Sir Torques a Lot: Driving the BMW 335D

A careful cost/benefit analysis of the diesel-powered 2009 BMW 335d sedan vs. the gasoline-powered BMW 335i is certain to yield...exactly nothing. There are many reasons for this:

1. The 335d burns less fuel than the 335i, no question. Yet diesel fuel also costs more than gasoline.
2. The 335d costs more than the 335i. Yet it also emits less CO2.
3. The 335d can easily exceed 500 miles on one tank of fuel. Yet the 335i is quicker, lighter and handles better.

Shall we continue? As with most alternative-fuel vehicles, the decision to buy the diesel-powered 2009 BMW 335d will be made by the heart more often than the pocketbook. Even so, the resolutions to the dilemmas above aren't easy to find, but here's how we see it:

1. Fuel cost is a wash. In this case, less fuel consumption cancels the price premium of diesel fuel. Most buyers shopping for a $50,000 sedan won't be splitting these hairs anyway.
2. The 335d costs $2,475 more than an identically equipped 335i, yet uses less fuel and emits fewer greenhouse gases. This seems like a small premium for anyone who prioritizes the planet and can afford a car this costly.
3. Who doesn't want to fill up less frequently? We'd bet it's the same folks who care more about CO2 emissions than they do about 0-60-mph times.

Numbers Big and Small
The 2009 BMW 335d is one of two vehicles introducing BMW's clean diesel technology to the U.S. this year (the other is the BMW X5 xDrive35d) and it generates some staggering numbers. Most striking is the output from its twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-6: 265 horsepower at 4,200 rpm and 425 pound-feet of torque at 1,750 rpm.

All this snort goes to the ground through just one transmission option, a six-speed automatic with a manual shift mode. This is the same gearbox offered in the 335i, and it has the same sport mode that hangs onto gears longer. Our test car was fitted with the optional shift paddles on the steering wheel.

Look critically at the engine's output numbers and you'll see a relatively high power peak for a diesel engine that still retains plenty of low-end, rubber-torturing torque. This is a rare combination. This 3.0-liter inline-6 is capable of burying you in the seat with grunt, yet it still enjoys the drivability at high rpm (the redline is 5,000 rpm) needed for sporting character. It's a unique and entertaining combination.

This kind of flexibility comes courtesy of the two turbochargers — a small one optimized for quick throttle response and a larger one that takes over quickly to produce the bellowing torque. BMW utilizes urea (which it calls AdBlue) injection in the exhaust to reduce nitrous-oxide emissions.

This technology working in conjunction with a diesel particulate filter means the 335d's emissions are clean enough that it can be sold in all 50 states. The 6.1-gallon urea tank is simply refilled at the same intervals as a standard change of engine oil, so no special service is required. Urea refills are included in BMW's service program for four years or 50,000 miles. It's also impressive that BMW managed to jam this much storage volume into the 3 Series with no significant packaging compromises.

Taking Its Measure
As long as we're talking about striking numbers, here's another one: $50,895. That's what this 2009 BMW 335d test car costs with its leather upholstery and trim, the Sport package, keyless ignition and several other options. Its base price including destination is $44,725. Since it's a clean diesel, it qualifies for a $900 federal tax credit, which relieves a tiny bit of the sting. It also narrows the gap to an identically equipped 335i from the aforementioned $2,475 to only $1,575.

Now we're talking, and here's why. Using the EPA's fuel-economy figures for both cars (27 mpg combined for the 335d and 20 mpg combined for the 335i) and a rate of 15,000 miles driven annually, we find that the 335d will burn 195 gallons of fuel fewer than a 335i. In our own testing, we achieved 29.6 mpg with the 335d while covering 1,517 miles, about 70 percent of which were highway miles. Using the current average U.S. fuel prices for diesel and gasoline, the annual fuel cost at this rate is virtually the same — $1,273/year for the 335d and $1,263/year for the 335i.

At this rate, it will take prohibitively long to make up the price premium you pay for the diesel-powered 3 Series in the savings in fuel cost. By virtue of burning less fuel, however, the 335i also emits considerably less CO2 every year — 7.79 tons/year vs. 9.76 tons/year. So the answer for those whose hearts are green is simple: Buy the 335d.

Still, there are other benefits to consider.

Goes Like Stink, but Doesn't
The 335d's acceleration is impressive. At the track it hits 60 mph in 5.9 seconds (5.6 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip). It busts through the quarter-mile traps in 14.1 seconds at 99.1 mph. This is 0.6 second slower to 60 mph than the 335i, a gap that is maintained to the quarter-mile mark, and the trap speed is about 4 mph down on the gasoline-powered car.

The story the numbers don't tell is how effortlessly the diesel gets the job done. This power plant is amply engaging below 3,000 rpm. We found ourselves outrunning everyone while grunting it around town without ever approaching the upper reaches of the tachometer.

Venture beyond 3,000 rpm and you'll find enough life left in the top third of the tachometer to make hard driving enjoyable. And you'll do it without feeling like you're overworking the engine. When we start driving quickly, we inevitably end up spending lots of time around redline, and we've found this diesel will play in that arena with a willingness to rev all the way to redline.

Even though the 2009 BMW 335d features an aluminum-block engine, there's still a weight penalty associated with the diesel sedan compared to the 335i. Nevertheless, the 335d offers the typical feel and response through the controls of a BMW 3 Series. Intuitive and well weighted, the 335d's steering feels rewarding, despite the fact that this car weighs 3,804 pounds, 191 pounds more than the 335i. Turn-in is good and the overall sense of control doesn't suffer from the added weight.

With a 67.3-mph performance through the slalom, the 335d is a few ticks slower than the 335i, yet it punches through the cones with similar confidence. It retains a weight distribution of 51 percent front/49 percent rear despite a heavier engine and accompanying components. On the skid pad, the diesel proved as good or better than any 335i we've tested, with a performance of 0.91g thanks to 225/40R18 front and 255/35R18 rear Bridgestone Potenza RE050A run-flat tires.

According to BMW, this car's Sport package gives it the ability to reach 149 mph, just 1 mph short of the 335i's terminal velocity. Go ahead, tell us there isn't some novelty in a 150-mph diesel that pulls 0.91g on the skid pad.

Diesel? Really?
Even if there isn't novelty and you just happen to like the perfume of diesel fuel in the morning, then you've got a perfectly good 3 Series sedan that makes almost no compromises as a diesel.

Like most modern non-commercial diesel engines, this one is virtually silent. You'd never know this twin-turbo inline-6 is a diesel. When you get into the throttle of most diesel engines, it's as if someone turned up the volume control to 11. But when you rev this BMW diesel, your sound perception gauge barely goes up to 2.

