Kelekona’s 40 Passenger eVTOL Concept Aircraft

NYC-based startup Kelekona has debuted a new, first-of-its-kind eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) vehicle concept. Whereas most concepts (and prototypes) in the category propose or accommodate two people, Kelekona’s envisions 40 passengers, along with a pilot, for each flight. Utilizing four banks, each containing two very large ducted fans, the blimp-shaped aircraft would purportedly be able to travel 330 miles per charge at a …

Turning Concrete Buildings Into Large Batteries

Though the technology needed to transform a concrete building into a rechargeable battery has existed since the early 20th century, new research from Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology affirms that it’s possible to implement right now within many of the world’s pre-existing concrete buildings. According to Luping Tang of Chalmers and Emma Zhang of engineering and technology company Delta of Sweden, embedding carbon fibers (among …

Ocean Radiation Could Predict Tsunamis

In an effort to better predict tsunamis, researchers at the University of Athens are working on underwater radiation-detecting drones as part of a project called RAMONES (RadioActivity Monitoring in Ocean EcoSystems). Understanding that seismic activity on land releases “small quantities of radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas, into soil in the days before earthquakes happen,” scientists are developing a way to do the same on the …