Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting

To change the bulbs in the 60-foot-high ceiling lights of Buckingham Palace’s grand stairwell, workers had to erect scaffolding and cover precious portraits of royal forebears.

So when a lighting designer two years ago proposed installing light emitting diodes or LEDs, an emerging lighting technology, the royal family readily assented. The new lights, the designer said, would last more than 22 years and enormously reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions — a big plus for Prince Charles, an ardent environmentalist. Since then, the palace has installed the lighting in chandeliers and on the exterior, where illuminating the entire facade uses less electricity than running an electric teakettle.

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F-22 Raptor Program: Will we learn from it?

While Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ decision to halt production of the costly Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor low-observable/stealth fighter aircraft is perhaps not the best long-term strategic decision he could have made, it’s certainly understandable. Given the U.S. government’s–and thus DoD’s–current money crunch vs. the program’s high cost and lack of current combat-utility in Iraq and “Stan” (Afghanistan), cutting the Raptor program’s reported $3.5 billion per year cost certainly has some logic to it. Some programs simply have to go, and we might as well start with the expensive ones that don’t have any seeming immediate tactical or strategic utility for the two wars we’re currently fighting, right? Let’s face it, air superiority is not exactly an issue right now in either theater. We’ve got the air, and we don’t need F-22s to maintain it.

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Vehicles That Drive Themselves

The autonomous vehicle navigation technology may make life more convenient if it allows people to enjoy a good book or movie while their cars guide themselves through rush-hour traffic.

Wende Zhang of General Motors designed the vehicle that drives itself, which has an average speed of approximately 13 miles per hour.

The GM team drew upon existing technology already offered in some of their vehicles that can assist in parking or detect lane markers and trigger alarms if the drivers are coming too close to the shoulder of the road.

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Europe’s Fastest Supercomputer Unveiled in Germany

A new supercomputer having the power of 50,000 home PCs, the third worldwide and the fastest in Europe, was unveiled on Tuesday in Germany.

The new supercomputer “Jugene,” capable of 1,000,000,000,000,000 (one quadrillion) calculations per second, ranks behind the “Roadrunner” and “Jaguar” computers in the US, said Kosta Schinarakis from the Juelich research centre.

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U.S. company finds "safer" way to make stem-like cells

U.S. researchers said on Thursday they had come up with the safest way yet to make stem-like cells using a patient's ordinary skin cells, this time by using pure human proteins.

The team at Harvard University and Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology Inc said their technique involves soaking cells in human proteins that turn back the clock biologically, making the cells behave like powerful embryonic stem cells.

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AT&T, Verizon Racing To Rollout 4G Wireless

AT&T's decision to accelerate its ramp up of Long Term Evolution (LTE) will likely prematurely place it in a head-to-head competition withVerizon Wireless.

Verizon Wireless, which is already racing to install the super-high-speed LTE wireless infrastructure, is a year ahead in the deployment race.

AT&T this week put a favorable spin on its move by saying that "most industry overseers expect 4G LTE networks and device availability to scale" in the 2011 to 2012 timeframe. Verizon Wireless, of course, has said it plans to begin LTE rollouts later this year with widespread commercial deployment to take place in 2010.

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Trilliant Acquires SkyPilot Networks to Streamline Smart Grid Communications

There are few battles fiercer in the cleantech business than the holy war currently being waged over which communications and networking technologies will prevail in smart grid deployments.

Wide area networking technologies are integral to the fabric of smart grids, and will be essential elements of any electric utility's smart grid program. Current utility communication systems are highly fragmented, purpose-built for specific applications, and often based on proprietary technologies. However, the prevailing winds are blowing in the direction of more unified architectures that utilize two-way, low-latency, standards-based networking technologies that are scalable and flexible to support a variety of applications using varying bit rates.

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The New Great Race - Tesla versus Clarity

Listening to battery enthusiasts wax poetic about the Tesla recently - - and seeing a few of them appearing on the streets of west Los Angeles - - I began thinking about the old Tony Curtis film “The Great Race” (remember every time he smiled, there was a shiny sparkle of superiority that gleamed from his teeth?). The roads and Holiday Inns have improved dramatically since the period depicted in the movie, but the idea of testing the claims of exciting new technology at the dawn of a new transportation age is very much the same. So let’s have a 21st Century “Great Race” and pit the Tesla against the other electric car on the market today, the Honda Clarity.

The Tesla is an electric sports car powered by batteries, while the Clarity is an electric sedan powered by hydrogen (a fuel cell converts the hydrogen to electricity). The range of each is rated by USEPA-approved testing at about 230 miles. The similarities end there however - - the Tesla is the fastest production car ever built at zero to 60 mph, giving the little hot rod a distinct advantage that would seem to make a race with a Clarity anything but “great”. Or would it?

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Metal Storm Completes MAUL Weapon Demonstration

Weapons developer Metal Storm Limited today announced that Metal Storm Inc. has successfully completed a Live Fire Demonstration under a contract with the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The demonstration was conducted at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in front of United States military and key defence industry figures.

