| Special Edition |
12/31/2008
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As we head into a new year, it's only appropriate that we reflect on the year just passed. 2008 was an excellent year for good news of all varieties. This year's collection is heavy on the medical, energy, and environmental stories. Here are 50 of our favorites. There were so many positive developments in 2008, we can't even pretend that this is a representative sample. But we hope you enjoy it nonetheless, and look forward to what we'll see in 2009.
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1
Startup
Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn
A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said.
Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol.
"It's not five years away, it's not 10 years away. It's affordable, and it's now," said Wes Bolsen, the company's vice president of business development.
The Good News:
While there are many who write ethanol off as a real solution to our need for energy independence, there is every reason to believe that this renewable fuel will play an important role in our energy future. Two of the chief arguments against ethanol are:
- It's a subsidized sham; take away the subsidies and you take away ethanol's viability.
- By diverting corn into fuel rather than food production, it creates scarcity in the market and drives up food prices.
Cellulosic ethanol promises to address the second problem by enabling us to produce ethanol fuel from stuff we were just going to dispose of, anyway. And if the production cost figures that Coskata touts above are accurate, it looks as though the may have solved the first problem, too. If cellulosic ethanol can compete in the market without government subsidies, that puts it way ahead of subsidized fuels such as corn-derived ethanol and petroleum -- which is subsidized byt the US government in a number of ways, not least the massive military expenditures required to maiantain stability in the Middle East and keep the oil flowing.
Plus, Here's a thought:
Cellulosic ethanol could be half the equation in putting landfills (not to mention conventional sewage treatment plants) out of business. Here's to the day when virtually everything we cast off will be either recycled or converted into energy.
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2
Anything
into Oil
The smell is a mélange of midsummer corpse with fried-liver overtones and a distinct fecal note. It comes from the worst stuff in the world—turkey slaughterhouse waste. Rotting heads, gnarled feet, slimy intestines, and lungs swollen with putrid gases have been trucked here from a local Butterball packager and dumped into an 80-foot-long hopper with a sickening glorp. In about 20 minutes, the awful mess disappears into the workings of the thermal conversion process plant in Carthage, Missouri.
Two hours later a much cleaner truck—an oil carrier—pulls up to the other end of the plant, and the driver attaches a hose to the truck's intake valve. One hundred fifty barrels of fuel oil, worth $12,600 wholesale, gush into the truck, headed for an oil company that will blend it with heavier fossil-fuel oils to upgrade the stock. Three tanker trucks arrive here on peak production days, loading up with 500 barrels of oil made from 270 tons of turkey guts and 20 tons of pig fat. Most of what cannot be converted into fuel oil becomes high-grade fertilizer; the rest is water clean enough to discharge into a municipal wastewater system.
For Brian Appel—and, maybe, for an energy-hungry world—it's a dream come true, better than turning straw into gold. The thermal conversion process can take material more plentiful and troublesome than straw—slaughterhouse waste, municipal sewage, old tires, mixed plastics, virtually all the wretched detritus of modern life—and make it something the world needs much more than gold: high-quality oil.
The Good News:
An idea that addresses both our energy problems and our waste-disposal problems at the same time has got to be a good one.
My expectation is that we won't be terribly reliant on oil for energy a couple or three decades from now; however, a process such as this might still prove valuable even in a world where we don't need oil to power our vehicles. For one thing, aircraft will probably be slower to adopt alternative fueling strategies than cars and trucks (which doesn't mean that alternatives aren't being discussed.)
In any case, I like a scenario that relies on human beings continuing to produce waste. Sounds like a safe bet, doesn't it?
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Stem Cells
without Side Effects
Last year, researchers announced one of the most promising methods yet for creating ethically neutral stem cells: reprogramming adult human cells to act like embryonic stem cells. This involved using four transcription factor proteins to turn specific genes on and off. But the resulting cells, called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for their ability to develop into just about any tissue, have one huge flaw. They're made with a virus that embeds itself into the cells' DNA and, over time, can induce cancer. Now, scientists at Harvard University have found a way to effect the same reprogramming without using a harmful virus--a method that paves the way for tissue transplants made from a patient's own cells.
The Good News:
As we discussed on last week's FastForward Radio, recent advances in the technology of producing have been rapid and significant. The ability to convert mature cells into pluripotent stem cells solves a number of problems -- availability of embryonic cells, ethical issues associated with collecting them, and rejection issues resulting from the fact that embryonic cells are not a true genetic match to a patient receiving stem cell therapy. So the method for converting skin cells to stem cells initially developed, even with the problems that the virus transport mechanism raised, was a huge step forward.
Take away those problems, and we are now all the closer to widespread availability of stem cell treatments for a potentially huge variety of illnesses and injuries.
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Need
a New Heart? Print One
The technology is the same as that of the simple inkjet printer found in homes and offices, but Japanese scientist Makoto Nakamura is on a mission to see if it can also produce human organs.
The idea is for the printer to jet out thousands of cells per second, rather than ink droplets, and to build them up into a three-dimensional organ.
A heart made of cells originating from the patient could eliminate fears that the body would reject it.
In the emerging field of organ printing, Dr Nakamura bills his work as the world's finest printed 3D structure with living cells.
The technology works a bit like dealing with sliced fruit: an organ is cut horizontally, allowing researchers to see an array of cells on the surface.
If a printer drops cells one by one into the right spots and repeats the process for many layers, it creates a 3D organ.
The Good News
We are not too far away from a world in which there is no shortage of transplant organs for those who need them, and where transplanted organs are never rejected. This technology will not only ensure than anyone who needs a new heart or kidney will have it, it may ultimately have a role to play in the extension of healthy human lifespan. Might we not one day replace worn-down body parts the way we currently put a new set of tires on our car?
We reported similar developments here and here.
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The
Adult brain cells stop growing myth
Since there are still a big number of things we fail to understand about our brain it is somewhat understandable that such theories appear. They turn into myths and thanks to the oh so well documented media everybody thinks that they are true; and such a belief is hard to shatter even when it refers to something untrue.
This could just be the case here. The fact that after a man has reached adulthood his brain cells stop growing is just not true. Researchers at MIT led by Wei-Chung Allen Lee have showed this. In fact the busting of this myth means proving that adult brain cells, or neurons, are not largely static and that they are able to change their structures in response to new experiences. The study they made showed that the branch-like projections on some neurons, called“dendrites,” were still physically malleable.
They conduct electricity received from other neurons to the parent neuron’s cell body. The changes occurred both incrementally and in short bursts, and involved both growth and shrinkage. The results were surprising. A dendrite was able to double its length in two weeks. In the early years of your life you manufacture an estimated 250,000 neurons per minute and then spend the next few years wiring them together. The myth assumes that plasticity settles down when you reach adulthood.
The Good News:
If our brains really do keep growing and remain malleable into adulthood, we don't have quite the excuse base we might have thought we have for shying away from new knowledge and new experiences. If you don't want to learn something new, don't blame your brain! It's ready to go.
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Single brain
cell's power shown
There could be enough computing ability in just one brain cell to allow humans and animals to feel, a study suggests.
The brain has 100 billion neurons but scientists had thought they needed to join forces in larger networks to produce thoughts and sensations.
The Dutch and German study, published in Nature, found that stimulating just one rat neuron could deliver the sensation of touch.
The good news:
Our understanding of how the brain works is expanding across the board. We're getting a better idea of how it functions and how those functions turn into phenomena that we call thinking and feeling. Plus, as we've seen above, we're getting a better idea of how to heal the brain when it is threatened by disease or when its improper functioning threatens the health of the rest of our bodies.
Now we can see what's happening at the level of a single neuron -- one out 100 billion or so that we're each carrying around between our ears -- and, moreover, we are learning just how significant the function of even one of them can be. This says to me that the really big brain breakthroughs are yet to come. And will probably be coming much sooner than most of us suspect.
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Does Everything But
Bring You a Beer
Being the worlds first fully automatic, robotic lawn mower, the Auto Mower is the ultimate user friendly mower. You don’t have to lift a finger to get a perfect lawn.
