Audi unveils first luxury-class e-tron concept car in Beijing

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The world premiere of the Audi A6 L e-tron concept the the 2012 Beijing Motor Show

Audi has added to its e-tron series of electric and hybrid concept cars with the unveiling of the A6 L e-tron concept at 2012 Beijing Motor Show. Joining the Frankfurt, Detroit, A1, Spyder and A3 e-tron models, the A6 L e-tron concept is the company’s first luxury-class e-tron concept vehicle. Based on the new A6 L, it is a plug-in hybrid that boasts an electric-only driving range of 80 km (49.71 miles).

Audi chose Beijing to unveil the A6 L e-tron concept as the A6 L, which is produced at its Changchun plant in a joint venture with Chinese automaker, First Automobile Works (FAW), is the company’s bestselling model in China.
The concept vehicle combines a 2.0 TFSI engine outputting 155 kW (211 hp) and an electric motor generating a peak output of 70 kW (95 hp). It can be driven powered only by the internal combustion engine, only the electric drive, or in hybrid mode, with a hybrid control module choosing the best mode to maximize driving range.
An energy flow indicator on the instrument panel lets the driver know the current operating mode and which hybrid drive components are currently active. The display screen also shows the average fuel economy and amount of energy recovered over five-minute intervals.

Audi has also replaced the tachometer with a powerometer that indicates the total power of the drive system on a scale of zero to 100 percent. An auxiliary instrument displays the current charge state of the liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery that is located in a collision-protected space at the rear of the vehicle.
In electric mode, the vehicle boasts a range of 80 km (49.71 miles) at a constant speed of 60 km/h (37 mph). This is a big step up from the 3 km (1.86 mile) electric-only range offered by the electrified drive systems found in the company’s current Q5 Quattro, A6 and A8 hybrids.

The concept car has a body that is around 10 percent aluminum and is identical to that of the A6 L business sedan, with a 3.01 m (9.88 ft) wheelbase, 5.02 m (16.47 ft) length, 1.87 m (6.14 ft) width, and 1.46 m (4.79 ft) height. A single-frame grille with slender cross-bars and nearly-covered air intakes that are common to all e-tron models visually differentiate it from the production A6 L.
Audi says the use of aluminum results in a body that is around 15 percent lighter than comparable all-steel designs, and that all future Audi models will be lighter than their predecessors. This will be achieved through the use of combinations of lightweight materials, including carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP).

As the first luxury e-tron concept, the interior of the vehicle boasts all of the A6 line’s luxury-class features, including seat ventilation and massage functions, Bose surround sound system, deluxe air conditioner with air ionizer, and MMI navigation plus navigation system with touchpad character input and the ability to recognize 29,000 Chinese characters.

Driver assistance and safety systems include active lane change assist, parking assist, night vision assistance that highlights detected pedestrians, and a pre sense system designed to reduce the severity of accidents.
Although Audi designed the A6 L e-tron concept specifically around Chinese requirements, there’s no word on whether the car will make the leap from concept to production vehicle there or in other markets. However, the company has revealed the e-tron Frankfurt – also known as the R8 e-tron - will get a short production run later this year, while the A3 e-tron will enter full production in 2014. Audi says these will be followed by other “New Energy Vehicles.”

3.2 billion-pixel Large Synoptic Survey Telescope camera comes a step closer to reality

A cut-away view of the LSST camera, with a person for scale

Although the pixel count for consumer cameras continues to rise, they will all pale in comparison to the 3,200-megapixel Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) camera. Although the enormous astronomical camera has yet to be built, last week the U.S. Department of Energy gave its approval for the project to proceed to the next phase of development. This means that a detailed engineering design can begin, along with a production schedule and budget. If everything goes according to plan, construction on what will be the world’s largest digital camera should begin in 2014.

The three-mirrored camera will be an essential part of the telescope, needless to say, surveying the entire visible night sky twice every week. It will take over 800 panoramic images every night, gathering about 6 million gigabytes of data a year. Its light-gathering power will be amongst the highest in the world, allowing it to image faint celestial objects using relatively short exposures.
It was designed at the SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) National Accelerator Laboratory, which describes what the camera will be doing as “equivalent of shooting roughly 800,000 images with a regular eight-megapixel digital camera every night, but of much higher quality and scientific value.”

