HCCI engines have the potential of being highly efficient. HCCI stands for “Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition”. HCCI uses gasoline in a diesel-like way, allowing compression to auto-ignite the gasoline like a diesel engine would, rather than a spark plug. Along with computer control, HCCI can improve efficiency up to 15%. Here’s an overview:

GM is demonstrating a working version of the technology, and Mercedes is working on its DiesOtto engine of the same design:

A more radical HCCI design uses opposing pistons, as shown here:

Popular Mechanics has an article on the technology here:

In Efficiency Lab, GM Rethinks the Old-School Engine

From the article:

Dismissed as a laboratory curiosity in the 1970s, homogeneous charge-compression ignition (HCCI) has now emerged as a more feasible alternative to alternative fuels—and it’s almost ready to roll out en masse. When used in conjunction with other advanced engine technologies, this combustion process can help deliver a whopping 25- to 30 -percent better fuel economy than today’s spark- or compression-ignited internal combustion engines (ICE). HCCI does all this with near-zero emissions, just like a hybrid—and it won’t have any impact on your driving habits or come at a premium price.

See also: Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI)

For more info see:

- How Car Engines Work

- How Diesel Engines Work

The World’s Largest Building is the Boeing 747 assembly building near Seattle Washington:

- See how planes are built in the world’s largest building

- Visit the Boeing Twin-Aisle Assembly Plant in Everett, Wash.

Here it is:

View Larger Map

More info: List of largest buildings in the world

[See previous WR]

Explain THAT to your insurance company

[See previous Funny]

1) The 11 Best Ultra Compact Digital Cameras

2) Comprehensive list of low-cost ultraportables

3) The Neocube:

This article talks about the lengths that people are going to to extract oil from the ground:

Where will tomorrow’s oil come from?

From the article:

Saudi Arabia’s largest and most productive field, the Ghawar field, produces about five million barrels a day - accounting for more than half of the kingdom’s total production and 6% of total world output. But Ghawar was discovered in 1948 and has required large-scale injections of seawater to artificially pressurize the well since the 1970s…

But if you want to see an even more involved technique that tries to capture energy from several different angles simultaneously, watch this video:

- Russia continues flight simulation experiments for Mars

From the article:

Two Europeans and four Russians have been selected for the main flight simulation, which may last from 520 to 700 days.

During nearly two years of isolation, crew members will experience many of the conditions likely to be encountered by astronauts on a real space flight.

- Russia tests monkeys for Mars trip

From the article:

The macaques will be the first to experience the radiation that poses a big risk to astronauts - or Russian cosmonauts - on any flight to the Red Planet.

- Russia To Create Manned Assembly Complex In Orbit

From the article:

Russia is going to create a manned assembly complex in orbit, the chief of the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) Anatoly Perminov said here on Saturday. “We shall create this complex in order to make dockings in orbit, build craft there and send them to the Moon, Mars and other planets.”

- Russia inches towards mission to Mars

From the article:

Air is crucial to human life, and the absence of a breathable atmosphere is one of the main obstacles to discovering other planets. Russian scientists have reproduced a gas mixture that human beings may breathe on the way to Mars and when on the Red Planet.

This is not recycled paper - this is paper that you can quickly erase and reuse. Since the average document has a typical lifespan of about a week, being able to reuse the paper could be a big win. In this case, you “write on” the paper with UV light, and erase it with heat.

A description:

New way to save energy: Disappearing ink

A demonstration of reuseable paper:

[[[See previous invention]]]

The European edition of the Shell Eco Marathon is coming in May (22-24):

Shell Eco Marathon

From the site:

The Shell Eco-marathon began in 1939 at a Shell research laboratory in the U.S. as a friendly wager between scientists to see who could get the most miles per gallon from their vehicles. From these humble origins, the organized competition for fuel economy evolved and moved to Europe. The Shell Eco-marathon in its current form began in 1985 in France, attracting thousands of young engineers and scientists from 20 European countries. The Shell Eco-marathon Americas was first held at the California Speedway in 2007.

