Genie instant cooker turns pods into meals in 30 seconds

A new miniature cooker from Israel called the Genie is set to spark a revolution in meal preparation – it's able to turn pods of freeze-dried ingredients into full meals in as little as half a minute. Everything from chicken and rice to a chocolate soufflé can be whipped up, and the chefs working with the Genie inventors say that they're just getting started

It's been compared to a Star Trek replicator – the futuristic machine that can synthesize meals on demand – and while it might not quite be as capable it certainly has plenty of potential. Each pod contains natural ingredients, free from preservatives, and dry ingredients such as flour and sugar can be added to the mix, too.

Ayelet Carasso and Doron Marco are the Israeli entrepreneurs behind the device, and they're keeping their cards close to their chest about the (patented) inner workings of the Genie. They describe it as being like a Keurig-type coffee machine, where you pop in a pod of food and get your cooked or baked snack back a minute later. There's also an accompanying mobile app to give the Genie instructions and recipes.

"You choose the capsule and put it inside Genie," Carasso explains to us. "Genie then adds liquids, mixes and bakes it in the exact time and way needed, even to your personal tastes. In less than a minute, you have a hot, fresh, tasty meal. On demand." What makes the unit so impressive is the range of foods it can produce, from muffins to vegetable dishes.

On demand

For Carasso and Marco, the plan is to get the Genie into homes, coffee shops, gyms, universities, offices and everywhere else – the dehydrated ingredients have a shelf life of 1-2 years, and can be tweaked for those with special dietary requirements. "We will eat personalized food, we will eat the right-sized portion, we will reduce waste, and we will eat better," says Carasso.

The inventors don't expect us all to be dining out on Genie pods in the near future, but they say that they can offer a healthy and nutritious snack any time, any place. For those working in remote areas or those living in parts of the world where food is scarce, the Genie could make a significant difference. The team is already in discussions with the Israeli military, for example.

The product is set to launch in Israel within the next two months, though the team behind it is planning a small roll-out initially. It's expected to cost several hundred US dollars, with pricing of individual pods comparable to the snacks they contain.

Audi electrifies the track with electric biturbo TT clubsport

The concept, which features a newly developed 2.5-litre five-cylinder petrol engine and two electrically driven turbochargers, gets aggressive styling and a total power output of 592bhp.

The transversely mounted powerplant is claimed to propel the latest in a long line of TT show cars from 0-62mph in just 3.6sec and on to a claimed top speed of 193mph.

The heavily reworked TT Coupé is described by Audi’s head of research and development, Ulrich Hackenberg, as a technology concept created to provide a glimpse into the sort of features we can expect to see appear on future models from the German car maker.

“Electric turbocharging signifies a new dimension," he said. "We are close to production readiness with this technology with our diesel engines. Now we are presenting it with a petrol engine, too. We are the first car maker to do this.”

At the heart of the TT Clubsport Turbo is a new incarnation of Audi’s traditional five-cylinder petrol engine. While retaining the same 2480cc capacity as the existing unit used in the RS3, it is described as being new from the ground up. “It is a clean sheet design,” said Hackenberg.

With the help of a new twin electric turbocharged induction system, the engine develops a specific output of 239bhp per litre. Torque swells to a peak of 479lb ft on a band of revs between 3000 and 7000rpm.

As well as previewing the German car maker’s plans to add electric turbocharging to its petrol engine line-up in the near future, the new two-seater also provides an insight into Audi’s plans for a 48V electrical system. Set to get its first airing on the upcoming SQ7, which will be the first model slated to use Audi’s electrically turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine, Hackenberg hinted that it will become a regular feature on upcoming models.

The 48V electrical system is required to provide energy for the electric turbochargers. It uses a lithium ion battery mounted in the luggage compartment to store kinetic energy generated under braking and during periods of trailing throttle. This energy is then utilized to run the turbochargers when required. 

Audi claims the adoption of electric turbochargers provides a big advantage in standing-start acceleration due to their ability to provide instantaneous boost. “The TT Clubsport Turbo covers up to 16 metres within the first 2.5sec - which is six metres further than a car with conventional exhaust gas turbocharging,” said Hackenberg.

London’s horticultural history inspires the world’s first Garden Bridge

New details about and images of London's planned Garden Bridge have been released.

