Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Jet engines on airliners can swallow a fair amount of ice during a flight, and to make sure they’re up to the task, engine makers bombard them with all kinds of frozen water. This week General Electric pulled the cover off its newest engine testing facility in the appropriately cold location of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The testing ground is designed to take advantage of the cold Canadian winters for ice certification of new jet engines.

Because a jet engine can encounter icing conditions as it flies through clouds, the Federal Aviation Administration requires several tests to ensure engines can operate in freezing conditions. Tests include blasting engines with tiny ice particles similar to those found in clouds, as well as coating engine parts in ice. That’s done to check the associated risk of those parts being iced over and the risk of ice breaking loose and going deeper into the engine.

General Electric says Winnipeg’s 50-plus days of sub-zero temperatures annually makes the new location ideal for cold weather testing. The company runs another test facility in Peebles, Ohio, but the weather there isn’t reliabily cold enough.

Seven fans push air through the 21-foot wind tunnel before 125 nozzles spray tiny water droplets that freeze before pelting the test engine, which normally would be mounted where the plastic is in the top photo. The facility also will perform other tests, including bird ingestion testing (typically performed with dead turkeys tossed into the engine.) and water/torrential rainstorm simulations.

The seven high powered fans that push the air through the wind tunnel at GE’s new engine test facility.

New jet engines are key to commercial aviation’s push for greater fuel efficiency. Airplane makers like Boeing and Airbus rarely miss the chance to tout how new airplanes such as the 787 Dreamliner or A350 XWB consume much less fuel than comparable airliners. Engines from General Electric, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and others account for a large part of those fuel savings.

The first version of the new GE engines on the 787 initially missed some key efficiency requirements. But the next generation GEnx-1B engines flew for the first time Wednesday on GE’s 747 test airplane over California’s Mojave desert. The new engines include small changes to the design that should recover most of the missing efficiency GE hoped for when the engines were designed. The engine is expected to receive certification this summer.

The Boeing 787 is offered with both General Electric and Rolls Royce jet engines. The only 787s currently flying, with All Nippon Airways of Japan, use Rolls Royce engines.

In other news, last week saw a few headaches for some early long-haul flights by ANA’s new 787, according to Flight Global. On two flights from Tokyo to Frankfurt, passengers ended up flying on Boeing 777s instead after a flap malfunction and software issue forced the new Dreamliner into the maintenance shop. The relatively minor issues were quickly repaired and the plane returned to service.

Photo: GE

Several airlines are experiencing higher than normal winds on routes between the United States and Europe, forcing pilots to stop for gas on what would normally be a non-stop route. Unplanned pitstops are nothing new. But with airlines looking to save costs wherever possible, several are relying narrow body aircraft flying close to the limit of their range to serve city pairs that would not fill up a larger, and longer range airplane.

In December United reported 43 stops for extra fuel out of some 1,100 transatlantic flights using the company’s Boeing 757s according to the Wall Street Journal. The Boeing 757 has long been favored by many airlines for longer routes with lower passenger demand. Though out of production for several years, the 757 offers carriers a range of more than 4,500 miles in a small enough package to keep operating costs low enough to justify routes that could not fill the larger 767 or Airbus A330. American and US Airways also use the 757 on transatlantic routes and have reported more than normal fuel stops. Delta has the largest 757 fleet in the world, but says it has yet to need a fuel stop for its transatlantic flights this winter according to the Journal article.

Weather forecasts usually provide accurate enough wind predictions for pilots to adjust fuel loads on an airplane to ensure a non-stop flight. And airplanes often fly with less than full tanks since the engines end up burning more fuel in order to carry the weight of the extra gallons. But with the higher winds, even full tanks may not be enough. Airlines are having to stop at airports along the great circle route between Europe and the United States including in Ireland, Iceland, Canada and even as close as Maine and New York before continuing on to their final destinations.

Airlines are required to carry enough fuel to complete the flight to the destination based on the weather forecast, fly on to a nearby alternate airport if weather or some other issue prevented a landing at the planned destination and still have enough fuel for 45 minutes of flying. The idea is to have enough reserve fuel for unanticipated problems beyond bad weather in the forecast.

It’s possible that some of these flights would have made it to their destinations without refueling, but the pilots are opting to stop for gas in order to prevent using up their reserve fuel.

