- What Makes Citizen Scientists Tick?
A new survey reveals why citizen scientists take part in crowdsourced science projects
- Software Makes Multiple Screens Less Distracting
Diff Displays reduces distraction by visually highlighting what’s changed on your screen since you last looked.
Most computer interfaces are designed to capture your attention—whether you like it or not. A new system for computers with multiple screens, called Diff Displays, responds to inattention by making the information on the screen a user isn’t focused on less distracting.
- Designer Carbon Provides Longer Battery Life
Energ2’s nanostructured carbon anodes can boost lithium-ion battery capacity by 30 percent.
A Seattle-based startup, EnerG2, has developed a carbon anode that significantly improves the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries without requiring a new battery design or a different manufacturing process.
- Messenger RNAs Could Create a New Class of Drugs
New partnerships could help bring a novel class of biopharmaceutical to patients.
Messenger RNAs—molecules that carry information between the genome and the protein-building machinery of cells—could become the next big class of biopharmaceutical drug.
- Solar Downturn Casts a Shadow Over Innovation
With no one buying new equipment, solar companies are looking to make the best of existing technology.
Suntech Power, the large Chinese solar panel maker that filed for bankruptcy last month, isn’t the only solar company teetering on the edge. Almost all of the world’s largest solar panel makers are in danger of going bankrupt within a year, and the downturn is having an impact on innovation.
- A Roller Coaster Day for Copyright Law
A federal appeals court rules for Aereo, the service that could encourage more people to cut the cord on their TV packages.
Two controversial startups I’ve covered, Aereo and ReDigi, had cleverly designed their technology to challenge digital copyright laws. Promptly sued by TV networks and the record industry respectively, both had a day in court this week. One has survived to fight another day. The other may not.
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