The Garden Bridge concept was conceived back in 1998 by British actor Joanna Lumley, but only began being developed as a feasible project in 2013. It has received a great deal of varied criticism, including suggestions that it's too expensive, that it will block views of St. Paul's Cathedral and that it will be closed overnight. Such is the opposition to the Garden Bridge that it is currently the subject of a judicial review.

Nonetheless, the Garden Bridge Trust, which is overseeing the project, is pushing on with its planning and delivery. It argues that the bridge will be a unique public park and destination that will link cultural areas on the North and South Banks, create new quicker and safer pedestrian routes, and that it will showcase UK design, engineering and landscaping talent – amongst other things.

Assuming the project goes ahead, the bridge will link the South Bank of the Thames to Temple tube station and beyond into Covent Garden. The newly-released images show what five differently landscaped areas across 2,500 sq m (26,900 sq ft) of planting space will look like. There will be 270 trees; 2,000 shrubs, hedging plants and climbers; over 22,000 perennials, ferns and grasses; and 64,000 bulbs.

"Whatever the season, the planting will provide year-round color and interest with spring blossom and flowering bulbs, high summer flowers, autumn color and winter interest from evergreens, scented shrubs and bulbs," says Pearson. "An abundance of nectar-rich flower, berries and fruit will also create somewhere attractive to wildlife and the planting will also enhance and frame beautiful new views up and down the river."

In addition to featuring species that will thrive throughout the year, the Garden Bridge will take inspiration from London's horticultural history. An area adjacent to the South Bank will host species once common on Lambeth Marsh and in Central London, whilst the North Glade section will be a woodland inspired by the parks and gardens of old London

Elsewhere, a second woodland area, South Glade, will feature plants known for spring blossom and autumn fruit. The North Bank section will be home to the scented late winter and early spring flowering shrubs found in nearby Temple Gardens. The central span, or Scarp, section of the bridge will be a cliff-top landscape.

Judicial reviews aside, construction of the Garden Bridge is due to begin in early 2016 and it is expected to be opened in in 2018. It will be free to visit.

Dodge Viper ACR couples massive downforce with V10 power

Dodge is keen for a sliver of the high-end trackday pie with the upcoming release of the new Viper ACR, which combines the standard Viper's prodigious power with a race-inspired aerodynamics kit.

In the process of turning a standard Viper into the more focused ACR model, Dodge has stripped back the car's interior, swapping in a lightweight, three speaker stereo and dropping electric adjustment in favor of a simpler manual system. Alcantara replaces much of the leather around the ACR's cabin and the footwells are filled with carpets made up of a lightweight weave to cut back on precious, time sapping grams.

Dodge says that the car's aerodynamics kit – previewed at SEMA – will produce almost one ton of downforce at its 177 mph (285 km/h) top speed. While the most prominent feature of the ACR aero package is the 1.87 m wide rear wing, there are a number of smaller touches around the car designed to fine-tune its balance, including small dive planes and a removable front splitter.

Dodge has also extended the carbon fiber diffuser so it now starts in front of the rear axle, and owners can customise their setup through six removable strakes in the diffuser unit. Similarly, the ACR's bonnet louvres are removable, allowing owners' to tweak the setup for the track they're on

Backing up the extensive aerodynamic changes is a brand new set of Bilstein shocks that can be adjusted for rebound and compression. Their aluminum construction also helps to reduce weight and the ACR's springs are more than twice as stiff as the standard model.

Lightning-quick laptimes require strong brakes, so Dodge has fitted the ACR with 390 mm (15.4 in) front and 360 mm (14.2 in) rear carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes, clamped on by six and four piston calipers respectively. These bigger brakes are backed up by rear tires measuring up at 11-inches wide (355/30), which combined with the 295/25 front tires provide the car with the largest contact patch of any production car. Dodge claims all of these upgrades, along with an extra 1.4 degrees of negative camber, mean the ACR can generate up to 1.5 g in the corners. Because of the extra grip provided by the ACR's upgraded chassis, Dodge has recalibrated its ABS and five-mode stability control.

Powering the ACR is the same 8.4-liter V10 engine that lies under the standard Viper's shapely hood, producing the same 645 hp (481 kW) and 813 Nm (600 lb.ft), which Dodge claims is enough to make it the torquiest naturally aspirated engine in the world. While power is the same, the ACR is fitted with new exhaust tips that are designed to cut down on back pressure.

