2012-04-28

Synesthesia, Savant Syndrome: Jason Padgett, A Real ‘Beautiful Mind'

Brain-damaged college dropout became maths genius after attack | Mail Online

A college dropout has been hailed a unique maths genius - after his brain was damaged in a brutal attack by muggers.

Jason Padgett, 41, was left concussed after he was ambushed outside a karaoke club and repeatedly kicked in the head.

Now, wherever he looks, he sees mathematical formulas and turns them into stunning, intricate diagrams he can draw by hand.

He is the only person in the world known to have the skill and experts say it was caused by his head injury.

Real ‘Beautiful Mind’: College Dropout Became Mathematical Genius After Mugging (PHOTOS) - ABC News



“I see bits and pieces of the Pythagorean theorem everywhere,” he said. “Every single little curve, every single spiral, every tree is part of that equation.”
The diagrams he draws are called fractals and Padgett can draw a visual representation of the formula Pi, that infinite number that begins with 3.14.

Jason Padgett's drawing of Pi.

A scan of Padgett’s brain showed damage that was forcing his brain to overcompensate in certain areas that most people don’t have access to, Brogaard explained. The result was Padgett was now an acquired savant, meaning brilliant in a specific area.

“Savant syndrome is the development of a particular skill, that can be mathematical, spatial, or autistic, that develop to an extreme degree that sort of makes a person super human,” Brogaard said.



Synesthesia, Savant Syndrome, Jason Padgett, Beautiful mind 314, Island of genius - YouTube



This is a hand drawn fractal. Jason Padgett, a mathematician with synesthesia (a condition where the brain interprets numbers as shapes) draws a fractal of space time at the Planck Particle size frame and at a certain frequency. Then wave equations (uncertainty) make the drawing warp and stretch as space time does from the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle.

2012-04-27

Pigeon Brain's Global Positioning System

'GPS maps' found in pigeons' brains | TG Daily

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine say they've discovered how certain brain cells encode the direction and intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field.

Pigeon brain's global positioning system located - life - 27 April 2012 - New Scientist

Pigeons could tell when the magnetic field was flipped, so they avoid flying in the wrong direction (Image: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images)

David Dickman and Le-Qing Wu of Baylor College in Houston, Texas, collected seven homing pigeons (Columba livia) and inserted electrodes into their brains to record the activity of individual neurons.
They then placed the birds inside an artificial magnetic field, which masked the Earth's usual magnetism. The room was completely dark to prevent the birds using visual signals to orient themselves. As the researchers adjusted the intensity and angle of the magnets, they monitored how the pigeons' brain activity changed.




Built-in GPS in birds in tune with Earth's magnetic field - Baylor College of Medicine

Neurons play role

"We know birds and many other animals can sense the magnetic force; behavioral studies show that birds fly along magnetic routes during seasonal changes," said Dickman, who conducted much of the research at Washington University in St. Louis. "It is still unknown what exactly acts as a receptor within the bird; however, in our current study we are able to show how neurons in the pigeon’s brain encode magnetic field direction and intensity. This is how we believe birds know their position on the surface of the Earth."

Dickman said certain areas of the brain are activated when a particular area of the inner ear, known as the lagena, is exposed to a magnetic field. Without it, several of these corresponding areas in the brain show no activity.

Dickman and Wu used electrodes in one brain area, known as the vestibular nuclei, to record activity when the bird was exposed to a changing magnetic field.

"The cells responded to the angle and intensity of the magnetic field. Some cells were more sensitive depending on what direction we aimed the magnetic field around the bird’s head," Dickman said.


Global Pigeoning System - ScienceNOW

In the new study, published online today in Science, Dickman and BCM biologist Le-Qing Wu placed seven homing pigeons (Columba livia) in a dark room in the center of a cube-shaped set of magnetic coils. As the cube was rotated, the intensity of the magnetic field felt by the pigeon in the center varied. The scientists turned it in every direction, testing out the effect of various magnetic fields found on Earth. As they did this, Dickman followed the activity of 329 neurons in one of the areas of the brain he'd previously implicated. Fifty-three of the brain cells showed significant changes in activity as the coils rotated, reacting to field strength and polarity. The properties of the neurons allow them to have a unique activity pattern for every different spot on Earth, the scientists realized. Not only can the neurons allow the pigeons to pinpoint their longitude and latitude, says Dickman, but they can differentiate the Northern Hemisphere from the Southern Hemisphere and tell the pigeons which direction they're facing.






