OK Go -> this too shall pass
Posted: May 17, 2011 Filed under: // tech, //creativity class, ideas, projects Leave a comment »I know everyone has already seen this but it’s one of my favorites and is the most epic demonstration of a Rube Goldberg machine I’ve ever seen. Happy Monday.
[aviation] short take off and landing competition = innovation
Posted: May 11, 2011 Filed under: // tech, design, ideas, Uncategorized Leave a comment »
best inventions, 2007-2010 -> [time]
Posted: May 6, 2011 Filed under: // tech, //creativity class, /entrepreneurship, future, ideas Leave a comment »mind control system for prosthetics [newscientist]
Posted: May 5, 2011 Filed under: // tech, biology, future, ideas Leave a comment »I’m on a bio-interface kick today. This is pretty neat.
New Scientist | A model helps to visualize how a new neural implant device reads brain signals and interprets them to control a prosthetic arm. The yellow spikes represent firing motor neurons in the brain. Each neuron is tuned to recognize a different direction in space, so as the arm moves, the spikes change to reflect the changing direction. By combining the output of all the neurons, the direction of the arm’s movement — represented by the blue arrow — can be predicted.
This system, developed by Daniel Moran of Washington University in St. Louis, uses a grid of disc-shaped electrodes, inserted between the brain and the skull, to read electrical activity in the brain. It’s more precise than electrodes placed outside of the skull but less invasive than probes inserted directly in the brain. The system could eventually give amputees better control over prosthetic limbs without overly invasive surgical implants.
Dreaming the Future: Ahmed H Zewail [cc]
Posted: May 5, 2011 Filed under: // tech, //creativity class, //educate!, chemistry, ideas, productivity Leave a comment »
I am honored and gratified to receive the Priestley Medal. This highest honor of the American Chemical Society comes from a society I have been associated with for decades and with which I continue to have strong relations, not only as a member and fellow, but also with its institutions, the board of directors, the society journals, and the super-dynamic Executive Director & CEO Madeleine Jacobs. Recently, Madeleine asked me to preside over the 44th International Chemistry Olympiad, and as many of you know, when Madeleine calls you with her typical affection and enthusiasm, you simply cannot say no!
Mitch Jacoby/C&EN
When ACS was established in 1876, its founders were luckily unaware of, or perhaps chose to ignore, the words of the sage Thomas Jefferson, who in 1809 wrote in a letter to his nephew, “If you are obliged to neglect any thing, let it be your chemistry. It is the least useful and the least amusing to a country gentleman of all the ordinary branches of science.”
Jefferson went on to promote the virtues of farming over chemistry! Fortunately, many people have not shared Jefferson’s preference for farming, including a certain graduate of the Oregon Agricultural College by the name of Linus Pauling. Linus famously said, “Chemistry is wonderful! I feel sorry for people who don’t know anything about chemistry. They are missing an important part of life, an important source of happiness, satisfying one’s intellectual curiosity.” Pauling received the Priestley Medal at the age of 83, so make sure to live long! Read the rest of this entry »
feedback [creativity class]
Posted: May 3, 2011 Filed under: //creativity class, ideas, Uncategorized Leave a comment »BSE309 CHEME309 2011 Feedback
May 1, 2011
I was just about to start writing this when I received a call to watch television for an announcement by President Obama about the killing of Osama bin Laden (ObL).
It certainly took a long time to track him down. We should consider the creativity aspects. Try to imagine the first gatherings when someone (ObL ?) proposed attacking the USA with hijacked commercial airplanes. Thereafter, following the initial IDEA, there had to be a series of demanding innovative steps where the ObL men had to learn how to fly large commercial planes.
What a task to put all these pieces together secretly.
Simultaneously, the CIA/FBI people were trying to imagine what creative attacks could be launched. One FBI woman actually pointed out that some unusual people were taking flying lessons in large planes but her creative comments were ignored. The rejection of ideas often occurs and is difficult to deal with. Just try keeping in mind the descriptive SELF-DEFINING.
After last Friday’s class I rushed over to Savery to act as a judge in the new entrepreneurial program in the College of Engineering. The students had to prepare a 2 minute elevator speech. This is something you have ready to deliver at any time you unexpectedly run into a possible opportunity. Actually this has happened at least twice to me when I flubbed and did not seize the chance. So in your career don’t you flub it and be ready with a concise and enchanting 2 minute spiel.
genetic modification: [Harvey Fineberg, "Are we ready for neo-evolution?"]
Posted: April 30, 2011 Filed under: // tech, //educate!, biology, future, ideas Leave a comment »
the whole talk is worthwhile but it gets rad at 11:00 -> we can drive our own evolution! count me in
Medical ethicist Harvey Fineberg shows us three paths forward for the ever-evolving human species: to stop evolving completely, to evolve naturally — or to control the next steps of human evolution, using genetic modification, to make ourselves smarter, faster, better. Neo-evolution is within our grasp. What will we do with it?
sustainability can be profitable!!!
Posted: April 26, 2011 Filed under: //creativity class, /entrepreneurship, chemistry, future, green revolution [:$], ideas, projects Leave a comment »Lots of money has been flowing into sustainable solutions for the future. Something needs to be done. The person who figures this out will be not only incredibly beneficial to human society but also FILTHY rich.
Wish I could go to this conference… [sponsor me!! pretty pretty please?]
program for tech commercialization -> [cc]
Posted: April 25, 2011 Filed under: //creativity class, /entrepreneurship, :$ /p, ideas, U.Dub Leave a comment »Hope things are going well!
I am currently involved in the Program for Technology Commercialization (PTC), a sequence of technology commercialization courses geared towards graduate and undergraduate students in engineering and science fields.
On behalf of Dr. Matt O’Donnell (Dean of Engineering) and Dr. Buddy Ratner (Professor of Bioengineering & Chemical Engineering), I’d like to invite you to join us on the afternoon Friday April 29 for judging student elevator speeches and for the networking event with the students, instructors and the UW technology commercialization community.