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Barnacle busters

North Carolina State University engineers have created a non-toxic coating for use on ship hulls that resisted build-up of troublesome barnacles during 18 months of seawater tests - a finding that could ultimately save boat owners millions of dollars in cleaning and fuel costs.

he research, conducted by Dr Kirill Efimenko, a research assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Dr Jan Genzer, a professor in the same department, showed for the first time that surface coatings containing nests of different-sized 'wrinkles' are effective in preventing barnacles from firmly latching on to the coatings.

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WaterMill Gathers Drinking Water from Moisture in the Air

British Columbia–based Element Four helps ease water shortages by pulling moisture straight out of the air. Engineered for muggy outdoor environments or humid indoor rooms, the wall-mountable WaterMill constantly adjusts to the ambient dew point. As with most dehumidifiers, fans pull in air, then the water vapor within condenses as it flows across metal coils.

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A Look Inside NASA's Custom Hubble Repair Toolkit

The mission was intensive, especially considering almost all of the repairs that were performed during a series of TK spacewalks were on parts that were never intended to be serviced by astronauts in space. Equally intense (and beautiful) are the 180 tools NASA employed for the job--with 116 of them created specifically for this mission.

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"World's highest resolution production video projector" to debut next month

Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. (Salt Lake City, UT) says it will demonstrate its new laser projection system, boasting "fidelity that exceeds the limits of the human eye," at InfoComm 2009 (June 17-19, Orlando, FL). The system, called E&S Laser Projector (ESLP 8K), will begin shipping later this year. According to the company it is the world's highest resolution production video projector.

The ESLP 8K laser projector system displays content the equivalent to 16 times HD 1080p resolution--or the difference between 2 million and 32 million pixels. It is powered by a set of laser light sources that offer multiple benefits, including low cost of operation. E&S claims that the lasers' hue does not degrade or shift over time, and that they yield a much wider useable color spectrum (200% of NTSC/HDTV) than is available in conventional LCoS, DLP, LCD, or other lamp-illuminated projectors.

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Phalanx And The Centurion

The U.S. Navy has upgraded the radar and heat sensors on its Phalanx CIWS (Close In Weapons System) so that that the sensors can detect speedboats, small aircraft and naval mines. The upgrades will cost $4.7 million per system. Of the 57 systems being upgraded to this Block B standard, 17 of them are the land based, Centurion, version of Phalanx.

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AT&T says faster wireless coming by year's end

AT&T Inc. plans to upgrade to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 wireless networking technology later this year, offering faster network speeds to new compatible laptop cards and smartphones due to be released at the same time, the company said in a statement today.

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A Widescreen Laser Projector In Your Pocket

Redmond based company Microvision is in the last stages of developing and releasing a portable, laser-based projector, code-named 'Show WV.' The projector has a resolution of 848 by 400 pixels (WVGA) and, since it uses laser-scanning rather than LCD to form the images, it does not require a lens to focus, allowing it to display images virtually in any surface.

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Renewable diesel

Neste Oil has begun building a €670m (£582m) renewable diesel plant in the Port of Rotterdam, which, once completed, will be the largest facility of its kind in Europe.

It will have an annual production capacity of 800,000 metric tonnes of diesel.
The plant will make use of the company's proprietary process that converts vegetable oils and animal fats into its so-called NExBTL renewable diesel.

The properties of the NExBTL diesel are similar to the best existing diesels, such as GTL or Swedish Environmental Class 1 fuels; NExBTL is sulphur-, oxygen-, nitrogen- and aromatic-free and has a very high cetane number.

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Saab To Start Flight-Testing Civil Missile Detector

The first customer for a new European-developed civil anti-missile detection system is about to start flight trials aboard one of the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia aircraft that it is destined to enter service on this year.

By coincidence, the May 21 announcement by Saab Aviatronics came just hours after the potential threat to aircraft posed by man-portable anti-air weapons was thrust back into the limelight by the arrest in New York of alleged terrorists attempting to acquire Stinger missiles.

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Picatinny ‘rolls out’ new version of SPARK IED-defeat product

This year troops in Iraq and Afghanistan received improved technology to help them combat one of the greatest threats to Soldiers in theater.

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have been responsible for approximately 40 percent of all US casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Lt. Col. Karl Borjes, Product Manager for Improvised Explosive Device Defeat/Protect Force.

To help reduce this danger, Borjes’ office oversees technology programs, such as the Self-Protection Adaptive Roller Kit, or SPARK, which provides Soldiers products to mitigate and prevent effects of IED strikes.

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Lockheed Martin GPS III Team Successfully Completes Major Design Review Phase On Schedule

The Lockheed Martin team developing the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) spacecraft, known as GPS III, has successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) phase, a major program milestone that allows the team to begin the Critical Design Review (CDR) stage.

Lockheed Martin, Newtown, PA., along with teammates ITT, Clifton, NJ., and General Dynamics of Gilbert, AZ., completed a comprehensive spacecraft segment PDR, which represented the culmination of 70 subsystem and assembly PDRs, executed over the past six months.

