Grant Banks

Research into capacitors for use in hybrid vehicles, EVs, computer power supplies and pacemakers has been given a boost in the order of US$2.25 million. Professor Gerhard Welsch, who began patenting his designs for capacitors a decade ago, will use the grant to complete development of a small, light, powerful and reliable capacitor that promises a 10-fold or higher increase in energy density over current models.  Read More

Carry more than one USB drive around? Got one storage device for business and another for personal files? Life's natural divide is work and play so here's a dongle that can facilitate that split – the Split Stick.  Read More

We've been taking a closer look at some of the standout blue-sky concepts presented by the likes of Mercedes and Cadillac at the recent LA Design Challenge – here's Volvo's take on the lightweight car of the future. The clamshell-inspired Volvo Air Motion Concept Canyon Carver uses fewer and lighter components than in traditional cars and compressed air engines to achieve a weight estimated at under 1000 lbs (454 kg).  Read More

A fast and accurate test for Autism has been developed by researchers at McLean Hospital and the University of Utah. It is hoped that the biologically based test, which uses Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to measure brain activity, can replace the subjective test currently used for diagnosis of the condition.  Read More

There are several options out there for those looking to use capacitive touchscreen devices while not getting frosty fingers this winter. We've looked at the North Face Etip and Agloves, now a solution that is cheap, simple and lets you keep wearing your favorite pair of gloves – even while tweeting how cold you are!  Read More

America's first house made primarily of hemp has been built. Using a product known as Hemcrete – a mix of industrial hemp, lime and water – a team of 40 volunteers, sub-contractors and designers have recently completed construction of the hemp house in Ashville, North Carolina. Eco-friendly design and construction company Push Design has gained the support of community members and local officials alike and now plans to build more of these houses, which offer exceptional strength and longevity, breathability, unsurpassed indoor air quality and two-pronged carbon sequestration attributes.  Read More

Imagine insect-like aircraft capable of military or civilian surveillance missions, impossible for current fixed-wing or rotary-wing vehicles – tiny flying machines able to access buildings reduced to rubble by earthquakes, or act as a fly-on-the-wall in the meeting rooms of enemy leaders. Such aircraft may be one step closer to realization, thanks to a breakthrough in our understanding of how flapping wings work.  Read More

Get ready to have your concept of how a car is manufactured flipped upside-down and turned inside-out. Picture a production process that has plenty in common with agar jelly (used to culture organic materials in laboratories) and little in common with what we would normally think of as production-line automotive manufacturing. You are starting to get close to what the people at Mercedes-Benz have spawned with the BIOME – one of the most outlandish and ambitious concepts in this year's Los Angeles Design Challenge.  Read More

The latest development in quantum computing might hold the key to taming qubits, the building blocks of quantum systems. Holding these elusive qubits in a controlled state for longer than nanoseconds has proven extremely difficult in the past but researchers have recently discovered a method could see their lifespan reach seconds if not tens of seconds.  Read More