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‘A loosely packed “carpet” of carbon nanotubes is the darkest material ever made, according to researchers from Rice University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.’

The carpet consists of nanotubes–hollow, honeycombed tubes made from carbon atoms– standing vertically. Instead of being tightly packed together, the researchers went for a low density arrangement, complete with spaces and gaps, sort of like a box of dried spaghetti. Light striking the nanotubes as well as the gaps gets absorbed. When light gets absorbed, black (the absence of light) results. The nanotubes were also specially manufactured to have a more random arrangement of atoms, further reducing reflectivity. (Again, think of trying to look into a box of spaghetti. Not easy.)

The nanocarpet is in the middle. Former record holder to the left.
(Credit: RPI)

This resulted in a material that reflects only 0.045 percent of the light that strikes it. (Put another way, 99.955 percent of the light that hits it gets absorbed.)

Conventional black paint reflects 100 times more light. The previous record holder for darkness, a nickel-phophorus alloy pitted with light-trapping craters, reflected four times as much light.

So what good is this? Will goths use it for Halloween costumes? The material could help in advancing solar cells, which trap sunlight and convert it to energy. It could also one day be used by astronomers.

Side shot of the nanocarpet
(Credit: RPI)

Chalk another one up for carbon nanotubes, the reigning celebrity in the advanced materials world. Many believe the tubes will be used to deliver medicine in humans, build bridges, and conduct electricity inside of semiconductors someday.

“It is a fascinating technology, and this discovery will allow us to increase the absorption efficiency of light as well as the overall radiation-to-electricity efficiency of solar energy conservation,” said Rensselaer physicist Shawn-Yu Lin in a prepared statement. He’s the lead co-author of the study. “The key to this discovery was finding how to create a long, extremely porous vertically-aligned carbon nanotube array with certain surface randomness, therefore minimizing reflection and maximizing absorption simultaneously.”

Source: CnetNews

‘Make the most of it’

Living like Brad Pitt will prolong your life by 14 years! Exercising, not drinking too much, eating your fruit and vegetables and not smoking can have this impact on you,
as found by a research made by the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council of Norfolk (UK) between 1993 and 2006 and published in The Public Library of Science Medicine.

The long study was made on 20,000 subjects aged 45 to 79. Those who did not match any of the criteria were four times more likely to have deceased during the research period.

Subjects were socially mixed, overwhelmingly white and did not experience cancer or heart issues at the beginning of the research. Each of the next criteria represented a point: currently non-smoker, drinking just 1-14 units of alcohol (0.5-7 glasses of wine) weekly, consuming five servings of fruit and vegetables daily and being active (having a sedentary job but exercising at least 30 minutes daily or having a non-sedentary job).

4 points subjects experienced a much lower death rate during the research period compared to those with 0 points. The 60-year-old subjects with zero points had the same likelihood of dying as the 74-year-old subjects with 4 points. The results were similar, no matter the body weight and economic condition.

“We’ve know that individually, measures such as not smoking and exercising can have an impact upon longevity, but this is the first time we have looked at them altogether. And we also found that social class and BMI - body mass index - really did not have a role to play. It means a large proportion of the population really could feel health benefits through moderate changes.” said lead researcher Professor Kay-Tee Khaw.

The greatest drop attributed to healthy lifestyle was due to low risk of cardiovascular disease by 5 times. But healthy lifestyle was also connected to decreased cancer deaths. Even if people with cancer and heart conditions were excluded, the team discovered that those with severe conditions lived longer, the higher points they’ve got.

Source: Softpedia News

We are in the middle of a dreadful global warming that could melt all the Arctic glaciers by the middle of this century. Humankind is in a struggle to find all kind of technologies reducing the emissions of greenhouse effect gases. And one of the main emitters of these gases are cars. Sun-powered cars would emit no polluting gases at all, but so far this technology has not convinced.

But now, BBC News is signaling that a French company has come with a pollution-free car
functioning on compressed air. The car is produced by India’s Tata Motors and, by the end of 2008, it could be bought from Europe and India.

