GLIMPSES OF THE
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LED In Valve Cap Warns Of Low Tyre Pressure A patented new device makes it easier for commercial vehicle operators to efficiently check the tyre pressures of their fleet. The Dutch-invented P-eye monitoring device replaces the tyre valve cap and monitors the preset minimum tyre pressure. If the tyre pressure drops more than 5 per cent below the ideal pressure the LED lamp starts blinking and the trucker can top up the pressure when he stops next. So why can't we have them for cars? Boeing Tests Plane Powered By Fuel Cells A plane driven by electricity and powered by a hydrogen fuel cell has been successfully flown by Boeing researchers in Madrid, Spain. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts hydrogen directly into electricity and heat with none of the products of combustion such as carbon dioxide. Other than heat, water is its only exhaust. A two-seat Dimona motor-glider with a 16.3 meter (53.5 foot) wingspan was modified by Boeing engineers to include a cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system to power an electric motor coupled to a conventional propeller. During the test flights, the pilot of the experimental airplane climbed to an altitude of 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above sea level using a combination of battery power and power generated by hydrogen fuel cells. Then, after reaching the cruise altitude and disconnecting the batteries, the pilot flew straight and level at a cruising speed of 100 kilometres per hour (62 miles per hour) for approximately 20 minutes on power solely generated by the fuel cells. World's First Commercial Tidal Power Station Nears Completion Marine Current Turbines of Bristol, U.K. has completed the first installation phase of the 1.2MW SeaGen Tidal System at Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough - a site chosen for its combination of fast tidal current and ability to provide shelter from bad weather which may hinder the construction process. It is expected that the breakthrough power plant will be operational around mid-year with its massive 16m diameter twin rotors harnessing the tides to produce the equivalent amount of energy it takes to power 1000 homes. After its final assembly at the Harland & Wolff dockyard in Belfast last month, the crane barge “Rambiz” positioned the 1000 tonne structure onto the seabed 400m from the shoreline where it will be secured by four pins drilled to a depth of around nine meters. Wireless Network '1,000 Times Faster' Video footage has been transmitted using a terahertz wireless signal for the first time. Although the link spanned just 22 metres it marks a significant step towards using much faster chunks of wireless spectrum, by harnessing radio waves oscillating a trillion times per second. The speed at which wireless data can be transferred is limited by the vibration rate of radio waves. Today's fastest wireless technologies, including WiFi and third generation (3G) mobile networks, operate in the ranges of gigahertz (a billion times per second) and megahertz (a million times a second) respectively. Using terahertz bandwidth – which ranges from 300GHz to 3 terahertz (THz) – could offer a 1000 fold increase in transmission speed and should open up new frequencies for communication. The as yet untapped terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum lies between microwaves and visible light. Nanovalve May Improve Drug Delivery A new nanovalve that opens in response to pH changes in the human body could serve as the basis of a targeted drug delivery system. By filling a tiny, porous silica sphere with a drug and then plugging the pores with the valves, researchers can use pH changes (change in the level of acidity) to control the drug's release. The pH of healthy and diseased tissues often differs, meaning that the spheres could be designed to release the drug in diseased tissue only.
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Beware: Chemotherapy Drugs May Cause 'Long-Term' Brain Impairment A commonly used chemotherapy drug causes healthy brain cells to die off long after treatment has ended and may be one of the underlying biological causes of the cognitive side effects – or 'chemo brain' – that many cancer patients experience. That is the conclusion of a study published in the Journal of Biology. A team of researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and Harvard Medical School have linked the widely used chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to a progressing collapse of populations of stem cells and their progeny in the central nervous system. The scientists conducted a similar series of experiments in which they exposed both individual cell populations and mice to doses of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in amounts comparable to those used in cancer patients. The drug, which is often administered in a 'cocktail' with other chemotherapy drugs, is currently used to treat breast, ovarian, stomach, colon, pancreatic and other forms of cancer. The researchers discovered that months after exposure, specific populations of cells in the central nervous – oligodendrocytes and dividing precursor cells from which they are generated – underwent such extensive damage that, after six months, these cells had all but disappeared in the mice. Carbon Emissions Turned Into Plastics?Chemists are investigating ways to use carbon dioxide removed from chimney and smokestack emissions to make a raw material for the production of DVDs, CD-ROMs, beverage bottles and other products made from polycarbonate plastics. Apart from the benefits in terms of combating climate change, using CO2 normally released the atmosphere as a feedstock for the chemical industry, and therefore turning a myriad of plastic products into a kind of 'carbon sink', the process could offer consumers less expensive, and safer production methods. The new methodologies have been outlined in separate presentations at the 235th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society by chemists Thomas E. Müller, Ph.D., and Toshiyasu Sakakura, Ph.D. U.S. Military Intends To Grow Spare Parts For Humans America's Department of Defense has announced the creation of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, which will go by the happy acronym AFIRM. According a press release AFIRM will 'harness stem cell research and technology … to reconstruct new skin, muscles and tendons, and even ears, noses and fingers.' The U.S. government is budgeting $250 million in public and private money for the project's first five years. Hybrid Refuse Trucks Hit The Streets In Sweden Volvo has announced that Swedish refuse collection firms Renova and Ragn-Sells will begin regular daily testing of two of the company's hybrid refuse trucks ahead of a market launch in 2009. Using a 7-litre diesel engine and an electric motor that utilizes regenerative braking, the trucks are capable of delivering fuel (and therefore emissions) savings of 20 percent. The testing represents the final stage in development the Volvo's hybrid heavy vehicle project. Music Software Can Analyse Chords And Recreate Them A new piece of software called Direct Note Access, first publicly demonstrated last month, will for the first time allow computers to analyse the digitised sounds of guitar or piano chords, or even multi-instrument recordings, and then extract and modify individual notes. Computers have revolutionized the recording process, giving sound engineers wide latitude to manipulate notes recorded singly - to change their pitch, their tempo, or where they fall. But teasing apart notes recorded simultaneously, as in a six-string guitar chord, has never before been practical. ...although the process was accurately forecast in my 1982 book 'The Musician and The Micro'. Back issues of 'Glimpses' are archived here. |