Nature

Auqaglide Revolution Brings Playground Fun To The Water

by Kim Patterson

The teeter totter was always my favorite piece of playground equipment. If you share this love of teeter totters and enjoy water sports then you will probably be impressed by the Auqaglide Revolution. This 10 person water teeter totter provides outdoor excitement for adults and kids alike.

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World's First 'Practical' Artificial Leaf Can Cheaply Turn Water Into Energy

by T Goodman

A team of chemistry and engineering scientists from MIT today announced the completion of their quest to create an artificial leaf that creates electricity from water like a leaf produces oxygen and food from carbon dioxide.

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Nissan, Toyota Restarting Limited Production On Hybrids And Electrics

by RagingBull

Indicating a possible turn-around for the Japanese auto industry and global auto market, Nissan and Toyota have announced plans for restarting production of certain models.

Relief Yourself - A One-Stop Disaster Relief Center

by Jamie Reygle

A new application has been designed to provide as much disaster relief as possible in one place.

Get Some Nerve - Providing Paths For Neurons

by Jamie Reygle

Researchers have found a way to direct the growth of neurons.

Unclear On Nuclear? Try Thorium - Nuclear Energy Without The Side Effects

by Jamie Reygle

Thorium is a safer and more abundant nuclear energy source than uranium. So where are the reactors?

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Radiation Exposure Readiness: Part 3, Preparing For The Worst

by T Goodman

Somewhere in the millions of InventorSpot pages is a blog about a luxury underground survival community being built in California for the kind of disaster that millions in Japan are facing now. I hope that project is ready for the special 200 families who can afford to pay for accommodations there. For the rest of us, we'll just have to get prepared step by step.

Radiation Exposure Readiness: Part 2, When Your Health Is At Risk

by T Goodman

How do scientists determine when your health is at risk due to the amount of radiation in the air? First they measure the amounts and translate those measurements into levels that they know have caused biological harm in the past. They have learned from longitudinal studies of people in the paths of Hiroshima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and many smaller-scale, but serious, incidents of radiation exposure. Here is a look at the basic radiation measuring scheme and how other variables can affect biological dangers from radiation.

Radiation Exposure Readiness: Part 1, News & Information

by T Goodman

The events in Japan and the weather patterns in the Pacific can change from one minute to the next, and that is how our information sources are dealing with nuclear fallout news. Sitting here in Southern California, I can tell you that it's no comfort being advised all day that California is safe from nuclear fallout and suddenly, in late afternoon, reading that "Nuclear fallout has arrived in California," as one Google News headline read on March 18.

For He's A Jolly Google Fellow - Google Takes A Stance On Climate Change

The impact of a global temperature rise of 7°F

by Jamie Reygle

Google announces 21 Google Science Communication Fellows, who have been charged to spread the word about climate change.

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Japan Auto Industry Hit Hard By Quake

by RagingBull

The effect of the massive earthquake that rattled Japan is a story that's going to play out for months to come. As you might expect, the quake has wreaked havoc on Japan's automotive industry.

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Good Hydro - Getting Power From Waterways

by Jamie Reygle

An efficient, easy-to-install hydro turbine is more effective than wind or solar power in the right places.

Prepare for An Earthquake or Tsunami in the Stop Disasters! Game

by GameGuru

The number one course of action that everyone should take when it comes to disaster management is to educate themselves accordingly and know as much as possible about what to do before and when these disasters strike. A good way to do this is through the Stop Disasters! game developed jointly by the United Nations (UN) and by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

Snowshoes Without The Bindings: Easton V60 Racing

by Chris Weiss

A new bindingless snowshoe from Easton delivers a lighter, more ergonomic fit.

Powder Vibration Chamber Used In Materials Analysis Wins NASA's Invention Of The Year

by Myra Per-Lee

NASA has recognized inXitu, Inc. with its 2010 Invention of the Year Award for inXitu's invention of the powder vibration chamber The chamber is used in inXitu's portable X-ray scattering device (XRD) and represents such a 'leap forward' in materials analysis technology that it has been chosen to launch on the Mars Science Laboratory later this year.

RatCAP Technology Allows Simultaneous Study Of The Brain And Behavior

by T Goodman

In an important technology breakthrough, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University and their colleagues have created a portable PET scanner for rats, which does not require anesthetic, and which can be worn by the rat during activity to show the relationship between activity and what's happening in the brain.

That Blasted Roof! - Capturing Wind Energy On Your Roof

by Jamie Reygle

A cheap, unimposing wind turbine that attaches to the roof of your house could be on many horizons in the not-too-distant future.

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Carbon Dioxide Eating TREEPOD Gives Shade In Light & Light At Night

by T Goodman

Inspiration comes from all corners for the de-carbonizing artificial tree dubbed the TREEPOD. The idea began with Dr. Klaus Lackner, whose team at Columbia University developed humidity swing technology, a system of using evaporating humidity in the air to remove carbon dioxide. That invention inspired the city of Boston...

Earthquake Damaged Japanese Nuclear Plant has a Shaky History

by Steve Levenstein

The devastating 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northern Japan on March 10 of 2011 affected many nuclear power plants in the region. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is of special concern, not only due to damage to its cooling system but because of the plant's somewhat dubious safety record.

Green Plastic Althernatives: Self-Healing Plastics and Renewable Polymers

by Amanda Hinski

Bioplastics have been a hopeful alternative to petroleum-based plastics for some time now, but this new advancement, self-healing plastics, will outdo the competition. Researchers at Iowa State University are developing multifunctional renewable polymers, and they are not alone in the pursuit. Scientists at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute are developing self-healing plastic inspired by the rubber tree.

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