May, 2010

Time Magazine just published its list of the 50 Worst Inventions.  Some of these inventions are really old, like the crinoline and tanning beds.  Others aren't even around any more, like the Ford Pinto and the Pontiac Aztek.  And many, like Agent Orange, plastic shopping bags, and DDT, historically really called for a more timely worst inventions list.  But some of Time's 50 Worst Inventions are worth a look just for being so darned ... wacky!

Pacemakers, defibrillators, cochlear implants... and many other medical devices on the implant track, are at risk for hacking, just as the medical community and patients with implants feared.  But it was reported today that an implant hacking actually took place, when a British scientist became the first human to be infected by a computer virus through his implant.

Planning a trip this summer or later this year during the holidays?  Well, if you're going by plane, be prepared to wait on long lines, as 'anything but' is definitely the exception these days.  But whether you are waiting on the ticket line, the baggage check line, or the boarding line, there are suitcases made just for you... they can be transformed into chairs!

Dracula may soon get a run for his... fast-growing canines!

The technology of fashion is continually evolving, and it was only a matter of time before it went high-class. Enter USB flash drive cufflinks by Ravi Ratan, two squares of solid coolness that would make even James Bond sit up and take notice.

Are you always wondering if you smell bad?  Well, maybe you do.  But there are some people who are so concerned about their body odors or bad breath that they take things to extremes, like using a whole bar of soap in a several-hour shower, or shutting themselves off from others for fear that they will overwhelm them with their odors.

Food design is not just about creating a pretty plate these days.  Like any art or design form, it can be an expression of despair as well as hope, of decay as well as growth.  So don't be shocked when you read what is influencing today's student food designers as we preview 7 designs from the upcoming SIAL 2010 Food Design Show. 

A trio of inventors from The Essential Element (hint: H₂O) have unveiled the first working model of an invention that has the potential to affect peoples throughout the world, especially people who do not have access to the a basic need that most of us take for granted... clean drinking water.  Additionally, the Hydra, can reach people in disaster situations and clean the sludgiest water on site to make it potable.

Students from several departments at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany have designed and constructed a most interesting prototype of a circular micro home: the Rollit.  The simple, elegant architectural design provides the most efficient use of space one is likely to achieve.

There was an exhibit at a London gallery by French composer Celest Boursier-Mougenot.  The exhibit, entitle 'From Here To Ear,' was an aviary filled with zebra finches, electronic instruments, and various other sound-making objects that were all connected to an audio system.  It occurred to me that a smaller scale music palace could be created for wild birds in our own yards so we can have our own bird bands. (see video)

A clinical trial of a new vaccine to treat nicotine dependence is underway at Michigan State University (MSU) and 24 other sites nationwide. These trials makes use of a novel technique in a costly public health effort to impact the $192 billion spent on smoking related illnesses per year.

"Do more for less" in public services is the motto for Sidekick Studios, a British innovator in social innovations that spins out social businesses.  Sidekick's latest invention, Buddy, is a social media radio that allows persons with long term health conditions to communicate how they are feeling to their family and friends in real-time, through email, SMS, Facebook, IM, Twitter and other social networks without digital support.

A new business concept that has been more commonly appearing in cities around the world as a public water sharing program. In order to encourage tourists and city dwellers to stop purchasing bottled water and help the environment, these programs offer convenience. 

There are so many new gadgets out this year that Dads and Grandpas would love.  They cover the gamut from low tech to high tech, while all being user-intuitive.  (Personally, I know many dads and grandpas who don't want a new hobby for Father's Day!)  Father's Day is June 20 this year, and these gadget gifts will be just in time to use this summer!

They are not on a salary or salary/incentive basis, paid by their companies to invent; they work alone, on their own or in small groups, generally in someone's garage or other part of the home. Popular Science recognizes the accomplishments of these independent inventors yearly in the June issue of its magazine.  Here are the 10 winning inventions...

In what was surely an act of cod, Caltech’s head of Biological Propulsion research Dr. John Dabiri was inspired by schools of fish to make current vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT)s more efficient.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and other U.S. medical centers have studied the relationship of various markers of body fat to brain markers for Alzheimer's disease, and their findings are not good for those who have fat around their mid-sections, or 'belly fat.'

In the wild, most animals have their special hide-aways; a place where they can hide from predators and feel relatively safe to catch a few winks.  Indoors, our pets need special places too, havens away from humans, to rest, play, talk to themselves, or just hang....  Pet Tree Houses, LLC makes those havens with 'special' in all caps... for your dog, cat, bird, or snake. 

A commonly held belief is that everything Americans invent goes to Japan to be perfected and sold. That may be true for technology and, yes, some other areas....  But, here's a case where a great Japanese food, sushi, came to the U.S. from Japan, and has been perfected and sold by Americans.  It's sushi on a stick, sushi to go and eat as you stroll... and yes, as you drive... It's the Sushi Popper!

Barren spots on your neighbor's landscape? Too busy to toil the soil?  Suck UK usually has a solution to life's nemeses, and garden voids are no exception, whether they are yours or your neighbors.  Use the new guerrilla gardening technique with the 21st century power of Flower Grenades!