United says it is compensating passengers for missed flights, hotels and other hassles encountered when the flight includes a visit to somewhere like Gander in eastern Canada. Before modern long range airliners were able to make non-stop transatlantic flights, airports like the ones in Canada, Iceland and Ireland were commonly used as refueling stops for flights between the North America and Europe. The Boeing 707 made a fuel stop in Gander on its way to Paris during its much heralded first flight from New York with Pan Am in 1958.

Today many major cities on both continents are linked by non-stop flights. The longest non-stop flight currently being flown by an airline links Newark, New Jersey to Singapore aboard a Singapore Airlines flight that stretches the range to just under 10,000 miles. The flight lasts more than 18 hours.

Photo: Flickr/curimedia

Apple is bringing speech recognition to the masses with its new iPhone 4S, equipped with an intelligent assistant named Siri. It’s a major differentiator for the new iPhone, setting it apart from its predecessors. I’ve been using speech recognition software for the past 8 years, so I was eager to take this enhanced version of Siri for a spin. Here’s my review.

Siri is not new. It started its life as an experiment funded by DARPA, said to be the largest artificial intelligence project to date. Next, Siri, with the same Nuance speech recognition tech built in that also powers the application I’ve been using for years, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, was first available as a free app on the iPhone in February, 2010. Then Apple bought Siri in April of 2010 and decided to incorporate it into its new iPhone 4S, breaking the old Siri app on other iPhones (unless you want to perform a crude hack).

So now Siri is baked into every iPhone 4S, and not available elsewhere. Siri has come a long way since it was first introduced as a less-accurate and somewhat incomplete iPhone app. Now it’s better integrated into iOS 5, and my immediate impression is that it’s more accurate than it’s ever been. Even in a noisy environment inside a car going 60 miles an hour, it can still understand most of what you’re saying if you hold the iPhone up to your ear. Its speech recognition isn’t perfect, and some of its errors are laughable, but in a quiet environment its accuracy is nearly equal to that of the desktop version of NaturallySpeaking running on extremely powerful processors.

Its integration into the iPhone 4S’s iOS 5 software makes it convenient to use. You press and hold the iPhone 4S’s Home button, and it springs to life, sounding a short beep to signal for you to begin speaking. You can use it in this speakerphone mode, or if the iPhone 4S is turned on, you can simply raise the handset to your ear (a necessity when riding in a noisy vehicle) and the phone’s proximity sensor activates Siri, usually prompting you to begin speaking (inexplicably, sometimes it doesn’t respond).

That odd non-working tendency must be why Apple is still calling Siri “beta.” The company reassures users that the Siri will be continuously improved, adding that the software learns how you speak as you go and will perform more accurate recognition as it learns your way of speaking. Still, loading beta software into a new piece of iPhone hardware is a thin thread on which to differentiate this new product. Only a company with the chutzpah of Apple would have the courage to try something like this. But Siri works just barely well enough for Apple to pull it off, bolstered by the iPhone 4S’s faster processor and better camera (among what Apple boasts as 197 other incremental improvements), all doing their part to strengthen the lure of this updated iPhone.

Over the 48 hours I’ve been using Siri, it’s hard to tell if it’s actually improving its speech recognition, but as it stands, it’s just good enough to be fun to use. I especially like the way you can almost carry on a conversation with it. For example, you can ask it, “How’s the weather in New York today?” It will answer by showing you the iPhone’s weather app with New York’s data displayed. Then, if you ask it, “Where are the good Italian restaurants there?,” Siri responds by finding 24 Italian restaurants in New York, sorted by rating. It knows you’re still talking about New York. Clever.

As you can read in our posts about Siri, it does bring a slight attitude along with it, which I find refreshing. Other times, it has hilarious misunderstandings, such as when I asked it yesterday to “Call me an ambulance,” and it responded, “From now on, I’ll call you ‘an ambulance’. Okay?” I was disappointed to hear Siri’s voice, which still sounds way too robotic for my taste. I was thinking that somehow, now that Apple owns the app, it would gussy it up to sound more like GPS units do, or like the mellifluous yet mutinous HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. But I suspect that’s still way off in the future. Instead, there are some oddities in its stilted pronunciation, such as the way Siri says the word “restaurant,” speaking with a drawl that sounds like it’s straight out of my native Southern U.S.: “Resta-runt.” Grandma, is that you?

