This huge tunnel boring machine (12 meters in diameter and 95 meters long) digs subway tunnels without disturbing the buildings above. Up to 350 meters of tunnel can constructed in a week.
Related: Extreme Engineering – Wave Disk Engine Could Increase Efficiency 5 Times – Car Style Mass Transit Mag Lev System
The largest comprehensive analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov finds that clinical trials are falling short of producing high-quality evidence needed to guide medical decision-making.
The analysis, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found the majority of clinical trials is small, and there are significant differences among methodical approaches, including randomizing, blinding and the use of data monitoring committees.
This is a critical issue as medical studies continue to leave quite a bit to be desired. Even more importantly the failure to systemically study and share evidence of effectiveness once treatments are authorized leaves a great deal to be desired. On top of leaving quite a bit to be desired, the consequences are serious. If we make mistakes for example in how we date fossils it matters but it is unlikely to cause people their lives or health. Failure to adequately manage and analyze health care experiments may very well cost people their health or lives.
“Our analysis raises questions about the best methods for generating evidence, as well as the capacity of the clinical trials enterprise to supply sufficient amounts of high quality evidence to ensure confidence in guideline recommendations,” said Robert Califf, MD, first author of the paper, vice chancellor for clinical research at Duke University Medical Center, and director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute.
The analysis was conducted by the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), a public-private partnership founded by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Duke. It extends the usability of the data in ClinicalTrials.gov for research by placing the data through September 27, 2010 into a database structured to facilitate aggregate analysis.
Related: Statistical Errors in Medical Studies – How to Deal with False Research Findings – Medical Study Integrity (or Lack Thereof)
Made by Hand by Mark Frauenfelder, the editor-in-chief of Make magazine. explores his adventures in the world of do-it-yourself.
Frauenfelder spent a year trying a variety of offbeat projects such as keeping chickens and bees, tricking out his espresso machine, whittling wooden spoons, making guitars out of cigar boxes, and doing citizen science with his daughters in the garage. His whole family found that DIY helped them take control of their lives, offering deeply satisfying alternatives for spending time together. Working with their hands and minds helped them feel more engaged with the world around them.
Frauenfelder also profiles fascinating “alpha makers” leading various DIY movements and grills them for their best tips and insights. He offers a unique perspective on how earning a few calluses can be far more rewarding than another trip to the mall.
Related: Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids – Gifts for the Maker in Your Life – science books – Teaching Through Tinkering
Farmers Foil Utilities Using Cell Phones to Access Solar
When his balance runs low, Anand pays 50 rupees ($1) — money he would have otherwise spent on kerosene. Then he receives a text message with a code to punch into the box, giving him about another week of electric light.
When he pays off the full cost of the system in about three years, it will be unlocked and he will get free power.
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Across India and Africa, startups and mobile phone companies are developing so-called microgrids, in which stand- alone generators power clusters of homes and businesses in places where electric utilities have never operated.
Very cool. Worldwide, approximately 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity and another 1 billion have extremely unreliable access. The poorest spending up to 30% of their income on inefficient and expensive means of providing light and accessing electricity. Solutions like this, finding engineering solutions for basic needs that are market based, are great.
That the poor end up owning their solar system after just 3 years is great.
Creating great benefit to society with the smart adoption of technology and sustainable economics is something I love.
Related: Solar Power Market Solutions For Hundreds of Millions Without Electricity – Appropriate Technology: Solar Hot Water in Poor Cairo Neighborhoods – Engineering a Better World: Bike Corn-Sheller – Water Pump Merry-go-Round
The electricity to run huge server farms is enormous. One of the significant cost is air conditioning to cool down the server rooms.
Too Hot for Humans, But Google Servers Keep Humming
Google’s experience is the latest affirmation that servers are much tougher than we think. Many data centers feel like meat lockers, as servers are maintained in cool environments to offset the heat thrown off by components inside the chassis. Typical temperature ranges in data centers often range from 68 and 72 degrees.
In recent years, rising power bills have prompted data center managers to try and reduce the amount of power used in cooling systems.
The temperatures in Fahrenheit obviously. I was surprised that the servers don’t seem to need to be chilled to perform well.
