Transformer bug has tiny gears in its back legs

Issus_nymph
Just when you thought gears were a brilliant man-made invention mother nature comes out of nowhere to say ‘already did that’. Young planthopper insects found in backyards all over the world have been discovered to have tiny gears which interlock its back legs allowing it to jump far and straight.
The gears are found on many young planthoppers but Gregory Sutton from the University of Cambridge first discovered them on a common British species called ‘Issus coeleoptratus’. Even at just a few mm in length itself, it can jump up to about 3 feet (1 metre) in a single leap and does so in a rather controlled fashion.
Being so small and leaping such large distances means that there is huge room for error and the bug should find itself shanking off to one side. However, they always seem to jump perfectly straight.
Sutton, along with Malcolm Burrows from the University of Cambridge, has been studying jumping insects for 10 years and when they got around to filming young planthoppers, they saw that the hind legs would always move within 30 microseconds (millionths of a second) of each other during jumps.
Not even a neuron could transmit in that time so it definitely wasn’t down to a sensitive nervous system. Scientists were left baffled until they inspected the bugs under powerful microscopes and when they did, they were astounded to see gears! The gears at the hind legs lock before a jump, making sure that the legs move at the same time – something never seen before in nature.
Gears
Image Courtesy of Cambridge University
To the best of my knowledge, it’s the first demonstration of functioning gears in any animal,” said Burrows, an emeritus professor of neurobiology. Other gear like structures have been found in nature such as the cogwheel or spiny turtle, but they are not functional like those found in the young planthopper.
Furhtermore, the gears only act as training wheels and when the young planthopper grows, it loses the gears. When the nymphs molt into their adult bodies, they lose the gears and are left with a system where the friction between the two legs is enough to guide them in the right direction. They have yet to clarify why the bugs lose their gears but current guesses is that it is related to the molting of their skin.
Sutton is convinced the discovery could have implications for tiny one directional gears. Gear teeth have a traditional shape that dates back to the 18th century but this shark tooth shape approach may lead to developments in tiny gears.

Three in four drivers 'would fail test'

Only 12 out of 50 experienced motorists managed to pass a mock driving test
Three quarters of drivers would fail their test if forced to take it again today, according to a new study.
Among a group of 50 experienced motorists who were asked to sit a mock driving test, just 12 passed while the remainder committed an average of three major faults and 16 minors.
In the worst case a participant recorded 10 majors – actions which put the examiner, public or property at risk – while another made 42 minor infringements.
In an official test a single major offence would cause the candidate to fail instantly, while anyone committing more than 15 minors would also be unsuccessful.
Faults by the drivers, who received no special training before taking the test, included driving at 40mph in a 30mph zone and failing to see the curb during a three-point turn.
One driver even forced a pedestrian to retreat back onto the pavement from the road because they had failed to check their blind spot.
Among the most common failings were speeding, failure to check mirrors, poor observation when reverse parking, and using the wrong gear, with one driver receiving 14 points for gear misuse alone.
The tests, conducted by RED Driving School, were unofficial and failure did not affect the participants’ driving licenses.
Previous studies have suggested that new technology such as sat navs, parking sensors and blind spot monitors could be making drivers more complacent at the wheel, with a previous study finding that people who use sat navs while driving take their eyes off the road for 22 per cent of their journey.
Another survey of 4,000 drivers found that more than two thirds use at least one automatic driving aid, with 48 per cent using a sat nav.
Rob Miles of Direct Line, which commissioned the study, said: “Driving aids are becoming increasingly common and when used correctly, can result in a safer, more comfortable driving experience. However, it’s important that drivers don’t rely too heavily on these aids, as it can be to the detriment of both their overall ability and concentration on the road ahead.”