Among its myriad capabilities, of course Siri can help you place phone calls with aplomb, where all you have to do is speak the name of anyone in your Contacts app, and it quickly connects you (something that’s been possible for years with much lesser cellphones). Beyond that, it can also help you speak an email and turn it into text, where it walks you through by asking who you’re sending it to, the subject line and so forth. However, it’s not too adept at breaking out separate paragraphs of text, even if I spoke to it the way I do with NaturallySpeaking, specifying things such as “new paragraph.” Although the email function could be useful for creating short emails while driving (not recommended), it still has some polishing to do before it’s truly useful for sending emails solely by speech.

Some of its capabilities go deeply into science fiction territory, such as pushing and holding the Home button, and then telling it to set a timer for 15 minutes. I especially like telling it to set an alarm, asking it directions, or asking it to launch a playlist in iTunes. I was disappointed to see that it wasn’t able to interact with Twitter, but I found a workaround for that, so that problem is solved already. Still, Apple should have made that capability available from the beginning, and if the company follows through on its promise, we will soon see a lot more interaction with various iOS apps.

Siri on the iPhone 4S still feels like a work in progress. I think it could have used another few months of development before it was released to push it well beyond gimmick territory. But Apple was already later than usual in its product cycle with this iPhone 4S, so might have been compelled to release it early. Even so, Siri as it stands now gives us a hint at what’s to come, and the future looks bright.

The placebo effect isn’t a lie. In fact, if you believe something is going to help you get better, it may very well do just that.

This very same effect works with stereo equipment, wine, politicians… just about everything where our belief intersects with reality.

You can believe that Ford is better than Chevy, that California reds are better than French ones and that your particular tribe is right (and that everyone else is wrong.)

Marketers love the placebo effect because it opens the door to stories and fables and word of mouth and varied perceptions. It gives marketers room to sell more than price and features. The first cultural byproduct this benefit creates is the notion that everyone is entitled to believe what they believe, and it’s rude to question it.

The second, is a real problem, though. If you spend enough time experiencing your own take on reality, you come to believe that what works for you might actually be a universal truth. Marketing plus psychology might equal science, it seems.

For the placebo to work, you have to believe it, but sometimes believing requires suspension of your connection with verifiable fact.

When that happens, we might believe that we’re entitled to believe things that conflict with demonstrable truth and an understanding of reality. With enough internal spin, you can believe that the moon walk was a fake, that levitation is possible and that the world is only 6,000 years old. You are welcome to believe that aqua metals will improve your sports performance and that z-rays will cure your arthritis, but only until it collides with things that are actually true. Placebos are a good thing, and everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but they’re not entitled to their own science.

We now have to deal with the fallout from personal science. We’ve so blurred the lines between stories we tell ourselves and our perception of the outside world that it’s easy to be confused and easier still to confuse others if it advances your cause.

Consider the fact that the world is getting warmer. To be clear, everyone is entitled to have an opinion on what to do about global warming. The question I’m wondering about is whether we should solicit the opinions of the population as to whether or not it exists. We’re asking people to bring their knowledge of statistics, earth science and atmospherics to bear on analyzing data… Of course, most people don’t have that knowledge, or care that they don’t. If all that matters is belief, why should they?

Dylan told us that you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows… I’m not sure you need to take a poll either.

Before you send me an angry email, consider that the question of what we should do about the trend is a different discussion, one that should be had. The question of how (or if) we should take action is not what this post is about. The trend I’m concerned with is the notion that we’re entitled to get upset when the truth doesn’t match our point of view. Does the weather care what you think?

Aaaaand…we’re back! The list might seem intimidating, but this week’s roundup of top Mashable features will ultimately save you loads of time otherwise spent scouring the web for tech resources.

We’ve compiled the past week’s features, how-tos and insights into a handy little package — and it’s just for you. Presenting everything from geeky galleries to thoughtful think pieces, this handy guide is here to help.

Editors’ Picks

• 15 Beautiful and Creative QR Codes PICS

  Creative QR codes can entice consumers into scanning them. We’ve found 15 excellent examples in our inspirational gallery.

• 7 Ways Google+ Users Are Getting More Out of Their Circles

  We’ve talked to users who have devised clever ways to use Google+ circles. Here they share their best practices so you can learn from their early mistakes and successes.

• HOW TO: Use Google+ For Your Job Search

  The new social network on the block is a burgeoning space for early adopters to congregate. Here’s how to use it for your job search.

• Why Location-Based Gaming Is The Next Killer App OPINION

  Game experiences that combine the real and virtual worlds are about to be the next big thing and the market is primed for a big hit. Here’s why that hit game might be coming soon.