Before the Automower can get to work, you will need to simply staple a wire to the perimeter of the lawn. The wire will be overgrown and become invisible within a month. This wire can be sensed by the robotic mower and will ensure that only this area of grass is cut. The Automower will then work irregularly around the lawn – whatever its shape - until all parts have been covered. This gives the lawn an even result and a carpet-like finish. ‘Islands’ can be created by laying the wire around plants and flower beds. And if the mower hits any other obstacle, such as a tree or rock, it just reverses safely and selects a new direction before continuing.
The Good News
From the moment I first heard about Roomba, I new this day was coming. A robotic lawn mower. Say it with me:
A robotic lawnmower.
Sure, we'll have to be careful about pets and toddlers, but then we were always pretty careful about those things with the old mowers, weren't we? And, yes, this will put some people out of work, but I just have to point out that one of those people is me.
And I couldn't be more delighted at the thought.
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New
way to control protein activity could lead to cancer therapies
STANFORD, Calif. — Investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found a way to quickly and reversibly fine-tune the activity of individual proteins in cells and living mammals, providing a powerful new laboratory tool for identifying — more precisely than ever before — the functions of different proteins.The new technique also could help to speed the development of therapies in which cancer-fighting proteins are selectively delivered to tumors.
The good news:
There are a few small structures that hold the promise for huge potential capabilities as the separate fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology converge around the treatment of illness, injury, and aging. These include white blood cells (and other weapons in the body's immunity arsenal), viruses, and proteins. Viruses are considered to be one of the most powerful potential delivery mechanisms for cancer treatment because of their ability to reproduce rapidly. Of course, this volatility also means that there is considerable risk associated with using viruses.
Proteins. provide an alternate route. While there are still risks involved with using them as a delivery mechanism, this line of research provides for critical "tuning" capability for the treatment given. After completing their cancer-destroying tasks, the proteins. are encoded to begin to degrade. It's biotechnology that cleans up after itself.
Hat tip to FastForward Radio listener Matt Duing for suggesting this story.
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Nerve
Surgery Leaves Woman With Feeling in an Arm That Isn't There
Claudia Mitchell may look like your average 20-something college student. She is anything but.
As a result of an experimental surgery, Mitchell has become the first real "Bionic Woman": part human, part computer.
The "targeted reinnervation" surgery was developed by Dr. Todd Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. It was a radical idea: a robotic arm controlled not by a patient's stump or shoulder, but by a patient's thoughts.
Mitchell, a U.S. Marine, was ready to try anything to have a second functioning arm. She volunteered for the surgery.
During the six-hour procedure in 2006, doctors took the severed and dormant nerves in Mitchell's shoulder, nerves that are used to control the movement of her arm, and put them under the muscle in her chest.
They wanted the nerves to reawaken and work her chest muscle. The doctors eventually used the electrical nerve signals from that chest muscle to power a new bionic arm.
The good news:
The linked article goes on to tell how Mitchell is learning to operate her arm via her rewired nerves. She can now perform everyday tasks such as folding clothes and chopping vegetables. And, in a development that only deepens the mystery of how the human nervous system works -- but promises to help us understand it better one day -- sensation has returned to Mitchell's "hand." That is, she can feel temperature, pressure, and other sensations in a hand that is no longer there, or -- if you prefer -- in a mechanical hand that can't possibly experience such feelings.
We've all heard of the amputees who feel a twitch or an ache in a long-absent limb. Maybe we should no longer view the ability to experience such sensations as some kind of sensory mistake, but rather as evidence of the robustness of the human nervous system. Of course, there is plenty of evidence of that robustness to be found in this young woman's ability to move her robotic arm via thought -- essentially the same way she moves her biological arm. This story offers tremendous hope not only to amputees but to victims of paralysis who hope one day to experience the basic sensation of touch.
In a related development, scientists are developing a working bionic eye which they say will be ready in five years or so. We may not yet understand the human body, but our ability to replicate its functionality is growing
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More uses
for hydrogen than we realized?
Hydrogen fuel cells
might be good for more than just whisking us around the globe at five
times the speed of sound in super-sleek looking giant aircraft. How about
fuel cells as a backup power supply? The Department of Defense certainly
seems to think this is worth looking into:
Plug Power Inc. and Ballard Power Systems Inc. have been awarded $3.5 million by the U.S. Department of Defense to collaborate on the next phase of fuel cell systems development to support the DoD's Continuity of Operations initiative.
Plug Power and Ballard have worked together since early 2006 on backup power applications that target the U.S. DoD and Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies. The companies will continue to work collaboratively on a modular and scalable fuel cell system for use in telecommunication and other mission-critical backup applications. Prototype system trials are expected to be deployed in 2008 with both government and commercial customers.
Here's what PlugPower
has to say about the viability of hydrogen for this type of application:
Hydrogen offers tremendous advantages as a clean fuel source. Hydrogen, like electricity, is a clean energy carrier and when derived from renewable energy sources, hydrogen has the potential to provide an inexhaustible supply of energy without generating pollution or greenhouse gases of any kind. It can also be economical and have a relatively high margin of safety when properly produced, stored and dispensed.
The good news:
Hydrogen fuel cells may prove to be a clean alternative to existing battery technology -- business/operational continuity and disaster recovery provide one good possible set of applications for this technology. Another possibility that comes to mind is storing solar power collected on rooftops for use when the sun isn't shining.
And, who knows? There may be other applications, too...
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Nano-Prospecting
Could nanotechnology help squeeze more oil and gas out of the ground? That's the hope of a consortium of energy companies that is putting millions of dollars into the development of new micro- and nanosensor technologies.
The seven companies that make up the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), which includes Halliburton Energy Services, BP America, and ConocoPhilips, will put up $21 million in total to fund the research. The aim is to develop subsurface sensors that can be used to improve both the discovery and the recovery of hydrocarbons.
The good news:
As we come to what many are saying is the end of abundant and easily-extracted oil deposits, we have to look not only at alternative fuel sources, but also alternative approaches to getting the oil that still remains. This approach looks promising.
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Large
Hadron Collider "Actually Worked"
The world's largest atom smasher's first experiment went off today without a hitch, paving the way toward the recreation of post-big bang conditions.
The Large Hadron Collider fired a beam of protons inside a circular, 17-mile (27-kilometer) long tunnel underneath villages and cow pastures at the French-Swiss border.
Inside the control room, physicists and engineers cautiously shot the beam down part of the tunnel, stopping it before it went all the way around.
"Oh, we made it through!" one person cried as the beam made it through a further section of the tunnel.
One hour after starting up, on the first attempt to send the beam circling all the way around the tunnel, it completed the trip successfully—bringing raucous applause.
The Good News
This is a banner day for science. The Large Hadron Collider will bring us to new levels of understanding of the intricate workings of the universe.
Plus...
Hey, did you notice? The world didn't end! We get so used to the world not ending that sometimes we take it for granted. But in honor of our not being sucked into a giant black hole or blasted back in time to when our entire universe was nothing but diffuse particles, the Times Online has compiled a list of 30 other time the world didn't end.
If you like that sort of list, keep this in mind: those thirty days are just a tiny, tiny subset of the total number of days in which the world has not ended. In fact, we are (and I hope I don't jinx it or anything by pointing this out) batting a perfect 1000 on that score.
Meanwhile, Stephen Hawking says that the LHC is vital to our survival.
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Mobile
Phone Adoption in Developing Countries
International Mobile phone adoption is a source of tremendous growth in wireless industry. Penetration rates for the U.S. cell phone market are greater than 75%, and in Western Europe, Japan and Hong Kong penetration has already exceeded 100 %(multiple cell phones per subscriber). Although there is still significant growth to be found in these markets, much of this growth will take the form of selling increasingly sophisticated services (e.g. video, GPS) to existing customers rather than growing the overall number of subscribers. Meanwhile developing countries/regions such as Brazil, India, China, Africa and Latin America have demonstrated blistering cell phone growth in recent years. As a result providing service and head set to developing countries has become a substantial source of profits for several major carriers and headset producers. Companies that manufacture chips for headsets also stand to benefit from this trend.
