Technolgies useful for Indian problems

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 29 Jun 2009 00:33

India's DRDO Harnessing Bhut Jolokia Chili Pepper for Riot Control

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 30 Jun 2009 10:19

Waterproof Lithium-Air Batteries
A California company's lithium metal-air batteries are lightweight and energy dense.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 01 Jul 2009 03:54

Omega Garden - makes plants grow much faster than normal:

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 01 Jul 2009 04:45

I saw a gizmo made by Toro which has an enigne driving two tracks and has a front end power takeoff to which attachments like an auger for digging holes, a fork lift for pallets transfer and a shovel to move small boulders can be attached. The opertaor stands behind the gizmo on a platform and can ride it standing on it. Looks very useful in confined spaces like the hill roads. It takes the drudgery and danger out of yard work where a big bulldozer wont fit in and increases productivity.

LINK :
http://www.toro.com/professional/sws/index.html

its called Dingo.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 02 Jul 2009 07:31

Here's an interesting home made of recycled steel, which can be set up anywhere, without being hooked up to a power grid:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07 ... ywhere.php

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 05 Jul 2009 06:01

Tesla Motors is now unveiling their new electric sedan for the masses:

(video included inside)

http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/1490 ... uture.aspx

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 11 Jul 2009 05:11

Salt-Water Crops from Genetic Modification

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 14 Jul 2009 06:29

Plan to Engineer C4 Photosynthesis in Rice

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 Jul 2009 08:39

EEstor Supercapacitor to be Demonstrated

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 Jul 2009 17:34

MIT Developing Fast-Charging Electric Vehicle

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 02 Aug 2009 10:47

Small Disk-Sized Battery Stores Enough Energy to Power Home

A small disk-sized batter from Ceramatech can store upto 20kWh, which is enough to power a home for a day. The battery will sell for $2000.

To me, this is amazing, as it would enable storage of energy to avoid load-shedding during peak hours.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 08 Aug 2009 06:07

Lockheed-Martin's HULC:

Any infantry could benefit from this, and so could industry, recreational outdoorsmen, etc.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 09 Aug 2009 02:28

Internet needs fundamental changes to survive
by Iain Thomson on Aug 6, 2009

The basic TCP/IP protocols are unsuited to the modern internet, and a new system is needed that sacrifices openness for accountability, experts have warned.

"There are fundamental problems in the internet, and maybe we need to look at fundamental fixes," said Marcus Sachs, executive director for national security and cyber policy at Verizon. "It's like the old Roman roads: our enemies will use it against us."

The basic structure of the TCP/IP is insecure, he added, explaining that it was built 40 years ago for a very different computing model that took little account of security.

This means that attackers from organisations and other nation states are pillaging government databases for information and making the US fundamentally unsafe, according to Sachs.

Designs must change, he said, giving the example of the American electricity plug which had lasted for over 100 years. TCP/IP could not do the same, he warned.

Sachs's calls were echoed by Rod Beckstrom, president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, who said that a few simple changes could make TCP/IP more secure and save vast amounts of security spending.

"The best investment in global security is to improve the internet protocols. Putting in a more secure version of the Domain Name System, so you have signed web addresses, would be a great step forward," he said.

"I am going to trust the smart people at the Internet Engineering Task Force. If they are right, they will drive the whole cost model down for computer security."
Copyright © 2009 vnunet.com

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 11 Aug 2009 20:15

Selective Photothermolysis to Rejuvenate Cells & Postpone Aging

Over our lifetimes, our cells gradually accumulate within them increasing amounts of garbage, called lipofuscin, which eventually clogs them up to the point where they cannot function well enough and die.

A researcher is investigating a technique involving the use of short-pulse lasers to destroy the lipofuscin that collects within the cells, to rejuvenate them and thus make them young again.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 12 Aug 2009 08:40

British company Novacem has developed a new cement based on magnesium silicate instead of limestone, which is carbon-negative, in the sense that it has a net absorption of carbon over its life-cycle, as opposed to existing cements which are the source of immense carbon emissions during their manufacture:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... reen-cemen

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 23 Aug 2009 23:02

The Sulabh Toilet:

http://www.physorg.com/news170216919.html

http://www.sulabhinternational.org/st/a ... oilets.php

vasu_ray · Post by **vasu_ray** » 24 Aug 2009 01:53

how about bulldozing the slums and creating an organized layout of canvas tents with better sanitation

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 25 Aug 2009 04:01

Hemcrete is a form of concrete impregnated with hemp, which is 7x stronger than regular concrete, and whose manufacturing process is carbon-negative:

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/08/24/hem ... -concrete/

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 26 Aug 2009 07:40

Google Uses Crowd-Sourced Traffic Data to Inform Users Via Google Maps

Hmm, couldn't Bhuvan copy this idea? After all, there are a hell of a lot of cellphone users on Indian roads at any given time. Therefore the number of GPS-enabled phones (or whatever India's version of GPS will be called) will only go up with time, thus improving the data sampling.

