Beyond Android: a look at the Chevrolet Volt battery

We are still rocking the show floor at Chevrolet’s event. There’s more than enough Android-related products here, but we wanted to shift focus for a minute and take a closer look at other aspects of mobility. The Chevy Volt is known for its electric and gas powered driving capabilities. You heard that right, it uses both electricity and gasoline, but more on that later. Our main concern for now is learning about the battery technology, which does wonders.

Chevy is very proud of its battery and the fact that it is all-American. The car manufacturer works with LG Chem to design the Volt’s battery inside General Motors. These batteries are then built in Brownstown, Michigan, only to later be sent to the assembly line in Detroit, where the Volt is put together. You can’t get more American than that!

Enough of the history, though. We all love to hear these backstories, but what we really care about is learning the actual product information. So this vehicle weighs 3,875 pounds, of which about 412 pounds are pure battery weight (187 kilograms). The vehicle can drive for an average of 50 miles on a single charge (using only electricity). What makes the Chevy Volt special is that it can also use regular gasoline for long trips. The gas-powered system will kick in as soon as that battery dies.

Talking about batteries dying and being recharged, this battery can go through 6000 charging cycles before any significant degradation starts showing up. That means that, if you charge it fully once a day (which is a lot), this battery will last over 16 years! This is completely different in the smartphone industry, which uses batteries that start degrading after about 500 cycles.

Our smartphones, tablets and computers are left in the dust compared to this electric vehicle technology. This is simply because Chevrolet works extensively with LG Chem to get this resilient performance. Smartphone manufacturers don’t have the room to work so much on the battery, as there are size and technology limitations at hand.

The Chevy Volt is an awesome vehicle. It offers the affordability and environmental improvements we all look for in an electric vehicle, yet it’s not limited to distance. To top it off, it does offer Android Auto, setting you up for some pretty fun trips.

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We are signing off for now, but we leave you with this awesome interview. Are any of you considering getting a 2016 Chevy Volt or other electric vehicle? Hit the comments to share all your thoughts!

UK plans world’s first artificial blood transfusions by 2017

To better treat specialist patients, scientists have experimented with lab-grown organs and cells for some time. For the NHS, maintaining UK blood supplies is also high on the agenda, so it’s been working to offset the fall in donations by growing its own. In fact, the health service says we may only be two years away from seeing the world’s first artificial transfusions, which could potentially revolutionize treatment for seriously ill people with complex blood types.

Specialists from NHS Blood and Transplant will work with scientists from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge to create lab-produced red blood cells using stem cells from adult and umbilical cord blood. The manufactured cells will then be transfused into 20 volunteers, who will be given between 5 and 10 milliliters of artificial blood. The results will then be compared transfusions via normal donations.

With the demand for blood donations going up and the number of new blood donors declining, the NHS is taking proactive steps to maintain supply and keep the price of blood as low as possible. With artificial blood, the team can better match transfusions for patients with conditions like sickle cell anaemia, who require regular transfusions and rely on blood from compatible donors.

“Scientists across the globe have been investigating for a number of years how to manufacture red blood cells to offer an alternative to donated blood to treat patients,” says Dr Nick Watkins, NHS Blood and Transplant Director. “We are confident that by 2017 our team will be ready to carry out the first early phase clinical trials in human volunteers.” It might sound like something out of Tru Blood, but artificial blood is real and it could change the outcomes of sick people all over the world.

[Image credit: Christopher Paul, Flickr]

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: The Independent

Source: NHS

Huawei Honor 7 will feature quick charging

The first leaks for Huawei’s upcoming Honor 7 smartphone appeared earlier in June, but this time details have been revealed in an official teaser poster. It states that the Honor 7 will come equipped with the company’s own fast charging technology.

Quick charging technology has become an increasingly popular feature in high-end smartphones, with nearly all of this year’s major flagships sporting the technology. With battery life still not quite lasting power users long enough, faster charging speeds allow consumers to get their phone up and running again quickly.

These Honor 7 teasers are now coming thick and fast now, suggesting that an official launch could take place any time soon. Previously, the company has also teased that the Huawei Honor 7 will come with a fingerprint scanner (a feature built in to the Ascend Mate 7), dual-SIM compatibility, sapphire glass to protect the camera, and a physical side button that will have a customizable function. We’ve also seen snapshots of the handset’s metallic build.

Other previous rumors suggest that the smartphone will feature a 5-inch 1080p display, 3GB of RAM and the company’s in-house octa-core Kirin 935 SoC. There are also said to be 16GB and 64GB storage models in the works. If true, this would make the Honor 7 quite the feature rich flagship.

Pricing has not been confirmed yet, but the standard model is expected to cost around 1999 Yuan ($322), with a premium model sporting a slightly more expensive 2699 Yuan ($435) price tag. Hopefully all of the official details will be announced in the next few days.

NASA’s sending astronauts underwater to train for spacewalks

What’s the best way to simulate the conditions of outer space here on Earth? Go to the bottom of the ocean, of course. NASA has actually been sending astronauts to an underwater habitat for years under the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) program, and the 20th expedition is slated to begin soon. On July 20th, a team of NASA, ESA (Europe) and JAXA (Japan) astronauts will start testing new tools and techniques for future spacewalks to get them used to different surfaces and gravity levels on asteroids, the moon and Mars.

They will also test new hardware sponsored by the ESA, which allows the astronauts to read instructions on the next page of digital manuals without taking their eyes and hands off their tasks. Plus, the mission gives NASA the opportunity to test communication delays, seeing as the locations it wants to visit are much farther than the ISS. If you’re wondering, the team is spending 14 days in an undersea habitat called the Aquarius laboratory, which is submerged 62-feet below the surface a few miles away from Key Largo. It’s been NEEMO’s home since 2001, and it will most likely host more teams as our space agencies prepare for manned missions to places beyond the Low Earth Orbit.

[Image credit: NASA]

Filed under: Science

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Source: NASA