article thumbnail

What Texas Instruments’ Little Professor Can Teach Us

Cars That Think

I encountered this funny-looking calculator during a recent visit to the Whipple Museum of the History of Science , at the University of Cambridge. This Texas Instruments calculator, called the Little Professor, debuted in 1976 and proved an instant hit. Get it wrong and the LED display flashes “EEE.” www.youtube.com.

Texas 98
article thumbnail

Univ. of Texas researchers propose lithium- or sodium-water batteries as next generation of high-capacity battery technology; applicable for EVs and grid storage

Green Car Congress

Researchers at the University of Texas, including Dr. John Goodenough, are proposing a strategy for high-capacity next-generation alkali (lithium or sodium)-ion batteries using water-soluble redox couples as the cathode. ” Goodenough invented lithium cobalt oxide cathode materials while at Oxford University.

Sodium 218
article thumbnail

TOAR shows present-day global ozone distribution and trends relevant to health; public database

Green Car Congress

Ozone levels across much of North America and Europe dropped significantly between 2000 and 2014. Source: University of Leicester. Source: University of Leicester. Fleming, National Centre for Atmospheric Science at University of Leicester. Click to enlarge. Click to enlarge. Owen Cooper.

Ozone 255
article thumbnail

Satellite study shows drought-stricken Colorado River Basin states depleting their groundwater

Green Car Congress

According to the US Bureau of Reclamation, the federal water management agency, the basin has been suffering from prolonged, severe drought since 2000 and has experienced the driest 14-year period in the last hundred years. The research was funded by NASA and the University of California.

Colorado 285
article thumbnail

Who Really Invented the Thumb Drive?

Cars That Think

In 2000, at a trade fair in Germany, an obscure Singapore company called Trek 2000 unveiled a solid-state memory chip encased in plastic and attached to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector. But Trek 2000 hardly became a household name. This was granted to Amir Ban, Dov Moran, and Oron Ogdan in November 2000.

Singapore 145
article thumbnail

Researchers suggest that air quality tests need simplifying to help reduce dangerous emissions

Green Car Congress

Lead author Professor William Stockwell from the University of Texas at El Paso explains that accurate simulations of air pollutants require updated and accurate descriptions of the chemical processes for the changing chemical regimes of the atmosphere and emerging contaminants of concern.

Emissions 170
article thumbnail

Video Friday: Liquid Metal Bubble Actuator

Cars That Think

In a quest to ease some of said burdens, researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Autodesk Research, and Texas A&M University came up with a method to automatically assemble products that’s accurate, efficient and generalizable to a wide range of complex real-world assemblies.

MIT 129