The SRT "is not a 1-3 lap track special," according to Tim Kuniskis, Dodge President and CEO. "You can run the car at the track all day, and the performance doesn't fall off."

Pricing for the Dodge Viper ACR will start at US$117,895 (that's well over $30K more than the ST) and orders are now being taken ahead of a Q3 release.

Facebook's Instant Articles will bring the news to you

In its never-ending quest to become the filter through which we see all the wonders of the web, Facebook has unveiled a new platform for news outlets. Instant Articles will offer tools for publishing articles direct to the social network, delivering rich, fast-loading mobile news content. As Facebook points out, lots of links to articles on external websites are shared on the site every day. When clicked on a mobile device, these are loaded using the browser function of Facebook's mobile app. These links are by far its slowest loading single content type, taking an average of eight seconds to be displayed.

By employing the same technology used to display photos and videos in the Facebook app, Instant Articles will reportedly load up to ten times faster than articles hosted externally. A number of additional features are also being touted, such as interactive maps, the ability to autoplay videos and pan around images by tilting a device.

Of course, Facebook benefits from all of this by having more content from which to serve ads and by keeping more users on the site to view that content. Cynics might argue that a faster means of loading external content might be more beneficial to news publishers.

Facebook, however, says that the Instant Articles functionality is designed "to give publishers control over their stories, brand experience and monetization opportunities." Publishers will be able to sell and manage their own ads in the articles, without having to use Facebook's ad platform and will get to keep all the revenue generated. They will still be able to use Facebook’s ad platform to sell ads into unsold spaces and will also be able to use their existing analytics platforms.

It has to be said too that, at first glance, the articles do have the potential to look rather slick. Videos that play automatically and tilt-to-pan images help to animate the articles, while interactive maps into which you can zoom to see where photos were taken and audio captions to contextualize images help to add additional layers of information.

Facebook says that Instant Articles will provide a fast, interactive and engaging means for publishers to deliver content to their audiences. The noises it is making about ensuring publishers have control over their activity are encouraging, but many publishers will no doubt be wary of sharing their business data with Facebook and having to operate within its walled garden.

Instant Articles will launch first on Facebook for iPhone with content fromThe New York Times, BuzzFeed, National Geographic, NBC and The Atlantic.

What do you think? Would you like to see all new blog trialing Instant Articles? Let us know in the comments

Human-powered airboat

Back in the early 90s, MIT's Prof. Mark Drela created a motor-less hydrofoil known as the Decavitator. Using nothing but his own leg power to turn the craft's 10-foot (3-m) air propeller, he got it up to a speed of 18.5 knots (21 mph/34 km/h), breaking the human-powered water speed record in the process. Inspired by the Decavitator, aerospace inventor Russell Randall created his own pedal-propelled airboat called the Seahorse – and you can now buy one of your own.

Randall first started producing Seahorses in 2001, but stopped to refine the design and perform more on-the-water testing. An unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign followed, but he is now resuming production on an improved incarnation.

Instead of paying for a permanently-attached pedaling platform, users just mount their own bicycle on the trampoline-style deck of the Seahorse. As they pedal, they turn the craft's air propeller, pushing the boat forward. If they wish, they can pay a little extra for the addition of a more traditional water propeller which has only two moving parts, and allows the craft to go upwind in breezier conditions ... although it also slightly increases the chances of getting fouled in aquatic weeds.

When they get to their destination, users then have the option of putting the wheels back on their bike, and using it to get around on the local roads

According to Randall, the Seahorse is faster than a traditionally-paddled canoe or kayak, plus it can move backwards simply by reversing the propeller's pitch via a handlebar control. Users can also install an optional sail and use it as a regular catamaran, without the bike.

Two main versions of the Seahorse are available. There's a 14-foot (4.3-m), 25-lb (11.3-kg) polyethylene model that goes for US$$3,900 with the air propeller, or $4,400 with both air and water props. The longer 18-foot (5.5-m) version is made from fiberglass, and goes for $4,400 with an air prop or $4,900 with both. Potential buyers who don't want to spend quite that much can instead go for a water-prop-only setup, priced at $3,000 for the 14-foot boat and $3,500 for the 18-footer.

Both versions fold inward (the pontoons come together), allowing them to be carried through a standard doorway.

