Dr. Ben Wang shows a model of an ‘unmanned aerial vehicle’
Nanotechnology has surprising applications in mundane materials like sunscreen and esoteric items like high-tech body armor for soldiers. But some fear scarier scenarios worthy of a science fiction novel. At Florida State University, engineers are creating new body armor for American troops. It’s more durable, more bulletproof and light enough that it can cover arms and legs as well as torsos.
TXTBlocker
TXTBlocker is a software and online service combo which locks off a registered mobile phone from making or receiving text messages or calls while in a car. It uses cell and GPS data to determine location and speed and decide whether the phone is actually in a car, and once it thinks it is, boom, the service is automatically limited.
A blast from a heat gun has turned most of the black tile in this image white.
Anyone who has ever stepped barefoot onto blacktop pavement on a hot sunny day knows the phenomenon very well: Black surfaces absorb the sun’s heat very efficiently, producing a toe-scorching surface. In the wintertime, that can be a good thing: A dark roof heats up in the sun and helps reduce your heating bill. But in summertime, it’s definitely a bad thing: Your house gets even hotter, and your air conditioning has to work harder. In most places, the summertime penalty is greater than the wintertime gain, it turns out, so that’s why many people, including U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, strongly advocate switching to white roofs.
Featured Invention at the Colorado Inventor Showcase
Sculpture Brick is the newest veneer application process on the market today. Over the past 30 years this product has been developed into what is now patented versatile mortar enhancement process that simulates the appearance and texture of brick, but at up to half the cost. It can provide you with a “value engineering ” option that can save thousands of dollars when compared to traditional brick.
Featured Product at the Colorado Inventor Showcase
WebRecept™ is a proactive, web-based, customer relations management service that provides live website chat interaction and site monitoring through trained, qualified agents that increase your company’s online sales conversions by engaging visitors and building personal relationships from your website.
Engineeer and cartoonist Tim Hunkin created an arcade game that at first appears to be an ATM or banking kiosk. When coins are inserted, the banking poster drops and reveals Wack-A-Banker, giving you an opportunity to take your aggressions out on a group of financially oppressive stereotypes.
Section of a butterfly wing under a microscope
A team of researchers from the State University of Pennsylvania (USA) and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) have developed a technique to replicate biological structures, such as butterfly wings, on a nano scale. The resulting biomaterial could be used to make optically active structures, such as optical diffusers for solar panels.
The intense exchanges that human mothers share with their newborn infants may have some pretty deep roots, suggests a study of rhesus macaques reported online on October 8th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Continue Reading »
While we’ve all heard of diseases, seen someone with a disease, and had a disease personally, it’s unlikely that we’ve encountered a rare disease. In the non-medical world, people use and interchange disease to mean infection, sickness, illness, or something similar. In the medical world, a disease is an abnormal condition that impairs bodily functions and is often associated with certain signs and symptoms.
Alligators display the same loyalty to their mating partners as birds reveals a study published today in Molecular Ecology. The ten-year-study by scientists from the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory reveals that up to 70% of females chose to remain with their partner, often for many years.
A look at the happiness of Facebook’s members
Facebook is even more omniscient than you thought: it can now chart the world’s collective hopes and dreams and highs and lows–sort of, at least.
Featured Invention at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2009
The Rocky Mountain Imaging mobile scanner is a portable and versatile scanning solution that simply and quickly converts photos, images, and pages to digital. Battery power, SD card memory, and compact design enables scanning anywhere and anytime. The detachable lid allows one-of-a-kind heirloom photos to be safely and accurately captured by keeping them in their original position in the photo album. The mobile scanner includes creative projects software and links to online projects, how to guides, and social networking.
Featured at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2009
FunRide is a unique car sharing service that uses alternative fuel vehicles, offering members and visitors the opportunity to reduce their transportation costs.
