Air-powered Battery

Researchers at Scotland's University of St. Andrews are reporting great progress in their work on the air-powered battery, which is being designed to replace the lithium cobalt oxide electrode in the fuel cell.
The "STAIR" (St. Andrews Air) battery will run on all renewable sources, including solar, wind, and oxygen.
Within the next five years we could see electric cars that can run far longer on one charge than on a tank or two of gas. Your computer and cell phone batteries could last for several days without charging... while they are in use.

New Treatment for Knee Injuries

MIT engineers have built a new tissue scaffold that can stimulate bone and cartilage growth when transplanted into knees and other joints, potentially offering a more effective, less expensive – and painful – option to more conventional therapies.
The scaffold developed by MIT has two layers, one that mimics bone and another that mimics cartilage. When implanted into a joint, the scaffold can stimulate mesenchymal stem cells in the bone marrow to produce new bone and cartilage.
The researchers demonstrated the scaffold's effectiveness in a 16-week study involving goats. In the study, the scaffold successfully stimulated bone and cartilage growth after being implanted in the goats' knees. Although the technology is still limited to small defects, using scaffolds roughly 8 mm (0.3-inches) in diameter, the scaffold offers a potential new treatment for sports injuries and other cartilage damage, such as arthritis.

The Hospital on Wheels

Mercedes-Benz have developed "clinic buses" for the Government of Dubai. These mini-hospitals on wheels were developed so rapid medical assistance can be given in the event of major emergencies.
Of the three observation bays in the bus, one can be converted into a fully-functioning operating theatre. The buses are equipped with an ECG, an InSpectra shock monitor, an x-ray machine and ultrasonic equipment.
The buses can also be equipped with storage units containing generators, tents for the treatment of more injury victims, decontamination systems and an oxygen concentrator.

New Discoveries at Mercury

Mercury's magnetic field is "alive." Volcanic vents ring the planet's giant Caloris Basin. And Mercury has shrunk in on itself more than previously suspected.
These are just a few of the new discoveries by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which flew past Mercury on January 14, 2008. The results are described in a series of 11 papers published in a special July 4th issue of Science magazine.
Six of the papers in Science report studies of the planet's surface--its colors, mineralogy, and the shape of its terrain. For instance, the color enhanced image below reveals evidence of volcanic vents along the margins of Caloris basin, one of the Solar System's largest and youngest impact basins:
"By combining Mariner 10 and MESSENGER data, the science team was able to reconstruct a comprehensive geologic history of the entire Caloris basin interior," says James Head of Brown University, lead author of one of the Science reports. "The basin was formed from an impact by an asteroid or comet during a period of heavy bombardment in the first billion years of Solar System history. As with the lunar maria, a period of volcanic activity followed, producing lava flows that filled the basin interior. This volcanism is responsible for the comparatively light, red material of the interior plains intermingled with [newer] impact crater deposits."
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Generating Electricity from Moving Vehicles

A company called New Energy Technologies, Inc. has designed a system called MotionPower which can trap kinetic energy drivers generate simply by driving over an energy-capturing device on the road.
The MotionPower system is designed to be installed at high traffic locations such as tollbooths, traffic intersections, rest areas, travel plazas, restaurant and bank drive-thrus, border crossings, and neighborhoods with traffic calming zones.
New Energy engineers have built and tested the first prototype, and are working to optimize the efficiency of the system that can potentially produce energy from the 250 million vehicles on the road in the US.

Inventive Reading Glasses

These LED Light Reading Glasses or inventive reading glasses have ultra-bright LED lights built into each corner of the lens frame. In the frame are four batteries that power the glasses for up to 30 hours.
These glasses have an edge over small book-lights as they do not move or fall out of place and don't have to be moved every time a page is turned.
These headlamp-in-glasses are also useful for using a computer keyboard at night and also for finding things in small, dark places.

Making Urine Drinkable

This device was created for emergency areas and areas with unclean water, and turns urine into drinkable water.
The device uses a fairly simple Activated Carbon filter to remove the taste and color from the urine, and a housing underneath stores the resulting water.

Flexible, Extremely Thin Loudspeakers

Extremely flat, flexible loudspeakers have been designed by Warwick Audio Technologies. They bend easily, they could adapt to whatever space they're being installed in. Conventional stereo speakers use vibrating electromagnetic drivers to produce sound, whereas these speakers operate using a flexible laminate composed of a series of conducting and insulating materials. The laminate vibrates when an electrical audio signal is introduced and the speakers create a directional sound wave based on the audio signal. Warwick also says that the technology is easy and inexpensive to manufacture.

