Pedalling on solar power

TNN | May 9, 2013, 04.23 AM IST

READ MORE Solar power|solar energy|Public transportation
CHANDIGARH: Let's take a look at this solar powered-cum-manual mode rickshaw, which is much lighter than the conventional one, reduces driving effort and maintenance drastically and is environment-friendly with zero emissions. A group of PEC mechanical engineers managed to create a niche for themselves by inventing a special hybrid rickshaw with a host of innovative inputs on it. This vehicle was selected among five projects of the department displayed at the grand annual exhibit a?? Open House a?? last month. What makes this invention stand out is the sensitivity and practical utility for its users.

 "Our eco-friendly tricycle will help rickshaw pullers earn a living in a better way and at the same time, will keep the environment healthy," said group leader Aziz Luna. The students have installed three batteries and a 250 watt motor inside the vehicle so that the driver do not require a licence. The motor, which weighs approximately 5kg, gets its power through solar energy. Aziz said that the batteries would last for around two years and the vehicle will not need much maintenance.

 Team member Abhimanyu Goyal, who is a fourth-year student, said: "There are two ways to use the rickshaw. The driver can start pedalling and then get the motor powered on, or can even cold-start the motor to get enough throttle in needy situations." Ashish, a mechanical engineering student of PEC, added, "Two passengers weighing 200kg can be seated at one time and the vehicle can reach speeds up to 15kmph."

 Another team member Bakulesh Singh said that the rickshaw can also be charged using electricity instead of solar energy, if required. The project was taken up by the team keeping in mind the transport needs of public which are not entirely fulfilled by the public transportation facilities. 
 

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This flying car can take off vertically

PTI | May 9, 2013, 04.50 AM IST
READ MORE US scientists|traffic jam|gen-next flying car|car’s flying button|
NEW YORK: Stuck in traffic jam? Use your car's flying button. Seriously!

US scientists have designed a gen-next flying car capable of taking off vertically and flying completely on its own — and it could be on the roads within a decade.

An ambitious US engineering company has released images of the flying car, the four-passenger TF-X, and it won't require a pilot's licence to operate.

The Terrafugia TF-X flying car can take off vertically and has a flying range of 805km. Once airborne, the two propellers fold back and propulsion is handled by an engine mounted behind the cockpit, 'New York Daily News' reported.

Everything from take-off, to flying, and eventual touch-down at the chosen destination will be handled automatically by the Terrafugia.

The manufacturers claim the TF-X is a plug-in hybrid. Electric motors handle road driving, and assist during takeoff and landing.

Terrafugia claims its road-legal and highly automated flying car could be on the road (and in the air) within 8-12 years. The TF-X's vast array of sensors and GPS monitors make flying to a destination as simple as punching in an address in current satellite-navigation devices. The TF-X calculates the total distance, and determines whether there is suitable fuel range. 

COMMENT:-THIS WILL BE  A DISASTER IF IT BECOMES SUCCESSFUL

BUT THIS WILL REMAIN A FAILED DREAM  PROJECT ,BECAUSE -WHO WANTS FLY HIGH IN THE SKY JUST FOR A SHORT DISTANCE INSIDE THE CITY?NOT MANY

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Streetlamps out, glowing trees to light up roads?

[NOT FOR DESERT KINGDOMS/WHY NOT GLOWING ROAD?SOLAR POWERED]

Andrew Pollack, NYT News Service | May 9, 2013, 04.45 AM IST
READ MORE electric streetlamps|Antony Evans|” biotechnology hobbyists|“natural light
Hoping to give new meaning to the term "natural light," a small group of biotechnology hobbyists and entrepreneurs has started a project to develop plants that glow, potentially leading the way for trees that can replace electric streetlamps and potted flowers luminous enough to read by.

The project, which will use a sophisticated form of genetic engineering called synthetic biology, is attracting attention not only for its audacious goal, but for how it is being carried out.

Rather than being the work of a corporation or an academic laboratory, it will be done by a small group of hobbyist scientists in one of the growing number of communal laboratories springing up around the nation as biotechnology becomes cheap enough to give rise to a do-it-yourself movement.

The project is also being financed in a DIY sort of way: It has attracted more than $250,000 in pledges from about 4,500 donors in about two weeks on the website Kickstarter.

The effort is not the first of its kind. A university group created a glowing tobacco plant a few years ago by implanting genes from a marine bacterium that emits light. But the light was so dim that it could be perceived only if one observed the plant for at least five minutes in a dark room.

The new project's goals, at least initially, are similarly modest. "We hope to have a plant which you can visibly see in the dark (like glow-in-the-dark paint), but don't expect to replace your light bulbs with version 1.0," the project's Kickstarter page says.

But part of the goal is more controversial: to publicize do-it-yourself synthetic biology and to "inspire others to create new living things". As promising as that might seem to some, critics are alarmed at the idea of tinkerers creating living things in their garages. They fear that malicious organisms may be created, either intentionally or by accident. Two environmental organizations, Friends of the Earth and the ETC Group, have written to Kickstarter and to the agriculture department, which regulates genetically modified crops, in an effort to shut down the glowing plant effort.

The project "will likely result in widespread, random and uncontrolled release of bioengineered seeds and plants produced through the controversial and risky techniques of synthetic biology," the two groups said in their letter demanding that Kickstarter remove the project from its website.

They note that the project has pledged to deliver seeds to many of its 4,000 contributors, making it perhaps the "first-ever intentional environmental release of an avowedly 'synthetic biology' organism anywhere in the world". Kickstarter told the critics to take up their concerns with the project's organizers. The agriculture department has not yet replied.

Antony Evans, the manager of the glowing plant project, said in an interview that the activity would be safe. "What we are doing is very identical to what has been done in research laboratories for 20 years," he said. Still, he added, "We are very cognizant of the precedent we are setting" with the do-it-yourself project and that some of the money raised would be used to explore public policy issues.

Synthetic biology is a nebulous term and it is difficult to say how, if at all, it differs from genetic engineering. In its simplest form, genetic engineering involves snipping a gene out of one organism and pasting it into the DNA of another. Synthetic biology typically involves synthesizing the DNA to be inserted, providing flexibility to go beyond the genes found in nature.

The glowing plant project is the brainchild of Evans, a technology entrepreneur in San Francisco, and Omri Amirav-Drory, a biochemist. They met at Singularity University, a programme that introduces entrepreneurs to futuristic technology. Amirav-Drory runs a company called Genome Compiler, which makes a program that can be used to design DNA sequences. When the sequence is done, it is transmitted to a mail-order foundry that synthesizes the DNA.





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