Teenage 007 Bike

  The Environmental Transport Association (ETA), a British company that offers bicycle insurance, recently surveyed 800 cyclists to find out what aspects of cycling they liked the least. The primary purpose of the survey was no doubt something boring and insurancey, but one of the spin-offs is kind of fun – the company put together a one-off bike concept that addresses four of those dislikes in a rather extreme fashion. It’s the B.O.N.D. (Built of Notorious Deterrents) Bike, and it’s almost certainly the only bike in the world with a flamethrower built into its handlebars. Yes, a flamethrower. Apparently 52 percent of those surveyed named “cars and lorries passing too close” as their number one complaint about...

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A New Innovation Conversion of Radio waves to Power

Manos Tentzeris holds a sensor (left) and an ultra-broadband spiral antenna for wearable energy-scavenging applications that were noth printed on paper using inkjet technology (Image: Gary Meek) As you sit there reading this story you're surrounded by electromagnetic energy transmitted from sources such as radio and television transmitters, mobile phone networks and satellite communications systems. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a device that is able to scavenge this ambient energy so it can be used to power small electronic devices such as networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors and communications chips. Manos Tentzeris, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer...

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