Given the fact that traffic congestion in India is far worse than in Western countries, such a service could be of great use.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 Aug 2009 09:42

Solar Photovoltaic Shades from Organic Polymers

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23209/?a=f

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 Aug 2009 09:56

Breakthrough 43% Solar Conversion Efficiency Recorded:

http://www.physorg.com/news170610803.html

Someone in the comments section said this would amount to 100W/sq.ft under ideal conditions. That's pretty amazing - even a significant fraction of that amount would be fabulous.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 31 Aug 2009 09:32

Knome has developed ways to handle genomic information that could become very useful in helping people to diagnose and manage their risks for disease:

http://www.technologyreview.com/TR35/Pr ... T&TRID=794

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 03 Sep 2009 05:14

Waterproof Sand Could Make Deserts Fertile

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 03 Sep 2009 09:04

Sanswire Tests Segmented Airship "Stratellite"

I don't see why India can't attempt stuff like this. It would allow a Poor Man's satellite network on the cheap.

http://www.sanswire.com/

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 07 Sep 2009 08:01

German Researchers Invent "Steel Velcro"

These fasteners are resistant to chemicals and can withstand a tensile load of up to 35 tonnes per square meter at temperatures as high as 800°C.

Now this could be useful for space engineering, among other things.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 12 Sep 2009 06:03

Google Researching New Low-Cost Solar Technologies

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 20 Sep 2009 06:06

Ultra Motor's A2B Excel:

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 22 Sep 2009 03:58

Focus on Nitrogen Fixation Could Lead Next 'Green Revolution'

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 22 Sep 2009 16:56

IMEC presents large area solar cells with 18.4% conversion efficiency, featuring Cu-plated contacts

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 23 Sep 2009 18:54

http://nanosolar.com/
Solar power plants generate high-value peak power directly within the local power grid. With no fuel risk, no water consumption, no moving parts, no noise, and no pollution.

Built with the Nanosolar Utility Panel™, solar power plants are now profitable in a wide range of geographies and power markets.

Whether ground mounted on free acreage or rooftop mounted on buildings, solar power plants are now a must for a healthy and dependable energy mix.

http://www.nanosolar.com/company/blog/n ... efficiency

http://www.nanosolar.com/company/blog#38

<B>1kg CIGS = 5kg Uranium</B>
By Martin Roscheisen, CEO - December 16, 2008

The notion of a kilogram of enriched Uranium conjures up an image of a powerful amout of energy. Enough to power an entire city for years when used in a nuclear power plant, or enough to flatten an entire county when used in a bomb — that’s presumably what many people would say if one asked them about their thoughts.

In our new solar cell technology, we use an active material called CIGS, a Copper based semiconductor. How does this stack up against enriched Uranium?

Here’s a noteworthy fact, pointed out to me by one of our engineers: It turns out that 1kg of CIGS, embedded in a solar cell, produces 5 times as much electricity as 1kg of enriched Uranium, embedded in a nuclear power plant.

Or said differently, 1kg of CIGS is equivalent to 5kg of enriched Uranium in terms of the energy the materials deliver in solar and nuclear respectively.

The Uranium is burned and then stored in a nuclear waste facility; the CIGS material produces power for at least the warranty period of the solar cell product after which it can then be recycled and reused an indefinite number of times.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 23 Sep 2009 19:12

Sound Waves Measure Road Quality

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 23 Sep 2009 21:24

GE Goes for Gearless Direct-Drive Wind Turbines

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 23 Sep 2009 22:29

Longer-Running Electric-Car Batteries

Silicon-nanotube electrodes may enable lithium-ion batteries to store 10 times more charge.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 25 Sep 2009 09:16

Russia gets high-speed rail (no, it's not maglev)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/busin ... train.html

The technological breakthrough of the Sapsan is that the train has no locomotive. Instead, electric motors are attached to wheels all along the train cars, as on some subway trains. (Passengers sit in the first car too.) Its top operating speed is 217 miles an hour, though in tests this model has reached 255 miles an hour, or about half the cruising speed of some jet airplanes.

In Russia, it took a decade of on-again, off-again talks before Siemens signed a deal with the state railways in 2006 amid a general thaw in relations between Germany and Russia.

Oh, and it's a product of German-Russian cooperation too, which should give the Atlanticists heartburn.
That makes it doubly nice.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 27 Sep 2009 11:24

LRAD Sonic Crowd Control Device Used at G20 Summit Protests

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 Sep 2009 10:11

Lotus-like Material Could Prevent Moondust from Sticking to Equipment

sinha · Post by **sinha** » 02 Oct 2009 20:40

Cash machines for rural India - http://www.technologyreview.in/energy/23306/

bhavin · Post by **bhavin** » 02 Oct 2009 22:13

Sanjay M wrote:Sound Waves Measure Road Quality

I don't know if this is something terribly different - but I have done non-destructive testing way back in 1998 and from the description in the article, it looks like roughly the same principle.. I wonder what new things they have done in that field...

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 03 Oct 2009 08:29

Bidet Attachment for Toilets Can Eliminate Toilet Paper

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 08 Oct 2009 02:25

Dow to Sell Solar Roof Shingles

more:

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/10/dow- ... ingle.html