Through use of the new system being devised, the safety and reliability of essential transportation networks should be secured, making it better for those who make use of it. This is an answer to incidences of train wrecks caused by natural disasters such as the case during the tsunami of 2004 in Southeast Asia, when a Sri Lankan train was derailed. 1700 lives might have been saved.

The team, which includes Prof. Lev V. Eppelbaum of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, hopes to develop a platform using a connection of emerging technologies. This platform is aimed to be able to fit on any railway, passenger or freight carrier. While mainly created for predicting natural disasters, the platform could also be used against possible terrorist attacks.

Among some of the challenges the team faces in creating this platform is the change of climate, soil type and physical geography along the rail route. But the team continues to work towards the development of this platform. Ultimately, the outcome of the team’s work is expected to be adopted by the world’s railway systems. This becomes especially important in the work towards environmental sustainability as the trains serve as a viable alternative to transportation via car or plane. The significance of the work becomes even more apparent as at present, there is no monitoring system against natural disasters or terrorist attacks on the current railway system.

While travel by railway has been viewed by some as an old-fashioned way to get around, I believe that with the efforts of this consortium of researchers, it can be possible to modernize this mode of transportation. Take for instance the Bullet Train of Japan. By developing public transportation systems and making them more efficient and reliable, it can be possible to increase the popularity of this efficient and affordable mode of travel.

80 percent of today’s personal computers are branded with an Intel processor. However, despite its rapidly growing popularity, the company opted to stay away from mobile technology. One reason is that Intel has focused too much on the creation of powerful chips, which while effective on PCs, tend to drain batteries quickly – something smart phone makers and their consumers have little use for.

With the purchase of Infineon Technologies’ mobile chip division, Intel can finally join the mobile technology bandwagon without a hitch. The technology gained through the deal would be incorporated in Intel Core processor-based laptops, as well as Intel Aton processor-based devices such as smart phones, netbooks and tablets. With Infineon Technologies, Intel stands to become the fifth biggest suppliers of mobile phone processors.

Intel plans to further expand its influence within the mobile market by purchasing more established enterprises. It had already bought mobile software maker, Wind River Systems last summer for $884 million. Its first project is the development of Mobin software, an open-source program designed to run on mobile devices that use Intel chips.

With the rising popularity of mobile technologies comes the looming threat of mobile hackers. Intel is already thinking ahead, as it also plans to purchase anti-virus software company McAfee. With this acquisition, Intel would be able to integrate security with its chips.

Intel used to have a division that created chips for smart phones, but it was sold off several years ago to cut costs and redirect efforts toward its core business. Now that Internet use on mobile phones has boomed, and with so many companies already lunging at the opportunities it has opened up, it is high time that Intel catch up.

Managing medical data has proven to be a challenge in any place, but in China, mastering the system is a step more challenging given the current state of its data management in hospitals. In some of the hospitals in the country, patient records are still handled in paper, making it easy to create redundancies. It also makes it difficult to track patient history and discern whether Western or Chinese medicines work best.

At a group of hospitals in China’s southern Guangdong province, IBM has deployed technology to standardize patient records and use it to create statistical analyses of traditional Chinese medicine treatments. Through the technology, the company aims to provide a solution for doctors to identify treatment using both Western and Chinese medicine. This treatment would be drawn from the standardized patient records. The team behind this system, the IBM Healthcare Solutions Lab, is a finalist for the Wall Street Journal’s Asian Innovation Awards.

Using this innovative technology, IBM aims to provide evidence for the effectiveness of non-Western remedies. If the developed technology proves successful, it could be replicated in other parts of the world that still hold fast to their own form of medical treatment, such as in India.

According to Janet Chiew, an analyst for the research firm IDC, China’s healthcare IT market will see remarkable growth in five years, triggered in part by the three year healthcare reform program.

As a brand new market, the healthcare infrastructure of China poses as an area ripe for new things in the data storage and solutions industry. I believe this is a good opportunity for businesses there. Creating a system that can handle the large mass of patients daily while working with a unique set of treatment that covers both Western and traditional methods opens up a chance for innovation that can benefit healthcare infrastructures all over the world.

It took the young product designer eight months cooped up in a lab to create BRGP (Bullus Recycled Gum Polymer), a form of rubber that can be molded into anything from toys to a pair of Wellington boots. The Gumdrop Bin is a project that has stemmed from this innovation. Several areas in the UK, including Orpington College in Kent and Legoland in Windsor, as well as the famous Six Flags Theme Park in the US are dotted with these bright pink bubble bins, specifically put up as disposal containers for discarded gum.

