Toyota Building a Car to Test Tesla’s Battery

One of the many unknowns about Toyota’s partnership with Tesla was whether it would result in a jointly produced car.
That won’t be known for many months yet, but Toyota has already taken a first step: It’s building Tesla’s battery into a test car so it can compare the Silicon Valley startup’s technology to its own lithium-ion pack.
Toyota is building an electric vehicle with a Tesla battery pack.
The Japanese company’s in-house lithium-ion pack uses fewer, larger-format cells than the 6,831 commodity cells (essentially like mobile-phone batteries) that Tesla uses in the battery pack fitted to its 2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5.
Toyota’s cells are specifically designed for automotive use, but the company may feel it’s a bit behind the curve in lithium-ion adoption. The all-new 2010 Toyota Prius was meant to have a lithium-ion pack, rather than the carryover nickel-metal-hydride technology it’s used since 1997.
But Toyota bet on the wrong battery chemistry, meaning it had to start from scratch. And now it clearly wants to see whether the very different Tesla Motors approach could be used in a lower-cost, higher-volume vehicle.
Most analysts have concluded that the Tesla approach is simply too complex to be cost-effective when scaled up for mass production. The basic message: It’s fine for low volumes of $109,000 Roadsters, but too costly for Corollas.
As Autoblog Green notes, test vehicles like the one Toyota is now building–known as ‘mules’ for their sometimes unpredictable behavior–may never be seen by the public.
Instead, they may spend a short, hard life being pounded around a test track or running for hours on dynamometers to give test engineers all the data they can wring out, before the hapless car is finally dismantled or crushed.

LG unveils two Android smartphones

South Korea-based LG has expanded its Android-based smartphone portfolio, with the unveiling of two new smartphones.

While one of the Android phones is called `Optimus One with Google’, the second handset is called Optimus Chic. Both smartphones, Optimus One and Optimus Chic, will be launched with Android 2.2 also known as 'Froyo'.

Optimus smartphones will reportedly boast of HD video playback/recording. One of these smartphones will be based on Texas Instrument's OMAP3630 processor.

According to the company, “LG Optimus Chic caters to fashion aficionados with its tasteful design incorporating soft and smooth lines. The handset's sleek curves set a new standard for smartphone design, challenging the perception that advanced Android devices need to appeal to a hardcore tech crowd to gain widespread acceptance.”

The company, however, did not specify whether Optimus One is a 'Google experience' phone, which means a device that receives over-the-air firmware updates from Google itself.

The company said that that it will introduce approximately 10 new Optimus `smart devices' in the second half of 2010, ranging from entry to premium level. LG is also expected to launch a Windows Phone 7 mobile OS based smartphone by the end of this year.

Nokia says no to Google Android

 Nokia is committed to get back the No.1 position in smartphones and plans to use no other software than Symbian and Linux MeeGo, head of its mobile solutions unit said.

"It's my aim to ensure Nokia stays as the market and intellectual leader in creating the digital world," Anssi Vanjoki wrote in a blog on Nokia's website.

"Symbian and MeeGo are the best software for our smartest devices. As such, we have no plans to use any other software," he said, adding "there are no plans to introduce an Android device from Nokia".

He added, "There is no denying, that as a challenger now, we have a fight on our hands. The first battle is to bring you products and services you will want to own and use."

The world's top cellphone maker warned in mid-June second-quarter sales and profits at its key phones unit would be weaker than expected as it struggles to compete against Apple's iPhone. Nokia also said 2010 profit margin at the phone business would be weaker.

Vanjoki noted it would be a tough task to make Nokia the leader in smartphones again, but added the company has all the assets "to produce killer smartphones and market-changing mobile computers".

"Symbian and MeeGo are the best software for our smartest devices. As such, we have no plans to use any other software," he said, adding "there are no plans to introduce an Android device from Nokia.”

Hewlett-Packard and Dell Avoid Big PC Party

Hewlett-Packard and Dell keep missing the introduction of computing revolutions.

