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The latest sign of regulatory support comes two months after Beijing became the country’s first city to green light open road test for autonomous cars. The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, also unveiled a three-year plan in December, making the development of smart cars a national priority.

The latest sign of national regulatory support comes two months after Beijing became the country’s first city to green light open road test for self driving cars.

Engineers at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) have found a way to make wood more than 10 times times stronger and tougher than before, creating a natural substance that is stronger than many titanium alloys.

“This new way to treat wood makes it 12 times stronger than natural wood and 10 times tougher,” said Liangbing Hu of UMD’s A. James Clark School of Engineering and the leader of the team that did the research, to be published on February 8, 2018 in the journal Nature. “This could be a competitor to steel or even titanium alloys, it is so strong and durable. It’s also comparable to carbon fiber, but much less expensive.” Hu is an associate professor of materials science and engineering and a member of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute.

“It is both strong and tough, which is a combination not usually found in nature,” said Teng Li, the co-leader of the team and Samuel P. Langley Associate Professor of mechanical engineering at UMD’s Clark School. His team measured the dense wood’s mechanical properties. “It is as strong as steel, but six times lighter. It takes 10 times more energy to fracture than natural wood. It can even be bent and molded at the beginning of the process.”

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Tesla said residential solar deployments were affected by the short supply of Powerwalls for customers who wanted solar plus Powerwall in their house.

Autism, schizophrenia, bipolar, depression and alcoholism have similar molecular signatures in the brain.

Illustration of an array of organic vortex lasers, each with a different spiral and therefore a different topological charge. Credit: Stellinga et al. ©2018 American Chemical Society Researchers have developed a new type of organic vortex laser, which is a laser that emits a helical beam of light. In the future, miniature arrays of these vortex lasers, each with a slightly different spiral shape, may be used in applications such as 3D TV displays, microscopy, and as information carriers for visible light communications. The researchers, led by Ifor D. W. Samuel at the University of St. Andr…

Style meets substance in space.

Singapore-based ST Aerospace has collaborated with US-based precision control components provider Moog to explore and develop blockchain and 3D printing-enabled total digital transaction for the global aerospace sector.

A team of researchers at UC San Diego and San Diego State University has developed a pair of “4D goggles” that allows wearers to be physically “touched” by a movie when they see a looming object on the screen, such as an approaching spacecraft.

The device was developed based on a study conducted by the neuroscientists to map brain areas that integrate the sight and touch of a looming object and aid in their understanding of the perceptual and neural mechanisms of multisensory integration.

But for the rest of us, the researchers said, it has a more practical purpose: The device can be synchronized with entertainment content, such as movies, music, games and virtual reality, to deliver immersive multisensory effects near the face and enhance the sense of presence.