A total of 189 sensors and over 3 tons (2.7 tonnes) of components will be tightly packed into its cylindrical body. Work has already begun on the telescope’s 8.4-meter (27.5-foot) primary mirror, at the final site of the observatory on the Cerro Pachón ridge in northern Chile.
Plans for the LSST include studies on things such as dark energy and dark matter, detection of near-Earth asteroids, and analysis of the structure of the galaxy. Data will be available to anyone with internet access.

Microfluidic device designed to cleanse blood

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The experimental microfluidic device, which could find use in the cleansing of infected blood

In a natural phenomenon known as margination, platelets and leukocytes (white blood cells) within the bloodstream move towards the sides of blood vessels and adhere to them. It occurs at wound sites, during the early stages of inflammation. Recently, a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National University of Singapore have put that process to work in a microfluidic device that could be used to cleanse the blood, perhaps acting as a treatment for bacteria-related blood disorders such as sepsis.
The device consists of a polymer chip, with a network of microchannels etched onto its surface. These channels are made using technology utilized in the manufacturing of integrated circuits, and each measure just 20 micrometers in height and width.
Initially, bacterially-infected blood flows into the device through a single channel. As it flows, the margination process causes the microbes, leukocytes, and platelets within it to move to the sides of the channel, while the red blood cells stay in the middle. Farther down the device, however, two sub-channels branch off from either side. The unwanted cells are diverted into these side channels, while the red blood cells continue following the main one. Farther down still, another two sub-channels branch off again, to remove bacteria that didn’t take one of the previous exit ramps.

A diagram illustrating how the device diverts bacteria from the red blood cells

Theoretically, the purified red blood cells could then be returned into the patient. While it might take quite a while to treat a human using a single microchannel network, the team has also tried out a larger version of the device, in which six networks run simultaneously.
In blood samples tested so far, the scientists have successfully removed 80 and 90 percent of the bacteria Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively. They have also been able to remove over 80 percent of the blood’s inflammatory cellular components – sepsis occurs as an inflammatory response to bacteria in the bloodstream.

Natural cancer drug available from soaking soybeans

Scientists have demonstrated that a natural cancer drug can be obtained by soaking soybeans in water

A group of plant scientists at the University of Missouri have discovered a new, inexpensive approach to extracting an powerful anticancer chemical from soybeans. The incidence of a number of common cancers (breast, colorectal, prostate, bladder, lymphoma, and oral cancers) is lower in Japan by a factor of two to ten times than in North America or Western Europe (GLOBOCAN 2008). The medical profession is edging toward a conclusion that a significant portion of the reduction in alimentary system cancers and breast cancer is associated with the importance of the humble soybean to Japanese diets.
Researchers have considered the medical benefits of the soybean for centuries. However, the modern level of interest began with the identification of the Bowman-Birk Protease Inhibitor (BBI) in 1963.

Molecular structure of the soybean-derived Bowman-Birk Protease Inhibitor (BBI)

This small protein (molecular weight of about 8,000 Daltons) has demonstrated strong cancer chemoprotective and anticancer treatment properties. It has been found effective against breast, colon, liver, lung, esophageal, and oral cancers. The studies are so impressive that BBI has been an FDA Investigational New Drug since 1992.
Unfortunately, BBI has also been very expensive (~US$2,000/gram at Sigma/Aldrich) owing to the very complex extraction sequence developed during its discovery. Early studies showed that BBI is found primarily in the soybean hulls (seed coats), which are generally removed before processing raw soybeans for the produce and fermentation markets. As a result, the hulls are extremely inexpensive at about $0.10 per kilogram. Ten percent of soybean hulls extracts as sugary solids with a protease inhibitor activity equivalent to about 70 mg/gram of solids, so that protease inhibitors make up about 7 mg/gram of the raw hulls.
Protease is any enzyme which starts the digestion of proteins by breaking peptide bonds in proteins. The extract of protease inhibitors consists of two main inhibitors, the Kunitz trypsin inhibitor and the Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor (BBI), which make up about 6 percent of the total protein of soybeans. However, the fraction with the largest level of protease inhibition is that containing BBI, a substance known to possess chemopreventive activity against a range of cancers.
BBI is traditionally purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, organic solvent extraction, centrifugation, gel filtration, column chromatography, or high performance liquid chromatography. Each of these procedures is time-consuming, involves a variety of hazardous materials, and results in limited amounts of purified material. The result is, as mentioned earlier, an extremely expensive substance.
The Missouri plant scientists have invented a green procedure for extracting BBI from soybean hulls. They found that soybean hulls soaked in water at 122ºF (50ºC) for about four hours naturally release large amounts of BBI that can easily be harvested from the water. Higher extraction temperatures yield less BBI activity – apparently the protein will denature with very long exposures to 50ºC water. When the chemoprotective anticancer properties of the extracted BBI were tested, the extract proved capable of stopping the dividing of in-vitro breast cancer cell division.
There remains considerable research and testing to be carried out on soybean-extracted BBI. However, it provides another tempting and relatively harmless approach to fighting a wide range of cancers.

