A deeper look at polar ice. An electric-car renaissance. The death and rebirth of major scientific experiments. Read on to discover what this year has in store
Posted 12.23.2009 at 3:01 pm
28 Comments
Technology
GM Volt: Courtesy General Motors
Electric-Car Resurrection
Carmakers launch their battery powered rides
Nearly three years after General Motors announced a concept car called the Chevrolet Volt, setting off an avalanche of hype, skepticism and imitation from other automakers, the electric-car renaissance is here—almost. This is the year major automakers have said they would give us the electric cars we were promised. Do we think they’ll deliver? Yes, we do.
Despite surviving the biggest bankruptcy in American history, GM is still scheduled to start building Volts this winter. A four-door hatchback, the Volt will run on a lithium-ion battery for 40 miles before switching over to a four-cylinder gasoline engine. The Volt could cost as much as $40,000, although a $7,500 federal tax credit will bring that down. GM says some 50,000 customers have already lined up to buy the Volt, and for the company’s sake, it had better follow through. Throughout last year’s controversial restructuring, GM held up the Volt as a symbol of its new direction; failing to deliver the car would be a major embarrassment.
A second electric-car debut will come late this year when Nissan starts shipping its Leaf, the first truly mass-market pure-electric car. A hatchback with room for five, the Leaf skips the Volt-style range-extending gas engine in favor of a bigger battery that gets it about 100 miles on a charge. Recharging takes between 6 and 12 hours, depending on what kind of outlet you’re plugged into. The Leaf will be just as highway-worthy as any conventional car of its size, with a top speed of 87 mph. It’s expected to cost around $30,000, minus the tax credit. According to Nissan, some 22,000 customers have already signed up.
Finally, another indie electric arrives this year: the Fisker Karma. Provided the delivery date doesn’t slip again (it was scheduled to go on sale late last year), the boutique plug-in hybrid will arrive in driveways this summer. The $87,900 Karma—the primary rival to the all-electric Tesla Roadster, which is already on sale—has a powertrain similar to the Volt, in which battery power alone delivers the car up to 50 miles before a gasoline engine kicks in for backup.
Electric-car launches have a notorious history of delays and cancellations. This time, however, so many companies have put so much on the line that as long as GM, Nissan and Fisker hit their self-imposed deadlines, 2010 should be the year the electric car comes back to life.
—Seth Fletcher
Delta E-4 Coupe: Courtesy Progressive Insurance/Automotive X Prize
Going for Green
The Progressive Automotive X Prize promises $10 million in prizes to the first cars that can maintain 100 mpg in a series of road races. Who will win? We’ve handicapped the field.
Mainstream-class: Must have at least four wheels and seat four adults
Delta Motorsport | Britain: The all-electric E-4 coupe mounts an electric motor for each wheel on the chassis, netting it up to 95 percent drivetrain efficiency, 3.5 times that of the standard car.
Chance of victory: champagne
GoMecsys | Netherlands: This team stuck with a gas engine but added an extra gear in the crankshaft that makes the power stroke last longer, yielding higher mileage, power and efficiency.
Chance of victory: sparkling wine
Team ULV-3 | Minnesota: This hybrid’s computer shuts down one or more cylinders when engine load is light. Aerodynamics and regenerative braking round out the package.
Chance of victory: sparkling wine
Alternative-class: Must have a 100-mile range and seat two adults
Western Washington University | Washington: This hybrid-electric coupe weighs 1,400 pounds yet aims to meet federal safety specs, thanks to custom impact-absorbing carbon fiber.
Chance of victory: champagne.
—Mary M. Woodsen
The Faces of 2010
Craig Venter: Paul Wootton
Craig Venter, Biologist
Job: Build artificial life
On the agenda:Venter says he’s in the final stage of creating the first synthetic biological organisms. Man-made organisms could churn out pharmaceuticals and carbon-neutral fuels. ExxonMobil is working with Venter’s company, Synthetic Genomics, and, if all goes well, will invest up to $600 million in his synthetic-algae-based biofuels. If Venter can’t get results fast enough, it will be only a matter of time until one of his competitors succeeds and reaps the glory.
Lori Garver: Paul Wootton
Job: Keep human spaceflight alive
On the agenda:The space shuttle is scheduled to retire in September, although a presidential committee predicts that it will fly into 2011. Either way, Garver is facing several years when NASA won’t be able to put humans into space by itself. This year, she must devise a plan for what the agency should do next. She plans to chart the course of human spaceflight and the life of the International Space Station beyond 2016 and assess the fate of the nascent Constellation Program, which is over budget and behind schedule and could be shelved by Congress at any time.
