article thumbnail

The Battery Revolution Is Just Getting Started

Cars That Think

Thirty-two years later, our laptops are powered by much, much lighter lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries. Not only will batteries be needed for our phones, laptops, power tools, cars, ships, and planes, but also to store energy from renewable sources. Batteries are key to decarbonizing our economies. But it'll never happen.

article thumbnail

MIT/CalTrans study finds pavement-vehicle interaction accounts for 1% of overall fuel consumption on California highways

Green Car Congress

In contrast, the CSHub researchers employed a novel small-scale experimental approach in which a rigid steel tire rolls along a polymer pavement while they measured the horizontal force required to move the tire forward at different speeds and with different loads.

MIT 150
article thumbnail

Irradiating the Mail: The Anthrax Attacks of 2001

Cars That Think

now part of L3Harris Technologies), to irradiate the lot, along with all letters, large envelopes, newsletters, and magazines destined for congressional and government offices in the Washington, D.C., The machine was designed to irradiate polymers with e-beams and frozen hamburgers with X-rays. ZIP codes 20200 to 20599.

2001 98
article thumbnail

What the Well-Dressed Spacecraft Will Be Wearing

Cars That Think

Geotextiles made of synthetic polymers are buried deep underground to strengthen land embankments. One of the fibers is a piezoceramic nanocomposite fiber designed by Fibers@MIT, and the other is a polymer we harvested from commercial piezoelectric cabling, then modified to be suitable for fabric integration. Veysset et al.

MIT 113
article thumbnail

Finally, an eVTOL You Can Buy (Soon)

Cars That Think

Visually, it’s an astounding aircraft, like something from a 1930s pulp sci-fi magazine. The batteries were modified model-aircraft lithium-polymer types. It’s also a triumph of engineering. The main objective behind this was proof of concept,” he says.“I

Buy 92
article thumbnail

Electric-Car Fans Rally Around the Volt - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Tony Karrer Delicious EVdriven

Supporters of the car say that’s shortsighted. Electric car supporters are rising to defend General Motors’ development of the Chevy Volt after the Obama Administration’s automotive task force proclaimed that the car was probably too expensive to be commercially successful in the near future. and Chrysler. .’s

Volt 42
article thumbnail

Electric Car Manufacturers Inspire New Paradigms -- Seeking Alpha

Tony Karrer Delicious EVdriven

Kulongoski, Oregon as the electric-car manufacturer may be eyeing the “green” city of Portland. Think may use the former Freightliners plant site to employ over 1,000 workers that would ultimately expand to make 60,000 compact cars a year. market b y the end of 2009. The Norwegian company just last week met with Gov.