using automated manufacturing

Air traffic control is one of the most demanding safety critical distributed systems with an enviable safety record. Using computer modelling researchers developed innovative approaches to handling uncertainty when designing such complex safety critical operations.

It’s a scary thought, but air traffic brings with it the chance of a mid-air collision. But the safety record of the air industry is excellent, so obviously it works well. “The system has grown in an evolutionary wa

A study by the Swedish Road and Transport Research Institute VTI shows that milled rumble strips at the centre of a two lane road are probably an excellent measure to reduce the number of head-on collisions which occur because tired and inattentive drivers inadvertently leave the lane they are driving in.

The study shows that one of the effects of milled rumble strips at the centre of the road is to make car drivers reduce their speed and keep further away from the centre o

Commercial products such as laptop computer monitors and solar-powered calculators are constructed from a light-sensitive material with a peculiar problem: When exposed to intense light, it forms defects, reducing the efficiency of the solar cells by 10 to 15 percent.

Scientists have been pondering this flaw since the 1970s, because the material – hydrogenated amorphous silicon, or a-Si:H – has important applications for solar energy generation. A new study reported in the Jun

The emergence of acupuncture is allowing some patients to relieve or significantly reduce dry mouth’s debilitating effects, according to a report in the May/June 2005 issue of General Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry’s (AGD) clinical, peer-reviewed journal.

Dry mouth (also known as xerostomia) is a painful condition caused by a decrease in the amount of saliva in the mouth when salivary glands do not work properly. Saliva is a natural defense for teeth and p

Dutch energy policy is directed at 17 percent of electricity demand being covered by renewable energy sources by 2020. Martin Junginger has demonstrated that this can be achieved at considerably lower costs than is the case now. He also found that it might be more financially advantageous to realise part of the objective outside of the Netherlands because, for example, more space is available there for wind turbines or because more biomass is available there.

Renewable electricity can

By pairing a sleek new air sampler designed at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) with a diode laser from SpectraSensors, Inc., researchers have hit on a technology that can capture highly accurate atmospheric water vapor data during routine commercial flights. The data will benefit researchers and forecasters, who need more frequent, accurate measurements at various altitudes worldwide to improve weather forecasts and monitor climate change.

Currently wate

A new system that not only warns drivers of collision risks, but also independently jams on the brakes to minimize an inevitable crash has been developed in a research project at Linköping University. Calculations show that the system reduces the risk of severe and fatal traffic injuries by five percent.

The findings of the project, which has been carried out in collaboration between the Section for Control and Communication at Linköping University and Volvo Car Corporation, are no

In a bid to reduce the annual death of more than 50,000 people and the countless severe injuries on Europe’s roads, future onboard night vision systems have been developed that highlight unexpected obstacles and improve driver visibility.

The system, developed by a team of carmakers, automotive suppliers and university researchers under the IST programme’s EDEL project, is expected to increase safety by highlighting unexpected, sudden events; improving visibility of road signs

Recycled plastic bottles could one day be used to lubricate your car’s engine, according to researchers at Chevron and the University of Kentucky, who in laboratory experiments converted waste plastic into lubricating oil. These polyethylene-derived oils, they say, could help improve fuel economy and reduce the frequency of oil changes.

The pilot study appears in the July 20 issue of the American Chemical Society’s peer-reviewed journal Energy & Fuels. ACS is the worl