Editor Blogs

August 2017
Aston Martin Vows to go Fully Hybrid-Electric by the mid-2020s
Aston Martin
The coolest car ever is about to go fully hybrid. The Lamborghini might cut a sharper profile and Ferrari might be the more accomplished racing team, but only one luxury sports car counts a suave British secret agent amongst its fictional aficionados. If it’s good enough for the king of cool, it’s good enou
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08/29/2017
How to Turn Human Sweat into Energy
University of California San Diego

Researchers showed that the flexible biofuel cell could power LEDs and a Bluetooth radio.

I’ve never seen a more intuitive (and slightly gross) way to harvest energy. Many wearable electronics correspond with activities that produce sweat, so, figured the University of California San Diego, why not turn that bodily fluid into power? Engineers at UC San Diego have developed stretchable biofuel cells that use an enzyme to oxidize the lactic acid
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08/24/2017
The Eclipse Could Overload the Power Grid (and how to Help Manage it)
JAXA/NASA/SAO

Screen capture from Hinode video of Nov. 13, 2012 solar eclipse.

Home automation producer Nest Labs has a message for customers (and everyone else) – turn down your AC prior to the Great American Eclipse to help prevent strain on the power grid. When the eclipse achieves first contact in Oregon at around 12:00 EST, it’ll lead to a tremendous dip in solar capacity na
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08/21/2017
UK Government Backs Industry in Brexit Talks
Last week, I had a bit of a rant about the UK government’s lack of a straightforward plan for Brexit. Good timing I guess, because straight afterwards, the government seemed to have tried to get its act together. Politicians from either side of the Cabinet divide publicly made up and detailed a compromise pl
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08/21/2017
Around Tech This Week ... Funding deserts UK start-ups ... and much more !
Funding deserts UK start-ups; Zinc-air battery, a new contender; AI beats egames champion; Tricorder smartphone Just as I’ve grudgingly praised the UK government’s actions backing industry in Brexit talks, more bad news comes for the UK’s tech sector in today’s Times. The broadsheet has reported that
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08/21/2017
Electric Cargo Van Could Satisfy all Global Regulations
Chanje
A new all-electric commercial van could redefine scale and affordability in this vehicle class. Class 5 vehicles typically include “Medium” trucks (from 16,001–19,500 pounds) like the Dodge Ram 5500, GMC 5500, and Ford F-550, and because of wildly different global environmental regulations, they’re normally produced in
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08/18/2017
Electric Vehicle Breaks Drag-Racing World Record (at 144.8 MPH)
True Cousins

The True Cousins custom-built TC-X drag racer.

A drag racing team from Denmark just set a new record for full-bodied electric vehicles … at 144.8 mph. OK, so we’ll never call EVs “muscle cars,” but the new eighth-mile National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) world record – 4.8968 seconds at 144.8 mph – is impressive. Denmark’s True C
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08/15/2017
One of the things I’ve always loved about technology is how it can be used to help people with illnesses and disabilities. For the time that I’ve worked in this industry, the stories that have touched me most are the ones that can improve the lives of other people. The current technology trends mean that th
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08/07/2017
Our weekly trip around the news this week will look at alternative energy. It’s quite hard to judge where we actually are in the development of renewable energy because of the enormous amounts of conflicting information we are bombarded with on a daily basis. What is not in dispute is that these problems will be ov
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08/07/2017
Organic Solar Cell Glasses Generate Power Indoors
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
How would you like a wearable device with heads-up display functionality that’s not half as dorky as Google Glasses? Well, the prototype Solar Glasses from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology isn’t ready for public consumption, but it does prove that you can wear a nifty widget on your face without viola
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08/03/2017
New Survey Describes Tesla Owners as Fanatical
Tesla
A rather astute South Park episode sees all the adults purchase hybrid cars and become insufferably smug. That was running through my mind when I read the results of a survey describing Tesla owners as “fanatical” (despite admittedly subpar service). Shock of the century, right? Don’t get me wrong – the Tesla vehicle fami
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08/02/2017