A data-collection buoy that can be plopped in the ocean and used to determine the suitability of remote locations for offshore wind farms is ready for real-world testing, the University of Maine announced Friday. The university’s advanced composites center worked with private industry partners to create a buoy-based system that utilizes a laser system to […]
Automotive/Transportation
Google to Add Galapagos Islands to Street View
Few have explored the remote volcanic islands of the Galapagos archipelago, an otherworldly landscape inhabited by the world’s largest tortoises and other fantastical creatures that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Soon it will take only the click of a mouse or finger swipe on a tablet to explore some of the Galapagos Islands’ most […]
No Start Date for Idaho Nuclear Facility
French nuclear services giant Areva SA no longer projects a date for building an Idaho uranium enrichment plant, aiming to avoid dashing expectations while its hunt for financing drags on. Work on the $3 billion Eagle Rock enrichment plant was meant to start in 2011. That was delayed to 2012, then 2013 and 2014. Now, […]
Direct-Connect Industrial Camera Series
Cognex Corporation (Natick, MA) has announced the Cognex Industrial Camera (CIC) series, a new line of GigE Vision digital industrial cameras designed for easy integration with VisionPro and CVL vision software. The first four models of the CIC series are compact (29mm x 29mm), monochrome, area scan cameras designed to address the most popular combinations […]
HandHeld Scanner Helps Ensure Top Quality Production of Aluminum Die Castings for LED Lamps
Lighting Science uses the HandHeld laser scanner from NVision to ensure the dimensional integrity of the extremely complicated castings it purchases and uses in its roadway light emitting diode (LED) fixtures. In the past, it was difficult to inspect the castings because their geometry was too complex for gauges and blocks and they would have […]
Photos of the Day: Tornado More Powerful Than Atomic Bomb
The rubble of a destroyed neighborhood is strewn about a neighborhood in Moore, Okla., Tuesday, May 21, 2013. Many homes were stripped to their foundations Monday by a tornado which moved through the area. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) Read: Power of Moore Tornado Dwarfs Hiroshima Bomb This aerial photo shows the remains of houses in Moore, […]
Homes Next to Florida Sinkhole to be Demolished
The homes on either side of the Tampa area house where a sinkhole opened under a man’s bedroom are being demolished. Officials say the demolition will take place Wednesday in Seffner, Fla. The homes were condemned April 1, a month after the sinkhole opened under the house next door, killing 37-year-old Jeffrey Bush. The Tampa […]
New Method for Producing Clean Hydrogen
Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications. While hydrogen is ubiquitous in the environment, producing and collecting molecular hydrogen for transportation and industrial uses is expensive and complicated. Just as importantly, a byproduct of most […]
Should We Let Wunderkinds Drop Out Of High School?
It’s one thing to say tech geniuses don’t need degrees. After all, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of college. But now we’ve got David Karp, who doesn’t even have a high school diploma. Karp, 26, founded Tumblr, the online blogging forum, and sold it to Yahoo for $1.1 billion. Which […]
Japan Watchdog: Nuclear Plant Sits on Active Fault
Japan’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday endorsed a panel’s conclusion that a seismic fault running underneath one of two reactors at an atomic plant in western Japan is active, making the reactor’s restart virtually impossible. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it agreed with the panel of experts that the fault underneath the Tsuruga No. 2 reactor […]