Hacking the train.
Ars Technica recently reported on a new front in the “right to repair” war. A group of hackers broke into a Polish train system in order to overcome software that kept anyone … Read the rest “Hacking the train.”
engineering
Science Art: Mouchot’s solar thermal collector from 1860, from Nordisk Familjebok, 1917.
This is a solar-powered generator. A funnel with sides angled at 90 degrees is pointed at the sun to catch its radiation, and those rays are bounced by the funnel’s mirrored walls toward… Read the rest “Science Art: Mouchot’s solar thermal collector from 1860, from Nordisk Familjebok, 1917.”
Dry canal costs billions.
Forbes covers a climate-change story about global trade and supply chains (something the pandemic taught the world about), focused on that thin isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific… Read the rest “Dry canal costs billions.”
Cicadas are so loud, they cause fiberoptic-cable interference.
Wired reveals a very strange insect-monitoring device called DAS, or “distributed acoustic sensing,” normally used to track vibrations made by seismic shifts and volcanic… Read the rest “Cicadas are so loud, they cause fiberoptic-cable interference.”
Science Art: Altitude and azimuth instrument, 1876.
How high?
This device will tell you.
It’s from The great Centennial exhibition critically described and illustrated, by Phillip T. Sandhurst, which you can read on archive.org… Read the rest “Science Art: Altitude and azimuth instrument, 1876.”
Cooking with gas increases cancer risk.
I hate to read it, but NPR reported on a Stanford study that found gas stoves increase levels of benzene in the home – a chemical that brings with it a noticeable increase in risk of cancer… Read the rest “Cooking with gas increases cancer risk.”
Science Art: Causerie sur la Peche Fluviale en Chine, 1909.
Do two sampans make a catamaran? Looks like they did for this Chinese fisherman at the dawn of the last century, angling on the river near Shanghai.
This image came from Pol Korrigan, but I … Read the rest “Science Art: Causerie sur la Peche Fluviale en Chine, 1909.”
Science Art: The Engineer’s Sketch-Book, 1508 & 1509.
Two machines, or parts of machines. These are a “Four-Plunger Valve” and “A starter valve” from The engineer’s sketch-book of mechanical movements,… Read the rest “Science Art: The Engineer’s Sketch-Book, 1508 & 1509.”
Saving the beach with some stick-and-palm-frond engineering.
Reuters reports from Senegal on a new anti-erosion project that uses dirt-cheap, pollution-free materials to defend an island from Atlantic swells that threaten to wash the land away… Read the rest “Saving the beach with some stick-and-palm-frond engineering.”
SONG: Octopus Gloves
SONG: “Octopus Gloves”. (OGG version)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Science News 13 July 2022, “This octopus-inspired glove helps humans grip slippery objects,”… Read the rest “SONG: Octopus Gloves”
Octopus gloves. They grab things better.
Science News reports on gloves that are especially good at picking slippery things up and sticking to ’em thanks to “rapidly switchable” materials inspired by octopus… Read the rest “Octopus gloves. They grab things better.”
Self-driving, cabless semis are coming to U.S. roads.
TechCrunch rides along with Einride, a Swedish electric drone-trucking startup that’s bringing “self-driving pods” to U.S. public roads this year in partnership… Read the rest “Self-driving, cabless semis are coming to U.S. roads.”
Science Art: Fig 2.1: Powder Rocket Projectile, 1956.
This is one of the first illustrations in V. I. Feodosiev’s and G. B. Siniarev’s Introduction to Rocketry, an English translation of a Russian text from 1956 done by the US Air… Read the rest “Science Art: Fig 2.1: Powder Rocket Projectile, 1956.”
Solar plane can do the job of a satellite without going into space.
CNN is covering the Skydweller, a plane powered by more than 17,000 solar panels, enabling it to stay aloft for month, doing the same work a satellite would do at a slightly lower altitude … Read the rest “Solar plane can do the job of a satellite without going into space.”
Science Art: Blast Engine, 1870s.
This was one of the attractions in the Machinery Hall of the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876, a blast engine made by the I.P. Morris Company. Why a blast engine? To make Bessemer steel.… Read the rest “Science Art: Blast Engine, 1870s.”