Perlan ll project aims to fly a glider to the edge of space

Riding colossal stratospheric air waves, the Perlan ll glider is intended to fly to the edge of space

In an ambitious attempt to break every wing-borne sustained flight height record for a manned aircraft, the Perlan ll project intends to construct and fly a glider higher than any sailplane has gone before. Riding on the colossal stratospheric air waves generated over mountains, the team plans to fly their craft to more than 90,000 ft (27,000 m), which will shatter their own existing glider altitude record of 50,671 ft (15,400 m) set by Perlan l in 2008.

Former NASA test pilot, and now founder and CEO of the project, Einar Enevoldson, is basing the project's anticipated flight success on evidence he has collected over many years as a high-altitude pilot on a weather phenomenon known as stratospheric mountain waves. These mountain waves are ultra-strong airstreams that collide with the tops of tall mountain ranges like the Andes and are redirected straight up, creating great waves of air that a glider could potentially use to ride up towards the edge of space.

Enevoldson sought to prove this phenomenon, and in 1998 – in conjunction with meteorologist Dr. Elizabeth Austin – verified his assertions and discovered that it is two phenomena known as the stratospheric polar night jet and the polar vortex that create and sustain these mountain waves all the way up to an altitude of 130,000 feet (39,624 meters). Enlisting the financial help of the late adventurer Steve Fossett in his first attempt to exploit these powerful stratospheric air currents, Fossett and Enevoldson piloted the glider Perlan I to shatter the altitude record for gliders by ascending to 50,671 feet (15,460m) in 2006.

Now Enevoldson wants to completely blow away his own record by taking Perlan ll up to a height of over 90,000 ft (27,000 m) using these very same air currents. This time he plans to use a pressurized cockpit (the original Perlan l didn't have one, and the pressure suits that Enevoldson and Fossett wore weren't up to the task) and a small-windowed cabin so that he can get as close to the edge of space as possible.

Originally unsuccessfully floated on Indiegogo in 2013, the project was in danger of stalling until the the Airbus Group saw the merits and opportunities of Perlan ll, and have now partnered with them to provide technical and financial support for the project. Airbus announced their intentions at this year’s EAA AirVenture Oshkosh fly-in.

"After a thorough evaluation of the engineering and scientific planning behind the Perlan Project, Airbus Group is convinced that this important mission will be a success," said Jean Botti, Airbus Group's chief technical officer. "We believe it is critically important for us to advance climate sciences and aerodynamic research. With the Airbus Perlan II mission we particularly see an opportunity to gain experience and data related to very high altitude flight – an area of interest for future aerospace applications."

Currently being constructed in carbon fiber, the Perlan ll will have a claimed wingspan of 84 ft (25 m) and designed to fly near transonic speeds if it is to maintain adequate lift in the thin air of the stratosphere. As such, the team also says that the glider will contain life support systems – including oxygen tanks, CO2 scrubbers and rebreather systems – and an airframe capable of sustaining heavy transient shock waves, whilst being both rigid and light.

All going to plan, the Perlan ll will also conduct high-level aerodynamic and other scientific research when it is launched, which at this stage is slated for sometime in 2016.

The video below shows the Perlan ll project's original project launch video.

iPipet uses an iPad to make a monotonous lab task better

iPipet is an iPad app that uses glowing dots to guide lab techs as they're pipetting

If you've ever worked in a laboratory, or even if you've just seen them on TV, then you're probably familiar with the important but monotonous task of pipetting. To make it easier and less prone to errors, a team at the MIT-affiliated Whitehead Institute has created iPipet, an app that allows an iPad to visually guide "pipetters" in their work.

Putting it simply, pipetting involves using an eye dropper-like glass pipette to transfer precise measurements of liquid samples between sets of vial-like wells contained within trays known as well plates. Given its often mind-numbingly repetitive nature, however, mistakes can be made – if a sample accidentally goes from a "source" well into a "destination" well that contains one reagent as opposed to another, for instance, then the results of the experiment can be heavily skewed.

Robotic pipetting systems certainly do exist, although they're expensive, require trained personnel to set up, and are not entirely infallible themselves.

iPipet keeps human lab techs in the picture, but uses the iPad screen to help them keep track of what they're doing. They start by utilizing a spreadsheet interface to enter the protocol of their specific task – which samples need to go into which wells, that sort of thing.

That information is uploaded to the iPipet website, where it's used to generate two grid-style displays that are sent back to the iPad. The source and destination well plates are then placed over top of those displays. Individual glowing dots within the grids correspond to individual wells, illuminating them from below, showing users on a step-by-step basis which samples should go to which destination wells.

To keep the well plates aligned with the grids, users can download a file that will allow them to 3D-print a plastic adapter that fits over the tablet screen.

In a test of the system, humans using iPipet were able to perform almost 3,000 fixed-volume pipetting steps in about seven hours – by contrast, a robotic system was reportedly able to manage only half that number within the same amount of time.

iPipet was created in the lab of Yaniv Erlich, and can be downloaded from the project website. A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Nature Methods.

The program can be seen in use in the following video.

Hydrapak Stash collapsible water bottle stands up and packs into a pocket disc

The Hydrapak Stash will be available within the next few months in several colors

In 2013, Hydrapak introduced its SoftFlask series of soft-sided TPU water bottles designed to collapse into your pocket. The design seemed handy, but we wondered why the company chose to use a rather big, bulging bottom on a design meant to pack small. It addresses this shortcoming with the all-new Stash. The Stash's collapsible TPU body is paired with a flat bottom that snaps together with the top, making the packed bottle even easier to transport.