Apple agrees to buy headphone maker Beats for $3bn

Beats headphones are sold along side iPods in an Apple store
Apple has confirmed it will buy headphone maker and music-streaming service provider Beats Electronics.
The deal is worth a total of $3bn (£1.8bn), and is thought to be Apple's largest acquisition to date.
As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre will join the technology firm.
Apple boss Tim Cook said the deal would allow the firm to "continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world".
In a statement, Apple said it is paying an initial $2.6bn (£1.6bn) for Beats, and approximately $400m (£239m) "that will vest over time".
Beats was founded in 2008 by music producer Jimmy Iovine and hip-hop star Dr Dre and until recently was best known for its headphones.
It started a subscription-based music streaming service earlier this year.
Apple has its own iTunes store, the world's largest music download service, and launched iTunes Radio last year.
But despite having been an early pioneer of digital music, the Californian firm has been facing increased competition from subscription services such as Spotify, Pandora and Rdio.
has about 250,000 paying subscribers, compared with Spotify's 10 million.
'It's the people'
The deal with Beats also marks a departure for Apple, which has a reputation for developing new products in-house, rather than buying up smaller firms - a method preferred by rivals Google.
But in an interview with the New York Times, Mr Cook hinted that Beats' founders may have been part of the attraction.
"Could Eddy's team [Eddy Cue, Apple executive in charge of iTunes] have built a subscription service? Of course," he told the newspaper.
"You don't build everything yourself. It's not one thing that excites us here. It's the people. It's the service."
"These guys are really unique," Mr Cook added. "It's like finding the precise grain of sand on the beach. They're rare and very hard to find."
The Apple boss also said that Dr Dre and Mr Iovine would be coming up with "products you haven't thought of yet".
In a video posted online, Dr Dre is shown celebrating the deal before it was even done, as Michelle Fleury reports
'Everyone is puzzled'
However some analysts remain baffled by the acquisition.
Technology writer Benedict Evans tweeted: "If you think Apple's lost it, Beats deal is confirmation. If you don't, it's… perplexing. Few really convincing rationales."
Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, who made his name as chairman of the Interscope Geffen A&M record label, welcomed the deal.
"I've always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple," he said.
In this image provided by Apple, from left to right, music entrepreneur and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Beats co-founder Dr. Dre, and Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue pose together at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.,Apple released this picture of Beats founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre posing with Mr Cook and Mr Cue
"The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple's unmatched ability to marry culture and technology.
Apple analyst Jim Dalrymple hinted that it may be Mr Iovine's talent that the technology firm is after.
Writing on his website The Loop, Mr Dalrymple said: "In my opinion, Jimmy is going to play an important role going forward.
"Maybe not that you always see, but he'll be there".
As well as headphones, Beats sells earphones and portable speakers, and has even developed partnerships with carmakers and computer manufacturers to include its BeatsAudio software technology in their products.
The company's flagship products have also received several celebrity endorsements, with stars including Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj designing their own customised Beats headphones.
Subject to regulatory approvals, Apple said it expects the deal to close in the fourth financial quarter of this year.

Google’s new car has no steering wheel or pedals

googlecar

      Yep you read that right, Google’s new car has no steering wheel or pedals and can take you to your location at the push of the button. 2 years ago Google’s self-driving technology passed it’s driving test  with a modified Toyota Prius that guides itself using GPS and laser sensing technology mounted on the roof. Google revealed a new prototype on Tuesday led by CEO Sergey Brin during an onstage interview at the Recode Code Conference in Palos Verdes, California. that is set to change the automotive world. 
      The car has been built from scratch with the purpose of being a self-driving car – no modified standard vehicles this time round. There is no steering wheel or accelerator or brake pedals and the bubble like car has 2 seats inside its compact shell. ”We took a look from the ground up of what a self-driving car would look like,” Brin said. 

he car has a sort of city centre vehicle look about it with friendly and inviting aesthetics to try to ease the fear of self driving robotic cars – it even looks, happy. The technology has clocked over 700 000 miles and in that time it has only experienced two incidents and these were of human error from another vehicle.
The new prototype is currently only available in California and you can summon it using your smartphone. You set the destination into your device and the car takes you there without any further interaction. Once inside you are greeted with a small screen showing the weather, the current speed and route information and there is an emergency stop button if need be – of course it’s red.