One potential drawback is the fact that you'll occasionally have to search for a fuel station that sells diesel. And, sometimes, when you do, it will be a truck stop complete with the greasy mess of diesel spilled at every pump and slathered on every handle. We only had to deal with this once in five fills.

Still a 3 Series
Inside the diesel's cabin are the familiar instruments, seats, steering wheel and sense of quality that you associate with a 3 Series. You really do get what you pay for here.

And there's no indication that this is a diesel either, just the same materials and design as the other cars in the line of 3 Series cars. Diesel-powered 3s are even available now with the same options as the 335i, except active steering — a feature we doubt many will miss.

So what we have here is a class-leading sedan with plenty of grunt, lots of range and a large price tag. Thing is, if you're shopping in this price range and have an ounce of social responsibility in your soul, then the 2009 BMW 335d is undeniably appealing. There isn't another car that can match its strengths. And it doesn't have many weaknesses.

You don't even need a cost/benefit analysis to tell you that.

Driving the Cube

Since 2002, a brilliant design and a quirky nature have made the Nissan Cube one of Japan's top-selling cars. With its superbly sculptured boxy styling and ingenious asymmetrical rear door (reportedly inspired by a 1950s refrigerator), the Cube became a design icon in a land of design mediocrity.

And yet Nissan never exported it. To the bosses in Tokyo, the Cube shaped up as a homegrown domestic model, too Japanese to fit into another culture. Fortunately gai-atsu, as they say in Japan, or "international pressure," changed all that.

And that's how we came to be driving the 2009 Nissan Cube on the Nissan proving ground in Yokohama, among the very first to drive the car that's coming to the U.S. in the spring of 2009. Americans apparently are finally quirky enough for the Nissan Cube.

Great Big Refrigerator Box
Like a refrigerator box, a Cube can be anything you want it to be — clubhouse, fortress, racing car. But a bigger box is always better. So the Cube has grown gradually larger since its first iteration in 1998, when it appeared as the latest in a line of style-obsessed Nissan niche vehicles like the Be-1, Figaro, Pao and S-Cargo. Now the third-generation Cube has been stretched over a larger platform based on the Nissan Versa.

Compared to the 2008 Nissan Cube we've tested in the U.S., the new car's wheelbase has been stretched 4 inches to 99.6 inches, while its overall length has grown 9.8 inches to 156.7 inches. Meanwhile, the wheels have been pushed out to the corners, the overall width has grown 1 inch and overall height has been increased 0.5 inch. The new Cube has a wheelbase that's still 2.8 inches shorter than a Versa and an overall length that's 12.4 inches shorter, yet the car looks bigger and more imposing on the road.

"That was one of our main aims," says chief engineer Yosuke Iwasa. "It had to still look like a Cube, but at the same time, it had to be more visually expressive." Iwasa spent several weeks in the U.S., studying the way the old Cube looked on American roads. "Parked at stoplights, surrounded by huge trucks, the Cube looked a little out of its league," he says. "From an aesthetic viewpoint, the new model had to be able to hold its own on American roads. And we think the end result just looks more solid."

What Iwasa wanted to say was that the outgoing Cube looked too cute and subservient next to big American pickup trucks, and that would never do.

Bulldog With Shades
The Cube's revised look features rounder edges, flared wheel arches and a slightly longer front overhang to accommodate the larger 1.8-liter inline-4 engine for international markets, and all this helps make the shape look more mature. It's still clearly a Cube, though.

With its snub nose, widely spaced headlights and upright greenhouse, the Nissan designers wryly say that the new Cube looks like a "bulldog in sunglasses." (Nissan's marketing campaign in Japan is all about this canine incognito thing.) The number of cut lines in the bodywork has been minimized to give it the look of pure product design, like an iPod.

The Nissan designers have also gone to some lengths to create a special Cube feature for each market, so the U.S. will get a model fitted with an asymmetrical rear door that opens from the right, with hinges on the left — the opposite of the Japan-spec model.

Triple Ripple
The five-passenger interior is a social space, meant for meeting with friends. The three-passenger lounge-style rear seat is mounted slightly higher than the front seats, and it slides fore and aft some 6 inches for added comfort.

The designers have given the interior the look of a Jacuzzi (of all things), all soft curves. In fact, an intriguing ripple effect has been integrated into the interior's C-pillar, door-mounted audio speakers and even the cupholders. The headliner of the non-sunroof model has been shaped to recall the ripples made by a stone being dropped into a still pool of water. The car with a sunroof has a shoji-like screen that lets in ambient light when it's drawn closed.

Interior quality has improved significantly, with better trim and plastics used throughout. The new sinuous, S-shape dash design makes the cockpit feel bigger than it is. The front seats now have lengthened seat cushions and seatbacks to accommodate bigger foreign bodies, and thicker cushions translate into extra lumbar support and more comfort.

The interior even comes in for some astronomical design nuances, with the speedometer surrounded by white light to represent the moon, and the tachometer engulfed in blue to express the Earth. A new, more powerful climate control system has also been fitted for the more trying weather situations in the Americas. And as you'd expect, the 2009 Nissan Cube is iPod-compatible, with a dedicated USB port under the dash plus dedicated software.

The interior comes in two shades of gray, Wall Gray and Graphite. There are colorful options, though, like the combination of a beige dash, dark-brown seat upholstery and a thick, gray shag-pile carpet. We remember driving something that had this wall-to-wall carpet thing back in the 1970s (alright, so it was a boogie van), and we nearly chucked our shoes and socks in the backseat so we could scrunch the carpet with our toes. Good thing the carpet has a built-in odor-eating function (we're not kidding).

Wind It Up and Let It Go
To keep costs down, Nissan has basically dropped the new Cube onto a slightly modified Versa, so it inherits the Versa's platform and engines. The U.S.-specification Cube will come with the Versa's 1.8-liter MR18DE inline-4 that makes 122 horsepower and 127 pound-feet of torque. It's matched up with a new-generation continuously variable transmission (CVT) that warms up quicker in cold conditions, and it's expected to deliver about 30 mpg on the EPA's highway cycle. A six-speed manual transmission will be available as well.

We drove a JDM model of the new Cube with the 1.5-liter inline-4 of the previous Cube, which makes 107 hp at 6,000 rpm and 109 lb-ft of torque at 4,400. Thanks to the new Xtronic CVT and a tweaked ECU, the new Cube is quicker off the mark and more responsive to smaller throttle inputs, due mainly to the CVT's adaptive shift control that keeps the engine in its sweet spot between 2,000 and 4,500 rpm. While it won't win any sprint races, this 107-hp Cube will cruise to 60 mph in around 10 seconds, and has a top speed of just over 105 mph.

