Month: August 2017

Enlarge / This is Soletair's synthetic fuel production pilot plant, which the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology says is "designed for decentralized production, fits into a shipping container, and can be extended modularly." (Photo: VTT) (credit: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology/ Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT))

In a white paper released this month, German auto parts maker Bosch argued for increased development of carbon-neutral synthetic diesel and gas—that is, fuel made from carbon dioxide and (ideally renewable) electricity. Such fuel emits carbon dioxide when it's burned, but it also captures carbon dioxide as it's being made, so it's considered carbon neutral. Bosch researchers said moving to synthetic fuel could prevent the release of an additional 2.8 gigatons of CO₂ in Europe between 2025 and 2050.

Synthetic fuels aren’t anything new, but they’re far more costly to produce than fossil-fuel-derived oil and gas. Fischer-Tropsch diesel is one kind of synthetic fuel that can be produced with carbon monoxide and hydrogen, creating a substance chemically identical to fossil fuel-based diesel. Another kind of synthetic fuel is made from oxymethylene ethers (OME), but OME fuel often requires retrofits to existing diesel engines before it can be burned in them, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Both are prohibitively expensive to produce compared to diesel made from fossil fuels.

But Bosch says investing in synthetic fuels is necessary to achieving Europe’s decarbonization goals. The company’s researchers also argue that the cost of synthetic fuel will fall with economies of scale and sufficient learning. “The transport sector has to achieve near-complete independence of fossil fuels by 2050 according to International Energy Agency models,” the Bosch white paper states. Long term, electrification could achieve this, but Bosch thinks that in the short timeframe we have, it may not be possible to replace the globe’s fleet (or even Europe's fleet) with electric and fuel cell vehicles.

Enlarge / Domino's Pizza and Ford Motor Co. are launching an industry-first collaboration to understand the role that self-driving vehicles can play in pizza delivery. (credit: Ford)

Ford has teamed up with Domino's Pizza to test automated delivery of pizzas, the Detroit News reports.

Customers who participate in the test will get a text message telling them that their pizza is ready. From there, they'll come out to the curb and punch the last four digits of their phone number into a touchscreen mounted by the rear passenger door. "The window rolls down and the customer grabs their order from a warming oven just inside the window," according to the Detroit News.

But don't get too excited. This isn't a fully self-driving car, although it will have a full complement of self-driving sensors, including a lidar on the roof. There will be a driver hidden behind tinted windows in the driver's seat.

Enlarge / As someone who left The Walking Dead (TV) behind, I'd like to see Rick and company take on this dude. (credit: HBO)

Warning: This post contains mild spoilers for season seven of Game of Thrones

It’s hard to reinvent the zombie given these creatures have had near-infinite variations in the decades since George Romero took the undead mainstream. There’s no real incentive to drastically innovate today, either. Come up with a clever spin (say, The Girl With All The Gifts with zombie-dom as a genetic trait passed down through generations) and people may still ultimately dismiss a work as “just another zombie thing.” Indulge our basest, most well-tread zombie desires (Walking Dead) on the other hand, and you could comfortably attract an audience.

But when I recently started watching Game of Thrones through osmosis (aka sharing the same living room with a show obsessive), I found my attention drawn to a single entity. George RR Martin seems to have baked in an olive branch for outsiders wading into Westeros waters late: a certain soulless, frigid, nightmarish species. And the way they work is fascinating for anyone, series diehard or otherwise, who likes the greater body of zombie fiction.