_75147500_google_car_624
Powered by an electric motor with around a 100 mile range it is currently limited to 25 mph meaning it is restricted from certain roads. The compact bubble like design means that there are no blind spots for the sensing technology and is also designed to be as safe as possible should the unfortunate event of hitting a pedestrian arises. The car uses GPS as a rough position locator as well as a route navigator. The rest is down to point radar, lasers and cameras which act as the cars eyes in a 360 degree view field.
The brains of the car is found in the software that analyses the feedback from the sensory system. It is able to detect other cars, pedestrians, road markings and traffic lights and can even handle complex situations such as road works, diversions and cyclist behavior. 
googlecar2
We’re really excited about this vehicle – it’s something that will allow us to really push the capabilities of self driving technology, and understand the limitations,” said Chris Urmson, director of the company’s self-driving project.
The new prototype is set to make a science fiction dream a reality and also leaves us wondering; Will cars still require insurance if they continue their flawless record? How are traffic police going to fund themselves without any speeders on the roads? And what if I want to race that guy next to me?
Google says the car should be seen on the roads in just one year and a manufacturer in Detroit is set to produce 100 of the cars but Google has yet to release any further details on this.
via: [BBC, CNET]

http://interestingengineering.com/


Structural supercapacitors take a load on

Image of the structural capacitor
Stress and squeeze: the new structural supercapacitor design
A solid-state supercapacitor that works under great stresses and vibrations has been developed by researchers from the US. Unlike traditional supercapacitors, the new design does not delaminate under stress and could lead to a variety of practical applications, from more-efficient devices to renewable-energy storage.
Unlike batteries – which work through chemical reactions – supercapacitors store energy in the form of electrically charged ions, which are assembled on the surfaces of porous electrodes. Supercapacitors also have numerous benefits: they can charge and discharge in minutes – unlike batteries, which take hours – and have a much longer lifespan, lasting for millions of cycles rather than thousands. Their drawback, however, comes in their reduced storage capacity – to hold a given charge, most supercapacitors need to be much larger and heavier than an equivalent lithium-ion battery.

Heavy-weight storage

One idea to overcome this limitation lies in creating supercapacitors that act as both energy storage and structural support. By doubling up the otherwise "dead weight" of structural materials, the rapid-charging, long-lasting nature of supercapacitors could be utilized without needing an internally distinct power source. This concept of a "structural supercapacitor" could have many potential applications – for example, a laptop where the case acts as a battery, renewable energy stored within the walls of a house, or even a rapidly charging electric car that stores power in its own chassis. To be used as such a structural device, the supercapacitor would need to work under considerable stresses and vibrations. Traditional supercapacitors are ill-suited to this task – being layered, their electrodes and electrolytes are prone to separate when such forces are applied.

Strong bonds

To overcome this problem, a team of researchers, led by Cary Pintfrom Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, has engineered a supercapacitor with better-integrated layers. The design features electrodes made from silicon wafers, the inner sides of which are electrochemically etched to create a surface covered in nano-sized pores. These are then coated with a protective, ultra-thin layer of carbon, before being vacuum-squeezed together around an ion-conducting polymer. This electrolyte seeps into the silicon's nanopores, setting into a strong mechanical bond, which does not come apart easily.
When tested, the researchers found that the design offers an energy density of up to 10 W h/kg and operates perfectly, even under stresses of 44 psi and vibrational accelerations over 80 g – the latter of which is greater than the forces acting within working jet engines. While designs for structural supercapacitors have been reported previously (mostly based around the use of carbon fibres) the team's design is capable of 3 to 4 orders of magnitude more charge storage – comparable, in fact, with (regular) commercial supercapacitors. Pint points out that the design showed that its "performance is not compromised while we operate the device under compression, shearing, tensile stretching, high-amplitude vibrations, and impact forces". He adds that the manufacturing process is simpler than in traditional supercapacitors and involves minimal cost, with both the component materials and the production process being relatively cheap. Furthermore, the constituent parts are both bio-friendly and non-flammable, thereby removing some of the safety concerns traditionally associated with lithium-ion batteries.
"The study is also a nice contribution to the larger area of research on mechanically robust electrodes for electrochemical energy-storage systems," says Vadym Mochalin, a nanomaterial expert at Drexel University in Philadelphia, who was not involved in the research. "[This] will likely inspire similar designs for lithium-ion batteries, micro-supercapacitors on chip, sensors, and other devices."
The research is described in Nano Letters.
About the author
Ian Randall is a science writer based in New Zealand