2012-04-25

Berkeley's Highly Efficient Solar Cells also act like LEDs

New solar cell creates more electricity by lighting up - TECH.BLORGE.com

While solar cell efficiency is theoretically able to reach 33.5 percent efficiency, so far solar cells have only been able to reach 26 percent until now.  Eli Yablonovitch, principal researcher and UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering has developed a new solar cell that will achieve 28.3 percent efficiency and it does so by emitting light.

Berkeley Lab Research Sparks Record-Breaking Solar Cell Performances « Berkeley Lab News Center



“A great solar cell also needs to be a great Light Emitting Diode,” says Eli Yablonovitch, the Berkeley Lab electrical engineer who led this research. “This is counter-intuitive. Why should a solar cell be emitting photons?  What we demonstrated is that the better a solar cell is at emitting photons, the higher its voltage and the greater the efficiency it can produce.”

LED-like Solar Cell Absorbs, Emits Light (photonics.com | Apr 2012 | Research & Technology)


Eli Yablonovitch and Owen Miller of UC Berkeley worked out the theory for the new solar cell efficiency. The monitor in the picture illustrates the new physics concept where increased light emission yields higher efficiency. (Image: Eli Yablonovitch)
“Fundamentally, it’s because there’s a thermodynamic link between absorption and emission,” said Owen Miller, a graduate student at UC Berkeley and a member of Yablonovitch’s group.

Designing solar cells to emit light, so that photons do not become “lost” within a cell, has the natural effect of increasing the voltage produced.

“If you have a solar cell that is a good emitter of light, it also makes it produce a higher voltage,” which would increase the amount of electrical energy that can be harvested from the cell for each unit of sunlight, Miller said.

KW17 | UC Berkeley unveils LED-type PV cell - SolarServer


Prototype efficiency jumps from 26% to 28.3%

Alta Devices, co-founded by Yablonovitch, used the new concept to create a prototype solar cell made of gallium arsenide (GaAs), a material often used to make solar cells in satellites. The prototype broke the record, jumping from 26% to 28.3% efficiency.

The company achieved this milestone, in part, by designing the cell to allow light to escape as easily as possible from the cell – using techniques that include, for example, increasing the reflectivity of the rear mirror, which sends incoming photons back out through the front of the device.

2012-04-24

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope needs World’s Largest Digital Camera

World's largest 3.2 billion-pixel digital camera project passes critical milestone


The LSST camera will be the largest digital camera ever constructed. Its size of roughly five feet by 10 feet is similar to that of a small car and it will weigh over three tons. It is a large-aperture, wide-field optical imager designed to provide a 3.5° field of view with better than 0.2 arcsecond sampling. The image surface is flat with a diameter of just over two feet. The detector format will be a mosaic of 16 megapixel silicon detectors providing a total of approximately 3.2 billion pixels. Credit: Image Courtesy of the LSST Corporation

symmetry breaking » Blog Archive » World’s largest digital camera one step closer to reality


A digital rendering of the LSST instrument, with human figures for scale. (Image courtesy LSST Corporation/NOAO)

Perched high atop Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will take the largest, fastest, most detailed pictures of the Southern Hemisphere’s night sky. With these images, researchers around the world will seek to reveal the nature of dark matter and dark energy—and to answer a host of other questions in astronomy and physics.

To do all this, LSST needs the largest digital camera ever built: a 3.2 billion-pixel behemoth that stands 6 feet tall and weighs more than 6000 pounds. Now, this impressive instrument has taken a significant step toward reality by receiving the Department of Energy’s “Critical Decision 1” approval.

The New Sky | LSST

LARGE:

A large primary mirror, the world’s largest digital camera, images that cover 49 times the area of the Moon in a single exposure, the largest public data set in the world—LSST takes advantage of new technologies to provide a qualitatively new capability for astronomy.

SYNOPTIC:

A color movie of the universe.
A view of the whole visible southern sky and its changes over ten years.

SURVEY:

Orbits of asteroids as small as 100 meters that might impact the Earth, properties of the dark energy that powers the accelerating expansion of the universe, 3-D mass maps of dark matter, how the Milky Way formed, the nature of rare, explosive events—all will be products of the LSST survey.

TELESCOPE:

Work on the telescope and its Chilean site are underway.