Artificial spinal disc designed to treat chronic lower back pain

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A prototype of the BYU artificial spine disc replacement

The soft, collagen-rich shock absorbers in our backs, known as intervertebral discs, both add to our height (a full quarter of the spinal column's total length) and cushion our vertebrae from contacting one another. Unfortunately, aging, accidents and overuse can damage them and lead to the costly phenomenon of chronic back pain – roughly US$100 billion is spent annually on treatment in the U.S. alone. Replacement of damaged discs, rather than spinal fusion, is an option that's growing in popularity, especially because it helps maintain mobility in the spine. Now, a team from Brigham Young University (BYU) has unveiled their new artificial disc, a compliant mechanism that they believe has the potential to restore quality of life to millions of those with injured spines.

Designed by BYU engineering professors Anton Bowden, Larry Howell and former BYU student Peter Halverson, the jointless elastic device is flexible enough to allow movement, but durable enough to withstand the sometimes crushing pressures that build up between the vertebra of the spine. The team's study will be published in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Spine Surgery.
“Low back pain has been described as the most severe pain you can experience that won’t kill you,” Bowden said. “This device has the potential to alleviate that pain and restore the natural motion of the spine – something current procedures can’t replicate.” Spinal fusion, currently the most common procedure in addressing damaged discs, leaves more than half of patients dissatisfied, likely due to the drastic reduction in mobility it causes.

BYU engineering professors Anton Bowden (left) and Larry Howell (right) examine their artificial disc implant

Howell is a leading expert in compliant mechanisms – deformable devices such as archery bows and tweezers. He and Bowden had student engineers construct various prototype discs which they first tested mechanically and then in spines removed from cadavers.
“To mimic the response of the spine is very difficult because of the constrained space and the sophistication of the spine and its parts,” Howell said. “A compliant mechanism is more human-like, more natural, and the one we’ve created behaves like a healthy disc.”
BYU licensed the technology to Utah-based company Crocker Spinal Technologies, which plans to develop the product for market release as early as next year. That's potentially welcome news for the many who currently pay the stiff price of chronic back pain.

Genetically-engineered mosquitoes can't transmit malaria

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Scientists have created genetically-modified mosquitoes that are incapable of spreading malaria

Last year, Prof. Anthony James announced that he and his colleagues had genetically altered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in a fashion that could drastically reduce their populations. In a nutshell, the altered genes cause the female mosquitoes to be born without wings – this makes it rather difficult for them to go foraging for blood, and turns them into easy prey for almost any predator. The non-biting males are born with wings, and subsequently go off and mate with unmodified females, passing the modified genes along to their offspring. Now, James has done some more genetic engineering, to create mosquitoes that can’t spread malaria.
The University of California, Irvine molecular biologist worked with colleagues from both UC Irvine, and the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
They started with mice that were infected with the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which causes malaria. Those mice created antibodies in order to kill the parasites. The scientists identified the molecular components of this immune response, then altered the genes of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito in order to cause the same response to occur in their bodies – ordinarily, mosquitoes simply act as carriers of the parasites, exhibiting no immune response towards them.
In short, parasites picked up by the mosquitoes are killed by the insects’ altered immune systems, meaning that people subsequently bitten by those mosquitoes won’t develop malaria. Although the study was done using Anopheles stephensi, the technique could reportedly be used on dozens of different types of mosquitoes.
Unlike James’ previous efforts involving the flightless females, this approach would not actually reduce the numbers of mosquitoes present in an area. Much as many people might like the idea of the eradication of mosquitoes, this could be a good thing – it’s still unclear how the sudden elimination of a species as plentiful as the mosquito might affect ecosystems. That said, of course, the wisdom of releasing genetically modified mosquitoes to breed with wild populations might also be questioned.
Given that approximately one million people die worldwide every year from malaria – which is spread mostly by mosquitoes – it’s a risk that some people may be willing to take. “We see a complete deletion of the infectious version of the malaria parasite,” said James. “This blocking process within the insect that carries malaria can help significantly reduce human sickness and death.”

