The first 1TB SD card:

        I still remember when the first 1TB USB flash drives were coming out—it wasn’t so many years ago. The fact that we can now stuff that same storage capacity in a tiny SD card is truly mind-boggling. We don’t quite know the price yet, but it won’t be cheap.

      The SanDisk 512MB SD card currently goes for $345, so expect it to be significantly more than that. Storage capacity is one of those categories that is just constantly innovating and pushing forward with more and more storage in smaller packages for cheaper prices.

First Amazon package delivered by drone

  

      Here’s the first on the list of previously announced tech that is actually coming to life for the first time. Amazon first introduced the idea of completely autonomous drone delivery back in 2013 with a cutesy video that seemed straight out of a science fiction novel.

       But now, Amazon has announced that it’s actually completed its first delivery through its Prime Air service. From “click to delivery” it was a total of 13 minutes, which is crazy fast. You can check the video out above yourself, but the fast delivery speed was made possible thanks to Amazon’s autonomous drones and a nearby warehouse just outside of town.

 A breakthrough in lithium-metal batteries could double efficiency

       Based out of MIT, a SolidEnergy Systems has developed a “anode-free” lithium metal battery that could change the game in terms of battery efficiency. Researchers have known that these kinds of batteries are more efficient, but their tendency to explode kept them at bay. These new batteries are twice as energy dense, meaning you get the same amount of juice from a battery that’s half the size—and SolidEnergy even figured out that exploding problem.

          The immediate implications for devices like smartphones and smartwatches are a no-brainer. SolidEnergy demonstrated this last year with its working prototype in an iPhone 6 that was half the size as the standard lithium-ion battery, but provided even more power. The company is now using them in drones, which will be the precursor to its move into smartphones and eventually electric cars.

Hyperloop one begins actual high speed test

       Hyperloop is Elon Musk’s dream to see high-speed transportation transformed in America. The idea, originally published Musk’s white paper, is for a mag-lev train going from Los Angeles to San Francisco that could take you there in just 35 minutes.

     Up until this Spring, the company had laid some tracks, but never actually done something in real life with the technology. While this test they did was nowhere near 750mph, it did demonstrate some of the capabilities of the open-air propulsion system, sending a test sled 100 yards down a track at 2.5Gs of acceleration. The company wants it to be passenger-ready by 2021, which still feels incredibly ambitious less than five years from today.

Carbon nanotube transistors outperform silicon for the first time

     The tech industry runs on silicon semiconductors. They call it Silicon Valley for a reason. While carbon nanotube transistors have always been seen as the next major step in computational technology, until now it has always significantly underperformed compared to its silicon semiconductor competitors.

 Dust-sized sensors that can be implanted within the body

        This might sound really creepy at first, but the technology made possible through it is endless. Engineers from Berkeley have created these sensors, which they call “neural dust.” Both commercial and medical implications of such a small sensor are exciting.

    Essentially, these micro-sized sensors require no power and can be implanted directly onto a nerve or muscle fiber. The technology could power the health-monitoring Fitbits of the future, or even help treat diseases such as epilepsy and internal inflammation by “stimulating” nerves and muscles.

SolarCity opens Buffalo facility, Tesla opens Gigafactory 1

      
       Elon Musk is a man with a plan. No really—he calls it the “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan,” which just happens to include saving us from our dependence on “mine and burn” energy. He’s the man behind both SolarCity and Tesla (which have now officially come together under the Telsa roof as of August) and is now opening two major production facilities under the banner of each company.

       First is the Buffalo SolarCity facility, which will become the biggest producer of solar panels in this hemisphere and completed construction this year. Second is the Gigafactory 1 opening up in Nevada, which is responsible for producing lithium-ion batteries, as well as Telsa motors. The significant thing is that Musk practices what the preaches: both facilities are powered by renewable energy sources with the goal of achieving net-zero energy. These facilities will not only power the all-important companies that they serve, but could also be the future of what American production looks like.

Eternal nano-structured data recording

         This one is going to require some imagination, but try to wrap your mind around the technology that is being advanced here. Using nano-structured glass, scientists have developed a way to both record and retrieve digital data in 5D. The idea here is that long after humanity is gone, this data could potentially be stored and retrieved.

So far, they’ve gone as far as writing documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Newton’s Opticks, Magna Carta, and Kings James Bible. How is it eternal though? Well—here are the specs of this eternal data: 360 TB/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1,000 degrees Celsius and an almost unlimited lifetime at room temperature (13.8 billion years at 190 degrees Celsius). It’s been called the “Superman memory crystal,” which isn’t far off.

SpaceX landed a rocket vertically in the ocean

          Though it’s now the second time SpaceX has landed one of its rockets, Musk’s commercial space company successfully landed the Falcon 9 in the ocean. After four failed attempts throughout the year where the rocket exploded upon its landing, it was beginning to look like SpaceX had finally reached a serious hurdle.

           These ocean landings are harder than a normal ground landing, mostly because it’s a small target, but are much more efficient fuel and cost-wise. In the end, efficiency is really what all these landings are about, since most rockets are either destroyed or lost post-launch as of now. These reusable rockets could end up being the factor that paves the way to affordable commercial space flight.