Today, in Science, the first artificial cell was born.  Though theoretically, this is the first step in the creation of artificial life, the inventors are focusing their efforts on creating new fuels, effective ways to clean polluted water, and faster vaccine production....

Fireplaces are no longer about burning wood or even keeping warm.  They're not just about winter.  They are about bringing a lively natural element into our interiors, for its beauty and its contemplative features.   And, by using ethanol as fuel, designers have an unlimited range of applications.  Here are three of the latest design 'places for fire.'

Ever want to cozy up to your lamp? I'm not really that strange, because I think you will want to cozy up to the  d°light lamps by Diana Lin Design.  They're huggable.  They're squeezable. And you can place (or throw) them anywhere like pillows throughout your decor. Who said you can't have some fun with lighting design?

We don't generally think about the sociological impact of design.  But in the poorest areas of Medellìn, Colombia, design is changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants with a strong message of education, jobs, and inclusion in the culture of a city with a very proud history. 

On May 13^th, 2010, a small Swedish tech company by the name of Anyfi decided to go and mess up the status quo in the world of Wi-Fi Internet technology by announcing a new form of Wi-Fi that will apparently provide 4G service to home and mobile customers alike.

The discovery from the British university came as a surprise even to the research team. Biologists at the University of Leeds have found that a steroid produced by our bodies can help prevent heart disease as well as many other downward spirals that come with age.  The fountain of youth may be just around the corner!

The 2010 SIAL d'Or Awards, the Oscars of the food industry, were awarded last week to 9 food and beverage products in 9 categories. These foods and drinks got the golds for their innovation as well as successful marketing of their products.  Here are the winners; they will give you a chance to see what you might find in foreign grocery stores.

Does cell phone use put us at greater risk of brain cancer?  As data analysis goes, one would think that results of a longitudinal study might provide the answer.  Well, a new update of a World Health Organization (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) longitudinal study - a $24.4 million,10-year study of data from nearly 13,000 subjects, compiled and examined by 21 researchers provided...

On May 14, 2010, the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City opened its fourth National Design Triennial exhibit... Why Design Now?  The exhibit includes some of the world's finest examples of why, indeed, we design.  Grouped into various themes, the exhibit features the original works of designers in many fields. MetaboliCity, a biomimetic design, is one of the energy designs exhibited that gives you an inspiring response to the question Why Design Now...

If you've ever stepped barefoot on your brick or cement patio in the summer, you can just imagine how your dog feels lying on it in his heavy fur coat.  Coolaroo, an Austrailian company that specializes in comfortable and cooling fabric, designed a special bed for pooches to get them off the ground in the summertime and any other time of year.

Virtual assistants are more in demand than ever before with the number of remote career opportunities for people who are working strictly online. They can do pretty much everything as long as it doesn't require them to be in a physical office space, keeping businesses and individuals well managed. Now, VAs have carved out a niche in the already booming industry to become even more current!

A new center is opening today for the study of healthy minds; that's a change from the study of addicted, obsessed, and psychopathic minds.  It may seem odd that a deeply religious and spiritual person, in fact a spiritual leader, would be the inspiration for this new center, but the Dalai Lama did lay the seeds for this endeavor by the Unversity of Wisconson's Waisman Center - about 20 years ago.

Do diet foods ever taste like the real thing?  I've always thought that if something tastes like it's fattening, it usually is... or the brand is really messing with you by cutting your portion size - like the bag of 100 calorie snacks that eaten all together may not make a mouthful!   But when I heard about a 'diet' chocolate pasta, I had to look into the company that makes it; then I learned that FiberGourmet makes almost all of my favorite comfort foods in a way that's filling, low-calorie, and full of fiber. Who can pass this up?

Three PhD students from Stanford University's chemical engineering program took $200,000 back to their new California business yesterday, after winning  MIT's Clean Energy Prize.  C3Nano, a spin-off of Stanford's chemical engineering department, was started to commercialize their invention, and it could use the prize money to get things going!

New findings by researchers from the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, reveal that a treatment of the most common heart rhythm disorder, affecting more than two million Americans, significantly reduces the risk of stroke, mortality, Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of dementia.

Swedish research and experimental design studio, the Interactive Institute, is focused on the use of 'new media,' the emerging digital and communication technologies of tomorrow.  From its research, the Institute often embodies its findings in designs that not only implement new technologies, but have lifestyle implications embedded into its crisp, modern functional products.  To illustrate, here are five Institute designs purposed with modifying your home energy use.

Researchers at the University of California, led by Professor Michael Sailor, have been looking for ways to give the ubiquitous cellphone a greater level of usefulness and make it less of a pricey way to seem cooler than you actually are. Enter the Smellphone.

A compound called Dichloroacetate (DCA) has been tested at the University of Alberta (U of A) as a potential treatment for glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, since before 2007.  At that time, the research evidence showed that DCA reverses cancer growth in non-human models and in test tubes.  This time, the research team studied the effects of DCA on human glioblastomas....

There are all kinds of superb designs coming from Italy - furniture, jewelry, automobiles, textiles, fashion, mosaics... even fixtures.  Yes, I know, fixtures sound boring, especially bathroom fixtures; but those by IB RUBINETTERIE are anything but boring.  They even have their own personalities to liven up your bathroom.

