Images of Earth's coastal regions from a space-borne scanner are helping scientists monitor events from oil spills to plankton blooms, U.S. researchers say. Scientists at Oregon State University say the Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) aboard the International Space Station is the first space-borne sensor created specifically for observing the coastal ocean.It will allow scientists to better analyze human impacts and climate-change effects on the world's coastal regions. What HICO does that other ocean imaging systems like NASA's MODIS cannot is provide color sensor data down to the human scale. While the normal resolution for an ocean imager is about one kilometer, HICO provides resolution down to 90 meters.
Developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, the sophisticated imaging system was installed aboard the space station in 2009. Its development was an experiment to see if engineers could create an instrument very quickly, at low cost, and make it work for a year. It is a scientific treasure trove for the coastal oceanographer.

A new oil discovery in the Barents Sea holds at least 150 million barrels of oil equivalent, European energy companies announced. The breakthrough discovery is one of the most important finds on the Norwegian continental shelf in the last decade.
The companies during drilling operations with the Polar Pioneer rig in 1,223 feet of water encountered a gas column of 108 feet and an oil column of nearly 300 feet. The Skrugard field is the third major hydrocarbon finding in the Barents Sea. The Skrugard field could be put in production as soon as in 2018. The field is considered a major breakthrough for the Norwegian oil industry in the Barents Sea. The field is believed to have resources of up to 250 million tons of extractable oil equivalents. The oil is anticipated to be easily producible. With adjacent resources, the Skrugard reserves could exceed 500 million tons of oil equivalents. The discovery is vital in order to maintain the technology and technical environments in the oil and gas industry in the future. This is a break-through, and an important step in understanding how the geology – and thus the hydrocarbon systems in the Barents Sea – works.

An OLED is an electronic device made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. This process is called electrophosphorescence. Even with the layered system, these systems are very thin, usually less than 500 nm (0.5 thousandths of a millimeter).

When used to produce displays, OLED technology produces self-luminous displays that do not require backlighting. These properties result in thin, very compact displays. The displays also have a wide viewing angle, up to 160 degrees and require very little power, only 2-10 volts.

OLED displays have other advantages over LCDs as well:
Increased brightness
Faster response time for full motion video
Lighter weight
Greater durability
Broader operating temperature ranges

Compact Semi submarine - A better way to explore reefs or tropical seas without actually getting wet. Instead of using a rudder and outboard motor, it is run by electric padded propulsion with a battery-powered BLDC (Brushless DC electric motor).It works as both a motor boat and a two-seater submarine and the best part-it’s all electric.It uses a Trojan T-890 battery pack such as what is found on golf carts. With an all-electric motor, it is likely far quieter than standard boats.The battery pack allows a user to go 8 hours at cruising speed or 4 hours at top speed between charges, but it takes between 6-9 hours to recharge. The compact semi-submarine showcased at the Miami Boat Show --functions as both a motor boat and as a sub that seats two just below the water surface.It helps anyone to explore undersea easily and conveniently.You don’t even need to know how to swim. There is no complicated control or operation of the boat. Anyone can easily control, operate and is perfectly comfortable and absolutely safe. It is not airtight as submarine. And also, you can escape from the boat very fast and easy in emergency situation, and this is the biggest advantage comparing with submarine. It is a boon for marine life already subject to human-generated noise pollution.

The US Navy announced a successful test of electromagnetic cannon capable of firing a projectile 110 nautical miles (200 kilometers) at five times the speed of sound.Tested at the Navy's Dahlgren Surface Warfare Center in Virginia, the futuristic weapon uses powerful jolts of electric current to propel a non-explosive slug along rails before launching it at supersonic velocities. The latest test involved a 33-megajoule shot, the most powerful ever attempted and three times that of the previous test in January 2008.A mega joule is equivalent to the energy released when a one-tonne vehicle slams into a wall at 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour. The 33-megajoule shot means the Navy can fire projectiles at least 110 nautical miles, placing sailors and marines at a safe standoff distance and out of harm's way. The test model bears little resemblance to a gun. Instead, thick black cables plug into the rear of what looks like a long rectangular grill. That armature holds the rails together as powerful electric current surges through them, pushing the slug forward.