• 4 Ways iPads Are Changing the Lives of People With Disabilities

  Touch devices like the iPad are revolutionizing the lives of children, adults and seniors with special needs.

Social Media

• Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Heat Wave Edition

  We still have a least another month of this weather on the mirage-laden horizon.

• Top Twitter Trends This Week CHART

  For those of you who are tired of seeing Justin Bieber top these charts, take heart. Not only did he not make it this week, but pioneer geneticist Gregor Mendel did. Sort of.

• Meet Some of Turntable.fm’s Top DJs

  Mashable contacted some of buzzy, still-in-beta startup Turntable.fm’s power users to reveal the women and men behind the avatars

• What Twitter Can Learn From Facebook OPINION

  Twitter is feeling the heat from new early-adopter darling Google+. Here’s what the company could learn from Facebook to continue growing.

• Google+ Chrome Extensions: 5 More Handy Tools

  Based on feedback from the Mashable readership, we’ve narrowed down five more useful Chrome Extensions that will improve your Google+ experience.

• The History of Advertising on YouTube

  Take a look at the infographic to see how the site — and its advertising strategy — has evolved since its founding in 2005.

• How Governments Are Using Social Media for Better & for Worse

  Governments and social media have reached a tentative partnership. While the Internet is no longer a “Wild West,” people in power are still trying to figure out how best to approach online communities and their social tools.

• What the Republican Town Hall Taught Us About Twitter as a Debate Platform

  Now that the Republican Twitter debate hosted on 140TownHall.com is over, its organizers are viewing it as a general success. But they do admit to some challenges as well.

• Google+ Tips & Tricks: 10 Hints for New Users

  From quicker sharing options to better content curation via savvy privacy settings, we’ve got 10 tips and tricks native to the new service that will have you Google Plussing like a pro.

• Mashable’s Birthday: 6 Years Covering Digital News and Innovation INFOGRAPHIC

  Mashable has been witness to a lot in our six years of existence. This infographic documents just some of the major events we’ve reported on during that time.

• 9 Excellent Celebrity-Powered Social Good Campaigns VIDEOS

  Want to see John Mayer make fun of Justin Bieber? Want to see Ed Helms run around Africa in a silly safari outfit? Now do you want to see them do it for charity?

• 12 Food Trucks Mashable Readers Love

  Mashable asked you about your favorite food trucks. With more than 100 submissions, it’s clear the mobile food industry has reached nationwide.

• Google+ Hangouts: 4 Creative Ways People Are Using Group Video Chat

  From intimate concerts to a new way of co-working via cooking lessons, Google Plussers are making the most of Hangouts in fun, new ways.

• Why Social Accountability Will Be the New Currency of the Web

  How can we find a language of currency for the Internet? The answer lies in accountability based influence, which asks, “How can my actions speak louder than my words?”

• Google+ One Month Later: What’s Next?

  Google+ is one month old, so it’s time to ask: what’s next for Google’s social network?

• 15 Google+ Sites & Services for Power Users

  From directories where you can find new Plussers, to sites that will show you the hottest posts and even resources that will help you get more out of the service, we’ve rounded up 15 fab online destinations for Google+ users.

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tech & Mobile

• Tablet Publishing: Why Sports Illustrated Is Looking Beyond the iPad

  Why is Sports Illustrated producing editions of its magazine for Android and webOS tablets when all evidence suggests that it will be some time before these devices reach critical mass?

• The History of Android INFOGRAPHIC

  Android’s box of sweets has gotten much more diverse since it launched its first dessert-themed operating system update Cupcake in 2009.

• 10 Sleek Google+ Icons for Your Website or Blog

  Now that you’ve had a few weeks to get your feet wet with Google+, it’s time to make sure your other web properties are linking to your +Profile in style.

• Which Tech Giants Birth the Most Successful Startup Founders? INFOGRAPHIC

  What happens when entrepreneurial types leave the nest of a tech giants? They found their own startups.

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Business & Marketing

• Why Dependability Is the Most Important Quality for Businesses OPINION

  The number one trait you can develop as a business owner to instill confidence in your customers is dependability. Here’s why.

• 14 Ways to Create a Memorable Business Card PICS

  Need ideas to help you revamp your business cards? From scented and edible, to 3D and digital, we’ve gathered inspiring online resources to help you create the next big thing in business cards.

