United Nations picks Pittsburgh to host World Environment Day in 2010

In what may be the first tangible proof that the G-20 did, in fact, lead to international exposure and opportunity for the Pittsburgh region, the United Nations announced Thursday that the Steel City will play host to World Environment Day in 2010.

Scheduled for June 5, World Environment Day was created by the UN Environment Programme in 1972 to stimulate environmental awareness and action. The theme for 2010 is “Biodiversity: Connecting with Nature.”

How cool is that?

Transparent aluminium is ‘new state of matter’

‘Transparent aluminium’  only existed in science fiction, for ex.  in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.

Picture: Experimental set-up at the FLASH laser used to discover the new state of matter.

Your thoughts?

Students Embed Stem Cells in Sutures to Enhance Healing

Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students  have demonstrated a practical way to embed a patient’s own adult stem cells in the surgical thread that doctors use to repair serious (orthopedic) injuries such as ruptured tendons. The goal  is to enhance healing and reduce the likelihood of re-injury with no change to the surgical procedure itself!

Pretty amazing?

Driven to Distraction? IT tries to help.

caption – At 60 miles an hour on a Missouri highway, a 16-year-old driver texts with a friend as a 17-year-old takes the wheel. (NY Times)

New studies show that drivers overestimate their ability to multitask. We are 8 times more likely to have an accident when texting as we drive.

Check this out – information technology (IT) makes possible this

behind the wheel game gauging your distraction! 

 

 

 This video including eye tracking of individuals - texting and driving! Some more IT at work!

How did you do at the game?

Robot on the Catwalk

Check her out! Looking like a stormtrooper from Star Wars…she  opened the fashion season in Japan.

And also check out ‘Her’? , STAIR, also pictured left.

 “STAIR, please fetch the stapler from the lab,” says a researcher in a recent video. “I will go get the stapler for you,” replies STAIR. Avoiding obstacles, STAIR wheels into the next room and scans it looking for the stapler. Grabbing the stapler, it returns to the researcher. “Here is your stapler,” says STAIR, “Have a nice day.”

…What do you think?

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?