High-tech vehicles pose trouble for some mechanics

Technology / Other

20 hours ago | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 5

(AP) -- A sign inside the Humming Motors auto repair shop says, "We do the worrying so you don't have to."

NASA NuSTAR Telescope Being Built at Nevis

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's an unlikely place to build a NASA telescope: a leafy estate in Irvington, N.Y., that once belonged to the son of Alexander Hamilton. Inside a hangar-like building on the site, which is ...

Gadgets: Great gadgets, as a gift or not

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

Dec 17, 2009 | 3 / 5 (3) | 0

Officially this is not another gift guide. Instead I'd rather consider it the first of two roundups either of products I just haven't gotten to this year or some I have just couldn't find a home for.

Going vertical: Fleeing tsunamis by moving up, not out

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the minutes after a strong earthquake struck offshore of the Indonesian city of Padang on Sept. 30, fears of a tsunami prompted hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate the coastal ...

Solar energy powers Marines on battlefield (w/ Video)

Technology / Energy

Dec 08, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 1

A year ago, U.S. Marines operating in the Arabian Desert only viewed the sun as the source of the region's relentless heat. Recently, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Advanced Power Generation Future Naval ...

Flight of fancy: MIT autonomous mini-helicopter solves one tough challenge

Technology / Engineering

Dec 03, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (13) | 2

In its first 18 years, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s annual aerial-robotics competition posed four successive challenges, which robotics researchers had to meet using entirely ...

NREL Breaks Down Walls for Biofuels

Biology / Biotechnology

Nov 30, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and ethanol producers are racing to come up with ways to make ethanol from cellulosic biomass that are cheaper and easier to ...

NASA Supercomputer Ranks Among World's Fastest

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 19, 2009 | 4 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's premiere supercomputer located at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., has garnered the sixth spot on the Top500 list of the world's most powerful computers.

FutureGrid to provide platform for experimental computation

Technology / Computer Sciences

Nov 17, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Over the next few months, a consortium that includes the University of Chicago will establish FutureGrid, a collaborative next-generation system for experimental scientific supercomputing.

Glimpsing a greener future: Computer model foresees effects of alternative transportation fuels

Space & Earth / Environment

Nov 16, 2009 | 2.5 / 5 (4) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's the year 2060, and 75 percent of drivers in the Greater Los Angeles area have hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that emit only water vapor.

India fraud office to prosecute Satyam founder

Technology / Business

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

India's fraud office will file charges this month against the founder of outsourcer Satyam after he admitted to falsifying profits in the nation's biggest corporate fraud, a minister said Monday.

Shape perception in brain develops by itself

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

Nov 13, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0

Despite minimal exposure to the regular geometric objects found in developed countries, African tribal people perceive shapes as well as westerners, according to a new study.

This smart wheelchair has laser vision

Technology / Engineering

Nov 10, 2009 | not rated yet | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Disability, John Spletzer believes, should no longer pose any obstacle to mobility. A blind person may not be able to see or a paraplegic to walk, but each can access the technology available ...

Driver-less car in high-speed rally assault

Technology / Engineering

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (16) | 3

Imagine driving at top speed on a steep, winding mountain pass in the Alps, or the Himalayas, or the Rocky Mountains.

NASA's Ares I-X moon rocket makes first test flight

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 28, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (25) | 17

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Ares I-X test rocket lifted off at 11:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a two-minute powered flight.