Google’s Tensor Processing Unit Pushes Machine Learning, Beats Go Champion

      Artificial intelligence has another notch on its belt against humans. First it was chess, now it’s Go. But the real story here isn’t just a computer that can beat the world champion in humanity’s most strategic game—it’s the tensor processing unit (TPU) and Machine Learning. The TPU is an application-specific chip that Google has created for the specific purpose of accelerating machine learning.

        The company has proven once again that it’s all-in on artificial intelligence and developing machine learning that keeps getting better. The particular computer that beat the Go champion was developed by DeepMind, an AI company Google acquired back in 2014. But the TPU is only a tool for Google’s big picture strategy.

       At the press event in which the Google Pixel smartphone was announced, CEO Sundar Pichai spent nearly half the event talking about the Google Assistant, a conversational, machine learning-powered assistant. What we’re talking about here is computers that can do things beyond what they were explicitly programmed to do. There are plenty of reasons to be afraid of that, but also plenty of reasons to be excited about the possibilities.

Modern trains

High-speed train in Shanghai, China  

           There are three types of modern locomotive—electric, diesel-electric and diesel. High-speed trains, such as the French Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) or the China Railways High-Speed "Harmony", are normally electrically powered with a power car at each end and specially designed carriages. Diesel locomotives are normally used only for shunting and on low-speed local trains.

How Trains Work

         On an electric locomotive, the wheels are moved by electric motors. The electricity comes either from overhead cables or from an electrified third rail. On a diesel-electric locomotive, the wheels are also driven by electric motors, but the electricity is generated by a diesel engine. On a diesel locomotive, a diesel engine drives the wheels via a mechanical transmission.Cutaway illustration of an electric power car       High-speed trains are powered by electric current, collected from an overhead cable by a pantograph. A transformer converts the very high-voltage electricity in the overhead cable to the lower voltage needed by the motors in the power car. Electronic circuits in the locomotive control how the electricity flows to the motors, and thus the speed of the train. An auxiliary power unit supplies power for utilities such as lighting and air conditioning.

High-speed trains

The Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train

       High-speed trains travel much faster than most other trains—usually more than 200 km/h (125 mph). The first high-speed train, the Japanese Shinkansen (“bullet train”), started services in 1964. Others include the French Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) and German InterCity Express (ICE). Many high-speed expresses run on purpose-built tracks, including the Shinkansen trains.

        Where purpose-built straight tracks are not possible, speeds can be increased by using tilting trains. These tilt inwards as they go round curves at high speed in the same way as motorcyclists do on the road.

Train à Grande Vitesse

       The French high-speed train, the Train à Grande Vitesse, or TGV, holds the world speed record for a train travelling on rails. During a test run without passengers between Paris and Strasbourg in 2007, the TGV reached a speed of 574.8 km/h (360 mph). The TGV regularly runs at speeds of 300 km/h (188 mph). The 425-kilometre (265-mile) journey from Paris to Lyon takes less than 2 hours.A TGV, showing its interior features       The TGV's high speed is made possible by its streamlined design, its high-powered electric motors and its relatively low weight. Its motors are powered by electric current via a long arm called a pantograph that connects to an overhead cable. The two power cars, one at either end of the train, together with its eight passenger cars, are all carefully streamlined, so the train uses up no more energy than an ordinary train.

A TGV driver's cab     The TGV has trucks of four wheels, called bogies, set between the carriages. This design allows the train to bend slightly as it goes around corners at high speed. Also, fewer wheels are needed, so reducing friction.

      Computers effectively drive the TGV. The driver checks the train’s progress on a computer screen and gives instructions by using a keyboard. A radio links on-board computers with the signalling centre and other trains on the track. This means the driver does not even have to slow down to check and react to lineside signals. Computers also operate the brakes, air-conditioning and other equipment.



        The high-speed TGV can travel up slopes four times as steep as most other trains. So the new tracks built for it could be much straighter, saving much of the cost of constructing a level track across hilly country. Having tracks without sharp curves also avoids the need to slow down for corners.A TGV's gradient, compared to other trains

Trans-Siberian Railway

A Trans-Siberian express train

      The longest scheduled train service is the Trans-Siberian Express, which runs on the Trans-Siberian Railway, from Moscow to Vladivostok, a port city on the Sea of Japan, a distance of 9297 kilometres (5810 miles). The complete journey takes almost eight days. Hauled by steam locomotives, the first train ran on the route in 1914. The line was electrified in the 1960s.

Rapid transit

A train at a busy Paris metro station

      Electric trains are useful in places where smoke or fumes cannot easily escape into the air. Many large cities have electric trains which run under the ground, linking different parts of the city. They are known as rapid transit, underground, subway, metro or metropolitan railways. They have good acceleration in order to move quickly between closely spaced stations. The first underground trains ran in London in 1863. Originally steam-powered, they are now electric.

