Honda today outlined the company’s plan to increase the use of hydrogen fuel cell technology and expand its hydrogen business. The announcement comes the same day Honda’s joint venture with GM, Fuel Cell System Manufacturing, started mass production of the new Honda fuel cell system in Brownstown, Michigan. According to the automaker, the venture will be the first to produce hydrogen fuel cells at scale.

The new fuel cell system was co-developed by Honda and GM over the last ten years and should double durability while reducing cost by one-third compared to the previous generation system, specifically the 2019 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell.

Honda has been working on hydrogen R&D and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) for more than 30 years. 

Jay Joseph, VP of sustainability and business development at American Honda Motor, says it isn’t a choice between battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell technology rather, it’s about “selecting the right energy source, in the right place, for the right purpose, to achieve carbon neutrality as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

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Honda is striving to hit carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities by 2050. Part of the effort will include “making new Honda vehicles out of old Honda vehicles” with the complete use of sustainable materials. The company says it will create a circular economy so Honda can recycle or reuse every bit of the materials from its vehicles, reprocess them back to raw materials and reuse those materials in the creation of new products.

Honda sees hydrogen as one of the high-potential energy carriers that supports this direction of renewable energy and electrification. The “hydrogen circulation cycle,” which starts with renewable energy, consists of three phases: generate, store/transport and use.

More specifically, with water electrolysis technology, excess electricity derived from renewable energy sources can be used to create “green hydrogen,” which can be stored indefinitely with no energy loss. Using fuel cell technology, this hydrogen can then be converted back into zero-emission electricity for a variety of purposes, including stationary backup power to account for fluctuations in power generation due to seasonality and weather conditions. Stored hydrogen can also be used to transport energy to where it is needed via land, sea and pipeline.

Honda will expand the applications of the new Honda fuel cell system beyond FCEVs to various internal and external applications, thereby stimulating demand for hydrogen and facilitating the carbon neutrality of society through the use of hydrogen. 

Honda has identified four core domains for the initial use of its new fuel cell system: FCEVs, commercial fuel cell vehicles, stationary power stations and construction machinery.

This year, Honda will launch an all-new CR-V FCEV made at Honda’s manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio. It will be the only fuel-cell electric passenger vehicle made in America.

The company is also working in commercial vehicles, developing the Giga Fuel Cell, a zero-emissions fuel cell-powered heavy-duty truck currently being co-developed with Isuzu Motors. The two companies have begun demonstration testing of a prototype model on public roads in Japan and plan to introduce the production model in 2027.

Honda is even preparing a proof-of-concept Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell truck in the U.S. and is in talks with potential customers.

Honda also began testing a stationary fuel cell power station on its Torrance, California, campus in March 2023, marking the company’s first step toward future commercialization of zero-emission backup power generation. The power station supplies clean and quiet emergency backup power to Honda’s data center. In December 2023, Honda also announced a similar joint project in Japan where Honda will establish a stationary fuel cell station to power a Mitsubishi data center.

To achieve widespread utilization of fuel cell systems, it is critical to establish hydrogen ecosystems that include hydrogen supply. Honda has been supporting the expansion of hydrogen station networks in Japan by participating in the Japan Hydrogen Station Network Joint Company (Japan H2 Mobility/JHyM) and in North America by supporting hydrogen station businesses such as FirstElement Fuel and others.

Honda will also proactively participate in hydrogen generation projects organized by national and local governments that currently use large volumes of imported hydrogen at ports and other locations. Through these initiatives, Honda will work to build partnerships with companies involved in this new area.

Finally, Honda is conducting advanced hydrogen R&D while envisioning use in outer space, another potential area where hydrogen technologies such as a fuel cell system and high differential pressure water electrolysis technologies can be utilized. In addition to water and food, people need oxygen, as well as hydrogen for fuel and electricity for various activities supporting life in space.

To enable sustainable space activities, it is necessary to reduce the need to resupply these resources from Earth as much as possible. One of the solutions to this challenge is to create a “circulative renewable energy system,” which combines a high differential pressure water electrolysis system that produces oxygen and hydrogen using solar energy to electrolyze water, and a fuel cell system that generates electricity and water from oxygen and hydrogen. 

To create such a system, Honda conducted joint R&D with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) during the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years (period ended March 31, 2022). In 2022, Honda signed a deal with JAXA regarding the “circulative renewable energy system” that is designed to supply electricity to maintain the functionality of the living space and various systems of lunar rovers.

Based on this contract, Honda will be commissioned by JAXA to first conduct concept studies, then to develop a “breadboard model4,” an early-stage prototype, by the end of the 2024 fiscal year (ending March 31).

Earth, as seen from space. Credit: NASA.

