Well that didn’t take long: Just six months after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down requests to close the locks between Chicago area waterways and Lake Michigan to stop the spread of invasive Asian carp the giant, voracious fish has almost made its…
Editor’s Note: Marine biologist William Gilly is on an expedition to study Humboldt squid on the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research vessel New Horizon in the Gulf of California. He and other scientists are learning abou…
LINDAU, Germany–Quick: What do MRI machines, rockets, fiber optics, LCDs, food production and welding have in common?They all require the inert, or noble, gas helium for their use or at some stage of their production. And that helium essentially could…
In the first-ever global survey of indoor fungi scientists report that geography rather than building design and function has the greatest effect on the fungal species likely to be found indoors. The study suggests that the types of mold and other fu…
Trey is looking with longing eyes to get out of his kennel and experience all the good things in life he’s never had. He has been rescued from an awful life in Greece and will never ask for much but give everything in return. He’s a placid boy who wi…
Back in the early 1970s, a handful of scientists, engineers, defense contractors and U.S. Air Force officers got together to form a professional group. They were essentially trying to solve the same problem: how to build machines that can operate on th…
Could you spare a monthly donation by standing order to help our older dogs with veterinary treatment? £1 a paw per month would be ideal but any contribution, however small, is a big help to us. Our biggest expense is by far, veterinary costs. The maj…
The first day of trading for the first American auto manufacturer to go public since Ford did in 1956 ended with a bang. After selling 13.3 million shares at 17 bucks a pop for a $226 million haul, Tesla’s stock surged steadily over the day to close up more than 40% at $23.89 per share. This is made even more impressive by the fact that the rest of the market sunk drastically. In fact, Tesla was the largest gainer on the NASDAQ today.
Not bad for a company that has yet to turn a profit and doesn’t even have any hope to do so until 2012, when its Model S “family sedan” goes on sale for $50,000.
Just as bacteria and fungi are methodically breaking down the millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, microbes might help us with another uncontrolled emission due to human activity–carbon dioxide. [More]
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Over the decades, America has heard, time and again, that our dependence on oil is a problem both for the environment and national security. Presidents as far back as Dwight Eisenhower have made remarks about weening the country off of oil, but we still haven’t come up with the collective cajones to do so. There is a reason for this; us Americans love our cheap energy. It lets us live a lifestyle that is foreign to most of the rest of the world.
Any politician so much as suggesting a gas tax increase can look forward to a thrashing at the next election, and as we know, most politicians are more concerned with keeping their job than making any effective changes to this country. That is why we still have (relatively) cheap gas. David Frum over at CNN put it quite plainly though; if we want to get off of oil, it ain’t gonna be easy.
HybridCars.com is claiming exclusive access to information that has, to this point, been left to the wild rumors of the internet: The Chevy Volt’s engine may actually directly power the car’s wheels during some kinds of driving.
If this is true, it would be big news for a car and a company that, up ’til now have gone to great lengths to brand and market the vehicle in a new category—the Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV)—while simultaneously distancing the Volt from the more widely used moniker, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)… all of which was done to avoid branding the Volt in the hybrid category and associate it with pure electric vehicles.
Editor’s Note: Marine biologist William Gilly is on an expedition to study Humboldt squid on the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research vessel New Horizon in the Gulf of California. He and other scientists are learning abo…
In Colorado’s far western reaches is a valley called Paradox. Unlike most, it is cut crosswise through the middle. The Dolores River runs perpendicular through it, creating a geologic anomaly that is also the valley’s namesake.Brilliant orange cl…
It took mankind thousands of years to domesticate horses, and even after we had tamed the beasts, many people still relied upon their own two feet to travel where they needed. Armies of men marched thousands of miles to wage war, and many of the greatest explorers had nothing but their legs to take them through uncharted lands. And in the span of just two centuries, mankind, it seems, has forgotten how to walk.
Ok, that last part might be a bit of a stretch. Cities are growing, and many city dwellers walk day in and day out. But many Americans don’t really have a choice when it comes to walking. The lack of sidewalks and distance from basic amenities mean cars or buses are the only real choices. If we build more walkable neighborhoods though, will more people start walking?
I was never much of an athlete growing up, but I loved the thrill of competition. And I have no problem admitting that my overall combined sports record probably has a lot more losses than wins on it. Yet I always felt competition drove me to work harder to get better… even if I lost most of the time.
If you look at today’s industry, competition is still a driving factor in many success stories, and usually it is the best companies with the best products that win. But a panel of EV “experts” told the Automotive News Europe Congress that electric vehicles will only succeed through collaboration. Sounds a little too friendly to me.
For a while there, it seemed like there would be no limit on how big cars could get. Trucks and SUV’s had replaced minivans in most family garages, and it was starting to looking like we’d return to the old days where land yachts dominated the highways. Now though, car trends are tending to get smaller… and smaller. How small can we go?
Gordon Murray Designs think we can get very small. Yesterday the design firm lifted the veil its T.25 city car. Weighing in at just 1,212 pounds, the featherweight car is powered by a paltry 51 horsepower engine. But at 62 mpg, is the fuel efficiency worth the trade off in size?
If you want a dog to keep you active then Sparky might well be just the dog for you. He’s only 7 and loves his walks. Other than that, he is a really undemanding chap – he’s well behaved, very affectionate and fine with other dogs.
Caspar is a 12 year old Llasa Apso who needs a home where the furniture will not be moved around! His eyesight is failing and he needs to learn to navigate a new home so that he can move around with confidence. He’s be fine to live with other dogs an…
Alfie and Ozzie are best friends and would love a new home together, though they can be separated if necessary. They love their walks and cuddles and can live with children 8+. Who can resist this cute pair of lovely dogs?
When U.S. forces invaded Iraq in 2003, they fought a traditional war of human on human. Since then, robots have joined the fight. Both there and in Afghanistan, thousands of “unmanned” systems dismantle roadside IEDs, take that first peek a…
LINDAU, Germany–What’s the best way to address a politically charged topic such as the future of energy? Remove the politics. “We’re going to skip over the politics,” Robert P. Laughlin, who won a Nobel Prize for physics in 19…
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