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Please trust me,I am an Engineer, Hayim Levanon, Tel Aviv (2026)

22/04/2015

Central Japan Railway Company's high-speed maglev train has been busy setting records and then breaking them again in the past week. Most recently, the test train hit a top speed of 603 km/h (375 mph) on Tuesday, on the Yamanashi test track west of Tokyo in the foothills of Mount Fuji.That was good enough to break the record of 590 km/h (367 mph) set just five days earlier on the same track. The previous Guinness Book ofWorld Records speed for a manned train stood for several years and was held by the same train at 581 km/h (361 mph). According to the railway, the train sustained speeds over 600 km/h for 10.8 seconds on Tuesday, covering 1.8 km (1.1 miles) in that time.The company says the Yamanashi maglev test line first became active in 1997 and over the past 18 years, the track has been extended, test vehicles have been improved and over 1.2 million km (745,645 miles) of test runs have been performed.Railway workers were aboard the train for Tuesday's record-setting run. Last year, 100 train enthusiasts from the public took a similartest runon the maglevline at speeds of 500 km/h. The maglev system is set to beready for actual commercial passengers traveling between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2027.There is some competition for Japan's maglev coming from the likes of a Chinese "super maglev" concept that scientists theorize could travel at up to 2,900 km/h (1,800 mph), asword-inspired high-speed electric trainor even ElonMusk'sHyperloopconcept.

20/04/2015

Mercedes-Benz Concept GLC Coupé blends the SUV with the coupé

Following in the footsteps of theGLE Coupé, Mercedes-Benz has unveiledits Concept GLC Coupé at the Shanghai International Auto Show. Described as a "near-production-standard study," the Concept GLC Coupé is a four-door, four-seater concept that attempts to fuse the SUV with the coupé.Whether the GLE Coupé is an SUV that looks like a coupé or a coupé that looks like an SUV depends on what angle you look at it from. From the back or when looking at the 21-in(53.3-cm) wheels with the front and rear underbody protection, it's an SUV, but with the low-slung coupé roofline on the glasshouse and the frameless side windows blending into the flank, there's plenty of coupé in the mix.Added to this are more individual touches, like the twin-blade radiator grille, the power domes on the bonnet, higher ground clearance, andlarge side air intakes. In addition, there's the solar-beam paintwork andcladdings in matt gun metal magno. Even the headlamps got a reworking with an all-in-one housing with daytime running lamps and turn indicators in the upper strip inserts, and three rotating lenses below. There's also a non-dazzling feature as the headlamps automatically block out the light cone for oncomingcars.Since this is a concept, Mercedes is putting the emphasis on exterior styling rather than interior design or performance, but it still boasts a 3-liter direct injection V6 biturbo engine punching 367 bhp (273 kW) and 520 Nm (383 lbf) of torque blowing through a polished stainlessfour-pipe exhaust system. Behind this is the 9-speed gearbox and 4MATIC permanent all-wheel drive. Itis 170 mm shorter than the GLE Coupé, with a 2,827 mm wheelbase and a 4,727 mm length.The company has also hinted at the potential for the concept to enter production, saying there is plenty of room for new SUV models within the Mercedes badge, citing the sales success of previous SUV models.