The Good News
The widespread adoption of mobile telephones is one of the most visible signs of economic development occurring at an unprecedented pace around the world. I was personally involved in bringing wireless phone service to parts of Russia and other Eastern Block countries in the early to mid 90's. In those countries, there was a fixed wireline network in place, but neither the infrastructure nor the operating practices of the previously state-owned-and-operated service providers were prepared to meet the demands of the emergent class of consumers and small businesses. These folks suddenly found that being connected was an essential aspect of their family, social, and professional lives. A few years later, I was doing the same thing in Southeast Asia, although the existing fixed network technologies there tended to be more up-to-date than anything found on the far side of the old Iron Curtain. Those markets were quick to adopt new new technologies in place of old new technologies -- which required that service providers be nimble and more adaptive than those operating in the west. When I returned from Malaysia to the US in 1999, I actually had to take a step down in the level of service and model of phone available to me.
In the intervening years, wireless phone service has continued to spread into more and more markets. The simpler and vastly more more economical infrastructure that wireless telephony requires, compared to land line, has made it not only possible, but logical, for many parts of the world that had no telephone service at all to leapfrog fixed line technology in favor of wireless. Wherever wireless service is introduced, it is accompanied by an economic boom. Cause? Effect? Enabler? There is probably an argument to be made for all three. But the correlation is undeniable.
Hat tip to FastForward Radio listener Okay David Ray for suggesting this story.
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Mobileye
develops a third eye for your car
A computer chip and a tiny camera not much bigger than a dime installed on the windshield behind your car's rear-view mirror may now make the difference between life and death.
The Netherlands-based Mobileye Vision Technologies has developed an inexpensive hi-tech driver assistance system called Mobileye AWS (advance warning system), which can provide drivers with early warnings of potential road hazards.
Founded by an Israeli, with its R&D based in Israel, the company says the system has the potential to lower accident rates and teach people how to be "smarter" drivers.
The images generated from a front-facing camera are analyzed by the system's computer chip, which has been "taught" to recognize potential hazards such as cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians, and uses audio warnings to aid the driver in recognizing and maintaining safe distances from these threats.
The Good News
This development brings us a little closer to something I've been wishing for for a long time -- a comprehensive, real-time tactical interface for driving. Why do we have to crane our heads around when backing up, or shift our attention from one mirror with a partial and unreliable view to another mirror with a partial and unreliable view when making a lane change?
I want my dashboard to show me everything that is in front of, behind, and beside my vehicle at all times. As the linked article points out, automobile accidents are the world's leading cause of accidental death. Many accidents are due to bad judgment, which such a system can counter by recommending against a bad move. Many others are caused by bad decisions resulting from incomplete information. The more complete the picture we have of our situation, the safer we are likely to be.
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New
findings about the brain lead to treatment for eating disturbances
The discovery of the brain's so-called melanocortin system and its central role in controlling appetite has paved the way for entirely new possibilities for treating obesity and anorexia. In the latest issue of the prestigious journal Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Uppsala University researcher Jarl Wikberg and one of his associates present a review of pioneering research in this field that he and other scientists have conducted over nearly two decades.
The mapping of the melanocortin system was made possible by the cloning of genes for five different melanocortin receptors, which was performed by Jarl Wikberg in collaboration with other researchers in the early 1990s.
"The melanocortin system monitors the energy balance and regulates how much we eat and how much energy the body uses. The result of all of this is that we maintain our body weight," says Jarl Wikberg.
But things can go wrong. It is a highly complex system, and even tiny imbalances can entail major changes. For instance, the melanocortin system is exposed to great genetic variations, and many mutations lead to extreme obesity in early ages. Such mutations are found in 3?6 percent of children who have these problems.
The Good News
There has been no shortage over the years of theories as to what causes obesity and eating disorders, must of which fall back on the old chestnut that it's "all in your head." Seeing as that is likely the case, how encouraging that we might finally be getting a handle on exactly where in your head it all is, and what exactly we might do about it.
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Tiny
Brain-Like Computer Created
The most powerful computer known is the brain, and now scientists have designed a machine just a few molecules large that mimics how the brain works.
So far the device can simultaneously carry out 16 times more operations than a normal computer transistor. Researchers suggest the invention might eventually prove able to perform roughly 1,000 times more operations than a transistor.
This machine could not only serve as the foundation of a powerful computer, but also serve as the controlling element of complex gadgets such as microscopic doctors or factories, scientists added.
The good news:
It isn't always the case that the obvious model from nature turns out to be the right one to follow when attempting to replicate one of nature's functions in the mechanical world. For example, early attempts at creating heaver-than-air human flight were deeply flawed by attempts to make aircraft that simulated the flapping of a bird's wings. But here we have an example where nature's model might have quite a bit to offer us.
One of the ideas often suggested for achieving brute-force artificial intelligence is the use of a computer to simulate an entire human brain. Basing computer designs on the structure of the brain is a different task entirely, but it suggests the beginning of a conversation between human and mechanical thinking machines. The conversation promises to be a long, thoughtful, and rewarding one.
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Future
planes, cars may be made of `buckypaper'
It's called "buckypaper" and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper, but don't be fooled by the cute name or flimsy appearance. It could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made.
Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.
"All those things are what a lot of people in nanotechnology have been working toward as sort of Holy Grails," said Wade Adams, a scientist at Rice University.
The Good News
So what can one do with buckypaper? Well, you name it. Here's a partial list from Wikipedia:
- If exposed to an electric charge, buckypaper could be used to illuminate computer and television screens. It could be more energy-efficient, lighter, and could allow for a more uniform level of brightness than current cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) technology.
- Since carbon nanotubes are one of the most thermally conductive materials known, buckypaper lends itself to the development of heat sinks that would allow computers and other electronic equipment to disperse heat more efficiently than is currently possible. This, in turn, could lead to even greater advances in electronic miniaturization.
- Because carbon nanotubes have an unusually high current-carrying capacity, a buckypaper film could be applied to the exteriors of airplanes. Lightning strikes then could flow around the plane and dissipate without causing damage.
- Films also could protect electronic circuits and devices within airplanes from electromagnetic interference, which can damage equipment and alter settings. Similarly, such films could allow military aircraft to shield their electromagnetic "signatures", which can be detected via radar.
- Produced in high enough quantities and at an economically viable price, buckypaper composites could serve as an effective armor plating.
- Buckypaper can be used to grow biological tissue, such as nerve cells. Buckypaper can be electrified or functionalized to encourage growth of specific types of cells.
- The Poisson's ratio for carbon nanotube buckypaper can be controlled and has exhibited auxetic behaviour, capable of use as artificial muscles.
Wow. Whatever you do, don't taunt buckypaper!
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Plastic-Munching
Bugs Turn Waste Bottles Into Cash
New Bacteria-Driven Process Could Make Recycling Plastic Bottles More Attractive
Newly discovered bacterial alchemists could help save billions of plastic bottles from landfills. The Pseudomonas strains can convert the low-grade PET plastic used in drinks bottles into a more valuable and biodegradable plastic called PHA.
Although billions of plastic bottles are made each year, few are ultimately recycled because the typical recycling process converts low value PET bottles into more PET.
PHA is already used in medical applications, from artery-supporting tubes called stents to wound dressings.
The plastic can be processed to have a range of physical properties. However, one of the barriers to PHA reaching wider use is the absence of a way to make it in large quantities.
The new bacteria-driven process – termed upcycling – could address that, and make recycling PET bottles more economically attractive.
The good news:
While viruses and proteins. offer potential medical breakthroughs, bacteria holds increasing promise for a variety of environmental solutions. Making plastic an easier and more attractive target for recycling is just the beginning. We've already noted that research is being done into developing strains of bacteria that eat garbage and excrete gasoline.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the development of a strain of bacteria that will make something useful out of grass clippings, dog doo, and other backyard waste. I'm not big on composting (and, yes, I know that you wouldn't put dog waste in a compost heap) primarily because it gives you soil -- there's only room for so much extra soil in my yard. What we need is for bacteria to convert that stuff into something consumable - fuel to run the lawn mower is one good idea, dog food is another.