• HOW TO: Get Journalists To Tell Your Story

  How do you stand out among your competitors and catch the attention of journalists? Here are tips for being a good source and getting your story told.

• 8 Ways To Recruit Startup Talent Using Social Media

  Having top talent is a crucial way to guarantee startup success. How can you use social media to get the best team for your startup?

• The Web & Business Tools Startups Use Most INFOGRAPHIC

  Now that startups have a plethora of web and cloud services to choose from, which ones are they selecting to run their young businesses?

• HOW TO: Successfully Run a Social Media Contest

  Online contests can be a great way to build a fan base, gather data and engage an audience. Here’s how to run one successfully using social media.

• The Pros and Cons of Moving Your Business Into the Cloud

  Cloud computing can be a good option for small businesses, but what are the pluses and minuses of moving to the cloud?

• The State of the Tablet and Ereader Market

  Here’s the skinny on how big the tablet market actually is, who’s buying tablets, how apps and 4G connectivity figure into their success, and more.

• HOW TO: Utilize Social Data More Effectively

  Learn how to successfully build social data into marketing programs.

• Freelance Web Development: 9 Tips for Better Project Management

  Taking on a large project can be both exciting and intimidating. Here are tips to help you stay organized and productive, whether you’re working individually or as a team.

• Gamification: How Competition Is Reinventing Business, Marketing & Everyday Life

  Can life, and all the menial or routine tasks that come with it, be transformed through game mechanics into an engaging, social and fun recreational activity?

• 10 Tips for Better Startup Marketing

  You need to do more for your brand than simply create a Twitter account. Here are 10 strategies that have worked for successful entrepreneurs.

• The Future of Social Customer Relationship Management

  Social media platforms and technologies are transforming customer relationship management. Brands must learn new ways to measure customer data and value in the context of the social web.

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Image courtesy of Flickr, webtreats.

Starting this month, Toyota’s hybrid cars might be arriving on a hybrid ship augmented by solar power.

We first told you about the Auriga Leader, a 60,000 ton carrier that can ferry up to 6,200 cars, back in 2008. It was retrofitted with a giant bank of solar cells in hopes of reducing CO2 emissions and fuel use while carrying mostly Toyotas across the Pacific.

During tests, solar energy made up for one percent of the ship’s total electricity usage — a small percentage, but enough to save 13 tons of fuel. However, solar power also turned out to be just too unreliable as even as a secondary standalone power source on such a large vessel, causing major spikes and shortages of electricity depending on cloud cover.

“Even a slight change in the weather has a significant influence on the amount of power generated,” said NYK line, the Japanese operator of the Auriga Leader. Engineers looked into expanding the number of photovoltaic cells on board, but found that just exacerbated the problem of passing clouds and storms. ”Attempting to make the solar power system bigger to gain more output and to increase its dependency could result in problems with regard to stable operations due to fluctuations in the power supply,” the company said.

Researchers turned to the same solution that land-based solar generating stations use to keep the power on when the sun isn’t out: really big batteries.

The Auriga Leader

The Auriga Leader is setting sail this month with hybrid power system that’s been under development since 2009. On board are massive Gigacell branded nickel-hydrogen batteries, developed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The batteries charge and discharge based on the power demands of the ship and the electricity generated by the solar cells.

The latest test is partially funded by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. If it’s successful, Kawasaki and NYK line hope to commercialize it to decrease the emissions and fuel use of cargo ships, which burn an average 120 gallons of fuel per mile.

In addition to the solar cells, the Auriga Leader’s diesel generator is also being retrofit to run on low-sulfur diesel, and the ship getting a ballast water treatment system to prevent the introduction of invasive species to the ports it visits.

The hybrid powerplant

Photos: NYK Line

Only two things matter when building a race car powered by the sun: maximizing efficiency and minimizing weight. Everything else is secondary when the goal is crossing a continent using just enough energy to power a hair dryer.

All the top teams in the esoteric sport of solar racing embrace this “less is more” ethos to a degree that would please Colin Chapman. But the University of Michigan, arguably America’s best team, has taken it to fanatical levels in a relentless drive to win the World Solar Challenge in October.

The biennial sprint across Australia is the oldest and most prestigious race of its kind, the Daytona 500 or Monaco Grand Prix of solar racing. No American team has won the 1,800-mile race since General Motors’ Sunraycer led the inaugural run in 1987. The University of Michigan Solar Car Team is determined to end the drought. It has spent more than $1 million building Quantum, its most advanced solar car ever.