Two years ago, Asustek unveiled the first netbook here at the Computex computer industry tradeshow in Taipei. The little, cheap laptops have proved the PC industry’s savior during the recession, keeping shipments going while interest in bigger laptops and PCs wanes.

Both H.P. and Dell were late to the netbook party, and, as a result, they’ve watched as Taiwanese rivals Acer and Asustek have grabbed the majority of the market.

This year, companies like Lenovo, Acer and Asustek have hit Computex with their guns blazing, dishing out thin and light laptops that will sell for well under $600. The major PC contract manufacturers like Foxconn, Compal and Winstron have shown off even more radical machines with ARM chips that boast 18 hour battery life and weigh next to nothing. Then, there’s all the touch-screen devices, smart photo frames and video conferencing systems.

As it turns out, neither H.P. nor Dell has a formal presence at Computex. They’re watching the show from afar, while even their close partners like Intel and Microsoft reveal new products and buddy up with the Taiwanese powers.

It’s an odd approach for the two biggest players in the United States, especially when you consider their interest in making more headway in the Chinese market. Chinese suppliers and customers have flocked to Computex, and they’re forming tighter relationships with companies like Acer and Asustek.

On the product side, H.P and Dell can perhaps afford to play catch-up.

Michael Rayfield, the general manager of Nvidia’s mobile business unit, points out that the large PC makers let the likes of Foxconn and Winstron create a variety of new devices first to discover what works in the market.

In that sense, the Taiwanese manufactures serve as market makers, and companies like H.P and Dell swoop in with their prominent brands when the time is right.

So, missing out on the Computex glitz has had a minimal cost in the big scheme of things.

On the relationship side, it’s less clear how H.P. and Dell’s absence from the show will play out.

CeBit’s attendance hit the lowest level in a decade when it was held this March with the number of exhibitors declining by 26 percent. Meanwhile, at Computex, the number of exhibitors held steady despite the recession.

In addition, Intel executives told me that Computex tended to attract more Asian reporters than any other show, leading to packed press conferences with hundreds of reporters. The scribes, of course, fill the Asian publications with word of the latest PCs, and H.P. and Dell fail to capture much of that buzz.

There are some booths here with software makers using H.P and Dell computers to show off their latest products. I imagine, however, that both companies will end up buying into Computex in the near future, as the event morphs from a component smorgasbord to the real showcase for the next waves of computing.

Cancer Therapy Goes Viral: Progress Is Made Tackling Tumors with Viruses

A new generation of oncolytic viruses are entering late-stage clinical trials, repurposing smallpox and herpesvirus to take on tough tumors.

The adapted virus that immunized hundreds of millions of people against smallpox has now been enlisted in the war on cancer. Vaccinia poxvirus joins a herpesvirus and a host of other pathogens on a growing list of engineered viruses entering late-stage human testing against cancer.

In a two-pronged attack, these viruses specifically target tumor cells while delivering a cargo of immune-boosting genes. In contrast, viruses that cause cancer, such as the human papillomavirus that is responsible for most cases of cervical cancer, disrupt a cell's genome, thereby triggering out-of-control growth.

When the engineered viruses recognize and infect cancer cells, they replicate and sometimes destroy their hosts. Several of the viruses also release the gene for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) an immune system protein. The GM-CSF attracts a swarm of white blood cells and other immune system operatives that mount a further attack on the tumor.

The vaccinia virus has been developed by the biotechnology company Jennerex—named after Edward Jenner, who in the 18th century discovered that a cowpox virus could inoculate against smallpox. It showed effectiveness against liver cancer in a phase II clinical trial and will move into a phase III trial later this year, David Kirn, an oncologist and the company's president and chief executive officer, said at a recent meeting of the American Society for Gene & Cell Therapy in Washington, D.C. In the phase II study, 18 of 24 patients survived at least 12 months; with standard treatment, only about half of patients survive one year. The company also tested the virus in a 23-person, early-stage trial against colorectal, lung, ovarian and skin cancers.

