Science and Technology

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3/16/10

The Yike Bike.....another new wave of the future????...very cool! video...

Adhesive Bond Strong Enough to Hold a Human Scientists at Cornell University have invented a palm-sized device that uses water surface tension as an adhesive bond--an epoxy that can be instantly turned off with the flip of a switch--that they think eventually could be strong enough to hold a human. Equally if not more important, they believe they also eventually can turn these same “grabbers” into “pushers” with a few additional changes, raising the possibility of far-reaching uses from both functions, from clothing to lifesaving.The rapid adhesion mechanism could lead to shoes or gloves that stick and un-stick to walls, or Post-it-like notes that can bear loads. The “pushing” feature could be used to open up holes or crevices, or even blocked doors, such as in firefighting.

3/5/10

New Cell Phone Charger Turns Water into Electricity A palm-sized fuel cell that turns water into electricity aims to make wall outlets a thing of the past for charging up your cell phone. Being off the grid, or away from an AC outlet, used to mean you couldn’t charge your phone or other personal electronic devices. But a new device called the H3 charger aims to simplify on-the-go charging. Developed by Stockholm-based myFC, the H3 charger relies on portable fuel cells and is set for commercial release in Scandinavia in December, before making its way to a wider market including the United States some time in 2011. It will cost approximately $40 to $50.

Honda's radical three-wheeler Geneva concept reveals Japanese brand’s idea for the future of environmentally friendly commuting. You won’t mistake this three-wheeler for a Robin Reliant.Honda will showcase this radical-looking battery electric vehicle concept at next week’s Geneva motor show as part of its vision for the future of zero-emissions urban motoring.The 3R-C seats one driver in a near-vertical position, with the clear canopy covering the cockpit when the vehicle is parked but turning into a protective windshield when the vehicle is moving....video and the rest of the story at the link

3/4/10
Microsoft’s Skinput System Turns Skin into a Touchscreen Touchscreens have revolutionized the way we communicate with electronics, but sometimes they can get a little cramped — wouldn’t it be great if the iPhone’s screen was just a little bit bigger? One creative solution isSkinput, a device that uses a pico projector to beam graphics (keyboards, menus, etc.) onto a user’s palm and forearm, transforming the skin into a computer interface.

3/2/10

Uniqlo’s HeatTech Clothing Creates Heat From Your Sweat We can’t all afford $750 solar-powered jackets to keep us toasty when the mercury takes a swan dive, but when the alternative is to bundle up with more layers than an onion-fanciers’ convention,Uniqlo’s supremely affordable, lightweight heat-generating innerwear for men and women appears nothing short of inspired. So does the HeatTech fabric that absorbs your body’s moisture and converts it to heat—at first blush, anyway.

Architectural Buckypaper Paves Way for Buildings of the Future Nanotechnology is generally pursued by scientists and those involved with high-tech gadgetry, weapons, andmedical devices, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be applied in other fields. Recently NYC-based Decker Yeadon became the first architecture firm to synthesize a thin sheet of carbon nanotube buckypaper, and they plan on utilizing the super-strong and lightweight material in future building projects. The miraculous material is 10 times lighter and 500 times stronger than steel, it can conduct both heat and electricity, and it can filter particles.

Solar-Powered Hat and Gloves Offer Promise of “Endless Warm” Endless Warm’s ultrathin solar panels harness the power of the sun and convert into life-giving heat. The designer waxes poetic: “The endless warm come from so far away but it can reach every fingertip of you. The sun is so far, the sun is so close.” Deep.

3/1/10

Spray-on Liquid Glass is About to Revolutionize Almost Everything (Seriously!) (PhysOrg.com) -- Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products. The liquid glass spray (technically termed “SiO2 ultra-thin layering”) consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the manufacturers, liquid glass has a long-lasting antibacterial effect because microbes landing on the surface cannot divide or replicate easily.

2/23/10

2/4/10

Researcher Creates Strongest Metal Foam Ever Spongy metal sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but it’s actually a real material that is capable of absorbing large impacts without damage. Metal foams have been around for some time, but new research by Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei of North Carolina State University, has revealed the strongest metal foam ever. It can compress up to 80% of its original size under loading and still retain its original shape. The applications for this type of material are too numerous to fathom, but one of the most anticipated uses for the spongy metal is in automobiles to lessen the impact of crashes and protect the driver and passengers.

2/2/10

Japanese Scientists Create Elastic Water Elastic Water could eventually replace plastic, or be used in an environmentally-safe plastic. Bernama, a part of the Malaysian National News Agency, reports that Japanese scientists have created “elastic water.” Developed at the Tokyo University, the new material consists mostly of water — 95-percent — with an added two grams of clay and organic material. The resulting substance resembles jelly, but is extremely elastic and transparent.

The invention was originally revealed last week in the latest issue of the Nature scientific magazine. According to the article, the new material is quite safe for the environment and humans, and may be a “long-term” tool in medical technology, possibly to help wounded or surgically cut tissue to remain closed.

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WHY SO MUCH ABOUT SCIENCE IS WRONG Michael Crichton once said, “In the end, science offers us the only way out of politics. And if we allow science to become politicized, then we are lost. We will enter the Internet version of the Dark Ages, an era of shifting fears and wild prejudices transmitted to people who don’t know any better. That’s not a good future for the human race. That’s our past.”

Unfortunately, since long before those words were written science has been politicized to a point where it is no better than the religions it once replaced as the arbiters of “official” wisdom and knowledge. A brief history lesson is in order for those who don’t know how science came to be what it is today.

