Normal Accidents

What researcher really mean.

2009-12-20T22:51:00.001-08:00

innovation podcast

2009-12-20T22:34:00.001-08:00

Gabcast! Innovation #0

Thin Screens

2009-12-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Thin_Screens

Imagine reading a newspaper with moving images like those in the Harry Potter movies. With interactive electronic paper or e-paper, the Horizon report feels it is as close as 5 years away. Products like the Kindle and E-Book readers by Sony use a form of e-paper now. However to really come alive it has to be flexible and interactive. Imagine reading a magazine, and a car ad shows an SUV traversing a riverbed, or next summer blockbuster putting trailers in your daily newspaper. Get ready, it's coming.

This is a very expensive prototype that is a proof of concept. However, it is possible in the near future.

Is Nuclear Power the Future?

2009-12-19T22:08:00.000-08:00

The problem with current nuclear power is the danger of radiation and what to do with the radioactive material once it is no longer useful. Nuclear fusion is the process the stars like our sun uses to create endless energy and it is the holy grail of renewable energy. Cold fusion refers to this same process at room temperature. Physicist have hinted at its possibility, but no one has come close to proving it is possible.

Mission to Mars

2009-12-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

William Halal and his TechCast team believe a manned mission to mars most like in 20 years. Based on the distance to get there, it takes 6 months, and the power required; the experts believe a manned mission is just 4-5 years away. However, the technology to deliver man has not been invented yet. Russia, Europe, and the US are working to develop the technology, but it is just not quite possible.

There are theories about using nuclear power to create the thrust necessary to propel a manned spacecraft towards mars, but a 5 foot shield of water would be necessary to shield the passengers from the radiation. Also the absence of gravity would have a harmful effect on the astronauts. I think artificial gravity is within the realm of possibility at this time, so I don't think this is as much a hurdle as Dr. Halal.

Dr. Halal also mentions terraforming, which is the transforming of the terrain to more closely match the Earth and helping the habitability for humans. Without soil samples, which Halal believes is within a few years from being returned, it is impossible to know if the atmosphere is capable of support and earthly terrain.

I think Mars exploration is fascinating and I hope we have success in the near future in unmanned exploration and experiments on Earth that will allow us to make this planetary trip possible.

The future of fresh water...

2009-11-17T17:32:00.000-08:00

The innovation I brought up in class was instant desalinization. I had in mind a tablet or chemical that could be added to a water supply that could instantly remove salt and harmful minerals, also known as, desalinization. The fresh water supply of the globe is at risk and will only decrease as the population grows. Currently, desalinization is a very inefficient process. It takes large amounts of energy to evaporate the water and remove the particulates (e.g. salt, minerals).

The future of desalinization while not at the tablet phase, is undergoing research at Boston College. They are examining nano-technology that creates carbon tubes in water that removes the harmful additives and makes it fresh to drink or irrigate. "Nano-machines could be used to build "micro-pipes" of activated carbon only a few billionths of a meter(nanometer) in diameter. These pipes would be activiated by electric charge which would cause them to remove sodium and chloride ions from salt water. These filters made of these tubes would act as highly effecient desalination machines." (allsands 2009)

http://www.scienceinindustry.co.uk/images/articles/Introduction_to_Nanotechnology_1.jpg

http://www.allsands.com/Science/whatisnanotec_yqb_gn.htm

Cool Tool

2009-11-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

Ever been in a meeting or an encounter without your computer or a pen and paper armed only with your cellphone? Well now there is a great web 2.0 tool that turns your cellphone into a mobile extension of your notebook. The tool is called Evernote. It is a synergy of the cloud, your computer and your mobile device. It gives you secure presence on the cloud, that you can collect notes, clips, images, and hyper links. It also gives you an installable application, or a mobile website for you smartphone, where you can add notes, take snapshots, record an audio note, and post them to your portal on the cloud.

I tried to post some pictures, but blogger was not cooperating, here is the link to evernote. Check it out.

http://www.evernote.com/

Web 2.0

2009-10-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

I fancy myself and advanced interweb user. If someone has a something they need done, I can find just about exactly what they want to do on the internetweb. I was excited about this assignment because I wanted to flex my interweb brain muscle for everyone to see. I wanted to find that super cool tool that you couldn't live without and share for everyone to see. However, all the cool sites I found like www.screentoaster.com, or www.screenjelly.com for recording screencasts, or facebook or twitter for keeping up with friends, or del.ic.ious or Digg for keeping up with what is popular on the internetweb. None of them impressed me more than www.allmyfaves.com. AllMyFaves takes the top 5 to 10 sites, mostly Web 2.0 sites for dozens of topics and puts them all at your fingertips. While the lists are not dynamic, they are picked by allmyfaves editors based on popularity, uniqueness, and newness. What I like about allmyfaves is that it takes the sites you know, like Google and Bing and shows you alternatives you might not have heard of. So if you don't know what you are missing on the internet... Try http://www.allmyfaves.com/.

Futuring with Ray Kurzweil...

2009-10-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

This is a great discussion about the future of computing and nanotechnology. Seems like that is all the futurists are talking about, but it is fascinating. I really think he is on to something when he talks about nanobots used in internal medicine. That is really fascinating, almost a real life Fantastic Voyage (minus Raquel Welch)! I am science buff, especially human anatomy and physiology (some of my undergraduate work was in biology). But if we can get nanobots to fix what we can't get medicine to fix, or surgery to fix, that will be a major breakthrough. I imagine one day having nanobots that can fix genetic mutations, that cause hereditary disease. Imagine the possibility of that!

Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/38

Catching up with the brain...

2009-10-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

Kwabena Boahen looks to create a computer to act like a brain. In his discussion
Mr. Boahen describes how the transistor is like a neuron. However, what is keeping
us from making a synthetic neuron and using that on a processor? Or using it to
store data? This is kind of what I was talking about when I mentioned bio computing,
but I want to use synthetic anatomy and physiology as a computer.