TechnischeUniversitaetMuenchen
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BMW, Daimler partner on ultra-light Visio.M city EV
If you like the idea of German electric vehicles like the BMW i3 and i8, but you're worried they may be more than you really need when they arrive next year, you'll be glad to know that a more to-the-point EV auf Deutsch is on the way. Along with Munich's Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), BMW, Daimler and 14 others are jointly developing the Visio.M urban runabout. While it should only muster the equivalent of 20 horsepower, it should be about 45 percent lighter than a Smart Fortwo -- important when you want to use a small battery to keep the cost down. The project is also tackling safety and other chronic problems with tiny electric cars. TUM's MUTE prototype (pictured here) is serving as the testbed for the technology being rolled into the Visio.M, although the €10.8 million ($14.2 million) in funding from Germany's Federal Ministry for Education and Research is expected to produce something more original when the EV project reaches its eventual close.
Researchers claim to have developed 'smallest conceivable switch'
A team of researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (or TUM) led by Dr. Willi Auwaerter and Professor Johannes Barth appear to have made something of a breakthrough on the road to the miniaturization of everything. They've devised a molecular switch that measures just one square nanometer, but is able to switch between four distinct states on demand. That was done by placing two protons inside a single porphyrin ring; when one of the protons is removed, the other can then move to any one of the four available positions with the aid of a small current. According to the researchers, that process not only allows for the smallest switch implemented to date, but one whose state to be changed up to 500 times per second. The official press release is after the break.
