Important Innovations

Beachbot Cleans Thailand's Beaches Courtesy PTTEP:  Thailand's Beachbot Beach Cleaning Robot Beach Cleaning Robot Thailand, with its beautiful beaches, is one of the world's top tourist destinations.  But as the crowds grow so does the debris left behind on the beach.  Thailand has dispatched a new cleanup crew -  the beach cleaning robot. Bot Partnership Thai oil and gas exploration company PTTEP and Prince of Songkla University have partnered to create the beach cleaning robot.  They're calling it the PTTEP Love Sea Love Beach project and it's proving effective. WiFi Controlled Beachbot can be controlled remotely by WiFi.  It travels along the beach using a vibrating sleeve to separate the trash from the sand.  It works on dry and wet sand and has a rechargeable battery that lasts for 2 hours. More Beach Patrols The team behind Beachbot are expanding its capabilities and plan to deploy more on Thai beaches.  It's robotic innovation maki

LifeStraw - Personal Water Filter Technology Source:  LifeStraw Don't Drink the Water Dirty water kills millions of people every year.  2.1 billion people globally don't have safe water to drink.  In fact, more people die from contaminated water than from anything else, including war and violence.  A Danish entrepreneur has developed a high tech straw that makes dirty water clean and drinkable. Innovative Technology The straw kills millions of microbes as the water passes through it.  It works like a normal drinking straw.  But it traps contaminants in a number of long, hollow fibers inside the plastic tube.  The company says it traps 99.9% of parasites and 99.9999% of bacteria, including those that cause cholera and typhoid fever. 3rd World Use This technology is of particular importance to developing countries where clean, drinkable water is a scarce commodity.  By 2025, half of the world's population will live in regions where the demand for safe water exc

Design with Rotors that Pop Out of the Wheels Toyota's Flying Car Design Concept Toyota's Quadcopter Toyota has applied for a patent on its flying car design.  The wheels have spring-loaded, pop out helicopter rotors.  It has the appearance of a quadcopter.  If you decide you want to fly and get out of a traffic jam, you switch on the flying mode.  The wheels start to fold upwards.  Then, the wheels sprout rotor blades and spin up, providing lift. Drives Like a Tank According to the patent filing, the wheels and rotors would be electric powered.  It's not clear what type of engine would generate the electricity.  The source could be hydrogen fuel cells, EV batteries or some type of combustion engine.  In driving mode, the flying car would steer in a manner similar to tracked vehicles such as a tank. Crowded Skies There are quite a few flying cars getting close to entering the airspace.  Volvo announced it will start selling sister company Terrafugia's fl

Promise of New & Better Blood Pressure Treatments Source:  OSHU Breakthrough Research by Oregon Health and Science University New research by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland reveals the 3-dimensional structure of a membrane that controls blood pressure.  The membrane is called the human epithelial sodium channel.  It has never been so precisely isolated and detailed as that done by the OHSU researchers. Membrane Is Critical to Human Health Using a cyro-electron microscope, the researchers generated a 3D model of the channel.  Besides being critical to controlling blood pressure, it's also impactful on other functions in the body. The channel enables sodium ions to be absorbed into tissue throughout the body including the kidney.  As such it's critical to human health by regulating sodium balance, blood volume and blood pressure. Great Potential for New Therapies This discovery is expected to lead to new and better blood pressu

Google Forecast - Speech Will Be the Next Big Leap for the Internet MIT Image of Speech Recognition Google Turns Twenty Google turned 20 on 9/24/2018.  And, the company, with a storied history of innovation, is forecasting that speech recognition and the understanding of language are the keys to the future of information and search.  They believe that is literally the future of the internet. Better Understanding of Common Language Advanced voice services will be the next big leap.  That's according to Google's head of search Ben Gomes.  He and Google believe what's crucial to the future of the internet is a better understanding of common language.  This is very complex territory as there are millions of problems that arise and need to be solved in the many languages used to search for information on the internet. Google's Leadership in Speech Recognition Tech Google has been at the forefront of voice recognition.  Voice recognition is built into Googl

New Research:  Sulfuric Acid Speeding Erosion in the Artic Courtesy:  NOAA Runoff from Melting Permafrost in Alaska Flows Toward the Sea The Arctic's ice melt from global warming seems to get worse with every new scientific study.  Melting permafrost is making the ground unstable and waterlogged.  But scientists now say it's also dissolving rocks and minerals embedded in it. Acid Mix Sulfite minerals in the ice are forming sulfuric acid as the ice melts.  That's creating an acid mix that's speeding erosion. Dramatic Changes & CO² Releases The Arctic is undergoing dramatic changes as temperatures rise and sea ice melts.  The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the earth.  The sulfuric acid and escalating erosion are just one more consequence of an ice melt process that threatens to release billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the permafrost alone.

Very Rare but Yes - New Research Organ Transplant Surgery European Case It's well known that organ transplants can pass on infectious diseases from the donor to the recipient in rare cases.  New scientific research shows that passing cancer from a donor to a transplant recipient is extraordinarily rare but can happen.  In fact, a donor's undetectable cancer cells caused 4 transplant recipients, including a man, to develop breast cancer.  3 of them died.  This case emerged in Europe and was published in the scientific journal Transplant. Donor History of No Detectable Cancer The 53 yr old donor died of a stroke and had no detectable signs of cancer.  But doctors traced back the DNA in the cancer cells found in the 4 recipients.  The DNA matched that of the donor.  Scientists say the chance of something like this happening is 1 to 5 in 10,000 cases.  But, it's important research findings and something to be aware of.  The incidences are extraordinary rare but po