13/04/2015

Plastic engine parts could lead to lighter cars

Recent government requirements for greater fuel efficiency have led to lighter cars hitting the market, but there's only so much that can be shaved off the body and chassis. To find further weight reductions, a Fraunhofer project group is developing ways of building engine cylinder blocks that are partly plastic.Lighter engines that can still do the job of their heavier cousins have been around since the first aluminumengine blocks were introduced in the 1960s. Going one step further with plastic has been on the drawing boards since the 1980s, but plastic parts able to withstand engine heat and stress could only be made in small volumes and at great cost.The approach taken by the Fraunhofer project group for new drive systems (NAS) was to create anexperimental engine using fiber-reinforced plastic suitable for injection molding instead of aluminum."We used a fiber-reinforced composite material to build a cylinder casing for a one-cylinder research engine," says Lars-Fredrik Berg, project leader and manager of the research area Lightweight Powertrain Design at NAS. "The cylinder casing weighs around 20 percent less than the equivalent aluminum component, and costs the same."Fraunhofer says that using plastic not only allows for lighter vehicles, but provides the added advantages of reduced fuel consumption, less noise, and less heat radiated from the engine. However, achieving this meant overcoming problems with heat and vibrations."First we looked at the engine design and identified the areas subject to high thermal and mechanical loads," says Berg. "Here we use metal inserts to strengthen their wear resistance."Other problems the project faced wasgetting the plastic to bond well with and expand like metal, redesigning engine parts to keep heat away from the plastic, and making the plastic hard and rigid, yet also capable of withstanding contact with oil, petrol, glycol, and water coolants.The project eventually settled on a glass-fiber-reinforced phenolic resin of 55 percent fibers and 45 percent resin that uses granulated thermosetplastics in an injection molding process. The glass fibers are already mixed with the liquid resin, which is injected and hardens in the mold. The trick was sorting out the details of the process to obtain the best results while eliminating many of the finishing operations needed for metalparts. Carbon composites can also work and are lighter, but are more expensive.Fraunhofer says that a prototype of this engine will be presented at this year’s Hannover Messe this month, and that the project is now working on a multi-cylinder engin

03/04/2015

New smartphone camera could tell you what things are made of

How would you like to be able to know the chemical composition of something, just by taking a snapshotor video of it with your smartphone? You may eventually be able to, thanks to a compact hyperspectral imaging camera being developed at Tel Aviv University.Hyperspectral imaginginvolves scanning light spectra not visible to the human eye, in order to identify the unique electromagnetic"fingerprints" of various substances and processes.While this can already be done withlarger cameras, a team led by Tel Aviv's Prof. David Mendlovic is developing a much smaller optical component that could conceivably be built into a smartphone. It utilizes MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) technology, and is reportedly "suitable for mass production and compatible with standard smartphone camera designs."In order for the images it captures to mean anything, however, it would need to be paired up with a database of different substances' hyperspectral signatures (the earlier-mentioned fingerprints). "The optical element acts as a tunable filter and the software – an image fusion library – would support this new component and extract all the relevant information from the image,"explained Mendlovic.A working prototype is reportedly in the works, and should be ready by June. The basic system has already been demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month.The technology is currently being developed under the name Unispectral, by the university'sRamottech transfer company. Its suggested applications include consumer electronics, the automotive industry, biotechnology, and homeland security.

source: Tel Aviv university

29/03/2015

Quadcopter converted into balloon-hunting Laser Drone

The ability to view real-time video from a quadcopter's onboard camerais certainly a handy feature, but let's be honest – there are probably a lot of people who just think, "Wouldn't be great if I could use this to shoot atstuff?". Well, German cyberpunk weapons tinkererPatrick Priebehas adapted an off-the-shelf drone so it can do just that – using a laser.Priebe started with a camera-equipped Amewi AMX-51 quadcopter, and added both a 3-mW red laser for aiming and a 1.5-W laserfor shooting/burning. In order to provide power to them, he replaced the drone's original 850-mAh 7.4-volt battery with one rated at 1,200 mAh. The aiming laser remainson as long as the AMX-51 is in flight, while the blue laser can be manually activated using a switch on the remote control unit, that originally controlled the drone's LED running lights.The lasers, battery and camera are mounted on the undercarriage and protected by 1-mm aluminum sheets, with ventilation holes drilled into them.Patrick emphasizes that he took on the project with the intention of only using the drone in a closed indoor environment, wearing eye protection at all times, and shooting at nothing but helium balloons. In order to makethose balloons a little more challenging of a target, however, he equipped them with tiny electric motor-driven propellers.The finished Laser Drone can be seen in balloon-popping action, in the video below.

26/03/2015

A new technique involving magnetic nanoparticles allows therapeutic molecules to cross the blood-brain barrier.