The virus cannot infect noncancerous cells, Kirn explained, because researchers deleted its thymidine kinase gene, which it needs to replicate in the body. However, some 80 percent of solid tumors churn out extra thymidine kinase, which is thought to prevent cancer cell death. The result is a "viral factory" inside cancer cells, Kirn said. "Within 24 hours we see really impressive replication and spread within tumors." Replication of vaccinia is the first step to kil

Finally, a Calgary, Alberta–based company, Oncolytics Biotech, is testing a reovirus (an RNA virus often found in human lungs but thought to be nonpathogenic) against several types of cancer, including that of the lung and skin as well as head and neck malignancies. The company says the reovirus selectively infects cancer cells over healthy ones because once a cell turns malignant it stops making an antiviral factor called protein kinase R. The reovirus takes advantage of this deficit to replicate inside cancer cells.

Researchers have been experimenting with oncolytic viruses for decades, but early attempts were quite cautious and the early viruses showed limited effectiveness, says Michael Lairmore, associate director of basic sciences at The Ohio State University ComprehensiveCancer Center. The targeted viruses "have the potential to add a new tool to our arsenal," he says, because they home in on cancer cells more aggressively.

Both Lairmore and Gerritsen cautioned, however, that oncolytic viruses will still need to be paired with chemo or radiation therapies to achieve the best results. "The response rates we're seeing [in early human trials] are very similar to what we see with all new cancer drugs," Gerritsen says. Of patients who have received only the virus, without other treatment, "about 5 to 10 percent of patients respond really well," he added. "So it's only when we combine oncolytic viruses with standard treatment that we can expect to see some very good effects."

Avoid Noisy Communications.. Silent Sound Technology as an solution.

You are in a movie theater or noisy restaurant or a bus etc where there is lot of noise around is big issue while talking on a mobile phone. But in the future this problem is eliminated with ”silent sounds”, a new technology unveiled at the CeBIT fair that transforms lip movements into a computer-generated voice for the listener at the other end of the phone.
The device, developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), uses electromyography, monitoring tiny muscular movements that occur when we speak and converting them into electrical pulses that can then be turned into speech, without a sound uttered.
‘Silent Sound’ technology aims to notice every movement of the lips and transform them into sounds, which could help people who lose voices to speak, and allow people to make silent calls without bothering others. Rather than making any sounds, your handset would decipher the movements your mouth makes by measuring muscle activity, then convert this into speech that the person on the other end of the call can hear. So, basically, it reads your lips.
“We currently use electrodes which are glued to the skin. In the future, such electrodes might for example by incorporate into cell phones,” said Michael Wand, from the KIT.
The technology opens up a host of applications, from helping people who have lost their voice due to illness or accident to telling a trusted friend your PIN number over the phone without anyone eavesdropping — assuming no lip-readers are around.
The technology can also turn you into an instant polyglot. Because the electrical pulses are universal, they can be immediately transformed into the language of the user’s choice.
“Native speakers can silently utter a sentence in their language, and the receivers hear the translated sentence in their language. It appears as if the native speaker produced speech in a foreign language,” said Wand.
The translation technology works for languages like English, French and German, but for languages like Chinese, where different tones can hold many different meanings, poses a problem, he added.
Noisy people in your office? Not any more. “We are also working on technology to be used in an office environment,” the KIT scientist told AFP.
The engineers have got the device working to 99 percent efficiency, so the mechanical voice at the other end of the phone gets one word in 100 wrong, explained Wand.
“But we’re working to overcome the remaining technical difficulties. In five, maybe ten years, this will be useable, everyday technology,” he said.

Can Cars be powered by urine

Today i read am article that describes that scientists from Ohio University found a way to produce hydrogen energy from urine.
According to Discovery News, the scientists used a nickel-based electrode to make cheap hydrogen from urine.
When the research team led by professor Gerardine Botte stuck the electrode into a pool of urine, and applied an electrical current, hydrogen gas was released, which was used in fuel cells.
The prototype is about three inches by three inches, and is capable of generating 500 milliwatts of power.
Scientists hope to create the commercial versions of the technology.

How good it will be that we are carrying our own fuel? lets see if it happens in future may be there and much more to explore, as this is just a small step.
So don't waste your urine better save it may be it will cost in future(just kidding) or really it may happen.