Happy leap year! Feb. 29, 2024, is leap day and marks an ongoing, longstanding correction to the calendar we use.

In most years, our calendar contains 365 days. But Earth actually takes 365.2422 days (let’s call it 365¼ days) to orbit the Sun. As you might imagine, if we let these quarter days add up, we’d quickly be celebrating the 4th of July in America when it’s snowing.

So, we add a full day every four years … almost. A year that’s 365¼ days long actually is 11 minutes longer than Earth’s actual orbit. That means we need additional corrections from time to time. To refine our calendar even further, all years evenly divisible by 400 are not leap years.

By the way, the first one added to the month of February occurred in the year 8 A.D. The most recent leap year (before this one) was in 2020.

There’s also leap seconds. These are not as predictable as leap years and exist because the Earth spins slightly faster now than 50 years ago.

As Kate Golembiewski writes, “The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service keeps tabs on how quickly the planet spins by sending laser beams to satellites to measure their movement, along with other techniques. When the time plotted by Earth’s movement approaches one second out of sync with the time measured by atomic clocks, scientists around the world coordinate to stop atomic clocks for exactly one second, at 11:59:59 pm on June 30 or Dec. 31, to allow astronomical clocks to catch up. Voila — a leap second.”

This article was first published in 2016 and has been updated.

By Greg LaBarge, CPAg/CCA, OSU Extension Field Specialist, Agronomic Crops, Adapted from C.O.R.N. 2024-02

Soil available and added phosphorus (P) nutrient impacts Ohio’s crop production and environment. Fertilizer P can increase crop yields. Yet, excessive P can have negative impacts on water quality, resulting in toxic algal blooms. To properly calibrate the use of P for maximum crop yield efficiency and environmental safety, it is important to monitor P use trends, understand the changes to P recommendations from 1995 to today, review changes in soil test phosphorus (STP), and identify the sources of P used. Two recent factsheets examine P nutrient use at two scales: statewide and regional. The regional results were summarized by Crop Reporting Districts (CRD). The two publications and their links are Phosphorus (P) Nutrient Use in Ohio ANR-0143, found at https://go.osu.edu/ohiop, and Ohio Phosphorus (P) Use by Crop Reporting District ANR-0144, found at https://go.osu.edu/ohiocrdp.

These two reviews of P use reveal several trends impacting agronomic management and environmental outcomes: Ohio purchased P fertilizer use is trending downward. During the highest use period (1993–1997), 206,000 tons of P2O5 were applied annually. In the most recent period (2018–2022), annual applications averaged 137,000 tons. Agriculture reduced the average yearly P2O5 application by 33% between the two periods.

All nine Ohio crop reporting districts (CRDs) show a declining trend in P2O5 usage from 1994 to 2022. The reduction rate ranges from 50 to 868 tons annually.

Seven of nine Ohio CRDs show increased availability of P2O5 sourced from manure. CRD 30 and 80 show a decline. The 2017–2022 average annual increase in manure P2O5 is 28 to 355 tons for the seven districts with an increase.

Sixty-five percent of Ohio counties had decreasing trends in mean soil test P (STP) levels between 1993 and 2015. Since 2003, Ohio’s P2O5 removal through crop harvest has exceeded P applied as a nutrient, resulting in a net annual removal of 8 pounds of P2O5 per acre. Continued net removal would indicate that STP should continue trending downward, which has positive environmental impacts.

The P2O5 mass balance of applied nutrients through fertilizer and manure applications minus nutrients removed through crop harvest ranges from -14 to 1 pound per acre in Ohio’s nine CRDs.

P fertilizer recommendations developed in 1995 were modified, resulting in the reduced application of P fertilizer while still meeting crop production needs. Tri-state fertilizer recommendations were validated and re-released without significant changes for P use in a 2020 publication, Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 974 Tri-State Fertilizer Recommendations for Corn, Soybean, Wheat, and Alfalfa (Culman, et al., 2020).

Environmental Implications of CRD Data

Jim Taylor, a research scientist with Google Health, knows a thing or two about taking temperatures. That’s because in addition to his role at Google, he’s also a pediatrician. “The first thing I ask a parent when they call and say ‘My child has a fever’ is ‘What’s their temperature?’” he says.

For six years, Jim has been part of the team at Google Health working to bring health tools to Pixel phones. One of the first of those tools is the new body temperature feature in the Thermometer app for Pixel 8 Pro. Part of the January Pixel feature drop, it allows you to quickly scan a person’s forehead with your phone and measure the body temperature. In clinical trials, our software algorithm was able to calculate body temperature in the range of 96.9°F – 104°F (36.1°C – 40°C) to within ±0.3°C when compared with an FDA-cleared temporal artery thermometer. In layman’s terms, this means the Pixel body temperature feature is about as accurate as other temporal artery thermometers.

