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Plastics breakthrough could improve your car's mileage
A new thermal engineering process could make it viable to use lighter plastic product components in things such as vehicles, LEDs and computers. Until now, the material has been overlooked for certain applications because of its limitations in dissipating heat, but scientists from the University of Michigan have found a way to change plastic's molecular structure, making it as thermally conductive as glass. This advanced plastic could make products lighter, cheaper and more energy-efficient, and would be particularly useful in electric vehicle manufacturing since weight has a direct bearing on range.
Researchers create temperature sensor that runs on almost no power
Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a temperature sensor that runs on tiny amounts of power -- just 113 picowatts, around 10 billion times less power than a watt. The sensor was described in a study recently published in Scientific Reports. "We're building systems that have such low power requirements that they could potentially run for years on just a tiny battery," Hui Wang, an author of the study, said in a statement.
Hyperloop company begins building its first passenger pod
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has announced that construction will soon begin on its first passenger capsule. The pod is being built in partnership with Spanish engineering firm Carbures and is expected to be unveiled in early 2018. HTT says that the craft will be tested and tweaked at its Toulouse HQ, ready to run in the first "commercial" Hyperloop system that the company expects will be announced in the near future.
We tried McDonald's super-engineered shake straw
As part of this year's St. Patrick's Day promotions, McDonald's is debuting a highly engineered, hyper-exclusive straw dubbed the "Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal," or STRAW for short. It's only available on two days, February 24th and March 1st, with a scant 2,000 of them spread across the entire country. We managed to get our hands on one, however, and put it to a chocolate-minty test.
ICYMI: Fire-starting drone, Stanford bird studies and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-287454{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-287454, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-287454{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-287454").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A prototype for a fire-starting drone was deployed in Nebraska last week, dropping small balls of accelerant to create a controlled burn over grasslands. The idea is that future firefighters could use UAVs like the University of Nebraska-Lincoln model to stop an out of control wildfire with drone-created fire breaks, or for other uses.
Defend your desk with a 3D printed rubber band auto-gun
If you work with a bunch of sticky-fingered co-workers, your desk is going to need protecting -- especially when you're away at lunch. This 3D-printed sentry gun from Swiss engineering student Kevin Thomas is motion-activated and fires a 6-round clip of rubber bands at anybody foolhardy enough to come within range. It's controlled with an Arduino chip running Thomas' version of the open-source Project Sentry Gun software. And if you don't want to let the sentry gun have all the fun, you can also switch it from autonomous mode and manually aim it using a joystick. With all the eyes you'll put out and SBC violations you'll incur with this menacing mechanization, you and the HR department are going to become such good friends.
ICYMI: Bendy batteries, spray-painting drones and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-895750{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-895750, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-895750{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-895750").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: The flexible battery that takes its style notes from kirigami (origami's hipper cousin); a VR musical visualizer that will have you tripping like it's 1998; and a tutorial for a DIY spray-painting drone that may not fly so well now — but try and diss it when it's painting your 11-foot ceilings. One of the collaborators on that last project is the graffiti artist who defaced Kendall Jenner's billboard using a drone—so you know, I'm a fan.
SpaceX hosts competition for the best Hyperloop pod design
While a few private companies are hard at work developing a commercial version of Elon Musk's Hyperloop concept, SpaceX is hosting a pod design competition. Intended for students and independent engineering teams, the challenge is to construct a human-scale pod concept that could be used for the high-speed transportation system. Competing teams will not only build a full-sized version of a people mover, but they'll put the pods through their paces on a one-mile test track at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California next summer. Before the test vehicles are built, the company will host a design weekend at Texas A&M University in January where design teams will have a chance to meet with SpaceX officials before moving forward.
Google shuts Russian office following Putin's internet crackdown
Google will soon close its Russian engineering offices and relocate 50-odd employees, according to The Information. The search giant didn't say why it made the move, but it may have been prompted by a recent crackdown on internet freedoms within the nation. Russia recently passed a law forcing bloggers to register with authorities, and is about to pass another that will require website operators to store data on Russian citizens within its borders. The Putin government also raided a foreign e-business operator, and Google may feel similarly vulnerable considering the reams of user data it stores. Mountain view said that the affected engineers will have the option of transferring to other divisions within the company. [Image credit: Getty images]
Steamy Romance Novels: Now with illustrations
One of my favorite parts of any new expansion has just gotten an upgrade, of sorts. It's no secret that I love the Steamy Romance Novels that have been a staple in the game since Burning Crusade. Mists of Pandaria added not one, but two new selections -- although one of them, I'm In Love With A Robot, is too smudged to actually read. Needless to say, part of me has been wondering if the savage lands of Draenor will, in fact, contain one of these literary masterpieces for us to collect. I was both surprised and delighted to see that not only do we get a new book, but all the books in the collection have received visual upgrades. That's right -- every readable Steamy Romance Novel now has illustrations along with the tantalizingly silly bits of story. That's some pretty loving attention to detail for what are essentially a bunch of vendor-trash books that most people won't favor with more than a glance. But more importantly, a new novel has been added to the collection: A Steamy Romance Novel: Savage Passions. And even more importantly than that, a new method has been added of obtaining all of the Steamy Romance Novels ... just in case you were missing one from your collection.
