There’s a wonderful article in the current issue of Insight, the energy journal published by Platts, called “The Unbearable Lightness of Wind.”

  The author, Ross McCracken, tackles the question that nobody has posed yet – what are the economic consequences going to be of putting up all these wind turbines with government subsidies, mandates and “feed-in tariffs” that tell the utilities, “Buy it whatever it costs”?

“The conundrum,” McCracken writes, “lies in the fact that wind does not directly displace fossil fuel generating capacity, but will make this capacity less profitable to maintain.”

What’s likely to happen, McCracken argues, is that windmills – which generate electricity only 30 percent of the time – will replace some peaking power and some base-load power:

As wind provides neither baseload nor peaking plant it has no impact on reserve capacity. . . [I]t increases redundancy in peaking plants and reduces the profits of baseload generation; potentially good for consumers but bad for investment in non-intermittent sources of power, and presenting the risk of a decline in reserve capacity. . . . [P]eaking plants would be used much less and baseload plant would see sustained period of potential below cost prices – a particular nightmare for the nuclear industry.

So without contributing any reliable capacity, wind will nonetheless make nuclear, by far our most practical and reliable form of zero carbon energy, less profitable. Existing plants will be caught in a trap and new construction will be discouraged entirely. Already the British Nuclear Group is complaining that it can’t build any new reactors if they have to compete against subsidized wind farms. Anti-nuclear activists are turning handsprings, claiming joyously that wind is finally replacing nuclear. But that’s not what’s happening. Instead, nothing will be replacing existing capacity–namely, the coal burning plants that are one of the largest sources of carbon emissions–as demand increases in years ahead. That means carbon emissions won’t be meaningfully reduced, since coal plants will have to stay on line to provide backup.

Njoy …

When I was kid, this question had always puzzled me … why why why clock hands always show 10 10 ( almost )  …. or in cases with seconds hand , they all position at 10 9 6 …  ???

No wonder, i was not the only genius to note this positions … so just like me , many people had already tried to figure out what’s the reason …

There are many Myths laying around this 10 10 mystery …

• First and most common , ( for Western countries of course ) America’s first president Abraham Lincoln was shot / died at that time , but fact is , he was shot at 10.15 PM , and died next morning at 7.22 … so its not true .. right ??
• Second and Third Myth was same , but for John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. … that they died at this time … which isn’t true ..
• Fourth and popular in asian countries … is … it is time when America dumped their first nuclear bomb, “ Little Boy “ on Hiroshima, Japan …
• Fifth and silly reason is , it displays name of manufacture without interrupting clock hands …

But the fact is … the only reason why this hands are placed in this manner is , the official statement is something like this …

Timex says -- The hands on a clock are placed at10:10 because it’s a creative standard industry. The hands on timepieces are placed at 10:10 so that the company’s logo on the face gets framed and not blocked by the hands. The industry standard used to be 8:20 but that looked too much like a frown and created an unhappy look.
In its ads' , the clock hands are placed at 10:09:36, exactly below 12 o’ clock .

The practice started in the 1920s, and its stuck since then.

Darn … finally mystery solved … its nothing but just a marketing analogy ??? no fancy reason … too bad …

anyways … this is the story why clock hands are at 10 10 …

Njoy …

It's 2009 -- several decades after health officials began urging Americans to cut down on salt.

Do you know how much you're consuming?

If you're a typical American, it's about 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day. That's well beyond the 2,300 mg recommended by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. And it's 15 times as much as the human body requires.

Average sodium intake has increased about 50% since the 1970s. That's largely because we're eating more convenience foods. And, as makers of processed food have cut fat and sugar from their products, they've often added more salt to restore flavor.

How bad is all this sodium for your health?

Excess salt has been linked to osteoporosis, kidney damage and stomach cancer. Worse, it raises blood pressure, a key factor in heart attacks and strokes, which kill about 850,000 Americans a year.

"After smoking, high blood pressure is the leading cause of preventable illness and death," says New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden, who is urging makers of packaged foods and restaurants nationwide to gradually reduce their sodium content by 50% over the next 10 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that such a reduction could save 150,000 lives and $10 billion in health-care expenditures a year. Some 50 million Americans have hypertension (that is, blood pressure readings consistently at or above 140/90 mm/Hg). Another 20 million are prehypertensive (with blood pressure from 120/80 to 139/ 89 mm/Hg). Hypertension is more common among African-Americans than whites, and nearly 90% of Americans eventually develop it as they age.