Garbage-seeking waste basket moves to catch any trash thrown at it

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A Japanese inventor has built a waste basket that tracks garbage tossed in its general direction and then moves across the floor to catch it

We've all done it: you toss a piece of trash at a nearby waste basket only to have it ricochet off the edge, forcing you to make that shameful walk to go pick it up and drop it in carefully. You only have your own hand-eye coordination skills to blame, but if you think about it, shouldn't collecting trash be the garbage can's job? That certainly seems to be the thought process that led one Japanese inventor to construct a smart trash can that tracks garbage tossed in its general direction and then moves across the floor to catch it.
The "Smart Trashbox" was created by a modder known as FRP, who custom designed and built almost every component. A concealed wheel base on the bottom gives it a full range of motion, while a Kinect sensor - the go-to device for modders these days - mounted in the room tracks moving objects. The sensor monitors any garbage flying across the room, calculates where it will land, and instantly transmits the data to the waste basket. The final result is the trash can appears to glide quickly over the floor as it chases after any wayward garbage.
Right now, FRP is still working on improving the accuracy of the garbage-seeking device, but plans to patent it and possibly bring it to market for consumers. Hopefully this is just one step closer to the robotic garbage cans that sci-fi movies have been promising for years.
Be sure to check out the video below to see how Smart Trashbox was made and how well it catches flying beer cans and plush toys...
           http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NqDTE6dHpJw

New Google service lets users "zoom" through years of time-lapse satellite photos

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Using NASA Landsat imagery, Google Earth Engine now allows users to view fully interactive time-lapses spanning up to 13 years

A combined effort between researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Google provides users with easy access to 13 years of NASA Landsat imagery of the Earth’s surface. The new capability within Google Earth Engine lets users zoom in and out on any spot on the globe, moving back and forth in time between 1999 and 2011.

Although access to the Landsat program’s Earth imagery has been available to the public since 2008, the process of acquiring it has been difficult and cumbersome, due to the sheer volume of data involved.
Google has provided a solution to this problem through the creation of the world's largest library of hard-drive-based Landsat imagery, with more than 1.5 million images; it is a collection that is growing by thousands of images per day. Rebecca Moore, engineering manager of Google Earth Engine, said “The sheer volume of visual data is daunting to explore by conventional means … Together we can offer an intuitive, effortless method to explore the planet in space and time.".

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The technology can be used to show the rapid urbanization of Las Vegas

The new tool for Earth Engine is based on Carnegie Mellon’s GigaPan Time Machine technology. Originally built for use with GigaPan panoramic photographs, the program utilizes a special feature of HTML5 language, allowing for the development of a software architecture which makes it possible to smoothly shift from one video section to another. It does this without the requirement of plug-ins such as Adobe Flash.
When this is combined with the massively parallel computation power of Google’s Earth Engine, the image archive is transformed into zoomable videos that can be accessed with ease through a modern web browser.

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, 1999-2011

Randy Sargent, a system scientist in the Robotics Institute's CREATE Lab in Pittsburgh, commented on the significance of the new tool, predicting that it will help ground public discussions regarding land use, climate change and environmental policy. He stated “You can continue to argue about why deforestation has happened ... but you no longer will be able to argue whether it happened.”
Video demonstrations can be viewed on the Google Earth Engine website, and those using the Chrome and Safari web browsers can try out the time-lapse tool now. More information is available in the link below.
                http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ezn1ne2Fj6Y

Breakthrough allows inexpensive solar cells to be fabricated from any semiconductor

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Despite their ability to generate clean, green electricity, solar panels aren't as commonplace as the could be. The main sticking point, of course, is price. Due to their need for relatively expensive semiconductor materials, conventional solar cells don't yet have a price-efficiency combination that can compete with other sources of electricity. Now Profs. Alex Zettl and Feng Wang of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have developed seriously unconventional solar cell technology that allows virtually any semiconductor material to be used to create photovoltaic cells.
A solar cell works according to these steps. First, sunlight hits the solar cell and is absorbed by the semiconductor of which the solar cell is made. In the absorption process, electrons are freed from their atoms, allowing them to flow through the semiconductor. The presence of a p-n junction acts as a diode, only allowing the electrons to move in a single direction. (Electrons and holes move in opposite directions, but the electrical current only moves in one.) Metal electrodes then transfer the light-generated electron flow into an electric circuit for use. A p-n junction is the interface between a region of the semiconductor where the dominant charge carriers are holes and a region where the carriers are electrons.