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1/30/10
What to get the man who has everything? An underwater plane of course Billionaire Sir Richard Branson may already own an airline, a record label, a mobile phone company, several luxury restaurants and a Caribbean island. But today the entrepreneur unveiled his latest toy - an underwater plane.The £415,000 prototype submersible is called the Necker Nymph and can dive to depths of up to 130ft. Sir Richard hopes to one day explore depths of 35,000ft - which is far more than the height of Mount Everest.

 

 

1/21/10
LG Unveils Flexible Electronic Newspaper by Sarah Parsons
Reading the newspaper during your morning commute is about to get a lot more convenient. LG recently unveiled its flexible e-paper, a new type of e-reader designed to mimic the look and feel of a newspaper page. Once commercialized, the revolutionary technology will slim down bulky dailies and hopefully save tons ofpaper, wastewater and carbon emissions.

1/19/10
Is energy 'miracle' finally taking off? A project trumpeted as a potential solution to America's energy needs is on the verge of taking off with the U.S. military, but government bureaucracy is causing frustrating delays and a chokehold on funding, raising out-of-pocket expenses for the company spearheading the technology.

Bell Bio-Energy of Tifton, Ga., has developed a groundbreaking process that rapidly converts virtually anything that grows out of the Earth into all sorts of hydrocarbon fuel – from gasoline and diesel, to home heating oil and jet fuel for fighter aircraft such as the Navy's F/A-18 Super Hornets.

1/16/10
HYMINI Tiny Portable Wind-powered Gadget Charger We’ve seen an array of solar-powered battery chargers, but the HyMini takes wind power to a whole new portable level. This cute little personal wind turbine can be hooked up to various devices to charge your phones, cameras, and other small electronics when you are on the go: walking around, driving or even riding your bike.

1/7/09

Twirling Battery Provides Instant Energy for a Dead Cellphone This spinning kinetic cellphone battery is a smart solution for times when your phone is dangerously low on juice. With a simple twirl of your finger, you can charge your battery with enough energy to provide a couple more minutes of talk time or a number of minutes of standby. Designed by Song Teaho & Hyejin Lee, the cell phone battery is recharged by simply placing it on your finger and twirling. As the diagrams indicate, twirling the battery 130 times will generate enough power to provide you 2 more minutes of talk time or 25 minutes of standby power. If a cell phone battery like this ever gets manufactured and becomes popular, expect to see the next dance craze centered around twirling your finger

12/30/09

The see-through glass toaster that could be the best thing since sliced bread Burned or underdone toast could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new glass toaster - which lets you see your bread as it browns.Bread is placed between two sheets of heated glass and cooked in full view so you can eject your slice at the perfect moment. (the perfect gift for those who 'have everything'.......now they really will!)

 

Bright future for lighting technology with glowing OLED wallpaper Wallpaper that can glow with light and bendable flat-panel screens are a step closer thanks to research into organic LEDs (OLEDs), which are widely hailed as the next generation of environmentally friendly lighting technology.

OLEDs use very little power to produce light, even compared with modern energy-saving bulbs. The chemicals they are made from can be painted on to thin, flexible surfaces, allowing them potentially to be used to replace traditional lightbulbs in homes and offices with panels of energy-efficient light built into walls, windows or even furniture. Other uses include flexible display screens, whose very low power consumption would mean they could operate without mains power, for example as roadside traffic warning signs powered by small solar panels.

 

The False Hope of Hi-Tech“I don’t know if HAL is homicidal, suicidal, neurotic, psychotic, or just plain broken.”
Arthur C. Clark, 2010: Odyssey Two Ten years ago today the clock was ticking down on Y2K. Many feared a social and economic meltdown; that a programming glitch would throw us into a new Dark Age. Fast forward one decade. Washington and Wall Street are now betting the bank that technology is America’s savior. Everything seems within reach—more jobs, clean energy, a budget surplus, even a super-bull market. Technology was not the Antichrist a decade ago, nor is it our savior now. It will not destroy us. Nor will it revolutionize our world. That was the power of innovation a century ago, not today.

 

'Idiot' Dragons' Den contestant who was laughed off show turns his invention into huge business A swimming coach has turned his invention into a huge business success despite being ridiculed on the BBC's Dragons' Den TV programme.Kevin Moseley dreamed up the idea for a child's buoyancy aid shaped like a shark fin and went on the BBC2 show hoping for investment.The father-of-two, 45, recalls how Theo Paphitis warned the idea was dangerous and Duncan Bannatyne laughed in his face on the show in 2006.
Now......success ...'Swimfin" has won government assistance through the UK Trade & Investment and the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

Judith Kyle, international trade adviser for UKTI North West, said: 'Kevin's design is proving to be a real hit among parents and swimming associations across the globe.

Scientists say paper battery could be in the works Ordinary paper could one day be used as a lightweight battery to power the devices that are now enabling the printed word to be eclipsed by e-mail, e-books and online news.

Scientists at Stanford University in California reported on Monday they have successfully turned paper coated with ink made of silver and carbon nanomaterials into a "paper battery" that holds promise for new types of lightweight, high-performance energy storage.

New technologies emerge for storing grid electrical power

PHOTOS: Favorite gadgets of 2009 starting with

Sony Reader Touch Edition

New battery could change world, one house at a time n a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago.

 

Tom Bearden ENERGY FROM THE VACUUM

 

Tesla Technology in the BioCharger Machine

 

Whole Body Vibration is a fascinating new technology in the Noblerex K1