Cool Roofs

Do you want to save energy and combat global warming on a massive scale? Just go ahead and paint all the flat roofs in the world white!

This was the U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s recent suggestion (during a London conference).

So…get a ‘cool roof’ with “Cool Roofs” an innovative roofing product made by Pittsburgh-based Bayer Material Science.

Seem pretty simple?

Wow…. Do We Know How to Track It! Some Bests in the ‘Burg

1–An offer to help a flu researcher is a surprise… flu-tracking goes viral!

Rhiza, a  South Side company, is now rewriting its business plan while answering inquiries from potential clients. The speed of the posting and its visual nature has value, Knauer and others at Rhiza have quickly learned. When the flu-tracking map went live, the site recorded 60,000 to 70,000 unique visitors, which has since ballooned to 100,000 visitors.  Rhiza is getting calls from the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Homeland Security…all expressing interest in their program!

2–Obama applauds Pittsburgh’s National Cyber Forensics Training Alliance!
Who would suspect a few dozen employees, working in a mild-mannered Pittsburgh business park, are hunting down some of the world’s most wanted online criminals?
NCFTA’s new model is so highly regarded similar cyber centers are being considered in Canada and England. 

What else should we do best…and first in the ‘Burg?

Kids Are Cheering for the Robot!

  Sure, robots have always felt at home in Pittsburgh. Well …but rooting for them? Root for the robots…or the humans…in fact, compete yourself in air hockey and more at roboworld, the new permanent exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center, and the new home for the Robot Hall of Fame.  roboworld is a $3.5-million new exhibit billed as “the world’s largest comprehensive robotics exhibition.”

Meet Andy (a robot of course)!

Have you experienced roboworld as yet?

What did you enjoy most? …What surprised you?

 

Robots with fins & tails demonstrate evolution

It hardly looks like it, but two swimming robots were set loose in the little pool to study evolution, acting out predator-prey encounters from roughly 540 million years ago.   Robots  can do things like shimmy through water or slither up shores.   For instance, researchers can test theories on the development of stiffer backbones.

Image:  Robotic tailfin

Did you think robots could help us do this?

A Hapless Would-be Evil Genius Unleashes a Plague of Nanorobots

Check this out

- video animation -

‘Gray goo’ !

Is This Likely?

CMU Robot and More Work Successfully with Autistic Children

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute graduate student Marek Michalowski recently appeared on NBC’s Today Show. The segment focused on how his yellow snowman-shaped robots (…and other robots!) can be used to help autistic children and kicked off a three-day series on autism. It may seem counterintuitive…but it’s working!

Click for video!

…Does this make sense to you?

Cotton Candy Does What?

Cotton candy is a children’s treat.  Now it may have found a new role! Cotton Candy could help scientists grow replacement tissues for people.
It may be just right for creating networks of blood vessels within laboratory-grown bone, skin, muscle or fat for breast reconstruction.

What do you think?

Making a 19th Century House in to a 21st Century House

 

 

Crossing 19th century architecture with forward-thinking 21st century empty nesters =  A retro-fitted LEED certified house!

This residence in Squirrel Hill is among the first residences in Pennsylvania to try  the residential standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System, or LEED for Homes certification.

Nationally a green leader, Pennsylvania ranks very high in the number of LEED certified buildings in a state-by-state comparison.

What do you think is most important to do to be sustainable/support the environment in your home?

Robot Inspired by a Wasp!

A BRAIN-boring robot that burrows its way through tissue in the same way a wasp digs through wood could make some surgeries safer.

Some female wood wasps use a needle-like ovipositor to deposit eggs inside pine trees. The ovipositor has two dovetailed shafts, each covered in backward-facing teeth. To bore into wood, the wasp quickly oscillates each of these backwards and forwards. As the shaft is pulled backwards, its sharp teeth catch in the wood’s tissue and prevent it from retreating. As a result with each oscillation the ovipositor takes a small step forward. The tension created by the gripping teeth braces the shaft and prevents the needle from buckling or even breaking.

Translation – It can insinuate itself into tissue with a minimum amount of force!

Unlike the existing rigid surgical probes, this device will be flexible enough to move along the safest possible route. For ex. bypassing high-risk areas of the brain during surgery.  It could also reduce the number of incisions needed to deliver cancer therapies to different parts of a tumour.

What do you think about robots  mimicing nature?

DNA Helps Count Gorillas!

Traditionally, conservationists estimate gorilla numbers by counting nests and examining the dung outside each one. This method showsed 336 gorillas left in specific 331-square-kilometre national park. But when Guschanski’s team analysed DNA samples from each pile of dung using a new genetic counting method, the population estimate dropped by 10 per cent to 302. This suggests that some individuals had been counted twice using the old technique.
What do you think?