The Earth Like an Electric Circuit
	Electric energy is crucial for Earth and its cycles. The Globe is like a huge electric circuit. The Ionosphere layer of the atmosphere is positively charged and the Earth is negatively charged. The difference is of about 250,000 volts. If we could make the connection, through a conductor, between Earth and Ionosphere, the whole Earth would experience short circuit. If we could do this, the weather would change, but the effects wo ... [read more >>]
	08 April 2008, 10:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Earth's Mantle-Core Electricity Prolongs the Day
	The length of a day is not affected only by tides and winds. Underground forces are prolonging our days by milliseconds, as revealed by a new research published in the journal "Science." Phenomena from the mineral layer at the core-mantle boundary, 1,615 mi (2,600 km) deep, appear to impact the Earth's spinning speed. " ... [read more >>]
	08 April 2008, 05:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Behold the Revolution of Electric Cars: the Mighty Chevrolet Volt
	A US vehicle manufacturing company to mass produce a fully electrical car? Is it too good to be true, or is the US finally starting to turn around and cut its massive contribution to the greenhouse effect? Believe it or not, General Motors – famous for producing petrol thirsty cars – has recently revealed the concept for an electric car capable of going 22 kilometers per liter with the help of a propulsion system designed during the period ... [read more >>]
	27 February 2008, 10:20GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Does the Radio Work?
	The radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation. This theory was first emitted by the British James Clark Maxwell in 1864 and later confirmed by the German Heinrich Hertz in 1880. In 1887, Hertz showed in public the transmission and reception of radio waves. His emitter produced an electric current discharged as sparkles, alternated rapidly and changed flow direction. The rapidly changing current determined two metal plates emit ra ... [read more >>]
	09 January 2008, 06:25GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Best Way to Move Using an Electrical Radar
	The vast majority of the animals, including us, walk forward because they sense what's in front of them. Predators focus on the prey located in front of them. But a small electric fish from the Amazon, the black ghost knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons), just 15 cm (6 in) long, can move also backwards to catch its prey. This is possible because while most predators use passive sensing, waiting for information to come to them, the knifef ... [read more >>]
	14 November 2007, 05:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

High Energy Cosmic Rays Are Fueled by Fossil Magnetic Cocoons
	What speeds cosmic rays close to the velocity of light? Huge magnetic cocoons linked to galaxies whose black holes are inactive could solve the puzzle: the way the energy rich cosmic rays reach Earth, when normally they should have long finished their resources. Cosmic rays represent high-speed atomic nuclei, mainly hydrogen, coming mostly from objects within our galaxy, like supernova remains and pulsars. Still, the ultra-hig ... [read more >>]
	23 October 2007, 05:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Would It Be to See with the Chin?
	Generally, a long nose does not mean a better smelling sense. The African elephantnose fish (Gnathonemus petersii) has a "trunk" with a totally different goal. A team at the University of Bonn has shown how this works. In complete darkness, these fishes can see objects and make the difference between dead and live organisms. The fish, which is no longer than one foot (35 cm), hovers with its head tilted, close to the water be ... [read more >>]
	22 August 2007, 07:12GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Antique Engine Inspires New Energy-Efficient Nano Chip
	A new and energy-efficient mechanical computer is not only small and incredibly robust, but it was also inspired by the blueprint of a researcher, created by a scientist nearly 200 years ago. It would have been built in its time, it would have meant a computer revolution more than a century and a half before the invention of the modern ones. Scientists of the University of Wisconsin-Madison put together the computer based ent ... [read more >>]
	25 July 2007, 05:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Variable Liquid Lenses Could Revolutionize Cameras
	A newly developed technology could revolutionize most optical devices, making them much more adaptable, yet smaller and cost-effective. The variable liquid lenses and mirrors may one day replace conventional ones in camera phones, for instance, as they have no mechanical parts – thus taking less space – but maintain, if not improve, image quality. Constructing a lens that does not change focus with the same image quality as o ... [read more >>]
	23 July 2007, 11:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Top 10 Electric Fishes
	The electric organs are specialized organs, derived from the muscles or the nerve cell's axon, that can generate electric current, employed from catching the prey (electro-paralysis) to defense, orientation (electro-location, similar the way bats and dolphins use ultrasounds in ecolocation), or as a means of communication, for mating, feeding or territory defense. The electric fish, producing electricity, are electrogenic, but as they ... [read more >>]
	14 July 2007, 11:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The New Ford Hybrid Cars Will Be Plugged in Next to Household Appliances
	Electric cars are an environmentally friendly alternative to old internal combustion engines that use fossil fuels and pollute the atmosphere. For now, they have their limitations regarding the autonomy, because electricity is very hard to store in conventional batteries and because recharge stations are still rare. Now, a new generation of experimental vehicles designed by Ford and utility company Southern California Edison, ... [read more >>]
	11 July 2007, 05:49GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Electric Man Can Cook Fish in 2 Minutes!
	You may have heard about electric rays, electric eels, or electric catfish. But an electric man? The reports show that the 71 year-old Zhang Deke, a retired highway maintainer from Altay city of China's westernmost Xinjiang, is able to stand charges (and he charges himself) of 220V of electricity passing through his body as a form of routine "exercise" to keep himself fit! With both his hands grabbing onto live ... [read more >>]
	10 July 2007, 14:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Ride The Brammo Hippie Electric Motorcycle!
	Because of the higher gasoline prices, the electric motorcycles and scooters are raising in popularity, and the battery technology is gradually improving, making this form of transportation more practical. The zero emissions, the easily rechargeable vehicles are just two of the advantages that the electric power comes with compared to gasoline. Brammo Motor Sport is known to be a small motor sport and sportscar company formed ... [read more >>]
	09 July 2007, 02:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Japanese Developed Mind-controlled Electronic Devices
	The Japanese company Hitachi developed a brain-machine interface, a new technology that allows you to control electronic devices without lifting a finger. It does that by reading brain activity and analyzing slightchanges in the brain's blood flow to detect brain motion, which is then translated into electric signals. In one-way brain-computer interfaces, computers either accept commands from the brain or send signals to ... [read more >>]
	23 June 2007, 06:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Electricity for Sex
	To get a sex partner, both males and females employ a lot of signals, from pheromones and songs to gifts and elaborated dances or coats. But some of the methods look as if taken from fiction movies: electric serenades! A Cornell research team has found that the African electric fish couples not only employ specific electrical signals to attract a mate, but also engage in a kind of dueling "electric duet." This is the ... [read more >>]
	21 June 2007, 09:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Porsche 914 Electric Car
	The famous German car maker Porsche is well known for the slick sports cars and the rear mounted boxer engines and is currently the world's largest race car manufacturer. The company has been successful in many branches of auto racing, scoring a total of more than 28,000 victories. The words Porsche and electric car don't go together at all. But if the car maker doesn't envision pro ... [read more >>]
	06 June 2007, 08:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Electric Hats Against Cancer
	Scientists have suspected for years that electric fields cause cancer. But new investigations show that in fact they could stop or even kill it. Low-intensity, intermediate-frequency electric fields were useful in fighting off an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The electric field strategy would eliminate tumors without invasive brain surgery and induce a more than double survival time in preliminary invest ... [read more >>]
	31 May 2007, 03:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Xenon and the Electric Breakdown
	An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, similar to the instant spark, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. An archaic term is voltaic arc as used in the phrase "voltaic arc lamp". Whether it's a lightning bolt or the spark inside a bad switch, or a spark flying between a metal doorknob and your hand, the process is the s ... [read more >>]
	02 April 2007, 04:19GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia