It’s a dilemma for drivers: Do they choose a gasoline that’s cheaper and cleaner even if, as opponents say, it could damage older cars and motorcycles? That’s the peril and promise of a high-ethanol blend of gasoline known as E15. The fuel contains 15 percent ethanol, well above the current 10 percent norm sold at […]
Automotive/Transportation
Equipment Failure Causes Widespread Power Outage
A widespread power outage has darkened a swath of California’s Central Coast, affecting approximately 145,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers, the utility said late Sunday. The outage stretch from the beach town of Cambria in San Luis Obispo county to Solvang in Santa Barbara’s wine country. Santa Maria, with a population of about 100,000, […]
Counterfeit Replacement Batteries: Low Price, Risky Performance
Look around at those cell phones, TVs, and other consumer devices, and it’s easy to assume that all electronic products have a lifetime as short as two years, or perhaps as much as five years. But that’s an incorrect assessment: in medical, industrial, and military applications, you’ll find many products with viable, in-use lifetimes of […]
A Cheaper Drive to ‘Cool’ Fuels
University of Delaware chemist Joel Rosenthal is driven to succeed in the renewable energy arena. Working in his lab in UD’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Rosenthal and doctoral student John DiMeglio have developed an inexpensive catalyst that uses the electricity generated from solar energy to convert carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, into synthetic […]
Unconventional Robot for Wild Environments
Researchers at the UPM have developed a robot prototype by using an unconventional motion mode to conduct missions on wild environments. The Robotics and Cybernetics Research Group from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid has special interest in developing robots able to live in environments where the motion can be a difficulty due to uneven ground. […]
X-Ray Weapon ‘Stuff of Comic Books’
The portable X-ray weapon that two upstate New York men are accused of trying to build to secretly sicken Muslims and enemies of Israel isn’t feasible, radiation scientists say, calling it “the stuff of comic books.” Glendon Scott Crawford and Eric J. Feight were charged with conspiracy to support terrorism in an indictment unsealed this […]
EPA Won’t Finalize Wyo. Fracking-Pollution Study
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has dropped plans to have outside experts review its theory that hydraulic fracturing may have played a role in groundwater pollution in Wyoming, and the agency no longer plans to write a final report on its research that led to the controversial finding a year and a half ago. Instead, […]
Regulators Pull Plug on Minn. Wind Farm Proposal
State regulators have pulled the plug on a wind farm proposed for southeastern Minnesota that’s drawn opposition because of the danger it could pose to eagles and bats. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously Thursday not to extend the company’s legal authority to build the wind farm in Goodhue County. The developer, New Era, […]
Vt. and Quebec announce electric car corridor
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Starting this fall, people who drive electric vehicles should be able to travel the 138-mile route between Burlington and Montreal without worrying they’ll run short of a charge thanks to a planned electric vehicle charging corridor, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and Quebec Premier Pauline Marois announced in Montreal. Initially the corridor […]
Sound Waves Precisely Position Nanowires
The smaller components become, the more difficult it is to create patterns in an economical and reproducible way, according to an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers who, using sound waves, can place nanowires in repeatable patterns for potential use in a variety of sensors, optoelectronics and nanoscale circuits. “There are ways to create these […]