Stonehenge offers many mysteries
This Canadian brainstorm actually makes sense. The town proposing the Stonehenge replica is in a compatible global location. The folks at The Vancouver Sun tell us more.
“The town of Barriere is hatching a plan to place a concrete replica of England’s Stonehenge at the centre of a major park development.
Barriere’s version would be a scaled-down model of the real 100-metre-wide Druidic temple that has stood on the Salisbury Plains for about 4,500 years. The circle of stone megaliths and lintels is aligned to record the passing of the seasons and stands at the centre of a huge complex of burial mounds.
Coun. Virginia Smith brought the idea to council about a month ago after she learned that the real Stonehenge is located at the exact same latitude – 51 degrees north – as the town’s new park, which is already slated for a makeover with a new field house, bandshell, playground and a system of trails…
![DSCN1312crop[1]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091010202030im_/http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/DSCN1312crop1.jpg "DSCN1312crop[1]")
Featured Invention at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2009
Kwik Kover is a year-round windshield cover that is utilized on the outside of the vehicle and secured inside.
![Rev'd Pool Table Illus[2]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091010202030im_/http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Revd-Pool-Table-Illus2.JPG "Rev'd Pool Table Illus[2]")
Featured Invention at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2009
Utilize all of your pool playing skills but add a whole new set of strategies and fun with a set of Card Parlour Pool Balls including a joker ball.
A new study from the University of New Hampshire finds that U.S. children are routinely exposed to even more violence and abuse than has been previously recognized, with nearly half experiencing a physical assault in the study year.
A new investigation of a fossilized tracksite in southern Africa shows how early dinosaurs made on-the-fly adjustments to their movements to cope with slippery and sloping terrain. Differences in how early dinosaurs made these adjustments provide insight into the later evolution of the group.
Can the idea of ‘green motorsport’ actually work? Yes, according to EPSRC funded researcher, Dr Kerry Kirwan at the University of Warwick, who led the research team which designed and built the worldfirst fully sustainable Formula 3 racing car.
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission warned Wednesday of “a looming spectrum crisis” if the government fails to find ways to come up with more bandwidth for mobile devices.
In the coming year’s military spending bill, members of a House panel continue to steer lucrative defense contracts to companies represented by their former staffers, who in turn steer generous campaign donations to those lawmakers, a new analysis has found.
Breathe, Wheeze and Measure.
An asthma sufferer myself, I’ve long known the ghostly sensation of an invisible hand reaching through my breastplate to ethereally squeeze my lungs until I turn into a purple faced goblin. In the manner of many asthma sufferers, I like bragging about my attacks, and comparing them to the supposed attacks of my asthmatic peers.
But how best to quantify the severity of my asthma, so best to dismiss the discomfort of others? KarmelSonix Ltd, a medical device company consisting of a joint partnership between Israel and Australia, have designed a device for just such a purpose: a wheeze detector for quantifying asthma, allergy and emphysema symptoms.
Windmills have opened many doors for William!
William Kamkwamba, a teenage boy in Malawi, saw a photo of a windmill in a textbook at the library and decided that if he could build one it would be useful to his village.
Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire…
Soon the whiz kid’s 12-watt wonder was pumping power into his family’s mud brick compound…
UPDATE: William Kamkwambo was the featured guest on THE DAILY SHOW on Oct 7!
“Demand for micro pigs is soaring and we are inundated with enquiries every day,” said Jane Croft, 42, who breeds them. “It’s amazing how popular they have suddenly become and just how many people want pigs as pets.”
Micro pigs are much smaller than a standard farm pig and weigh 9oz, about the size of a tea cup when they are born. At two years old they are fully grown and weigh in around 40-65 lb and are around knee height at 12-16in tall. They can live for up to 18 years, but make popular pets as they are low maintenance, quiet and surprisingly clean.
An Italian scientist says he has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, a feat that he says proves definitively that the linen some Christians revere as Jesus Christ’s burial cloth is a medieval fake.
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