With that in mind, the CDC is urging anyone who has hypertension, is African-American or over age 40 -- nearly 70% of the U.S. population -- to follow a stricter guideline of just 1,500 mgs a day. Even people with normal blood pressure can cut their risk of developing hypertension later by lowering their salt intake. "We think of hypertension as being a normal part of the aging process and it's not," says Commissioner Frieden.

About 80% of Americans' salt intake comes from processed foods and restaurant meals; only 20% comes from salt used in home cooking and added at the table. But cutting salt from processed food isn't easy. Besides enhancing taste, salt helps provide texture to many foods and acts as a preservative. And Americans have become accustomed to the taste. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents food makers, says many of its members have cut sodium in their products and introduced lower-salt items in recent years. But it believes that any government effort needs to include consumer education and scientific research as well. "It's not as collaborative as it should be," says Robert Earl, the group's vice president for science policy, nutrition and health.

In the U.K., which started a similar salt-reduction effort in 2003, many food makers and restaurant chains have already cut salt by 20% to 30%. The average consumption there is down to 8.6 grams from 9.5 grams a day.

A few critics don't think a broad reduction in sodium is warranted. Michael Alderman, a professor of medicine and public health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y., says it hasn't been conclusively shown that cutting salt intake across the population would save lives, and it could have unintended consequences. Lowering salt can cause kidney problems and contribute to insulin resistance in some cases, says Dr. Alderman, who is an unpaid consultant to the Salt Institute, an industry group. Darwin Labarthe, director of the CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, counters that there's a very broad consensus that reducing salt would cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and there is little evidence of harmful effects. The American Heart Association, the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization all urge lower salt consumption.

Besides, says Commissioner Frieden, "We aren't taking choice away from people. We are giving them choice. We want to let them determine how much salt they want to add." What can you do about your own salt intake? It's impossible to know for sure how much you're consuming. Even raw chicken in the grocery store is sometimes "enhanced" with salt water to make it plumper (and heavier, and thus more costly). But you can get some idea by checking the Nutrition Facts labels on products you buy and keeping a running tally. Some bakery goods and breakfast cereals have far more sodium than you'd expect. There's often a wide range of sodium among brands of the same product. Be sure to check the serving size indicated on the label. A bag of chips that looks individual may be listed as multiple servings.

Even low-sodium labels have different meanings: "Sodium free" means less than 5 mg per serving; "very low" has less than 35 mg; "low" is less than 140. "Reduced sodium" just means that it's down 25% from what an earlier formulation was -- but could still be high in sodium, just like "No added salt" doesn't mean salt free.

Ask restaurants to use less salt when you order. Lawrence Appel, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says many people feel bloated after they eat out. "It's actually a sodium load, and it takes a few days to get rid of it," he says. When you cook at home, experts counsel to use only half the salt the recipe calls for; experiment with herbs and spices, or go with the natural flavor. Kids who grow up with less salt may never develop a "salt tooth." It may take a while to get accustomed to less salt, but once your tastes adjust, you may not want to go back. Commissioner Frieden likens reducing salt to switching from whole milk to skim milk. "If you go back, whole milk tastes like heavy cream," he says.

from The WSJ …

Njoy …

If you don’t know about The Blue Book … then you must be from Kashyyyk … ( err… sorry for being starwars fan … ) … but still if you didn’t get it .. then let me make your life easier by explaining about the Blue Book … its Standardization Book / Website for Autos .. whenever you go for car ( new or used ),and if you have referred the KBB , then it makes your life easies when it comes to final price … in general its Bible for cars … … and the prices are standard based on various factors, which even car dealers can’t disallow …

Recently KBB announced its 2009 picks for the Top 10 Green Cars. Hybrid gas-electric cars top the list that also includes two small cars and two diesel engine vehicles.

The top three “greenest” models are new models. The 2010 Toyota Prius, offering a combined 50-mpg, has more power, a slicker design, and more features than its predecessor. The 2010 Honda Insight, rated at 41 mpg, has a price advantage over all other hybrids. And the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, with city mileage at 41 mpg, arrives with new exterior styling.

The editors not only considered fuel economy and price, but also characteristics like comfort, performance, utility and technology. The winners represent a range of vehicle sizes from small cars like the Honda Fit to the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid, a gas-electric pickup truck.