How a solar cell works

A conventional solar cell is made of a thin wafer of a semiconductor with a metallic electrode deposited on its rear side. The side facing the light source is polished more finely than any optical lens, cleaned to the atomic level, and then dopant atoms are deposited onto the front side, whereupon the entire wafer is placed in a high-temperature diffusion furnace.
The purpose of a dopant is to change the dominant charge carrier in the semiconductor from hole-rich to electron-rich, or v.v. In this process the p-n junction that converts incident light into a flow of electrons is formed. Following diffusion, the wafer is again cleaned, and a metallic electrode is grown on the front surface, using arcane rituals to ensure an ohmic contact with the active semiconductor material. (An ohmic contact is an electrical contact that obeys Ohm's law, having no rectifying or diode-like properties.)
The efficiency of conventional solar cells is also limited by the semiconducting materials which are suitable for the manufacture of solar cells by some approximation of the above process. It must be possible for the dominant charge carrier of the semiconductor to be changed between p (hole) and n (electron)-dominated conduction by introduction of chemical dopants, so that a well-behaved p-n junction is formed. It must also be possible to make a satisfactory electrical contact between the electrodes and the semiconductor.
There are many semiconductor materials with optical properties and electronic band-gaps well suited to conversion of light to electricity for which one or another of the rather rigid criteria for manufacture of conventional solar cells fails. These include many metal oxides, sulfides and phosphides, which are plentiful and inexpensive, but have been considered unsuitable because it is so difficult to alter their electronic structure chemically (e.g., through doping). For example, zinc oxide is a semiconductor well suited for capturing violet and near ultraviolet light, which is wasted by most conventional solar cells.
We now have Zettl and Wang's unconventional solar cells. Broken down, the expensive parts of making regular solar cells are the semiconductor wafer, forming a high-quality p-n junction under the surface of the wafer, and making ohmic electrical contact with the front and back of the wafer. Aside from providing a semiconductor wafer (usually of a cheaper material), the new solar cells require none of this.
The new technology is called "screening-engineered field-effect photovoltaics" (SFPV). An electrode is deposited on the front of the semiconductor wafer, which partially screens the semiconductor from an electric field generated between the front and rear electrodes. Assume the semiconductor is naturally p-type, so that it has an excess of holes. The applied electric field then penetrates the semiconductor surface slightly, attracting electrons toward the surface and repelling holes. As a result, the semiconductor near the surface changes from p-type to n-type (electron-rich), and a buried p-n junction has been generated – not by chemistry, but by use of carefully tailored electric fields. An extra bonus is that the front electrode automatically forms an ohmic contact with the semiconductor wafer.
“Our technology requires only electrode and gate deposition, without the need for high-temperature chemical doping, ion implantation, or other expensive or damaging processes,” said lead author of a paper describing the new technology, William Regan. “The key to our success is the minimal screening of the gate field which is achieved through geometric structuring of the top electrode. This makes it possible for electrical contact to and carrier modulation of the semiconductor to be performed simultaneously.”

Two approaches to engineering the screening properties of SFPV electrodes - fingered electrodes on the left, graphene electrodes on the right

Two electrode configurations that exhibit the SFPV concept have been developed. In one, the electrode in contact with the semiconductor wafer is formed of a row of narrow fingers, while in the other the partial screening is accomplished by placing a layer of graphene atop the semiconductor wafer. In both cases, high-quality p-n junctions are formed in semiconductors for which this structure was previously impossible.

World's smallest revolver doesn't have the world's smallest price

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The .09 caliber (2.34 mm) SwissMiniGun is dwarfed in this man's hand (Photo: SwissMiniGun)

 
The first product of the SwissMiniGun company of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the C1ST is a miniature double-action (shoots each time you pull the trigger – no cocking of the gun required before shooting) six-shot revolver.
The level of detail on such a small gun is amazing – the Swiss gunsmiths are experienced in jewelry and watchmaking crafts, and have orders to produce works of art that happen to be fully functioning guns. (Photos of the gold and diamond versions appear in the image gallery

Exploded view of the SwissMiniGun C1ST revolver (Photo: SwissMiniGun)

The C1ST has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's smallest working revolver. (Full disclosure - the Xythos double-action six-shot revolver is smaller and uses 2 mm pinfire cartridges, but it is only designed for firing blanks.)