ON A SUNDAY morning in 1974, Arthur Fry sat in the front pews of a Presbyterian church in north St. Paul, Minn. An engineer at 3M, Fry was also a singer in the church choir. He had gotten into the habit of inserting little scraps of paper into his choir book, so that he could quickly find the right hymns during the service. The problem, however, was that the papers would often fall out, causing Fry to lose his place.
But then, while listening to the Sunday sermon, Fry started to daydream. Instead of focusing on the pastor's words, he began to mull over his bookmark problem. "It was during the sermon," Fry remembers, "that I first thought, 'What I really need is a little bookmark that will stick to the paper but will not tear the paper when I remove it.' " That errant thought - the byproduct of a wandering mind - would later become the yellow Post-it note, one of the most successful office products of all time.
Many scientists argue that daydreaming is a crucial tool for creativity, a thought process that allows the brain to make new associations and connections. Instead of focusing on our immediate surroundings - such as the message of a church sermon - the daydreaming mind is free to engage in abstract thought and imaginative ramblings. As a result, we're able to imagine things that don't actually exist, like sticky yellow bookmarks.
The good news:
On the most recent FastForward Radio, we talked about a meme that we think is well worth spreading: the notion that creativity is as important as literacy in dealing with our multi-faceted, rapidly changing world. Daydreams, it would seem, are one of the best tools we have to develop creativity. The research shows that there are two kinds of daydreams, the ones that you fall into without realizing it and the ones you enter more or less as a conscious choice. It's this latter kind that promotes creativity.
So let's start building a better future, people. Let's get going on some intentional, deliberate daydreaming.
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Hydrogen
Power Coming Soon to Your Cell Phone
From cars to prefabs and some slightly greener gadgets, CES gave us plenty of things to marvel at this year. One of the most impressive in terms of future-forward innovation was the Motoslvr cell phone outfitted with Angstrom Power’s hydrogen fuel cell. With Angstrom’s new fuel cell technology, you are able to get the same sleek package as a regular cellphone, but the charge last more than twice as long on a charge time as short as ten minutes! Hydrogen mobile phones? That’s something to get excited about!
Whenever a cell phone with a fuel cell has been shown to the public, one could see the slightly bulkier fuel cell sticking out from the thin shape of the mobile phone. What Angstrom has done, with its Micro Hydrogen platform, is take that same fuel cell, and reduce it to the size of a regular battery. The hydrogen powered cell phone in your pocket will be as thin and as light as always. Angstrom Power’s prototype fuel cell lasts for twice as long as the standard lithium-ion battery that is used in all of these devices. And, as if that wasn’t enough, the charging time for the mobile device can be as little as 10 minutes.
There are still hurdles that need to be solved. For one, hydrogen refueling stations aren’t even close to being available in most places in the world. And then there is the issue of safety, though the company claims that the battery is perfectly safe. There is real interest by the major manufacturers, and if all goes well, expect to see them by 2010.
The good news:
Hydrogen fuel cells are starting to sound like the clean, efficient alternative to batteries. If we can reliably power cell phones with them, it's only a matter of time before all of our smaller consumer electronics items will be powered this way.
So is it all over for batteries, then? Well, maybe not...
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16
year-old builds electric pickup truck
Andrew Angelloti...converted his very own 1988 Mazda pickup to run on electricity last year, using $6,000 he had saved up from his part time job as a life guard. He built his truck using 20 flooded lead acid batteries to create 120 volts, which he couples to a 60 HP 9" electric motor.
How does it perform? Reaches a top speed of 55mph, has an acceleration of "not too bad…," and can get up to 40 miles on a charge (which is more than enough to get him to work and back, and coincidentally, will be something similar to what the Chevy Volt is supposed to be able to do).
The good news...
The electrified pickup is a far cry from a Tesla, perhaps, but then $6000 saved up from a summer job is a far cry from the Tesla's sticker price. That people are doing their own electric car conversions is an extremely encouraging sign.
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Humans
Have Astonishing Memories, Study Finds
If human memory were truly digital, it would have just received an upgrade from something like the capacity of a floppy disk to that of a flash drive. A new study found the brain can remember a lot more than previously believed.
In a recent experiment, people who viewed pictures of thousands of objects over five hours were able to remember astonishing details afterward about most of the objects.
Though previous studies have never measured such astounding feats of memory, it may be simply because no one really tried.
In the experiment, 14 people ranging from age 18 to 40 viewed nearly 3,000 images, one at a time, for three seconds each. Afterwards, they were shown pairs of images and asked to select the exact image they had seen earlier.
The test pairs fell into three categories: two completely different objects, an object and a different example of the same type of object (such as two different remote controls), and an object along with a slightly altered version of the same object (such as a cup full and another cup half-full).
Stunningly, participants on average chose the correct image 92 percent, 88 percent and 87 percent of the time, in each of the three pairing categories respectively. Though 14 subjects may not sound like a huge sample, the fact that they each recalled the objects with very similar rates of success suggests the results are not a fluke.
The good news...
What intrigues me most about this story is that it was a test that had simply never been tried before. We still have a lot to learn about what human beings truly are capable of doing, and we may well be surprised -- again and again -- to learn that we can do more than we thought we could.
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Japan
sets out plans for space elevator
A consortium of scientists and industrial firms has formulated a plan to build a 'space elevator' that would dramatically lower the cost of getting into orbit.
The Japan Space Elevator Association has published plans for the structure, which it estimates could be put in place for as little as $9bn.
The group believes that the project would revolutionise the cost of satellite communications systems, and make orbital manufacture economically feasible.
"Just like traveling abroad, anyone will be able to ride the elevator into space," Shuichi Ono, chairman of the Japan Space Elevator Association, told The Times.
The plan calls for the use of carbon nanotubes attached to a fixed platform in orbit and extending to a base station on Earth.
These would need to be about four times as strong as existing nanotubes but the strength of such materials has increased a hundredfold in the past five years.
The good news...
One of the great joys of living in this age is witnessing the speed at which ideas deemed "fantastic" and "impossible" begin to gain mainstream acceptance. For that reason, the space elevator has been one of our favorite topics at The Speculist and on FastForward Radio over the years. My first blog post on the subject was just a little over five years ago. Then, as now, the initial reaction that you will get from someone who has never heard of the idea is incredulity. Most people are still incredulous, but the (you'll pardon the expression) heavy lifting has been done in terms of creating a material strong enough to make the idea feasible. We aren't quite there yet, but we're on the home stretch.
Tensile strength is the main objection to the idea of the space elevator. It's not the only one, by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it the only big one. As mentioned on our most recent discussion on the subject on FFR, there are thousands of technical problems that will have to be solved in order to implement this technology. What is the car made of? How fast does it go? How big is the space station at the top? And there must be a number of ideas as to exactly how you would go about hooking the thing up in the first place. But the point is, if you have a material that's strong and light enough to make the cable, there is no theoretical reason why you can't have a space elevator. We're closing in on making something strong enough to do it, which is why the forward-looking Japanese are beginning to plan for how we can solve the rest of those problems.
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Internet
'speeds up decision making and brain function'
A study of the use of areas of the brain during different activities found that it is markedly more active when carrying out an internet search than when reading a book.
The stimulation was concentrated in the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas, which control visual imagery, decision-making and memory.
The areas associated with abstract thinking and empathy showed virtually no increase in stimulation.
The study's authors say it shows how our brains could evolve over the long term with the increased use of technology.
The Good News
Here we see evolution occurring in real time. We are adapting to our new environment, and it isn't just a matter of making use of the technology that surrounds us. We live in an era of accelerating change and we are learning the best way to think so that we can not only survive, but thrive in such an era.
The Downside
But while the Internet brings benefits for the brain, they warned against its overuse, which could come at the expense of other brain functions linked to human interaction.