'Acoustic cloak' could shield submarines with a cone of silence
We've seen some overly elaborate invisibility cloaks in our day, but Duke engineers have shown that lo-fi may be best for audio. After much refinement, they've developed a shield that can hide objects from sound waves thanks to a highly engineered pyramid shape and carefully placed holes. The stacked layers retard sound coming from any angle, so that it appears to have bounced off a flat wall when picked up by a detector (see the video after the break). Though it's still early days, such materials could one day protect ships from sonar or improve concert hall acoustics, for instance. It's also got the pyramid power thing going on -- so maybe it could also keep your razor sharp.
The puzzling problem of professions in endgame
I have a confession to make: There are five jewelcrafting mounts and one engineering mount that were introduced with Mists of Pandaria, and I have yet to make any of them. I have a tailor at max level tailoring, but she hasn't made a single Royal Satchel. I have a leatherworker who hasn't even touched any of the patterns introduced this expansion. In fact, the only things I seem to be making with any kind of regularity are cut gems, and glyphs for my alts. Why? Because the return on investment for any one of the mounts introduced is too low. I don't have the gold to randomly fling at things like mounts that will be used once or twice and then forgotten about. As for the tailor, the pattern for the Royal Satchel is locked behind the absolute, hands down, worst reputation grind in the new expansion -- and there's no way to get around that. I either have to log on every single day to grind out dailies that give an absolute pittance of reputation, or try to solo Warbringers, which is next-to-impossible for several classes. In short, none of these things are worth my time or gold. As a result, the majority of my professions have been completely unused for the majority of the expansion. And I have a sneaking suspicion I am far from the only one, here.
TrussMe! Learning a bit of structural engineering while having fun
Believe it or not, at one point in my life I was trained as a civil engineer; I'm still a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado. Some of my favorite classes at the university revolved around the design of structures. Regardless of the material being used -- steel, concrete, wood or combinations thereof -- the designer still needed to have an intuitive feel for how the structure would react when loads were placed upon it. Those who didn't have that intuition often failed miserably at design problems. Those poor students would have welcomed TrussMe!, a fun iPad game by Scientific Monkey that teaches engineers of all ages to design strong, yet lightweight trusses. This won't make you a structural engineer, however -- this is a simulation game and should not be considered a design tool at all. Upon launching TrussMe!, a user is greeted with a series of problems in which they need to design a truss structure to support a load. The game has two modes, freestyle and challenge. In freestyle mode, you can create trusses from slender bars connected by joints and connected to the ground or another surface through pins (fixed supports) or rollers (supports that can move horizontally, but not vertically). Your goal is keep the structure from collapsing while making it as lightweight as possible. A bar with a smaller cross section will be lighter, but more susceptible to buckling under compression or failure under tension. Once you've created your truss structure, you tap a "play" button and the structure either continues to stand, or collapses in a very realistic manner. You can see exactly where a bar fails and whether it fails under compression or tension. Usually, you can fix the collapsing structure by increasing the size of a bar... but you may not get a very good "rating" for your structure as it becomes heavier. This, of course, is exactly what a structural engineer needs to do when designing any structure. The structure must be as light as possible while still being able to handle the loads. Fortunately, TrussMe! is only concerned with static loads, as dynamic loading (moving trucks on a bridge, for example) adds a whole new level of complexity for the engineer. I found that the best way to master TrussMe! was to use the included challenges. These are preset cases with specific loads and supports; your job is to add bars and joints to achieve the highest possible score. You're also awarded one to three "golden nuts" depending on the design you create. At this time, there are only 15 challenges, but you'll find that trying to get the golden nuts will definitely keep you playing for quite a while. If I have any complaint with TrussMe!, it's that the challenges don't provide an "optimum" solution -- in other words, you may find that you can't achieve more than one golden nut. The implication is that you can get three of the nuts in every challenge, but I found it impossible to do so. Whether you're an engineering student, a STEM educator or just interested in the mechanics behind the common truss, TrussMe! is an enjoyable and educational way pass the time. TrussMe! is available for the iPad and can be downloaded for US$1.99.
Kentucky law could let kids swap foreign language classes for coding lessons
Concerned that not enough is being done to help kids with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects? Kentucky's Senate has just passed a bill that would count computer-programming classes as foreign language credits. That way, if students wanted to learn to code in favor of, say, French or Spanish, they'd be able to count that study toward their high school graduation. Senate Bill 16 will now pass to the Kentucky State House, but it seems like the sort of sensible policy that we'd expect from the home of Bourbon.
Engineers: Engadget is hiring!