Most of the heavy lifting for the new package has focused on handling and ride quality, qualities sadly ignored by its predecessor. In addition to incorporating a stiffer chassis, the Cube employs independent struts on the front and a torsion beam setup on the rear, the rear spring rates have been increased and the antiroll bars are stiffer.

The upgraded dampers improve handling significantly, increasing straight-line stability, delivering a more compliant ride and reducing body roll in the corners. The Cube turns into corners on its P195/60R15 tires with more purpose than before, and has better feel and more feedback from the road. Though the Cube combines front disc brakes with rear drums, the brake pedal action is reassuringly firm, and the car dives less under braking as well. The bottom line is that the new Cube feels more planted to the pavement.

Simple but Not Cheap
As you'd expect with such a Scion-style vehicle, the 2009 Nissan Cube has lots of neat optional features, including hands-free Bluetooth telephone compatibility, XM Satellite Radio, a sonar rear parking sensor and a six-speaker Rockford Fosgate audio system with a subwoofer.

But perhaps more surprising is the amount of standard equipment. Power door locks, power windows and intermittent-speed windshield wipers (plus a rear wiper) are part of the list of standard convenience items, while antilock brakes, brake assist, electronic brakeforce distribution, stability control with traction control, and tire-pressure monitors are also standard. There will be three models: the Cube 1.8, the Cube 1.8 S and the Cube 1.8 SL.

Nissan's mission with the new Cube has been to upgrade every aspect of the previous model in order to make it compatible with the demands of the U.S. market while maintaining the original car's iconic styling. It's done just that.

A Look Back at Bush's Economic Missteps

From Time Magazine:

By JUSTIN FOX

Brooks Kraft / Corbis for TIME

INTRODUCTION

George Bush is leaving the White House with a dismal economic record. By almost every measure — GDP growth, jobs, median incomes, financial-market performance — he stacks up as probably the least-successful President on the economic front since Herbert Hoover.

It's not all Bush's fault. He inherited an inevitable recession in 2001, and even last year's financial collapse was to some extent the result of unsustainable trends in place long before he moved to Washington. Also, we generally give Presidents both more credit and more blame for economic outcomes than they probably deserve. As Bush mock-moaned in his final White House press conference, "Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch?"

His next words, though, were, "It's just pathetic, isn't it, self-pity?" So let's spare him the pity. As the decider in the White House for the past eight years, George Bush made some economic calls that don't look smart today. Here are eight of them.

1. The Return to Deficits

Jim Young / Reuters

When President Bush took office in 2001, Republicans and Democrats in Washington had built a strong consensus on the need for fiscal responsibility. Bush blew that apart within a few months. With the country in a recession, a temporary return to deficits was inevitable. But Bush's tax cuts and spending increases — and clear disdain for the pay-as-you-go approach that had brought deficits down in the 1990s — brought a return to permanent deficits. These actions almost certainly didn't cause the current crisis, but they have left the Federal Government in a much weaker position to combat it.

2. Iraq

Spencer Platt / Getty

Doing a cost-benefit analysis on a war is awfully hard. There are just too many what-ifs. But the cost of invading and occupying Iraq has been staggeringly high — whether you believe the $3 trillion figure of economists Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz or side with the Congressional Budget Office estimate of a mere trillion or two. It's the biggest part of the explanation for the yawning Bush-era budget deficits. So even if you think the war did bring benefits to the U.S., they would have to be pretty gigantic to justify the cost.

See pictures of Bush's friendship with Tony Blair.

3. Tax Cuts for the Rich

Rhona Wise / AFP / Getty

When Ronald Reagan slashed taxes on capital gains and high earners in the early 1980s, inflation was pushing the middle class into top tax brackets, financial markets had been stuck in a funk for 15 years and income inequality had been declining for almost five decades. Like him or not, the man's actions fit the times — and the U.S. economy boomed for most of his two terms in office. Bush came to Washington facing almost diametrically opposing economic conditions, yet he offered up the same solutions as Reagan. Guess what: they weren't what the economy needed.

See TIME's gallery of politicians outed in scandals.

4. Financial Regulation

The only major piece of regulatory legislation enacted during the Bush years was the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which dramatically increased regulation of corporate financial disclosures. The really big regulatory changes being pointed to now as possible culprits for the crisis date back to Bush's predecessors: Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, even Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. So the popular Democratic refrain that "Bush-era deregulation" is to blame for our troubles is a little hard to square with the evidence. What is true is that most Bush-era financial regulators were less than enthusiastic about the very act of regulating, and that Bush's "ownership society" push glossed over a lot of potential dangers. Bush didn't cause the financial regulatory breakdown, but he didn't jump in to fix it either.

See pictures of the top 10 scared traders.

5. Telling Us to Go Shopping

Mario Tama / Getty

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush didn't call for sacrifice. He called for shopping. "Get down to Disney World in Florida," he said. "Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed." Taken on its own, this wasn't such a horrible sentiment. But Boston University historian Andrew Bacevich has made a convincing case that it was part of a broader pattern of encouraging financial irresponsibility. "Bush seems to have calculated — cynically but correctly — that prolonging the credit-fueled consumer binge could help keep complaints about his performance as Commander in Chief from becoming more than a nuisance," Bacevich wrote in the Washington Post in October. Now we're paying the bill.

See pictures of expensive things that money can buy.

6. Energy Policy

Justin Sullivan / Getty

Not much to say here, except that there wasn't an energy policy. Again, this wasn't new to the Bush era. But with a years-long oil-price slide finally coming to an end not long before he took office, the President's (and Vice President's) unwillingness to take serious steps to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels left the country vulnerable and way behind the rest of the developed world in preparing for a post-oil future.

7. A State of Denial

Stephen Jaffe / AFP / Getty

Every Administration spins and sugarcoats the economic truth. But the Bush White House took this disingenuousness to new levels. The surest way to get yourself fired as a Bush economic adviser was to say something that was true. Paul O'Neill was ousted from Treasury for warning about deficits. Larry Lindsey was kicked out of the top White House economic job for predicting in 2002 that the Iraq war would cost $100 billion to $200 billion — far below the actual cost but much more than what the White House was officially projecting. This disdain for reality, and for expertise, pervaded the Bush economic approach, and made it impossible for the Administration to react intelligently to real-world economic problems like the housing bubble.

Read "Four Steps to Ending the Foreclosure Crisis."

