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The supply of secure, clean, sustainable energy is arguably the most important scientific and technical challenge facing humanity in the 21st century. Rising living standards of a growing world population will cause global energy consumption to double by mid-century and triple by the end of the century. Even in light of unprecedented conservation, the additional energy needed is simply not attainable from long discussed sources these include nuclear, biomass, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric. The global appetite for energy is simply too much. Petroleum-based fuel sources (i.e., coal, oil and gas) could be increased. However, deleterious consequences resulting from external drivers of economy, the environment, and global security dictate that this energy need be met by renewable and sustainable sources. The dramatic increase in global energy need is driven by 3 billion low-energy users in the non-legacy world and by 3 billion people yet to inhabit the planet over the next half century. The capture and storage of solar energy at the individual level personalized solar energy drives inextricably towards the heart of this energy challenge by addressing the triumvirate of secure, carbon neutral and plentiful energy. This talk will place the scale of the global energy issue in perspective and then discuss how personalized energy (especially for the non-legacy world) can provide a path to a solution to the global energy challenge. Daniel G. Nocera is the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Director of the Solar Revolutions Project and Director of the Eni Solar Frontiers Center at MIT. His group pioneered studies of the basic mechanisms of energy conversion in biology and chemistry. He has recently accomplished a solar fuels process that captures many of the elements of photosynthesis outside of the leaf. This discovery sets the stage for a storage mechanism for the large scale, distributed, deployment of solar energy. He has b

Todd McDevitt at the Georgia Institute of Technology and colleagues have found that adding biomaterials such as gelatin into clumps of stem cells (called "embryoid bodies") affected stem-cell differentiation without harming the cells. By incorporating magnetic particles into the biomaterials, they could control the locations of the embryoid bodies and how they assemble with one another. Compared to typical delivery methods, providing differentiation factors - retinoic acid, bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) - via microparticles induced changes in the gene and protein expression patterns of the aggregates. In the future, these new methods could be used to develop manufacturing procedures for producing large quantities of stem cells for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The findings were presented on June 16 at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. [full text]

It's a sports car few people will be able to get their hands on. In production since last December, only 500 Lexus LFAs will be produced and they were already sold out in early June 2010 (see photo below). But it's not just its top speed of 325 kilometres per hour that's attracting buyers. The car is being used as a test bed for newly-designed parts made from carbon fibre and plastic. Compared to steel or aluminium, it makes the car stronger and lighter but producing these components is much more time-consuming: only one car is currently being assembled per day. One of the key technologies being used is a high-tech circular loom, guided by lasers, that can weave 3D objects (see video above). The machine's futuristic design attracted lots of media attention two years ago, but the video was pulled for fear it would expose company secrets. Now Lexus is revealing how the loom is being used to create complex 3D parts with varying thicknesses and curved shapes. For example, it can create roof rails by weaving fibres around a core, two layers at time, until twelve layers later a hollow roof rail is produced. The piece can then be moulded and injected with resin to create the finished part. The machine was also used to create the car's chassis and front pillars as well as the steering wheel.

"For the first time, researchers power an implantable electronic device using an electrical potential - a natural battery - deep in the inner ear."

"All of D-Lab's classes assess the needs of people in less-privileged communities around the world, examining innovations in technology, education or communications that might address those needs. The classes then seek ways to spread word of these solutions - and in some cases, to spur the creation of organizations to help disseminate them. Specific projects have focused on improved wheelchairs and prosthetics; water and sanitation systems; and recycling waste to produce useful products, including charcoal fuel made from agricultural waste."

Cisco predicts more than 15 billion network-connected devices by 2015, reaching 966 exabytes (10^18 bytes) per year - close to 1 zettabyte (10^21 bytes). Average global IP traffic in 2015 will reach 245 terabytes per second, equivalent to 200 million people streaming an HD movie (1.2 Mbps) simultaneously. This growth will primarily be driven by the global online video community, which will increase by approximately 500 million users by 2015, up from more than 1 billion Internet video users in 2010, Cisco says. Global IP traffic growth is driven by four primary factors, according to Cisco: An increasing number of devices: The proliferation of tablets, mobile phones, connected appliances and other smart machines is driving up the demand for connectivity.  By 2015, there will be nearly 15 billion network connections via devices - including machine-to-machine - and more than two connections for each person on earth. More Internet users: By 2015, there will be nearly 3 billion Internet users - more than 40 percent of the world's projected population. Faster broadband speed: The average fixed broadband speed is expected to increase four-fold, from 7 megabits per second in 2010 to 28 Mbps in 2015. The average broadband speed has already doubled within the past year from 3.5 Mbps to 7 Mbps. More video: By 2015, 1 million video minutes -+ the equivalent of 674 days - will traverse the Internet every second. By 2015, the Asia Pacific region will generate the most IP traffic (24.1 exabytes per month), surpassing last year's leader, North America (22.3 exabytes per month), for the top spot. The fastest-growing IP-traffic regions for the forecast period (2010-2015) are the Middle East and Africa, surpassing last year's leader, Latin America.