The principle of the Shell Eco-marathon is simple: to design and build a vehicle that uses the least amount of fuel to travel the farthest distance. At all events, teams can enter futuristic prototypes: streamlined vehicles where the only design consideration is reducing drag and maximizing efficiency. In Europe, there is also the category of more realistic “UrbanConcept” vehicles, designed to meet the needs of today’s drivers. Conventional fuels such as diesel, petrol/gasoline and liquid petroleum gas, as well as alternatives like GTL, solar, ethanol, hydrogen and biofuels can power the vehicles. As long as teams adhere to safety rules, the design of their vehicles is limited only by their imagination.

One of the cars that has done extremely well over the years is the MicroJoule. It gets thousands of miles per gallon:

French concept car gets 8,923 miles per gallon

Here is an overview:

Here’s the answer:

Should Rising Gas Prices Make You Buy a New Car?

[See previous question]

Top ten greatest experiments - “I longed for the old days when something new and fundamental could be teased from nature by a single mind and a single pair of hands. I began compiling a list that became a book: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments…”

A Crushing Issue: How to Destroy Brand-New Cars - “It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4,703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific. The freighter, the Cougar Ace, spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted. The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal — but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long. Might corrosive fluids seep into chambers where they don’t belong? Was the Cougar Ace now full of lemons?”

From the “Abuse Your Customer” Business Manual - “This saga is why Big 5 Music Label executives are among the most hated businessmen in America. Last June, Universal Music Group sued to have a video clip of a 13-month old toddler dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” removed from YouTube. Universal argued that the author – the child’s mother, Stephanie Lenz – violated the copyright of the song, which plays in the background of the video…”

Carbon Sciences May Save the World with Chalk - “And yet they have a demonstrated (though not patented) technology that allows them to turn CO2 into useful (and in some cases) very valuable commercial products…”

No Power Use in Standby: New Zero-Watt Monitor - “Computer monitors in standby mode will soon save far more energy. Fujitsu Siemens Computers has developed the world’s first monitor that requires no electricity at all in idle mode…”

Microsoft device helps police pluck evidence from cyberscene of crime - “Microsoft has developed a small plug-in device that investigators can use to quickly extract forensic data from computers that may have been used in crimes…”

Whats to come for the airline boarding pass - “a new concept has been designed to give you all the information in a tear-off boarding pass…”

Challenging Science - “The scientific enterprise is open to new ideas, however much they initially may be challenged. Here are some examples of people who have challenged the scientific status quo and, far from being “expelled” from science, were lauded as visionaries – once they had successfully proven their ideas…”

Don’t underestimate a red back spider!

9-Year-Old Boy Finds $265,000 Medieval Treasure Trove - “A nine-year-old Swedish boy and his grandfather have found a hoard of 13th-century coins while treasure hunting on a battlefield. Just the silver in the coins alone is estimated to be worth a whopping $265,000…”

Solar without the Panels - “In a solar thermal plant, mirrors concentrate sunlight onto some type of fluid that is used, in turn, to boil water for a steam turbine. Over the past year, developers of solar thermal technology such as Abengoa, Ausra, and Solel Solar Systems have picked up tens of millions of dollars in financing and power contracts from major utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric and Florida Power and Light. By 2013, projects in development in just the United States and Spain promise to add just under 6,000 megawatts of solar thermal power generation to the barely 100 megawatts installed worldwide last year, says Cambridge, MA, consultancy Emerging Energy Research…”

Electric Airplanes Take Flight. Get Yours Now - “You’re probably not going to live to see an electric 747 landing at O’Hare, but a growing number of aeronautical engineers believe electric airplanes are the future of general aviation…”

World Bank backs anti-Aids experiment - “”Thousands of people in Africa will be paid to avoid unsafe sex, under a groundbreaking World Bank-backed experiment aimed at halting the spread of Aids…

How I Played Games for Science - “A new study conducted by researchers at East Carolina University suggests that playing casual games like Peggle or Bejeweled can have a significant impact on a player’s mood or stress level, but you don’t have to take their word for it. You can take mine — I was one of the subjects tested for the study…”

[See previous IR]

The AirJelly:

The WaterJelly:

It is created by a company called Festo, and Festo believes this is the first time a drive system like this has even been used.

