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Swedish carmaker Volvo wants to let drivers kick back, take their hands off the wheel, and catch up on a little TV while barreling down the motorway, all in the name of improving road safety, The Local's Geoff Mortimore explains. Have you ever thought how nice it would be during those long motorway drives through Sweden if you could take your hands off the wheel, put your feet up, perhaps watch some TV, or surf the web? As it turns out, the day when "driving" without keeping your eyes on the road may be possible sooner than previously thought thanks...

Japan being a major player in the constantly improved development in health and safety for it’s millions of inhabitants, clearly has more than one trick up it’s sleeve to make sure IF disaster hits the spot, that the people are as safe as possible. Unfortunately a tsunami + an 8.9 earthquake is just a bit to huge for even the most water tight evacuation plan out there. The Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear reactor buildings located closely to the epicenter of the quake are under constant monitorring and everything possible is done to make sure IF radioactive substances hit the air, the...

The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) has turned to antique rolling stock to boost resources battling the snow and to clear a stretch of track in southern Sweden, according to a report by Sveriges Television (SVT). The trains, old DA locomotives normally resident in the Swedish Railway Museum in Gävle in northern Sweden, have been dusted off and put back into service to clear the tracks of snow between Mjölby and Alvesta in southern Sweden. Furthermore a 100-year-old snowplough is in place alongside the tracks in nearby Nässjö, ready to be called into action if needed. "These are made of stern...

The Pratt & Whitney F135 short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant propulsion system took one more step toward government certification recently with the successful completion of one of the most rigorous, demanding tests in the entire qualification program. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp.company. The high temperature margin test which took place at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) in Tennessee involves intentionally running the engine to turbine temperatures beyond design conditions while simultaneously operating the turbomachinery at or above 100 percent of design conditions

The starting pay of certain liberal arts majors generally clocks in well below that of graduates in engineering fields, according to a Wall Street Journal study. Graduates with engineering degrees earned average starting pay of $56,000 in their first full-time jobs out of college, topping other majors. Communications and English majors only earned $34,000 in their first jobs. The survey, which was conducted by PayScale.com between April and June of this year, was answered by about 11,000 people who graduated between 1999 and 2010. The reported starting pay was adjusted for inflation to make the salaries of graduates from different...

Snip ----- Jet engines rely on Isaac Newton’s third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When a jet is running, a compressor at the front draws in air and compresses it (see illustration). This air is guided and diffused by static blades to allow for easier ignition when it is mixed with fuel and ignited in a combustion chamber. The reaction comes in the form of rapidly expanding hot gases, which blast out of the rear of the jet and thus drive the aircraft forward. As they do so, they pass through another...

Those who most loudly proclaim the need for qualified math and science teachers are literally being challenged on how much they value science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “Despite the fact that Washington’s Legislature and Governor last session passed a law (House Bill 2621) intending to accelerate the teaching and learning of math and science, the system is hardwired to do the opposite,” the Center for Reinventing Public Education found. “In a new analysis from the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), researchers demonstrate that the average pay for math and science teachers in Washington state lags behind...

Enlarge Image Hybrid. A new nanopatterning technique combines the advantages of near-field microscopy with photolithography. Credit: Mirkin Group/International Institute for Nanotechnology, Northwestern University Today's microchips, communications gear, and medical diagnostics are typically made by writing nanoscale patterns over large areas of silicon wafers and other high-tech materials. The process is either extremely expensive or painfully slow, however. Now scientists have come up with a hybrid approach that could offer researchers a way to craft prototype nanoscale devices quickly and cheaply, speeding up the already blistering pace of developments in the field. The standard computer chip–patterning technique, called photolithography, works...

It is one of the planet's newest awe-inspiring superstructures - the Hoover Dam Bridge. Now the giant construction project which is on schedule to be completed in September can be seen in all its glory in a series of stunning photographs. Twelve years in planning and five years under construction, the development - known officially as the 'Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge' - is finally taking shape.