Other winners include the Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDI and BMW 335d, both diesels; the 2009 Mini Cooper; and two hybrid SUVS, the Ford Escape Hybrid and Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

"Despite the decline in auto sales and the stabilization of gas prices in recent months, we still think many new-car shoppers are interested in buying vehicles that are more fuel-efficient and better for the environment," said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. In a press release, KBB notes, “2009 is shaping up to be a banner year for fuel efficiency." Unfortunately, the economic downturn that has affected all auto sales has also hurt sales of green models. Yet, , many consumers expect the current reprieve from last year's high gas prices to be short-lived.

I liked that at least these cars are affordable …

from ..  Hybrid Cars ..

Njoy …

Streetlights were the first big users of electricity. Now, they are being re-engineered to improve efficiency, but at a cost that today's municipalities might have a tough time covering.  

San Jose, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley, is testing a concept called "adaptive lighting," in which streets can be made brighter, darker or even be illuminated with flashing strobes upon command. By summer, the city will have installed 125 streetlamps using LED technology, in one of the biggest urban tests of the science so far in the U.S. The city hopes to cut down on energy use, and, hopefully, lower its utility costs, by tapping LED lighting's greater flexibility.

The test in San Jose coincides with a broad push by federal and state agencies to modernize the nation's lighting infrastructure. Many homes and businesses have replaced incandescent bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescent lights. Now cities, faced with tighter budgets, are looking for ways to cut street-lighting costs and to reduce emissions from power plants.

Raley's supermarket in West Sacramento, Calif., recently had LED lights installed with funding from the Department of Energy.

But the cost savings will take time to materialize. Street and highway lights use about 2% of the nation's electricity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Many cities have LED traffic signals, but because of the high cost of producing white light with LED, local governments have been reluctant to install them in streetlights. The effort is further complicated not only by strapped municipal coffers, but resistance from star-gazers and others who object to LEDs brighter glare.

LED, or light-emitting diodes, are electronic lights based on semiconductor technology. They use less energy and last longer than the sodium vapor-powered lights typically used in urban street lighting. LED technology has been around for decades, and is often found in electronic gadgets. It is used in streetlamps in some European cities.

Unlike regular streetlamps, LED lights can be programmed to respond to specific commands. For example, a city could dim the lighting on commercial strips after business hours, or turn up the lights after bars close, says Jim Helmer, director of San Jose's transportation department. Streets around Little League baseball diamonds could be made brighter as people walk to their cars, and then turned down afterward. By regulating the lights based on activity, the city hopes to cut down on "light spillage" -- city planners' term for light that shines where it isn't wanted, creating an urban nuisance.

San Jose expects to spend $150,000 to $200,000 on a pilot project in its Hillview North neighborhood, and it is seeking an additional $2 million in federal stimulus funds to enlarge the test.

The LED streetlights being tested in San Jose could save anywhere from 10% to 60% on energy use, depending on their brightness. The white LEDs will have a range of between one and 82 watts and will replace 55-watt, yellowish sodium-vapor lamps. The lights will be controlled under a system developed by energy-software company Echelon Corp. of San Jose, the general contractor in the pilot program. But for now, many cities see little financial advantage to switching their lighting systems.

It can cost $600 to install a single LED streetlight, compared with $200 for a sodium-vapor lamp. What's more, utilities often charge cities a flat rate based on the number of streetlamps they operate, regardless of use.

Currently, San Jose pays Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a unit of PG&E Corp., a flat rate for electricity, about $300,000 a month. The utility has proposed a new rate program that would lower costs for LED streetlights; the plan is awaiting review by state utility regulators. The Department of Energy has been funding lighting tests, such as a recent retrofit of a Raley's supermarket parking lot in West Sacramento, Calif., with 16 LED lamps and motion sensors. They run at 49 watts, unless they sense activity, when they power up to 149 watts. They could pay for themselves in energy savings in four to five years.

Fourteen miles east of San Jose on Mount Hamilton, the astronomers at the Lick Observatory have another concern: The bright white light of LEDs illuminate the night sky and obscure views of planets and stars. The scientists helped San Jose select its sodium lamps in the 1980s because the observatory can filter out yellow light. "Going to any other kind of lighting is detrimental," says Burt Jones, the observatory's assistant director.