Previous studies have warned that too much computer use could be responsible for increasing levels of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
We need to find ways to gain brain speed and power without losing little bits of our humanity in the process. That's why, at the Speculist, we throw in a lot of fine art and poetry and mythological references and that kind of stuff with all of our geeky technology blogging. Let the research continue!
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Hack
your brain
Your mind: it's just another piece of hardware. Make sure you download the latest patch and upgrade to the newest operating system.
That, in so many words, is the fate of humankind described by David Pescovitz, co-editor of the BoingBoing.net blog and research director with the Institute for the Future.
We've long used caffeine and various other drugs to alter our states of mind. But those are "really blunt instruments" compared with the future technology that advances in neuroscience will bring, Pescovitz said Tuesday as he moderated a panel discussion on the "future of mind hacks" at the O’Reilly ETech conference on emerging technology in San Diego.
"In the near future, these technologies will be available to us to help us take control of our own minds, to alter our own minds – to bring a DIY hacker mentality to your own head," Pescovitz said.
The good news...
I especially like the idea of being able to download patches. I can see these coming in two forms. Initially, we might look to patch our innate ability. So if you lack, say, basic math or music skills, you could instantly make yourself more amenable to learning those two subjects. But the next phase of patches will be even more exciting -- direct knowledge transfer. Let's say your math aptitude is okay -- or even pretty good -- but you never got around to learning calculus. No prob, just download the patch and, poof! You know calculus. Or how to play the piano. Think of Keanu Reeves instantly learning Kung Fu in The Matrix.
Of course, this level of brain hacking will revolutionize education. Education becomes much faster (virtually instantaneous) in the age of the hackable brain. Sure, many will argue that knowledge gained in this way will not be as valuable, that the hard work and discipline of learning are what make the experience worthwhile. Possibly. On the other hand, there's still a role for hard work and discipline to play. Like what are you going to do with all that new knowledge now that you have it?
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Meditation
Found To Increase Brain Size
People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don't. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input.
In one area of gray matter, the thickening turns out to be more pronounced in older than in younger people. That's intriguing because those sections of the human cortex, or thinking cap, normally get thinner as we age.
"Our data suggest that meditation practice can promote cortical plasticity in adults in areas important for cognitive and emotional processing and well-being," says Sara Lazar, leader of the study and a psychologist at Harvard Medical School. "These findings are consistent with other studies that demonstrated increased thickness of music areas in the brains of musicians, and visual and motor areas in the brains of jugglers. In other words, the structure of an adult brain can change in response to repeated practice."
The good news:
So not only can we grow new cells;we can actually make our entire brains bigger -- and healthier, it would seem -- through a practice which has a number of other health benefits associated with it. It turns out our brains thrive if we treat them right. We need to feed them right, we need to think with them, and we need to relax with them. I guess it's no great mystery that things we need to do to take care of our brains are many of the same things we need to do to take care of ourselves. After all, they are us!
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Wading
bird travels 7,000 miles nonstop to break flying record
A bar-tailed godwit has been crowned the endurance champion of the animal kingdom after completing an epic 7,200 mile nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand.
The wading bird's journey lasted more than eight days with no rest or food, and took it into a place in the record books. Scientists tracking the bird's flight said it was unprecedented.
Theunis Piersma, a biologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands who worked on the study, said: "There is something special going on here. For a vertebrate this kind of endurance is just extraordinary."
The Good News
Seems to me that this little bird has a lot to teach us about endurance and making the most of available resources. The scientists agree:
Led by Bob Gill of the US Geological Survey, the scientists say: "These extraordinary nonstop flights establish new extremes for avian flight performance and have profound implications for understanding the physiological capabilities of vertebrates."
Don't forget: we're vertebrates, too. We normally think of tasks such as a Lance Armstrong Tour de France performance or swimming the English Channel as defining the limits of human endurance. But perhaps by understanding the godwit's accomplishment better, we'll learn more about our own abilities.
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Rocket successfully
launched from South Pacific
An Internet entrepreneur's latest effort to make space launch more affordable paid off Sunday when his commercial rocket carrying a dummy payload was lofted into orbit.
It was the fourth attempt by Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to launch its two-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit.
"Fourth time's a charm," said Elon Musk, the multimillionaire who started up SpaceX after making his fortune as the co-founder of PayPal Inc., the electronic payment system.
The rocket carried a 364-pound dummy payload designed and built by SpaceX for the launch.
"This really means a lot," Musk told a crowd of whooping employees. "There's only a handful of countries on earth that have done this. It's usually a country thing, not a company thing. We did it."
The Good News:
In addition to creating new capabilities, empowering human beings to do things that were never possible before, technological development works hand in hand with economic power to democratize and distribute power. I argued a while back that today's average joe is better off in just about every measurable way than a king in the middle ages. When Elon Musk points out that something that was once the exclusive domain of countries is now achievable by a company, he is tapping into that same idea.
If the trend continues, we will live to see a world in which the ability to pace objects (or ourselves) into orbit will work its way down to the individual level, either by way of cheaper and more efficient rockets or by some other means.
Long-life gene that triples chance of living to 100 found
Men who have two copies of a "long life gene" triple their odds of living nearly a century, according to a study published today.
The advantage is all down to having two "letters" of the six billion letter human genetic code that are the same and the scientists who report the find believe that this kind of understanding could have important implications for living longer and lowering the risk for age-related disease and disability.
The gene linked with better health and a longer life is called FOXO3A and although similar genes have been shown to prolong life span in other species, this is the first time that FOXO has been linked directly to longevity in humans.
The Good News:
The genetic "cure" for aging has a lot of promise for later generations of humanity. Once we get comfortable with sequencing heart disease, diabetes, and breast cancer out of our offspring's genetic code, nothing will be more natural than wanting to protect them from the suffering that aging brings about.
We're still a step or two away from gene therapies that could help people who are already born avoid aging. But this is certainly an encouraging step in that direction.
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The Battery
of the Future?
FuturePundit directs us to this story in Technology Review:
The future market for hybrid-electric vehicles, at least those that are affordable, isn't necessarily paved with lithium. Researchers in Australia have created what could be called a lead-acid battery on steroids, capable of performing as well as the nickel-metal hydride systems found in most hybrid cars but at a fraction of the cost.
The so-called UltraBattery combines 150-year-old lead-acid technology with supercapacitors, electronic devices that can quickly absorb and release large bursts of energy over millions of cycles without significant degradation. As a result, the new battery lasts at least four times longer than conventional lead-acid batteries, and its creators say that it can be manufactured at one-quarter the cost of existing hybrid-electric battery packs.
The good news:
The creators of this new battery technology claim that it will cut the price of hybrid cars by up to $2000. Nothing to sneeze at! Randall Parker observes:
The high price of oil should cause a burst of innovation in the coming years. The incentives for energy innovation have gone up dramatically. For this reason alone we should expect some game-changing innovations to emerge in energy and transportation.
Absolutely. And one of the more encouraging trends to note is how many different alternatives are being explored, and how many promising possibilities are being identified.
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Ten myths about nuclear power
Rob Johnston, writing for Spiked:
The UK government is expected to announce tomorrow that it will give the green light to the building of new nuclear power stations in the UK - the first since the Sizewell ‘B’ station was completed in 1995. These are urgently needed to make up the shortfall in power supply as older nuclear stations are closed over the next few years.
Yet the decision is bound to be controversial - not helped by widespread misinformation about nuclear power. Greens opposing nuclear power muddle every issue from terrorism to uranium supplies, in order to besmirch the only proven safe and cost-effective way to generate large amounts of electricity that won’t produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. One would think that greens don’t want a world with abundant energy and a stable climate!
The Good News:
Johnston proceeds to dispeel the most pernicious misconceptions that people have about nuclear power, including:
Fears about waste
Concerns about cost
Speculation that building new nuclear plants creates new targets for terrorist acts
For the US, the UK, and everyone who is serious about producing aboundant, low-to-no-carbon-footprint power, nuclear has got to be on the table.
For one thing, we need an abundant source of power to keep all those electric pickup trucks going!
