- Cellulosic Ethanol Inches Forward
The technology for making fuel from wood chips and grass is late, but still on the way.
A few years ago, large scale, billion-gallon-a-year cellulosic ethanol production seemed around the corner. Instead we’ve seen companies fail, or scale back and delay their plans, as they find it hard to secure financing or bring down costs. The technology seems to have dropped off the radar, except for the occasional news of opposition to a mandate requiring the use of cellulosic ethanol.
- First Graphene Audio Speaker Easily Outperforms Traditional Designs
The world’s first electrostatically-driven graphene speaker matches or outperforms commercially available earphones, say physicists
- Can We Really Run the World on 100% Renewables?
Some studies suggest we can easily drop nuclear and fossil fuels, but they raise serious questions.
Every once in a while someone will publish a roadmap for running the world (or a state) on 100% renewable energy by some date, say 2030 or 2050. The latest considers what it would take to run New York State with sources such as wind and solar. The resulting headlines look great, and a lot of people walk away with the general impression that, if we wanted to, we could easily drop fossil fuels and nuclear power.
- A Tale of Two Newspaper Interfaces
The New York Times “prototypes” a new site design for readability, while The Daily Mail mints money by actively thwarting it.
The New York Times revealed a “prototype” of a new online “article experience” yesterday. Was it a bold technical experiment, a new multimedia whatzit, a paradigm-busting business model? No. It was just an article, laid out… readably. That is, in such a way to encourage reading. Ian Adelman, director of digital design at the Times, told me in an email that this “prototype” is intended to “create an appealing and engaging environment for our readers/viewers, as well as for advertisers.” You’d think that the essential, obvious point of a newspaper website interface is to do exactly that, and that the essential, obvious way to accomplish it is to set said interface up in a way that encourages reading, which is the essential, obvious thing that someone comes to a newspaper website to do. This, apparently, is innovative and risky enough to require prototyping?
- Developing Nations Put Nuclear on Fast-Forward
Fast reactors can shrink nuclear-waste stockpiles, but can designers tame the inherent hazards?
Fast reactors, whose high-speed neutrons can break down nuclear waste, are on the road to commercialization. That message has been advanced forcefully by Russia, China, and India.
- Viral Phone Game Helps Illiterate Pakistanis Find Job Listings
A viral phone game in Pakistan trains people to use their keypad—and gives them the skills they need to hunt for a job.
The global spread of mobile phones has brought new opportunities to many poor people around the world, but an estimated 800 million have trouble with text entry or automated voice systems because they are illiterate or only partly literate. And training programs are difficult to get going at sufficient scale.
- Raging on the Web May Not Really Make Us Feel Better
Two studies suggest venting on so-called rant sites isn’t great for you. Grr.
Fans of venting–online and off–may find this interesting: According to recently published results of two studies, people who regularly post on websites specifically geared toward ranting (such as www.justrage.com) tend to feel calmer right after they post, but are also angrier than others generally and engage in unhealthy ways of expressing their anger. Writing, and reading, these posts can also lead to negative feelings like sadness.
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