But Dr. Jones says scientists are working with city officials to make LEDs benign, suggesting they dim after midnight or eliminate near-infrared and ultraviolet light from the LED color spectrum. "In those colors, the sky would still look dark to us," explains Dr. Jones.

from The WallStreet Journal

Njoy …

today in the morning , when i was searching for news on internet … i opened google … and just like always , they had changed their search page to EARTH page …

so can’t resist to take a snapshot …

Njoy …

And here comes again … 22nd Day of April … some intellects ( or say paranoia  ) celebrates this day as an EARTH DAY … its kind of appreciation and awareness program in general …

Now you would ask … why the hell should we celebrate this day , right ?? … why should we care for something that is not alive … or something that never do anything for us … … but thing is , being human we should know that we are the only intellectual species present in the whole universe made of trillions and trillions of galaxies ( as on dated 04/22/09 on its true ) … just because of this blue planet , that gave us something that no other planet have … the atmosphere that supports life !!! …

But in thanks to that gift , what we have done ??? … well … we have contaminated its land , water and air from our toxic wastes , fuels and garbage … experimented and even used weapons of mass destructions … and raised the global warmth level at such a level that now ICE is melting at both north and south poles .. and might be resulting in global sea level raise !!! … we have even made our space a junk yard …

( Gaylord Nelson …. Founder of Earth day … )

But there were some people who originally thought and worried about this condition and tried to celebrate a day to bring general awareness in public for earth … ( that’s characteristic of HUMAN nature, we never remember things unless we have a day to celebrate … best example … we need a mother’s day or father’s day .. to remind us that we are not test tube babies .. right ??   soooooooooooooooooooo pathetic ) … anyways , wikipedia says first idea for celebration came in mind of a good senator of Wisconsin … Gaylord Nelson … and he said that something must be done for it .. it was year of 1970 ( the decades of social system revolutions )… he really tried and take initiative for making it the earth day … since then it has been celebrated every year … recycling , global warming , clean energy are some of thoughts derived from this movement during all these years of celebration …

Being citizen of 3rd rock … i really respect earth … and i do all i can do to make it less polluted ( because of me ) … by recycling things that can be recycled … by using renewable energy … by minimizing overall energy usage … by using good avg. car    !!! … by never keeping my pc ON for all night when i am not using it ???  … using natural fertilizer and pesticides for our little farm … and by all other means …

BTW … for people who don’t know , April 22nd is Birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin … chairman of U.S.S.R. … ( and a person who have highly influenced RUSSIA and whole WORLD ) … and coincidently , year 1970 was his 100th B’day … so If you would have joined demonstration in 1970 , you might have been considered as a communist !!!

So finally on this Earth Day … i just wish that you too do something that can really help our environment … our earth … our home … and our children ( i’m still single ) …

Njoy …

When First satellite … Sputnik I … was launched on October 4, 1957 into space no one in the world would had ever thought that after couple of decades we will have to take serious measures to remove this Junk that we send in space !!! But at present , it is perhaps one of the most notorious thing that scientist are worried about …

Space itself is a very dangerous place , why ??? may be because here if you got into any troubles then you won’t find any hospital in near by few thousands miles … or worse , you even won’t be able to see or predict the incoming danger !!!

The danger i am talking about here is a very small parts of waste materials from satellites , some are parts of dead satellite … or dead satellite itself ( as you may know that satellites are then tend to be dead or fail time to time !!! ) … these junk is known as SPACE DEBRIS  … it varies in size from a golf ball to say a football ?? … and it varies in form too … astronaut hand glove , camera , tools or toolbox or even garbage bags are some examples !!! The most talked space encounters that created space debris are , the most recent collision between IRIDIUM commercial satellite and Russian satellite which is the most discussed collision (BTW , speed of collision was 26,170 MPH !!! )… or anti-satellite weapon test by china … or same by USA …

Now imagine that such an un-controlled element get hit to another working satellite … or to a guy who just got out of space shuttle to stretch his leg !!! or even worse … a shuttle in process of entering earth’s atmosphere !!!  

