Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Feb 16

There has been so much going on so far this year - and we are only in it by around 6 weeks!

So, let’s start with the question that is on everyone’s lips since the iPad was launched and the Kindle wanted to get bigger: so read Tabitha Mcivers article 25 Essential Free iPhone Apps to “Kindle-ize” Your iPhone to save you some money on upgrades if you can resist these new gadgets!

Shakira Dawn joins in the debate too with a great use for one of this years greatest releases: The Clinical iPad? 25 Ways Tablet PCs Are Used in Healthcare.

Another current topic in the news at the mo is related to social networking sites (and Facebook have changed their layout AGAIN) and here Aaliyah Williams gives us her opinion with her article titled: Google launches Buzz to take on Twitter and Facebook.

A comical article now from Big Cajun Man with a wishful article on a Financial Shock Collar!

Onto the future now with an interesting article by Will - who thinks that there is the potential for 3D Content & Programming On The Way - interesting, no?

A short one to finish with Ankesh highlighting a potential eco-phone: Sharp rolling out solar powered phone this month.

Happy Pancake Day!

posted by admin on Dec 28

Why is so much money still be spent on inventions for our pleasure rather than our survival?

There is plenty of talk about the range of new products and technologies that we need to be inventing in the next few decades to make sure that we lower carbon emissions and get energy from water - yet money is still being spent on inventing another mobile phone application to help you call the restaurant down the road without using a phone book!

Or inventing a talking, dancing giant hamster for kids to play with?

Should the world start looking at more pressing inventions, and stop funding things ‘for fun’ or just ‘to find out what so-and-so does’?

Yes, Because…..

There could be a massive argument that without funding of alternative energy sources or a reduction in the emissions from current energy practices - there won’t really be a captive audience left to buy that hamster!

If the scientific facts floating about at the moment about the effects of our emissions and our other activities, then there are going to be some major changes to the way we view ‘normal’.

People can get quite frustrated with the governments or science bodies when they hear about apparently pointless studies and inventions.  People want to see things being achieved that will change their lives - not finding the elusive Higgs -Boson!

No, Because…..

So many things have been invented for one purpose - but then changed slightly to do something completely different - and what if that new thing was the best invention ever?

I know this money all comes from us somewhere down the line (as does all funding) but the more people there are tinkering with this and that - the more chance they will find something great.

We all know the story of Post-It notes and the like, where it’s all a big mistake, but maybe we are looking at the environment in the wrong way and we need a scientist to accidentally turn up with the answer to everything!

posted by admin on Dec 24

The University of Western Ontario has received a $200,000 grant to find out!

There has long been the idea that sensors in contact lenses could help to identify certain medical conditions including diabetes.  In the latter it could be of use if it kept changing color when sugar levels rise or fall in the body and other conditions could be monitored in a similar way.

There is much debate over whether this is of real use to everyday adults with the condition - and many people have commented that they don’t want other people to know they have an illness by using the color change lenses.  However, there is overwhelming support for it’s use in less able individuals who need home support or other forms of care - as a much better alternative to test needles.

And, it is just in contact lenses at the moment - so a normal sighted individual would have to start wearing plain lenses.  But, as technology advances, this could be moved to other areas of the body which are easy to monitor (it’s tricky to see your own eyes) and easier to apply (have you ever tried to get lenses out of your eyes when you aren’t a lens wearer?).

The Big Idea:
Put simply, the fluid secreted from your tear ducts to moisten your eyes can be analyzed for sugar levels and therefore be used to indicate your blood sugar level.

More technically, the use of extremely small nano-particles embedded into the material of the lens will allow for a chemical reaction with the blood sugars secreted by the body allowing for a color change to occur across the whole surface of the lens.

Therefore, the sufferer does not have to repeatedly test their blood sugar levels with a needle testing kit to make sure they are not about to become gravely ill - they just look in a mirror! 

Obviously, diabetes is just one of many conditions that this technology could benefit, but it is one of the world biggest health issue affecting around 220 million people worldwide according to WHO so this technology could save many lives - as around 500 people a day die of the condition.

Imagine if just a quick glance at your friend could save their life! 

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posted by admin on Dec 10

According to current reports from the US - yes you can…….

Obviously the paper is only a small part of the whole energy source, but could lead the way forward in making energy without mining and disposing of tonnes and tonnes of dangerous and wasteful metals.

Reports from Stanford University suggest that by coating plain copier paper with a carbon and lithium mix could actually power many electrical goods, but research is still in the early stages.

How Is It Done?
Testing so far has allowed for rolled sheets of paper to be painted with a carbon ‘ink’ to form a nanotube structure.  The many inter-connected fibres found in paper could be the key to it’s use - and of course it is bendable, can be folded and manipulated into a whole host of shapes (think origami!) that means it could be better manipulated than many common metals used today and it is much, much, lighter!