8. The Muddled Bailout

Gerald Herbert / AP

It could have been much, much worse. For the first time, Bush gave someone with more expertise than political bona fides — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — control over economic policy and didn't let the hacks in the White House undercut him. Paulson's financial rescue has been awfully messy and expensive, but one shudders to think what might have happened if his much weaker predecessor, John Snow, had still been in charge at Treasury when trouble struck. The main problem has been the ambivalence with which both Paulson and the White House have approached the financial rescue. They backed into it, never articulating clear principles for how it should work. That's yet another thing the new Administration is going have to rectify.

See pictures of TIME's Wall Street covers.

The Making of the Hyundai Genesis Coupe Super Bowl Ads

Super (Bowl) Coupe: A Behind-the-Scenes Video Look at Rhys Millen's Epic Laps in Hyundai's Rear-Drive Sports Coupe

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Genesis: the time or circumstances of something's coming into being

Hyundai's rear-driven Genesis vision first came into being during last year's Super Bowl with commercials for its Genesis Sedan, the luxury car that's helping to redefine the Korean brand's image in the U.S. Now, on Feb. 1, Hyundai will once again use the super pulpit to introduce its 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe to an audience of some 100 million around the world.

Hyundai has reportedly paid as much as $6 million for two 30-second spots in each half of Super Bowl XLIII between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers.

To help Hyundai make a splash with its Super Bowl ads, both employing a theme dubbed "The Epic Lap," the brand turned to Rhys Millen, a veteran wheelman with a streak of Knievel in him (see his recent New Year's 2009 Vegas truck flip for more). He's also a master of the art of dorifto (he's won multiple drifting championships) and an all-around hot shoe with years of experience in films (he was a stunt driver for recent the Dukes of Hazzard movie, among others). Millen also recently collaborated with Hyundai on the RMR Racing Hyundai Genesis Coupe for last year's SEMA show.

For the "Epic" shoot, Millen was tossed the keys to a pre-production Coupe and unleashed on Road Atlanta's 2.54-mile, 12-turn circuit last December. Millen deftly weaved the Genesis Coupe between camera vehicles, spun it dozens of times while sound men daringly dangled their boom mics within inches of the whirling, squealing machine, and otherwise flogged it at ten-tenths for 50-plus laps. The Coupe kept coming back for more, only pleading for fresh rubber along the way.

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Rhys Millen Straps in

"We're taking this car in a controlled environment to the max, hitting speeds of a 125 mph, braking deep, firing in, popping over the rumble strips, it's awesome, a great feeling," Millen said during the shoot.

Adding a dramatic effect to one of the "Epic" commercials will be a solo of Bach's "Cello Suite #3 in C, Gigue" by Grammy-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma, choreographed to Millen's controlled mayhem behind the wheel. Hyundai is also planning an online experience where users will be able to splice together snippets from the shoot and create an "Epic Lap" of their own.

Motor Trend video producer extraordinaire Michael Suggett was afforded an opportunity to go behind-the-scenes during the shoot at Road Atlanta. Our exclusive video presentation outlines the painstaking work and long hours put in by the dozens of dedicated folks tasked with putting together the super spots. And of course, we've also got plenty of footage of Millen getting wild in the car.

We'll have much more on the Genesis Coupe coming soon, but until then, click below to enjoy our inside look at what went into making Millen's laps so epic.

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Panel Review: Mercedes S63 AMG

Earlier this year I spent some time behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG, and I walked away a bit underwhelmed. But I had the same car again for a weekend and loved every minute of it.

AMG's normally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8 is as delightful as ever, and there is a very pleasant, refined exhaust tone when you boot it. Since the S63 was still wearing summer rubber and temperatures hovered around freezing with a decent amount of rain and snow in the mix, I didn't get much spirited driving time, and that's a shame. This car moves pretty well given its curb weight and the 6.2-liter's preference for lots of revs. If you're going to spring for a car like this (and you live in a northern state), be sure to buy winter rubber.

I was a bit disappointed this S-class didn't come with a rearview camera. Backing such a long car into a parking garage space is a bit difficult with only the small side mirrors. I'd gladly trade the night view system for a regular rearview camera to make sure I don't scratch my bumper or overhang a parking spot and get clipped by another driver.

Distronic cruise control continues to amuse me and amaze my passengers. It isn't cheap, but when your car starts at $132k, less than $3k for intelligent cruise control sounds justifiable.

Phil Floraday, Senior Online Editor

Like Phil, my time behind the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG came during some wintry Michigan weather, so I wasn't able to enjoy the S63 to its fullest performance potential. That's not to say it rained on my parade (technically, it sleeted)-I still enjoyed my time behind the wheel of the big Benz.

Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but a car this size just feels best as a proper four-door sedan. I drove the Mercedes CL63 AMG-essentially a two-door variant of this same car-a few months back, and though I enjoyed it, I couldn't help thinking I'd enjoy the S-class version better-it just felt odd for a car so large to simply be a coupe. I ended up proving myself correct, though I couldn't help but wish for the lower seating position afforded by the SL. Perhaps I'm just never satisfied.

I was, however, more than satisfied with virtually everything else. Although enthusiasts regard the AMG models as performance vehicles (which they truly are), there just isn't enough written about the stupefying levels of luxury contained within their interiors. No matter which seating position you're in, the S63's cabin is warm and inviting and rewards all with a level of comfort and pampering it's hard to find elsewhere.

Evan McCausland, Web Producer

I was not overly impressed with the S63 AMG. I found the S-class unconvincing in high-powered, AMG drag. Yes, it's blindingly quick, but the non-AMG S600 is plenty fast. The soundtrack, though, is truly intoxicating and I found myself burying the throttle just to hear it.

I agree with Phil that on a car this large a rearview camera is nearly a necessity and a notable oversight on a car this expensive and loaded down with every gadget imaginable.

Jennifer Misaros, Production Editor

I've now driven several AMG Mercedes-Benzes with the normally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8 and have come away from each iteration impressed. The S63 sounds great, looks great, and makes you feel like a million bucks when you're behind the wheel. The exterior styling is distinctive but tasteful - it's obvious that this isn't a run-of-the-mill S-class. The interior is ultraluxurious, with high-quality leather and wood swathing everything. Still, with today's economy, the extra $42,000 over the price of an S550 is no small thing. Luckily for Mercedes, there will always be a slice of the market that is unaffected by financial turmoil and is unfazed by economic uncertainty. For them, the S63 AMG is a worthwhile addition to their garage.