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Lost
cat returned home after nine years
LONDON (Reuters) - A couple have been reunited with their missing cat after nine years, the RSPCA said Wednesday.
Dixie, a 15-year-old ginger cat, disappeared in 1999 and her owners thought she had been killed by a car.
She was found less than half a mile from her home in Birmingham after a concerned resident rang the animal charity to report a thin and disheveled cat who had been in the area for a couple of months.
RSPCA Animal Collection Officer Alan Pittaway checked her microchip and confirmed it was Dixie. She was returned to her owners, Alan and Gilly Delaney, within half an hour.
The Good News:
Dixie has to get a lot of credit in this story for managing to stay alive as long as she did and for presumably finding her way back to the old 'hood. True, she might have been there all along, but it seems likely in that case that she would have found her own way home at some point over those nine years.
But the real hero of this story has got to be the microchip. Turned over to the RSPCA, what are the chances that an un-chipped Dixie would have ever traversed that final half mile?
Anyway, if you want even more pet-related good news, check out this headline:
Dogs And Cats Can Live In Perfect Harmony In The Home, If Introduced The Right Way
Whoa. Dogs and cats...living together.
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World’s
First Commercial Wave Energy Farm Goes Live
Earlier this week, Portugal debuted the world’s first commercial wave energy farm. Wave energy at the Agucadoura station is converted into electricity with the use of three red “sea-snakes”, or cylindrical wave energy converters, that are attached to the seabed off Portugal’s northern coast. Energy captured by the sea-snakes is carried to an undersea cable station, where it is then fed into the electrical grid.
The devices will generate 2.25 MW of electricity— enough to power 1,500 homes. Ultimately, the wave power station will expand to produce up to 21 MW of power.
The Good News:
Wave energy is a great idea. The driver is primarily tidal forces, which means that we're tapping into the effect of the moon's gravity in order to generate power on Earth. As long as we have a moon moving water around on the surface of our planet,we might as well take advantage of it. Like solar power, it's free energy from space!
The Downside:
Unfortunately, wave power is not price competitive in Portugal at the moment. The €9m project was only made possible by the country’s feed-in tariff, which requires utilities to buy renewable energy from a wide range of producers. However, proponents of the farm believe that wave energy could be cost-efficient within 15 years.
So we might have to wait a while before wave power makes sense economically. But deployments such as this one can only help us understand the process better and make wave power more efficient and affordable.
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An
End to Paralysis with Artificial Brain-to-Muscle Connectors
Using a computerized connector between the brain and muscles in the body, scientists have been able to restore movement to paralyzed limbs. A group of neuroscientists report in Nature today that they used a brain-computer interface to join the motor cortex of an ape to the muscles in its wrist. After scientists paralyzed the ape's arm temporarily, it was still able to make its wrist move by sending electrical impulses directly from its brain to the muscles, bypassing the damaged nerves in between. The study has profound implications for people whose nerves have been severed or damaged, leaving them paralyzed.
The Good News
It would be hard to overestimate the hardships and challenges that paralysis represents to millions of people worldwide -- not just the paralyzed themselves, but the people who care about them and the people who care for them. Surely one of the biggest challenges is mobility, or rather the lack thereof. Developments such as this one promise to bring mobility back to many, providing a wonderful new independence as well as health benefits associated with being able to move around. This research doesn't mention anything about restoring feeling to paralyzed limbs, although there are some hopeful (albeit puzzling) signs that this might also one day happen.
Now all we need is some better ways of connecting the human nervous system with machines. Something like this, possibly:
Scientists create organic wires for use inside the human body
Baltimore (MD) - Research chemists at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) have developed a water-soluble, organic, self-assembling electronic wire suitable for use inside the human body. Derived from carbon materials, the lightweight, flexible wires can power pacemakers, reconnect damaged nerve tissues, while also interacting with real electronic device that could augment or stimulate organic function.
Yeah. Something like that ought to just about do the trick!
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Deep
Brain Stimulation
Virus Infection Battles Brain Cancer
March 10, 2008 -- Curing a disease by causing another one seems counter-intuitive, but that's just what scientists at Yale University have done.
Specifically, they have modified a virus and injected it into mice with several kinds of inoperable brain cancer. Three days later, the tumors were gone.
The research, which builds on previous attempts to use viruses to treat cancer, could eventually treat otherwise fatal brain tumors in people, as well as other forms of cancer. While a human treatment is still years away and subject to federal approval, a tumor-killing virus could be a last-resort try at saving lives.
The Good News:
Viruses are nasty and efficient little killers. They're tough, they're relentless, and they really get around. Of course there are significant risks involved in any attempt to harness viruses, but the thought of putting their natural destructive capabilities in the service of wiping out cancer is a very appealing one. Here's hoping that this research leads to more than just the destruction of cancer in mice.
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Brain
Scanner Can Tell What You're Looking At
Tell me what you see.
On second thought, don't: A computer will soon be able to do it, simply by analyzing the activity of your brain.
That's the promise of a decoding system unveiled this week in Nature by neuroscientists from the University of California at Berkeley.
The scientists used a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine -- a real-time brain scanner -- to record the mental activity of a person looking at thousands of random pictures: people, animals, landscapes, objects, the stuff of everyday visual life. With those recordings the researchers built a computational model for predicting the mental patterns elicited by looking at any other photograph. When tested with neurological readouts generated by a different set of pictures, the decoder passed with flying colors, identifying the images seen with unprecedented accuracy.
The Good News:
Getting a handle on what goes on inside the brain to drive the process that we call "seeing" has many implications in a wide variety of areas: medicine, business, the law, and others. For example, if we understand what's happening in the brain well enough, wouldn't we eventually be able to feed visual information straight in? Think of the implications for treating visual impairment. Having damaged or injured eyes (or no eyes at all) might no longer prevent a person from seeing.
Some possible downsides:
The linked article speculates that advertisers might be able to wage much more effective campaigns based on empirical knowledge of how images impact the brain. That's a little disturbing. And what happens within the judicial system to the concept of an eyewitness if no one is ever 100% sure what they're seeing vs. what's being piped into their heads? Yikes.
The biggest commercial application...
will almost certainly be entertainment. Who is going to bother even with a 100-inch HDTV display when programming can be fed into our entire visual field? Plus, the article mentions that one of the interesting possibilities of this research is that we may be able to decode the visual component of dreams. From there, it's just a short step to a full-fledged dream industry.
Sounds far-fetched? Well read on.
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Solar
Refrigeration: A Hot Idea for Cooling
Fishermen in the village of Maruata, which is located on the Mexican Pacific coast 18 degrees north of the equator, have no electricity. But for the past 16 years they have been able to store their fish on ice: Seven ice makers, powered by nothing but the scorching sun, churn out a half ton of ice every day.
The key is the energy exchanged when liquids turn to vapor and vice versa—the process that cools you when you sweat. By far the most common approach, the one used by the refrigerator in your house, uses an electric motor to compress a refrigerant—say, Freon—turning it into liquid. When the pressure created by the compressor is released, the liquid evaporates, absorbing heat and lowering the temperature.
Absorptive chillers like solar refrigerators use a heat source rather than a compressor to change the refrigerant from vapor to liquid. The two most common combinations are water mixed with either lithium bromide or ammonia. In each case, the refrigerating gas is absorbed until heat is applied, which raises the temperature and pressure. At higher pressure, the refrigerant condenses into liquid. Turning off the heat lowers the pressure, causing that liquid to evaporate back into a gas, thereby creating the cooling effect.
The Good News
Turning heat into cold without creating any carbon emissions is a great idea. It also raises an intriguing question -- why can't we do something like this on a larger scale? If the climate is heating up, why isn't there some global way to turn that heat into cool? Freeman Dyson has described how warming sea waters in Antarctica cause additional snow, which actually helps to mitigate the loss of glaciers. Maybe there are additional ways that the additional energy implicit in warming could help bring about cooling.
It certainly seems worth looking into, doesn't it?
Potatoes May Hold Key To Alzheimer's Treatment
A virus that commonly infects potatoes bears a striking resemblance to one of the key proteins implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and researchers have used that to develop antibodies that may slow or prevent the onset of AD.