Once the structure is prepared, the whole thing is lowered into a lithium solution where electrolytes react to create the electrical current.  Nanotube technology is only small scale at the moment - but with the potential that paper offers, these could be scaled up.

Energy Efficient:
With all the component parts of the battery being one and the same will allow for better energy efficiency as there will be less energy wasted moving it around inside the product - the whole thing is electrical.  I mean, you can even cut the paper in half and it will still work - but at 50% of the output of the original!

They are not currently cost effective though, and paper batteries the size required to power a lightbulb are currently way out of kilter with the cost of other power sources.

But, this small step could lead up to things that noone ever expected - just think of the Internet itself - the technology just ran away with itself!

The Future?
With the potential for larger sizes, and the fact that these batteries can release energy much faster than standard batteries, there is talk of the technology being used to power cars for example - although there has been no actual research into this at the moment.

Similarly there has been talk of pacemakers running on these non-toxic fuel cells - but nothing on paper.

Also, with the structure of paper the same over huge dimensions - it is possible that a whole wall could be painted with the carbon ink and used as an energy store rather than a multitude of smaller devices.  And certain cloths are very similar in structure to paper so could be used as well.

I am not sure that I would want a whole wall or a set of curtains in my home filled with electrical energy, but for factories and other workplaces or vehicles, this could be just the thing!

posted by admin on Nov 26

I just saw an advert for a new online ‘game’ that showed me a lot about how a city is powered - and the impact of ‘green’ alternatives.

It’s called Energyville and has been put together by The Economist Group, to show people the environmental costs of the many forms of energy available - and the essential we can’t do without at the moment.

Of course it is only a simplified storyline - but it is filled with facts and figures that really make you think about what we can expect for the future.  I mean I got to the point where it told me that we cannot currently run our transport networks without oil - we need it or we cannot exist.  So much for filling my city with ‘green’ energy!

Enter Energyville Yourself:
Take yourself to their website where you get a basic introduction to the site, then you name your city and either choose the actual game to start - or you can try the tester version to get to grips with the place.

I entered the tester city - which I decided to name ‘Hopesville’ - and it was very well laid out.  I was confronted with a very compact version of a major city with homes, an airport, factories, offices and transport systems: but nothing was working - it all had no power.  And the soundtrack was of just birdsong.

It all looked so peaceful - but then without all the noise and hub-bub of a city there wouldn’t be any food, furniture or products in the world!  So I needed to get things moving.

All the areas have information buttons where you can read about the energy needs of all the important sectors of a working city like commercial buildings, vehicles and homes as well as containing some amazing and extensive facts unique to that sector - like under transport it said that ‘ wide based tires improve fuel economy by up to 5% - saving up to 400 gallons of fuel per year; that’s US$1,680 at todays rates - and around 4 metric tonnes of CO2!

Running The City:
Next you have to decide what energy sources you want to use for your city and drag the factories, dams or wind turbines onto your cityscape.  But do so with care!

Each item your drag onto the scene has an impact on your key energy indicators: Economic Cost, Environmental Cost and City Security - as well as clocking up your overall energy score!  And, as you start to power the city it comes alive; cars start moving around, lights in offices come on and planes take-off!

The idea is obviously to keep your energy score as low as possible, but creating enough of the right energy to power your city.  The information can help you and the main info box tells you what you are doing wrong!  So needless to say it was screaming at me to use oil to power by infrastructure when I was trying to run the whole place on hydro and wind power!

And, the energy scores for some of the green alternatives are not so low after all!  It certainly made me think differently about it all - I mean a biomass factory had more energy cost than a coal factory!

Fully Powered:
When you have reached full power for your city for 2015, it takes you through a mid way storyline detailing some future events that could affect your city - for example if biomass factories make world hunger even worse than it is today, then your factory becomes more expensive to run!  And all the rest….

The game then takes you back to your city in 2015 to see how it looks.  And I didn’t like mine!  It was noisy and busy and using far too much energy - total contrast to when you first start the game!

But - as it’s busier - it needs yet more energy - so you need to add more factories or change your sources to get the balance again.  It isn’t a nice place to be in my opinion!

The End?:
When you finally finish your city (and it can only take a few minutes to complete if you don’t read it all), it takes you to the ‘final score’ section, which shows your total energy cost and environmental impacts etc.

It also gives you a final score out of the thousands of people who have played it!  I’m afraid I was nearly in 200,000th place with my hydro and wind (with a little oil) based city!  And we are told that that is the way forward!

So, maybe try out your own ideas in this format - I might see if nuclear is the way forward!