“It’s the ultimate electric vehicle,” said Chris Hilger, a junior chemical-engineering major who is the team’s business manager. “At its heart, it’s an electric vehicle that uses top-of-the-line technology, from the batteries to the motor to the communications. It just happens to be solar.”

Quantum is the team’s 11th car since its inception in 1989. Construction started by stripping the previous car, Infinium, to the last bolt and weighing everything. Infinium brought U of M its third consecutive (and sixth overall) victory at the American Solar Challenge last year, but it weighed 500 pounds. The team set out to trim every extraneous ounce from Quantum.

To start, it used modeling software to determine how much stress the car and its components are subjected to. That brought a startling discovery.

“We were significantly over-engineering the car,” Hilger said.

Everything about Infinium was stronger and heavier than necessary. With that in mind, the team set about designing slimmer, lighter parts. No one will say just what Quantum weighs, but the target was 320 pounds.

“It’s very light,” is all Hilger would say.

Secrecy is common in solar racing, a highly competitive sport where a four-day race can come down to minutes. Top teams spend $1 million or more building their cars. U of M is gunning for the defending champions from Tokai University in Japan and the Nuon Solar Team of Delft University, the Dutch team that won the four previous races.

Given the intense competition, Hilger was equally coy discussing the three-wheeler’s drivetrain. Three wheels are the norm in solar racing because they offer less rolling resistance. A hub-mounted motor from the Australian firm CSIro drives the rear wheel, generates “a few horsepower” and is 98 percent efficient.

“It’s one of the most efficient motors in the world,” Hilger said.

Aaron Frantz, a sophomore mechanical-engineering student, helps Santosh Kumar get into Quantum. Kumar, a master’s student in aerospace engineering, is the team’s engineering director. Photo: Scott Soderberg/University of Michigan

The car is covered with 6 square meters 65 square feet of silicon solar cells, somewhere between 600 and 800 in all, and they generate “something less than 2 kilowatts of power,” Hilger said.

“We can cruise at 60 mph on less than 2 kilowatts,” he said.

The car features a lithium-polymer battery to keep things moving when the clouds roll in. Regenerative braking sends energy back to the pack. Hilger wouldn’t say how big a battery Quantum has, but said 5 kilowatt-hours is the norm in solar racing. Everything is bolted to a carbon-fiber monocoque and covered with carbon-fiber bodywork. Major components are aluminum or titanium.

The body was designed with help from Exa Corp., which provided the CFD needed to make the car as slick as possible. Hilger’s keeping mum on the car’s drag coefficient, but top-tier solar racers are in the super-efficient 0.07-to-0.1 range. To put that in perspective, the General Motors EV1 was 0.195, and the current-generation Toyota Prius is 0.25.

The car, which is 16 feet long, 3.5 feet tall and 6 feet wide, ran under its own power for the first time April 8. No one’s put the hammer down yet, but Hilger says Infinium could do 105 mph on a track. That’s well above the 50 to 60 mph the cars average in a race, but it speaks to the level of engineering involved.

Top-level cars like Quantum are exquisitely engineered. The team received help from some of the best engineering firms in the world. The list includes Ricardo, which worked with McLaren to develop the engine in the MP4-12C supercar, and Roush, which has a hand in everything from tuning to NASCAR racing. Each of the Big Three automakers is a sponsor, and they’re very interested in what the team is up to, because a solar car is simply a highly efficient electric vehicle.

“Through working with this team we have access to cutting-edge research that the team is employing, which helps us learn as we develop our own products,” Mark Fields, executive vice president of Ford, told Wired.com. “The technology that the team works with — the lithium-ion batteries, how you manage thermal energy — is hardwired into our electrification strategy going forward.”

The team finished the car months ahead of schedule, leaving plenty of time for fine-tuning. Quantum will compete in the Formula Sun Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway next month, where it will be thoroughly shaken down before heading to Australia in October.

“We think we can refine and improve the car by going through it with a fine-tooth comb to shave more weight and find more efficiency,” Hilger said.

Competing Down Under will require more than getting in and mashing the accelerator. Solar races are a marathon, not a sprint, and the defending champs finished the 2009 race in 29 hours, 49 minutes at an average speed of 63 mph. There is a tremendous amount of strategy involved as teams manage their energy and keep an eye on the weather: Michigan’s team includes a meteorologist.

