Blog posts

NASA is planning tests of an experimental electric aeroplane, which it believes could lead to reduced flight times and carbon emissions for future air travel (+ slideshow).The X-57 aircraft will be used test NASA's new electric propulsion technology – part of a wider ongoing shift towards electric aircraft. The space agency hopes that by distributing electric power across 14 motors integrated into the wings, the plane will require five times less energy to cruise at 175 miles per hour."Typically, to get the best fuel efficiency an airplane has to fly slower than it is able," said NASA in a statement....

Sedna, the Cardiff LED lighting specialist, has recreated Picasso’s light experiment using an LED torch to mark the 43rd anniversary of the artist’s death. Mike Collins who was responsible for re-creating Picasso’s experiment, says: “Sedna have proved themselves to be innovative thinkers -using their resources to make a brighter world.” Collins explains his approach on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WuvGae6QKpoIn 1949 Pablo Picasso was introduced to Life Magazine’s photographer, Gjon Mili. Mili, who was already working on creating lighting projects, showed Picasso some of his photographs of ice skaters with tiny lights attached to their skates jumping in the dark.According to a report...

Researchers from KU Leuven (Belgium), the University of Strasbourg, and CNRS have discovered a new phosphor that could make next-generation fluorescent and LED lighting even cheaper and more efficient. The team used highly luminescent clusters of silver atoms and the porous framework of minerals known as zeolites.Silver clusters consist of just a few silver atoms and have remarkable optical properties. However, current applications are limited, because the clusters tend to aggregate into larger particles, thus losing the interesting optical properties. Professor Hofkens and his team from the Molecular Imaging and Photonics Unit have now found a way to keep the...

Businessman who developed the Periflex camera and advocated technological advances in industry Sir Kenneth Corfield, who has died aged 91, was a pioneer of British camera design before becoming a leading industrialist as chairman of Standard Telephones & Cables.The name of Corfield is particularly associated by photography buffs with the 35mm Periflex camera developed in 1953 by Kenneth with the assistance of his brother John. Designed to improve on market-leading Leica models from Germany, the Periflex featured a small periscope to aid focusing, as well as a conventional viewfinder. A large order from the Maharajah of Mysore boosted early sales,...

The Welsh county of Denbighshire has landed an interest-free loan from the UK government to upgrade 1,500 of its nearly 12,000 streetlights to LED.The new lights will will cut about £42,000 annually from Denbighshire's streetlighting electricity bill, which last year was £385,000 for all 11,790 lights, county council streetlighting engineer Craig Wilson told Lux (other published reports have stated that the bill was £345,000).Salix lent £280,760 to cover the cost of the luminaires, which the county must pay back from energy savings within eight years, Wilson noted. Denbighshire itself will cover the installation costs.At zero per cent financing and with significant energy reduction,...