Gizmag News - Part artwork, part boat... literally!

Welcome to the newsletter for gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for November the 15th, 2010. Part artwork, part boat... literally! French artist Julien Berthier has designed a fully functional boat to look as if it is sinking. The 6.5m (21ft) yacht was cut in half with a new keel and motor added so it remains in the sinking position while being fully functional. He describes it as "the permanent and mobile image of a wrecked ship that has become a functional and safe leisure object." Read More The battle for your TV - Internet set-top device market heats up The latest player in the Internet-to-your-TV world is the Boxee Box by D-Link. This set-top device is likely to put up a fair fight in the face of some big name competition including Apple TV, Sony Internet TV (armed with Google TV) and Logitech Revue (also running Google TV). Read More Boeing opens P-8A Poseidon production facility Boeing has opened a new aircraft production facility near Boeing Field in Seattle where mission systems will be installed and tests will be carried out on Boeing’s new P-8. The aircraft, which is based on Boeing’s Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane, is intended for anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roles. The P-8 aircraft will be assembled in Renton, Washington and, following final assembly, will make a short flight to the new facility to be given their finishing touches. Read More Save your luminol – new CSI camera detects bloodstains Watch even one episode of the various CSI shows or any of its imitators, and you’re likely to see a crime scene investigator whip out their bottle of luminol. The chemical product is commonly used for detecting invisible residual blood, as it glows when combined with an oxidizing agent and exposed to the iron in hemoglobin. It does, however, have some drawbacks – luminol is potentially toxic, it sometimes dilutes blood evidence to the point that DNA can’t be detected, it can smear blood spatter patterns, and it sometimes provides false positives. Now, researchers from the University of South Carolina have developed a blood-detecting camera that reportedly does none of those things. Read More Sandbag 2.0 – meet the Sand Brick Floods are an inevitable part of life and the standard line of defense is the humble sandbag. While having applications in emergency relief, engineering and military environments, their design has remained relatively unchanged since the 18th Century. That is until now. Read More Kia Soul Flex - cheaper fuel, better economy, more power, less pollution The major announcement of last week's Brazilian Motor Show in São Paulo was Kia's Soul Flex. Though it's the first Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) from Korea, ethanol derived from sugar cane is 40% cheaper than gas in Brazil, so flex fuel vehicles make up 85% of new car sales. On top of the cheaper fuel, the Soul Flex gets a 44% improvement in fuel efficiency, with power and torque figures also a slight improvement compared with the existing petrol model. Scheduled to go on sale in Brazil early next year, the Soul Flex is able to run on 100% ethanol, 100% gasoline or an ethanol-petrol mixture. Read More Making blood from human skin A new technique that allows blood to be made directly from skin cells has been discovered. The pioneering approach by Canadian researchers uses human skin stem cells to create blood stem cells without an intermediate step that previously was thought necessary. It could be used for creating blood for surgery, or treating conditions like anemia using a patch of the patient's skin. Read More Wheego electric LiFe car to debut at LA Auto Show The all-electric Whip LiFe from Atlanta-based automaker Wheego will be making its debut at this month’s LA Auto Show. Not to be confused with the luxury hybrid LIFECar being developed by Morgan Motors in the U.K., the 65 mph, 100 mile range LiFe is designed as a practical little runabout and it looks... well, it looks pretty “Smart.” Read More Quantum computers could be easier to build than previously thought The strange behavior of quantum particles that gives quantum computers such potential also has its pitfalls. One of these is the loss of information through atomic particles escaping the system, but a new study has found that this may not be as big a problem as first thought. Read More Playing Tetris shown to reduce traumatic flashbacks If you’ve seen something you’d prefer to forget, then playing Tetris might be just what you need – provided you do it within six hours. That’s the conclusion reached by a team of psychiatric researchers from Oxford University, led by Dr. Emily Holmes. In a study involving 60 test subjects, it was found that people who played the video game within six hours of viewing traumatic images had less of a tendency to experience flashbacks of those images afterward. It all has to do with the way in which the brain processes experiences. Read More Puncture-proof Spring Tire picks up 2010 R&D 100 Award Following a request from NASA, Goodyear last year developed an airless tire designed to transport large, long-range vehicles across the surface of celestial bodies such as the moon or Mars. The tire, constructed out of 800 load bearing springs, is designed to carry much heavier vehicles (up to 10 times) over much greater distances (up to 100 times) than the wire mesh tire that Goodyear helped develop for the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). The Spring Tire has now been recognized with a so-called “Oscar of Innovation” at the 44th Annual R&D 100 Awards in Orlando, Florida. Read More HP Mini 5103 is enterprise on the go Differentiating between the model numbers that make up the HP Mini lineup can be tricky, perhaps even more so with the competing Inspiron Mini series from Dell out there. The new HP 5103, however, does have a lot under the lid to make it stand out. Read More Audi to make e-tron safer using sci-fi sound effects As electric cars take to the streets, the people at Audi have been confronted with what they see as a new problem to solve: their cars are too quiet. Acoustic technicians have been enlisted to find the new sound of Audi, and it won't be a roaring V8 or hissing turbo – the inspiration might just come from the sci-fi world. Read More TRENDnet announces tiny wireless USB adapter U.S. networking solutions company TRENDnet has launched one of the world’s smallest wireless N USB adapters. The new 150Mbps Micro Wireless N USB (model TEW-648UBM) is uber small, measuring in at 0.59 x 0.74 x 0.28 inches (1.5 x 1.9 x 0.7 cm). I know what you are thinking – how can I possibly not lose a USB adapter so small? Well, when it's plugged into the side of a computer, it only extends out by 0.3 inches (0.8 cm) so you can easily just leave it in there. For laptop users, you can travel with the USB attached to your computer, without the concern of damaging the device. Read More If you would like to refer this newsletter to a friend or colleague, please point them at our free subscription page. Please don't try to forward this email, as the formatting is unlikely to remain intact. And don't worry, we don't share email addresses. Please read our privacy policy if you are concerned. Watch for more of the best new innovations, ideas and practical technologies in your inbox. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our daily newsletter at http://www.gizmag.com. 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