The future is here already – or at least the one imagined for Marty McFly – with a carmaker unveiling a real, working hoverboard, like that used in the Back To The Future film franchise.
Toyota’s luxury car brand Lexus says it has created a prototype that glides frictionlessly just above the ground with technology similar to that used in so-called maglev trains.
A teaser video posted online appears to show the hoverboard floating, although the sequence ends before a skateboarder actually begins to ride it.
While the hoverboard Michael J Fox's character rides in Back To The Future II floats above anything – except water – the Lexus model requires magnets to be embedded in the ground, limiting its range to special tracks.
The project is “the perfect example of the amazing things that can be achieved when you combine technology, design and imagination”, said Mark Templin, executive vice president at Lexus International.
Testing will take place in Barcelona, Spain “over the coming weeks until summer 2015”, the company said.
A US team last year unveiled what they said was a working hoverboard, funded through the Kickstarter crowdfunding website.
Japan has expertise in magnetic levitation technology, which uses electrically charged magnets to propel vehicles along.
Central Japan Railway is aiming to put a superfast maglev train into operation in 2027.
The state-of-the-art train clocked a new world speed record in April in a test run near Mount Fuji, smashing through the 600 kilometre (373 miles) per hour mark.
The maglev hovers 10 centimetres (four inches) above the tracks.
According to Bloomberg News, Toyota has previously indicated it is working on maglev for cars.
“It’s very confidential information but we have been studying the flying car in our most advanced (research and development) area,” Hiroyoshi Yoshiki, a managing officer in Toyota’s Technical Administration Group, said in June 2014.
“Flying car means the car is just a little bit away from the road, so it doesn’t have any friction or resistance from the road,” he was quoted as saying.
Lexus says it will reveal more details about its hoverboard on October 21, 2015, the day Doc, Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer plug into their DeLorean time machine and go back to the future.
artslife@thenational.ae
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Oppenheimer
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
FIXTURES
December 28
Stan Wawrinka v Pablo Carreno Busta, 5pm
Milos Raonic v Dominic Thiem, no earlier then 7pm
December 29 - semi-finals
Rafael Nadal v Stan Wawrinka / Pablo Carreno Busta, 5pm
Novak Djokovic v Milos Raonic / Dominic Thiem, no earlier then 7pm
December 30
3rd/4th place play-off, 5pm
Final, 7pm
Recipe: Spirulina Coconut Brothie
Ingredients
1 tbsp Spirulina powder
1 banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (full fat preferable)
1 tbsp fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
½ cup fresh spinach leaves
½ cup vegan broth
2 crushed ice cubes (optional)
Method
Blend all the ingredients together on high in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy.
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