I'm guessing by the fact that you're reading this that maybe you like Engadget. What I'm hoping is that you also happen to be an engineer who loves working on highly visible, globally-used products with massive scale. If so, give us a shout! Positions are based in SF, and besides working on the best technology news site in the world, we offer competitive pay, excellent benefits, flexible hours, beer, gadgets, an extremely dope new office, and the opportunity to work with a truly, truly excellent team. Can't wait to hear from you! Engadget positions Front-end Engineer Core Engineer (PHP) QA Engineer Engadget platform positions Core Engineer (PHP + Node.js) Front-end Engineer (especially JS) QA Engineer
Breakfast Topic: Today, the Sky Golems invade Azeroth
I did it! I managed to complete my engineering cooldown every single day since patch 5.4 was launched. My dedication has paid off and I'll finally be able to fly around in my shiny new Sky Golem mount. If you're not an engineer, you should start seeing Sky Golems flooding the market today (tomorrow for EU). I haven't looked forward to a new mount this much since the Flying Machine mounts were introduced in Burning Crusade. If you're an engineer, will you be keeping your first Sky Golem for yourself or selling it? Non-engineers, will you be spending the gold to get your hands on one? With it costing 30 days of profession cooldowns and 30 Living Steel to craft, I wouldn't expect the first batch of these to be very cheap. If you haven't seen this mount in action yet, be sure to check it out in all of its glory in MMO Champion's video. %Poll-84991%
Captain's Log: More Star Trek Online new user tips - bridge officers
Before I dive into the next installment of my new player tips, I'd like to let everyone know that the Star Trek Online site has issued a few new dev blogs hinting at some of the cool news about the upcoming Season Eight: The Sphere. There are some great new blogs featuring the concept art of the new Dyson Sphere space adventure zone, too. But back to the original topic. Last week's column that provided a basic outline to the Star Trek Online user interface proved to be surprisingly popular and generated far more emails from readers than I had anticipated. Many of the readers have asked that I continue on with the new user tips and I think it's a great idea. So if you've always wondered about the very basics of STO Bridge Officers, join me past the jump to learn more!
WoW Archivist: An ultrasafe history of engineering
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? If you're an engineer, you're accustomed to the chance of failure. The state of the profession throughout WoW's ten years is a bit like a goblin device. Sometimes engineering has succeeded incredibly well. The shiniest of rewards showered down on the profession from Blizzard's workshop like Thorium Grenades of Joy. During other eras, the profession has backfired, blasting shrapnel in players' faces like so many Explosive Sheep. No one would argue that engineering is in a pretty good place right now, especially considering the newly revealed Sky Golem. It's one of the sickest mounts in the game, it transforms, it lets you harvest herbs without dismounting -- and it's only craftable by engineers. In the family of primary professions, engineering has always been the weird uncle. No other profession makes such a diverse and bizarre array of products. Engineers can make ranged weapons, a shield, armor of all four kinds, consumables, pets, mounts, trinkets, utility items, "enchantments," "gems," "keys," feasts (yep), fishing lures, portable crafting stations, and specialized bags. It's also the only remaining profession that is still divided into exclusive specializations: goblin and gnomish engineering. Let's look back at the early days of the profession and how it has evolved through the last four expansions.
The mount you'll engi-need in Patch 5.4
We posted last week briefly about the Sky Golem, the redesigned engineering mount that will allow you to pick flowers as you fly around. And we posted a picture of the Sky Claw, but now, there is video of this mount in all its glory. And guess what, Engineering just became the best profession. Again. It's all a little confusing, really, as we were convinced that this would look like the sky claw we'd all seen before, but this is far, far better. It's effectively a shredder suit, that you put on, and fly around in. There are four different colors available, as you can see from Adriacraft's video above, and all of them look pretty great. This is crafted by engineers, at a cost of 30 Living Steel, as well as 30 Jard's Peculiar Energy Source. These are currently created on a daily cooldown, so it's going to take engineers a while to get this mount built. However, there is no requirement for Engineering skill to use it, at present at least, so this mount can presumably be sold on the Auction House! I am leveling my engineering just to build this. And you should too.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Sky Golem mount allows for aerial flower picking
Engineers have been kept waiting for the release of a few exciting new schematics. It's been too long! I have four engineers (I'm not crazy, I swear), so I was excited to see the new engineering mount updated in the latest patch 5.4 PTR build. We knew it previously as Sky Claw, but this awesome mount's official name is Sky Golem. In the original build, the mount's tooltip indicated that it'd be able to carry an ally, but it seems to have changed. The new tooltip has been updated to say that instead, the claws of the mount can be used by herbalists to pick herbs. Now druid herbalists aren't the only ones that get to have all the fun! We've been waiting a long time but keep in mind that things on the PTR are subject to change. I'm trying not to get my hopes up -- still -- but these recent updates are making it difficult not to. We'll keep our fingers crossed!