The blood-brain barrier is a highly selective semipermeable barrier running inside almost all vessels in the brain that lets through water, some gases and a few other select molecules, while preventing potentially toxic elements in the blood from entering the brain. Researchers fromthe University of Montreal, Polytechnique Montréal, and CHU Sainte-Justine say that currently 98 percent of therapeutic molecules are also blocked by the barrier, but they have developed a technique using magnetic nanoparticles that opens the door for such molecules, thereby also opening the door to new treatments for brain diseases."At the present time, surgery is the only way to treat patients with brain disorders," says Anne-Sophie Carret, study senior author. "Moreover, while surgeons are able to operate to remove certain kinds of tumors, some disorders are located in the brain stem, amongst nerves, making surgery impossible."Opening the blood-brain barrier to therapeutic molecules, the researchers say, would provide an alternative to surgery for treating various brain diseases. The technique involves sending magnetic nanoparticles to the surface of the blood-brain barrier at the desired location in the brain. The researchers say this could be done using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, although a different method was used for their study.Once directed to the desired location, the nanoparticles were exposed to a radio-frequency field that caused them to dissipate heat. The resulting small elevation in temperature places mechanical stress on the barrier that causes a localized opening, which allows therapeutic molecules to pass through. The opening is only temporary, remaining open for around two hours."While other techniques have been developed for delivering drugs to the blood-brain barrier, they either open it toowide, exposing the brain to great risks, or they are not precise enough, leading to scattering of the drugs and possible unwanted side effect," says principal investigator Sylvain Martel.Although the technique was developed using murine (rats and mice) models and is yet to be tested on humans, the researchers are optimistic that it will one day be used in people."Although our current results are only proof of concept, we are on the way to achieving our goal of developing a local drug delivery mechanism that will be able to treat oncologic, psychiatric, neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, amongst others," says Carret.The team's study will be published in an upcoming edition of theJournal of Controlled Release.

25/03/2015

Is Russia working on a crazy supersonic cargo plane?

A state-run Russian news site is reporting that the country has ambitions to build a huge, supersonic cargo plane capable of transporting tanks to the field in a matter of hours. While there's plenty of reason to be skeptical that transporting such heavy loads at high speeds is even feasible, let alone realistic, Russia's military is reportedly giving itself roughly the next decade to figure it out.Russia's RT reports that the heavy transport craft, dubbed the PAK TA (Perspective Airborne Complex of Transport Aviation), could fly at supersonic speeds of up to 2,000 km/h (1,243 mph), carry up to 200 tons (181 tonnes) and have a range of 7,000 km (4,350 mi). The program could call for the construction of a fleet of 80 of the new craft to be built by 2024, giving the Russian military the capability to deliver 400 Armata heavy tanks or 900 more lightly armored vehicles to a battlefield in quick fashion.The specs are sourced to an apparent anonymous leaker who claims to have attended a closed-door meeting with Russian military leaders and passed on details to the Russian language site, Expert Online.According to the website Russian Aviation, Ilyushin Aviation Complex –an aircraft engineering outfit dating back to the early years of the Soviet Union – is handling the project. CEO Viktor Livanov is quoted as saying"Today it is just a project that may be implemented by 2030." He added that the exact specifications are still subject to negotiations and that the Russian Ministry of Defense is just one of several potential customers.Whatever the real status of the PAK TA is at the moment and whatever their reasons, someone certainly seems to want the wider world to know that such an ambitious concept is being discussed.Among the reasons for skepticism is the fact that the purported specs involve more than doubling the speed of most military transport craftup to this point in history, and doing so while carrying an unprecedented payload – save perhaps for another Russian giant, the Antonov An-225, that once carried a 250-ton (227-tonne) load.Presumably, the costs of design, construction and fuel for such a craft would also be pretty ridiculous at a time when Russia's economy is getting hammered. But it's never wise to totally rain on a propaganda parade. Anything is possible, even if not very practical.The concept video below, from Aleksey Komarov, Customer and Technical Manager at the Volga-Dnepr Group, shows what the future of heavy transport could look like.

24/03/2015

Mercedes stretches the Maybach into limousine form

The Mercedes-Maybach Pullman with the Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman

