From facial recognition security to unmanned vehicles, Alibaba’s corporate campus is the office of the future. CNBC’s Uptin Saiidi gets a rare look inside the company’s headquarters in Hangzhou, China, where more than 20,000 employees are based.
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TOKYO (Reuters) — Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) unveiled a completely redesigned hydrogen-powered fuel cell sedan on Friday in its latest attempt to revive demand for the niche technology that it hopes will become mainstream.
Japan’s biggest automaker has been developing fuel-cell vehicles for more than two decades, but the technology has been eclipsed by the rapid rise of rival battery-powered electric vehicles promoted by the likes of Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ).
Ahead of the Tokyo Motor Show starting on Oct. 24, Toyota unveiled a prototype of the new hydrogen sedan built on the same platform as its luxury Lexus brand’s LS coupe. The new Mirai model boasts longer driving range than its predecessor and completely redesigned fuel cell stack and hydrogen tanks, the company said.
Posted in chemistry, computing, mobile phones, sustainability, transportation | Leave a Comment on Congratulations to 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winners John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to John B. Goodenough (The University of Texas at Austin), M. Stanley Whittingham (Binghamton University, State University of New York), and Akira Yoshino (Asahi Kasei Corporation and Meijo University) “for the development of lithium-ion batteries”. With the creation and subsequent optimization of lithium-ion batteries to make them more powerful, lighter, and more robust, the seminal work of Goodenough, Whittingham, and Yoshino has had a profound impact on our modern society. This ubiquitous technology has revolutionized our daily lives by paving the way for portable electronics and made renewable energy sources more viable. While attempts to improve the performance of batteries continue, the lithium-ion battery has remained the world’s most reliable battery system for more than 40 years. The three winners will each receive an equal share of the roughly $1 million award. At 97, Goodenough is now the oldest person ever to win the Nobel Prize.
“A long-awaited recognition for the creators of lithium-ion batteries has come true. The electrochemistry and material science communities – and the greater chemistry community as a whole – are excited to hear the news of the 2019 Nobel Prize award to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino for their pioneering contribution to lithium-ion batteries,” said ACS Energy Letters Editor-in-Chief Prashant Kamat. “As we all know, the lithium-ion battery has revolutionized our modern-day activities. From mobile phones to laptops and from electronic gadgets to electric cars, these storage batteries have become part of our everyday life. We at ACS Publications are excited to be part of this celebration.”
Whittingham laid the foundation of the lithium-ion battery while working at Exxon in the 1970s. During that time, the oil crisis in the United States was ongoing, and there was a strong drive to develop methods of energy storage and transport that did not rely on fossil fuels. Whittingham developed a 2V lithium-ion battery based on a titanium disulfide cathode and lithium metal anode. While a seminal contribution to the advancement of the lithium battery, adopting Whittingham’s system for everyday use would be limiting due to the high reactivity of lithium metal and risk of explosion.
This is the Lazareth LMV 496, which the world’s first transforming flying electric motorbike.
Lazareth have a jet engine in the hub of each wheel, and hydraulic actuators that tilt the four wheels out and up, forming a configuration something like a jet-powered hoverbike.
In it’s normal bike form, it is certified to ride on the road, just like the LMV847 Quad bike.
But the main difference between the 2 bikes is, at a press of a button the bike starts it’s transformation. Firstly 2 centre stands come down to support the weight of the bike.
Then each wheel tilts up, so the jet engines in the hubs are now facing down, and after waiting about 60 seconds for the jets to pre-heat, you can lift off.
The Lazareth team will be bringing the Hover Bike, to Gitex computer & electronics trade show in Dubai in October 2019, and will launch pre-orders there at a price of €496,000 euro or about $560,000 US Dollars.
Circa 2018
After first spotting this crazy looking motorcycle-styled hoverbike in early 2017, we were skeptical the contraption would ever move beyond just an odd engineering curiosity. However, Russian company Hoversurf has just revealed its hoverbikes are now ready for production and preorders are open, with delivery scheduled for sometime in 2019.
Ever since the Scorpion hoverbike was revealed we seriously questioned its safety, with such a crazy close proximity between spinning blades and fleshy legs it seemed like a device only really suitable for “aspiring amputees”. Nevertheless, Hoversurf has rapidly moved from ambitious prototype to commercial aircraft, first revealing a deal to sell the aircraft to Dubai Police, and then more recently passing the US Federal Aviation Administration requirements to be classified as a legal ultralight vehicle.
The plan to classify the hoverbike as an ultralight vehicle resulted in some minor design tweaks to fulfill the legal requirements of the classification, but this final commercial iteration is still, at its core, the same crazy quadcopter hoverbike.
Circa 2018
Since the first aeroplane flight more than 100 years ago, aeroplanes have been propelled using moving surfaces such as propellers and turbines. Most have been powered by fossil-fuel combustion. Electroaerodynamics, in which electrical forces accelerate ions in a fluid1,2, has been proposed as an alternative method of propelling aeroplanes—without moving parts, nearly silently and without combustion emissions3,4,5,6. However, no aeroplane with such a solid-state propulsion system has yet flown. Here we demonstrate that a solid-state propulsion system can sustain powered flight, by designing and flying an electroaerodynamically propelled heavier-than-air aeroplane. We flew a fixed-wing aeroplane with a five-metre wingspan ten times and showed that it achieved steady-level flight. All batteries and power systems, including a specifically developed ultralight high-voltage (40-kilovolt) power converter, were carried on-board. We show that conventionally accepted limitations in thrust-to-power ratio and thrust density4,6,7, which were previously thought to make electroaerodynamics unfeasible as a method of aeroplane propulsion, are surmountable. We provide a proof of concept for electroaerodynamic aeroplane propulsion, opening up possibilities for aircraft and aerodynamic devices that are quieter, mechanically simpler and do not emit combustion emissions.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a weak spot for potty humor.
First, the carmaker introduced a “fart app” for its electric vehicles, which generates rude bathroom sounds.
Now, Musk says Teslas will soon be getting “customized horn and movement sounds,”— including “goats” and “farts,” according to a emoji-laden Sunday tweet.
SeaBubbles, a ground-breaking flying taxi that operates on water, zoomed across the River Seine in Paris on Wednesday in a demo run.
If India can continue to develop its urban centres and promote a Silicon Valley spirit of entrepreneurship, it could be in a prime position to achieve global tech hub status. Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) in the south and Gurgaon in the north are two tech-savvy cities emblematic of India’s rapid urbanization. The country is set to become the largest contributor to the world’s urban population.
India has long branded itself as the world’s leading outsourcing destination for global companies, particularly for those in the technology sector — but in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the time is ripe for the world’s most populous country to reinvent itself.
There is a burgeoning start-up and innovation culture, as shown by the Global Innovation Index, where India has improved its ranking from 81 to 52 between 2015 and 2019. In addition, the country has improved its reputation in terms of the risk posed to foreign investments and, in 2019, ranked third in the world in terms of attracting investment for technology transactions.
To maintain this momentum, India needs to further improve government regulations to encourage support for technological innovation, train tech talent and incentivize it to stay in the country and continue to improve its risk profile by attracting significant foreign and domestic investment in technology. Provided these favourable conditions can be met, India has unmatched potential to become the world’s next Silicon Valley.
A groundbreaking new image provides direct evidence of a ‘cosmic web’ of gas that links every galaxy in the universe.
