Inventor Spot

Surface Reactions Impact Many Industries

So far this week, the 2007 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to the "fathers" of certain modern technologies, specifically the recipients of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and the Nobel Prize for Physics. Today's announcement of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Chemistry winner is no exception: Gerhard Ertl, of the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany, is a father of the science of surface chemistry. Let's see what developments his seminal work has led to....

Giant Magnetoresistance

The two winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics -- Albert Fert, of the Université Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, and Peter Grünberg, of the Institute of Solid State Research at the Jülich Research Center in Germany - made their contributions to the computer age as far back as 1988. Now that the smallest commercially available hard drive is an IPod, the inventors that led to its development, and many yet to come, have received the grand prix of awards.

© The Nobel Committee for Physiology Illustration: Annika Röhl

The 2007 Nobel Prize winners in medicine -- Mario R. Capecchi, 70, of the University of Utah; Oliver Smithies, 82, of the University of North Carolina; and Sir Martin J. Evans, 66, of Cardiff University in Wales - worked independently, but their genetics research overlapped greatly. Many other geneticists contributed to the state of the art, but the discoveries of Capecchi, Smithies, and Evans are considered watershed.

In layman's terms, what exactly did these Nobel Prize winners do?

Another great bike has recently made its appearance this year. In Shanghai at the 9th China International Exhibition on Gas Technology, Equipment and Applications the hydrogen prototype bike was introduced.

It's been proven. Schools can be green and fabulous.

A new state-of-the-art school, T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, has won the Green Innovations Award in the Best Institutional Project category at the Virginia Sustainable Building Network's annual meeting.

Earlier this week, on August 23, Sony announced the development of a bio battery prototype that generates electricity from sugar. A bio battery is an electricity generation device that uses energy sources such as carbohydrates (ex: sugar), protein, amino acids and fat by digesting enzymes. The bio battery works by pouring sugar solution into the unit, where enzymes break it down to generate electricity.

Today, there are hundreds of websites for kids. Kids can go online and play games, learn about space, discover how-to crafts, dress up there virtual dolls, learn how to read with their favorite cartoon characters or just chat online with pen pals from all over the world. As many websites as there are for children, there are few environmentally focused websites specially made for kids, that is until The Greens came along.

The Bobcat™ by Total Diva Pets

Several of the poshist "pet lifestylists" were featured in the 2007 Second Annual Pet Fashion Week last week in New York City. Designers of bedding, clothing, carriers, jewelry, hairstyles, and even fragrance for pets were represented, but the only pets on the catwalk were dogs. Reportedly, the dogs wearing wigs by Total Diva Pets (shown above) were the absolute show stoppers!

What do baby boomers have in common with the babe and hunk in these pictures? Not too much; don't get your hopes up.

These bare beauties are going to sell boomers the hearing aids we need, or will need very soon. Wait. Not hearing aids... PCA's - Personal Communication Aids.

The original design. The new design.

Somewhere along the line, the three guys who came up with the "Michael Vick Dog Chew Toy" got busted by copyright law and had to change the design and the name of the toy, because Michael Vick's likeness and name really belongs to the NFL.

Not to worry. The new "Vick's Dog Chew Toy" is on its way. The only thing you'll have to do is decide what price you'll pay for it.

Have you heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? No? Well, if you haven't, it's a trivia game from the 1990's that works like this: a group of players tries to connect any film actor in history to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links as possible. Kevin Bacon was smart enough to take advantage of this game and use it for his career in commercials, TV show appearance, etc. This year Kevin has gone a degree further and is using the six degrees concept for a greater good.

Invented anything “green” lately? Good! How about showing the rest of us what your eco-creation can do on Trippin’ The Green Fantastic. Trippin the Green Fantastic is a new environmental TV series coming to the Science Channel in the late fall. The show is a team effort between the Science Channel and Peace Point Entertainment Group. The goal: to find inventors who have made life a little greener with their eco-inventions.