Donuts are their own food group.  They are practically everyone's favorite naughty food. Donuts wouldn't be that naughty though, if you could make them at home, skipping the deep-frying, using whole wheat flour instead of bleached white, maybe reducing the amount of sugar you put in the glaze... 

Looking for just the right accessory for that first date or that job interview? You'll certainly make an impression with these jewelry designs by Rebekah Frank!

I love light shows.  Not the big ones with the lasers, necessarily; just a candle will satisfy me.  But the idea of a wind-powered outdoor light that pulses with the many different beats that winds can produce, just sounds like the perfect focus for meditating on the back porch in the evening.

Nolan Herbut, an industrial design student at the University of Alberta, has created two really 'impressionable' and interactive designs from computer keyboards: the Wolfgang Keyboard Bench and the Keyboard Parts Lamp. Come play along, come play along, come play along with me...

... And when my human parents are out having fun and drinking wonderful Italian wine, I don't have to hold it in. I'd have Cliffi Lino to hold my wee-wee if I peed, and it would make me smell nice too!

Brazilian design brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana love patchwork and layering.  We've seen it in several of their chair designs.  But now, the Campana studio is focusing on the patchwork and layering possibility in mirrors and they create some interesting reflections.  These reflective works are all part of Edra's new 2010 Collection.

If you want real personal company with you, even at night, the Fitbit Tracker will be there!  It hangs out with you during the day to monitor your activities and watches over you at night to track your sleep.  And the volume of health information it can provide you is greater than any live personal trainer could give you... even if he or she did stay overnight.

About one in 200 persons infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) doesn't develop symptoms of AIDS, or they develop AIDS more slowly than others infected with the virus.  These elite persons are called 'elite controllers' by the research community, and they have been subjects of research for the past two decades.  Recently, Harvard and MIT immunologists just came one step closer to understanding the elite controllers and one step closer to an HIV vaccine.

This is how upscale Europeans dress their dogs, in designer dog clothiers like Trendy4Paws, the dog equivalent of Gucci for Men. These dog clothes speak volumes (old money, lots of it).  And don't even ask how much they cost (more than your own).  But hey, you might as well look at them; I've got hot previews of the stunning new summer collection debuting next week....

Fanimation's Torto "revolution"-izes ceiling fan design with its twisted take on an old concept.

No, Alzheimer's is not contagious - not in the usual way.  But a new study conducted by the department of Family, Consumer and Human Development at Utah State University revealed that spouses of dementia patients are, on average, at six times greater risk for the disease than other persons of the same age, socioeconomic factors, access to medical care, and diet and exercise.

The old fashioned kind of books with the hard backs and the paper pages one turns, generally by hand, are still important to Danish architect David Garcia, at least as subject matter.  In his Archive Series, Garcia gives books new life by placing them in different surroundings - four vastly different Archives that strike us as three-dimensional poems.  Fortunately, we have all the photos, even those representing the mysterious Archive III.

When dogs and cats feel sad or hurt, they may whimper or moan or hide somewhere they won't be bothered; they don't cry. But when they get teary, there is a reason for the tears and the yucky tear-stains under their eyes and around their noses.

Come out from under your rock now; childhood obesity is at epidemic proportions and a major public health concern.  If you were worried about insurance rates before, just stick around until these kids grow up and watch the rise in insurance rates as the result of an epidemic in obesity-related diseases.

Sometimes fashion doesn't need to be a new concept to be a hit. We all know that fashions make a comeback after decades, proving that fashion ideas can be recycled as trends. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple reinvention and a whole new trend is born.

Mobile restaurants of all sorts have been popping up, particularly in New York to offer unique curb side dining options for those who need to grab a quick bite. However, there is one major problem with that type of fast food option, and it's an issue for those who don't just want to grab takeout.

Switzerland slid past the U.S. to first place in the 2009 - 2010 Global Competitiveness Report, a biannual report published by the World Economic Forum.  There are many elements that contribute to a country's competitiveness, but the Forum puts a lot of emphasis, as it should, on innovation capacity.  If innovation capacity were the only factor, the U.S. probably would not make it to the top 20.

Newcomer nPower is interested in making cellphone charging not only portable and easy, but green as well.

Even though the Wii gets people off the couch while playing video games, it still doesn't get them out of the house. For those parents worrying that their teenagers are about to turn into vampires with so little exposure to daylight, there's a fun new clothing item that offers a solution.

We all like to support artists and their craft, whether or not we understand it. But some art goes too far, and with that in mind, should businesses really be facilitating something that thinks outside of the legal box? Well, there's one business that thinks so, and it's a really cool, artistic vending machine.

I'm always looking for interactive pet toys, and the Bergan Turbo Track Cat Toy is definitely one.  This toy reminds me of a child's toy railroad tracks, because you can double it or add separate tracks to it to make 'infinite' fun for your cat.

... A headache means she has brain cancer and a cut on her finger means she's a hemophiliac.  No, not a hemophiliac; a hypochondriac. What's the perfect gift?