• Gadgets

    Fluid Focus

    By Posted on 10.27.2008 12 Comments

    In place of glass lenses that move in order to focus, liquid optics uses a drop of water that changes shape when an electric charge is applied. The system is smaller and cheaper than glass and can supposedly focus faster. The tech recently appeared in the Akkord SnakeCam, a webcam sold in China. We brought one stateside and pitted it against two versions with glass lenses.

    10.29.2008 at 10:27am - Comment by NikoT

    Easy solution for sub-zero use is to incorporate some sort of heating element. There's already electricity flowing to the water lens why not add some electric heating around it? Also to Eggman002's point about optimal working temp, this could also help if it was just chilly. Now on the side of it being too warm I don't know.

  • Technology

    Going Up?

    By Paul Adams Posted on 9.24.2008 68 Comments

    One of the most promising technologies for the aspiring outer-space commuter is the space elevator. The concept, like quite a few others, was pressed into the public imagination by Arthur C. Clarke, who in his 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise described a incredibly thin, incredibly strong carbon filament with one end anchored on Earth and the other extending up to a satellite in geostationary orbit. Now, a group of Japanese scientists are convinced that they can build a space elevator more quickly and cheaply than has been believed possible. Such a cable could convey cargo into space very cheaply and easily. Carriages would travel up and down the cable under modest power, not the vast expenditures of energy that are currently needed to send anything into orbit.

    9.25.2008 at 09:06am - Comment by NikoT

    I'd hope they would find a way to trasmit power to the lift. I'd think they could use the carbon cable to support an electrical delivery cable without the metal snapping under its own weight as it were. It's most certainly better to add weight to the carbon cable instead of the lift.

  • The Environment

    Forests to Serve as Fire Sentinels

    By Molika Ashford Posted on 9.24.2008 4 Comments

    Trees may be able to protect themselves from forest fires by serving as living batteries—housing small devices, which would measure temperature and humidity and broadcast the data from tree-to-tree.

    9.25.2008 at 08:58am - Comment by NikoT

    Does this mean we can now use trees as replacements for solar panels? Plant more trees to generate more power and they also help clean the air.



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