105-bit optical memory built on a chip

An SEM of a photonic crystal

Two fully functional optical memories on single chips have been fabricated by researchers in Japan. The devices use bistable optical cavities to store the bits, and allow multiple bits to be controlled simultaneously by the same waveguide. The researchers hope that, in future, such a memory could be used for optical logic operations to increase the speed of computation.
Today, optical fibres are the material of choice for transmitting data, thanks to their lower signal attenuation compared with copper wires and their much higher bandwidth. Currently, however, optical signals have to be converted into electronic ones for processing, and then once more, to convert the output back to an optical signal. Such conversions consume energy and time, and fail to utilize the biggest advantage of optical transmission – that photons do not interfere with each other, meaning that several signals with different frequencies can travel down one fibre simultaneously in a process known as "multiplexing". Photonic signals have to be "demultiplexed" before an electronic processor can deal with them, and so optical processors are of interest to many researchers.

Random memories

A key element in any processing unit is the random access memory (RAM), in which data are stored temporarily while the computer runs a program. A modern electronic RAM usually stores each bit of memory as the charge on a capacitor, and various optical equivalents have been proposed. In 2012 Masaya Notomi and colleagues at NTT Laboratories in Kanagawa, Japan, designed a four-bit RAM made from a photonic crystal – a periodic optical nanostructure comprising a network of holes that allows some wavelengths of light to propagate while blocking others. Inside the photonic crystal were four identical cavities that had two possible refractive indices – a pulse of light at the cavity's resonant frequency would allow a switch between the two indices, while light at a different frequency would reveal the cavity's state without disturbing it. By designating the two states as 0 and 1, the researchers created a readable and rewritable memory. However, each of the cavities had to be controlled by a separate waveguide.
Now, the same researchers have made the cavities much smaller and non-identical, allowing them to introduce multiplexing. They created two different types of optical RAM – one made from silicon and the other from indium phosphide and indium gallium arsenide phosphide. In each RAM, multiple cavities were arranged lengthways, with a single waveguide passing all of them. The researchers used computer modelling to work out exactly how to move specific holes in the photonic crystal such that each cavity had a slightly different resonant frequency. They were then able to send a "write" pulse down the waveguide containing the frequencies of whichever bits they wanted to switch and only those cavities would respond.

Stable lifetimes?

The silicon RAM contained 105 working cavities, with all the resonant wavelengths falling between 1540 nm and 1570 nm, at an average spacing of just 0.23 nm, all of which was fabricated on a silicon crystal just 1 mm long. Unfortunately, the cavity states were stable for less than 10 ns – too short for a viable optical memory. However, the lifetime of the bits in the indium-phosphide-based RAM was, in principle, infinite. Because indium phosphides are less well established in industry than silicon, the technology for manufacturing indium-phosphide components is less precise, and so Notomi and colleagues could only produce a 28-bit memory. However, they believe this provides a better blueprint for future research. "Our final goal is to produce better indium-phosphide systems by improving the fabrication accuracy," says Notomi.
Martin Hill of the University of Western Australia in Crawley describes the paper as "a nice piece of work on a difficult area of photonics". But he also points out that, at present, the switching speed of the optical cavities is lower than the switching speed of electrical transistors, and says that before the device becomes useful as a product, the researchers need a way of making the switching frequencies more predictable and reproducible.
The research is published in Nature Photonics.

About the author

Tim Wogan is a science writer based in the UK