As the 2012 hurricane season reaches full tilt, researchers at NOAA are hard at work hacking two different maritime robots that the agency hopes will become critical storm forecasting tools of the future. The first, Liquid Robotics' Wave Glider, is envisioned as a persistent surveillance platform, an army of mobile monitoring stations that will remain at sea for the duration of a hurricane season, waiting to swarm into the path of a developing storm. The second--Hydronalix's Emergency Integrated Life Saving Lanyard, or EMILY (a 2010 PopSci Best of What's New award winner)--will be capable of tracking the storm itself for days at a time, streaming continuous data directly from the center of the storm to researchers ashore.

MIT researchers have developed a new application of carbon nanotubes that shows promise as an innovative approach to storing solar energy for use whenever it's needed. Storing the sun's heat in chemical form - rather than first converting it to electricity or storing the heat itself in a heavily insulated container - has significant advantages: in principle, the chemical material can be stored for long periods of time without losing any of its stored energy. The researchers created carbon nanotubes in combination with a compound called azobenzene. The resulting molecules, produced using nanoscale templates to shape and constrain their physical structure, and the concept that can be applied to many new materials. This material is vastly more efficient at storing energy in a given amount of space - about 10,000 times higher in volumetric energy density, making its energy density comparable to lithium-ion batteries, the researchers said. Ref.: Alexie M. Kolpak, Jeffrey C. Grossman, Azobenzene-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes As High-Energy Density Solar Thermal Fuels, Nano Letters, 2011; 110705085331088 [DOI: 10.1021/nl201357n]

Scalefusion has recently launched the Mobility Management Solution for macOS. Learn more about its features and how Scalefusion is simplifying macOS management for Enterprises.

A study appearing Feb. 10 in Science Express calculates the world's total technological capacity to store, communicate and compute information, part of a Special Online Collection: Dealing with Data. The study by the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism estimates that in 2007, humankind was able to store 2.9 × 1020 optimally compressed bytes, communicate almost 2 × 1021 bytes, and carry out 6.4 × 1018 instructions per second on general-purpose computers. General-purpose computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58%. The world's capacity for bidirectional telecommunication grew at 28% per year, closely followed by the increase in globally stored information (23%). Humankind's capacity for unidirectional information diffusion through broadcasting channels has experienced comparatively modest annual growth (6%). Telecommunication has been dominated by digital technologies since 1990 (99.9% in digital format in 2007), and the majority of our technological memory has been in digital format since the early 2000s (94% digital in 2007).

Meet, share, collaborate and more with PGi iMeet. It is cloud-based system gives the user the ability to access live audio and video conferencing using desktop and mobile application. The standard iMeet live video meeting allows for up to 15 HD video feeds to run simultaneously, whereas an enterprise XL version will allow for up to 65 users at a time. Organizations can also customize the virtual conference room for branding. Can your online meeting solution offers all this? Try it out now.

A complete overview of Android Enterprise Recommended for Devices. Know key elements of AER, its advantages for companies and how devices can make it to the AER list?

Choosing the right Enterprise Mobile Device Management (MDM) Solution is an essential driving factor for business growth and productivity. Know how to ensure and choose the right MDM for your business.

Scalefusion MDM for Android devices is not only innovative but is also a very useful app that is reinforcing and driving mobility for Enterprises. Know its vital features and how it benefits businesses.

A must read! Learn how Mobile Device Management for Android like Scalefusion helps businesses to easily track, locate and manage company-owned Android devices deployed for work as part of an Enterprise Mobility program.

Android 10 is here! Know what Android 10 has in store for corporate IT Admins and Android device users.

Know how to lock down iPads as kiosks for business use with the help of an iPad Kiosk Software.

How to start with an iOS MDM implementation for company-owned iOS devices?

Empowering educational institutions, Tabnova's Mobile Device Management (MDM) software facilitates seamless administration and enhanced security for Android, iOS, and Windows devices within the classroom environment. | mdm for schools

An amateur gunsmith, operating under the handle of "HaveBlue" (incidentally, "Have Blue" is the codename that was used for the prototype stealth fighter that became the Lockheed F-117), announced recently in online forums that he had successfully printed a serviceable .22 caliber pistol. Despite predictions of disaster, the pistol worked. It successfully fired 200 rounds in testing.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) - Scientists have recently succeeded in rejuvenating cells from elderly donors (aged over 100). These old cells were reprogrammed in vitro to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and to rejuvenated and human embryonic stem cells (hESC): cells of all types can again be differentiated after this genuine "rejuvenation" therapy. The results represent significant progress for research into iPSC cells and a further step forwards for regenerative medicine.