Randall L. Stephenson: Paul Wootton
Job: Keep Apple onboard
On the agenda:With the exclusive arrangement between AT&T and Apple’s iPhone reported to expire this year, Stephenson has to somehow keep the smartphone on the roster. AT&T earns twice as much from an iPhone user than from an average customer. At the same time, the mobile carrier spent up to $18 billion on boosting its networks last year, including its 3G network in more than 350 markets to handle the bandwidth-hogging ways of the iPhone. Stephenson needs to hang on to iPhone exclusivity to recoup that investment.
—C.B.
Planck Orbiter: Courtesy ESA
Births & Deaths
What’s starting up or shutting down in the world of physics
Death: Tevatron at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
The Tevatron is the most powerful proton accelerator in operation. It was due to shut down a year after the start of the higher-energy Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European center for particle physics near Geneva, Switzerland.
Second life? Until the LHC is running smoothly, the Tevatron will most likely be extended until 2011. “If, God forbid, the LHC still struggles and is not getting data, and we see something in our detectors that is captivating, it might be prudent to keep running it beyond 2011,” says physicist Robert Roser, the spokesperson for the CDF experiment at Fermilab. According to Roser, the Tevatron “is running phenomenally well right now. It’s a shame to shut
it off.”
Birth: National Ignition Facility
This summer, NIF scientists in California will aim the world’s most energetic laser at a tiny fuel capsule to ignite a nuclear fusion reaction.
Death: Planck Orbiter
Planck provides our earliest look at the universe by observing radiation left over from the big bang.
Second life? Though scheduled to end in the fall, it will probably continue being used for as long as its detectors are operational.
Birth: Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array
This mega-telescope will consist of at least 66 high-precision antennas that work together to collect millimeter and submillimeter electro-magnetic radiation to observe some of the most distant objects in the universe.
—S.R.
28 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Science
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2013: American Energy Independence
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Science
- Scientists Create First Cloned Human Embryo
- State Drops Charges Against High School Student Arrested For Science Experiment
- Dear Schools: Stop Treating Science-Curious Kids Like Criminals
- Mexican Cartels Control Pot Farms As Far North As Washington State
- Buzz Aldrin Wants To Send People On A One-Way Trip To Mars
- Giving White People The Illusion Of Darker Skin Makes Them Less Racist
- What Modern Humans Can Learn From The Neanderthals' Extinction
- Space Tourism's Black Carbon Problem
- Untouched For The Last Billion Years, Water In Canadian Mine Holds Ingredients For Life
- How Do You Make A Painkiller Addiction-Proof?
Most Emailed
Science
- Huge Tornado Flattens Towns Near Oklahoma City [Updated]
- Number Of Published Cancer Studies That Can't Be Reproduced Is Shockingly High
- IMDB's Greatest Movies Ever, Beautifully Organized By Genre [Infographic]
- Giant Carnivorous Plant Found In Silicon Valley
- Candy Totally Won't Make You Fat, Says Study Funded By Big Candy
- How Science Got The 'Crack Baby' Epidemic So Wrong
- FYI: Can A Bionic Eye See As Well As A Human Eye?
- Navy Dolphins Searching For Mines Uncover Sunken 19th Century Torpedo
- Spring 2012 Was The Earliest On Record
- FYI: Do Parasites Get Parasites?
Most Viewed
Science
- Huge Tornado Flattens Towns Near Oklahoma City [Updated]
- Number Of Published Cancer Studies That Can't Be Reproduced Is Shockingly High
- IMDB's Greatest Movies Ever, Beautifully Organized By Genre [Infographic]
- Giant Carnivorous Plant Found In Silicon Valley
- Candy Totally Won't Make You Fat, Says Study Funded By Big Candy
- How Science Got The 'Crack Baby' Epidemic So Wrong
- FYI: Can A Bionic Eye See As Well As A Human Eye?
- Navy Dolphins Searching For Mines Uncover Sunken 19th Century Torpedo
- Spring 2012 Was The Earliest On Record
- FYI: Do Parasites Get Parasites?
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Its hard to feel sorry for the drug companies when they charge us more money for perscriptions than the Canadians or Europeans pay for the same drug.
To paraphrase the old joke: "For the past 40 years we've been told that a practical electric car will be ready within 5 years". I'd bet that 40 years from now we'll still be waiting for one.