The SwissMiniGun (inset) was modeled after the style of the three-inch .357 Colt Python. The guns appear at their true relative sizes (Photo: SwissMiniGun and PremierArms.com)

The SwissMiniGun is similar to, although about 23 percent of the size of, the .357 Magnum Colt Python. Most of the dimensions scale properly with size:

• Revolver ..................Colt Python ...............SwissMiniGun
• Caliber .....................357 Magnum .............09 rimfire
• Length .....................9.25 in (23.5 cm) .......2.16 in (5.5 cm)
• Weight .....................2.65 lb (1.2 kg) ..........0.0044 lb (0.0198 kg)
• Barrel .......................3 in (7.6 cm) ..............0.7 in (1.8 cm)
• Cartridge length .......1.58 in (4.0 cm) .........0.36 in (0.91 cm)
• Bullet weight ............130 gr (8.4 g) .............2 gr (0.13 g)
• Muzzle velocity ........1400 fps (427 mps) ....400 fps (122 mps)
• Energy .....................580 ft-lbs (785 J) ........0.72 ft-lbs (0.97 J)

The C1ST revolver comes with a fine leather holster for unconcealed carry. If nothing else, it keeps the revolver from getting lost in your pocket change.

The C1ST SwissMiniGun revolver comes with a fitted holster for unconcealed carry - here seen dangling from a belt loop (Photo: SwissMiniGun)

"Since the product's launch three years ago, the firm had sold around 300 of the guns, mainly to collectors in the Middle and Far East," says Paul Erard, owner of SwissMiniGuns. "We are producing in very small quantities – perhaps 25 gold guns and 100 steel guns a year, and there is a six month waiting list to get one."
SwissMiniGuns will customize the pint-sized shooter to customer wishes. The options to date include guns made of gold (save for the chamber, spring, and barrel), ebony grips, diamonds in pave, colored precious stones, and the like. Photographs of such ornamented guns appear in the image gallery.
Ammunition? The C1ST is sold with 24 live 2.34 mm rimfire cartridges, costing a bit over $10 per round. This makes target shooting an expensive outing – oddly enough, only slightly less expensive than buying 600 Nitro Express rounds for the world's largest revolver, the Pfeifer-Zaliska 600 Nitro. This revolver weighs over 13 pounds (6.0 kg) and is 22 inches (55 cm) in length. At 3 1/2 inches in length, the 600 Nitro cartridge is about 60 percent longer than the entire C1ST, and weighs almost six times more.
The bad news for collectors living in the U.S. is that the C1ST cannot be imported legally. (Yes, that includes bringing it in on your keychain.) It is too small to pass the ATF's standards as a "sporting gun" and AFT import regulations are seriously discriminatory against foreign-built guns – neither of the U.S.-made guns mentioned in the first paragraph would be legal to import if of foreign manufacture.
Oh, right – the price. The C1ST SwissMiniGun sells for just over CHF6,500 (approx. US$6,705). No, not a gold and diamond version, just the basic gun. We told you to sit down.

New system saves time and money in locating leaks in water pipes

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Tracking down the source of a leak in water pipes can be a tricky business. Current techniques rely on acoustic sensing with microphones often used to identify noise resulting from pressurized water escaping the pipe. In plastic pipes in particular, that noise can fall away quickly, making leak detection difficult and time consuming. Researchers at the University of Sheffield claim to have developed a much more accurate system that locates leaks by sending a pressure wave along the pipe that sends back a signal if it passes any anomalies in the pipe’s surface.
The system, which can be fitted to a standard water hydrant, consists of a valve that is opened and closed rapidly to generate a pressure wave that is sent down the pipe. When this wave encounters any unexpected features, such as a leak or crack in the pipe’s surface, it sends back a reflection that can be analyzed to reveal the location and size of the leak. The system can be calibrated onsite, factoring in the size of the pipe and the speed of the pressure wave, to reliably and rapidly locate leaks.
The device was originally developed by a team at Sheffield University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering led by Professor Stephen Beck, which partnered with colleagues in the University’s Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, and Yorkshire Water to develop it into a prototype device.
In trials carried out at Yourkshire Water’s field operators training site in Bradford, the prototype device was able to locate leaks in cast iron pipes with an accuracy to within one meter (3.3 ft), while leaks in plastic pipes were located to within 20 cm (7.8 in).
"We are very excited by the results we’ve achieved so far,” said Dr James Shucksmith, in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield, who led the trial, the results of which appear in the Journal – American Water Works Association. “We are able to identify the location of leaks much more accurately and rapidly than existing systems are able to, meaning water companies will be able to save both time and money in carrying out repairs.
According to U.K.’s Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), between 20 and 40 percent of the total water supply of England and Wales can be lost through damaged pipes. And it’s a pretty safe assumption that water suppliers pass on the cost of that wasted water, as well as the costs incurred tracking down and repairing leaks, to the consumer somewhere along the line. Hopefully the time and money savings provided by the system invented at Sheffield University are also passed on to the consumer if and when the device gets widespread adoption.

