Toyota’s New i-Road Is A Single Seater Car That Looks Straight Out Of Future

We are running out of space on earth. The roads are becoming more and more congested and engineers are busy trying to come up with new methods to tackle this congestion. We are also suffering at the hands of carbon emissions due to combustion fuel vehicles and there is a dire need to shift to electric vehicles. However, the Urban Transportation is too big of a challenge and that is why it requires a lot of commitment if you are willing to redesign it. Who is up to the task? Well, Toyota has come up with a green technology to tackle this situation.

On 2nd March, at Ecoful Town, Toyota City, we witnessed Japanese drivers trying out the new i-ROAD on public roads and experiencing what the future of transportation will look like. This event was a part of the future that Toyota has envisioned for urban transportation. i-ROAD will also be making appearance at Grenoble, France later in 2014. This demonstration will also be aimed at bringing this idea to public knowledge and let them get a feel of the future.

This whole endeavor is basically a joint venture of Toyota Motor Corporation, city of Grenoble and Électricité de France (EDF) and others. We will be witnessing around 70 electric vehicles including the i-ROAD that shall be participating in this event and will be contributing towards a car-sharing project. i-ROAD is expected to be available both in Japan and Europe upon its debut (commercially) and it is being considered as a solution which is viable both in terms of environment and mobility.

Speaking of i-ROAD, it is a three-wheeled EV, which is capable of moving quite easily in narrow spaces while helping to reduce the congestion in traffic. Parking spaces required for i-ROAD shall be minimal and that will keep parking fees low as well. Since it is electric, emissions will be non-existent, thus providing us with a cleaner environment.  The traffic footprint will reduce dramatically while allowing for easier navigation and hence, traffic jams won’t be a problem anymore.

The whole project is essentially a combination of public transportation and EVs to allow you to move from one place to another.  I-Road is definitely a step in the right direction for optimized future urban transportation.

 

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Story of the Biggest Experiment in History Caught on Film

scientists around the world waited with bated breath for the announcement that the long-awaited Higgs boson particle had been discovered. The finding — the result of the biggest and most expensive experiment in history — was set to either confirm reigning models of particle physics, or reveal gaps in scientists' understanding of the universe.

A new documentary follows six scientists during the launch of the machine that made the discovery possible, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a gigantic particle accelerator at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in Switzerland, as they attempt to recreate the earliest moments of the universe. "Particle Fever" captures the scientists' sense of excitement and foreboding leading up to the discovery of the Higgs, the particle that explains how other particles get their mass.
"I knew this big event was coming, and I wanted it recorded," said producer David Kaplan, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. "I knew it was going to be extremely dramatic scientifically, and also emotionally, for all of my colleagues," Kaplan told Live Science.

The film, which opens March 5 in New York and March 21 in Washington, D.C., stars a group of theoretical and experimental physicists united by a quest to probe the nature of the universe, using the world's most powerful particle accelerator. The LHC collides two beams of protons (particles that make up the nuclei of atoms) at near light-speed around the 17 miles (27 kilometers) of the machine's ring. The collisions produce new particles, which could reveal the composition of space itself. The film opens during the first test of a single proton beam in September 2008. Viewers meet Fabiola Gianotti, the former spokeswoman for ATLAS, one of the two LHC experiments that detected the Higgs, as well as experimental physicists Monica Dunford and Martin Aleksa, both at ATLAS, who rose to prominence throughout the course of the experiment. Mike Lamont, the LHC's beam operation leader, also features in the film. Lamont faces the formidable challenge of ensuring the LHC's successful launch and operation.
But to understand why scientists need the LHC, one first has to understand the hypotheses it is putting to the test.

Supersymmetry vs. multiverse

The Standard Model of particle physics, finalized in the 1970s, seeks to explain the origin of matter and forces in the universe. The model predicts the existence of a few fundamental particles, including the Higgs boson, theorized by British physicist Peter Higgs in 1964. Finding the Higgs confirms the existence of the Higgs field, and this field gives all other particles their mass.
An extension of the Standard Model known as supersymmetry suggests a highly structured and symmetrical universe, in which every particle has a supersymmetric twin that has yet to be discovered. Another, somewhat radical hypothesis suggests the known universe is part of a much larger, chaotic multiverse, in which the laws of physics are random.
The film pits Kaplan and Stanford theorist Savas Dimopoulos, proponents of supersymmetry, against the young Princeton theorist Nima Arkani-Hamed, a supporter of the multiverse idea. The LHC offers the chance to test these hypotheses for the first time. If supersymmetry proves itself, physicists are on the right track. On the other hand, "We may fall off a cliff," and find that the fundamental laws of physics turn out to be random, Kaplan said.
Biggest experiment in history
The beam test went off successfully in 2008, but a few weeks later, a catastrophic explosion in the facility vented liquid helium, damaging many of the magnets inside the LHC.
"The whole film changed," said director Mark Levinson, who added he didn't know how long it would take to fix the damage, and whether the film would have a happy ending. Fortunately, repairs were completed, and the collider was up and running by November 2009.
Fast-forward to July 2012, and the discovery of the Higgs. The particle observed by the LHC confirmed what physicists had long suspected, but also brought up new questions.
Most supersymmetry models predict a Higgs boson with a mass of about 115 gigaelectronvolts, or GeV, whereas multiverse models predict a heavier mass of about 140 GeV. The Higgs observed by the LHC was about 125 GeV — smack in the middle, which doesn't confirm or rule out either theory. Instead, it merely narrows down the possibilities.
It's like being lost in the woods, and then getting a hint of the broad direction you should go, Kaplan said, adding, "At least you know which way to start walking."
In the next step, scientists will collide protons at higher energies, to see if even more particles are created, as predicted by supersymmetry. The LHC was shut down for upgrades in 2013, with plans to reopen it running at twice the power in 2015.
The filmmakers hope "Particle Fever" gives audiences an appreciation of particle physics, and gets them excited about learning more. As Kaplan said, "We want people to come out thinking physics is awesome."