An electric car is only practical for people living in urban areas. Those same areas are also suitable for subways or light rail. That's why electric cars will never really be widely accepted. Do you really think that some guy living out in rural Nebraska, with subzero winter temperatures, is going to buy a $40,000 Chevy Volt?
Cheaper Drugs=Help for the people who need drugs but can't afford the Brand Name ones.
Drug cunpanys started out with thier own money or money from investors with a promise of financial return. The cost of drugs to us include money for research and development and what do we get in return? More expensive drugs that include charges for further research and development. Something is wrong with this picture.
clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe clavier arabe www.clavierarabes.com
I think there should be some sort of accountability for the way that drug companies spend their profits. It's a bitter pill (pun?) to take knowing that we pay more for drugs than Canada and Europe, but if I could SEE how much the drug companies reinvest that money, I wouldn't have as much of a problem with paying the big bucks. But absent that information, I really have to wonder where that money goes to?
Sure, generics make things cheaper, but then there is less money for research and development. IF the drug companys actually spend as much on research and development as they say.
In the long run, I guess it's a trust game. Pay the big bucks and trust that the big drug companies are doing the right things with their profits. But money is power and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Bring on the generics!
HJ
The AirBus A400 is six billion dollars over budget? SIX BILLION? They had better sell a LOT of airplanes to make up for those numbers!
If memory serves me right, the A380 was quite a bit over budget as well!
I don't know who's running the show over there at AirBus, but they need to fire some managers before they run themselves into a bankrupcy!
SIX BILLION? That's like a car company bailout! Man!
HJ
Thank God the electrics are almost here! The internal combustion engine is soooo ineffecient, it's actually more effcient at heating your home then it is pushing your car down the road.
I understand that we have a huge investment in infrastructure to support the internal combustion engine, but if we continue on that logic, we should still be riding horses!
Putting the electric motor in the wheels is simply a stroke of genius! If you consider that every time two pieces of metal rub together (pistons, gears, etc), putting the electric motors in the wheels reduces all the friction of an internal combustion engine to rubber meeting the road. It won't get no better until we are all driving hovercars!
We are making constant strides in battery research thanks to President Obama and his investments in that field. Sure, right now they yield only 40-100 miles in a charge (only?), but soon we will be driving 500 miles on a charge. Plus, we will be able to use them to flatten out the power grid and make solar and wind power more practical.
And it might be within 10 years that you'll have a battery in your basement that can run your house for a week! You'll never know that some guy ran into a power pole down the road and the local grid went out for six hours!
Die, internal combustion engine, die! Get your stinky, polluting, ineffectient butt on our the door and make way for some REAL innovation! YEAH BABY!
HJ
@riff_raff: You work for an oil company by any chance? It's sad patents were bought out that were left undeveloped for the sake of squeezing every last drop of oil from our wells. Electric cars only need an improvement in battery technology and that is far from impossible as you make it seem. The issue with subzero temperatures, although a limited market, seems like there would be a relatively easy solution. Wrap it in insulation and have some kind of warming wires run through the insulation to keep the battery warm during charging. All I seem to see on popsci is constant improvements in battery technology and a recent development for insulation that is more efficient than a vacuum. Gasoline will die a definite death. Only a matter a time. I believe sooner than later if the U.S. can lead the initiative.
Better than the example of the "soon-to-be" electric car is the video phone. I believe it was around 1955 that AT&T showcased a videophone and said it would be a common thing within a decade. I still have never met someone who has a videophone. Not even the commanders of the greatest single nuclear force in the world (Minot AFB, North Dakota) have them, or were EVER authorized to even look into them. I've been in command posts all around the world and was a resource advisor in Minot (my office was right outside the commander's). We had no videophone. We didn't have remnants of any old system that might have been. 50 years later that the AT&T promise there has been nothing.
Better than the example of the "soon-to-be" electric car is the video phone. I believe it was around 1955 that AT&T showcased a videophone and said it would be a common thing within a decade. I still have never met someone who has a videophone. Not even the commanders of the greatest single nuclear force in the world (Minot AFB, North Dakota) have them, or were EVER authorized to even look into them. I've been in command posts all around the world and was a resource advisor in Minot (my office was right outside the commander's). We had no videophone. We didn't have remnants of any old system that might have been. 50 years later that the AT&T promise there has been nothing.
Maybe you've never seen/used Skype? It's free.