Related: Saving Energy with Smart Software – New Server Uses 75% Less Power and Space
Fun video showing how scientists use Lego Mindstorm robots to aid research into creating artificial bones. Lego Mindstorm robots are useful at a very reasonable price.
The webcast also includes this practical quote from Michelle Oyen, lecturer in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University: “without your bones you would be a pile of goo lying on the floor.”
The thinking discussed in the webcast echos the lean manufacturing principles discussed in the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog: finding good solutions to aid people in doing their jobs. The type of custom solutions they discuss here are great.
This type of use of technology is great. One of the problems we often see with technology solutions though is when they are imposed on the workplace in a way that doesn’t aid people. There is a big difference between what Toyota does (using robots to make people’s jobs easier) and what others do in trying to copy Toyota (using robots to eliminate jobs). Lean manufacturing stressed the importance of using brainpower people bring to work every day. You want to use technology to enable people. These scientists understand that. Unfortunately many managers don’t.
Related: Lego Mindstorms Robots Solving: Sudoku and Rubik’s Cube – Open Source for LEGO Mindstorms – Rubick’s Cube Solving Lego Mindstorms Robot
Kirk Sorensen is founder of Flibe Energy and is an advocate for nuclear energy based on thorium and liquid-fluoride fuels and author of Energy From Thorium blog.
He also taught nuclear engineering at Tennessee Technological University as a guest lecturer. He is active in nonprofit advocacy organizations such as the Thorium Energy Alliance and the International Thorium Energy Organization. He is married and has four small children.
See another video with him on why the thorium molten-salt reactor wasn’t developed (from a Google tech talk).
Related: Molten Salt Solar Reactor Approved by California – Helium-3 Fusion Reactor – Nuclear Power Production by Country from 1985-2009 – Mining the Moon
Dutch kindergarden students pedaling their bus to school
Dutch Kids Pedal Their Own Bus To School
Built by Tolkamp Metaalspecials, and sold by the De Cafe Racer company, the bicycle school bus (BCO in Dutch) is powered entirely by children and the one adult driver (although there is an electric motor for tough hills). Its simple design has eight sets of pedals for the kids (ages 4 to 12), a driver seat for the adult, and three bench seats for freeloaders. The top speed is about 10 miles per hour, and features a sound system and canvas awning to ward off rainy days.
They have sold 25 of the busses so far for $15,000 each.
Related: Sports Engineering – Germany Looking to Kindergarten for Engineering Future – Engineering a Better World: Bike Corn-Sheller
I have written previously about the fact that more S&P 500 CEO’s are engineering majors than any other discipline. The group putting out those studies have stopped doing so, unfortunately. There is a new study based on mining Facebook data and the results again show engineers doing very well.
I wish they provided data for the larger companies, but they don’t. They show a breakdown of 9,461 (CEO or founders) with a business undergraduate major and 9,334 with an engineering degree. For those with advanced degrees 3,337 have an engineering master’s or doctorate and 1,016 have an MBA.
In the latest (2008) data I have for S&P 500 CEO’s 22% were engineers. Engineers seem to make up under 5% of college graduates (based on my eyeballing of this Dept. of Education data). Business meanwhile seems to make up about 20% of the majors.
See more posts looking at science and engineering careers: Future Prospects for Engineers – Engineering Again Dominates The Highest Paying College Majors – Science and Engineering in Global Economics – Career Prospect for Engineers Continues to Look Positive
Ship a riding sled of bubbles. Image from: CFD Predictions of Bubbly Flow around an Energy-saving Ship with Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System
Mitsubishi completed the conceptual design of a new container ship; this eco-ship achieves a 25% decrease in CO2 emissions over existing ships. Three, of these ships, with the Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System (MALS), are being built now (they should be completed in 2014).
In addition to blowers to create air bubbles under the vessel bottom, the three grain carriers will also feature a newly designed bow shape that will reduce wave-making resistances. For propulsion, the ship adopts a system to effectively convert the main engine power into propulsion power by positioning fins forward of the propellers and placing particular grooves in the propeller boss cap.
Using “eco-ships” to substantially reduce CO2 emissions from maritime transport
This system has already been introduced on module carriers, and has been proven to reduce CO2 emissions significantly.
Related: Sails for Modern Cargo Ships – Eco-Vehicle Student Competition