CAMERA | LSST



LSST camera


with 6' person for scale


Source: CAMERA | LSST


2012-04-21

Cellphones That Can See Through Walls

Your Next Phone May Be Able to See Through Walls | PCWorld

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas disclosed this week that they've developed an imager chip that could turn mobile phones into devices that can see through walls, wood, plastics, paper, and other objects.
[...]
Portions of the electromagnetic spectrum are already used for consumer devices. For example, microwaves are used to cook food, broadcast radio uses AM and FM waves, and infrared waves are used for seeing in the dark. For their purposes, the researchers used waves in the terahertz range.

Team Finds Possibilities in Untapped Terahertz Range - UT Dallas News

Tapping the Terahertz Gap

Shown is the electromagnet spectrum, from radio waves used for FM and AM signals, to infrared waves used for remote controls, to gamma rays that kill cancer cells.  A team at UT Dallas is focusing on the "terahertz band," which has not been accessible for most consumer devices.



Dr. Kenneth O, director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence and a professor of electrical engineering, left, worked with a team including Dae Yeon Kim, who was among the authors of the research report.

Will Cellphones Be Able to See Through Walls? New Research Says Yes



When signals on the terahertz band travel from your phone, they’ll bounce back — and that’s when the microchip comes in. The chips are manufactured using CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) technology, which is the basis of most of the electronic devices around you. A censor in the chip will pick up terahertz signals and then images can be created.

If terahertz-band signals can create images with fewer lenses — which would be the case with this technology — that means less money for lenses and a smaller camera. By using a CMOS sensor, the cost becomes even cheaper.

“CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips,” said Dr. O. “The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and receiver on the back of a cellphone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects.”



2012-04-19

The Sandman an Electric Vehicle backed by Human Propulsion

Sandman | Environmentally conscious vehicle


Meet the Sandman. It's the official name of this four-wheeler, which is unlike any Holden panel-van we've ever known.

According to its designer, 20 year-old Slovakian Adam Danko, the single-occupancy vehicle was designed for young, active, environmentally-conscious people.

The Sandman's design recently won Europe's Allivision09 competition, a contest that focused on "Ideas for a Better World" and attracted about 650 entries.


Allivision09 Competition: the winners - Car Body Design

The Sandman is a type of transportation vehicle targeted to young and active people, who like sports and need an affordable and practical car. It is powered by a combination of human propulsion and an electric engine, which helps to pedal along.

"The winning project best met all criteria of the competition. It’s about clean design, which is very sovereign in its expression," commented Václav Capouch, Å koda Auto designer and one of the jury members of the Allivision09 competition.


One of the finer points about the Sandman is that it is both a city vehicle and an off-road alternative with all-terrain suspension fitted to both the front and rear.

A pair of joystick-style levers alongside the seat steer the Sandman's mountain-bike (or perhaps tractor) inspired tyres through the terrain.

For safety reasons the seat is adaptable and it comes with a seatbelt to keep you strapped in whether you're going over moguls or speed humps. The cockpit also houses an LCD readout screen.


2012-04-18

Earth From Space

Earth as Art – Through the Lens of NASA

Space, from the human point of view, has always been filled with wonder, ever since hominids first squinted into the sky. Now the age of technology allows us to peer incredibly deeply through the stretched realm of space, and as new images are made known, new questions emerge.

Further, in the past 50 years, we have been able to not only look out into space, but we now view our own planet from space; its ever-changing environment, including the presence of humankind, and we are filled with that same wonder.

As technology makes more known to us, once again, questions emerge. Questions of time and age, of life, composition and fragility.

Tassili n’Ajjer is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, and covers 27,800 square miles (72,000 sq. km) in southeastern Algeria in the Sahara Desert.









2012-04-16

Adidas miCoach Player-Tracking System


adidas Soccer: Smart Soccer Has Arrived - MLS + micoach - YouTube



The 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 25 in Philadelphia will be the world's first "smart soccer match" and will feature the new micoach professional soccer team tracking system, the next step in player performance analysis technology.


Adidas plans world's first 'smart soccer match' for July | Tech Culture - CNET News

According to the company, the MLS game will be the world's "first smart soccer match," allowing coaches to track player performance on the pitch. Adidas hasn't revealed too many details on how the service will work, but it appears that coaches will be able to access real-time player statistics, including speed, acceleration, and power output, from a tablet. The software also provides alerts coaches might need to consider.