When you're at home or in town, you finish up your water and then put the bottle in the dishwasher or recycling bin. But when you're out jogging or hiking without a recycling bin or backpack handy, you're basically stuck carrying around a useless bottle.

The SoftFlask provided a nice solution to that problem, and the 25-oz (750-ml) Stash adds an extra level of convenience. In place of the uneven base of the SoftFlask, the Stash has a molded flat bottom welded to its TPU body. The bottom allows the bottle to stand up and also snaps together with the top when you collapse the body down, creating a disc measuring 2 in high and 3.5 in diameter (5 x 8.9 cm).

When you think about the option of carrying an empty, full-sized 25-oz bottle around on the last two miles of your run or hike versus sliding a disc in your pocket, the Stash's advantage is clear. Stash discs can also nest together, so you can store multiple bottles more easily. Even if you have a backpack or vehicle, a few collapsed Stash bottles can save a whole lot of valuable space over hard bottles of the same volume.

The BPA-free, dishwasher-safe Stash bottles will hit the market in late fall (Northern Hemisphere) in blue, orange, green and smoke colors. Each will retail for US$17.99 and come with a 43-mm screw top and nylon finger strap. Hydrapak also plans to offer a twist-lock bite valve accessory.

New study indicates dramatic fall-off in global crop yields by the year 2050

A new study predicts that global crop yields could fall by up to ten percent in the next 36 years (Photo: Shutterstock)

A new study has examined the potentially disastrous implications that a combination of global warming and air pollution could have on crop yields by the year 2050. The research is one of the first projects to take into account a combination of the two dangers, and highlights the humanitarian crisis that could arise should the threat not be tackled head-on.

The study, carried out by researchers from MIT, the University of Hong Kong and Colorado State University, focuses on four major crops that represent over half the calories consumed by the global population – rice, wheat, corn, and soy. It estimates that global crop yields will drop by around 10 percent by the year 2050 due to global warming, however the damaging effects of air pollution may be harder to quantify due to the difficulty in differentiating it from other damaging phenomenon.

For example, an estimated 46 percent of damage to soy crops previously believed to have been caused by global warming was reportedly actually due to air pollution. However, whilst the two phenomenon damage the crops in their own right, they are also inextricably linked. The rising temperatures caused by global warming is itself the catalyst that leads to an increase in the creation of plant-damaging ozone.

Furthermore, the study highlights that while individually air pollution or global warming would be damaging to global food production capabilities, together they pose a much greater threat, working in concert to detrimentally affect a much wider range of crops than either one could harm on its own. For example, corn crops are very susceptible to damage from heat created as a result of global warming, but less affected by ozone. Wheat on the other hand suffers in completely the opposite manner, and is easily damaged via interaction with polluted air.

According to the study, the effects of the damage will differ significantly by region. This is as a result of the type of crop present in that area, combined with the clean-air safeguards put in place by individual nations. For example, America has passed stringent air quality regulations, which it is predicted will limit the effects of the damage to crop output.

Whilst scientific advances are being made focusing on improving crop yield and quality, the fact remains that food production and distribution is still inefficient in dealing with undernourishment in less developed countries. The food shortage in Africa will only be exacerbated under current trends, with the study predicting an increase in undernourishment on the continent from 18 to 27 percent.

The end message is that world leaders must take the potential reduction in food production seriously, as they consider national air pollution and food security policy. A ten percent drop in crop yields, compounded by the unquantifiable damage caused by air pollution by the year 2050, is untenable at a time when we are predicted to need to produce 50 percent more food simply to sustain our planet's burgeoning global population.

Low-cost reading system enables visually impaired to hear graphical content

Dr Iain Murray and PhD student Azadeh Nazemi with the digital reading system they developed at Curtin University

From a contact lens that delivers tactile sensations to the cornea, to a 3D-printed ring that reads text aloud in real-time, advances in technology have opened up some groundbreaking ways for the visually-impaired to consume printed content. Researchers from Australia's Curtin University have now unveiled a low-cost reading device that processes graphical information, enabling the blind to digest documents such as bills, PDFs, graphs and bank statements.

"People who are blind are often blocked from certain career paths and educational opportunities where graphs or graphics play a strong role," says Dr Iain Murray, Senior Lecturer at Curtin University's Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering who developed the digital reading system with PhD student Azadeh Nazemi. "We hope this device will open up new opportunities for people with vision impairment."

The device measures 20 x 15 x 3 cm (7 x 6 x 1.1 in) and features a set of high contrast with tactile markings for navigation. Using pattern recognition, machine learning technologies and a range of segmentation methods, the system separates content into blocks of text and pictures that are arranged in the correct reading order.

These blocks are then identified as images, graphs, maths or text and extracted either though optical character recognition (OCR) or Mathspeak, a tool for verbalizing mathematical calculations. The information is then converted to audio format with navigation markup and can be translated into 120 different languages via the built-in speech engine. Audio instructions are also built into the device.

“Our system is easily operated by people of all ages and abilities and it is open source, meaning anyone with the skill can use and modify the software to suit their application,” Dr Murray said. He expects that the cost for the reading device will be as low as US$100 per unit, a price that could make it a very real solution for many, even in developing countries. He is now seeking philanthropic financing to get the device into production.