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Patent filing claims solar energy 'Breakthrough'

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

McClatchy - By Greg Gordon - May. 10 (News Report) - WASHINGTON — In a U.S. patent application, a little-known Maryland inventor claims a stunning solar energy breakthrough that promises to end the planet’s reliance on fossil fuels at a fraction of the current cost – a transformation that also could blunt global warming.

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Future highways may glow in the dark

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - By Leo Kelion, Colin Grant - May. 01 (News Report) - While carmakers have raced to add the latest technologies to their vehicles, the roads they drive on have arguably failed to evolve at the same pace. Now, an odd couple based in the Netherlands hope to change that with visions of self-illuminating weather warning signs painted on to the tarmac, and a dedicated lane capable of recharging electric cars on the go.

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UK to sell nuclear fuel firm stake

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Apr. 22 (News Report) - The UK government is preparing to sell its one-third stake in Urenco, the world's second-largest provider of nuclear fuel.

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Full Green Ahead: Inside the Military's Clean-Energy Revolution

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - By Climate Desk - Feb. 28 (News) - Full Green Ahead: Inside the Military's Clean-Energy Revolution

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Data mining is new K Street gold

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Byron Tau - Feb. 17 (News Report) - Data mining is new K Street gold

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Textile futures: the living shoe and the strawberry plant that grows lace

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Oliver Wainwright - Jan. 23 (Special Report) - What will we be making shoes out of in 2080? And will our clothes come from fruit? One college course studies exactly that "We tend to work in the year 2050," says Carole Collet , who founded the Textile Futures course at Central Saint Martins 10 years ago. "But for some students, that's not enough – they prefer to speculate up to 2080 and beyond." Sitting in the cafe at the college's new King's Cross campus, it seems that all Collet and her colleague, course leader Caroline Till, are missing is a crystal ball. The work they and their students have been quietly pursuing for the last decade focuses on futuristic scenarios that many would find hard to comprehend – let alone relate to the conventional understanding of the word "textiles". Last year one student, Shamees Aden , investigated the emerging science of protocells , experimental chemical blobs that behave like living cell tissue. Aden used this new technology to develop a high-performance running trainer – which looks a little like ...

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Edible edifice: The offices of tomorrow

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

BBC News - Jan. 15 (News Report) - The office buildings of the future will be intelligent - and tasty too

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Indian blackout held no fear for small hamlet where the power stayed on

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Helen Pidd - Sep. 10 (Special Report) - In rural Rajasthan, Gram Power's solar-powered microgrid kept the lights working and the buttermilk churning.

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SpaceX: Space Station crew likes what it sees in new transport vehicle

Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Pete Spotts - May. 27 (News Report) - The crew of the International Space Station got its first look at the inside of its newest visitor – SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship – Saturday morning. For the next several years it'll be carrying cargo and astronauts to the space station.

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The Fight For The Fifth Screen (Fifth Screen!?) In Your Life

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Fast Company - By Kit Eaton - Apr. 22 (News Report) - Smartwatches, AR goggles, and more: There's a mighty scramble afoot for your last sliver of attention. Is the the start of ad-mageddon?

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Google's Project Glass: You ain't seen nothin' yet

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

CNET News - By Martin LaMonica - Apr. 06 (News Report) - The augmented-reality Project Glass provides a peek into Google's ambitions with artificial intelligence and how AI software could further shake up mobile computing. Google's Project Glass demo is certainly the coolest hardware demo so far this year. Behind the scenes is something equally intriguing: artificial-intelligence software.

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Human evolution: the long, winding road to modern man

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Jun. 19 (News) - The GuardianHuman evolution: the long, winding road to modern manThe GuardianIn terms of our earliest ancestors, the answer is generally agreed to be Africa. It was here that our first ape-like ancestors began to make their homes on the savannah. However, a fierce debate has continued about whether it was also the ultimate ...Neanderthals Benefited Human HealthBig Thinkall 3 news articles »

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Larry Page is fostering Google's start-up spirit

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Jessica Guynn - Apr. 02 (News Report) - Larry Page wants to run Google Inc. like it's 1999. The co-founder of the Internet search giant has begun an unusual afternoon ritual of sitting and working with his top executives on small couches in an open area of the company's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. Employees, who used to have to stalk Page around campus, can drop by and grab a few minutes of his time.

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New Meningitis Vaccine Could be Model for Future Drugs

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

NewsHour - Mar. 19 (News) - The rollout of a new meningitis vaccine developed specifically with poor countries in mind began Monday in western Africa. Health officials hope to vaccinate more than 12 million people in Burkina Faso by the end of the year and millions more in Mali and Niger over the next few months.The three countries are part of the meningitis belt, a strip of sub-Saharan Africa often hit with outbreaks of the disease, which infects the thin lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord.Meningitis can cause loss of hearing, severe brain damage, or death--more than 5,000 people died of meningococcal meningitis in 14 African countries in 2009. The new vaccine is the first designed specifically for Africa--it costs less than 50 cents for a dose, and provides a decade of prevention. There are currently other meningitis vaccines used in African countries during meningitis outbreaks, but they cost up to $80 a vaccine and only provide two or three years of protection, according to the World Health Organization."We needed a vaccine that is affordable within the context of meningitis belt countries, which are some of the poorest countries in Africa," said Christopher Elias, president of the international nonprofit PATH, which partnered with WHO in 2001 to develop the vaccine.The new vaccine is also the first that can be used on infants. With financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation*, the groups worked independently from the large pharmaceutical companies in the United States and Europe, and ultimately manufactured the vaccine through a company in India, keeping costs lower."[Meningitis A], that's the epidemic that strikes Africa and there was no market for the pharma industry to want to introduce a vaccine," said Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, director of the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department at the World Health Organization.This new development model has "tremendous potential," said Elias, and could applied to other diseases in the future that greatly affect the developing world, but may not be attractive from a business perspective. The World Health Organization is currently looking to apply it to a new generation of the polio vaccine, while PATH is working towards new rotavirus and pneumonia vaccines. The process highlighted that having the buy-in from African countries from the beginning was a major advantage."These people here know better than anybody how dreadful this disease is," said Okwo-Bele. "It's a vaccine specifically designed for Africans, requested by Africans."*For the record, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation underwrites the NewsHour's global health coverage.