At present at U.N. , they don’t have any rule “forced” for this kind of space junking … so unfortunately there are no standards for it and it solely depends upon individual space agency and its budget ( leaving waste behind is cheaper then brining it back to recycle )  … but there are some government organizations which look over and keep track of each of these debris such as Space Surveillance Network (SSN) part of US strategic air defense command center … 

Upto today , there were no major considerable “encounters” with these debris have be met … but space studies shows that in near future if they don’t take any preventive measures then soon the nightmare will become true … so talked International Space Station is equipped with defensive shield from this kind of “encounter” … known as WHIPPLE SHIELD …

Image below shows population of debris view from out of geosynchronous orbit of earth … gives the idea of population in space !!!

Njoy …

Eleven Ugandan college students believe they can bring affordable transportation to rural Africa with a home-grown, dirt-cheap car assembled from farm equipment.

The prototype of the "Poor Man's Car" isn't much to look at, fashioned as it is from sheet metal, wood seats and a diesel engine pulled from a corn mill, but the design and materials would be refined should the car ever see production. Moses Sebulime and his classmates at Makerere University believe the utilitarian runabout could bring mobility to the masses, much like the Tata Nano.

"The maintenance cost of the Poor Man's Car would be minimal as the parts are all locally produced," Sebulime told Wired.com. "It also will be a perfect alternative in rural settings as the engine can be reattached and used for other activities, such as accessories to agricultural machinery."

It's no coincidence that Sebulime wants to do for Africa what the Nano could do for India. He came up with the idea after finishing an internship at the Indian automaker.

The car made its debut at last month's Makerere University Stakeholder's Conference, and the students spent about $4,500 building it. Mechanical engineering professor Dr. Yasin Naku Ziraba said the car "is in its very infancy" and the cost would come down significantly should it see mass production. The university is looking to the government for help getting the car built sometime next year, arguing it could improve the lives of countless people.

"Our people in rural areas have been suffering with transport (problems)," Sebulime told the audience at the stakeholders' conference, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. "We have now provided the solution. All we need is the government to support us and we start the second stage of sophisticating this technology before we can hit the market."

Hitting the market won't be easy, but Sebulime and his classmates are gaining support. The Monitor praised their innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in an editorial that said the students "have given us reason to retain some faith" in the university. "Either the university or government or both should come to the aid of these students," the paper wrote. "We should not let innovation suffer a stillbirth."

from wired …

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The new economic stimulus package set aside $11 billion in federal funding  for creation of a so-called "smart grid." But it's not clear what this national electricity delivery system will look like, how it will function or who will manage the information required to make the grid intelligent. Local power utilities can install the smart meters in homes that provide data about energy usage and constitute an integral part of the overall smart grid, but it's the cable and telephone companies that have the broadband infrastructure to send this info back to the utilities.
Over the next three years, Progress Energy, a Raleigh, N.C., power company, and the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg plan to equip some 5,000 homes and businesses in west St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach with special meters, sensors and switches to create one of the U.S.'s largest smart grids, according to Tampa Bay Online. If  the $15 million experiment is a success, Progress plans to incorporate smart-grid technology over the next 10 years in its most populated service areas, including Orlando and areas of Pinellas County in addition to St. Petersburg.
Intamac Systems Ltd., a U.K.-based maker of home alarm and monitoring systems, last week said it's negotiating with "major" U.S. telecom carriers to deliver energy metering services to broadband customers in the U.S.,Greentechmedia.com reports. Intamac is already working with Bell Canada (which in 2007 started a pilot project to test its ability to deliver energy metering services to some of its broadband customers) and British Telecom, which is planning to add a similar capability to the Home Hub wireless router it offers BT broadband customers.
Of course, utilities might not want to share the smart-meter market with other service providers. Recognizing this,AT&T last week announced a slightly different approach—the company plans to take its wireless network along with "smart grid" sensors and software from SmartSynch, Inc., directly to the utilities themselves, enabling the utilities to monitor their own energy consumption as well as their customers' energy use.
The model for utilities managing their own smart meter information is working for Austin Energy in Texas, which in 2003  became one of the first U.S. utilities to set up a smart grid.  Some 65,000 of the utility's one million customers  are now on its smart meter system, GDS Publishing Ltd. reported on its Power & Energy Web site. Unlike the current electrical grid, where large amounts of energy are produced whether people need it or not, the smart grid would rely on information from energy consumers to determine how much energy to generate; such a grid could even purchase energy from consumers who produce their own power (via solar panels, wind or other means).
Given the wide open market that smart metering represents, even technology service providers are trying to get in on the action. Online search engine Google last month announced that it's developing software calledPowerMeter, that will let consumers check out their home energy use in near real-time on their computers. No word on how long the testing will last before PowerMeter will be available for download.
Regardless of how individual homes and businesses are metered, the ideal national clean-energy smart grid would use long-distance, extra-high-voltage transmission lines to move remote clean-energy resources to power load centers and connect to a distribution system that delivers energy and detailed, real-time information about the use of such energy to consumers, the Center for American Progress (CAP)  said in a report released last month. The D.C. think tank (headed by John Podesta, former President Clinton's chief of staff and co chairman of President Obama's transition team) recommended that the grid be run like a national enterprise rather than by a patchwork of utilities, that is, that a central federal authority approve clean-energy projects across multiple states simultaneously (to keep construction of any one piece from being held back).