Amy Skogstrom, Managing Editor

2009 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG

Base Price (with destination): $132,225
Price as tested: $144,840

Options:
-iPod Integration Kit - $425
-Panorama Sunroof - $1,050
-Premium III: Night View Assist - $1,710
-AMG Performance Package - $7,070
-Distronic Plus Package - $2,880
-Gas Guzzler Tax - $3,000

Fuel Economy: 11 / 17 /13 (city/hwy/combined)

Engine:
Size: 6.3L V8
HP: 518 HP @ 6,800 rpm
Torque: 465 lb-ft @ 5,200 rpm

Safety Ratings (in stars, 1-5):
-Frontal Crash Driver: Not Rated
-Frontal Crash Passenger: Not Rated
-Side Crash Front Seat: Not Rated
-Side Crash Rear Seat: Not Rated
-Rollover: Not Rated

Transmission: 7-Speed Automatic Transmission

Weight: 4663 lb

Wheel/Tire Info:
- 20" AMG 5-Spoke Light Alloy Wheels
- Front: 255/35 ZR20
- Rear: 275/35 ZR20

Fiat to Buy 35% stake in Chrysler

A flurry of rumors arose over the weekend as sources speculated that Fiat and Chrysler were close to confirming a tie-up. Today, both Fiat and Chrysler confirmed the deal, and offered up some details about the agreement. In a joint statement, Fiat, Chrysler and Chrysler's majority shareholder, Cerberus Capital Management, said they have signed "a non-binding term sheet to establish a global strategic alliance." For Chrysler, the deal provides "access to competitive, fuel-efficient vehicle platforms, powertrains and components to be produced at Chrysler manufacturing sites." The two auto makers will also have access to each other's distribution networks. Fiat will take a 35 percent equity stake in Chrysler, but will not provide a cash investment or commit funding to the American auto maker. Fiat vice-chairman John Elkaan told reports on Tuesday that Fiat may increase its stake at a later date. "We can raise that," he said. "It's a good deal... we have already said that it's important to have consolidation in the auto sector." The move seems intelligent on Chrysler's part, which currently lacks a competitive small car - its Dodge Caliber has generally been derided as being subpar. Fiat, on the other hand, has enjoyed success with its Fiat 500 small car - success Chrysler is undoubtedly hoping will translate for their version if/when it comes stateside.

Colibri Files for Bankruptcy

The Providence, Rhode Island-based Colibri Group, known in the cigar industry for its handsome torch lighters, abruptly shut down its operation, laying off 280 employees. The official announcement was made Wednesday evening by chief executive officer Jim Fleet who stated "The current economic conditions and credit market turmoil are such that Colibri cannot sustain its current operations and as such must close its doors."

The company has gone into receivership status, a form of bankruptcy in which a third-party is legally appointed to run the company in an effort to recoup as much debt as possible. The move was prompted by Colibri's major shareholder, Founders Equity, which petitioned the Providence Superior Court for receivership.

"The Colibri Group is simply out of money," Timothy P. Gallogly, the company's general counsel, told The Providence Journal. According to Allan M. Shine, Colibri's appointed receiver, the company owes about $14 million to HSBC Bank and almost as much to Sovereign Bank.

Gallogly attributed the company's decision to close to the recent economic downturn coupled with a declining demand for cigar accessories.

"It's an easy purchase to defer when you're tightening your belt," he told the Journal. "We tried our best. We just weren't able to get through this."

Cigar Aficionado attempted to contact the company's service department and headquarters, and although the number is still operational with prompts and recordings, no Colibri executives were available for comment

Blocking Enzyme Prevents Obesity

Fat begone: Shown here is a mouse lacking an enzyme that controls fat storage. These mice can eat a high-fat diet--the pink pellets are 45 percent fat--and stay lean. Credit: Robin Duncan

Mice engineered to lack an enzyme found mainly in fat cells can gorge without gaining weight, according to new research. Blocking the enzyme appears to block fat cells' ability to store fat. That sounds like a dream come true for those struggling with excess pounds, but lacking fat has a downside: some mice also developed insulin resistance, a risk factor for diabetes. The researchers who conducted the study hope to find drugs that can turn down the enzyme's activity just slightly, reducing this risk.

"If we can limit activity rather than completely abolish it, we should see positive effects on fat mobilization and fat burning, without seeing the unfavorable effects," says Robin Duncan, a postdoctoral fellow in Hei Sook Sul's lab at the University of California, Berkeley, and a lead author on the paper, published this month in Nature Medicine.

The Berkeley researchers engineered mice to lack an enzyme called adipose-specific phospholipase A2 (AdPLA), which is found mostly in fat cells--technically known as adipose cells. The mice had a normal appetite: they ate about as much as control mice when given unlimited access to high-fat food. But eliminating AdPLA had a huge effect on weight. At 16 months, the engineered mice weighed an average of 39.1 grams, while the normal mice averaged 73.7 grams.

Duncan and her collaborators also found that removing the enzyme could prevent obesity in mice that lack leptin, a hormone that regulates satiety. While a normal mouse eats 2 to 3 grams of food per day, in the Berkeley study, leptin-deficient mice ate about 5 grams, and mice without both leptin and AdPLA ate 7.5 grams. At 17 weeks old, mice lacking both leptin and AdPLA weighed less than half as much as their leptin-deficient counterparts: about 35 grams versus 75 grams. The findings suggest that eliminating the enzyme can prevent obesity even in animals that are genetically prone to it.

The researchers say that the normal function of the AdPLA enzyme is to trigger a series of molecular signals that block the breakdown of fat. "When AdPLA is eliminated," says Duncan, "this 'brake' on fat breakdown is removed, and lipolysis [fat metabolism] proceeds at full speed, resulting in leanness, even in animals that eat a fatty diet or overeat." The enzyme-deficient animals had a normal number of fat cells, but no fat molecules were stored in them.

Scientists disagree about whether this enzyme provides a promising target for obesity drugs. Preventing all fat storage in adipose cells is unhealthy. Stored fat can be released as fuel for muscle cells. Moreover, humans who lack fat tissue store fat in other organs, such as the liver, which then become less responsive to insulin. The researchers found this same problem in mice lacking the enzyme. "They had excess fat molecules present in liver and muscle, tissues that are big contributors to insulin resistance," says Rosalind Coleman, a scientist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, who wasn't involved in the research. "It highlights the fact that lipid storage in nonfat cells is a dangerous thing."

The Berkeley researchers hope that it will be possible to turn down the AdPLA enzyme just enough to increase fat breakdown without triggering insulin resistance. But some experts are skeptical, saying that it's unclear whether tinkering with the enzyme would be beneficial or detrimental. "I would be reluctant to develop a drug that inhibits this enzyme," says Andrew S. Greenberg, director of the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA nutrition research center at Tufts University.