You can see one of the Seahorses in use, along with a funky waterproof quadcopter, in the video below.

Long-lasting, water-based nuclear battery developed

Researchers working at the University of Missouri (MU) claim to have produced a prototype of a nuclear-powered, water-based battery that is said to be both longer-lasting and more efficient than current battery technologies and may eventually be used as a dependable power supply in vehicles, spacecraft, and other applications where longevity, reliability, and efficiency are paramount.

“Betavoltaics, a battery technology that generates power from radiation, has been studied as an energy source since the 1950s,” said associate professor Jae W. Kwon, of the College of Engineering at MU. “Controlled nuclear technologies are not inherently dangerous. We already have many commercial uses of nuclear technologies in our lives including fire detectors in bedrooms and emergency exit signs in buildings.”

Utilizing the radioactive isotope strontium-90 to enhance the electrochemical energy produced in a water-based solution, the researchers have incorporated a nanostructured titanium dioxide electrode acting as a catalyst for water decomposition. That is, the catalyst assists the breakdown of water in conjunction with the applied radiation into assorted oxygen compounds.

As a result, when high-energy beta radiation passes through the platinum and the nanoporous titanium dioxide, electron-hole pairs are produced within the titanium dioxide, creating an electron flow and a resultant electric current.

"Water acts as a buffer and surface plasmons created in the device turned out to be very useful in increasing its efficiency," Kwon said. "The ionic solution is not easily frozen at very low temperatures and could work in a wide variety of applications including car batteries and, if packaged properly, perhaps spacecraft."

By no means the first-ever nuclear battery – the NanoTritium device from City Labs being one recent notable example – this is the first nuclear battery that has been produced to exploit the inherent advantages of radiolysis (water-splitting with radiation) to produce an electric current, at higher energy levels and lower temperatures than previously possible. And at much greater claimed efficiencies than other water-splitting energy production techniques.

This is because, unlike other forms of photocatalytic methods of water-splitting to produce energy, the high-energy beta radiation in the MU device produces free radicals in water such that the kinetic energy is recombined or trapped in water molecules so that the radiation can be converted into electricity – using the platinum/titanium dioxide electrode previously described – to achieve water splitting efficiently and at room temperature.

As a result, whilst solar cells use a similar mechanism for the transference of energy via hole-electron pairs, very few free radicals are produced because the photon energies are principally in the visible spectrum and subsequently at lower levels of energy.

Beta radiation produced by the strontium source, on the other hand, with its ability to enhance the chemical reactions involving free radicals at greater electron energy levels, is a much more efficient way to produce extremely long-lasting and reliable energy. So much so, that the water-based nuclear battery may well offer a viable alternative to the solar cell as a sustainable, low-pollution energy source.

The MU team’s research was published in the journal Nature.

Scientists close in on computers that work like the human brain

Scientists have been working since 2008 to develop technology based on memristors (short for memory resistors), which promise computers that need never boot up and function more akin to the human brain – like neurons, they can retain information and perform logic operations. Now scientists at Northwestern University have made a new breakthrough that may make possible brain-like computing capabilities.

Memristors are considered exciting for more than their potential to create brain-like computers. Unlike flash memory, they're fast. Unlike random access memory (RAM), they remember their state – whatever information they held – when they lose power. They also require less energy to operate, rarely crash, and are immune to radiation. The trouble is that they are two-terminal electronic devices, which results in them being tunable only through changes in the voltage applied externally.

The team at Northwestern transformed memristors from two-terminal to three-terminal electronic devices, thereby allowing their use in more complex electronic circuits and systems. The normal memristor setup as two-terminal devices allows only limited control over how electrical current flows through the system, but the third electrode used by the Northwestern researchers can act as a gate, finely controlling the resistance.

They achieved this by using a nanomaterial semiconductor called molybdenum disulfide, which has its "grains" of atoms arranged in a different direction to the memristors. A grain boundary sits between the molybdenum disulfide sheet and the metal electrode, acting as a kind of interface for the atoms. "These grain boundaries influence the flow of current, so they can serve as a means of tuning resistance," co-author Mark Hersam said.

The grain boundary moves when a large electric field is applied on the memristor, which causes a change in resistance. And that, Hersam noted, makes possible a new level of function and complexity that could lead to brain-like computing. "We are now actively exploring this possibility in the laboratory," he said.

A paper describing the research was published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.