For more info:

- Festo.com

- Festo.com in English

Is Ubuntu ready for the mass market yet? Here is one way to answer that question:

The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment

[See previous question]

The Peel P50 is the world’s smallest car:

See also:

More info: Peel Micro cars

[See previous record]

Ever wonder what is going on with whipped cream? NASA takes a look:

The Physics of Whipped Cream

From the article:

Shear thinning occurs in many substances–e.g., ketchup, blood, motor oil, paint, liquid polymers such as molten plastic–and it is often crucial to how a substance is used. For instance, excessive shear thinning of motor oil is unwanted because it reduces the oil’s ability to protect engines from wear, while shear thinning of paint allows it to flow smoothly from the brush but stay put on the wall. It also allows ketchup to flow from the bottle but not drip off your french fries.

Yet, for years, scientists have asked themselves the same question you just did: What made it change?

How to make whipped cream:

The instant you look at the image, you know that this is a better seat for coach-class air travel:

1) Delta “Cozy Suite” Seats Make Economy Class Semi-Tolerable

2) The Cozy Suite - Building a Better Airplane Seat

[[[See previous invention]]]

Introduction:

Raw materials:

Blast furnace:

Continuous casting:

Rolling:

Cold rolling:

Tubing:

How NOT To Lift An Overturned Truck

[See previous Funny]

Chances are that most Americans have never heard of Macau. Yet, like many of the other “miracles of china”, it is in the process of rapidly eclipsing Las Vegas as the “gambling capital of the world.” Like Hong Kong, Macau is a Special Administrative Region - sort of like a mini-nation inside China with its own laws, money, police, etc.

View Larger Map

Today Macau is a rapidly growing tourist destination. The first “Las Vegas Style” hotel/casino (The Sands Macau) opened in 2004. Since then many others have opened, including the Wynn, the MGM and The Venetian (the world’s second largest building):

Macau already brings in as much money as Las Vegas:

Macau is Bigger Than Las Vegas

Given the size of China, Macau is likely to far outpace LV over the next several years.

For more info see: Macau Tour and Walking Guide

How do they write software for the space shuttle computers so it never makes a mistake? Here’s the answer:

They Write the Right Stuff

[See previous question]

Timeline of the universe - “Scientists can now tell us what happened in nearly every millisecond of the big bang. Robert Matthews takes us through the first crucial moments…”

Postcards from the future - “Postcards is a large-format feature motion picture that explores our future in space - seen through the eyes of an engineer working to build a base on the moon, and who occasionally sends video postcards back to his wife and family on Earth…”

What’s wrong with this picture? - “The last 11-year sunspot reached minimum about a year ago, in March 2007. (Here’s what the Sun looks like near maximum.) Since then there have only been a few, very small, isolated sunspots: far fewer than would be expected a year into a new cycle…”

Urban miners look for precious metals in cell phones - “Thinking of throwing out your old cell phone? Think again. Maybe you should mine it first for gold, silver, copper and a host of other metals embedded in the electronics — many of which are enjoying near-record prices. It’s called “urban mining”, scavenging through the scrap metal in old electronic products in search of such gems as iridium and gold, and it is a growth industry around the world as metal prices skyrocket…”

Who Needs Air Conditioning When You’ve Got Ice-Cold Water Running Through Your Shirt? - “It was about two years ago when I first saw ice vests in a running catalog and thought something along the lines of “wouldn’t that be a sweet thing to wear in the car on the way to school instead of blasting my (non-working) A/C!” Well, it seems the idea hasn’t quite died. ..

