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.

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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.

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Business, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Startup scene is thriving in Omaha, Nebraska

omaha

Omaha, Nebraska

Bob Grinnell, the owner of the building where a former furniture factory once occupied in North Downtown Omaha, Nebraska explains to Eric Markowitz of Inc.com,  how this factory, The Mastercraft, takes its name from the furniture brand that had originally inhabited the space.  The furniture company opened in 1941 and manufactured furniture for the better part of the 20th century.  But 10 years ago, the furniture business failed and investors in Iowa bought the company.  The building was abandoned.

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Analysis, Education, Internet, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Biggest challenge for colleges isn’t price, it’s students’ attention

college classroom

As colleges try to deliver more education at the same price, schools will move into the crowded and distractable world of the Web.

Last year, the University of Phoenix enlisted renowned Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen to record a lecture. The university reserved a harbor-view room for Christensen and populated it with young people, so that the camera operators could record their reactions.

Before he began to speak, Christensen noticed that the audience appeared unusually engaged and attractive.

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Business, Internet, Science & Technology News

ICANN reveals new top-level domain name applications

dot-company

The list includes: .tattoo, .ketchup, and .mormon.

The list of new generic top-level domain names that have been applied for and can then be owned has been revealed by ICANN.  There are 1,930 new domain names –with tech titans like Amazon, Apple, and Google in the mix–and they’re going to change how the Internet works.

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Analysis, Business, Great Videos, Science & Technology News

The future of digital display

Tensator

Tensator Virtual Assistant at Dulles Airport

What comes to mind when you thing of the “display of the future”?  Is it the hyper-neon displays of Blade Runner or the holograms from Star Wars? The world of digital display always seems to wiggle its way into the bleeding-edge technology of science fiction, but it’s not unwarranted.(Videos)

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