from Scientific American …

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The two prototypes, which will be exhibited next week at Detroit's Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress, are designed to provide walking assistance for people with weakened legs or those who need to perform a lot of fatiguing leg work. We gathered in a room at a Times Square hotel, met the Japanese engineers who invented the devices (the company holds more than 130 patents on the technologies involved) and got to try them on.

The first, which looks a bit like an industrial-strength garter belt, is called "Stride Management Assist" (there will doubtless be a renaming process before the devices come to the U.S. market). It secures around the user's waist and grips each thigh. Then, by monitoring the angle of the hips, it calculates the wearer's stride and provides helpful force -- not exactly moving your legs for you, but what the makers call "cooperative control," lengthening the stride and regulating the pace of walking.

In motion, it feels like the machine doesn't want you to amble, pressing instead for a high-stepping march. Wearing it, I climbed a set of steps, feeling like I could climb forever without tiring, and then stopped at the top to pose for a photo -- or rather, tried to stop, while the device walked me onward a few paces. It must take some getting used to.

The second device, "Bodyweight Support Assist," consists of a motorized, articulated frame, with a pair of shoes at one end and a bicycle-style saddle at the other. You switch on the device -- each strut's servomotor starts to whir individually -- zip on the shoes, and then lift the padded saddle up into place between your thighs, where it exerts an upward force of 3 kilograms to help support the wearer's body weight. Not the most comfortable place to experience 3 kilograms of upward force, it turns out.

When you bend your knees to crouch down, the force is increased up to 17 kilograms, making it very easy to hold a crouching posture for long periods of time. Proposed users of the device include factory workers who crouch to lift and look under things, as well as, according to the presentation we were shown, sightseers.

Honda's reps were unable to offer specific information as to when the devices might come to market, or what exactly the market might be. The versatile technology promises to be very helpful, even life-changing, for people who need mobility assistance, assuming that the triple barriers of price, availability, and fear of strapping robots to your legs can be overcome.

from PopScience ….

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Scientists have created a "Eureka machine" that can work out the laws of nature by observing the world around it – a development that could dramatically speed up the discovery of new scientific truths.

The machine took only hours to come up with the basic laws of motion, a task that occupied Sir Isaac Newton for years after he was inspired by an apple falling from a tree.

Scientists at Cornell University in New York have already pointed the machine at baffling problems in biology and plan to use it to tackle questions in cosmology and social behaviour.

The work marks a turning point in the way science is done. Eureka moments, which supposedly began in Archimedes' bath more than 2,000 years ago, might soon be happening not in the minds of geniuses, but through the warm hum of electronic circuitry.

"We've reached a point in science where there's a lot of data to deal with. It's not Newton looking at an apple, or Galileo looking at heavenly bodies any more, it's more complex than that," said Hod Lipson, the computer engineer who led the project.

"This takes the grunt out of science by sifting through data and looking for the laws that govern how something behaves."

Details of the machine are described in the US journal Science. The study appears alongside a report from scientists at the universities of Aberystwyth and Cambridge describing the first discovery of new scientific knowledge by a laboratory robot.

The robot, called Adam, devised and performed experiments to investigate the genetics of bakers' yeast. When scientists did their own experiments, they came to the same conclusions. Ross's team is already working on a second robot called Eve.

Together, the papers raise the question of how the role of scientists will change over the coming decades. For now, scientists believe the new technology will work alongside them rather than relegate them to technicians who tap in data and perform maintenance tasks, but leave the real thinking to the machines.