Build a 14.5 watt data center in a shoebox - “Earlier this month, Buffalo dished out the dual drive LinkStation Mini. This baby weighs just 1.1 pounds and measures 1.6 inches by 3.2 inches by 5.3 inches. It will ship in volume next month with a capacity of 1TB. Buffalo aims this device at Windows (Vista, XP and 2000) and Mac (10.3.9+) users who want to store a lot of media files. The box eats up just 10W and has a handy web access tool (http://www.buffalotech.com/technology/our-technology/web-access) for grabbing files whenever you need them…”

High gas prices prompt call for 4-day work week - ” The idea isn’t new one. The oil crisis of the 1970s prompted some employers to switch to a four-day work week, but the idea never took hold nationally. These days, though, energy and congestion issues may give the concept more traction. Several petition drives for a shortened work week are now circulating on the Internet…”

Gene therapy experiments improve vision in nearly blind - “Scientists for the first time have used gene therapy to dramatically improve sight in people with a rare form of blindness, a development experts called a major advance for the experimental technique…”

Amazing spiderman tattoo - “It seems more people are getting tattoos these days to show loyalty to a particular brand or product than for traditional rebellious reasons. We’ve all seen our share of Nintendo, Apple or even Zune tattoos, but none of them come even close to the ink that one Spiderman fan had done. The tattoo is designed to look like the guy’s skin is actually being torn away to reveal the Spiderman costume underneath. While I personally think having the Superman logo revealed on his chest would’ve been slightly cooler, this tattoo is still an impressive piece of work…”

Doomed Chernobyl reactor to be buried in giant steel coffin - “Twenty-two years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, work is under way on a colossal new shelter to cover the ruins and deadly radioactive contents of the exploded Soviet-era power plant…”

Air Traffic Controller Sounds Alarm - “Doug Church, union spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says the practitioners of this unsung profession are being hung out to dry. ‘We’re left trying to hold the system together like MacGyver — with duct tape and scissors and string.’”

The Best Game Ever - “This was the game that launched pro football into the stratosphere of billion-dollar franchises and multimillion-dollar player salaries. With 17 future Hall of Famers on the field and on the sidelines, it was watched by a TV audience of 45 million, the largest ever to witness a football game to that point. It remains in the memory of many sports fans…”

NASA gets small with tiny satellite program - “NASA said today it would team with m2mi to develop very small satellites, called nanosats which weigh between 11 to 110lb, for the development of telecommunications and networking services in space…”

Space ’spiderwebs’ could propel future probes - “new type of solar sail has been woven by a team of scientists in Finland. The spiderweb-like sail is designed to catch the wind of ionised gas that blows from the Sun, carrying spacecraft to the outer reaches of the solar system, or letting them tack back and forth through the asteroid belt on exploration or mining missions…”

The way to a man’s heart? Through his left ear - “If you’re thinking of asking your beloved to marry you, make sure that you utter your declaration of love into his or her left ear; it may increase your chances of hearing a heart-lifting “yes”. New research suggests that declarations of love, jokes, or words of anger are best remembered when they are heard through the left ear, while instructions, directions and non-emotional messages have more impact on the right side…”

Technological Breakthrough In Fight To Cut Greenhouse Gases - “cientists at Newcastle University have pioneered breakthrough technology in the fight to cut greenhouse gases. The Newcastle University team, led by Michael North, Professor of Organic Chemistry, has developed a highly energy-efficient method of converting waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemical compounds known as cyclic carbonates…”

12 Memory Tricks - “So I decided to look into it myself and talk to the experts — people who teach memory skills professionally. At the end of this column I’m going to list 12 tips I distilled from their recommendations, but first, to put those tips in context, let me just review how memory works…”

What’s the next big thing for the wireless industry? - ” As constantly proclaimed by industry experts at “The Mobile Future” conference in Santa Clara last week, the wireless industry is supposed to revolutionize our lives. So, just how will that happen?”

