Google's Web Lab

via Postscapes

Google's Web Lab is a year long exhibition being shown in the basement of the London's Museum of Science and beamed online 24 hours a day that seeks to bring the "magic of the web to life".

Produced with the help of design studio Tellart the exhibition features five interactive installations for museum-goers and virtual visitors to engage with including the:

Universal Orchestra

Utilizing the latest HTML 5 WebSockets capabilities people from around the world choose one of 8 available sets of instruments (including the Steel tongue drum, Vibraphone, Kalimba, and drums) to play and collaboratively generate a truly global musical creation.

How it works video

Data Tracer

This installation enables you to select an image on the web via a search bar and trace a journey along a map to exactly where that image is residing at the moment in the physical world.

How it works

Sketchbots

Upload your face via a webcam (or camera if you’re inside the museum) and a robotic arm will draw a version of you on a continually refreshed sandbox.

How it works

Teleporter

A series of Web-enabled periscopes that enable users to instantly transport themselves to far off locales around the world via live panoramic feeds.

 How it works
The final installation allows you to engage with the physical and virtual visitors of the exhibition itself. View a stream of museum visitors taking part in the exhibit in London or count and monitor the incoming creations and locations of visitors taking part from their browsers on the web.

Lab Tag Explorer

How it works
You can join in the fun online at: chromeweblab.com (the Web Lab is a showcase for Google Chrome, so if you don’t have the browser downloaded you might not get the full experience), view the installations in action embedded below, or watch the series of "How it works" videos breaking down the technology being used in each exhibits.

Additional Coverage: New Scientist, AdWeek, Google Blog, Wired, TelegraphImage Credits: Google, Tellart

QFP32 Packaged AVR Flashing Tool

Atmel Flashing Tool from HobbyKing

The Atmel flashing tool is a QFP32 adapter that presses down over an Atmel microcontroller to flash new firmware. No soldering onto pads and therefore perfect for flashing ESCs. You'll still need the a USBasp programmer and software to flash new firmware.

Hobby King Description:

This genius tool makes flashing the Atmel Atmega MCU found in many ESCs or other devices using Atmega processors a walk in the park. No need to solder or create cumbersome clip on devices, simply connect the socket flashing tool to a USBasp AVR device and place the socket over the exposed Atmel MCU!   Fits Atmel processors that use the "QFP32" package.  

Suits the Following MCU: Atmel Atmega8, Atmega48, Atmega88, Atmega168, Atmega328.

Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies

Every year Gartner, one of the leading technology analyst firms, produces what they call "The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies". It's a chart plotting the position of various technologies on the Hype Cycle curve.

The Hype Cycle is a theory proposing that technologies follow a series of stages in their lifecycle: Technology Trigger (the invention and initial use), Peak Of Inflated Expectations (when the hype is vastly outstrips reality), The Trough of Disillusionment (when everyone realizes the hype outstrips reality), The Slope Of Enlightenment (when brave experimenters figure out how to really use the technology) and finally the Plateau of Productivity (when everyone can make good use of the tech).

Via Fabbaloo

Fast recharging material for lithium-ion batteries

Scientists develop fast recharging material for lithium-ion batteries via Yonhap

A group of South Korean scientists has developed a new material for a secondary or rechargeable battery that can be fully recharged in just a matter of minutes, the science ministry said Monday.

The development of such a battery could significantly raise the popularity of electric vehicles whose lithium-ion batteries currently take hours to recharge, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Conventional batteries use only powdered nanoparticle materials to form a dense, multi-layered structure that can store and give off energy.

The new battery, on the other hand, uses the same type of nanoparticle materials that are first resolved in a solution that contains graphite, which later is carbonized to form a dense network of conductors all throughout the electrodes of the battery, the ministry said.

 
  

As a result, all energy-holding particles of the new battery start recharging simultaneously while the same particles in conventional batteries begin recharging in order from the outermost particles to the innermost.

This cuts down on the time needed to recharge the new type of battery to between 1/30 and 1/120 of that of existing rechargeable batteries, according to the ministry.

"The research is especially remarkable in that it overcame limitations of existing lithium-ion batteries," Cho Jae-phil, a professor of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, was quoted as saying.

"We will further move closer to developing a new secondary battery for electric cars that can be fully recharged in less than a minute."

The research team, partly funded by the science ministry, also includes four doctoral students of the Ulsan university -- Lee Sang-han, Cho Yong-hyun, Song Hyun-kon and Lee Kyu-tae.

Their paper, titled "Carbon-Coated Single-Crystal LiMn2O4 Nanoparticle Clusters as Cathode Material for High-Energy and High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries," was published earlier this month in the international edition of the weekly journal Angewandte Chemie.

Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla!

by Ariane Coffin via Geek Mom @ wired.com

Today marks NikolaTesla’s birthday. Google, too, is a fan and recognized his birthday back in 2009.

I am a huge fan of Tesla, much like normal people are fans of actors or singers, so I am happy to share my overzealous excitement with you! It is immensely difficult to summarize this man’s life and accomplishments in a few short paragraphs because he did so very much. If you can find the time, I highly suggest reading through the lengthy Wikipedia article about Tesla. The Oatmeal also has an excellent comic about Tesla and an equally fascinating response to Forbes‘ criticism of said comic. (Consider yourself forewarned about the profanity content on The Oatmeal.)

Tesla was born in modern day Croatia on July 10th 1856, became a naturalized American citizen at age 35, and died in New York at age 86 on January 7th, 1943. Unfortunately for Tesla, much of his work was either the basis for future popular inventions or created in parallel by other inventors. He worked on a radio before Marconiinvented his, an X-Ray machine before Roentgen invented his, an induction motor at the same timeFerrari invented his, and conducted an experiment to find “small charged particles” years before Thomson proved the existence of electrons.

Despite his setbacks with the scientific community, Tesla managed to collect around 300 patents in his lifetime, many of them for various motors and power generators, but also a few zany ones like a radio-control boat and a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft concept. Above all, though, Tesla will always be best known for his work on alternating current (AC) and his feud with Edison during the “War of Currents.”

Like so many other extraordinary minds, Tesla did not receive due respect in his time. While he was offered many scientific awards, the fact that he died penniless and in debt shows how little care we take of our most intelligent and productive scientists and inventors if their work doesn’t yield immediate financial reward. We owe so much of our industrial world to Tesla, but in the end his obsession over creating a wireless power transmitter, the Wardenclyffe Tower, caused him to lose everything. Including much of his sanity.

Please join me today in celebrating the life of Nikola Tesla! Do your reading (I didn’t even begin scratching the surface here), show off your Tesla gear (I suggest wearing this Tesla shirt designed by GeekMom Brigid or this Tesla shirt from ThinkGeek), and amaze innocent bystanders with your extensive knowledge of Tesla