Cars that drive themselves - even parking at their destination - could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors Corp. executives say.
GM, parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers all are working on vehicles that could revolutionize short- and long-distance travel. And Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will devote part of his speech to the driverless vehicles.
"This is not science fiction," Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview.
Science & Technology
Where the Champs Elysee, the Eiffel Tower and sprawling vineyards now stand, there might once have been an Amazon-like jungle.
A new analysis of amber fossils collected in France suggests that the country was once covered by a dense tropical rainforest.
The 55-milllion-year-old pieces of amber (fossilized tree sap) were found near the Oise River in northern France. The trees that once oozed them are long gone.
Amber from different sites tends to have different chemical compositions.
A new analysis of amber fossils collected in France suggests that the country was once covered by a dense tropical rainforest.
The 55-milllion-year-old pieces of amber (fossilized tree sap) were found near the Oise River in northern France. The trees that once oozed them are long gone.
Amber from different sites tends to have different chemical compositions.
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| ©2007 American Chemical Society |
| Oise ambers and insect inclusion (Trichoptera) in Oise amber. |
A new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity, bringing with it increased risks for power grids, critical military, civilian and airline communications, GPS signals and even cell phones and ATM transactions, showed signs it was on its way late yesterday when the cycle's first sunspot appeared in the sun's Northern Hemisphere, NOAA scientists said.
For 5,000 years, great tongues of ice have spread over the 3-mile-high slopes of Puncak Jaya, in the remotest reaches of this remote tropical island. Now those glaciers are melting, and Lonnie Thompson must get there before they're gone.
To the American glaciologist, the ancient ice is a vanishing "archive" of the story of El Nino, the equatorial phenomenon driving much of the world's climate.
More than that, the little-explored glaciers are a last unknown for a mountaineering scientist who for three decades has circled the planet pioneering the deep-drilling of ice cores, both to chronicle the history of climate and to bear witness to the death of tropical glaciers from global warming.
To the American glaciologist, the ancient ice is a vanishing "archive" of the story of El Nino, the equatorial phenomenon driving much of the world's climate.
More than that, the little-explored glaciers are a last unknown for a mountaineering scientist who for three decades has circled the planet pioneering the deep-drilling of ice cores, both to chronicle the history of climate and to bear witness to the death of tropical glaciers from global warming.
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| ©AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato |
| Lonnie Thompson stands in the 'cold room,' where ice cores are stored in the minus-30-degree freezer at Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University Friday, Dec. 21, 2007 in Columbus, Ohio. |
Using a novel device that simulates earthquakes in a laboratory setting, a Los Alamos researcher and his colleagues have shown that seismic waves - the sounds radiated from earthquakes - can induce earthquake aftershocks, often long after a quake has subsided.
The research provides insight into how earthquakes may be triggered and how they recur.
In a letter appearing today in Nature, Los Alamos researcher Paul Johnson and colleagues Heather Savage, Mike Knuth, Joan Gomberg, and Chris Marone show how wave energy can be stored in certain types of granular materials - like the type found along certain fault lines across the globe - and how this stored energy can suddenly be released as an earthquake when hit by relatively small seismic waves far beyond the traditional "aftershock zone" of a main quake.
The research provides insight into how earthquakes may be triggered and how they recur.
In a letter appearing today in Nature, Los Alamos researcher Paul Johnson and colleagues Heather Savage, Mike Knuth, Joan Gomberg, and Chris Marone show how wave energy can be stored in certain types of granular materials - like the type found along certain fault lines across the globe - and how this stored energy can suddenly be released as an earthquake when hit by relatively small seismic waves far beyond the traditional "aftershock zone" of a main quake.
With over 3.5 million registered users (up from 600,000 two years ago), StumbleUpon has left the techie niche and has become mainstream. But unlike Google which makes its billions from helping you find what you're looking for, StumbleUpon helps you discover content that you may not be looking for but will probably find interesting.
Eleven previously unknown animal and plant species have been discovered by scientists in a remote forest region that they say is like "paradise".
Three salamanders with ballistic tongues were among the finds that astounded researchers recording wildlife in the forest in Central America.
In addition to the new species, the researchers also found 5,300 previously catalogued species in the cloud forest in La Amistad National Park in Costa Rica. The area is one of the least spoilt in the world, after its human inhabitants deserted it centuries ago.
The remoteness of the park and the lack of human interference there have allowed it to flourish as one of the most ecologically valuable ecosystems in the world.
Three salamanders with ballistic tongues were among the finds that astounded researchers recording wildlife in the forest in Central America.
In addition to the new species, the researchers also found 5,300 previously catalogued species in the cloud forest in La Amistad National Park in Costa Rica. The area is one of the least spoilt in the world, after its human inhabitants deserted it centuries ago.
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| ©Unknown |
The remoteness of the park and the lack of human interference there have allowed it to flourish as one of the most ecologically valuable ecosystems in the world.
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| ©Unknown |
| Plate tectonics is driven by heat flowing from the Earth's interior, and a stoppage would slow the rate of the Earth's cooling, just as clamping a lid on a soup pot would slow the soup's cooling. |
Plate tectonics, the geologic process responsible for creating the Earth's continents, mountain ranges, and ocean basins, may be an on-again, off-again affair. Scientists have assumed that the shifting of crustal plates has been slow but continuous over most of the Earth's history, but a new study from researchers at the Carnegie Institution suggests that plate tectonics may have ground to a halt at least once in our planet's history-and may do so again.
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| ©Unknown |
| The TCS system is compatible with the NATO UAS control standard and is capable of all levels of flight and sensor control of NATO standard UASs. |
Raytheon recently completed initial testing of the Tactical Control System's (TCS) command and control capabilities for the U.S. Navy's MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. The testing was conducted Dec. 15, 2007, at the Webster Field annex, Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland.
The most intense meteor shower of the year hits Earth tonight. If the skies are clear and you live at high northern latitudes, then you could see dozens of Quadrantid meteors streaking over the pole.
Or you might spot a plane full of astronomers racing northward, trying to find out how this unusual meteor shower was created, and whether it is the shrapnel of a celestial explosion witnessed in the 15th century.
Like other meteor showers, the Quadrantids appear when Earth moves through an interplanetary stream of debris, which hits the upper atmosphere at more than 40 kilometres a second, vaporising to become the brilliant trails we see as shooting stars.
Or you might spot a plane full of astronomers racing northward, trying to find out how this unusual meteor shower was created, and whether it is the shrapnel of a celestial explosion witnessed in the 15th century.
Like other meteor showers, the Quadrantids appear when Earth moves through an interplanetary stream of debris, which hits the upper atmosphere at more than 40 kilometres a second, vaporising to become the brilliant trails we see as shooting stars.
