Category: News

Posted on

From Discover Magazine: [HED: How to Turn a Cockroach into a Fuel Cell] | Discoblog

spacing is important
Discoid cockroaches, used in this study, can be up to 3 inches long

From the digestive system that demolishes glue and toothpaste comes the first living, breathing, and yes, digesting cyborg-insect-biofuel-cell. Researchers have created a fuel cell that needs only sugar from the cockroach’s hemolymph and oxygen from the air to make electric energy. As long as the cockroach keeps eating, the fuel cell keeps running.

LiveScience lays out how electrodes inserted into the cockroach’s abdomen hijack its biochemical machinery:

The fuel cell consists of two electrodes; at one electrode, two enzymes break down a sugar, trehalose, which the cockroach produces from its food. The first of the two enzymes, trehalase, breaks down the trehalose into glucose, then the second enzyme converts the glucose into another product and releases the electrons. The electrons travel to the second electrode, where another enzyme delivers the electrons to oxygen in the air. The byproduct is water.

The cockroaches are not much harmed by the electrodes. “In fact,” says lead author Michelle Rasmussen, “it is not unusual for the insect to right itself and walk or run away afterward,” which only further confirms our suspicion that cockroaches can resist anything. …

from Discover Magazine

Posted on

From Engadget: IDC: Nokia, Samsung, Apple are the new top 3 handset makers

The latest figures are in from IDC: the top three global smartphone makers are Nokia, Samsung and Apple, in that order. Drilling down into the figures finds some surprises: Cupertino’s third-place with only 8.7 percent of the market, while the giants of Korea and Finland are duking it out with 22.8 percent and 26.6 respectively. LG and ZTE are tied for fourth, but that’s hardly good news for Goldstar, given that it’s lost a staggering 42.2 percent of its market share in the last twelve months (Nokia was the other loser, eating 8.2 percent). The cause for the drop is in part the world’s rejection of feature-phones (dropped faster than fashionistas rightly abandoned Ugg Boots and Jeggings) as millions upgraded to smartphones. After the break we’ve got the tables in full for anyone who wants to have their mind blown at the sheer quantity of handsets shipped in the last year, both financial and calendar.

Continue reading IDC: Nokia, Samsung, Apple are the new top 3 handset makers

 

from Engadget

Posted on

From Engadget: French court fines Google France 500,000 euros for gratis Maps

French court fines Google France 500,000 Euros for gratis Maps

A Parisian commercial court has upheld a lower court’s ruling against Google France, ordering the company to pay a fine of €500,000 for giving away its maps services. The plaintiff, Bottin Cartographes, claims that Google leveraged the market share of its Maps platform — and the fact that it’s free — to undercut and stifle competition attempting to sell their topographical wares to businesses. “We proved the illegality of [Google’s] strategy,” said Bottin’s counsel, noting that this was the first timeGoogle has been convicted of malfeasance for this particular piece of software in the country. A representative from the search giant said it plans to appeal the decision, and reiterated the company’s belief that competition exists in the space. Personally, we think the court got it right. Why should people get an awesome product for free when they can pay for an inferior one, right?

French court fines Google France 500,000 euros for gratis Maps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhysOrg  |  sourceAFP  | Email this | Comments

from Engadget

Posted on

From Autoblog: Report: California woman wins Civic Hybrid lawsuit against Honda

Score 1 for the little people (aka. me)!
===========================================================================

Heather Peters sued Honda in small-claims court in Torrance, California over the gas mileage she was getting in her Honda Civic Hybrid, which was around 20 miles per gallon less than Honda had advertised. After two days of testimony, Commissioner Doug Carnahan sent his 26-page decision to both Peters and Honda, with a ruling in favor of Peters and $9,687 awarded in damages. That’s just short of the $10,000 maximum that can be won in small-claims court.

In the decision, Carnahan wrote “At a bare minimum Honda was aware … that by the time Peters bought her car there were problems with its living up to its advertised mileage.” He went further, indicating that he found Honda to have committed fraud, but not intentional fraud.

According to a report in the Associated Press, Honda’s EPA certification engineer said Honda “was required to post a sticker with the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimate of the highest mileage the car could get.” (In a previous report from Automotive.com he was characterized as saying that “automakers had no option but to adhere to the federal testing procedures.”) While that claim was shot down by earlier precedent where it was shown that automakers had cited lower fuel economy numbers than the EPA in their advertising and marketing, it will be interesting to see whether this line in Carnahan’s decision comes up again: “Honda’s own testing should be the guideline for how it advertises its vehicles’ mileages, not the generalized work … done by the EPA.”

And we can be certain it will since Honda has already stated its intention to appeal. And because the appeal will be held in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the way has been cleared for Honda to get its lawyers in the courtroom.

This gives other plaintiffs in the class action suit over Civic Hybrid mileage an option as to how to proceed. The last day to sign onto the settlement of that earlier suit is February 11, however, even if that case remains unfinished; a judge in San Diego won’t rule until March on whether that settlement, which would see plaintiffs get a $100 to $200 and $1,000 discount on a new Honda and trial attorneys get $8.5 million, is fair.

California woman wins Civic Hybrid lawsuit against Honda originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

from Autoblog

Posted on

From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Video: SpaceX Test-Fires Its New Super-Powerful Capsule Engines

SuperDraco’s Could One Day Allow Propulsive Landings on Other Planets SpaceX

SpaceX’s dream of fielding a spacelaunch system that is completely reusable is inching forward with the successful test-firing of its new SuperDraco engine. The powerful new SuperDraco will be installed in the side walls of the next-gen Dragon spacecraft and provide up to 120,000 pounds of axial thrust, enabling not only on orbit maneuvering, but emergency escape from the rocket tower should something go awry during launch.

The Draco engines currently used on the Dragon spacecraft allow the robotic resupply capsule to maneuver on orbit and orient itself during reentry, but SpaceX has bigger plans for a system that will one day be able to return all elements–including rocket stages–to Earth intact for reuse in later missions. That’s a tall order and a long way off. But the SuperDraco is a step in that direction.

More powerful than the Draco, the eight SuperDracos that will reside in the side walls of the Dragon can essentially propel the Dragon capsule on their own, making it possible for astronauts on board to abort at any time during a launch and separate from the rocket–that is, the controlled explosion–hurling them skyward. That’s a huge advantage over previous launch abort systems, which could only be triggered successfully during the first few minutes of a launch.

They can also be restarted multiple times and can be used repeatedly, meaning they wouldn’t have to be completely re-serviced each time a capsule went into space. During the recent tests at SpaceX’s Rocket Development Facility in Texas, the SuperDraco underwent full thrust firings, full duration firings, and a series of deep throttling demos, passing each test, we’re told, with flying colors. We’re still a ways away from that space capsule that can navigate itself back to the launchpad under its own propulsive force but as the video below shows, we’re getting there.

[SpaceX]

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now