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Humpback Whale

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2009) — Rocket science is opening new doors to understanding how sounds associated with Navy sonar might affect the hearing of a marine mammal — or if they hear it at all.

The same type of large industrial sized X-ray scanners that NASA uses to detect flaws in the space shuttle's behemoth [...]

Honda has been working hard on the upcoming VFR1200 touring bike, with the introduction of a dual clutch gearbox into the motorcycle being among the many pieces of technology they plan on including. On top the more efficient transmission
, it now appears that Honda is planning on cylinder deactivation to help keep fuel consumption down [...]

The Jointmaker Pro R2 uses custom Japanese saw blades and a little elbow grease to achieve what look to be ridiculously accurate (and easy) cuts.

It is a hybrid device, a hand saw that employs custom Japanese saw blades offered in crosscut and rip grinds.
The blade moves up and down via a hand-crank on [...]

 
The portrait was painted in around 1560.

Art experts think they may have found the world’s oldest painting to feature an image of a watch.

The Science Museum is investigating the 450-year-old portrait, thought to be of Cosimo I de Medici, Duke of Florence, holding a golden timepiece.
Curators have sent their findings to renaissance experts at the [...]

Energy-autonomous sensors. (Credit: Image courtesy of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft)

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2009) — Aircraft maintenance will be easier in future, with sensors monitoring the aircraft skin. If they discover any dents or cracks they will send a radio message to a monitoring unit. The energy needed for this will be obtained from temperature differences.

If a bird collides [...]

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2009) — As manufacturers of consumer digital cameras compete in increments, adding one or two megapixels to their latest models, David Brady of Duke University is thinking much bigger. Working with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, he is designing and building a camera that could achieve resolutions [...]

These conceptual blinds use convert the sun’s rays into electricity, and also act as an air conditioner that you can retract out of the way when it’s not being used.

It all adds up to an energy-efficient system. The blinds block out the sun, convert the sun’s rays into electricity to power the air conditioner.
Source,
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2009) — The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has unveiled a method for calibrating entire waveforms—graphical shapes showing how electrical signals vary over time—rather than just parts of waveforms as is current practice. The new method improves accuracy in calibrations of oscilloscopes, common test instruments that measure voltage in communications [...]

ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2009) — New technologies may change our lives for the better, but sometimes they have risks. Communicating those benefits and risks to the public, and developing regulations to deal with them, can be difficult — particularly if there’s already public opposition to the technology.

A new study that provides an overview of research [...]

THE wandering albatross, long a sign of good luck and source of superstition for sailors, could become a latter-day boon to them as the inspiration for a low-energy scouting aircraft.

The wind does the work (Image: Ian McCarthy/Naturepl.com)
The albatross’s ability to fly for thousands of kilometres over oceans with barely a flap of its wings has [...]