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USA Inc.: Red, White, and Very Blue

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Business Week - By Mary Meeker - Feb. 26 (Special Report) - The bottom line on USA Inc.? Cash flow and net worth are negative, profits are rare, and off-balance-sheet liabilities are enormous. The "company" has underinvested in productive capital, education, and technology—the very tools needed to compete in the global marketplace. Lenders have been patient so far, but the sky-high rates on the sovereign debt of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal suggest what might lie ahead for USA Inc. shareholders and our children. By our rough estimate, USA Inc. has a net worth of negative $44 trillion. That comes to $143,000 per capita. Negative. To be fair, the net worth calculation leaves out some assets, including, most importantly, the power to tax. Which simply means that the government can improve its own finances by worsening those of its citizen-shareholders. Medicare and Medicaid are the crushers for USA Inc. Excluding them and one-time charges, the "core business" shows a median net profit margin of 4 percent over the past 15 years. USA Inc.'s core operations were in surplus nine of those years. In the early years of the Republic, the only entitlements were military pensions. The big change came with the 1930s and World War II, when the federal government substantially expanded its role in the economy (in effect, its "business lines"). Entitlements experienced a surge in the Great Society of the 1960s. Since 1965, the nation's gross domestic product has increased about 2.7 times over, but entitlement expenses have increased 11.1 times over. What do Americans have to show for it? Evidence suggests that when the government provides, families do less for themselves: There is an 82 percent correlation between rising entitlement spending and falling personal savings rates. With the aging of my baby boom generation, things will get even worse.

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O'Malley seeks venture capital fund, wind farms in State of the State speech

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By John Wagner , Ann E. Marimow, Aaron C. Davis - Feb. 03 (News) - Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley asked lawmakers Thursday to create a $100 million venture capital fund, spur investment in offshore wind farms and ban the installation of septic systems in major new housing developments.

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Intel and Stanford University to jointly develop 3-D graphics projects

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By Lisa Krieger - Jan. 26 (News) - In an unusual collaboration, Intel and Stanford University announced Wednesday that their scientists will work together, on campus, to design new visual computing projects. Intel is giving Stanford $2.5 million a year, for five years, to support a new "Intel Science & Technology Center" that is focused on 3-D graphics research, according to a joint announcement Wednesday morning by Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner and Stanford computer graphics professor Pat Hanrahan.

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Obama says he's trying to put the economy into 'overdrive' as poll shows plenty of work to do

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - Jan. 22 (News Report) - More than half the nation disapproves of President Barack Obama's policies to reduce stubbornly high unemployment, a new Associated Press-GfK poll said Friday as Obama refocused his job-creation efforts on a business-friendly vision

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Investors Bet on Strangers' Lives

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Mark Maremont, Leslie Scism - Dec. 21 (News Report) - Life Partners, a company that lets investors buy parts of strangers' life-insurance policies, has made large fees while often underestimating the life expectancies of people whose policies its customers invest in.

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The Year in Ideas

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Dec. 17 (Special Report) - Our digest of short entries refracts the light beam of human inspiration, breaking it up into its constituent colors — innovations and insights from a spectrum of fields, including economics, biology, engineering, medicine, literature, sports, music and, of course, raw-meat clothing. Happy thinking!

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Giant rats put noses to work on Africa's land mine epidemic

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Elliott C. McLaughlin - Sep. 08 (News Report) - Niko Mushi hated rats, as did most people in his village near Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro -- until he learned the critters had a nose for land mines. Mushi, 32, has been working with giant African pouched rats for almost seven years. He now enjoys their company -- "They're just like my friend," he says -- but he concedes he was skeptical when the man who conceived the idea for HeroRats first told him they could sniff out live ordnance.

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Light bulb factory closes; End of era for U.S. means more jobs overseas

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Peter Whoriskey - Sep. 08 (Special Report) - The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s.

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Laser-powered helicopter hovers for hours

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New Scientist - Sep. 02 (News) - Laser-powered helicopter hovers for hours

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NASA Puts the "Green" in Its Other Mission: Developing Revolutionary, Energy-Efficient Airplanes

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Adam Marcus - Jul. 30 (News Report) - The first "A" in NASA stands for aeronautics, and the agency is leading a host of federal programs and initiatives that aim to develop a fleet of environmentally friendly aircraft.

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NASA's Eco-Friendly Airplanes

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Forbes - By Katherine Butler - Jul. 30 (News Report) - The space agency pours cash and ideas into new innovations for cleaner aircrafts.

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