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

Even on the most idyllic sunny day on the San Mateo County coast, it's chilly, dark, dusty, muddy and noisy deep inside San Pedro Mountain, where construction crews are digging twin tunnels to carry traffic around Devil's Slide. But despite the gloomy atmosphere, workers are making major progress on the $325 million tunnel project, which includes a pair of arched bridges and an operations center. The buildings and the bridges are finished, and the tunnel diggers are expected to bust through the north end of the mountain by this fall. A little more than a year later, the finished tunnel...

Owning a Lamborghini supercar is the stuff of dreams for most young men, wherever they live. And if you happen to be a twentysomething lorry driver from rural China, that dream would seem all the more unattainable. But that fact only served to spur on 25-year-old Chen Jinmiao. Realising he would never earn enough money to buy the real thing, Chen decided to build his own. A year and the equivalent of £2,000 building later, he had his very own 'Lamborghini'. And Chen is more than happy with his replica of the famous Italian sports marque - even if its...

BERLIN, June 7 (Reuters) - German industrial orders jumped far more than expected in April, with suggestions of a rise in investment adding to signs Europe's largest economy is on the path to durable growth. Demand for intermediate and capital goods pushed orders up 2.8 percent on the month, the Economy Ministry said. The gain beat the mid-range forecast in a Reuters poll of 39 economists for a 0.2-percent rise. ECONDE Analysts said the European debt crisis had weighed on orders from the euro zone, which were down one percent, but a weaker euro was likely to bolster demand from...

A Pakistani man was detained at the U.S. Embassy in Chile yesterday after field tests detected explosive residue on his hands and personal items, the State Department said today. A U.S. official tells ABC News the man had been recently added to a U.S. terror watch list, and as a result his U.S. visa was in the process of being revoked. In accordance with U.S. law, the man had been notified of the intention to revoke his U.S. visa and he was at the embassy to discuss the matter.

WILLIAM L. LIVINGSTON, IV’s DESIGN FOR PREVENTION – AND THE OILRIG DISASTER IN THE GULF OF MEXICO James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D. © May 9, 2010 “The Design for Prevention is the engineering process. The engineering process is the assault on complexity. Any method, to be a method, is defined apriority (i.e., presumed), before deployment. A goal-seeking method is composed of tasks; each task goal-seeking as well. What goes in is specified as well as what is to take place. What comes out to feed and trigger the on following task meets specifications. The D4P is a fundamental problem-solving strategy,...

New college graduates may be entering the worst job market in decades, but there are still some majors that pay off—and all of them are in the applied sciences. A new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers finds that eight of the top 10 best-paid majors are in engineering, with petroleum engineering topping off the list at $86,220. "Petroleum engineering has been at the top for the last three years," said Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at NACE. "The oil industry for the last couple of years has been a bit more active and...

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy. “In addition to the nations that most of you usually hear about when you think about the International Space Station, we now have expanded our efforts to reach out to non-traditional partners,” said Bolden, speaking to a lecture hall of young engineering students.

The public is to get its first chance in 145 years to see the Brunnel tunnel under the Thames that was hailed as an eighth wonder of the world and a triumph of Victorian engineering. The tunnel is open today and tomorrow and a Fancy Fair originally held in 1852 below the river will be recreated at the nearby Brunel Museum. It was built between 1825 and 1843 by Marc Brunel and his son, Isambard, and was the first known to have been built beneath a navigable river.

(Dec. 29) -- Of all the biographical details that have emerged about the Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas, perhaps the least surprising -- at least to those who study these things -- is what he studied in college. The terrorist suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, earned a degree in mechanical engineering from University College London in 2008, just over a year before he tried to demonstrate his skills by detonating an explosive device aboard the Detroit-bound plane. Among violent Islamic extremists, that puts him in familiar company. Indeed, the propensity toward...

COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen. It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet. The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London. They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike. A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of...