"The new mechanical wagon with the awful name automobile has come to stay..." New York Times (1897 article)

The New York Times' mention of the name automobile was the first public use of the term by the media and helped to popularize that name for motor vehicles. However the credit for the name automobile goes to a 14th century Italian painter and engineer named Martini. Martini never built an automobile but he did draw plans for a man-powered carriage with four wheels. Martini thought up the name automobile from the Greek word, "auto," (meaning self) and the Latin word, "mobilis," (meaning moving).
The other popular name for an automobile is the car. The word car is derived from Celtic word "carrus," (meaning cart or wagon).

link: inventors.about.com

Pre-college science competition

Society for Science and the Public (SSP) and Intel hosted the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2011 in Los Angeles on May 8-13. The Intel ISEF is the world's largest international pre-college science competition for students in grades 9–12.



It provides an annual forum for more than 1,500 high school students from 65 countries, regions, and territories to showcase their independent research as they compete for over $4 million annually.

This years top prize winners were Matthew Feddersen and Blake Marggraff from Lafayette, Calif.. They won the Gordon E. Moore Award, and $75,000, for developing a potentially more effective and less expensive cancer treatment that places tin metal near a tumor before radiation therapy.

The next ISEF will take place in May 13-18, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Here you can find more information:

http://www.societyforscience.org/intelisef2012

As light as a feather

... with a weight of 120 kg including batteries Elektra One is a real ultralight aircraft. The one-seater can fly about 400 km with a maximum flight time of three hours. Elektra is driven by an electric motor HPD13.5 from Geiger Engineering with a weight of 4.7 kg and a power of 16 kW.

In March 2011 the aircraft completed its first test flight. In summer 2011 the PC-Aero team wants to participate with Elektro One in the NASA-/CAFE-Green Flight Challenge competition in California. Two and four-seater variants are planned for the future.

Click here for more information:
http://www.aircraft-certification.de/