Gizmag News - Japanese company lays claim to world's cheapest hydrogen production process

Welcome to the newsletter for gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for October the 19th, 2010. Japanese company lays claim to world's cheapest hydrogen production process At least half of the world’s usable hydrogen is obtained through a process known as steam reforming, in which steam reacts with fossil fuels such as natural gas to produce hydrogen gas. On a smaller scale, hydrogen can also be obtained through the process of electrolysis, in which ordinary water is split into its oxygen and hydrogen components by running an electrical current through it – consumers can even buy their own electrolysis-based home hydrogen extraction kit, in the form of the HYDROFILL. Now, however, Japan’s FUKAI Environmental Research Institute has announced a new technology for obtaining hydrogen that it claims is less expensive and more efficient than anything that’s been tried so far. Read More Western Digital ships 3TB SATA hard drive Both Seagate and WD have announced 3 TB external drives, and now WD has broken new ground with a 3TB internal hard drive. The WD Caviar Green 2.5 and 3 TB hard drives are bundled with an Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)-compliant Host Bus Adapter (HBA) that allows both 64-bit Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard, along with 32-bit Vista and Windows 7 platforms to make full use of the new drives. Read More New chip could allow antenna arrays to replace satellite dishes There was a time not so very long ago when people who wanted satellite TV or radio required dishes several feet across. Those have since been replaced by today’s compact dishes, but now it looks like even those might be on the road to obsolescence. A recent PhD graduate from The Netherlands’ University of Twente has designed a microchip that allows for a grid array of almost-flat antennae to receive satellite signals. Read More Josh Hadar's electric three-wheeled masterpiece Cutting edge New York artist Josh Hadar has created a three-wheel electric bike that is sure to turn heads. Based around a sprawling, chopper-like frame similar to that used in his earlier pedal powered designs such as "Uncle Stew's Trike", Hadar's new creation has a range of up to 30 miles and puts out 15 kilowatts at its peak, which, when combined with the weight of four 12-volt lead-acid batteries and two chunky wheels at the rear, is reportedly more than enough to put you on your derriere. Read More Human heartbeat detected using atom-based sensor Six years ago, America’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed miniature sensors that each utilized about 100 billion rubidium atoms in gas form, a low-power infrared laser and optics to detect tiny magnetic fields. Until recently the sensors had been used almost exclusively for physics research, but now NIST has teamed up with the National Metrology Institute of Germany to successfully use one of the mini-sensors to track a human heartbeat – an accomplishment which could have medical applications down the road. Read More Scalable scissors vary in length depending on need It’s one of those dilemmas you probably never even realized existed... short scissors are better for fiddly cutting, and for cutting through tough materials, while longer scissors are faster on light materials, and better at cutting in a straight line. What are you gonna do, buy two pairs of scissors? Designer Jie Weng has what is apparently a better idea: scalable scissors. Just set the blades to the length you need and start cutting. Read More CTL announces Windows 7 2goPad tablet This year has seen a slew of Android-based tablet computers being snapped up by eager buyers, but for PC users wanting the more familiar environment of Windows 7, CTL has announced the 2goPad SL10. The 10.1-inch device features an Atom processor, WiFi and Bluetooth, a couple of gigabytes of memory and 250GB of hard disk storage. There is of course full Flash support, a built-in webcam for video conferencing, and USB connectivity is joined by SD card reading capabilities, to cater for storage expansion or to show off a prized photo collection. Read More If you would like to refer this newsletter to a friend or colleague, please point them at our free subscription page. Please don't try to forward this email, as the formatting is unlikely to remain intact. And don't worry, we don't share email addresses. Please read our privacy policy if you are concerned. Watch for more of the best new innovations, ideas and practical technologies in your inbox. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our daily newsletter at http://www.gizmag.com. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter please click here to unsubscribe. COPYRIGHT GIZMAG (C) 2010