Adidas Brings You the First 'Smart' Soccer Match | Playbook | Wired.com

Adidas will embed its miCoach data tracker in uniforms worn by players competing in the 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 25. The “professional soccer team tracking system” riffs on the miCoach Speed Cell introduced last year, and Adidas says it will provide coaches with real-time data about player position and performance.

[...]

But   the technology appears to build on the MiCoach Speed Cell. The Speed Cell is a bit smaller than a poker chip and typically snaps into the bottom of the Adizero F50 soccer shoe. It tracks pace and distance, average and maximum speed, distance covered at high intensity and acceleration. It is part of a broader trend within the industry to create so-called “smart shoes” that use radio frequency identification tags, motion sensors and accelerometers to customize appearance, fit and responsiveness. The shoes of tomorrow also will transmit data to the cloud.

The Shoe of Tomorrow Knows How Hard You Hustle | Playbook | Wired.com

Christian DiBenedetto, senior innovation director at Adidas, with the miCoach Speed Cell that measures the wearer's pace, distance and other data. Photo: Adidas
Last year, Adidas launched the miCoach Speed Cell, a component just smaller than a poker chip. It snaps into the bottom of a soccer shoe to track pace and distance, along with more sophisticated stats like average and maximum speed, distance covered at high intensity and acceleration. The company has added a running shoe and plans to expand the line to include basketball, football and tennis this year.





2012-04-12

Dream:ON A Dream Control App

Would you program your dreams if you could? - Your Community

A British psychologist has launched an iPhone app that aims to give users the ability to select the type of dream they want to have before they go to sleep.

The inventor of Dream On, psychologist and author Richard Wiseman, calls it a mass participation experiment. Rather than promise that your iPhone (a version for Android phones is coming) can program your dreams, Wiseman says the Dream On will collect data so see if it's possible.

To use the app, you would plug in your iPhone and place it face down on your bed before you go to sleep. The app monitors your sleep patterns and movements and plays music and soundscapes according to your selection.

When you wake up, the app prompts you to write down your dream in a journal, with options to share your dream on Twitter and tag your Facebook friends if they appear in your dream.



Dream:ON - The App to Influence Your Dreams


How does Dream:ON work?
Before going to bed you indicate the type of dream you would like to have and when you want to wake up. You then place your iPhone on your bed and go to sleep. Dream:ON then activates and begins monitoring your sleep pattern.

When Dream:ON senses that you are dreaming, it plays a 'soundscape' that has been carefully designed to help create your desired dream. Whilst your chosen soundscape is playing, Dream:ON continues to monitor your movement and adjusts the volume accordingly to ensure you're not woken up.
"We have created a new way of carrying out mass participation experiments. We still know relatively little about the science of dreaming and this app may provide a real breakthrough in changing how we dream, and record and track those dreams." ~ Professor Richard Wiseman


2012-04-10

Social Status Affects Immune System

BBC News - Social rank 'linked to immunity'



A study of rhesus macaque monkeys may have solved a long-standing puzzle on a link between social rank and health.
A study of 10 social groups of macaque females showed that the activity level of an individual's immune genes was an accurate predictor of her social rank.

In a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team also showed that the monkey's immunity changed when social rank was altered.

The work suggests that status drives immune health, rather than vice-versa.


Changes in Monkeys' Social Status Affect Their Genes | Duke Today

The study is the first to use an experimental approach to observe how gene expression patterns across a range of genes correlate with an animal's social dominance. It estimates that gene expression can predict the social status of an individual with 80 percent accuracy.

"Our study supports the idea that low social status can be bad for the body. But it hints at the idea that if you improve your social situation, your health improves, too," said the study's lead author Jenny Tung, a visiting assistant professor in Duke University's evolutionary anthropology department.

[...]

Tung said scientists have more work to do to understand how improving social status affects the way genes turn on and off. But she found it "exciting" and "comforting" that her team observed positive changes in the expression of immune-system genes of several monkeys whose social rank increased, she said.

The Tung lab

Genes influence behavior; behavior influences genes.

