While mostly a PR piece designed to promote their gasolines, this Web article on fuel-economy testing is interesting. It starts, “Rigorously controlled test track trials are a massive improvement on open road measurements, but even they do not go far enough for BP. The company’s fuels and lubricants technologists demand even more controlled test conditions.”

From the January 13, 2009 issue of the NIST Tech Beat:

NIST Chemist Tom Bruno demonstrates sampling of biodiesel fuel for injection into a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, an instrument that separates and identifies the components of a mixture.
Credit: Ost, NIST
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a method […]

SAE International is looking for experts in a couple of areas:

FlexRay. J2813—”FlexRay for Vehicle Applicatons” Task Force is looking for experts to help draft a document that will define the physical layer and portions of the data link layer. It will also address how these are to be tested. Contact Debbie Brooks, brook@sae.org.
Restraint systems. Experts […]