Ravi Narasimhan, a research and development technical lead at Google, developed a miniaturized device that included an infrared sensor for body temperature measurement, which eventually evolved to become a feature for the Pixel phone. “You always have your phone with you, so it’s more convenient to measure body temperature without an additional device,” says Ravi.

Last month, we received the FDA’s De Novo classification for our body temperature app, the first for smartphones in the U.S. And as of this week, it’s now available on Pixel 8 Pro. Here’s a look at how the team built and tested it.

How we built the first smartphone body temperature app

Bodies emit infrared radiation — or, simply put, heat. The Pixel 8 Pro team added an infrared sensor to the phone next to the rear camera, which at launch was used to power the object temperature feature and now powers the body temperature feature as well. Measuring body temperature on the Pixel 8 Pro is simple: Just point the rear camera at the forehead and sweep across. The Pixel 8 Pro body temperature app accurately measures your temperature by scanning the temporal artery, unlike less accurate forehead thermometers that are pointed at the center of the forehead. The data from the infrared sensor is passed to an algorithm to calculate the temperature that will be displayed on your device, powered by the Tensor G3 chip.

The Pixel 8 Pro’s infrared sensor’s wide field of view (more than 130 degrees) causes it to sense heat beyond the forehead when the phone is too far away from the forehead. “It’s basically a big cone that the sensor takes in,” Ravi says. “Arteries are relatively small, so the closer you are, the more accurate reading you will get.”

New analytics reports coming in March for developers everywhere

Developers can also enable new sign-in options for their apps

Today, Apple is introducing new options for how apps globally can deliver in-app experiences to users, including streaming games and mini-programs. Developers can now submit a single app with the capability to stream all of the games offered in their catalog.

Apps will also be able to provide enhanced discovery opportunities for streaming games, mini-apps, mini-games, chatbots, and plug-ins that are found within their apps.

Additionally, mini-apps, mini-games, chatbots, and plug-ins will be able to incorporate Apple’s In-App Purchase system to offer their users paid digital content or services for the first time, such as a subscription for an individual chatbot.

Each experience made available in an app on the App Store will be required to adhere to all App Store Review Guidelines and its host app will need to maintain an age rating of the highest age-rated content included in the app.

The changes Apple is announcing reflect feedback from Apple’s developer community and is consistent with the App Store’s mission to provide a trusted place for users to find apps they love and developers everywhere with new capabilities to grow their businesses. Apps that host this content are responsible for ensuring all the software included in their app meets Apple’s high standards for user experience and safety.

New app analytics

Apple provides developers with powerful dashboards and reports to help them measure their apps’ performance through App Analytics, Sales and Trends, and Payments and Financial Reports. Today, Apple is introducing new analytics for developers everywhere to help them get even more insight into their businesses and their apps’ performance, while maintaining Apple’s long-held commitment to ensure users are not identifiable at an individual level.

Over 50 new reports will be available through the App Store Connect API to help developers analyze their app performance and find opportunities for improvement with more metrics in areas like:

Engagement — with additional information on the number of users on the App Store interacting with a developer’s app or sharing it with others;

Commerce — with additional information on downloads, sales and proceeds, pre-orders, and transactions made with the App Store’s secure In-App Purchase system;

App usage — with additional information on crashes, active devices, installs, app deletions, and more.

Frameworks usage — with additional information on an app’s interaction with OS functionality such as PhotoPicker, Widgets, and CarPlay.

Additional information about report details and access will be available for developers in March.

Developers will have the ability to grant third-party access to their reports conveniently through the API.

More flexibility for sign in options in apps

In line with Apple’s mission to protect user privacy, Apple is updating its App Store Review Guideline for using Sign in with Apple. Sign in with Apple makes it easy for users to sign in to apps and websites using their Apple ID and was built from the ground up with privacy and security in mind. Starting today, developers that offer third-party or social login services within their app will have the option to offer Sign in with Apple, or they will now be able to offer an equivalent privacy-focused login service instead.

We’re sharing some changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store, impacting developers’ apps in the European Union (EU) to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). These changes create new options for developers who distribute apps in any of the 27 EU member states, and do not apply to apps distributed anywhere else in the world. These options include how developers can distribute apps on iOS, process payments, use web browser engines in iOS apps, request interoperability with iPhone and iOS hardware and software features, access data and analytics about their apps, and transfer App Store user data.

If you want nothing to change for you — from how the App Store works currently in the EU and in the rest of the world — no action is needed. You can continue to distribute your apps only on the App Store and use its private and secure In-App Purchase system.

