Water propelled Jet Pack to lift you up

Designers at JetLev Technologies have made Jetpack named as JetLev R200, which uses water propulsion to liftoff up to height of over 30 feet and enable us to skim along the water upto the speed of 22 miles an hour.


The weight of the jetpack is minimized by shifting the propulsion engine and fuel systems to a small 10-foot boat that is tethered to the jetpack by a 33-foot hose.Thrust is generated by forcing water through the hose to nozzles on either side of the jet pack.

Thrust is controlled by twisting hand grips, while moving the control arms up and down changes the angle of propulsion nozzles. This allows pilots to move forward, in reverse and hover in neutral. By shifting their weight from side-to-side, pilots are able to turn.
Designed for both fresh and salt water, the jetpack is constructed of stainless steel and hard coat anodized aluminum with Teflon coating to protect against corrosion.
The JetLev R200 can accommodate pilots of all shapes and sizes, from 88 to 330 pounds. and 4.9- to 6.5-feet tall.

Intended it as a recreational device for holiday resorts, JetLev Technologies is planning to produce 70 units for delivery to target markets between May and July 2011.

Humanoid robot catches with amazing precision

German researchers developed a robot that can perform complex tasks such as catching a ball in mid flight. The new robot called "Justin" is described as a two-arm-system for investigation of two handed manipulation.

The development of humanoid robots has made significant progress in recent years. Although several systems have impressive walking abilities, when it comes to their abilities to manipulate objects or interact with their surrounding they are quite limited.

To overcome this limitation researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) institute of robotics and mathematics developed a human like torso with two arms and two hands. Justin is used to test programming and control concepts for two-handed mobile manipulation. and in a recent demonstration was able to show impressive abilities including catching two balls in mid air just like a skilled human would do.

The researchers see the future of humanoid robots in household assistance as well as in space environments. Being able to carry out complex manipulation is a key to creating a useful humanoid robot. For this purpose dual handed manipulation is currently a matter of active research around the world.

 Justin does not have human legs, instead it uses wheels to move from one place to another. It's light weight arms have four fingers. Justin is equipped with numerous sensors (dozens of them exist around it "body") as well as cameras which allow it to create a 3D reconstruction of the its environment and enable it to perform given tasks autonomously.

Plastic that can heal itself

Scientists on Thursday unveiled a new kind of plastic that can repair itself when exposed to ordinary light.

The miracle material could extend the lifetime and improve the durability of dozens of polymer-based products, ranging from common household items such a bags and storage bins to inner tires and expensive medical equipment, the researchers said.

A polymer is a large molecule, or macromolecule, made up of identical structural units linked through chemical bonds forged when atoms share electrons.

Tough, rubbery plastics are today found in thousands of consumer goods, but the materials used are highly vulnerable to damage caused by scratches, cuts and punctures.

Landfills are full of plastic objects discarded because they broke, cracked or leaked, sometimes causing safety hazards.

Most approaches to healable polymer-based materials require heating damaged areas and applying patches.

Scientists led by Christoph Weder of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio took another tack, creating a self-healing rubbery material containing metal that absorbs ultraviolet light and converts it into localized heat.

"What we have developed is essentially a new plastic material composed of very small chains that stick together and assemble into much larger chains," said co-author Stuart Rowan, also of Case Western.

"But what we have designed into the molecule is the ability to disassemble on exposure to light. When it disassembles the material flows into the crag and the system gets healed."

The study, published in Nature, shows that using light in this way has advantages over direct heating, such as pinpoint targeting of the damaged area, and repairing objects that are still carrying a stress load.

Smart materials with an in-built ability to repair damage caused by normal wear-and-tear could prove useful in transportation, construction, packaging and many other applications, the researchers said.

"Healable polymers offer an alternative to the damage-and-discard cycle, and represent a first step in the development of polymeric materials that have much greater lifespans than currently available," Nancy Sottos and Jeffrey Moore, researchers at the University of Illinois, said in a companion commentary.

But several hurdles remain before the proof-of-concept study can be translated into industrial-scale production, they said.

Many polymers are plastics, but other natural and synthetic materials also fall into the same category.

Synthetic polymers include artificial rubber, neoprene, nylon, PVC, polystyrene, polyethylene and silicone.

