European space technology will boost the performance of at least one boat during this year’s Transat Jacques Vabre international sailing contest. The race starts on Saturday from Le Havre in France, and ends in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.
Marc Thiercelin and his sailing partner Eric Drouglazet will be competing in Thiercelin’s 60-foot yacht ProForm. The yacht has more efficient solar cells, lighter batteries and an intelligent power management system, all based on technology
Imperial College London and BP today announce a £4.5 million project to research the use of energy in cities.
The BP Urban Energy Systems project at Imperial will explore how money and energy could be saved in the future if cities integrated the systems that supply them with resources.
The project was announced today at the launch of Imperial’s Energy Futures Lab, which aims to play a major role in setting the energy agenda over the next 20 years.
The Ur
Increasing the safety and reliability of nuclear power as a solution for satisfying energy needs is the challenge addressed by a new initiative announced today. The £6.1 million Keeping the Nuclear Option Open programme will investigate how nuclear power can become a more appealing option for future energy production.
The initiative was announced today at the launch of Imperial College London’s Energy Futures Lab, which aims to play a major role in setting the energy agenda
Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT has supervised the development of building technology that cuts the amount of energy required for heating in a block of flats by 70 per cent. The first apartment constructed with this low-energy technology was completed in the city of Espoo Finland, in the summer. Building of an entire block of flats utilising the same technology is scheduled to begin next summer.
Research on low-energy building in Finland has mainly focused on single-fami
The small device invented and developed by the St. Petersburg chemists can be easily hold in hand. It allows to perform real-time control of mercaptans content in petroleum derivatives – these sulfur compounds are extremely undesirable in gasoline.
In general, nobody likes these sulphur compounds. Besides, they reek – but fortunately, we rarely come across this property. More often they play mean tricks remaining unrecognized since even a small doze of these harmful substances
The first Norwegian-built satellite was launched yesterday from a Russian space base
The Norwegian satelite, called NCBUE-2 measures 10x10x10 centimeters and weighs one kilo.
A group of 80 students have built the satellite, which contains 1000 components, including a miniature computer, antennae, steering systems, solar panels and batteries.
The Agricultural University of Norway is primarily responsible for deciding which tasks the satellite is to carry out. The s
In her PhD thesis at the Public University of Navarre, Industrial Engineer Marta Barreras Carracedo put forward a new method of designing controllers based on QFT (Quantitative Feedback Theory) and which facilitates its real implantation in the government of real physical processes. The thesis itself validates the method putting into practice two concrete cases, an industrial electric furnace used for the drying of large pieces of composite and a heat exchanger in a solar water-heating plant.
Light can carry data at much higher rates than electricity, but it has always been too expensive and difficult to use light to transmit data among silicon chips in electronic devices. Now, electrical engineers at Stanford have solved a major part of the problem. They have invented a key component that can easily be built into chips to break up a laser beam into billions of bits of data (zeroes and ones) per second. This could help chips output data at a much higher rate than they can now.
You fill up your “empty” fuel tank at the gas station and the pump charges you for more gallons than the tank’s rated capacity. Are you being deliberately overcharged?
Unauthorized tampering with pumps does happen, even though state and local weights and measures officials regularly check gasoline pumps to ensure their accuracy. But there are also legitimate reasons for a discrepancy between the amount of fuel metered by a gas pump and an automobile’s rated fuel ta
Berkeley Scientists Synthesize Cheap, Easy-to-Make Ultra-thin Photovoltaic Films
Imagine a future in which the rooftops of residential homes and commercial buildings can be laminated with inexpensive, ultra-thin films of nano-sized semiconductors that will efficiently convert sunlight into electrical power and provide virtually all of our electricity needs. This future is a step closer to being realized, thanks to a scientific milestone achieved at the U.S. Department of Energy
Penn State researchers have developed a prototype sonic gas analyzer that automatically and continuously tracks the concentration of a gas in an air/gas mixture based on changes in pitch.
Miguel Horta, doctoral candidate in acoustics who is currently working on the sonic gas analyzer as part of his dissertation, says, “The system automatically cancels out the background and flow noise and can detect changes in gas concentration as low as 0.003 percent – plenty sensitive enough,
A NASA study is offering new insight into how the Earth’s water cycle might be influenced by global change.
In recent years, scientists have warned that the water cycle may be affected by temperature changes, as warmer temperatures can increase the moisture-holding capacity of air.
The global water cycle involves the transfer of water molecules between the Earth’s land masses, cryosphere, oceans and atmosphere. It’s a gigantic system powered by the su
The EU is launching a new research project to develop cost-effective and environmentally friendly methods to mass produce ethanol as fuel for motor vehicles. The commitment is a major step toward the goal of an EU directive of replacing fossil fuels in the transport system by 5.75 percent by 2010. The initiative for the project comes from Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden and the French research institute Institut Français du Petrol.
The project, funded with €12.8 million,
On the occasion of Productronica 2005 phoenix|x-ray will be presenting a world premiere the new highly resolving X-ray inspections system microme|x.
A novelty to the industry phoenix|x-ray has developed a system that combines all features for an optimum comprehensive inspection of printed circuit board assemblies. The microme|x disposes of an extra large scanning area of 20″ x 24″, a highly precise manipulation unit with 360° rotation axis and the approved ovhm technology for obliq
The Ikerlan Centre for Technological Research is part of the team which is to work on, from this December onwards, the Flame Sofc Europeo project, the object of which is to design and develop a household electrical appliance based on a fuel cell that produces electricity and heat in a way that the dwelling can be self-sufficient and reduce the emission of contaminant elements.
The Flame Sofc project will last for four years and has an overall budget of 13,545,627 Euro. Ikerlan,
Imagine being able to paint your roof with enough alternative energy to heat and cool your home. What if soldiers in the field could carry an energy source in a roll of plastic wrap in their backpacks?
Those ideas sound like science fiction þu particularly in the wake of the rising costs of fossil fuel.
But both are on the way to becoming reality because of a breakthrough in solar research by a team of scientists from New Mexico State University and Wake Forest Universi
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