Learn about the updates

IAA, a global digital marketplace connecting vehicle buyers and sellers, has implemented the J.D. Power ChromeData VIN Descriptions (CVD) service in the IAA Interact merchandising platform.

The addition of CVD to the platform is designed to give IAA customers access to specific trim-level information for more than 90% of vehicles listed, including Ford and Toyota.

IAA’s parent company, RB Global, called the integration “the next-generation solution for identifying, describing and marketing vehicles, and providing specific details for even more OEMs.”

The company cited CVD’s “deep and comprehensive vehicle data, configuration rules and industry-leading data-engineering capabilities” as improving data accuracy to help ensure appropriate sale prices on high-end trims and enhancing the data science capabilities of the IAA Vehicle Value predictive valuation model.

RB Global senior vice president of product management Doug Rusch said CVD “provides more accurate VIN decoding for our customers than was previously available.”

“The J.D. Power ChromeData VIN Descriptions service will not only improve the IAA Interact merchandising platform,” he said, “it will also improve the overall customer experience for all users — buyers and sellers alike — by providing more comprehensive data.”

The all-electric 2024 Honda Prologue will carry a starting price of $47,400, though it will be possible to push the price to around $60,000 fully equipped. It is set to arrive at dealerships in March.

The Prologue is Honda’s first mainstream electric vehicle (EV) for sale in the U.S. A midsize SUV, it uses General Motors’ Ultium platform batteries and motors, but Honda styling. Honda plans its own lineup of EVs designed fully in-house. But its first efforts – the Prologue and the luxury Acura ZDX – are built in partnership with GM.  

Dealers will offer the Prologue with a choice of two powertrains. A single-motor, front-wheel-drive (FWD) version gets 212 horsepower, though Honda promises it is “tuned for confident acceleration and maximized efficiency.” A two-motor, all-wheel-drive (AWD) version gets 288 horsepower – the same figure as AWD editions of the Chevy Blazer EV.

Range varies from a low of 273 miles to a high of 296 depending on trim level. Honda calls the EPA-certified 296-mile figure “best in class.” But they’re referring only to base models. Similarly sized, similarly priced electric SUVs available with longer ranges include the Kia EV6 (310 miles), Ford Mustang Mach-E (310), Nissan Ariya (304), and even the Blazer EV with which it shares many parts (324).

2024 Honda Prologue Pricing:

Honda also charges a mandatory $1,395 delivery fee on all Prologue models. The Prologue does not currently qualify for the federal government’s $7,500 EV tax credit.

Oreo’s latest limited edition cookie is called Space Dunk, and they promise a truly out of this world snacking experience. Each cookie is filled with two layers of blue and pink marshmallow flavored “cosmic creme” paired with popping candies that create a “supernova bursting sensation with each bite”. The chocolate wafer cookies come in five space-themed designs, which are enhanced by a small cut out that allows you to to peer through the void to see the the colorful creme where flavor is born. 

We would say that Oreo is going where no cookie has gone before, but we both know that your mouth is a black hole that has consumed countless cookie explorers. If you want to grab a few packages for yourself, pre-orders are currently available here at Walmart priced at $4.58. A listing is also available directly from Oreo. Odds are they will end up here on Amazon at some point in the near future as well. As you’ll see below, eating these cookies could be a life-changing experience (and not in a way that involves a dentist).

Oreo is celebrating the release of Space Dunk cookies with Space Perspective – the world’s first carbon-neutral spaceflight experience company – to send one lucky Oreo fan on a six-hour journey to the edge of space in Space Perspective’s Spaceship Neptune-a pressurized capsule..To enter, simply scan the QR code on a pack OREO Space Dunk cookies or head to LiftOff.OREO.com .

“Space Perspective’s reimagined spaceflight experience will allow the winner to safely enjoy unprecedented views of planet Earth with no special training required, no weightlessness and no heavy g-forces. Adding to the experience, the winner can expect breathtaking views from the largest windows ever flown to space, a world-class meal and cocktail service, complimentary OREO cookies, Wi-Fi and even a Space Spa with a bathroom — all the comforts of the world’s first Space Lounge.”

“We’re thrilled to partner with the iconic OREO brand to be the first to bring a cookie fan aboard a Space Perspective flight,” said Jane Poynter, Founder and Co-CEO, Space Perspective. “Together, we have put innovation, accessibility, playfulness and the spirit of exploration at the heart of this partnership – not to mention taking OREO cookies where they’ve never gone before! Space Perspective is on a mission to bring space travel to more people than ever. We can’t wait to welcome the winner into our growing community of Explorers who will all safely experience a life-changing journey and return with a new perspective on our planet and humanity. Through this program, we are amplifying our mission to bring accessible space tourism to the world.”

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