THE DEPARTMENT of Science and Technology, together with the Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), is developing the country’s first electric vehicle (EV) for mass transportation.

Leading the development of the EV is engineer Romeo Marave, who owns the rights to a prototype EV. He is being assisted by the DOST-Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research Development (PCIERD), the MIT School of Mechanical Engineering and several PEZA-accredited private firms, including an organization of motor car battery companies and a group that makes motoring parts.

In an interview, DOST-PCIERD Deputy Director Raul Sabularse said the EV project entered by the three agencies will focus more on improving the engine earlier developed by Marave.

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DO you love science? If so, who instilled a love for science in you?

Which scientist is your hero, who inspired you to learn more about science or even become a scientist yourself.

I didn’t become a scientist, but I do have two heroes: Albert Einstein, for his brilliance and compassion for humanity, and Carl Sagan, for sharing his vision for science and making more people aware of its importance.

Who’s your hero?

HAVE you always wanted to build your own robots? Well, now you can take a crack at it.

A professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University wants to start a do-it-yourself revolution by offering open source hardware that would allow people to create their own robots using standard parts that you buy from hardware stores.

Here’s an excerpt from the Scientific American story:

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I ENJOYED reading “A Brief History of Time” back in college, and I think it’s only fitting for the brilliant theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to one day venture into space. That’s what he hopes to do by 2009.

So he’s taking the first step with a zero-gravity flight that allowed him to temporarily escape his wheelchair.

Here’s an excerpt from the Agence France-Presse story. Photo also courtesy of Agence France-Presse.

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IT orbits a red dwarf that’s much smaller and colder than our own sun, but this new planet is the most Earth-like one that astronomers have discovered so far.

Here’s an excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle story:

The announcement was greeted with enthusiasm by many U.S. astronomers.

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