The idea behind the campaign is simple. When the gumdrop bins are already filled with chewed up gum, they can be taken out and recycled into new BRGP. Since the gumdrop bin is also made of recycled chewing gum, there is no need for tedious extraction.

In July, 2010, Anna Bullus was selected by Management Today as one of the ‘35 Under 35 to Change the Future’ for her innovation. She now runs her own design company and continues to promote the Gumdrop Bin campaign through www.gumdropbin.com.

More than 3.5 billion pieces of chewing gum are discarded every year, defacing public property and causing varying degrees of annoyance among the people. If this campaign becomes widespread, not only will the streets be less littered with sticky used gum, but we may also be seeing a plausible environment friendly replacement for plastic.

A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University, led by Dr. Dan Peer and Prof. Rimona Margalit, have found a way to eliminate these debilitating side effects. Setting their sights on finding a solution to narrow down the attacking scope of chemotherapy, the team has developed a nano-sized vehicle that can deliver chemotherapy drugs directly into cancer cells while avoiding interaction with healthy cells. With this breakthrough technology, not only will side effects greatly be reduced, but the efficiency of chemotherapeutic treatment will also improve.

Dr. Peer explains that the nano-vehicle is similar to a cluster bomb. Inside the tiny module are tiny particles of chemotherapy drugs. When the vehicle comes into contact with a cancer cell, it automatically releases the drugs into it. Because the attack is contained within the cell, the cytotoxic substances can be more potent without seriously affecting neighboring healthy cells, even if their behavior is similar to that of cancer cells.

This new form of nano-device-assisted chemotherapy can be used to treat numerous types of cancer, including that of the breasts, lungs, colon, and even cancers of the brain or blood. Clinical trials are already underway, with Dr. Peer and Prof. Margalit working with ORUUS Pharma in California. The company recently licensed the “cluster bomb” platform from the Israeli university. With further fine-tuning, the treatment may prove to be one of the best improvements for modern cancer treatment in recent history.

Theoretically, the lifespan of a rechargeable battery would be unlimited. The key players in their ability to supply electricity are the lithium ions because they are able to keep and transport electrons from one point of the battery to the other. The lithium ions stored within the battery will never diminish, thanks to the stable positively charged metal oxide cathode that keeps them at bay when there are no floating electrons to be had. However, constant charging can form deposits inside the battery’s electrolytes – the pool which facilitates ion transport. Over time, the battery cell’s capacity diminishes until it becomes too encumbered to deliver current.

Researchers from the US Department of Energy, led by material scientist Daiwan Choi, have found a simple one-step method that may allow rechargeable battery developers to manufacture more efficient, lower priced alternatives to the lithium ion-metal oxide electrode battery.

The suggested materials were highly unconventional, but they work. The scientists mixed the electrode ingredients with melted paraffin wax and oleic acid, more commonly known as soap, to create a framework for the stable and efficient flow of energy between the electrodes. The mixture was heated up to more than 400 degree Celsius (four times the temperature of boiling water), to fortify the electrode structure.

The resulting rechargeable battery performed so admirably, it hit the theoretical maximum for storage power at 168 milliAmp hours per gram, when it was slowly charged and discharged over a period of two days.

The one weakness of rechargeable lithium ion batteries seems to have been remedied. With this, rechargeable batteries may even become more common in a range of new devices that they were thought impractical for before. With their extended lifespan, it would be worth it to invest in such batteries for even simple electronic devices like flashlights and remote control.

In comparison to wind turbines, tidal turbines operate underwater. While both flowing water and wind can be used to generate power, using the tide for energy has its benefits. One is that since the turbines are underwater, they are silent and placed out of sight from residential communities. Also, in places where tidal inlets with significant energy potential are, there are sure to be densely populated areas nearby that can benefit from the energy generated.

Due to the hurdles of technical logistics of deploying the turbines, tidal power only represents a fraction of the renewable energy that can be produced worldwide. So far, most of the tidal turbines currently in operation are experimental prototypes from Europe.

Atlantis’ CEO, Timothy Cornelius remarked that the future is bright for marine power if the project would receive support from all levels of government. He likened the unveiling of the turbine to the start of a new industrial boom, similar to the development of the North Sea oil and natural gas fields.

The AK1000’s turbines were developed to withstand the harshness of the North Atlantic with its robust design. At the same time, though, the turbines were also developed to turn very slowly, so they have zero impact on the surrounding environment.

Already, the prospect of producing clean, reliable power from tidal turbines has been drawing investors in. Because of this, the company faces competition in the race to develop affordable commercial-scale tide power.

