InventorSpot

Nick Lewis says that his new Adjustable Eco Hanger will save 6.5 million tons of carbon each year, the equivalent of removing 1.5 million cars from the road.  He figures this based on the 40 billion hangers a year that are used globally, many of which are discarded, especially by retailers.

You thought a 1.6 gallon tank was saving you water... although it's kind of weak with a flush. But the folks at Niagara Conservation Company have invented a new toilet flushing system that only uses .8 gallons of water on each flush, saving the average family about 20,000 gallons of water a year.  Meet the Stealth.

An internationally known chemical biologist, Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi, researcher, entrepreneur, teacher, and mentor, from the University of California at Berkeley, has won the most prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize for $500,000, dubbed the 'Oscar for Inventors.'  This award recognizes individuals who translate their inventions and innovations into technologies that improve our world.

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!

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.

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...

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!

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.

The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation today launched a collaborative design project with The Tech Virtual at the The Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif. With a series of design challenges hosted by The Tech Virtual, the Lemelson Center invites the public to develop and prototype design concepts for the center’s next exhibition, tentatively titled "Places of Invention."

There were more gold, silver, and bronze honors awarded at the Edison Best New Product Awards than ever before.  It must have been tough for the judges, who included Thomas A's own grand niece, Sarah Miller Caldicot, to decide on which new products would receive the Gold Awards, but they did - in 15 product categories. In addition, the committee awarded two Golds in a 16th category: The Green Awards. 

Just yesterday Ben Millett and Alan Harrison, inventors of the Kug, were recipients of the Arthritis Ireland Easy To Use Design Contest for their invention.  As it happens, the pair did design the Kug for persons with arthritis, but in fact, the Kug has a much wider audience.

This past weekend at the new Newseum in Washington, DC, Microsoft sponsored the finals of its eighth U.S. Imagine Cup, one of the nation's toughest student software competitions.  After three days of demonstrating their new technologies, a few dozen team finalists were pared down to one grand prize winner....

Inventors Digest has partnered with the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) to host the the 2010 Collegiate Alt-Energy Challenge: Help Save The World One Kilowatt at a Time.  The challenge is seeking ideas for innovative low-cost, alternative energy technologies, products, solutions, and services that will help assuage the cycle of poverty, malnutrition, disease and death among peoples of the world that live without electricity.

What's the main royal pain in your morning and evening bathroom regimens?  Never mind, I'll answer that for you.  It's the gunking up of toothpaste on top of the toothpaste tube so you can't squeeze any more of the stuff out until you cut off the top of the tube!   Here we are in the 21st century performing all kinds of technical wizardry and we still can't get the darn toothpaste out of the tube!

Really.  This contest is literally for garage inventors. This August, Whiting, Indiana will host the first annual alternative-powered five-mile car race through the town.  The contest is called the Alternate Power Initiative, and its sponsors, the city of Whiting and British Petroleum (BP) Whiting Business Unit want independent American inventors to design the vehicles.

Sonnet Ehlers remembers the eyes of a 20 year old rape victim she met at a hospital in the Northern Cape of South Africa.  Her eyes were "totally dead," she said. But what Ehlers remembers most are the victim's words: "If I only had teeth down there."