WOWOWOWOWO.if you want enjoy your life,Have fun, give you a good web to make friends with rich and lonely women .find your love for 100% free on ____www.cougarlure.com___ is a private exclusive dating club to meet millionaires, rich and beautiful women who is very alone worldwide. Find your perfect match easier and more effective! Hope you can find your perfect match
Thats a spammer above me. Anyway....
Those big pharmaceutical companies have little to worry about with their patents expiring, because the future of drugs isn't in the mass marketing of a single pill, within a decade the pills we take will be manufactured specifically for our own bodies, containing ratios of chemicals tailored specifically to the individual. And people don't realize that the biggest driver pushing the price of pharmaceuticals way up in this country is litigation, which there is very little the drug companies can do about, except stopping research into new drugs that could possibly have bad side effects a decade after they're approved.
Also what nobody realizes, the real problem for electric cars is they only marginally change our energy consumption while being far less effective at moving things. Where do you get the power to charge your electric vehicle? Likely a coal burning power plant... which is good for the environment how?
This magazine is kinda funny, because all the content is about some pretty advanced and amazing science, but it sometimes seems to be written by a bunch of dreaming hippies lol.
I'm surprised that in the part where they talk about the people who's reputations are on the line they didn't mention the guy who claims to have created the EmDrive..
Controversial as it may be I still want one if it works. And China is currently working on attempting to validate his data. If so, a nobel could be around the corner. If not, well, he's going bankrupt and absolutely no one will remember him, though physicists might use his name as an insult in the future..
The energy efficiency of a Toyota Camry is rated around 0.28 km/MJ. The energy efficiency of a Tesla Roadster is 1.14 km/MJ (assume electricity generated by natural gas). A 300% increase is not what I would call "marginal improvement".
Please take into account that there is only one way to get oil (invade the Middle East), where there are many ways we can get electricity.
The German, the French, the Japanese, even the Chinese are developing electric cars. It is sad that we have to watch Detroit die. Please, let us not lose our competitive edge.
Personally, I do not trust GM with electric cars. They could easily fail on purpose just to prove it won't work. But it does not matter whether Volt fail or not, because the Mercedes Benz electric, and lots of other electric cars will succeed.
I only ask that they, as businessmen, would make a genuine attempt to meet the demands of the public. In other words, there should not be 50'000 back-orders on electric cars. Just make them already.
haha! did anyone notice we're gonna be MICROWAVING the little ice we have left!? YESSS!!! if we're gonna do this wrong, let's at least make it catastrophic.
Hi,
Corey Binns writes, Jan. 2010, (Guide to the Year in Science 2010) "Pfizer recently announced a new drug for osteoarthritis."
Been looking for it - no mention anywhere I can see.
Anybody know this drug?
Thanks,
akcol
@akol
www.wyeth.com/ClinicalTrialListings?query=Osteoarthritis
In your article about the airbus A400M, you stated that its counter-rotating propellers on a turboprop were an aviation first. You are incorrect. Do a search on the Russian TU-95 Bear bomber. It was powered by turboprops with counter-rotating propellers in the late 50's and was around for a very long time.
Ooops richlinds, ya didn't really read the article did ya.
The article explains the difference between counter-rotating and contra-rotating propellers. The Airbus has counter-rotating props (the engines each have one prop, the two engines on the same side turn in opposite directions) and the Bear has contra-rotating props (all engines have two props that turn in opposite directions)
Its all in the vernacular, y'know.
Amazing. Is science just cool or what? I mean really.
www.cici-wedding.blogspot.com
www.ciciwedding.wordpress.com
www.ciciwedding.multiply.com
Well I think if a huge company sees the potential for a new "blockbuster drug" that they will pump enough money into the R&D to make it a reality. Even if they aren't making as much money as they used to in a few years if something looks profitable they will just have to play their cards right and make sure they invest in the right drugs. IDK though, just my two cents.
Have Rox
online jobs
every day I receive email from drugs campaign(cialis, viagra, etc.)... with an entire set of offers(SPAM). fitflops
http://www.tamders.com/ | http://www.mekanize.net/ | http://www.durust.net/ | http://www.aindir.com/
every day I receive email from drugs campaign(cialis, viagra, etc.)... with an entire set of offers(SPAM). fitflops
It is a blatant blog and very good post in the blog. It is a very successive discover in the science. Really, really it is a interesting news.
Embroidered shirts
This is not a blatant blog but a cool and informative blog in my opinion.
ilyas from http://earnmoneyonlinewithoutinvestmentnow.blogspot.com/