This Development Could Revolutionize Renewable Energy

One of the major problems with green energy is the inability to control when that energy is generated. Conventional fossil fuels like oil and natural gas can be burned in variable amounts based on the demand for electrical power. Green energy sources like solar and wind are limited to generating energy when specific conditions are met.

This has been one of the biggest problems with green energy and a major problem with the argument for environmental benefits from electric vehicles. Energy that is generated from solar power during the day has to either be used as it is generated or stored until it is needed. That’s been a big problem since most methods of energy storage are severely flawed. But Europe appears to be poised to offer an alternative solution that could pave the way for greater use of green energy in the future.

Why Buy the Hardware When China Is Getting the IP for Free?

 In Beijing in late March, IBM CEO Virginia Rometty announced that the company’s new strategy in China will be to share its technology to help build the country’s IT industry.

“If you’re a country, as China is, of 1.3 billion people, you would want an IT industry as well,” she told the crowd at the China Development Forum, a government-sponsored event. “I think some firms find that perhaps frightening. We, though, at IBM … find that to be a great opportunity.”

Top 4 Energy Innovations On The Horizon

Innovation is anything but business as usual. From driving an ordinary fuel guzzling car to a fuel efficient hybrid sedan, we have come a long way in our quest to achieve something better. In this never ending search for perfection, how can the oil and gas industry remain far behind? In the last few years, there have been some remarkable technological innovations that have the capability of changing the global oil and gas scenario. Some of these innovations, if implemented successfully, even have the capability of altering the current global geopolitical landscape.

The Mismeasure of Technology

Ricardo Hausmann

CAMBRIDGE – There is nothing better than fuzzy language to wreak havoc – or facilitate consensus. Ludwig Wittgenstein argued that philosophical puzzles are really just a consequence of the misuse of language. By contrast, the art of diplomacy is to find language that can hide disagreement.

Copy-me: A Webseries About Copying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62-UT84-fXM#t=119

A Chinese Company 3-D Printed 10 Houses In A Day

There's a lot you can do with a 3-D printer. Now add "building a house in a day" to the list.
Make that 10 houses.

The WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co. (link in Chinese) has printed 10 homes in 24 hours out of recycled materials.

3ders

This isn't the first attempt at 3-D printing large structures in a short amount of time. Researchers in California are making a printer that can build a house in 24 hours.

Tiny Robots Mimic Termites' Ability to Build without a Leader

The small, autonomous robots developed by the researchers.
Credit: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard SEAS

Termites can create mounds that are hundreds of times their own size, working independently without communication or a leader. Inspired by the creatures, scientists have created robots that use just a few simple rules and environmental cues to build castle-like structures and pyramids.

In China, the Coolpad Is Hotter Than Apple's iPhone

Lorraine Luk and

Juro Osawa

HONG KONG— Apple Inc. AAPL +0.05% and Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE -0.23% are the dominant smartphone brands in the U.S. and in many other parts of the world. But in China, the world's biggest smartphone market, there isn't a clear winner yet. 

South Korea Is Building A $1.5 Billion 5G Service That Can Download Movies In A Second

South Korea, already one of the most wired countries on earth, Wednesday announced a 1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion) plan to roll out a next-generation 5G wireless service quick enough to download full-length films in a second.

How to make sex 'more awesome' using Google Glass

Sex with Glass Photograph: Sex with Glass

Would you wear a pair of Google glasses while having sex? Would being able to see what your partner is seeing make you more or less likely to? Sex with Glass, a new app in development for Google Glass, hopes the answer is yes.

Here's What The $3.2 Billion Nest Thermostat Actually Does

Business Insider

Google just paid $3.2 billion for Nest, a company that makes an Internet connected thermostat and smoke/carbon monoxide detector.

  Nest was founded by Tony Fadell, the man who led Apple's iPod division for years. 

Hacking of MIT website marks first anniversary of Aaron Swartz's death

Aaron Swartz, who killed himself shortly before his trial for downloading academic journals was due to begin. Photograph: Chris Stewart/San Francisco Chronicle/Corbis

Saturday marked one year since the death of the internet activist Aaron Swartz. The 26-year-old, who was one of the builders of Reddit, killed himself in New York City on Friday 11 January 2013. 