Scientists in Massachusetts have developed a working "artificial leaf" that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, producing power. The artificial leaf shows particular promise as an inexpensive source of electricity for homes of the poor in developing countries. The goal is to make each home its own power station. One can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology. The device itself is small, thin, and looks nothing like an actual leaf. About the size of a playing card, but thinner, it is made of silicon. Placed inside a single gallon of water in bright sunlight, the device could theoretically produce enough electricity to power a house in a developing country for an entire day by storing the leftover hydrogen and oxygen in a fuel cell. The idea has been bounced around for decades, but this marks the first time that one has been created that is affordable and actually works for more than a single day. The new artificial leaf is made of “inexpensive” materials and has been shown to operate for more than 45 hours without a “single drop” in activity. The key to this breakthrough is recent discovery of several powerful new, inexpensive catalysts, made of nickel and cobalt that are capable of efficiently splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen, under simple conditions. Right now, leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf.
Nature is powered by photosynthesis and the future world will be powered by photosynthesis as well in the form of this artificial leaf.

The Autostadt is a visitor attraction adjacent to the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, with a prime focus on automobiles. It features a museum, pavilions for the principal automobile brands in the Volkswagen Group, a customer center where German customers can pick up new cars, and take a tour through the enormous factory, a guide to the evolution of roads, and cinema in a large sphere. It is also home to the largest glass doors in the world and the longest printed line. The line starts from outside Wolfsburg and travels through Autostadt to a point on a farm. It is about 6.4 km long.

Biggest attraction, of course, is the towers. There are two 60 meter/200 ft tall glass silos used as storage for new Volkswagens. The two towers are connected to the Volkswagen factory by a 700 metre underground tunnel. When cars arrive at the towers they are carried up at a speed of 1.5 metres per second. The render for the Autostadt shows 6 towers. When purchasing a car from Volkswagen (the main brand only, not the sub-brands) in select European countries, it is optional if the customer wants it delivered to the dealership where it was bought or if the customer wants to travel to Autostadt to pick it up. If the latter is chosen, the Autostadt supplies the customer with free entrance, meal tickets and a variety of events building up to the point where the customer can follow on screen as the automatic elevator picks up the selected car in one of the silos. The car is then transported out to the customer without having driven a single meter, and the odometer is thus on “0″

Researchers from the University of Minnesota have announced a breakthrough in the quest to create a viable fuel alternative using greenhouse gases. The process uses two types of bacteria to create hydrocarbons from sunlight and carbon dioxide. Those hydrocarbons can in turn be made into fuel, which the scientists are calling "renewable petroleum." The process starts with Synechococcus, a photosynthetic bacterium that fixes carbon dioxide in sunlight, and then converts that CO2 to sugars. Those sugars are then passed on to another bacterium, Shewanella, which consumes them and produces fatty acids. University of Minnesota biochemistry graduate student discovered how to use a protein to transform those acids into ketones, a type of organic compound. University’s College of Science and Engineering have developed catalytic technology that allows them to convert those ketones into diesel fuel.CO2 is the major greenhouse gas mediating global climate change, so removing it from the atmosphere is good for the environment. The university is in the process of filing patents on the process.
 

U.S. researchers have announced the development of the world's first "anti-laser," which they call a coherent perfect absorber (CPA), a device that can absorb and cancel out a laser beam. Scientists at Yale University say the silicon-based device can absorb an incoming laser beam entirely, converting its light to heat energy. The discovery could pave the way for a number of novel technologies with applications in everything from optical computing to radiology. The anti-laser device can focus two laser beams of a specific frequency into an optical cavity made from silicon, trapping the incoming beams of light and causing them to bounce around until all their energy is dissipated in the form of heat. Changing the wavelength of the incoming light switches the anti-laser on and off, creating an optical switch that could be the basis of a very fast optically-based computer.
Currently the CPA can absorb 99.4 percent of all light fed into it, but the research team responsible for building it believes they can increase that number to a near-perfect 99.999 percent.

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations. The Nimitz class aircraft carriers are the largest warships in the world, each designed for an approximately 50 year service life with one mid-life refueling. The NIMITZ-class carriers are a floating airport, capable of launching as many as four aircraft a minute. The ship's four catapults and four arresting gear engines enable her to launch and recover aircraft rapidly and simultaneously. The ships carry seven different types of aircraft with a total complement of more than 80 planes. During flight operations, the flight deck of 4.5 acres is a scene of intense activity, with crew, aircraft and other equipment functioning as a well-rehearsed and carefully choreographed team to ensure both efficiency and safety.