But Duncan is optimistic, thanks to a relatively little-studied component of fat metabolism: breakdown of fat molecules within fat cells themselves. Researchers saw an increase in this kind of fat metabolism in enzyme-deficient mice. "This is exciting, because it means that to some extent, the fats were prevented from ever getting into the blood, and therefore to the liver and pancreas," Duncan says. "There is a limit to how much the fat cells can use, though. The goal is to decrease AdPLA to this limit, rather than remove it completely and cause extreme effects." The researchers are now studying animals with one copy of the AdPLA gene, to determine whether partially reducing enzyme levels prevents insulin resistance.

Throw your hard drive away, Google's Gdrive arriving in 2009

Chicago (IL) - Google Drive, or Gdrive as it is better known, has to be the most anticipated Google product so far. When it arrives, Gdrive will likely cause a major paradigm shift in how we use computers and bring Google one step closer to dethroning Windows on your desktop.


The service has the potential to eclipse even Gmail, Google's second best-known product after their google.com search engine. That said, it's no wonder users have been ripe with anticipation for years - yes, that's how long the rumors have persisted. Gdrive is basically online storage where Google servers have enough capacity to hold the entire contents of your hard drive. It will likely also come with enough brains to do cool tricks now with bigger things down the road - like booting your computer from online drive to load the Google operating system.

Gdrive is basically a cloud-based storage that should have two faces: A desktop client that keeps local and online files and folders in two-directional sync via a web interface for accessing your desktop files anywhere and anytime, using any network-enabled computer. In addition, it will come tightly integrated with other Google services to enable editing of supported document types, like spreadsheets and presentations via Google Docs, email via Gmail, images via Picasa Web Albums, etc.

This opens powerful possibilities. For instance, you could start working on a spreadsheet at home and continue via Gdrive web interface accessed in an Internet cafe. When you arrive back home, changes to the spreadsheet have already trickled down from the cloud to your desktop. The idea, of course, is all but revolutionary, but Google's execution could set it apart.

SkyDrive, MobileMe, Back to my Mac

Microsoft's SkyDrive offers 25GB of online storage free of charge but is limited to 50MB per file. The software maker's more advanced beta service (dubbed Live Mesh) comes with a less spacious 5GB of online storage but with more intelligence: Its service keeps your files seamlessly synced across desktop, web and mobile worlds. The latter client also allows you to access files from your desktop using a Windows Mobile-powered cellphone.

Apple has promised similar desktop, mobile and web file syncing between Macs, PCs and iPhones via a MobileMe cloud service, but the feature was delayed due to ongoing MobileMe difficulties - even though Apple built it into its desktop. Called "Back to my Mac," this OS X Leopard feature pairs with MobileMe online storage to let you search, access and edit files stored on a remote Mac. Besides such offerings from industry heavy-weighs, there are similar free or low-priced online storage services from others that let you do more or less the same.

Continued on the next page: Service features, Proofs of existence, Privacy implications and Final thoughts

Storage for your entire life

Most of the aforementioned services are crippled in one way or another, however. None of them gives you enough storage in a free version, but paid upgrades are too expensive and you're better off buying a bigger hard drive for less money. It is these weaknesses that Gdrive aims to exploit as Google allegedly plans to offer an unlimited (or nearly unlimited) storage either free of charge or at a small fee.

If the company applies its "free-everything" policy to Gdrive, a free version should give us enough online storage to match the capacity of hard drives typically found in the machines of average users. Paid versions could offer true- or near-unlimited storage. Added intelligence could enable other neat features as well, like comprehensive backups with the ability to go back in time like Apple's Time Machine and revert previous file versions, automatic file scanning against known viruses and malware, searching the hard drive on your desktop remotely via google.com, and more. Yes, we're speculating here, but there are facts which indicate that Gdrive could arrive soon, and likely this year.

It's not vaporware

For instance, Google Apps in the past identified "www10.google.com" URL that led to the service login page as a Gdrive service. Although the reference was removed, you can still login to the mysterious "www10" service of Google Apps, although you can't do anything with it. Google also added CNAME entries for the "webdrive-client.l.google.com" subdomain, suggesting a product named "Webdrive." In addition, WHOIS check of googlewebdrive.com reveals that the domain points to Google's name servers.

As revealed in this MacRumors forum entry, the latest piece of evidence comes from several Mac user who noticed that Google's Picasa for Mac application, recently released as beta, offers "Google Web Drive" as one of the choices in the context-sensitive menu that appears when you right-click on a folder with images. Another Mac user confronted Google on Picasa forum to clarify this feature, but the company remained silent. Finally, Google's Todd Jackson, Product Manager for Gmail, alluded to Gdrive in a recent interview with Cnet. "We know people's file sizes are getting bigger," he said. "They want to share their files, keep them in the cloud, and not worry about which computer they're on. Google wants to be solving these problems."

So, Google gets to see all my stuff, right?

With Gdrive, privacy implications could overshadow its benefits. Remember how privacy advocates chased Google "to hell and back" for indexing content of Gmail messages? It also didn't help any that the company scanned your email in order to serve better, more relevant ads when viewing a message. Gdrive would scan everything you upload to it, just like Google Desktop - the company's application that brings the power of its search engine to your desktop (it scans the content of authorized files and folders on your machine).

We don't, however, see a problem if Gdrive will let users exclude any file or folder from being sent online, plus if indexed Gdrive stuff can't be associated with our personal information. As long as Google uses Gdrive indexing to provide better search and serve better ads, most would be willing to trade tiny bit of their privacy for a free online storage. [I wouldn't, not in a million years. -Rick]

Google built an empire on "free services - a bit of privacy" strategy and it'll certainly work with Gdrive. Yet, we have no doubt that Gdrive will become holy grail for privacy advocates around the world.

Pieces of the Google operating system fall in place

The Gdrive "leads and hints" mentioned in this article does not mean that a product exists, but they strongly indicate a new Google-branded online storage service is in the works. Google Web Drive, Gdrive, or whatever name Google decides to call it, may be just around the corner. Online sources are now sure Google will unleash Gdrive in 2009. Google watchers have no doubt that the product will stun users.

If the company can really deliver cloud-based storage with enough free space to hold entire content of your hard drive, it will be a key paradigm shift. Although Google once led in free email storage with Gmail, and still rates high with 20GB per account, rivals overtook the search giant with general-purpose online storage. Most of them offer around 50GB of cloud storage free of charge. Of course, that is not to say there is no innovation left in Google anymore. The company of its size and millions of users may prefer to wait for the right timing to do the job right.

