Radical UK hydrogen car revealed
A ground-breaking hydrogen-powered city car, which has been designed in Britain and financed by the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, is to be unveiled next week. Autocar can reveal that the Riversimple Urban Car will have a far smaller fuel cell than in current industry prototypes and thus needs less hydrogen to be stored on board and in fuelling stations. The vehicle is no bigger than a Smart car, weighing just 350kg, and has been developed over three years by teams at Oxford and Cranfield universities. It can reach 50mph and travel in excess of 200 miles, consuming the equivalent petrol energy of 300mpg in hydrogen. Power comes from a 6kw fuel cell, which is tiny compared to the 100kw system powering the Honda Clarity. It uses a composite body to keep the weight down and four electric motors on each wheel, which double as brakes and electricity generators. Hugo Spowers, head of Riversimple, said: "Cars evolved under very different constraints to those of today, so we must move on.
The World is Running Out of Sand – Member Feature Stories
“It is to cities what flour is to bread, what cells are to our bodies: the invisible but fundamental ingredient that makes up the bulk of the built environment in which most of us live.“ — Vince Beiser, author of “The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization” Think of a valuable resource. What images come into your mind’s eye? Now, what if I told you sand was also an incredibly rare and precious resource? You may not realize it, but nearly everything around you is built with sand. Sand Isn’t as Plentiful as You Think You may be thinking: But sand is everywhere, there are whole deserts filled with the stuff. The sand in a desert, though, is useless as a construction material. The fact that desert sand is useless makes for some unexpected situations. Sand also regenerates slowly. Construction’s Endless Appetite for Sand The world has seen a construction boom in recent years. Sand is also used for reclamation projects — reclaiming land from the sea.
Climate change: COP24 deal to bring Paris pact to life
Image copyright Reuters Negotiators in Poland have finally secured agreement on a range of measures that will make the Paris climate pact operational in 2020. Last-minute rows over carbon markets threatened to derail the meeting - and delayed it by a day. Delegates believe the new rules will ensure that countries keep their promises to cut carbon. The Katowice agreement aims to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below 2C. "Putting together the Paris agreement work programme is a big responsibility," said the chairman of the talks, known as COP24, Michal Kurtyka. "It has been a long road. Rich nations often reduce emissions by paying for carbon-cutting projects in other countries. Fraud and double accounting have rendered many of them worthless - they are often dubbed hot air schemes. Media playback is unsupported on your device The common rulebook envisages flexibility for poorer nations. What did the delegates focus on? It sounds easy but is very technical.
Lessons on Global Warming From Prehistoric End-Permian Extinction
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Asteroid impacts used to be science popularizers’ favorite existential threat, but space rocks have been displaced by atmospheric carbon. This is not just fashion but the result of a new reading of our planet’s past. In the 1990s, scientists thought asteroid impacts had triggered five mass extinctions, including the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The worst of the five was an event called the end-Permian. Some people present this as a cautionary tale. The principle isn’t just that increasing carbon dioxide makes things get hot, but that fast changes in ocean and atmospheric chemistry can trigger a reordering of the living world. Seth Burgess, a United States Geological Survey geologist who studies the end-Permian, said there are two intriguing puzzles — the trigger mechanism and the kill mechanism. He’s proposed that the magma cooked vast carbon-rich sediments, releasing much more carbon into the atmosphere.
Raspberry Pi Blog - News, Announcements, and Ideas
Looking for this year’s perfect something to put under the tree ‘from Santa’? Well, look no further than right here — it’s time for our traditional Christmas shopping list! Woohoo! Which Raspberry Pi? As you are no doubt aware, the Raspberry Pi comes in more than one variety. Raspberry Pi 3B+ For someone learning to write code for the first time, we recommend the Raspberry Pi 3B+. Raspberry Pi Zero W The Raspberry Pi Zero W comes at a lower price, and with it, a smaller footprint than the 3B+. Pre-loaded micro SD card Whatever Raspberry Pi you choose for the lucky receiver of your Christmas gift, we also recommend getting them a pre-loaded micro SD card. Books, books, books We’re releasing two new books this week that are perfect for any Christmas stocking! Code Club Book of Scratch Volume 1 The Code Club team is buzzing over the release of the first Code Club book, which is available to order now. The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide Magazine subscriptions Accessories and such Swag Add-ons
Addicted to Your iPhone? You’re Not Alone
On a recent evening in San Francisco, Tristan Harris, a former product philosopher at Google, took a name tag from a man in pajamas called “Honey Bear” and wrote down his pseudonym for the night: “Presence.” Harris had just arrived at Unplug SF, a “digital detox experiment” held in honor of the National Day of Unplugging, and the organizers had banned real names. Also outlawed: clocks, “w-talk” (work talk), and “WMDs” (the planners’ loaded shorthand for wireless mobile devices). Harris, a slight 32-year-old with copper hair and a tidy beard, surrendered his iPhone, a device he considers so addictive that he’s called it “a slot machine in my pocket.” He keeps the background set to an image of Scrabble tiles spelling out the words face down, a reminder of the device’s optimal position. Listen to the audio version of this article: Download the Audm app for your iPhone to listen to more titles. Harris is the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience. His approach seems to have worked.
Fears of new Indonesia tsunami as Anak Krakatau volcano seethes
Media playback is unsupported on your device Coastal residents near Indonesia's Anak Krakatau volcano have been warned to keep away from beaches amid fears it could trigger a new tsunami. On Saturday, giant waves crashed into coastal towns on the islands of Sumatra and Java, killing at least 222 people and injuring 843. It is thought that volcanic activity set off undersea landslides which in turn generated the killer waves. Anak Krakatau was erupting again on Sunday, spewing ash and smoke. Video shot from a charter plane captured the magnitude of the event in the Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and Java. President Joko Widodo has expressed his sorrow for the victims and urged people to be patient. Rescue efforts are being hampered by blocked roads but heavy lifting equipment is being transported to badly hit areas to help search for victims. What warning was given? The head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, held a news conference on Java. Survivors' stories Read on
High-profile ocean warming paper to get a correction
Originally published by E&E News Scientists behind a major study on ocean warming this month are acknowledging errors in their calculations and say conclusions are not as certain as first reported. The research, published in the journal Nature, said oceans are warming much faster than previously estimated and are taking up more energy than projected by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [Climatewire, Nov. 1]. After a blog post flagged some discrepancies in the study, the authors, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, and Princeton University in New Jersey, said they would submit a correction to the journal. The overall conclusion that oceans are trapping more and more heat mirrors other studies and is not inaccurate, but the margin of error in the study is larger than originally thought, said Ralph Keeling, a professor of geosciences at Scripps and co-author of the paper. Keeling said the team incorrectly assessed oxygen measurements.
