The world's largest elevator, the first hydrogen fuel cell airplane and another glass slide round out this week's gallery.
1. Renault's New Trezor
French carmaker Renault showed off it's all-electric concept car, the two-seater Trezor, at this year's Paris Auto Show. One of the coolest things going for it is the clamshell roof, which tips up to allow driver and passenger entry. No doors. Once you sidle in over the top, you sink down into full-wrapping bucket seats and - thanks to the 350-hp Formula E-based powertrain - are ready to accelerate from 0 to 60 in less than four seconds.
2. World's Largest Elevator
Credit: CCTV+ via YouTube
Going up? The largest elevator in the world is ready for service and the maximum capacity will blow your mind. At the Three Gorges Dam in China's Hubei province, this ship elevator is capable of lifting 6.7 million pounds. Before the elevator opened, it took ships more than three hours to navigate from one side of the dam to the other. Now it takes just 40 minutes.
3. Programmable MiniBots
Microrobots could one day swim through our bodies to deliver medicine or repair injuries. But getting them to maneuver through bodily fluids is a challenge. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, are looking to bacterium, paramecium and even jellyfish for inspiration, creating tiny robots with wiggly appendages propelled by an external magnetic field. Thanks to a new algorithm, the researchers have figured out the best magnetic conditions necessary to efficiently drive different kinds of these microrobots.
4. Aston Martin's Powerboat
British carmaker Aston Martin is known for its luxury vehicles, but this week it introduced its first luxury powerboat, the AM37. Up top, the windscreen has been formed from a single piece of glass. Below deck are a toilet, refrigerator and table that converts into a bed. The cabin holds eight people and the boat has a top speed of 45 knots.
5. Secure Passwords Sent Through Your Body
Because Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals are vulnerable to hackers, scientists at the University of Washington wanted to create a way to securely send a password or secret code over radio waves. Their solution: send the signal through a person's body not through the air. Their so-called "on-body" transmission technology pairs the fingerprint sensor on a smartphone with an electronic smart lock. Just touch the doorknob and the fingerprint sensor at the same time and the secure credentials travel through the body to open the door.
6. World's First Hydrogen Plane Takes Off
This week in Germany, the world's first four-seater plane powered by a hydrogen fuel cell completed a 10-minute test flight. The plane, the HY4, runs on electricity generated by the fuel cell and has a range of 932 miles with a speed of 102 mph.
7. Glass Slide
Apparently, glass slides are a thing. This past July, the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles unveiled its glass Skyslide and now the same engineering firm that made it, UK-based Eckersley O'Callaghan, is showing off their Vidre-Slide. Both the ladder and the 29.5-ft slide are each made from a single piece of glass and bonded together with structural silicone.
8. Fisherman with MacAir on Lake Victoria, Uganda
The winning photo from a contest sponsored by Agility, a global logistics provider, shows just how quickly Africa is modernizing. Stephen Simiyu, a photographer from Nairobi, Kenya, took home the US$2,000 grand prize for his image of a fisherman using a laptop in a canoe on Lake Victoria, Uganda.
9. Toyota's Fuel Cell Car
Toyota's concept car the FCV Plus is being billed not only as an emission-free vehicle, but as a stable source of electric power. Like other hydrogen fuel cell cars, it generates electricity from the hydrogen in its tank. But the "plus" means that it can also process hydrogen from an external source, generating electricity to power household appliances or charge up other batteries.
10. Bike While You Work
Credit: NextDesk
First there were standing desks. Then there were treadmill desks. Now there's the pedaling desk. Desk company NextDesk has launched the Velo, a bicycle add-on that keeps workers active at their keyboards.
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