The interplay between these effects is the focus of research in the Tung lab. Specifically, we are interested in how genetic differences and gene regulatory effects shape behavioral traits, and in the reciprocal influence of social and behavioral variation on genetic variation and genome function. To pursue these questions, we focus primarily on highly social populations of nonhuman primates, systems that are natural models for human health, sociality, and evolution.
Source: home

Research

Rhesus macaques in captivity present the opportunity to study social environmental effects on genetics and gene regulation in a controlled setting. We take advantage of the ability to manipulate social status and social group composition to isolate the influence of these variables and to study the regulatory mechanisms that mediate these effects.
Source: research


2012-04-09

Self-Healing Plastic Mimics Skin

Self-Healing Plastic Repairs Itself When Exposed To Light @PSFK

A new plastic that bleeds and heals like human skin was demonstrated to the American Chemical Society this week. The plastic turns red when it becomes damaged, then repairs itself if exposed to light or temperature changes, with the color fading away as it heals itself.

Bruisable gadgets heal themselves in the sun - tech - 05 April 2012 - New Scientist

Marek Urban and colleagues at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg were inspired to create their self-healing plastic by signs of healing in nature such as newly formed tree bark.
Earlier self-healing materialsMovie Camera do not change colour and require focused laser light for repairs. This new material turns red when damaged and repairs itself when exposed to visible light or changes in temperature or pH. It can also fix itself multiple times, unlike previous materials.

New plastics 'bleed' when cut or scratched - and then heal like human skin


New plastics turn red when damaged, then heal
themselves when exposed to light.
Credit: Prof. Marek W. Urban, Ph.D.
“Mother Nature has endowed all kinds of biological systems with the ability to repair themselves,” explained Professor Marek W. Urban, Ph.D., who reported on the research. “Some we can see, like the skin healing and new bark forming in cuts on a tree trunk. Some are invisible, but help keep us alive and healthy, like the self-repair system that DNA uses to fix genetic damage to genes. Our new plastic tries to mimic nature, issuing a red signal when damaged and then renewing itself when exposed to visible light, temperature or pH changes.”

Urban, who is with the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg foresees a wide range of potential applications for plastic with warn-and-self-repair capabilities. Scratches in automobile fenders, for instance, might be repaired by simply exposing the fender to intense light. Critical structural parts in aircraft might warn of damage by turning red along cracks so that engineers could decide whether to shine the light and heal the damage or undertake a complete replacement of the component. And there could be a range of applications in battlefield weapons systems.

New Plastic Bleeds Red When Scratched, Then Heals Itself Like Skin | Popular Science

Unlike other self-healing materials, this plastic’s healing process can work over and over, he added. It could serve a variety of purposes, from things like nail polish to self-healing car fenders to airplanes. It would improve safety by drawing attention to a structural defect, and it could repair minor defects in the presence of intense light.

“Where degradation occurs or [there is] mechanical damage, the color would start to change,” Urban said.

The Defense Department funded part of his work.


2012-04-08

Nissan NV200 New York's "Taxi of Tomorrow"

Nissan's Taxi of Tomorrow debuts in NYC | Fox News

New York’s iconic yellow cabs are about to get a dramatic makeover.

With Ford’s venerable Crown Victoria now officially out of production, Nissan is stepping up to fill the big sedan’s equally big shoes with its NV200 van.

That’s right. New York’s current fleet of roughly 13,200 yellow cabs, which ferry upwards of 600,000 people per day, will be phased out over the coming years and replaced with a fleet of NV200s.




Nissan CEO, New York Mayor Unveil Taxi of Tomorrow - 2012 NYIAS - Nissan Online Newsroom

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled on Tuesday the Taxi of Tomorrow, the next generation transport vehicle for the Big Apple.
In an interview with the Global Media Center, Ghosn said the taxi will be a showcase for the Nissan brand, and that he expects versions of the light commercial vehicle on the streets of other international cities.