The Maybach brand may not have survivedon its own, but now that it's "Mercedes-Maybach," Daimler sure seems eager to grow the lineup. Following the launch of the veryfirst Mercedes-Maybachat last November's LA Auto Show, the German luxury marque is getting a new halo. Set tolaunch in early 2016, the Mercedes-Maybach Pullman is a stretched ultra-luxury motor car with face-to-face rear seating.Maybach never developed the cachet of Bentley or Rolls Royce – at least if we're using factors like sales and "staying in business" as measurements of how it was received in the ultra-premium auto segment. Turns out, so it seems, that you can't just create brand prestige by slapping exorbitant prices on ultra-luxury cars.The one stand-out achievement that Maybach had in relation to its more revered colleagues during itsdecade-long tenurewas introducing some interesting body styles, most notably the62 S Landaulet, a chauffeured half-convertible body type that had previously been reserved for special vehicles parading dignitaries around streets lined by adoring onlookers. The seven-figure Landaulet didn't do a whole lot to halt Maybach's eventual demise, but it did at least provide a little intrigue to separate Daimler's flagship car brand from its British competition.With that in mind, it's both surprising and unsurprising that the second car to float under the resurrected Maybach, now Mercedes-Maybach, is a limousine. Daimler explains that the Pullman name was originally used for railway carriages with open-plan compartments manufactured by the American Pullman Palace Car Company and later applied to extra- long-wheelbase, chauffeured versions of Mercedes cars with spacious, four-seat passenger compartments. In fact, the prestigious Mercedes-Benz 600 of the 1960s and 70s was offered in both Pullman (shown in the background in the picture above) and Pullman Landaulet styles.The new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman stretches out a total of 6,499 mm (21.3 ft), that's 1,053 mm (3.5 ft) farther than the Mercedes-Maybach S600. The Pullman's wheelbase alone stretches 4,418 mm (14.5 ft). That huge sizing opens up room for a spacious lounge in back, with two rows of seats facing each other. The two fully adjustable, reclining executive seats facing the direction of travel are reserved for the "VIPs" because they enjoy the mostlegroom and easiest ingress/egress. We'resure the two fold-down seats facing the rear of the vehicle aren't exactly uncomfortable, either. Antisocial billionaires and oligarchs can order the Pullman with only the VIP executive seats."Quite apart from providing spacious seating in first-class comfort for high-ranking passengers, the new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman is of course the embodiment of exclusivity at its highest level," comments Ola Källenius, Daimler AG Management Board member responsible for sales and marketing of Mercedes‑Benz Cars. "One can sense the significance and greatness of it in every detail."One of those details of "significance and greatness" is a 100-mm (3.9 in) height increase over top the Mercedes S-Class, giving occupants plenty of headroom to goalong with their cramp-free legroom. A partition window provides privacy from thedriver, and the standard rear-window curtains cloak the passengers from the outside world. The glass partition lowers electrically and adjusts from transparent toopaque at the push of a button.The Pullman keeps passengers connectedwith an 18.5-in widescreen monitor in front of the partition and a set of analog instruments in the roof liner showing the outside temperature, speed and time. Audio is delivered by way of a standard surround sound system or an available 3D surround sound system, both from Burmester.Daimler's press release is surprisingly short on detail about the other standard and available "creature comforts" in the leather cabin – an important considerationfor anyone debating dropping €500K (plus the cost of all those personalized options) on the Pullman versus just hiring a driver for a run-of-the-mill Mercedes S-Class. It does specify that the long carriage is pulled by the 530 horses stored in the 6.0-liter V12 biturbo engine. Perhaps it's holding onto a few juicy details for the official Geneva debut. We'll be there to check it out and step inside for a feel of what it's like to be a Fortune 500 CEO or member of a royal family.

21/03/2015

Night Runner Shoe Lights illuminate the path ahead

Exercising in the dark is something that many of us are forced to do by our perpetually hectic lifestyles. However, that does inevitably mean encountering extra dangers en route, such as uneven pavements and impatient drivers. The 270-degree Shoe Lights from Night Runner are designed to allow you to exercise more safely at night.The Night Runner Shoe Lights are LED lights that fit onto your trainers, illuminating the path ahead for runners, joggers, walkers, and hikers. They hook onto the shoelaces of footwear using an adjustable bracketthat can be positioned exactly as the individual requires. Once fitted, the 75-lumen LED beams provide up to 30 meters (100 ft) of visibility and 270-degree coverage.The lights – which comprise multiplewhite LEDs facing forward and a single red one facing backwards – are contained in a bilateral winged housing which is both water-resistant and able to withstand high-impact activities. They're powered by rechargeable li-ion batteries that are charged via a micro-USB port. The batteries shouldlast between four and eight hours, depending on the level of usage.The Night Runner 270-degree Shoe Lights were created by Doug and Renata Storer, who had the idea after Doug injured himself falling into a pothole while training for the New York Marathon. They're funding the production of the Shoe Lights through a Kickstarter campaign seeking US$35,000, with the money raised paying for tooling and the first round of manufacturing.A pledge of $50 or more is enough tosecure a pair of Night Runner Shoe Lights, if and when the creators deliver on their promises. The estimated delivery date is September2015, with $15 to ship to anywhere inthe world. The video embedded below shows the Shoe Lights in action, as well as the designers discussing the product.

