More than two million semis travel some 120,000 miles apiece along America’s arterial highways every year at an average efficiency of just 6 MPG. Six. Miles per gallon of diesel—not even Hummers are that wasteful. However, a new “Super Truck” design by Peterbilt has shown it can go the same distance for half the gas. More »
Even though today’s largest airplane engines are capable of producing more than 100,000 pounds of thrust, they are still susceptible to ice build-up in the sub-zero temperatures at cruising altitude. To ensure the next generation of mega-engines can withstand the worst that Old Man Winter can throw at them, GE has set up a testing center in the coldest, most inhospitable frozen environment this side of Hoth—Winnipeg, Canada. More »
For all of their advanced technologies, modern satellites still rely on low-bandwidth radio transmitters to communicate with ground control. But they could soon be upgraded to beyond broadband speeds once NASA’s new laser-based communication system prototype gets off the ground. More »
Liver transplantation has become a victim of its own success with far more recipients registered to waiting lists—roughly 30,000 in the US and Europe—than there are available donor organs. What’s more, a staggering 2,000 viable livers must be discarded annually because they didn’t survive the journey from donor to recipient. However, this new organ transporter will keep livers warm, oxygenated, and active during its trip, potentially saving thousands of lives yearly. More »
The US government holds vast tracts of public lands—more than a 654 million acres, in fact—for public use such as national parks as well as for military use like test ranges and proving grounds. But most of the time, much of that land is left to rot when it could be producing clean solar energy for our ever-increasing power needs. More »
Your chances of being split open sternum to sphincter for a medical procedure are quickly declining (whew) thanks to the advent of endoscopic surgery and robotic surgical platforms like the DaVinci, though even these revolutionary procedures have their limitations. But thanks to a team of Stanford researchers, size is no longer one of them. More »
America alone produces about 2,000 metric tons of nuclear waste annually and our best solution for disposing of it: bury it deep in the Earth. However, a pair of MIT scientists believe they’ve found not only a better way of eliminating nuclear waste but recycling the deadly detritus into enough clean electricity to power the entire world until 2083. Win, meet win. More »
The Fukushima Daiichi meltdown and other recent disasters like Deepwater Horizon highlight a very real need for robotic first responders that can operate in inhospitable environments. In response, DARPA recently issued a Robotics Challenge addressing the issue. Here’s the design that Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center (CMU NREC) hopes will take home the challenge’s $2 million purse—and save lives some day. More »
The photo you see above was taken on February 28th when the Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites team tested, for the first time, the rocket that will power its first test flight before going into orbit. And it was a raging success. More »
Death by ICBM was a near constant threat to both sides during the Cold War. America’s answer: a long-range, phased-array early warning system designed to find, identify, and track these sea-launched ballistic missile threats. It worked so well, the Air Force still uses it. More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
