QUESST: Better than Never
NASA quietly passed a critical milestone on June 5 when its X-59 demonstration aircraft flew faster than sound. The X-59 is the sharp end of NASA’s QUESST programme. QUESST is…
Can Rust Fix Broken Software?
In the mid to late twentieth century I expected software to become a significant driver of wealth creation. Better automation, software configured products, advanced business management systems, and the internet…
Steep Highways are False Economy
That burning smell as you drive down a steep slope might not be coming from a roadside barbecue just around the next corner. More likely, it’s your trailer or caravan…
Aerospace
Automotive
Climate Engineering
Direct Cycle Fuel
Habitat Engineering
Marine
Natural Hydrogen
It’s Time for a Climate Task Force
It’s almost 34 years since the initial signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The convention’s stated purpose was to stabilise “greenhouse gas concentrations in the…
2025’s Best Tech Story: New Glenn
It’s been a very exciting year for innovation. However, one story stood out big-time: Blue Origin’s successful launch and landing of their 7×2 New Glenn rocket. New Origin’s achievement heralds…
2024’s Best Tech Story: Direct Cycle Gasoline
My favourite technology story of 2024 evokes images from the late twenty-naughties, when scientists were grumbling about the supposed limitations of renewable hydrocarbons. Way back then, physicist Klaus Lackner had…
Does a Tunnel Make Sense for the Remutaka Highway?
Working on a proposal to link Wellington and the Wairarapa with a new 110 km/hr highway, I’ve been hearing about punching a tunnel through the Remutaka Range. Not a good…
Thermal Recycling Boosts Thermodynamic Swings
When a greenie says a project or process is “So-o energy-intensive,” we are expected to give up and buy a bicycle. Or a train ticket. That’s not necessary. Chemical engineers…
ParAble Packs a Shipload of Fun into a Small Package
A Wellington-based organisation for disabled sailors is getting ready to put a new sailboat into volume production. Sailability Wellington, ably led by Don Manning, has been working on the new…
Vigorous New ICE to Challenge Piston Engines
There are plenty of good reasons why liquid-fuelled piston engines dominate land and sea transportation. They are better than older technologies. And usually, when some alternative technology tries to challenge…