Superconductor Electricity Pipelines to be Adopted for America's First Renewable Energy Market Hub

American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC - News), a global energy technologies company, today announced that Superconductor Electricity Pipelines have been chosen for The Tres Amigas Project, the nation’s first renewable energy market hub. Superconductor Electricity Pipelines comprise transmission-level direct current (DC) superconductor power cables powered by AMSC high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire and high-powered voltage-source AC/DC power converters.

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Conair Uses Its Own RFID Solutions to Expedite Shipments

The U.S. supplier of personal-grooming and kitchen appliances plans to have all of its factories apply EPC Gen 2 tags to individual products by the end of 2010, and is launching a new RFID-based cargo seal.

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Improved redox flow batteries for electric cars

A new type of redox flow battery presents a huge advantage for electric cars. If the rechargeable batteries are low, the discharged electrolyte fluid can simply be exchanged at the gas station for recharged fluid -- as easy as refilling the petrol tank.

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Tiny technology may yield major finds -- and possible perils

Imagine a particle so small it would take a million of them to stretch across the period at the end of this sentence. Imagine such particles could help catch cancer cells floating in your bloodstream before they could metastasize to the liver, bones, brain or other organs. Or replace the insulin-making cells of your pancreas to cure diabetes. Or, conversely, attack the linings of your lungs with the lethality of asbestos.

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Navy Plans Robotic Barnacle Buster

To help save energy on warships, the navy might one day deploy underwater robots that help vessels conserve fuel by scrubbing their hulls clean to make them cut through the water better.

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Hand Washing Detectors Could Save Lives

New health care technology could sniff out one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

HyGreen hand hygiene sensors, developed at the University of Florida, can detect whether doctors and health care workers have followed hand-washing procedures before making contact with patients.

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Textron XM1100 Scorpion Completes Simulated Urban Environment Tests

Textron Defense Systems, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced today that its XM1100 Scorpion networked sensor and munitions platform has completed a test series focused on demonstrating the system's capabilities in urban environments.

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Boeing SDB II Successfully Engages Target in Flight Test

The Boeing [NYSE: BA] GBU-40 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) II team successfully concluded a 42-month risk reduction program on Sept. 29 with a flight test in which the weapon impacted its target.

"Our design, development and testing have resulted in a highly capable, robust system that not only meets the needs of today's warfighters, but also has the capacity to adapt to the unknowns of tomorrow's threats and operational conditions," said Debra Rub, Weapons Programs vice president.

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Nissan Scrambles to Create EV Charging Stations

Nissan is planning to roll out thousands of electric vehicles next year and is rushing to establish a network of charging stations where owners can plug in to keep them going.

The Japanese automaker is working with Ecotality to bring 11,210 chargers and 4,700 Nissan Leaf electric cars to five states — Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and Tennessee. Ecotality is getting a big assist from the Department of Energy, which has granted the Arizona company $99.8 million to underwrite The Electric Vehicle Project. Ecotality calls it “the largest deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in history.”

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Digi Launches Industry's First Fleet Management Telematics Device Family Featuring Five Different Wireless Technologies

Digi International (NASDAQ: DGII) today introduced the ConnectPort X5 family of compact, ruggedized telematics devices with optional satellite functionality. The product family is the industry's first family of telematics devices to incorporate cellular, satellite, global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi and vehicle area network (VAN) wireless technology in one device.

Ideal for fleet management and asset tracking applications.

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Object recognition system

MIT researchers claim to have developed a computer that can recognise objects using a newly developed algorithmic technique.

Their object recognition system could allow computers in the future to automatically search through hours of video footage for a particular two-minute scene.

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5 Companies Making Fuel From Algae Now

Ubiquitous and easy to grow, algae has long been a promising biomass-to-fuel candidate in the eyes of researchers. Now algae is a burgeoning sector in biofuels with several high-profile start-ups, including Craig Venter’s Synthetic Genomics, and the interest of big-time investors like Bill Gates and ExxonMobil. Of course, hurdles still exist to make a competitive fuel. Algal biofuels still cost too much to produce—over $8 a gallon (pdf), according to the DOE. Furthermore, most existing strains do not yield oil in the quantities needed to quickly scale up to commercial production of biofuels. Companies also need to worry about contaminating local ecosystems and the amount of water needed to grow cultures in large batches.

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Hydrogen-Powered Navy UAV Shatters Flight Endurance Record

While most research directed at improving UAVs focuses on upgrading their weapons or sensor packages, the Naval Research Laboratory is also working to ensure that the next generation of killer drones are as fuel-efficient as they are deadly. And a recent test of their hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered Ion Tiger UAV proves how successful they have been: it staid aloft for just shy of 24 hours on a single fuel load.

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Dyson's Bladeless Airfoil Desk Fan Ends the Menace of Choppy Air

Ever since Schuyler Skaats Wheeler introduced the first axial-bladed electric desk fan in 1882, fan technology has remained remarkably conservative. But that classic bladed design wasn't good enough for the innovative people at Dyson. With their new desk fan, Dyson has thrown out over a hundred years of axial desk fan technology to create the first fan that provides a continuous stream of smooth air.

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Researchers Developing Cockroach-Inspired Robots, Cheetah-Bots

Dynamic locomotion is "really limited still," and the robots that can crawl over rough terrain are small and often go slow. So Kim's aiming for a bigger, legged robot that could run fast, like a cheetah.

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Afghan desert the enemy for US armoured vehicles

These vehicles were not really made for the terrain here. They are more designed for Iraq.

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LockMart Flies First 360-degree Infrared Sensor On Small UAS

Lockheed Martin recently completed a successful test of a new infrared sensor turret aboard its Desert Hawk III Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), marking the first time a small UAS has flown with a 360-degree infrared sensor.

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