Year: 2012

Impact Lab > 2012
Analysis, Science & Technology News

Crowded coffee shops can fire up your creativity: Study

coffee shop

New research shows that the moderate noise level in busy cafés also perks up your creative cognition.

How quiet or noisy should your workplace be in order to optimize creativity?

Five experiments were conducted by researchers led by Ravi Mehta to help understand how ambient sounds affect creative cognition.  In one key trial, they tested people’s creativity at different levels of background noise by asking participants to brainstorm ideas for a new type of mattress or enumerate uncommon uses for a common object.

Continue reading… “Crowded coffee shops can fire up your creativity: Study”

Brain, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

Intel’s neuromorphic chip design that works more like the human brain

Neuromorphic Intel

Intel’s goal is to build chips that work more like the human brain.

The most extraordinary computing machine is the human brain.  It carries out tasks as a matter of routine that would fry the circuits of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet: walking, talking, recognizing, analyzing and so on.

Continue reading… “Intel’s neuromorphic chip design that works more like the human brain”

Analysis, Photo Perspectives, Science & Technology News, sports

SportVU: Missile tracking technology that will remake the NBA

kevin-durant-closely-guarded-attempts 1

Kevin Durant’s closely guarded attempts happen all over the court.

SportVU technology was originally developed to track missiles. Now, the systems hang from the catwalks of 10 NBA arenas, tiny webcams that silently track each player as they shoot, pass, and run across the court, recording each and every move 25 times a second. SportVU can tell you not just Kevin Durant’s shooting average, but his shooting average after dribbling one vs. two times, or his shooting average with a defender three feet away vs. five feet away. SportVU can actually consider both factors at once, plus take into account who passed him the ball, how many minutes he’d been on the court, and how many miles he’d run that game already.

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Analysis, Business, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Legal medical marijuana shops do not boost drug use in teens: Colorado study

legal marijuana

There is no correlation between an uptick in recent teen drug use and the increased availability of pot.

Teen pot use has not been boosted by the surge in outlets for legal medical marijuana, according to a new study by economists at University of Colorado Denver and other colleges.

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Analysis, Business, Internet, Science & Technology News

The Slow Web Movement

slow web

Jack Cheng: One of the better spots to enjoy a bowl of ramen noodles here in New York is Minca, in the East Village. Minca is the kind of place just out of the way enough that as you’re about to get there, you start wondering if you’ve already passed it. A bowl of noodles at Minca isn’t quite as neatly put together as those of other ramen establishments in the city, but it is without a doubt among the tastiest. There’s a home-cooked quality to a bowl of noodles at Minca. And there’s a homey vibe to the restaurant. Minca is a good place to meet a friend and sit and talk and eat and drink, and eat and talk and sit and drink some more.

Continue reading… “The Slow Web Movement”

Architecture, Business, Great Videos

Chinese construction company to build world’s tallest building in 90 days

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwvmru5JmXk&hd=1[/youtube]

Broad Sustainable Building, a construction company in China, has announced plans to build the world’s tallest building…in just 90 days. When finished, it will be 220 stories high, 10 meters taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

Continue reading… “Chinese construction company to build world’s tallest building in 90 days”

Analysis, New Discoveries, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

New silicon battery technology could store 9x as much energy as lithium ion batteries

Grant Norton

Washington State University Professor Grant Norton

Most batteries today are lithium ion batteries, and employ carbon as the anode. Other materials perform much better than carbon, and could substantially increase battery capacity. Tin anodes could potentially triple energy density, and silicon anodes might be able to hold 9 times as much charge as carbon. Such advances could lead to tablet computers and laptops that run for days before battery depletion, and to miniature, battery powered UAVs able to remain aloft for up to an hour.

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Analysis, Brain, Food, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Your brain on diet soda: How artificial sweeteners trick your brain

diet soda

Sugar substitutes used in diet beverages actually change how our brains’ reward areas work.

There are some major loopholes in the New York soda ban measure that critics have pointed out. For example, convenience stores would still be free to sell large, sugary drinks. Also exempt from the bill are sweetened alcoholic beverages. Researchers that Mayor Bloomberg cited think the whole thing might backfire. But the biggest omission in the New York soda ban has to do with an entirely other class of fizzy, sweetened drink: diet sodas.

Continue reading… “Your brain on diet soda: How artificial sweeteners trick your brain”

Analysis, Business, facebook, Human Behavior, Internet, Science & Technology News

What Facebook knows about us and what will it do with all that data?

facebook

Facebook’s insights on human behavior can give them new ways to cash in on our data—and remake our view of society.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has said in public that if Facebook were a country its 900 million members would make it the third largest country in the world.

Continue reading… “What Facebook knows about us and what will it do with all that data?”

Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.