Researchers restore vision to mice by unlocking retina’s neural code

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Retinal prostheses such as the Argus II, Bio-Retina and the Retina Implant AG microchip all work – more or less – by stimulating the retina’s ganglion cells with light-induced electrical signals. The images produced in the patient’s visual cortex tend to be quite rudimentary, however. This is partially because the rate at which the signals are sent isn’t the same as the rate of neural impulses normally produced by a retina. Now, researchers have deciphered the neural code used by mouse ganglion cells, and used it to create a prosthesis that reportedly restores normal vision to blind mice. They have additionally deciphered the neural code of monkeys, which is close to that used by humans, so a device for use by blind people could also be on the way.
The prosthesis was created by a team led by Dr. Sheila Nirenberg, a computational neuroscientist at New York City’s Weill Cornell Medical College. She noted that other approaches were looking mainly at ways in which more cells could be stimulated, either through electrodes or light-sensitive proteins. “Not only is it necessary to stimulate large numbers of cells, but they also have to be stimulated with the right code – the code the retina normally uses to communicate with the brain,” she said.
While researching the mouse neural code for another project, it occurred to her that it could be applied to a vision-restoring device. Working with a student, she programmed this code into a chip, which was subsequently combined with a mini projector. The chip converts images entering the eye into properly-coded electrical impulses, which are in turn converted into light impulses by the projector. Light-sensitive proteins placed on the mouse’s ganglion cells using gene therapy react to those light pulses, sending electrical code to the brain.
Tests indicated that blind mice using the prosthesis regained almost normal vision – they were able to discern faces, animals, natural scenes and various other images to about the same degree as would be possible with a regular, natural retina. They could also track moving images. When the same device was tested without the code, its performance wasn’t nearly as good.
“What these findings show is that the critical ingredients for building a highly-effective retinal prosthetic – the retina's code and a high resolution stimulating method – are now, to a large extent, in place,” said Nirenberg. “I can't wait to get started on bringing this approach to patients.”
A patent application for the technology has been filed, and human trials are being planned. Nirenberg envisions the human version of the device as being somewhat like the visor worn by Geordi LaForge on the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Curiosity goes for a test drive:

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The Curiosity rover has taken its first drive today on Mars. It wasn’t much of a road trip. The unmanned craft went about 15 feet (4.57 m), turned 120 degrees and then reversed about 8 feet (2.43 m). Curiosity is now about 20 feet (6.09 m) from its landing site, now named Bradbury Landing after the late author Ray Bradbury. That may not seem like much, but it was a successful test of Curiosity’s mobility and takes it a step (or a roll) closer to beginning its two-year mission to look for areas where life may have or does exist on the Red Planet.

Curiosity has been compared to a nuclear-powered 4x4. With its radiothermal generators, it certainly is nuclear powered and at seven feet (2.1 m) long and a weight of 1,982 pounds (899.02 kg) it’s big enough, but that’s where the resemblance ends. The rover’s mobility system, as NASA calls it, is a scaled up version of the system used on the Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers. It has six 20-inch (0.5 m) titanium-spoked aluminum wheels, each with its own electric motor and traction cleats to deal with rough terrain. All four corner wheels can be steered and all the wheels are mounted on a rocker-bogie system to keep them in contact with the ground regardless of how uneven the terrain.

Curiosity is not, however, built for speed. With a top speed of 0.085 mph (0.137 kph), it won’t break any records at the Nürburgring track, but its wheels put out very high torque to keep it from getting stuck in the sandy surface of Mars.

