Blogs

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/december7/nanotubes-ink-paper-120709....

Dip an ordinary piece of paper into ink infused with carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, and it turns into a battery or supercapacitor. Crumple the piece of paper, and it still works. Stanford researcher Yi Cui sees many uses for this new way of storing electricity.

http://www.gizmag.com/statkraft-osmotic-power...

The principle of harnessing osmosis has the potential to produce enormous amounts of energy anywhere that salt water and fresh water meet. We looked at some of the approaches to turning this theory into reality earlier this year, including Statkraft's plans to build a prototype power plant. The company's plans are now coming to fruition with Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway officially opening the world's first osmotic power plant prototype on November 24.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/HONSHI/2...

Augmented reality (AR) technology is coming into our homes, our cities and elsewhere in the near future. Dramatic advances in computer technology are making possible a world that once would only have been found in the realm of science fiction... The revolution is impacting everything from mobile phones to digital home electronics, forcing rapid evolution.

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/05/can-collective-intelligence-save...

[This article is part of a series of interviews from the MIT Sloan Management Review published on GreenBiz.com. It is adapted from "All Together Now (or, Can Collective Intelligence Save the Planet?," an interview published by MIT Sloan Management Review in April 2009. The complete interview is available here. © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. All rights reserved. To read all of GreenBiz.com's interviews with MIT thought leaders, visit http://greenbiz.com/mitsloan.]

MIT Sloan School professor Thomas Malone addresses the mental models that impede management progress, the role of collective intelligence in solving climate problems, and his view of how wrong people are about what business is for. An MIT Sustainability Interview by Michael S. Hopkins.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars...

BERLIN, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Two German scientists invented "liquid wood," which has the potential to save significant fossil fuel and natural resources.

How about a renewable plastic that has wood-like qualities but can be cast by a machine? A group of scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology in Pfinztal near Karlsruhe invented just that in the late 1990s.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/914118...

Brain waves will replace keyboard and mouse, dial phones and change TV channels

Computerworld - By the year 2020, you won't need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/cs_...

IT'S NOT JUST A DEFENSIVE GAME; CYBER-SECURITY INCLUDES ATTACK PLANS TOO, AND THE U.S. HAS ALREADY USED SOME OF THEM SUCCESSFULLY.

In May 2007, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency, based at Fort Meade, Md., to launch a sophisticated attack on an enemy thousands of miles away without firing a bullet or dropping a bomb.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49304267,00.htm

A team at the University of Washington is developing a prototype contact lens that would function as an LED computer display, projecting images directly into a wearer's retina.

The project was announced back at the start of January 2008. But now the team is preparing to show off its prototype at the BioCas conference in Beijing later this month.

"Our hope is to create images that effectively float in front of the user perhaps 50cm to 1m away," University of Washington researcher Babak Parviz told New Scientist. This opens up the door to all manners of augmented-reality applications, similar to those location-aware apps seen on Android and the iPhone.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG877/

The protection of cyberspace, the information medium, has become a vital national interest because of its importance both to the economy and to military power. An attacker may tamper with networks to steal information for the money or to disrupt operations. Future wars are likely to be carried out, in part or perhaps entirely, in cyberspace. It might therefore seem obvious that maneuvering in cyberspace is like maneuvering in other media, but nothing would be more misleading. Cyberspace has its own laws; for instance, it is easy to hide identities and difficult to predict or even understand battle damage, and attacks deplete themselves quickly. Cyberwar is nothing so much as the manipulation of ambiguity. The author explores these in detail and uses the results to address such issues as the pros and cons of counterattack, the value of deterrence and vigilance, and other actions the United States and the U.S. Air Force can take to protect itself in the face of deliberate cyberattack.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354848,...

Xerox on Tuesday announced a new silver ink (among other things) that it's calling, and apparently is, a breakthrough in printable electronics, a leading edge concept that's generated a lot of discussion but few actual products to date, largely because of the issues that Xerox's new technology addresses.