See previous IR]

What do you get when you combine a recession, high food prices, the concept of “organic food” and the Green movement? Suburban farming.

Suburban farming in Colorado:

In California (6,000 pounds of food from a tenth of an acre):

The city chicken for eggs:

There is also back yard sustainability:

It would appear that there is a memory exercise that you can that will improve your IQ:

Simple brain exercise can boost IQ

From the article:

The first part of the exercise involves small squares on a screen that pop into a new location every three seconds. Volunteers have to press a button when the current location is a duplicate of two views earlier. For the second part, the volunteers have to simultaneously carry out the same task with letters. Consonants are played through headphones and they have to press a button when they hear one that is the same as that heard two “plays” earlier.

In this case, n = 2. As you get better, n increases. Participants did this for several days. The result? “The researchers found that the IQ of trained individuals increased significantly more than controls – and that the more training people got, the higher the score.”

Want to try it for yourself? Click here:

IQ boost with dual n-back task

When you spend $50 to fill up your tank with gas, where is all that money going? Here’s the answer:

Where is your gas money going?

Want to fight back? 2008 Most Fuel Efficient Vehicles

PS - why is gas at $120/barrel at the moment? Here is one reason: Exxon shuts nearly all Nigerian oil output

[See previous question]

First Lithium-ion Prototype Chevy Volt Running

From the article:

The Detroit News today reported an interview with GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz. Lutz verified for the first time publicly that a Chevy Volt prototype with an actual full-sized lithium ion battery is actually running…

AFS Trinity already has a plug-in prototype:

If you would like to jump the gun on plug in hybrids (which are still 2 to 3 years out if you want one from a major manufacturer), you can now buy a conversion for any 2004-2008 Prius. It’s expensive, but it gives you a range of 30 to 40 miles on batteries:

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1582/

Meanwhile there are dozens of other competitors trying to get traction:

30 electric cars companies ready to take over the road

From the article:

It’s official: Green car madness has taken over. After seeing more electric and hybrid vehicle startups than we could keep track of, we finally decided to start keeping count…

The article contains links to all 30 companies so you can see what they’ve got.

Life explained

[See previous TIM]

In any city you see panhandlers. But are they for real? TV station KUTV busted one panhandler recently:

See also:

Here’s a short documentary on another panhandler, who seems to follow the same pattern:

A real life panhandler

And articles like these seem to indicate the same kind of thing:

Oregon panhandlers raking in the green

The simplest possible desalination system, using plastic wrap and so on:

Next step up - the WaterCone:

Reverse osmosis for desalination:

Large scale desalination in Tampa:

The Tampa plant uses reverse osmosis. You can learn more about it here:

Tampa bay seawater desalination plant in Florida

“Ionic” air cleaners have been around for awhile, but the LA Times shows that they don’t work:

Ionic air purifiers’ dirty little secret: They don’t get rid of dust

According to Sublett, the devices don’t effectively remove dust, dander and other irritants from a room. Without fans, he explains, they can’t collect airborne particles from more than a few feet away. And when even small amounts of dust enter the device, the plates inside quickly lose much of their power to attract more particles. Meanwhile, the charged particles that stick to walls or TV screens haven’t left the room and can always billow up again to cause trouble.

The ozone released from the devices is another deal-breaking shortcoming, Sublett says. “Ozone is a pollutant and an irritant. Even small amounts are too much.” People who use several units at a time are especially likely to get an ozone overload, he says. One of Sublett’s patients noticed a great improvement in her breathing when she turned off the six ionic purifiers in her home.

See also:

[See previous Doesn’t Work]

What is liquid smoke? Here’s the answer:

- How is Liquid Smoke Made?

- What is Liquid Smoke?

[See previous question]