The Cornell machine uses a computer program that can search through huge amounts of data and look for underlying patterns. For example, a falling apple will abide by Newton's second law, which is often stated as F=ma, where F is the force acting on an object, m is its mass, and a is its acceleration. When fed information on the mass of the apple and its velocity as it falls, the machine would be able to work out the equation.

Lipson tested the machine by giving it information from basic lab experiments, such as swinging pendulums and tiny cars that moved up and down tracks on a cushion of air. After crunching through the data, the machine pinged and displayed several laws of motion and conservation of momentum.

The system runs its own checks to decide whether the laws it has found are likely to be interesting. In the pendulum test, for example, the tip of the pendulum is always the same distance from the pivot, but this does not shed any light on the underlying physics.

After proving that the machine worked, Lipson's team set it to work on the complex problem of metabolism in biological cells. The computer produced some equations, which the scientists are still trying to make sense of.

"It's like going to an oracle and asking what's going on. You are given an equation, but you need to work out what it means before you can understand what's really going on," said Lipson.

The team say they also plan to look at problems in cosmology and even social behaviour, which could reveal the underlying laws at play when people form social networks on the internet.

"The real test now is whether it can discover new laws of nature and I believe it will. There's no way forward in a lot of sciences without tools like this," Lipson said.

from .. the guardian ..

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For millenniums, microbes have been a staunch technological ally. They have leavened our bread and cured our cheeses. Now, engineers are asking them to convert carbon dioxide into fuel and to build a new generation of batteries. Some of the smallest life forms with which we share the planet are helping us cope with the energy challenges of the 21st century.

Forget about the so-called hydrogen economy for a moment. The much-discussed plan to use hydrogen as a major power source has serious problems, such as how to deliver the fuel to consumers.

Bruce Logan at Penn State says methane could be a much more appealing candidate. Through the study of how microbes produce methane in swamps, bogs, and landfills, he and his colleagues believe they have found a perfect source for the gas.

They found certain microbes that use electricity to convert CO2 and water into methane. These hydrolysis cells convert electrical energy into energy stored in methane with 80 percent efficiency.

Technical details of this research appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, and Professor Logan emphasized the potential environmental benefits in a separate statement. No extra carbon has to be added to make methane, he writes. When the gas is burned for fuel, it only lets off as much CO2 as originally went in, saving utilities from pumping more greenhouse gases into the environment. Furthermore, if the electricity used in the process comes from solar or wind power, the entire fuel cycle would not add any extra CO2 to the environment.

“The process does not sequester carbon, but it does turn carbon dioxide into fuel,” Logan explains. “If the methane is burned and carbon dioxide captured, then the process can be carbon neutral.”

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Angela Belcher and colleagues are adopting viruses as engineering partners. With a little genetic tweaking, they have enabled what’s called an M13 virus to self-construct a wiring network for an improved lithium-ion battery. The technical details published in the April 2 online edition of Science described virus-produced batteries that MIT says “have the same energy capacity and power performance as state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries being considered to power plug-in hybrid cars.”

The MIT announcement explains that the viruses “first coat themselves with iron phosphate, then grab hold of carbon nanotubes to create a network of highly conducting material.” The batteries can’t be recharged as many times as regular lithium-ion cells. However, Dr. Belcher says that, as development progresses, “we expect them to be able to go much longer.”

The term “virus” often has a negative connotation. Yet they are part of the biology of our planet. The viruses used in this work are harmless to humans, according to the MIT announcement. As engineers face this century’s technical challenges, we can expect to see more knowledge from biology joining traditional, physical know-how in their tool kit.

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It bears more than a passing resemblance to an old-fashioned carriage, but Mercedes-Benz claims this roadster could be the car of the future.

Built by 150 trainees, the car combines traditional design features with the latest technology. So while it has large spoke wheels that hark back to the first Benz Motor Car of 1886, it is powered by a hybrid drive system using an emission-free fuel cell.

It can reach a top speed of 15.5miles an hour and has a range of 220miles. The students from Daimler AG have worked on the overall concept, development, assembly, and completion of the F-CELL Roadster for a year. The project was created to train the junior employees in alternative drive systems.

They included carbon-fiber bucket seats with hand-stitched leather covers and a distinctively styled fiberglass front section, inspired by Formula One racing cars.

The roadster is controlled with drive-by-wire technology, and a joystick takes the place of a conventional steering wheel.

'I am delighted to see how much initiative and creativity the young people have put into this project,' Labor Relations Manager Günther Fleig said.

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