Scientific American - What's Next

Powering Cars with Potholes

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST

Automakers are examining a variety of technologies to enhance fuel economy. But a group of undergraduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found an overlooked source: shock absorbers.

When a car’s wheel hits a hole or bump, a standard shock absorber disperses the impact energy through hydraulic fluid and moves a piston. In the M.I.T. design, the fluid is instead forced through a small turbine attached to a generator. The generator, powered by the compressions, can recharge batteries or power the vehicle’s electrical equipment. The students say that for heavy vehicles such as Hummers, the system can boost fuel efficiency from 2 to 10 percent, depending on the terrain. They have formed Levant Power Corporation to commercialize a product they are calling GenShock. Right now they are tailoring GenShock for U.S. Army vehicles and big-rig trucks, but it could possibly be adapted for passenger vehicles.

[More]

Roses are blue--At least recently approved genetically engineered versions are

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:45:00 EST

In a popular Chinese folktale, a blue rose is the ticket to marry the princess. Naturally, her vying suitors struggle; a rose simply doesn’t grow that color. In the end, the princess marries the gardener’s son who offers a beautiful white rose--because it appears blue through a stained glass window. [More]

Paving Roads with Old Circuit Boards

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST

Millions of printed circuit boards from discarded electronics are tossed into landfills every year. In addition to the volume of waste, the material can leach chemicals into the soil. As an alternative, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China are finding various ways to reuse the panels, including as an additive in asphalt.

Xu Zhenming and his colleagues stripped the boards of all components, pulverized the remains into a powder and used an electrostatic separator to remove fine bits of any remaining metals, leaving a pulp of glass fibers and resin. They then added those remnants to warmed asphalt, to see if the pulp would act as a binder. Binders such as ground tire rubber and charcoal are typically added to improve asphalt’s stiffness at high temperatures (to reduce rutting) and its pliability at low temperatures (to prevent cracking). The pulp improved both properties, especially when the powder grains were made as small as possible. Zhenming’s team is testing the modified asphalt to check how it holds up to outdoor conditions over time. It is also experimenting with forming the pulp into sheets that could be made into structures such as park benches and fences.

[More]

Really Mass Media

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:05:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

Ever increasing numbers of people are consuming news via the internet and cell phones. In London last week at the World Conference of Science Journalists, Philip Hilts, the director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at M.I.T., reviewed the worldwide state of Internet and cell phone use:

[More]

Future of Science Coverage

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:16:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

At the World Conference of Science Journalists last week in London, outgoing Scientific American Editor in Chief John Rennie talked to writers about the future of what they do, remarks that also pertain to this podcast: [More]

Genetic Link for Perfect Pitch?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:00:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

We might think perfect pitch is an innate talent. Well, a study in the American Journal of Human Genetics is providing some evidence for that.

[More]

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps its first images of the moon

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:20:00 EST

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached its destination just last week, is already showing its stuff.

The space agency switched on the LRO's cameras two days ago and today released the first images from the orbiter's mission, which is intended to pave the way for the return of astronauts to the moon. [More]

Rain Zone Moving North

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

If you’ve spoken to anyone in New York City--where Scientific American’s offices are--then you’ve heard about the rain, every day since mid-June.

[More]

The Wonderful World of Transgenic Animals

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:08 EST

[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]

Since Dolly the sheep was cloned back in July of 1996, the world of manipulating animal DNA has come a long way. In Massachusetts, goats now produce milk with drugs embedded. There are monkeys whose DNA glows green to enable scientific study. [More]

DNA Sudoku

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EST

A 2,000-year-old math theorem, along with Sudoku, may soon help researchers untangle DNA at blazing speeds. [More]

Band of Bots Don't Play Musical Instruments--They Are the Instruments

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EST

GuitarBot couldn't keep a tune. "It's too high at the top, and too low at the bottom," Michael Hearst complained as he hopped onto the platform, giving the tuning knob a hopeful quarter-turn. But when he climbed down again and hit a button on his keyboard, the mechanical bridge slid back up the track, thumbing a note before wailing off-pitch once again.

[More]

Calendar: Mind events in July and August

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:59:00 EST

JULY

9 On this day in 1934, Canadian scientist Herbert Jasper of Brown University made the first electrical tracing from a human brain. Jasper, considered to be one of the founders of modern neuroscience, pioneered the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to study electrical activity associated with fundamental brain functions such as consciousness and learning. He and his collaborator, neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, also elucidated the mechanism underlying epilepsy and invented a highly successful procedure to treat seizures. Their work has contributed largely to our understanding of functional anatomy and lateralization of the human brain.

