engineers

Journalists and engineers could come together to shape the future of news thanks to a new joint Columbia-Stanford media innovation institute funded by Cosmopolitan Editor Helen Gurley Brown.

The David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation will be an East Coast/West Coast collaboration. Housed at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City and Stanford's Engineering School in Palo Alto, Calif., the institute is thought to be a first of its kind initiative aimed at helping the foster a new era of communication between the editorial and technical sides of news organizations.

The … Read more

Is there a paint color called "crack in the bridge?"

There could be one day, if Scottish researchers continue to make progress on a low-cost smart paint that could detect microscopic faults in structures such as bridges, wind turbines, and mines.

The paint, under development at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, is made of highly aligned carbon nanotubes, which can carry an electrical current, and a recycled waste product known as fly ash that's usually produced during coal combustion.

When mixed, the paint takes on a cement-like property that makes it hardy and particularly useful in areas where the weather can make regular safety monitoring difficult.

"There are no limitations as to where it could be used, and the low-cost nature gives it a significant advantage over the current options available in the industry," Mohamed Saafi, chair of the university's department of civil engineering, said in a statement. "The process of producing and applying the paint also gives it an advantage, as no expertise is required and monitoring itself is straightforward." … Read more

What would you do if you found a bag of white powder tucked neatly into the textbook you just bought on the Amazon Marketplace?

If you're smart, you'd take it to the police like Sophia Stockton, a junior at a university in Kansas who discovered something similar in the pages of a history book called "Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues."

While we're on the topic of narcotics, don't forget to tune into President Obama's Q+A on Google+ Hangout tonight at 5:30 p.m. ET, live from the West Wing of … Read more

BMW says touch me, Ford takes mirrors high tech for quiet, the Chevy Volt is off the hook with the Feds, and how much would you pay for Obama's Chrysler 300? And we drive the Chrysler 300 SRT8.

Week before last, Google fired its biggest salvo yet in its battle with Facebook to be the world's most important Web site: It began rolling information from its Google+ social network into the results at its namesake search engine.

I'm not sure how the average Google user feels about this development, but the response of the Google-watching blogosphere has been overwhelmingly critical. Search expert Danny Sullivan has done an excellent series of posts, saying that Google is playing favorites by emphasizing Google+ over rivals such as Facebook and Twitter. Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily argues that Google has violated a promise … Read more

The Dearman Engine Company is developing an engine that runs on what most people would not think of as fuel, liquid air.

Call it a new kind of cold fusion. The pistons get pushed by the pressure of rapidly expanding air in the cylinder. Liquid air is stored at -256 degrees Fahrenheit. The engine pumps liquid air into the cylinder along with what Dearman calls a heat exchange fluid. The liquid air very quickly changes to a gaseous state as it reaches ambient temperature, expanding at the same time.

When the exhaust valves open, the only emission is air.

Using … Read more

While the general state of the American labor market these days is dismal, talented software engineers can easily find themselves fielding multiple lucrative job offers.

In part, it's because technology companies are sprouting up everywhere and hiring like crazy. And it's also because there's a dearth of people skilled enough to build the software that's powering all these new outfits.

That shortage is one of the main reasons a group of influential New Yorkers--led by, among others, Union Square Ventures' top-tier VC Fred Wilson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's education team--will be opening … Read more

Microsoft has finally won second place among search engines.

Carving out 15.1 percent of the market in December, Bing narrowly outstripped the 14.5 percent share eked out by Yahoo, according to data released yesterday by market researcher ComScore.

Of course, Google still led the search engine market with a whopping 65 percent share.

But December was the first month in which Microsoft outshone its competitor and partner Yahoo, according to a Citi analyst cited by TechCrunch. As always, ComScore's numbers include only explicit core searches that people manually enter on a Web page.

Under the hood, Microsoft … Read more

Sacramento, Calif. is going to get a little steamy this weekend as the International Association for the Advancement of Steam Power and the Steam Automobile Club of America kick off a conference on the latest developments in steam power technology.

Ten steam-powered cars will be on display at the first-ever IAASP conference, to be held January 13, 14, and 15 at the California Automobile Museum. Conference participants will include steam automobile owners and developers, modern steam locomotive experts, small steam power plant developers and manufacturers, engineers, and enthusiasts.

Cyclone Power Technologies, the company that created the engine for a Cyclone-Williams LSR streamliner, … Read more