New Zealand steering committee to push EVs
Wellington, New Zealand (UPI) Aug 24, 2016 -
The government of New Zealand said it formed a special counsel tasked with accelerating the deployment of electric vehicles on the road.
The government this year launched an initiative aimed at doubling the amount of electric vehicles on the road to 64,000 by 2021. Transport Minister Simon Bridges said a 10-member panel was appointed to help reach that goal.
"I'm confident that t ...
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Deal puts Microsoft apps on Lenovo smartphones
San Francisco (AFP) Aug 23, 2016 -
Microsoft apps such as Office and Skype will be installed on Lenovo mobile devices powered by Android software under the terms of a collaboration announced late Monday.
The US technology giant and the Chinese computer titan said they were "deepening their strategic relationship" with a move that could add to the ranks of people using Microsoft programs as services hosted in the internet clou ...
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Summer spells cold showers for Russians as hot water cut
Saint Petersburg (AFP) Aug 22, 2016 -
For Russians it is a sure sign that summer has really come - the annual, rolling switch-off of municipal hot water that hits homes across the vast country.
From Vladivostok on the Pacific coast to the European exclave Kaliningrad, millions of residents are forced each year to shiver through icy showers as authorities say they have to switch off the system carrying hot water underground, in ...
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Iran interested in proposed Chinese-built canal in Nicaragua
Managua (AFP) Aug 24, 2016 -
Iranian firms want to participate in the construction of a massive canal across Nicaragua that a Chinese company has vowed to build, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said Tuesday.
Representatives of private Iranian construction companies accompanying Zarif on a visit to Nicaragua's capital discussed the possibility of getting a slice of the $50 billion project, the minister told ...
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Australia to study drift of MH370 debris
Sydney (AFP) Aug 24, 2016 -
Replicas of a large piece of debris from missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 will be set adrift and tracked by satellite in the hope of helping find the plane's crash site, Australian officials said Wednesday.
Canberra is leading the search for the aircraft which vanished in March 2014 with 239 people onboard and is currently probing the Indian Ocean floor off the Australia's far west coast. ...
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Science set to upstage fiction with Fantastic Voyage
Montreal, Canada (SPX) Aug 25, 2016 -
Fifty years to the day after the film Fantastic Voyage was first shown in theatres, the Polytechnique Montreal Nanorobotics Laboratory is unveiling a unique medical interventional infrastructure devoted to the fight against cancer. The outcome of 15 years of research conducted by Professor Sylvain Martel and his team, it enables microscopic nanorobotic agents to be guided through the vascular sy ...
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New approach to determining how atoms are arranged in materials
Raleigh NC (SPX) Aug 25, 2016 -
Researchers from North Carolina State University, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a novel approach to materials characterization, using Bayesian statistical methods to glean new insights into the structure of materials. The work should inform the development of new materials for use in a variety of applications. ...
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China opens longest glass bottom bridge in world
Zhangjiajie, China (AFP) Aug 22, 2016 -
Tourists who suffer from vertigo need not apply. The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opened Saturday in China's spectacular Zhangjiajie mountains - the inspiration for American blockbuster Avatar.
Some 430 metres (1,400 feet) long and suspended 300 metres above the earth, the bridge spans the canyon between two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie park in China's central Hunan p ...
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US watchdog clears ChemChina's Syngenta acquisition
Zurich (AFP) Aug 22, 2016 -
A US national security regulator has approved a state-owned China National Chemical Corp.'s planned $43-billion (38 billion-euro) takeover of Swiss pesticide and seed giant Syngenta, the two companies said Monday.
ChemChina and Syngenta said in a joint statement that they had "received clearance on their proposed transaction from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIU ...
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Scientists develop nanofur material to soak up oil
Karlsruhe, Germany (UPI) Aug 23, 2016 -
A team of researchers in Germany have developed a new water-resistant nanofur material capable of soaking up oil with impressive efficiency. The material was inspired by water ferns.
Many materials with potential as an oil absorbent fail to live up to expectations, often because they absorb as much as water as oil.
In an attempt to solve this problem, researchers at Germany's Kar ...
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Battery you can swallow could enable future ingestible medical devices
Philadelphia PA (SPX) Aug 25, 2016 -
Non-toxic, edible batteries could one day power ingestible devices for diagnosing and treating disease. One team reports new progress toward that goal with their batteries made with melanin pigments, naturally found in the skin, hair and eyes.
The researchers will present their work today at the 252nd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's ...
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Nanofur for oil spill cleanup
Karlsruher, Germany (SPX) Aug 25, 2016 -
Some water ferns can absorb large volumes of oil within a short time, because their leaves are strongly water-repellent and, at the same time, highly oil-absorbing. Researchers of KIT, together with colleagues of Bonn University, have found that the oil-binding capacity of the water plant results from the hairy microstructure of its leaves. It is now used as a model to further develop the new Na ...
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Silicon nanoparticles trained to juggle light
Moscow, Russia (SPX) Aug 25, 2016 -
A team of physicists from ITMO University (Saint Petersburg) and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) has demonstrated the potential of silicon nanoparticles for effective non-linear light manipulation.
Their work lays the foundation for the development of novel optical devices with a wide range of functionalities. These silicon nanoparticles based devices would allow to trans ...
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Chinese sci-fi prepares to master the universe
Beijing (XNA) Aug 25, 2016 -
On Sunday, a second Chinese author received the prestigious Hugo Award for science fiction, this time in the category of best novelette.
Hao Jingfang, author of "Folding Beijing," won the award at the 74th World Science Fiction Convention in the United States following Liu Cixin's 2015 Best Novel award for "The Three-Body Problem," the first part of a trilogy.
Established in 1953, th ...
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The first autonomous, entirely soft robot
Boston MA (SPX) Aug 25, 2016 -
A team of Harvard University researchers with expertise in 3D printing, mechanical engineering, and microfluidics has demonstrated the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot. This small, 3D-printed robot - nicknamed the octobot - could pave the way for a new generation of completely soft, autonomous machines.
Soft robotics could revolutionize how humans interact with machines. B ...
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Spherical tokamak as model for next steps in fusion energy
Plainsboro NJ (SPX) Aug 25, 2016 -
Among the top puzzles in the development of fusion energy is the best shape for the magnetic facility - or "bottle" - that will provide the next steps in the development of fusion reactors. Leading candidates include spherical tokamaks, compact machines that are shaped like cored apples, compared with the doughnut-like shape of conventional tokamaks. The spherical design produces high-pressure p ...
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