The authors of the new technology used the properties of metamaterials to create an illusion of the absence of an object and to create the visibility of another object. To make a person see, let’s say, a spoon, the light, which the person perceives, needs to be distorted similarly to the light reflected by the spoon. It is technically possible to create a metamaterial which would be capable of distorting light rays like that.

“To make a cup look like a spoon, for example, light first strikes the cup and is distorted. It then passes through a complementary metamaterial which cancels out the distortions to make the cup seem invisible. The light then moves into a region of the metamaterial that creates a distortion as if a spoon were present. The result is that an observer looking at the cup through the metamaterial would see a spoon,” the scientists wrote in their article.

The work is purely theoretical. In real life, the scientists have succeeded in creating the effect of invisibility. For example, two groups of scientists said in May of this year that they designed invisible cloaks.

source: pravda.ru

Round-the-world balloooning pioneer Bertrand Piccard unveiled his solar-powered aircraft in Switzerland on Friday, ready for another trend-setting circumnavigation of the globe powered solely by the sun.

The wasp-shaped prototype of Solar Impulse, with the wingspan of a jumbo jet, was rolled out before some 800 guests at an airfield near Zurich after six years of development.

Ten years after Piccard and Briton Brian Jones achieved the first non-stop flight around the globe in the Orbiter balloon, the Solar Impulse team are aiming to demonstrate that reliance on renewable energy is not a pipedream.

“If an aircraft is able to fly day and night without fuel, propelled solely by solar energy, let no one come and claim that it is impossible to do the same thing for motor vehicles, heating and air conditioning systems and computers,” Piccard said.

Although computer simulations have been tried out, the prototype HB-SIA will make its maiden test flight by the end of this year.

Its mission is to test the feasibility of a complete flight sequence through two days and one night, propelled only by solar energy, and pave the say for a second aircraft’s bid to fly around the world in five stages in 2012.

The Swiss adventurer — who is again joined by Jones — said the idea emerged after that 19 day hot air balloon trip, when Orbiter was partly kept aloft by fuel canisters even if the wind ensured its progress eastwards.

“That historic success could have turned sour because of the lack of fuel,” Piccard said at the Dubendorf airfield.

“That’s why we took the decision to to attempt a trip around the world without relying on fossil fuels,” he explained.

The seemingly flimsy carbon fibre concentrate of new technology has a 63.4 metre wingspan but weighs little more than a medium sized car.

Some 12,000 solar cells spread over its slender wings are meant to keep it aloft, fuelling four tiny ten horsepower electric motors and 400 kilogrammes of batteries that are, unusually, meant to keep it going overnight.

Wedged in the narrow cockpit, the lone pilot will also be helped to fly Solar Impulse by some novel control technology.

“Those are the wings of hope. They are immense, as is the challenge we have to meet in climate protection,” said Swiss Transport, Energy and Environment Minister Moritz Leunberger.

(Agencies)

source : SINA

This marked the first time that concentrating solar power (CSP) stations can provide environmentally-friendly power 24 hours a day, according to AORA’s CEO, Haim Fried.

AORA’s “Power Flower” station, named due to its unique yellow tulip design, consists of a field of 30 tracking mirrors (heliostats) situated on half an acre of land.

Each of the station’s 30 heliostats tracks the sun and reflects its rays towards the top of a 30 meter-high tower housing a special solar receiver along with a 100 kilowatt gas turbine.

The patented receiver uses the solar energy to heat air to a temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius and directs this energy into the turbine, which converts the thermal energy into electric power that will be fed directly into the national grid.

Besides solar energy, the power station can also run on other alternative fuel, including bio-gas, bio-diesel and natural gas. So the station can produce electricity when sunlight is insufficient, such as at night or when it is cloudy.

source : SINA

The XR3 Hybrid is a super-fuel-efficient two-passenger plug-in hybrid that achieves 125 mpg on diesel power alone, 225 mpg on combined diesel and electric power, and performance like a conventional automobile. The design of the XR3 Hybrid focuses on existing technologies and a vehicle “personality” that makes conserving energy a fun driving experience.