Month: October 2014

Yesterday, Lockheed Martin joined a long line of companies claiming to be hot on the trail of nuclear fusion, the long-promised savior of our energy economy. Unlike the atom-splitting fission reactions that run our submarines and nuclear power plants, fusion smashes atoms together at high temperatures, creating new particles in a reaction that emits massive […]

The post So Lockheed Martin Says It’s Made a Big Advance in Nuclear Fusion… appeared first on WIRED.

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Origami principles allow for a dual-canopy structure that utilizes planar tension.

The post An Origami Umbrella That Has No Support Skeleton appeared first on WIRED.

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Afghanistan veteran Sam Arnold uploaded this spine-chilling video of a US Marine getting a direct headshot from a Taliban sniper—only to be saved by his kevlar helmet. It’s incredible to watch, especially the face of relief and disbelief of the impact victim. That was a really close call.

Read more…

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It looks like "Friends" will be there for you on Netflix starting January 1, 2015.

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Read full story for latest details.

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Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Technology, BMW

Carbon fiber has been utilized for decades to build racecars, as a means to cut weight while maintaining strength. But until recently, the space-age material has been largely absent from the street on anything but supercars because of the expense to use it. Recently, BMW signaled a major shift in that trend when it starting using carbon fiber reinforced plastic panels on the i3 and i8. This relatively small scale start might be just the beginning; the German company believes that a breakthrough to inexpensively manufacture the lightweight stuff is just on the horizon.

MAI Carbon Cluster Management GmbH counts BMW, Audi, Airbus, the German government and many other organizations as supporters, and it’s researching how to make carbon fiber cheaper to produce, according to Automotive News Europe. The company thinks it can reduce costs by 90 percent in the near future. "We’ve certainly reached a halfway point on our cost-cutting target for suitable carbon-fiber parts," said project head Klaus Drechsler to Automotive News Europe.

Unfortunately, it isn’t entirely clear just what MAI Carbon is doing to make such a huge leap possible. However, a recent post on the company’s website talks about a new form a carbon fiber using a thermoplastic matrix that could be cured in less than three minutes. That’s compared to about 90 minutes in the traditional process with an autoclave.

The news of cheaper carbon fiber is especially welcome to companies like BMW that are already pushing its use forward. The automaker is already investing $100 million to triple capacity at its Moses Lake, WA, joint venture factory through 2015, and promises to bring the lightweight material to more models in the future.

Researchers halfway to cutting carbon fiber costs by 90% originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Classics, SUV, Europe, Mercedes-Benz, Diesel

It’s a common dream to just drop everything, load up the car and make a life on the open road traveling from place to place. The vast of majority of us just fantasize about it, but it’s a reality for the German couple Gunther and Christine Holtorf. They are just finishing what might be the world’s longest road trip covering around 560,000 miles in a Mercedes-Benz 300GD named Otto (pictured above right) over the past 26 years.

Their goal was to visit as many countries as possible, and they ended up reached 215, including places like base camp at Mount Everest; they definitely achieved their dream. The same distance would have gotten them from the Earth to the moon and back, plus a few thousand extra miles to just cruise around.

Holtorf claims that Otto remained mostly stock for the odyssey. "The entire drivetrain with the engine, transmission and axles is still original," he said. However, some upgraded suspension parts were installed to handle the extra load from all the supplies the couple needed to carry.

Otto isn’t retiring quite yet, but the hard part is over. The 300GD is going on display briefly at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and then taking a tour of the company’s dealers in Europe beginning in February 2015.

Coinciding with the latest stop in Otto’s voyage, the G-Class is celebrating its 35th anniversary. To commemorate it in Europe, Mercedes is launching the Edition 35 version (pictured above left) of the long-living truck. It gets obsidian black metallic parts for the bumpers, wheels arches, side mirrors and roof and a similar motif for the interior, as well. "I promise that there will still be a G-Class in the future," said Daimler chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche in the company’s announcement.

There’s a full chronicle of the trip with many videos, but it’s in German. The BBC also has an excellent long-form piece about the couple in English. Scroll down to watch a brief video about the journey that’s also auf Deutsch and read Mercedes’ press release.

Continue reading German man drives Mercedes G-Wagen on 557k-mile, 26-year road trip [w/video]

German man drives Mercedes G-Wagen on 557k-mile, 26-year road trip [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 16 Oct 2014 08:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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