The air-compressed car, known under the name of Mini-CAT or City Cat, would be refueled in just a few minutes from a special air compressor that can be found at the gas stations. A 1.5 Euro fill ($ 2) would allow you to go 200 km (125 mi).
The new car could reach a maximum speed of 70 mph (110 km per hour) and could cost only $7000 (4,750 Euro) !

The car has a body made of fiberglass and it is endowed with an advanced electrical system being totally computer-controlled. The car’s motion is determined by the expansion of compressed air. There is no fuel, no burning, no polluting gas emission. The vent gases are completely clean and cool and can be employed in the inner air conditioning system, being just air.

Tata Motors’ interest in the air compressed technology is not recent; even since 2000, the company has been producing compressed gas buses. Soon, it could come out on the market with the world’s cheapest car, made almost entirely of plastic and coming at a price of $ 2500 (1,700 Euro).

The company has turned into one of the wold’s biggest players: in 2004, it bought the Korean Daewoo and, now, it is interested in acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover lines from Ford Motor.

Source: Softpedia News

‘General Motors envisions a huge change taking place on U.S. roadways over the next 10 years. The company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have cars on the road around 2018. The results could mean improvements in traffic, safety and auto emissions, but many questions remain regarding regulation and whether drivers will ever want to hand the wheel over to a computer.’

Cars that drive themselves — even parking at their destination — could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors (NYSE: GM) Latest News about General Motors executives say.

GM, parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers all are working on vehicles that could revolutionize short- and long-distance travel. Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will devote part of his speech to the driverless vehicles.

“This is not science fiction,” Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview.

‘A Totally Different World’

The most significant obstacles facing the vehicles could be human rather than technical: government regulation, liability laws, privacy concerns and people’s passion for the automobile and the control it gives them.

Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to take the wheel: radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. Automated vehicles could dramatically improve life on the road, reducing crashes and congestion.

If people are interested.

“Now the question is what does society want to do with it?” Burns said. “You’re looking at these issues of congestion, safety, energy and emissions. Technically there should be no reason why we can’t transfer to a totally different world.”

GM plans to use an inexpensive computer chip Latest News about computer chips and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with driverless technologies. The first use likely would be on highways; people would have the option to choose a driverless mode while they still would control the vehicle on local streets, Burns said.

He said the company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have cars on the road around 2018.

Not Ready for Prime Time

Sebastian Thrun, coleader of the Stanford University team that finished second among six teams completing a 60-mile Pentagon-sponsored race of driverless cars in November, said GM’s goal is technically attainable. However, he said he wasn’t confident cars would appear in showrooms within a decade.

“There’s some very fundamental, basic regulations in the way of that vision in many countries,” said Thrun, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering.

The Defense Department contest, which initially involved 35 teams, showed the technology isn’t ready for prime time. One team was eliminated after its vehicle nearly charged into a building, while another vehicle mysteriously pulled into a house’s carport and parked itself.

Thrun said a key benefit of the technology eventually will be safer roads and reducing the roughly 42,000 U.S. traffic Over 800,000 High Quality Domains Available For Your Business. Click Here. deaths that occur annually — 95 percent of which he said are caused by human mistakes.

“We might be able to cut those numbers down by a factor of 50 percent,” Thrun said. “Just imagine all the funerals that won’t take place.”

Other challenges include updating vehicle codes and figuring out who would be liable in a crash and how to cope with blown tires or obstacles in the road. However, the systems could be developed to tell motorists about road conditions, warn of crashes or stopped vehicles ahead and prevent collisions in intersections.

Later versions of driverless technology could reduce jams by directing vehicles to space themselves close together, almost as if they were cars in a train, and maximize the use of space on a freeway, he said.

“It will really change society, very much like the transition from a horse to a car,” Thrun said.

Many, Many Questions Remain

The U.S. government has pushed technology to help drivers avoid crashes, most notably electronic stability controls that help prevent rollovers. The systems are required on new passenger vehicles starting with the 2012 model year.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication and technology allowing cars to talk with highway systems could come next.

Still in debate are how to address drivers’ privacy, whether current vehicles can be retrofitted and how many vehicles would be need for the systems to develop an effective network.

“Where it shakes out remains to be seen but there is no question we see a lot of potential there,” said Rae Tyson, a spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Source: TechNewsWorld