Designed from the inside out, using input from New York taxi drivers, medallion holders, fleets and passengers, standard interior features and passenger amenities include:
  • Ample room for four passengers and their luggage, offering substantial improvements over current taxi models
  • Sliding doors with entry step and grab handles, providing easy entry and exit
  • Transparent roof panel, presenting unique views of the city
  • Opening side windows
  • Independently controlled rear air conditioning
  • Active Carbon Lined headliner to help neutralize interior odors
  • Overhead reading lights for passengers and floor lighting to help locate belongings
  • A mobile charging station for passengers, including a 12-volt electrical outlet and two USB ports
  • Breathable, antimicrobial, environment-friendly, durable and easy-to-clean seat fabric, simulating the look and feel of leather
  • Flat "no hump" passenger floor area for more comfortable ride
Other notable vehicle features are:
  • Proven 2.0L 4-cylinder powertrain, engineered to enhance the emission performance and fuel efficiency of the taxi fleet
  • 150,000 mile powertrain warranty
  • A low-annoyance horn with exterior lights that indicate when the vehicle is honking, so the horn is used less frequently. A 6-way adjustable driver's seat featuring both recline and lumbar adjustments, even with a partition installed
  • Unique driver's seat material and stitching to promote improved airflow
  • USB Auxiliary audio input and charge port for driver
  • Standard navigation system with integrated rearview backup monitor
  • Hearing Loop System for the hearing impaired
  • Driver and passenger intercom system
  • Pre-wiring for taxi T-PEP system
In addition, important safety features of the Taxi of Tomorrow include:
  • Only taxi ever to be safety tested and certified with full taxi partition
  • Front and rear-seat occupant curtain airbags, and seat-mounted airbags for the front row
  • Standard traction control and Vehicle Dynamic Control
  • Sliding doors to lessen risk of pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists getting struck by doors opening unexpectedly
  • Lights that alert other road users that taxi doors are opening


2012-04-06

Portable Plasma Flashlight Kills Bacteria

New Plasma Flashlight Could Instantly Rid Skin of Bacteria | Healthland | TIME.com

A battery-powered, hand-held plasma-emitting device created by Chinese and Australian scientists could speed wound sterilization in the field.

In a disaster zone, whether it’s the aftermath of a tornado or on a battleground, emergency medical personnel have to work fast to save lives. In an effort to speed good care, scientists have developed a handheld, battery-operated “flashlight” that can instantly sterilize wounds by beaming plasma at bacteria.

Plasma Flashlight Zaps Bacteria - ScienceNOW

[...] Powered by a normal 12-volt battery and operating in open air without a gas supply, the prototype, which they call a plasma flashlight, should be portable enough to take anywhere. "It generates the plasma even being disconnected from wall power, even using very low power," says group member Kostya Ostrikov of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering in Lindfield, Australia.

Light therapy . A portable plasma flashlight can kill bacteria in minutes. (Credit: X. Pei et al., Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics)
Credit: X. Pei et al., Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (2012)

Handheld plasma flashlight rids skin of pathogens | KurzweilAI

Plasma jet circuit, powered by a 12 V DC battery at 60 mW. It generates ~20 kHz pulses with ~100 ns duration. (Credit: X. Pei et al./IOP Publishing)

In an experiment, the plasma flashlight effectively inactivated a thick biofilm with 17 different layers of one of the most antibiotic- and heat-resistant bacteria, Enterococcus faecalis — which often infects root canals during dental treatments.

The plasma penetrated deep into the very bottom of the layers to kill the bacteria in five minutes.
[...]
It can be easily made and costs less than $100 to produce. No external power or gas feed is required. It operates at close to room temperature and prevents damage to the skin.


Formula 1 Superbus from Dubai to Abu Dhabi

World's First and Only Formula 1 Superbus Becoming Reality | AMOG


It turns out that there is indeed a vehicle that could be described as a “Formula 1 Superbus” that was purchased for £7 million by a sheik in the United Arab Emirates last year. Paying that much money most mean that this thing is a beast, since this hi-tech bus means he will be able to complete the 75-mile commute from Dubai to  Abu Dhabi in under 30 minutes.


Super bus takes 23 passengers and travels at 155mph | Mail Online

It has been developed at the Delft University of Technology in Holland under the direction of Professor Wubbo Ockels who in 1985 became the first Dutchman in space when he was part of the team on board the space shuttle Challenger.

The project was backed by the Dutch government, American chemicals company Dow and the Saudi conglomerate Sabic.
More than your average bus pass: The luxurious vehicle has been shipped to the Middle East to allow the sheikh to commute at high speed

Home | Superbus


“Carefree and comfortable travel, customized according to your needs. You can get in the vehicle wherever and whenever you need. It will take you to your destination without any changeovers. During the journey, you can get on with your work, or sit back and enjoy the speed and the luxury. This service will be yours for a fare which is comparable to the prices of present day’s public transport.”


This is not a dream, but a concept that formed the starting point for the development of Superbus as an innovative alternative for today’s personal mobility.