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Smart Wind Turbines to Switch Shapes

Today's wind turbines are like race cars with one gear. Slow off the line and crippled at high speeds, the turbines are effective at generating electricity only within a sweet spot of moderate wind speeds.

Scientists from Purdue University want to change this by creating intelligent wind turbines that shape-shift with the wind. These smart wind turbines would help maximize the amount of electricity generated by wind power while ensuring longer life spans for wind turbines.

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Boeing Wins $250M Special Ops Contract for ScanEagle ISR Services

Boeing announced today that it recently received a contract from U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) services using the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The contract has a potential value of $250 million.

Under the new agreement, Boeing and its subsidiary Insitu Inc. will operate, maintain and support ScanEagle systems for the Special Operations Forces Mid Endurance Unmanned Aircraft System (MEUAS) program for the next five years.

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Joint High Speed Vessel Milestone Reached

Austal has taken a significant step towards commencing construction of the US Department of Defense's next generation multi-use platform - the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) - after successfully completing the Initial Critical Design Review (ICDR).During the ICDR, Austal provided a comprehensive summary of the critical areas of the JHSV design for US Navy approval. The successful completion of the ICDR means Austal is now proceeding towards the project's next critical milestone - the Final Critical Design Review.

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GPS Tracking Device records every second of vehicle status

Rocky Mountain Tracking, Inc. (RMT) has released to the public what may be the most innovative device yet, the Trac-King (GPS Tracking) device. The Trac-King is a convenient and portable-passive GPS powered by two AA batteries; the Trac-King is able to record up to 80 hours of continuous movement on a single battery cycle.According to RMT's president Brad Borst, "The Trac-King is one of the most inventive and user-friendly GPS devices on the market today, because of its design and incredible software functionality." The Trac-King is a more advanced version of the Tracking Key and 3100, which are passive devices that RMT has sold about 12,000 of over the past couple years. The Trac-King tracks every second, within a few meters accuracy, and records times, addresses, direction and speed of travel, and stop duration.

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Aircraft surface cavities could cut friction drag by 40%

Friction drag could be cut by 40% with aircraft surfaces that have small cavities with shaped orifices to affect turbulence mechanisms, say researchers.

The orifices would be designed to direct oscillated air across the aircraft's surface perpendicular to the relative wind. It is this redirected air flow that is believed to affect near-wall turbulence mechanisms and reduce friction drag.

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Israel, U.S. to Embark on Collaborative 'Upper-Tier' Missile Intercept Program to include Arrow 3 and Land-Based SM-3 Missiles

A recent analysis by U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) assessing the proposed Israeli upper-tier alternatives including Arrow 3 and the planned land-based SM-3, determined that "the Arrow 3 alternative may have a reduced life cycle cost and potentially, offer better performance to meet Israel's requirements," confirmed Lieutenant General Patrick J. O’Reilly, Director of the MDA. "The design of Arrow 3 promisses to be an extremely capable system, more advanced than what we have ever attempted in the U.S. with our programs" Gen. O'Reilly told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services subcommitee for strategic forces. "This has to do with the seekers that have greater flexibility and other aspects, such as propulsion systems - it will be an extremely capable system" he said.

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Analysts Plug Laser Anti-Mortar Systems

Fielding non-chemical, electrically generated Solid State Laser (SSL) technologies that can act as a deterrent against both guided and unguided mortar fire should be a priority for Pentagon planners, several think tank analysts said May 20 on Capitol Hill.

Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) analyst Tom Erhard warned that in future conflicts, guided mortars could be “the next IED,” referring to the improvised explosive devices that have become insurgents’ top weapon in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Darpa Plans Triple-Target Missile Demo

A new program to develop a high-speed, long-range airborne weapon that can engage aircraft, cruise missiles and air defenses is part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency's $3.25 billion Fiscal 2010 budget request.

The Triple Target Terminator (T3) would be carried internally or externally on fighters, bombers and unmanned aircraft, allowing them to switch between air-to-air and air-to-surface capability and increasing the variety of targets engaged on each sortie.

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In Hot Pursuit of Fusion (or Folly)

Here in a dry California valley, outside a small town, a cathedral of light is to be dedicated on Friday. Like the cathedrals of antiquity, it is built on an unrivaled scale with unmatched technology, and it embodies a scientific doctrine that, if confirmed, might lift civilization to new heights.

“Bringing Star Power to Earth” reads a giant banner that was recently unfurled across a building the size of a football stadium.

The $3.5 billion site is known as the National Ignition Facility, or NIF. For more than half a century, physicists have dreamed of creating tiny stars that would inaugurate an era of bold science and cheap energy, and NIF is meant to kindle that blaze.

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$6.5M to Argon for DARPA Robust Surface Navigation Program

DARPA’s Robust Surface Navigation (RSN) program will allow American warfighters to geo-locate and navigate effectively when GPS is unavailable due to hostile action (e.g. jamming) or blockage by structures and foliage. After successfully completed Phase 1, Argon ST in Fairfax, VA received a $6.5 million contract for Phase 2A, with options for Phases 2B and 2C.

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