Fungus: How we're going to save the world

I've said this before mycelium is a great thing. Here is a video showing many applications of fungus in order to tackle the world's problems and doing so in a sustainable fashion. Very exciting.

Hybrid air vehicle

Creds to England for inventing this and creds to Nick for finding out about this.
A vehicle that can move in the sky for ~3 weeks uninterrupted, doesn't need an airstrip to land, and has numerous other advantages.
It looks a bit like a zeppelin, which just makes it fifty times cooler.
I am anxious to know when these would hit the market.

Some frightening stuff that we need to pursue

Finally, some real shit. These guys have managed to make an on/off memory expansion for rats' brains. Put the switch on, they remember. put it off, they forget.

The article says it all, I'm gonna go read the actual publication now, which is here.

google it and you shall find how much people's nuts are being driven with this. I haven't felt this excited since I heard what Craig Venter's lab had done.

Of course, one should keep in mind that these guys are trying to treat dementia, but I am interested in the memory-expansion applications, where one could upload memory into someone's brain. Perhaps even store it chemically, electronically. I think I need to get a few more degrees.

Future of Medicine: Leveraging Cross-Disciplinary Technologies

Here is an excellent and inspiring video for us to look forward to the future of medicine. This video explores current advancements and ideas for mixing disciplines such as nanotech, robotics, electronics future into the field of medicine. No matter what the medical problem is there will probably be an app for it.

Thermoelectric effect based energy generation

Today morning I was investigating the Seeback effect, as a means to convert heat differentials into electricity (sound familiar? The stirling engine! except, no moving parts, no expensive bits and pieces, and no large heavy engine)

Well, after a bit of snooping around, this man has already tried this. But there's no mention of the efficiency etc. Of course, since he thought of it first, he's already give it his name.

Of course, it's a little more complicated than just applying a heat difference between two pieces of metal. And it's actually very interesting, with theoretical efficiencies being as high as 60%. It's still going on, hope we can get more updates soon.

Some interesting physics

Luminiscent solar collectors should bring back some enthusiasm in concentrated solar power generators that I must admit I lost after the previous gloomy portentous article.

These fluorescent films use total internal reflection of fluorescent light within these films to concentrate it, which can be fed to solar cells.

The coolest part is that even diffuse light (cloudy days) can be concentrated using these. That's the part that really got me really get aroused.

Is Concentrated solar power doomed?

This page is subject to debate. Is concentrated solar power doomed? Will thermal power plants based on solar energy soon be a bad investment?