We have no doubt that Gdrive could have a huge impact on everyone, especially the cloud-based generation that's coming up and running mainly web applications - doing most of its computing online. We're also pretty certain that Gdrive, Chrome and Android are important pieces of the bigger picture, the one that replaces Microsoft logo on your desktop with Google's. So, don't be surprised if the computer you'll be using a few years down the road comes with no hard drive at all, but boots the Google operating system entirely off Gdrive and the Internet.

WHAT IS GOOGLE WEB DRIVE? Mac users at MacRumors forums noticed that Google's recently released Picasa for Mac offers the option to move image collection to Google Web Drive. The company remains silent on the finding while most view this as an indication of imminent launch of the so-called "Gdrive service."

Nanosensors Made Easy

Nanosensors in a row: A scanning-electron microscope image (top) shows single nanowire detectors lined up on a silicon chip. An array of detectors (center), in which each row contains nanowires coated with a different DNA, lights up (bottom) when different fluorescent-tagged target molecules attach to the nanowires. Credit: Penn State

Treated nanowires could serve as very sensitive toxin or pathogen detectors. But while nanowire sensors have been made in the lab, they have been difficult to mass-produce, mainly because there is no quick and easy way to place the tiny wires at precise locations on a surface.

Now researchers at Penn State University have come up with a way to guide single nanowires into place on a silicon chip using an electric field. Once the nanowires are in place, the researchers deposit electrodes on top to make arrays of sensing devices. This is a step toward affordable, sensitive handheld sensors that could quickly screen for hundreds of pathogens and toxic chemicals or catch the first signs of disease.

The new technique is simple, fast, and compatible with conventional silicon-chip fabrication. Others have already made single nanowire sensors, but "you need to take the next step and integrate them on a large scale using approaches that are manufacturable," says Theresa Mayer, an electrical-engineering professor at Penn State and one of the lead researchers on the new work, which appeared in Science. "What we're really interested in doing is adding new function to silicon integrated circuits."

Making nanowire detectors involves coating them with molecules that bind to certain target molecules, such as viruses or proteins. When a single target molecule attaches to the coating, the nanowire's conductivity changes. Detecting this electrical signal leads to sensors that are smaller, cheaper, and more sensitive than using current diagnostic chips, which rely on large microscopes to detect fluorescent molecules attached to the target molecule. "We would like to do this in a tiny chip all electrically," Mayer says. "So it would be potentially low cost, ultraportable, low power, and compatible for diagnostics at the point of care."

The difficulty has been finding an easy way to integrate the nanowires with electronics. Typically, researchers have deposited nanowires randomly on a surface, hunted them down using a microscope, and then made devices, says Ali Javey, an electrical-engineering and computer-science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Harvard chemist Charles Lieber has devised a technique to line up nanowires using polymer bubbles, but it needs extra equipment and might be a challenge to automate.

Using an electric field might be simpler. The Penn State researchers coat eight-micrometer-long and 300-nanometer-wide silica-coated nanowires with three different types of DNA. They etch three rows of shallow rectangular wells on a silicon chip; each well is designed to hold a single nanowire. Then they apply an electric field to the first row--the field's strength is designed to vary along the row--and deposit a solution of the first type of DNA-coated nanowire. "There's a very strong force that pulls the wires in the direction of the highest field strength," says Penn State chemistry professor Christine Keating, who led the work with Mayer.

One by one, the nanowires fall into the wells, going from the well exposed to the strongest field to that under the lowest field. The other two rows of wells are filled in the same way. "Assembling single wires has been very tricky," Javey says. "This is probably the best result I've seen in terms of assembling individual wires at discrete locations."

This is just a first step for the Penn State researchers, though. They deposit electrodes on their nanowire arrays, showing that an electrical connection to the wires is possible. But right now, they detect the DNA-coated wires optically using fluorescent-tagged target molecules. Keating says that to make a practical device, they need to assemble silicon nanowires and connect the wires to transistors on the silicon chip.

Mark Reed, a professor of electrical engineering and applied physics at Yale, has come up with a different way to make arrays of silicon-nanowire detectors, using an etching process similar to that employed to make integrated-circuit chips. Reed says that nearly all of the sensors etched on the chips work. The new electric-field technique, meanwhile, has a lower yield. About 70 percent of the sensors in the arrays worked; the other wells remained empty or got filled with multiple nanowires.

The new technique could also face competition from the nanosensing technology developed at Lieber's lab, which startup Vista Therapeutics is commercializing. Nevertheless, University of Pittsburgh chemistry professor Alexander Star says that the new method "is a really elegant and sophisticated way to assemble functional nanostructures."

Javey says that the process would need to work on smaller nanowires. Narrower nanowires are much more sensitive, but they're also more difficult to work with because they are flexible and break easily. "This is beautiful work," he says, "but [if it] can be scaled down to 10-nanometer wires . . . then that would make it even more exciting."

Clever Critters- 8 Best Non Human Tool Users

Tool use was once thought to distinguish humans from animal — until, that is, so many animals proved able to use them.

Granted, the fine folks at Leatherman aren't about to be undercut by cheap chimpanzee-manufactured multitools. But it's hard not to feel a species-level déjà vu when seeing a gorilla using a walking stick or capuchin monkey thoughtfully selecting an ideal nut-cracking stone.

Below is a compilation of some of the most interesting animal tool use yet observed. Much more likely remains to be found: until Jane Goodall watched chimpanzees fishing for termites with sticks, scientists had been reluctant to credit animals with such sophisticated behavior — perhaps because, as Charles Darwin noted, “Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.”

Darwin himself was quite intrigued by animal tool use, suggesting that it allowed them to overcome biological shortcomings. In On the Origin of Species, he noted that elephants snap off tree branches to swat away flies; in honor of Darwin's interest, elephants are the first on our list of animal tool use.

Elephant canteens. Cute YouTube videos of elephant painters show their amazing dexterity, but even more impressive is this peculiar habit: after digging a water hole, elephants will strip bark from a tree, chew it into a ball, then use it to fill the hole. Once the top has been covered with sand, the elephant has an evaporation-resistant canteen.

Image: Flickr/Paul Shaffner

Mole rat masks. The naked mole rat's powerful, protruding teeth are great for burrowing — but digging with their mouths makes it easy to inhale dirt. To keep their lungs clear, the mole rats have been observed placing wood shavings behind the teeth but in front of their lips — a simple face mask. (As an aside, the naked mole rat's better-known cousin has been taught to use a raking device in captivity. A word to raking rat trainers: keep an eye on them! New York City is bad enough without tool-using rodents.)

