【正文】 , the City Car from MIT39。s Media Lab is a stackable electric car that can be checked out like a luggage cart at the airport, then returned to any station around the city. Electric motors in each wheel eliminate the need for a mechanical drivetrain, and these ( m) twoseaters zip along at 55 . (about 90 km/h). 懶人 e書房 8 The Return of Steam The future of automotive technology may lie in the past. Bruce Crower, 77, an autoracing designer with a thriving business in San Diego, has invented a hybrid steam engine in which water is sprayed into a traditional gasolinepowered cylinder, turning waste heat into usable energy. How much energy? Enough to travel 40% farther on a gallon of gas. 懶人 e書房 9 Rubber Meets the Rail Turns out DMV is actually a pleasant acronym in some parts of the globe. JR Hokkaido Railway Company began testing its Dual Mode Vehicle last April on a picturesque route along the Sea of Okhotsk in Japan39。s largest prefecture. When the perky yellow trolley runs out of rails in rural areas, it retracts its steel wheels and hits the road. The transition takes about 10 seconds. Initial demographic target: tourists. 懶人 e書房 10 Take the High Road Drawing on its aviation roots — Saab was founded by aircraft engineers — the twoseater Saab Aero X is a concept car that might make the future a little cleaner. Styled like a jet, with a cockpit canopy instead of doors, and fueled by a bioethanol V6 engine, the car suggests a future without conventional dials, instead displaying information in 3D graphics on its clear acrylic dashboard screen. 懶人 e書房 11 Tailpipe Dream Electric cars are so 2020. French Ramp。D firm MDI signed a deal this year with India39。s largest automaker, Tata Motors, to start manufacturing pressedairtechnology vehicles. These ultraecofriendly cars run on air, and the only thing they emit is colder, cleaner air. Another convenient feature: a builtin air pressor can be plugged in to refill the tanks within minutes. 懶人 e書房 12 Aircraft Great Planes Jim Coley / The Boeing Company Delivery of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a year away, but the 250seater is still the most successful mercial jet in aviation history. Fifty clients expecting bigger windows, better air pressure and humidity and more legroom have ordered 710 planes, worth $120 billion. The 78739。s 50% posite structure makes it the greenest widebody, using 20% less fuel than others its size. Available: All Nippon Airways flights as of December 39。08。 orders sold out till 2020 懶人 e書房 13 A Wing and a Prayer Robert Ferguson / Boeing Boeing Phantom Works, with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, has tested what it calls a blended wing body, an %scale prototype of what Boeing hopes will eventually be a fuelefficient, quiet, highcapacity multipurpose jet for the military. The X48B is destined for transport, bombing and intelligence. Wanna book a flight? Don39。t count on it ever going mercial. Available: In 15 to 20 years 懶人 e書房 14 Enter the Dragon It39。s not just for show: WowWee39。s FlyTech Dragonfly may be the first remotecontrolled toy to use flapping wings instead of a propeller to fly. Its carbonfiber body makes it ultralight (it weighs just 1 oz., 0r 28 g) but sturdy enough to survive several crash landings while you work on your technique. Available: Now 懶人 e書房 15 Space Rocket Science Mike Massee / XCOR It39。s hard to find a filling station in space, but it39。s easy to find methane, abundant on many plas and moons. NASA is taking advantage of that with a methanefueled rocket (above and in tests at right). Future probes could save weight by carrying a little fuel, then gassing up en route just like any longdistance traveler. Available: Prototype 懶人 e書房 16 Spandex Space Suit Asia Kepka for TIME With manned space exploration in the doldrums, maybe what NASA needs is a new outfit for its astronauts. Enter Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics at MIT, who is developing the BioSuit. It39。s a formfitting space suit made of elastic polymers that improve mobility. Because it applies pressure directly to the skin instead of pressurizing the air inside the suit, the way today39。s bulky suits do, it39。s also much lighter. Available: 2020 懶人 e書房 17 I Can See Clearly Now Lucky Imaging Spacebased telescopes like the Hubble are sharp and clear — no atmosphere in the way — but expensive. The Lucky Camera works with conventional telescopes, on the ground. It snaps up to 20 images per sec., sorts out the best ones and bines them into a picture sharper than the Hubble39。s at 1/50,000 the cost. Available: Prototype。 could be widely available by 2020 懶人 e書房 18 Robots Weed 39。Em and Reap The HortiBot, designed by Rasmus Jensen and a team of Danish scientists at Aarhus University39。s Institute of Agricultural Engineering, spares farmhands the most tedious chore: weeding. As the bot winds through a field of crops — a camera keeps it on track, row by row — it identifies weeds based on the shape and orientation of their leaves. It can be rigged to spray or pull, farmer39。s choice. Available: Prototype 懶人 e書房 19 A Robot You Can Relate To Even a gardenvariety robot can memorize specific tasks. What sets Domo apart is its ability to recognize