How fish swim?

Scientists have long believed that sunfish, perch, trout, and other such bony fish propel themselves forward with the movement of their tails, while their dorsal and anal fins — the fins on their tops and bottoms — work primarily as stabilizers.

But using a new form of laser imaging device, Brooke Flammang and colleagues at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) have discovered that “the dorsal and the anal fin make a great contribution to the caudal [tail fin] wake,” and thus are additional propellers, and not just stabilizers.

Flammang’s group made this discovery with help from “a brand-new laser imaging device that allowed us to get an instantaneous three-dimensional view of the wake of a swimming fish.” Previous observations, she said, “have been made in two dimensions.”

Researchers used what Flammang called, with a laugh, “a treadmill for fish — it’s a giant Plexiglas tank with water circulated in one direction, and the fish moves at a speed controlled by the flow of the water.”

White plastic particles, “almost like a powder,” are put into the water, and then “cameras record laser illumination of particles in water” as the fish swims against the current in the tank so that researchers can observe and record the wake of the fish — “which tells us the direction of thrust and how thrust is produced,” said Flammang, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of George Lauder, the Henry Bryant Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology in Harvard’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and curator of ichthyology at the MCV. (Flammang was a graduate student when she and her group did the work.)

The new laser device provides a three-dimensional view of the fish’s movement, Flammang said. With the new system researchers are able to get the entire volume of water being moved in each of multiple sequential photographic images.

“We knew the dorsal and anal fins are very important for balance, and although a locomotory role was suspected, we have only now been able to show that they also play a big part in locomotion,” Flammang said.

source:Harvard

New cotton to repel water and Uv rays

 

Scientists at North-East Normal University in china have developed a cotton that can repel water and harmful UV radiations from sun.

Earlier experiments by the team have created self-cleaning,UV- repellent fabrics through  titanium dioxide and zinc oxide films.But when they modified cotton textiles with zinc oxide nanorods and dumbell shaped zinc oxide crystallites, they found the material blocking a wider range of UV rays.It was also found that thay have UV protection factor of 101.51, double the highest possible rating.However they had to coat the zinc nanorods with a silica shell to prevent the photoactivity of zinc oxide, which compromised its water repelling nature.

The scientists believe this technology will be useful in the surface modification of cotton textiles, creating durable, multifunctional fabrics with enhanced superhydrophobic and UV-ray blocking properties.

Virgin to dive into the oceans

After the launch of Virgin galatic few years before, he now have unveiled the 'Virgin Oceanic' submarine to take man to the deepest depths of ocean.

The submarine, designed by Graham Hawkes, is shaped like a dolphin than a traditional submarine.Virgin Oceanic can operate at a depth of 37,000 feet underwater (about 7 miles), which means it can withstand pressure 1500 times that of an airplane.The sub is made of carbon fiber and titanium, and can travel at a maximum speed of 3 knots and dive at 350 feet per minute.

The Virgin Oceanic team are planning to take it to the Mariana Treanch, the deepest point on earth, this year.It would take atleast 5 hours to reach there.They have also teamed up with Google and will be feeding the data and video to be added to Google's earth and map database.

Virgin Oceanic teaser trailer

 

Device to harness wind power from passing trains

 

Industrials in china have developed a device that can take advantage of wind created by superfast trains to generate electricity from wind.

The device which is called as 'T-Box' is buried half underground between railroads.As the  train passes overhead, the wind created spins the turbine inside the 'T-Box' to generate electricity.
Creators Qian Jiang and Alessandro Leonetti say that 150 T-Boxes could be installed along a kilometer of railway to take advantage of wasted wind power.According to their calculations,

A train travelling approximately 125 mph would produce a wind speed equivalent to almost 50 feet/second. The T-Box would capture this wind, it's turbines producing about 3,500 Watts of power. If the train was about 656 feet long, travelling around 187 mph and passing over that 1 km (.062 miles) stretch, the T-Box could produce about 2.6 kilowatts of power.

Designers said that only the vents of the device would be exposed above ground to let the wind in to rotate the turbine.
This technology could also be used in highways.The generated electricity could be used in lightning street lamps, traffic signals and for public needs.