19/03/2015

A step back in time: The 50th anniversary of the first spacewalk

18/03/2015

Brabus turns the Mercedes S63 into sinister, 850-hp speed machine

With a 577-hp biturbo V8 powering a 0-60 mph (96.5 km/h) time of just 3.9 seconds, the Mercedes S63 AMG 4Matic Coupe isn't exactly a slouch. Or at least it didn't seem that way before German tunerBrabusturned itinto an out-and-out power-n-speed machine. The S63-based Brabus 8506.0 Biturbo Coupe bolts to 62 mph in 3.5 seconds and doesn't stop accelerating until the needle hits 217mph (350 km/h).The existence of the Bugatti Veyron, twilight years or not, makes Brabus' claim of the "world's fastest and most powerful all-wheel-drive coupe" a blatant and rather silly misstatement. It's particularly silly because the car is cool enough on its own; it doesn't need untrue hyperbole.It may not be the king of AWD coupes, but Brabus puts its tuned S63 into the royal family by boosting displacement from 5.5 liters to 5.9 liters, which it rounds up to "6.0" by way of a specially designed crankshaft, larger cylinder bore and enlarged forged pistons. From there, Brabus replaces Mercedes' turbos with a pair of its own, adds its own intake module and Gold Heat Reflection sheathing, remaps the injection and ignition, and routes exhaust through a stainless steel sport system with actively controlled butterfly valve. All that wrenching boosts output by more than 260 hp, giving the tuner car the 850 hp (838 bhp/625 kW) designation it wears in its name. The tuned sports car has the capability of twisting out a heady 1,069 lb-ft (1,450 Nm) of torque between 2,500 and 4,500 rpm, but Brabus puts the cap at 848 lb-ft (1,150 Nm) to protect the lifespan of the powertrain.All that output gets channeled to all four wheels through a combination ofa seven-speed paddle-shift automatic transmission and stock 4Matic all-wheel drive. Those that prefer the purity of rear-wheel drive sports car can select that option upon order.An aerodynamics kit helps the 850 make full use of its super-potent powertrain. The kit includes a carbon fiber front spoiler, carbon-trimmed front bumper intakes, a carbon fiber rear diffuser and a subtle carbon trunk lid spoiler.After hitting 62 mph in 3.5 seconds, the super-2+2 goes on to hit 124 mph (200 km/h) in 9.4 seconds. The 217-mph electronic limit is there to prevent damage to the high-performance tires that wrap the 21-in Brabus Monoblock "Platinum Edition" forged wheels. Brabus offers Continental, Yokohama and Pirelli tireoptions in sizes 255/35 ZR 21 up front and 295/30 ZR 21 out back. It also offers a variety of other 18- to 22-in wheel/tire combinations.The interior matches the blacked-outbody with black Mastik leather and copper-colored stitching and piping. Brabus has replaced the traditional silver finish on a total of 219 components, opting for a Shadow Gold finish that ties into the forged wheels. The interior also gets a deep-black Alcantara headliner, carbon fiber trim in place of wood inlays, aluminum components and a Brabus speedometer that's marked up to 400 km/h (250 mph). A set of backlit "Brabus 850" scuff plates ensure that you never forget what caryou're in, and the backlighting, along with the ambient interior lighting, canbe ordered in the buyer's choice of color.Brabus will prepare the 850 6.0 Biturbo Coupe as a complete vehicle or convert the customer's own S63 Coupe. It doesn't mention how much those options cost, but given the Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe's $162K base price, it really doesn't matter for most of the world's population.The new Brabus will make its world debut at next week's Geneva Motor Show. Gizmag will be there to get plenty of photos and more info.

12/04/2014

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