This combination of sturdiness and care for the environment present in the AK1000 are what I believe to be the marks of a success in producing green energy. Investors should note that renewable resources will not only reduce consumption of fossil fuels, and reduce carbon emissions, but it has the potential to eliminate much of the collateral environmental damage that we’ve been seeing lately.

From July 22 to 23, the long-standing emergency response organization put up an online survey, garnering 1,058 respondents representative of the US population aged 18 and above. Results reflect the youth’s affinity with social media. Nearly three in four participants were active users of Facebook, Twitter, or other social media networks. Many of the participants also answered that they get their updates on the latest news and current events through the Internet, either by frequenting various websites or through their social media feeds.

69% of all the respondents believed emergency responders should be monitoring social media channels. 74% expect help to come within an hour of a tweet or Facebook post directed to the emergency aid provider.

Social media has played a significant role in mobilizing emergency aid in recent calamities. Only moments after the Haiti earthquake, calls for help and donations were already spreading across various social media channels. When the tropical typhoon Ketsana hit Southeast Asia last year, it was through Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites that updates were propagated. In Social Media in Disasters and Emergencies, one in five social media users have reported to posting eyewitness accounts of emergency events to their respective social media networks.

I’ve heard of people using Google Maps to pinpoint their exact locations to authorities in flooded areas were street signs were no longer distinguishable. Over time, social media has proven to be an effective emergency lifeline. According to American Red Cross president and CEO Gail McGovern, the growing popularity of social media among today’s civilian calls for a shift in disaster response, one that allows for real-time collaboration between the public and skilled emergency response organizations.

Interestingly enough, what served as an impetus behind the idea was an 800-pound sculpture of Benjamin Franklin and the Liberty Bell made entirely out of butter. Each year, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state’s Farm Show commissions a work of art crafted out of butter. In 2007, organizers asked for suggestions for what to do with the masterpiece once the farm show ended. Dr. Haas submitted the idea of making biofuel out of it, and so he gained a source of raw materials for his research.

This project was done in collaboration with BlackGold Biofuels, a small company in Philadelphia that has developed a process of creating biodiesel fuel out of inedible, low-value fats, oils and grease. Since the rancid butter was a fat, it was possible to put the sculptures through BlackGold’s chemical conversion process to transform it into usable biodiesel fuel.

Usually, this process is reserved for cooking oil but through BlackGold’s flexible chemical conversion process, it was possible to create fuel out of the butter despite it being rancid. At the end, the 800 pounds of butter sculpture became 75 gallons of a mix of biodiesel fuel and a lower-grade bunker fuel.

Despite the success of converting the rancid butter into fuel, both the researchers and BlackGold do not advocate the diversion of the nation’s butter production into creating biofuel. But BlackGold considers the project as a success, as it demonstrates the robust technology and opens the possibility of converting all kinds of low-grade waste into usable fuel.

In fact, in California, a biodiesel plant that makes use of BlackGold technology has been put up to handle pan scrapings and brown grease from restaurants and turn them into fuel. This goes to show how little goes a long way when it comes to innovation. With more avenues with which to turn waste products into usable resources, we learn to introduce less waste into the environment and reduce our ecological footprint.

Contrary to what people might think, the iHome is not an original Apple product. It was invented by a small company who capitalized on an opportunity created by the popularity of the iPod. Keeping itself up to date with the latest Apple offerings, SDI has churned out its first iPad-compatible alarm clock. Despite warnings about Apple competitors, the company is not worried. “The iPad, iPhone and iPod are recession-proof,” says Ezra S. Ashkenazi, SDI’s president.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Realtone Electronics made a killing by manufacturing and selling transistor radios, then a must-have gadget for the era’s tech savvy. As the 1970s rolled in, however, the trend met its end and the electronics company survived the next two decades making cheap clocks that sold in drugstores. It also took an affinity toward creatively combining different devices into one. The company was the first to create a cassette tape player-clock radio, as well as the telephone-clock radio.

It was this affinity that would lead the company, now called SDI Technologies, to newfound success. In 2005, the company was grappling ideas as to how to bring itself forward into the digital age. Ashkenazi, son of one of Realtone’s founders, suggested that they could make a clock radio with an iPod dock. To increase the likelihood of generating sales, the company designed its earliest Apple accessories in the brand’s distinct sleek aesthetic. The resulting product revived the company, starting a new golden age for its business.

In keeping up with the times, the company has done it again by extending its products to become compatible with Apple’s iPad. This innovation was uniquely inspired by both something old and something new. They took the old idea of combining two gadgets with a brand new technology that they had faith in. It probably won’t be long until the next hotel you go to will have an iPad-compatible dock.