Shark-Shaped Submarine

Fabien Cousteau (the grandson of the famous Jacques Cousteau) has developed a submarine that is shape like a shark. This allows a diver to interact and study sharks in their own habitat. The 14-foot long shark sub mimics the movement of a real great white shark - when submerged, the sub is flooded with water, making in necessary for the diver/pilot to wear a wet suit.Cousteau hopes that this new device will help other scientists to delve further into the study of sharks.

Telescope snaps most distant object

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers tracking a mysterious blast of energy called a gamma ray burst said on Tuesday they had snapped a photograph of the most distant object in the universe -- a smudge 13 billion light-years away.

Hawaii's Gemini Observatory caught the image earlier this month after a satellite first detected the burst.

"Our infrared observations from Gemini immediately suggested that this was an unusually distant burst, these images were the smoking gun," said Edo Berger of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Distortions in the light signature of the object show it is 13 billion years old -- at the speed of light, 13 billion light-years away. A light-year is 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).

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Air-Conditioned Bed

Kuchofuku and Itochu have developed a mattress with a built-in air conditioning system.

A fan located at the foot of the mattress pulls in air from behind the sleeper's head drawing off body heat, and transporting it out of the bed.

According to the makers, operating the mattress for eight hours results in about 13 cents in monthly electricity costs, which is way less than using an air conditioner that cools an entire room. The best part is that the mattress can be used in winter as well, as buyers get a heater with the mattress.

Running eight hours a day, the system will generate only about 13 yen in — much cheaper than using an air conditioner to cool an entire bedroom. The mattress goes on sale in May in Japan in May and costs $300.

Zip-up Earbuds

These innovative iPod earbuds have an integrated zipper which helps keep the cables from getting tangled.

To use the headphones, you unzip them to use, then zip them back up to store them away. The cables don't get tangled, and also the zipper can take up the extra slack when they are being worn.

The volume control is integrated right into the zipper pull.

Hand Exerciser Helps Arthritis Patients

This "hand fitness trainer" strengthens your muscles and joints, resisting repetitive stress injuries and slowing the progression of osteoarthritis.The device, which was a recipient of the Medical Design Excellence Award, fits over your hand like a glove. As you open up your fingers, the adjustable elastic bands that extend from the palm to your finger tips offer resistance, strengthening the muscles of the hand, wrist, and elbow.

Gardens on the Moon

Groundbreaking advancements in the realm of space engineering may see the moon sown with the first gardens to grow on the lunar surface by 2012.

As part of the Google Lunar X Prize, Paragon Space Development Corporation has recently teamed with Odyssey Moon to develop a pressurized mini greenhouse to deploy on the surface of the moon, grow a plant from seed, and hopefully see it flower and seed itself. This marks a critical stage of development for extending life beyond the confines of our planet.

In order to successfully grow a plant on the moon, Paragon has developed a very specialized greenhouse that can safely contain a plant and provide it with all elements it needs to survive.

The greenhouse will need to protect the plant from the sun’s intense rays while providing it with enough water, balanced soil, and carbon dioxide while removing its waste oxygen. They are basically creating a space suit for the plant.

2010 Audi

Although media focus has shifted to its smaller Q5 crossover, Audi hasn't forgotten about the larger Q7. The 2010 model, debuting at this week's 2009 Shanghai motor show, sports a few small repairs, helping it fit in with Audi's heavily-revised portfolio.
If you're a fan of the Q7's physical form, you'll be elated to know the crossover's shape doesn't change for 2010. Exterior changes are limited, with the largest revision being revised front and rear bumper skins. Others, notably the new grille insert and LED daytime running lamps, help bring the Q7 in line with the company's current design ethic.

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Efficient Designs Reduce Drag By 60% to 80%!

Aircraft, trucks, autos, ducted fans and vacuum cleaners that undergo this new, completely efficient design for drag reduction (air friction) may decrease their drag by 60% to 80%, while also increasing engine power and speed. There are two main design features:

1) Rear fuselage/body drag reduction devices.

2) Engine intake manifold and exhaust flow system.

The rear foil designs have been tested and results prove to initially reduce the rear aerodynamic drag coefficients by 64% for a six ton diesel truck. The foils increased acceleration and speeds for uphill climbs, cruise and top speeds and reduced a seven hour trip to five hours.