Designs are well underway for a first of a kind revolutionary ice breaking ship which will also double as a state of the art floating research laboratory.  This is an exciting engineering and scientific project which leads to many questions about how the logistics of this type of collaborative European venture can be made to work
The ship which has been named the Aurora Boralis is due for assembly work to start in 2012

....click the links to read more 

Lego has had a product called NXT for a while now that is capable of some quite complex things.  Now the guys at Lego Engineering have started a series where they look at a real world problem and then attempt to solve it using the Lego NXT system.  In this article they look at the process of clearing blood clots using ultrasonic vibrations.

I always enjoyed playing with Lego.  Interesting to see how it's evolving.

As an engineer you would be aware of the importance of geometry.  Geometry may turn out to be a lot more important than you realise however,  and to everything in fact.  People for a long time have searched for a theory that could explain everything,  an answer to the ultimate question of lif e,  the universe and everything so to speak.  There have been many attempts such as string theory and loop quantum gravity .

Now it turns out that all it might ultimately take is 248 dimensions and a structure known as E₈.  And once we figure this out we can finally sit back and ask,  "why can't the rest of life be this simple?"

 Back to basic engineering principles to hoist the tourists up to a new level of awe - enjoy the view

 THOUSANDS of visitors are being hooked by the lure of Britain's most unusual tourist attraction a 150ft crane above the Clyde

A remarkable engineering feat - next there may microscopic excavators going in as well

 The boffins at Chonnam National University have created a microscopic robot to be used in medical procedures to clear blocked arteries.

There's so much of this happening today - it's a very common thing - but are they reliable ?

Chews em up and spits em out - well you get the picture 

 I've seen the picture and it sure looks like a monster trasporter to me ---

 Not long ago,  space travel was the stuff of fiction- we are a pretty clever bunch - us human beings

 I'm reverting to my childhood days of cranes and excavators in the sand pit because this really grabs my imagination (excuse the pun - Grabs!!! )

 probably the most important engineering news of the year

a partnership made in heaven - well almsot - a back yard garage

 always something new coming along - not quite rubber steel - the mind boggles with the possibilities

 a very important issue and these guys are just the ones to fix it -

How much is a kilogram?

It turns out that nobody can say for sure, at least not in a way that won’t change ever so slightly over time. The official kilogram – a cylinder cast 118 years ago from platinum and iridium and known as the International Prototype Kilogram or “Le Gran K” – has been losing mass, about 50 micrograms at last check. The change is occurring despite careful storage at a facility near Paris.

 makes a lot of sense to me - re use if possible

India is planning to launch a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) by early 2009, the Press Trust of India (PTI) Friday quoted a top scientist as saying.

Not that I was around then,  but I'm amazed that the slide rule was invented in the 16th century.

I wonder what they where made from ? wood ? bone ? metal ? - I need to do some research.

Also,  who invented the first slide rule ?- This is probably a good Trivia question 

 K9P is the formula - - I guess that they had a different view of the world back then

These days you're more likely to see a dog cocking its leg against a lamp-post than someone cleaning it, but it seems our Victorian forbears took issues of street light sanitation somewhat more seriously