Studies in mice have demonstrated that vaccinations with the amyloid beta protein (believed to be a major AD contributor) to produce A? antibodies can slow disease progression and improve cognitive function, possibly by promoting the destruction of amyloid plaques.
The Good News:
Do me a favor and just say the following sentence out loud:
A potato virus might hold the cure for Alzheimer's disease.
That's right, a nasty little ring of potato blight, the kind of thing you would peel right off without giving it a second thought, might turn out to be the thing that saves millions of people from the pain and tragedy of dementia and allows them to enjoy a graceful, happy, and productive old age.
Now just stop, wherever you happen to be, and take a good look around. If something as humble and unassuming as a potato virus has the potential to do so much good, what else is sitting out there, right in front of us, ready to change our world in ways we can't even imagine?
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Massive
floating generators, or 'eco-rigs', to provide power and food to Japan
Battered by soaring energy costs and aghast at dwindling fish stocks, Japanese scientists think they have found the answer: filling the seas with giant “eco-rigs” as powerful as nuclear power stations.
The project, which could result in village-sized platforms peppering the Japanese coastline within a decade, reflects a growing panic in the country over how it will meet its future resource needs.
The floating eco-rig generators which measure 1.2 miles by 0.5 miles (2km by 800m) are intended to harness the energy of the Sun and wind. They are each expected to produce about 300 megawatt hours of power.
The Good News:
These rigs will not just supply much-needed power to the Japanese mainland, they will be nurseries for coral and plankton, and may ultimately help to rebuild Japanese fisheries. Plus, I think there's a fair chance that these rigs -- once implemented -- would become interesting communities. Bigger than a ship, smaller than an island. Tourism might ultimately become a side business. I know I wouldn't mind spending some time on one.
Phoenix-based Stirling Energy Systems plans to begin construction in 2009 on two $1 billion solar power farms on federal land in California's Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles and in the Imperial Valley east of San Diego, reports USA Today. When finished the farms will be among the world's largest solar energy deployments.
The plants would nearly double the amount of solar energy produced in the U.S., would power 1 million Southern California homes, and would be around the equivalent of two dirty coal plants.
The good news:
Wind and solar can't solve our energy problems on their own, but deployments such as this one will go a long way towards helping out. Solar is a great way to collect energy and, like nuclear, produces no emissions. Power generated from solar, wind, nuclear, and other non-emission sources can charge the batteries and fuel cells that we need to run our automobiles, airplanes, and other forms of transportation.
But before we make it to a pure-electric-car economy, we will still need gasoline for a while -- so it's smart that we're developing new ways to access oil that wouldn't have been available before. And it's very encouraging to see that cellulosic ethanol might well step in when oil becomes to expensive.
It's all about options, and we appear to have many, with many more on the horizon.
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MACH-5
A2: Fly Sydney to Brussels in 4hrs - Emissions Free!
In a hurry? Need to get from Sydney to Brussels in a dash? Not too far in the future you may be able to travel that entire distance in less than 4 hours - emissions free - thanks to an amazing hypersonic hydrogen jet project called LAPCAT. LAPCAT stands for Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologie, and is funded by the European Space Agency. This type of hypersonic jet would put the Concorde to shame with it’s speed, and the best part is that it would not be powered by the typical fossil fuels, but instead by a much greener hydrogen alternative.
The good news:
Man, what is not to love about this idea? Here we get the return of supersonic commercial aviation with the added benefit of taking carbon emissions out of the equation. I haven't heard much about what alternatives might exist for reducing aviation emissions, so I love the fact that this idea come with the bonus of moving really fast and, by the way, looking extremely cool.
Curious abut the size of this thing? Thought you'd never ask. Check it out next to an Airbus 380:
Where some might balk:
Not everyone is enthused about hydrogen, and some argue that the hydrogen economy is a sham and that it could never work. One of the arguments raised against hydrogen is that it isn't really an energy source, just a means of transporting energy. However, seeing as we'll never get airplanes off the ground with a some portable means of providing energy, aviation might prove to be an exception.
Then again, there may be others. Perhaps there's more to the idea of a hydrogen economy than we realize...
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Where
Sweat Equals Electricity
It sounds like something you'd only see on the Discovery Channel: people pedaling ferociously to create enough energy to power the television, stereo and lights.
Launched last week, his "human-powered" gym is one of few fitness centers in the world that runs on power generated by people working out, Boesel said.
As members pedal on stationary bicycles, a small motor connected to the stations charges batteries that power the gym's television and stereo system.
Boesel said he doesn't yet have a way to quantify the output but knows that at the moment it's relatively small. However, this is just the beginning, he said.
"Our goal is to someday create 100 percent of the electricity we use in the gym," Boesel said. "The short-term goal is to get all of the electricity we can out of the machines."
The good news:
What a great business model -- requiring your gym patrons to pay you for the privilege of generating the electricity you need to run your gym. Of course, it sounds like Boesel has a long way to go before this activity is really "running" his gym. He needs to get some elliptical and stair-climbing machines into the mix.
Also, this raises an interesting hypothetical: what kind of physical condition would we all be in if we were required to generate, through our own activity, say 5% (or even 1%) of the total electricity we use?
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Standing
on the Shoulders of Giants
Video games are reshaping how we perform and promote science.
The digital revolution now engulfing our world emerged from the events during and immediately after the Second World War, when intellectual titans such as Alan Turing, John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, and Claude Shannon roamed the Earth. Many of the predictions they made for the future in those early days are now reality, or something close to it. Turing foresaw computers as artificial intelligences. Neumann imagined machines that could reproduce themselves. Wiener guessed at a merging of biology and technology, and Shannon predicted the primacy of pure information over physical matter. But were these "founding fathers" to somehow see the state of modern computer science, they might be surprised that some of their wildest dreams are being fulfilled not under the explicit auspice of research, but of recreation.
The good news:
So what examples of transformational games that are changing science does Seed provide?
Spore is teaching us about emergence and complexity.
Emotiv Systems Epoc Headset is teaching us about brain-machine interactions.
Foldit is teaching us about protein folding and how crowds can be mobilized to solve complex problems.
Immune Attack is teaching us how students learn about science.
3D Virtual Creature Evolution is teaching us about evolution.
I'm not surprised. Years ago, when I learned that a carpenter can make his way up a series of ramps and ladders while an angry gorilla hurls barrels at him as long as he jumps over those barrels, I knew we were on to something!
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Star
Trek warp drive is a possibility, say scientists
Two physicists have boldly gone where no reputable scientists should go and devised a new scheme to travel faster than the speed of light.
In the long running television series created by Gene Roddenberry, the warp drive was invented by Zefram Cochrane, who began his epic project in 2053 in Bozeman, Montana.
Now Dr Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor, and Richard Obousy have come up with a new twist on an existing idea to produce a warp drive that they believe can travel faster than the speed of light, without breaking the laws of physics.
In their scheme, in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, a starship could "warp" space so that it shrinks ahead of the vessel and expands behind it.
By pushing the departure point many light years backwards while simultaneously bringing distant stars and other destinations closer, the warp drive effectively transports the starship from place to place at faster-than-light speeds.
All this extraordinary feat requires, says the new study, is for scientists to harness a mysterious and poorly understood cosmic antigravity force, called dark energy.
Dark energy is thought responsible for speeding up the expansion rate of our universe as time moves on, just like it did after the Big Bang, when the universe expanded much faster than the speed of light for a very brief time.
This may come as a surprise since, according to relativity theory, matter cannot move through space faster than the speed of light, which is almost 300,000,000 metres per second. But that theory applies only to unwarped 'flat' space.
And there is no limit on the speed with which space itself can move: the spaceship can sit at rest in a small bubble of space that flows at "superluminal" - faster than light - velocities through normal space because the fabric of space and time itself (scientists refer to spacetime) is stretching.
The Good News
On a recent FastForward Radio, we talked about longshot futures -- future developments that we're rooting for irrespective of the fact that they aren't terribly likely. We ranked longshots on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1's being the more reasonable longshots and 10's being the most outrageous, the developments we have no serious expectation of seeing.
