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Christmas Vacation

Can you believe its Friday already? Who’s not looking forward to going back to work next Tuesday?

Christmas Vacation

How is everyone enjoying their Christmas break? Has any one done anything exciting this week? Or are you like us here at Quantum and just enjoying the time off from work. 

Christmas Vacation

Did everyone enjoy their Christmas celebrations yesterday? And how much you looking forward to the rest of your Christmas break?

The world’s most expensive Quad Bike

On the 20th of December, history was made as the most expensive quad bike ever made went on sale to the public. The quad bike in question is called the Wazuma V8, and was built by the French company Lazareth. Purchasing the Wazuma V8 will set you back £167,000, and early reports indicate that the Wazuma is worth every penny. 

The engineers at Lazareth were very keen on making the Wazuma the fastest quad bike in the world. So they built it with a body that weighs only 650kg, and an engine that generates 250 horsepower to deliver the top speed of 150 mph. 

But to be capable of reaching 150mph they needed a powerful engine, so Lazareth bought a 3.0L V8 engine from Ferrari. Then a gear box was needed that would be strong enough to use all 250 horsepower so a six speed gear box was bought from BMW. 

But for anyone who wants to buy a Wazuma V8 there is still one problem, the Wazuma isn’t road legal in the UK. So if you were to buy the Wazuma you would also need to buy your own private racetrack to drive it on.

Clothes That Clean Themselves.

Washing clothes is something we all have to do. What if there was a way that they could clean themselves? Well that’s what a group of engineers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Hubei University for Nationalities are striving towards.

The engineers from China have claimed to create a chemical coating that not only cleans clothes when introduced to sunlight, but also removes stains and odours.

The engineers have also said that the chemical coating is cheap, non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Early indications report that this latest innovation could well be a hit with retailers, due to a growing demand from the public for functional clothing.

To prove that the chemical coating (titanium dioxide) really does work wonders, the engineers tested it vigorously and all test results came back positive. One particular test included placing titanium dioxide on the same cloth and washing and drying it 5 times in a row. The results came back positive with no loss of activity, this then proves that once titanium dioxide has been placed on clothes, washing and drying does not reduce the effectiveness of the titanium dioxide.

Harpooning Comets.

If I were to say the harpoon, what would your natural first thought be? Mine would be to think of the classic novel Moby Dick and Captain Aham’s quest to kill Moby. Now NASA is using harpoons in its latest series of experiments to unlock the answers of creation. 

The scientists at NASA are planning to create a harpoon that can penetrate comets. At the moment NASA have a prototype harpoon built that is capable of launching test harpoon tips over a mile away.

Once a comet has been harpooned, scientists then hope to recover samples that will reveal the origins of the planets and how life was created on Earth. 

The scientists at NASA firmly support the theory that some of life's ingredients had formed in space and had been delivered to Earth by meteorite and comet impacts. 

In 2002 NASA launched their Stardust Mission. During the Stardust Mission particle samples were recovered and found to include an amino acid and glycine, which is used by living organisms to create proteins.

THE NEXT LEVEL IN CRIME PREVENTION

Now we all remember the riots that happened over the summer in England, and how quickly the Police lost control due to the speed that the violence escalated. But the main talking point was how ineffective the police were in handling the rioters.

But now the Police have a new weapon it is called the SMU. It costs around £25,000 to make and its purpose is to stop criminals dead in their tracks. The SMU is designed to send out a three-meter wall of light that leaves anyone caught in it briefly unable to see. The wall of light that the SMU shoots out has been measured to be effective as far away as 500 meters. 

The SMU was originally designed by a former Royal Marine Commando and its original intended use was to fight against the pirates in Somalia. But after a summer of riots it has been brought in to help the Police Force out.

Paul Kerr is managing director of Clyde-based Photonic Security Systems, which came up with the design. Paul has said that the system would give the Police an intimidating visual deterrent. “If you can't look at something you can't attack it.”

But when a new device comes out it needs to be properly tested to determine if there are any potential side effects. One of the matters that is of great concern during the testing period is the potential hazardous effect on people’s vision. As the wall of light generated from the SMU is said to have the same effect as looking into the sun for too long before being forced to turn away. If the SMU is given the all clear following the tests, it will be sent to the Home Secretary to be signed off for use.

But what do you think?

Is the SMU a good idea or bad idea?

Please leave a comment below.

 

What are we up to this month!

The Quantum engineers are having a bit of a ball this month, as a range of our skills and services have been needed once again. In particular our CAD Library Management Services are in red hot demand, and also it seems a few companies have lost their bits as we have to reverse engineer a few products!  We are also deep into development of a number of flexis with many 3Gbit differential pairs. No easy run in to Christmas for us!

The Next Step in Animal Cloning.

Does everyone remember the Jurassic Park film trilogy? How good were they? My personal favourite is the first one, but what surprised me when I watched them was the ingenious way they create the dinosaurs.

And now this method is being copied by a group of scientists from the Siberian mammoth museum and Japan's Kinki University. But the major difference between the billionaire John Hammond from the movie and the scientists is that they do not plan on opening a theme Park. The team is very keen on bringing extinct animals back to life and first on the hit list is the Woolly Mammoth. 

But the question on my lips (and quite a few others) is how do they plan on bringing back extinct animals from the dead?

The answer it seems is very easy. The scientists are planning to retrieve Bone Marrow cells from a thigh bone from a woolly mammoth that was found in august this year. Then from the bone marrow a nucleus will be extracted and insert it into the egg of an African elephant. 

But the one burning question is will this experiment prove to be a success? If we were to go by past attempts you would have to say no. The other major example of this type of experiment was back in 2009 when a group of scientists tried to bring back to life the extinct Pyrenean Ibex. But the cloned Ibex died within ten minutes of being born, due to breathing difficulties.

But what do you think?

Should we try to bring creatures back from the dead? And where do we draw the line?

Please leave a comment below.

 

The Battle for Computer Chip Supremacy.

Up to now the most common component in making computer chips is silicon. But now new research coming from Sweden is making a claim for a new material that could dislodge silicon and be used more regularly in chip making.

The materials name is MoS2. MoS2 is a dark colored, naturally occurring mineral. Early research from the Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures in Lausanne indicates that MoS2 could be used to make computer chips that are smaller and more flexible chips, which also use less energy that standard silicon chips.

One of the researchers on the team, a Professor Andras Kis, gave an interview to the BBC explaining why his team was using MoS2 and not traditional rivals such as graphene. Professor Kis went on to say that“There is something like 19 million metric tones around.” When talking about the molybdenite MoS2. He also went on to say “MoS2 can amplify electronic signals at room temperature, while graphene must be cooled to 70 Kelvin - cold enough for nitrogen to turn into liquid.”

Another advantage of using MoS2 rather than graphene is how easy it is to extract MoS2. To obtain a thin layer of the material to work with, Prof Kis's team put a strip of sticky plastic over the crystal, peeled it off and then attached the sliver to a support. The plastic was then peeled off to leave the very thin layer of MoS2 exposed.

But what do you the reader think.

Is MoS2 the way forward in computer chip making?

Please comment below.