This Insane Chinese Concept Train Doesn't Need To Stop At Stations To Pick Up Passengers

A train in motion is a train carrying out its purpose. So why bother stopping at stations?!

How Supercomputers Will Yield a Golden Age of Materials Science

The Materials Genome

The modern world is built on the success of materials science. The advent of transparent, conductive glass led to the touch screens on our smartphones. The reason those phones can beam information around the world at the speed of light is that materials scientists found a way to make glass free of impurity ions, enabling fiber-optic communications. And the reason those phones last a full day on a charge is because in the 1970s and 1980s, materials scientists developed novel lithium-storing oxide materials—the basis for the lithium-ion battery.

Can wearable technology boost productivity?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Human Cloud research projectexplores socio-economic impact of wearable tech
• A recent study shows devices can boost productivity and happiness
• Analysts predict this market will grow from $1.4bn in annual sales this year to $50bn by 2018
• Wearable technologies are in the midst of this blending into everyday lives

Editor's note: Dr Chris Brauer is a senior lecturer in the Institute of Management Studies and Founder of the Centre for Creative & Social Technologies(CAST) at Goldsmiths, University of London.Follow him on Twitter. "Thinking Business" focuses on the psychology of getting ahead in the workplace by exploring techniques to boost employee performance, increase creativity and productivity.

 -- With great power comes great responsibility. There is some confusion over whether this quote should be attributed to Voltaire or Spiderman.

Europe Must 'Wake Up' to Tech Shortcomings

REUTERS

While once a leader in telecommunications, much of Europe now lacks the latest infrastructure for high-speed Internet connection.

As European lawmakers vote on a landmark data protection law, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes tells SPIEGEL that both governments and private companies are disregarding the Continent's out-of-date business models and infrastructure.

The European Parliament on Monday is set to hold its first vote on a sweeping package of data protection laws, strengthened in the wake of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks on spying by American and British authorities.

The wastefulness of automation

By Frances Coppola

Chris Dillow observes that ”one function of the welfare state is to ensure that capital gets a big supply of labour, by making eligibity for unemployment benefit conditional upon seeking work.” And despite noting that when jobs are scarce, paying some to “lie fallow” so others can work might be a good thing, he concludes that “this is certainly not in the interests of capitalists, who want a large labour supply - a desire which is buttressed by the morality of reciprocal altruism and the work ethic.” (emphasis mine). Basic Income, therefore, is not going to happen because capitalist interests, claiming the moral high ground, will ensure that it never gains political traction.

site-based social networks are “doomed to failure.”

Social network consultant Valdis Krebs predicts that site-based social networks are “doomed to failure.” Having to go to a universal website and log in if we want to interact with our friends is all too much work, he says.

It is like the early days of telephone, when the caller had to ring up an operator to request a connection. Eventually, the caller could dial the other person directly. And then there were phones everywhere—at work, in the car, and now in our pockets. We can talk anywhere—all we need is a time and number to connect on.

Never Mind Inequality: Silicon Valley Enriches All of Our Lives

Silicon Valley (Bob Sacha/Corbis)

In the near future, most Americans will have their own private robotic chauffeur. Self-driving cars will save roughly 32,000 lives lost every year to auto fatalities, reduce dependence on foreign oil, and free up valuable leisure time otherwise spent cursing in stalled traffic. Like steamboat captains and horse-drawn carriage drivers, innovation will wipe out cabbies, and concentrate income in a smaller workforce of higher-skilled workers.

ICTP scientists publish free book: Low-Cost 3D Printing

For preparing for the First International Workshop on "Low-cost 3D Printing for Science, Education & Sustainable Development" held in Trieste, Italy in 2013, the ICTP Science Dissemination Unit (SDU) has released a free, downloadable e-book which collects all the contributions of the scientists and 3D printing ethusiasts that will take part in the workshop.

The book, titled "Low-cost 3D Printing for Science, Education and Sustainable Development", offers a practical guide to this rapidly evolving 3D printing technology, giving an overview of current research on the topic and its uses in science education.