Meet the Jaguar C-X75 Concept Car: A 205 MPH Hybrid

Goodbye, Prius. If you’re the kind of geek who’s been waiting for a hybrid concept to come along that really turns heads, you’re in luck. Today, as part of its 75th anniversary, Jaguar has released one humdinger of a concept car that’s not only drop-dead gorgeous and energy efficient, but it goes fast, my friends. Zoom.

According to the company, the thinking behind this design was to create something that “explores the outer limits of both performance and sustainability.” In other words they are looking to distance themselves considerably from the slow, wonky-looking hybrids popular today while maintaining a certain geek sentiment and a sense of style. It’s pushing the boundaries of current technological advances to produce something that really gets our motors going.

Get this, too. In the electric department the C-X75 is powered by four 195-horsepower motors. And no, you won’t find them under the hood. The motors are in the wheels. According to the New York Times, this particular system means that “the wheel motors give the vehicle and all-wheel drive system, with torque-vectoring controls to distribute power as needed to each wheel.” In addition to the electric motors is “a 188-horsepower gas turbine engine that can recharge the batteries and help extend the car’s range from 68 miles on all-electric power to a total of 560 miles” according to Jaguar.

Now, keep in mind that this is a concept car. It’s going to be a while until something like it is available to the public. And while all of these specs sound promising (and the car looks really sweet), I’l bet the guys at Top Gear will probably have a lot to say about this when and if they can take it for a ride. Generally speaking, newer, more complicated cars don’t fare so well as their gas-guzzling predecessors on Top Gear mostly due to the sacrifices needed to get better mileage taking a toll on general performance.

And while chances are that are very few of us will ever be able to afford a car like this, even when it–or something like it–is available to the public, a geek can still dream, can’t she?

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Atomic memory chips a (nano)step closer

IBM has been looking into the concept of what would be the ultimate in tiny memory chips. And like any good scientific research, it’s all down to a super-powerful microscope.

The study is based on a remarkably simple premise. The best way to produce a smaller memory chip (or in turn, to get more capacity on the same size) is to find the smallest possible thing that can exist in two different states and thus represent one bit of digital information. And if you’re looking for something small, why not use an atom?

The first fundamental problem with making that a reality is that the way to put an atom into one of two states is to control its electron spin. That lasts for a much shorter period than the electrical charge used in tradition DRAM or Flash memory.

That in turn causes a problem when using the microscopic power needed to measure the electron spin (and thus retrieve data). A standard scanning tunneling microscope (a microscope capable of distinguishing individual atoms) is too slow to measure such detail and keep track of the spin.

IBM has now used a pulsed-STM microscope to tackle the problem. This involved sending out a pulse to put the spin into a known state, then measuring the state shortly after. The researchers then repeated this process with increasingly longer gaps between the pulse and the measurement, until the point at which the effects of the pulse were no longer measurable.

As a result it’s now known that a single iron atom can be forced into a state and held there for around 250 nanoseconds (250 billionths of a second) before being refreshed. To put that into context a standard DRAM cell needs refreshing every 50 milliseconds (50 thousandths of a seconds).

This isn’t a solution, but rather a case of at least understanding the precise question and the scale of the task. There’s already been some progress made: the 250 nanoseconds retention was achieved by placing the iron atom near a copper atom (without this, the iron atom only held the information for around one nanosecond).

But I wouldn’t throw that “bulky” memory card away quite yet.



WTF: Introducing the B.O.N.D. Flame-Throwing Bike

A bicycle that shoots fire out of its handle, has an ejection seat, optional skis, and a caterpillar track in the back to tackle potholes and snow? Yep! Believe it or not, the B.O.N.D bike exists for real and will be presented at the Cycle 2010 show in London, UK, from October 7 to October 10.

[Via [H]]

Google goes back to the stone age – Happy Birthday, Flintstones!

Yes Folks, the Flintstones are celebrating their 50th anniversary today, and to mark the occasion, Google has changed the logo on their home page with a Flintstones doodle. Happy birthday Fred, Wilma, Pebbles, and Dino!

The Flintstones is an animated American television sitcom that ran from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966 on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones is about a working class Stone Age man’s life with his family and his next door neighbor and best friend. It has since been re-released on both DVD and VHS. [Source]

[Cake Picture Source]

Star Wars Going 3D, Starting With Episode I

Just when you thought Jar-Jar Binks couldn’t possibly be any more annoying: Lucasfilm has announced that the Star Wars films are going 3D. Yes, the latest Hollywood trend seems to have infected the folks over at Lucasfilm, and why not? Seems as if there’s been plenty of movies in the last two years that have gotten by simply on the 3D gimmick. (Wait, did I say gimmick? Yeah, I totally did.)

The official word from LucasFilm is that they’re doing everything in their power to make sure that the 3D rendering is top-notch. In fact, the official word at StarWars.com from John Knoll, Visual Effects Supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic, reads in a very calming, faith-affirming way:

It takes a critical and artistic eye along with an incredible attention to detail to be successful. It is not something that you can rush if you want to expect good results. For Star Wars we will take our time, applying everything we know both aesthetically and technically to bring audiences a fantastic new Star Wars experience.

And that sounds fine. Sure, we know, they’re good at special effects over there at ILM, and hopefully the post-release rendering won’t suck. But there was a lot of buzz about the mind-blowing special effects in the prequels and, well, there was a great deal of disappointment there, too. (Disappointment, okay maybe that’s a bit gentle: more like childhood-destroying, soul-smashing, hope-extinguishing disappointment. There. Better.)

And which film are they starting with? Why, The Phantom Menace, of course.

Yeah. So at this point we’re all well aware that LucasFilm is no longer interested in placating their original audience in any way. The 3D craze is not ours. Sure, it’s cool. But I’m willing to bet most die-hard Star Wars fans from the 70s and 80s are perfectly happy with the original Star Wars films and versions. Ever since the “new and improved now with 100% more Jabba the Hutt” fans have been, well, skeptic. And grumpy. And vocal. And with good reason!

Sure, Lucasfilm is a business. And there’s nothing wrong with a business wanting to make money. That’s what they do, folks. But when it comes to the point that business decisions alienate fans (no pun intended) it starts to feel a little sinister. Especially considering the whole Star Wars oeuvre is about good and evil and making the right choices.

Does this choice to go to 3D make Lucasfilm part of the dark side? Probably not. But it sure feels like a cheap way to just get even more cash out of the fan base and appeal to a generation that doesn’t know any better. And that is sincerely not cool.

Do I think that the Millennium Falcon will look badass in 3D? Yes. Am I going to spend the money to go see the original films in the theaters? Maybe. Do I hate myself a little for that admission even though I should totally know better? Absolutely.

How about you all? Will you be able to resist the siren song of a 3D Star Wars experience, or are you done with Lucas altogether?

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