“Being able to predict cloud cover will give you a huge advantage, so you can plan ahead and manage your energy,” said Spencer Quong of of Quong & Associates, an advanced-automotive-engineering consultancy. He founded the UC-Berkeley Solar Vehicle Team in 1990. “But if you have enough sunlight and you can gather more sunlight than you can use, your foot is on the floor.”

You can bet the guy behind the wheel of Quantum will have his foot to the floor. The team is supremely confident of its chances, and determined to bring the trophy home in October.

“I think we have a better chance of winning that we’ve ever had in the past,” Hilger said.

Top photo: Team members AJ Trublowski, Cole Witte (yellow T-shirt), Chris Hilger and Caitlin Sadler (from left) install a temporary top on Quantum. (Scott Soderberg/University of Michigan.)

The team tests Quantum at General Motors’ Medford Proving Grounds. That’s Jonathan Meed with the computer. Driver Ryan Mazur and Gerald Chang (center) are testing the steering wheel. Photo: Scott Soderberg/University of Michigan



A portable GPS is commonplace in cars where drivers are looking for some help with driving around town. For pilots, the small navigation tools have also become very popular, but not only because of the help they provide in finding a destination from 10,000 feet. Real time weather received via satellite is becoming at least as important for many pilots flying longer trips around the country.

Weather has been available in the cockpit for decades, but the displays were usually rather crude and if radar information was desired, the cost was very high and the information was still limited to a scan in front of the aircraft.

Pilots usually had to rely on communication with ground based weather services where a person could relay weather information over the radio. But today, the same small GPS units many of us have in our cars come equipped with weather capabilities that exceeds the most advanced systems from just 10 or 15 years ago available only in bigger aircraft and costing tens of thousands of dollars.

According to a story in Pilot magazine from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, one retailer reports that 75 percent of portable GPS units sold include satellite weather capability. Many newer aircraft have satellite weather capabilities built into glass panel displays that also include GPS. But these systems cost many thousands of dollars to purchase and are not available for many older aircraft. A portable GPS with weather capability costs less than a thousand dollars and can be carried in any airplane from antiques to business jets.

With in-cockpit weather, pilots of even the smallest airplanes are able to monitor the weather along their route in real time. Being able to watch a developing thunderstorm move across your path, or being able to see areas of potential icing conditions allows pilots to make alternative plans with greater confidence than can be made when relying on radio communication with ground based weather services.

Pilots still tend to check the conditions and forecasts before embarking on a long flight. But once in the air, a picture can be worth a thousand words and satellite weather can save a lot of time and effort compared to trying to listen to those words over the radio.

Photo: Garmin

It might be about the size of the screen and whether or not you’re standing up.

Start at the bottom. For the first five years of the Internet, the most used function was email. Email remains a bedrock of every device and system that’s been built on top of the internet, though sometimes it looks like a text message or a mobile check in. This is the layer for asynchronous person to person connection, over time.

Moving from left to right, we see how the way we use the thing we call the internet has evolved over time. We also see how devices and technology and bandwidth have changed the uses of the net and, interestingly, how a growth in mass has led to a growth in self-motivated behavior.

Early online projects were things like Archie and Veronica and checking in changes to the Linux code base. You needed patience, a big screen and a sense of contribution.

Layer on top of this a practice that is getting ever more professional, which is creating content for others to consume. Sometimes in groups, sometimes using sophisticated software and talented cohorts.

As we move to the right (and through time) we see the birth of online shopping. Still to this day, most online shopping happens on traditional devices, often sitting down.

The sitting down part is not a silly aside. Ted Leonsis theorized twenty years ago that the giant difference between TV and the internet was how far you sat from the screen. TV was an 8 foot activity, and you were a consumer. The internet was a 16 inch activity, and you participated. I think the sitting down thing is similar. You’re not going to buy an armoir while standing on the subway.

Moving over in time and device and intent, we see the idea of consuming content. While tablets get their share of shopping, this is where they really shine. I think 2011 is going to be the year of the tablet, from the Kindle to the iPad to the thing we used to call a phone.

It’s in the last two categories that these other devices, things that don’t involve sitting down, are superior, not just a mobile substitute. The social graph is a very low bandwidth, peripheral attention interaction, perfect for this audience and this medium. And the last category–tell me where I am, where to eat, who’s near me, what’s the weather, get me a cab right now–is all about me and now and here.

I don’t believe this is a winner take all situation, any more than one bestselling book makes all other books obsolete. I think different pillars work for different devices, and there will continue to be winners in all of them.