Chatroom participant Matt Duing mentioned faster-then-light travel as a longshot future that he's hoping for, but he had to rank it right around 10. My response was that maybe that number goes down over time. As we learn more, as more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fall into place, we begin to find ways to do things we never had any reason to expect we could do. If spots on a potato can potentially lead to a cure for Alzheimer's, a universe driven by strings and dark matter and other components we don't yet fully understand might easily yield a workaround to its absolute speed limit.
Time will tell.
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Oregon Launching First Solar Highway in the US
Oregon is once again taking the lead with renewable energy by installing the country's first highway solar energy project. The project will consist of a 104 kW solar photovoltaic system that covers 8,000 square feet and produces 112,000 kWh each year. That's 28% of the energy needed to power the project's location, the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin.
Electricity for the interchange will be provided by PGE. The solar panels will come into play by producing electricity during the day, giving the power to the PGE grid, and getting the equivalent amount of power back at night from PGE to power lighting on the highway.
The whole project will literally be Oregon-powered, as companies based in-state will provide materials, design, and installation.
Next year, the Oregon Department of Transportation plans to look at more highway project proposals. Eventually, the department would like to generate 2 million kWh every year with the new projects. They also are looking for proposals that showcase new ways to utilize solar energy, such as solar panels that double as sound walls near highways.
The good news...
Well, this is an excellent start. But if the Oregon DOT is serious about going solar, they need to think bigger than solar panels that double as sound walls. How about turning the highway itself into a massive solar collector? It already is one, right? On hot, sunny days -- and they have their share of those in Oregon -- you have miles and miles and miles of pavement heating up to no constructive purpose. Let's enahnce that blactop with some nano-photovoltaics and hook the highway up to the grid. Then all we have to do is get all the cars running on electricity. Now that will be a solar highway truly worthy of the name.
Also, it's great that the Oregon DOT is soliciting ideas from the public. I wonder if they will award some kind of cool prize to people whose ideas they end up using?
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Recovery Dawns for Humpbacks and Southern Right Whales
GLAND, Switzerland, August 14, 2008 (ENS) - The humpback whale and other species of large whales are now more secure against extinction than they have been in the recent past, according to the latest cetacean update of the 2008 Red List of Threatened Species released on Tuesday by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
"Humpbacks and southern right whales are making a comeback in much of their range mainly because they have been protected from commercial hunting," says cetacean scientist Randall Reeves, who led the IUCN Red List assessment. Reeves chairs the Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.
"This is a great conservation success and clearly shows what needs to be done to ensure these ocean giants survive," he said.
The Good News:
There has been some pretty grim speculation lately about the future of the oceans and the creatures who live there, so it is encouraging to see some positive progress where sea life is concerned. We need to learn from the progress we have made with these species of whales and multiple it by many thousands of species of fish, crustaceans, coral, and so on.
If we can, in fact, save the whales, then we have to believe that we can also save the oceans.
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The
Way We'll Be
Book in a nutshell: Americans will face the challenges of the 21st century with creative approaches to consumerism, a cooperative worldview and an inclusive view of spirituality.
That's according to Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, a polling company that canvasses about half a million people every year to gauge public opinion on everything from the best laundry detergent to the most promising political candidate.
In The Way We'll Be, Zogby draws on his company's vast network of surveys and polls to try and predict popular trends and attitudes for the near future. Specifically, he seeks to chart general shifts in the American attitude toward a host of issues, from materialism to religion, from environmentalism to the latest take on the American dream.
His results point to a populace much less taken with the traditional signs of status and success. In survey after survey, he finds respondents more apt to be satisfied with less material wealth and more spiritual satisfaction.
Zogby's data also shows that the current generation of 18- to 29-year- olds, what Zogby terms "first globals," are more than willing to make adjustments in the face of dwindling natural resources, threats to the environment and international tensions. His results reveal a young generation tempered by the immediacy and inclusiveness of the Internet, one that's more likely to hold broad and inclusive spiritual views in lieu of rigid definitions of religion and one that's more willing to cooperate on the international stage to find solutions to pressing problems.
The good news:
Zogby spends all his time collecting and cataloging people's views on a wide variety of issues. When he puts all this information together, he sees things heading in a good direction. Who are we to argue?.
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Immune
paradox could help treat Aids
Scientists have found that a drug that traps white blood cells that fight disease can, paradoxically, lead to the clearance of a chronic infection by a virus linked with one form of meningitis.
Their findings, published in the journal Nature, suggest a new strategy for fighting chronic viral infections that could apply to the treatment of important diseases such as hepatitis C and B, and also HIV/AIDS.
The work, reported today in the journal Nature, comes as a surprise because disease-fighting white blood cells vanish from the blood usually signals a weakened immune system.
But preventing white blood cells' circulation by trapping them in the lymph nodes can help mice get rid of a chronic viral infection, researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research and Emory Vaccine Centres have found.
Dr Altman says he and his co-workers are planning to test FTY720's effects with other viruses. As for when tests would begin, Dr Altman said "We try to be cautious and not excite too much premature enthusiasm among people suffering from diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS."
The good news:
This one isn't as dramatic as the p[otato virus, but it's even more shocking, when you think about it. White blood cells are usually what we think of us our best line of defense against disease. Trapping them, sequestering them, and / or shutting them down doesn't seem like a smart approach when dealing with killers like hepatitis C or HIV.
And yet...that may prove to be the approach that works. It's like that one jigsaw puzzle piece that you look at and never even pick up becuase obviously that one won't fit. But sometimes it does.
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Magical
Anti-Obesity Pill With '2 In 1' Effects
Want to shed those extra pounds but are worried what if they pile up again after dieting? Don't worry as a new study suggests that taking a pill, a dietary supplement called 'alpha-lipoic acid' stops the body to pile up pounds back again and also slows aging.
The British researchers from University of Liverpool, Britain conducted the study on 102 rats in a laboratory setting and looked at the effects of the dietary supplements on rats. A group of 75 rats were given 'normal' diet while another group of 75 rats were fed 'low-calorie' diets.
They found that the rats which were given the supplement were able to shed off weight even after they went off their calorie-restricted diets.
The team of researchers, led by Malcolm Goyns, revealed that alpha-lipoic acid can "lock in" the benefits of dieting, allowing people on diet to get back to normal eating habits without putting on weight.
Malcolm Goyns, director of Immorgene Concepts, a scientific research company, in Stockton-on-Tees, near Middlesbrough, said, 'It seems that alphalipoic-acid fools the body into behaving as if it was still on whatever diet it was following before the supplement was added."
The good news:
As we noted here, this one sounmds a little too good to be true. But if Alpha lipoic acide delivers even some of the benefits touted, it might prove tremendously helpful for those who have lost weight and yet find their weight creeping back up over time. Here's hoping.
Sweden Rolling Out 183 MPH High-Speed Green Train
Maybe you've heard about the proposed high-speed train in California. Well, Sweden is beating the West Coast to the punch with their Green Train.
The Green Train, or Gröna Tåget, will cut energy use on rail lines by 30 percent through lowered operational costs and journey times. Top speeds reached 183 MPH on a test run. Best of all, the Green Train can operate on the current rail infrastructure. That means there's no need to lay down new tracks. Energy saving measures on the train include a permanent magnet motor to increase propulsion chain efficiency and a system that saves up to 15 percent of traction energy by assisting drivers with speed and traction force information. While the Green Train is significantly slower than California's proposed high-speed rail (and the same speed as the French high-speed train), it has set a Swedish speed record. Additionally, it is already in the testing stages, while the California rail won't be ready for at least 20 years. Research on the Green Train will conclude in 2010 or 2011, so it shouldn't be too long before the system is operational.
The Good News:
A fast-moving train with little or no environmental impact sounds pretty good to us. But maybe they want to take it up a notch and make it solar powered?
Better All The Time was compiled by Phil Bowermaster . Happy New Year, everybody! And, of course...
Live to see it!