Smart Glass
A window of opportunity has arrived for jurisdictions trying to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings. View, a San Francisco startup, developed windows from electrochromatic materialsthat automaticallyadjust to temperature and brightness.The windows are activated by a brick-shaped low-voltagedevice, which connects to Wi-Fi networks, so users can manually control the tinting from a wall switch or a networked device like a smartphone or computer.
Source: Technology Review
20120213122556-1.jpgMeet Donald Sadoway
He’s a materials chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and inventor of a liquid metal battery, a mixture of earth-abundant liquid metals and molten salt that can generate power. The batteries harness and store renewable energy from the sun and wind to produce power and reserve the unused portion, which could be sold to the electric grid. Sadoway was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people of 2012 by Time magazine and a featured speaker at this year’s TED Talks. Source: The Boston ChannelPhoto: Professor Donald Sadoway and graduate student David Bradwell observe one of their small test batteries in the lab. The battery itself is inside the heavily insulated metal cylinder at center, which heats it to 700 degrees Celsius, while the wires at top charge up the battery and measure its performance. Photo by Patrick Gillooly
Gamers Make Better Surgeons?
Video gamers are better virtual surgeons than med students.According to research conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch, high school and college students who spend an average of two and four hours (respectively) per day playing video games did better at performing simulated surgery than physicians in training. During the simulation, students were graded on hand-eye coordination and how well they completed tasks like suturing. However, when the simulation was done without a gaming-type robotic aid to test cognitive traits, medical students outperformed gamers. Source: Popsci