The test drive is the latest in the three-week shakedown that NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers have been putting Curiosity through since its landing on August 6th. On Monday, JPL engineers tested Curiosity’s wheels in preparation for today’s drive and the first weather reports from the rover were made public. Temperatures at Bradbury Landing have varied from 28ºF to -103ºF (-2ºC to -75ºC). Unfortunately, two of Curiosity’s three wind sensors are inoperative and JPL suspects that debris kicked up on landing may have damaged them. In addition, Curiosity took a peek at the Martian soil by shooting a beam of neutrons at the ground, and recorded the backscattered radiation that resulted.

Details of Curiosity's "hand" (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Also on Monday, Curiosity flexed its robotic arm for the first time. Though not as dramatic an episode as going for a spin, the arm is one of Curiosity's key systems. The 6.2-foot (1.88-m) arm has five degrees of movement and sports a formidable “hand” that weighs 73 pounds (33.11 kg). This hand is more properly referred to as a “turret” and contains a remarkable tool kit. The tools include a drill for boring into rocks and collecting powdered samples; an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS); a sample processing subsystem called the Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA), which is a sort of glorified scoop; the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), which is a digital magnifying glass; and, the Dust Removal Tool (DRT), a kind of high-tech brush for sweeping dust off of rocks.

Once all the tests are complete and the green light is given, Curiosity will head for an area known as Glenelg on the first leg of a journey that will take it across twelve miles (19.3 km) of Martian desert. At least, that’s the official distance. Given how previous rovers have outlived their mission span, that could be just a start.

The video below is a NASA/JPL animation showing the stages of the Curiosity mission.

Source: NASA

Honda introduces its newest robot, and it cuts your lawn for you

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Is mowing the lawn one of those household chores that you absolutely dread? Well, Honda is offering a new product in Europe designed to make it so you never have to walk behind a lawn mower again. The Honda Miimo is Honda’s entry into the growing robotic lawn mower market.

• Honda’s announcement comes hot on the heels of Bosch showing off its Indego mower. The Auto-Mower, Robby Garden XP, Evolution, and Robomow are some of the other examples of robotic lawn mowers to emerge in recent years. It is clear that this industry is growing at an exponential rate, and Honda is making sure to throw its name into the hat.

The Miimo uses what Honda calls a “ continuous cutting” system that cuts about three millimeters of grass at a time. All cutting happens in varied patterns, which is designed to put less stress on the grass and keep your lawn healthier. You can choose between three cutting modes. Random mode sees the mower navigate your lawn with no particular pattern. Directional mode sees the mower moving back and forth in a more logical pattern. The third option, called mixed mode, switches between random and directional.

The Honda Miimo hanging with with Honda's other robot, ASIMO

The Miimo is also designed to cut the clippings extra fine, so there is no need to bag the grass that it cuts. This is supposed to help improve your lawn by having the clippings break down quickly and act a natural fertilizer. Because this is a mower designed to work with minimal human interaction, having to go outside and collect bags of grass would diminish that a great deal.

According to Honda, the Miimo “navigates the garden through an intelligent combination of controls, timers and real-time sensory feedback.” It knows the limits of your yard with a boundary wire that is installed either underground or in the grass. The wire sends an electronic signal to the Miimo and tells it to stay within that area. I am sure your neighbors would love a free lawn mowing from your robot, but I think most people would prefer to keep their mower working on their own yard.

The Miimo is equipped with a lithium-ion battery. It is aware of its battery levels and it will return to its docking station when it has a low battery.

The cutting height is adjustable between 20 and 60 mm (0.8 and 2.4 inches), depending on the time of year and needs of your lawn. During the hot parts of the summer, it is generally wise to leave the grass a little on the longer side to help prevent the lawn from burning.

The Miimo has a couple of unique features that Honda hopes will help it stand above the competition. The first of these is the fan that resides above the blades. This helps suck grass towards the blades and should offer a cleaner cut. Additionally, the mower's three blades are flexible, designed to bend on impact with a hard object instead of breaking.

The Miimo will hit the market in early 2013 in two different models. The first model, known as the 300, offers a 300-meter (984-foot) perimeter cut. The 500 brings a 500-meter (1,640-foot) perimeter cutting area to the table. As a point of reference, Honda cites that the 500 can cut an area equal to approximately half of a football (soccer) field.