[More]

Ocean researchers developing robotic laser network to map the seabed

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:00:00 EST

When it comes to mapping the ocean floor, lasers can capture fine details even better than the sonar. However, while sound waves excel at cutting through dense materials, light waves move best through empty space, making it difficult for lasers to penetrate the ocean's murky depths. [More]

Is Ocean Zoning the Solution to Dying Marine Ecosystems?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:00:00 EST

By now the world is aware that the oceans are dying a silent death because of coastal development, pollution, overfishing and climate change. Scientists know how to halt or reverse the chronic threats, but in the political arena they have faced defeat after defeat in trying to implement management that actually works. We need a radical shift away from the piecemeal regulation of small areas that has resulted. We need comprehensive zoning of the world’s oceans.

Across the globe, it is clear which marine areas are the most important to protect. Estuaries, coastal wetlands, reefs, submarine mountains and food-rich water flows are among the critical habitats that support wide swaths of the ocean’s ecology. But current governance does not allow us to use management tools and policy instruments in a systematic, holistic way. Zoning would.

[More]

The Arctic Thaw Could Make Global Warming Worse

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST

A young scientist with curly, reddish hair tucked beneath a knit cap stepped gingerly onto the three-day-old ice of a remote lake in northeastern Siberia. Coating the black depths like cellophane, the thin film held no promise to bear her weight, but a sudden dunk in the frigid water was a risk she had to take. Searching the lake by rickety rowboat all summer had failed, and any day winter’s first big snow would engulf the region, obscuring the lake’s surface until spring. She could not afford to wait that long.

The woman shivered in her worn, blue down jacket and glanced up at the overcast sky. After one more cautious step, she spotted her quarry: a cluster of platter-size bubbles frozen into the ice. Those pockets of gas, which had risen from thawing permafrost--formerly frozen soil--at the lake’s bottom, were the aim of her doctoral research. Long elusive, they suddenly stood out like white stars against a night sky, though less serenely. With a small pick she cracked the icy skin of one of the bubbles and remained unfazed when it hissed back like a punctured gas pipe. Leaning forward, she apprehensively struck a match just above the broken bubble and flames as high as her head burst skyward. The flammable substance was methane, a greenhouse gas that could cause more global warming than carbon dioxide (CO2).

[More]

Grassoline: Biofuels beyond Corn

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EST

By now it ought to be clear that the U.S. must get off oil. We can no longer afford the dangers that our dependence on petroleum poses for our national security, our economic security or our environmental security. Yet civilization is not about to stop moving, and so we must invent a new way to power the world’s transportation fleet. Cellulosic biofuels--liquid fuels made from inedible parts of plants--offer the most environmentally attractive and technologically feasible near-term alternative to oil.

Biofuels can be made from anything that is, or ever was, a plant. First-generation biofuels derive from edible biomass, primarily corn and soybeans (in the U.S.) and sugarcane (in Brazil). They are the low-hanging fruits in a forest of possible biofuels, given that the technology to convert these feedstocks into fuels already exists (180 refineries currently process corn into ethanol in the U.S.). Yet first-generation biofuels are not a long-term solution. There is simply not enough available farmland to provide more than about 10 percent of developed countries’ liquid-fuel needs with first-generation biofuels. The additional crop demand raises the price of animal feed and thus makes some food items more expensive--though not nearly as much as the media hysteria last year would indicate. And once the total emissions of growing, harvesting and processing corn are factored into the ledger, it becomes clear that first-generation biofuels are not as environmentally friendly as we would like them to be.

[More]

NASA gains Senate support over budget cuts proposed by House

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:00:00 EST

The budgetary committee of the U.S. Senate yesterday approved a bill that would give NASA all the money President Obama requested for the agency for fiscal year 2010, undoing a proposed House cut of roughly half a billion dollars. [More]

Presented By:

Review your Credits Reports Once a Year

Under FCRA laws, you are allowed to request your credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion once every 12 months. It is good practice to
check your credit reports and credit score every 3-6 months. Also, checking your credit reports before a a big purchase helps you spot potential dangers.

Additional Resources:
Proactive identity theft protection with Lifelock
Monitor your credit score to track improvement and spot identity theft red flags

Ads by Pheedo

Hello Moon, Good-Bye Rennie

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:19:08 EST

[More]

Spending green to go green: The Chevy Volt and MINI Cooper E

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:15:00 EST

The era of the electric auto may finally have eased out of the driveway. [More]

Wind's Power Potential Quantified

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:05:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

Last month, President Obama pledged nearly half a billion dollars toward the development of solar and geothermal energies. But what about wind? A team of scientists estimates that wind turbines in the continental U.S. could produce 16 times more electricity than we currently use. They present their data in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [More]

Presented By:

Review your Credits Reports Once a Year

Ads by Pheedo