Trams

A tram in Melbourne, Australia

       Many towns and cities have trams (known as streetcars in the USA): rail vehicles that run on tracks along the city streets. They are usually powered by electricity, supplied from an overhead pantograph or sometimes an electrified third rail. The St Charles Line, which runs through the US city of New Orleans, is the oldest continuously operating tram line in the world. Steam services began in 1835, and the line was electrified in 1893.

Electric generators and motors

Electricity produces magnetismElectricity and magnetism are so closely linked that one can produce the other. An electric current flowing in a cable produces a magnetic field around the cable. A magnetic field moving near a wire causes electricity to flow along the wire. Electromagnetism is the basis of how both generators and electric motors work.

Electromagnetism

Ørsted demonstrates his discovery

In 1820, the Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851) observed that when he passed an electric current through a wire, a magnetic compass needle nearby was slightly deflected. He realised that the electric current had produced magnetism: he had discovered electromagnetism. 

How an electric bell works

If the wire is wound around a core of iron to form a long coil, or solenoid, and an electric current passed through it, the strength of the magnetism increases. When current is flowing, the core of this electromagnet is magnetized and both the core and wire produce a magnetic field. Switch off the electricity and the field disappears, because the core loses its magnetization and the wire no longer carries a current. Electromagnets have many uses, including magnetic cranes to lift heavy pieces of metal or, on a smaller scale, inside electric doorbells.

Using movement to produce electricity

An illustration of Faraday's experiment

After Ørsted discovered that electricity could produce magnetism, the English scientist Michael Faraday (1791–1867) investigated whether the reverse effect—that magnetism could produce electricity—was possible. In an experiment he carried out in 1831, he found that an electric current was produced in a coil of wire when a magnet was moved in and out of it. The faster the magnet moved, the greater the current produced.

Generators

A simple a.c. generator or alternator

This principle established a way of generating electricity: a means of converting motion, or kinetic energy, into electrical energy. The same effect that Faraday had discovered could be achieved by moving a wire while keeping the magnet stationary. Inside a simple generator, a coil of wire is made to spin between the poles of a magnet, which induces (creates) an electric current in the wire.

The first half of each turn of the coil produces a current flowing in one direction; the second half produces one flowing in the opposite direction. So the current varies, or alternates, from zero to a maximum and back again. This is known as an alternating current (a.c.). The number of times this cycle is completed in one second is called the frequency.

Power station generator

Cross-section through a generator in a power station

In a generator at a modern power station, the coil that produces the electric current, sometimes called the armature, is kept stationary: it is known as the stator. The changing magnetic field is produced by a rotating electromagnet: the rotor. The rotor is connected to a turbine, driven by a power source such as the steam from water heated by burning fuel or nuclear reactions, or simply the movement of water itself. A current flows when the generator is connected to a circuit.

Dynamo

A simple d.c. generator or dynamo

To produce a current flowing continuously in the same direction only—a direct current (d.c.)—the generator, known as a dynamo, is connected to the circuit through a device called a commutator. This consists of a contact ring, split so that the connection (via carbon brushes) to the circuit is such that the electric current generated flows in one direction only. 

Using electricity to produce movement

Faraday's experiment

In an experiment of 1821, Faraday showed that when an electric current was passed through a wire it rotated around a stationary magnet. So, acting in the opposite way to a generator, in which movement produced electricity, electricity could produce movement. This is the basic principle of an electric motor.

Electric motor

How an electric motor worksAn electric motor is a device that turns electric current into a rotary (spinning) movement. When electricity flows through a coil of wire situated between the opposite poles of a magnet, the coil produces its own magnetic field. The two magnetic fields interact, and the attraction and repulsion that occurs causes the coil to spin. If the electrical supply is d.c., it must first pass through a commutator which makes the electric current in the coil regularly reverse and consequently keeps the motor turning in one direction only.

Inside an electric drill

Electric motors are clean and quiet, and can be small enough to run a wristwatch, or large enough to power a vehicle. Washing machines, food processors, vacuum cleaners, drills, hair dryers and many other appliances and devices are driven by electric motors.

Transformers

Transformers at an electricity sub-station

Most generators produce a.c., and are called alternators. Alternating current is more convenient than direct current, because it is easier to transmit than d.c. and can be changed to a higher or lower voltage by a device called a transformer, whereas d.c. cannot. High-voltage electricity travels across country from power stations (which house the generators) along cables suspended above ground by pylons.

A network of cables delivering electricity from power stations to users across a country is called the national grid. The high voltage (at 400,000 V) electricity is transmitted at needs to be reduced or "stepped down" for use in the home (230 V). A series of transformers, contained inside electricity sub-stations, do this job.

How a transformer works

How a step-down transformer works

A simple transformer consists of an iron core with a coil wound around each "arm". An alternating electric current first passes through one coil, known as the primary coil. This produces an alternating magnetic field in the core, which in turn induces (creates) an alternating electric current in the other coil, called the secondary coil.

In a transformer designed to "step up" the voltage, the secondary coil has more turns than the primary. A “step-down” transformer, which decreases voltage, has fewer turns in the secondary coil than in the primary coil.