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Scientist creates new fuel-saving material NISKAYUNA, N.Y. (AP) — For nearly three decades Krishan Luthra stubbornly labored away in a General Electric research lab on a long-shot effort to cook up a new type of ceramic that few consumLUTHRA ers will ever see or use. Now this obscure material, which is lightweight, strong and can handle extreme temperatures, is being built into the bellies of jet engines and promises to save billions of gallons of fuel in the coming decades by reducing weight and allowing engines to run hotter. It has helped GE win jet engine orders worth $100 billion — so far — from airlines looking to shave their huge fuel bills. In the future it is expected to be used in power plants and other equipment. “It’s a dream material,” says Luthra, who has spent most of his career dreaming about it. The material is a type of ceramic that is hard and can handle high heat, like the ceramics people have been making for 25,000 years. But this ceramic is a complex composite that is also very light and tough like a metal. Success came only at the end of a tortured path of fluctuating research funding and disappointments that at times shook Luthra’s hopes. “There were times where I wasn’t sure it was going to work,” Luthra says. “But I guess I was too stubborn. I thought it was the right path.” GE is one of the few big companies that continue to operate large industrial labs that house thousands of scientists who work on basic research and long-shot projects that, sometimes, result in inventions like Luthra’s. The Department of Energy helped with some early funding, hoping the materials could be used in power plants. NASA wanted to use them in supersonic aircraft. The U.S. military hoped they could be used in a new fighter jet. None of the efforts fully panned out, but they helped advance the research far enough for GE’s Aviation division to fund more research and development, and to finally commercialize it. The metal “super-alloys” that now line the hottest parts of jet engines are heavy, about 70 percent as dense as lead. And engineers can’t increase combustion temperatures because the alloys would melt.
SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2015
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Latest self-driving Google car soon headed to public streets MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — The latest version of Google’s self-driving car — a pod-like two-seater that needs no gas pedal or steering wheel — will make its debut on public roads this summer, a significant step in the technology giant’s mission to have driverless cars available to consumers in the next five years. This prototype is the first vehicle built from scratch for the purpose of self-driving, Google says. It looks like a Smart car with a shiny black bowler hat to hide its sensors, and it can drive, brake and recognize road hazards without human intervention. It has
more capabilities than the prototype Google introduced last May, which was so rudimentary it had fake headlights. The new pod isn’t designed for a long trip, or a joyride. It lacks air bags, and other federally required safety features, so it can’t go more than 25 miles per hour. It’s electric and has to be recharged after 80 miles. And the pod can only drive in
areas that have been thoroughly mapped by Google. At first, it will likely even have a steering wheel and gas pedal — current California regulations require them. Those regulations also require a driver to be able to take back control of the car at any time. But Google is lobbying for more flexible regulations. Google will initially build and test 25 pods, mostly in neighborhoods surrounding its Mountain View headquarters. It
willl eventually build between 50 and 100 and will broaden testing to sites that are hillier and rainier. The ultimate goal, says Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is computer-controlled cars that can eliminate human error, which is a factor in an estimated 90 percent of the 1.2 million road deaths that occur worldwide each year. Selfdriving cars could also improve traffic congestion and transport the elderly and disabled. Google shocked the auto industry in 2010 with its announcement that it was working on a driverless car. Brin insists Google doesn’t aspire to be a car company, but wants its technology to be adopted by automakers. “We want to partner to bring self-driving to all the vehicles in the world,” Brin told a group of journalists and community members gathered earlier this week to take rides in the prototype.
Google’s new selfdriving prototype car is seen at Google campus in Mountain View, California. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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