Video: YouTube/Bh41

Egyptian vulture hammers. Some say that seagulls who crack open shellfish by dropping them onto rocks are using tools, but that's generally dismissed on a technicality: The seagulls aren't actually manipulating their environment. No such ambiguity surrounds Egyptian vultures, who use rocks to break open ostrich eggs.

Video: YouTube/Gary9209

Burrowing owl bait. In order to attract its favorite beetle prey, burrowing owls collect mammal dung, then spread it around the entrance to their homes. As with many animal tool behaviors, it's not clear whether the owls are acting out an instinctive sequence of actions, or consciously deciding to collect the dung. Either way, though, those dung balls are tools.

Image: Ronald G. Wolff / Nature

Woodpecker finch, green jay and New Caledonian crow bug-fishing sticks. All these birds use twigs to forage for insects, but the New Caledonian crow is famed for its cleverness, seen here in a captive bird's fashioning of a food-fetching hook from straight wire.

Video: YouTube/Kivirtual

Chimpanzee clubs. Since Jane Goodall's pioneering observations, chimpanzees have been observed using sticks to spear bush babies, smashing nuts open with stones (which, apparently, they've done for thousands of years) and making straw toothpicks. But their most striking tool may be the club.

Video: YouTube/Everything is Pointless

Gorilla walking sticks. Any hiker knows the value of a good walking stick — and so, apparently, do gorillas. In a swampy forest clearing in the northern Congo, this gorilla used a stick to test the depth of a pool of water, and then to keep its balance as it walked across.

Image: Wildlife Conservation Society/PLoS Biology

Dolphin fishing sponges. An extended family of Indian bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia are the first known marine mammal to use tools: sponges with which they stir ocean-bottom sand, uncovering and disorienting prey. “It’s hard to get inside their heads because their brains are constructed differently and it’s very hard to analyze their language, but they do seem very intelligent,” said Georgetown University marine biologist Janet Mann to the Times.

Let's just hope dolphins don't develop opposable thumbs.

Making the Most of **it

Sit on It: The Gardiner CH4 composting toilet is designed to relieve sanitation problems in densely populated areas. Virginia Gardiner

In José Saramago’s novel Blindness, when an epidemic of sightlessness sweeps the city, among the foulest signs of civic breakdown is its inability to handle its own excrement. Human waste piles where it lands, left to the elements and not modern plumbing. To newly minted industrial designer Virginia Gardiner, we might as well be blind to our own waste. Her plumbing-free toilet project, the Gardiner CH4, makes us personally responsible for our intimate product—and makes it useful. The toilet turns human waste into biofuel, which could prove indispensable to the 40 percent of people around the world who have no toilets at all.

The CH4: Time for a plumbing-free toilet. Virginia Gardiner

“The toilet is an area that all kinds of people, from policy makers to industrial designers, have difficulty thinking about changing,” Gardiner told me. “Not enough designers have looked into ways of fixing the global sanitation crisis with product solutions, and are thinking about issues like user-friendliness and appearance, while taking into consideration that sanitation is all about infrastructure.”

Gardiner took all these factors to heart while developing the toilet to satisfy her master’s thesis last year at London’s Royal College of Art. The exterior is molded in 90 percent horse dung (royal dung from the Queen's Household Cavalry, no less). A carbon-rich biodegradable material lines the toilet’s interior. After the user does his or her business, a mechanical “flush” drops the package into a lining-wrapped sealed container. Like rolling luggage, the person trucks the container to a community biodigester unit, which composts the waste to produce methane gas.

“Human waste by itself has too low a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio to produce a lot of methane,” explains Gardiner. “The packaging material enhances methane production.” From experiments done with chemical engineers at Imperial College London (and in her own home), Gardiner estimates that a full-scale biodigester could convert 14 kg of human waste to 110 liters of methane to be used for cooking meals.

Gardiner is now taking donations to develop her working prototype into a full-scale system through the Design London program and to begin field testing in Ibadan, Nigeria. Contribute and receive a lovely deer-head candleholder molded from royal dung! The power of poo is the palm of our hands.

Scientists Find a Missing Link

A new fossil sheds light on the evolution of feathers and a rare group of dinosaurs

Therizinosaur: Pavel Riha (GNU Free Documentation License)

Paleontologists have excavated a plethora of feathered dinosaurs in China over the past few years have, but none of those dinosaurs had feathers like this. Scientists examining a news specimen of the dinosaur Beipiaosaurus have found imprints of a proto-feather that looks like the missing link between primitive downy feathers and the modern feathers seen on birds.

Additionally, Beipiaosaurus belongs to a recently discovered and poorly-understood group of dinosaurs called therizinosaurs. The specimen with the feathers is also the first Beipiaosaurus specimen found with a skull, which will provide important evidence about the relationship between therizinosaurs and other dinosaurs.

“Feathered dinosaurs are known by the bucket now from northern China,” said Mark Norell, Chairman and Curator of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, “but this is the first intermediary between feathers of Tyrannosaurs like Dilong and the feathers of more birdlike dinosaurs.”

The feather, described in a January 12th paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, consists of a ridged central shaft flanked by tufts of feather. Simple downy feathers consist of just the tufts, while modern feathers sport far more complexity with hard branches shooting off from the central shaft.

Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in the evolution of birds, called the feathers “interesting” and “striking”, saying “The new specimen provides further evidence of these filament-like feather precursors in non-avian theropods that we predicted from evidence from how feathers develop in living birds.”

Thomas Holtz, Director of the Earth, Life and Time Program in the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland, speculated that the feathers could have been used for display, to keep the dinosaur warm or to help keep the dinosaur’s eggs warm while brooding. However, Holtz added that the skull of the specimen interested him far more than the feather.

Norell echoed that sentiment, mentioning that therizinosaurs continue to vex paleontologists with their weird bodies. Therizinosaurs are related to meat eating dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor, but are themselves herbivorous. Additionally, therizinosaurs have highly specialized hands and feet, both with giant claws similar to a tree sloth. Because of that radical body form, paleontologists have had a hard time figuring out where to place therizinosaurs in the evolutionary tree. Holtz and Norell both mentioned that this new specimen, with its intact skull, might help fix some of that confusion.

And while the place of therizinosaurs will continue to be debated in paleontological circles, it seems that the debate over the evolution of bird feathers can be put to rest.

Said Norell, “It is what we expected, but it’s always good to find things that confirm that what you were doing was right.”