Dating Using DNA

Genepartner is an online dating service that uses genetics to determine the best match for you. I have covered another website in the emerging gene analysis market before. This is a tiny area now, but I expect more consumer services around DNA to emerge in the future. You could learn what diseases you are more prone to, choose a more optimal diet for you, and explain a more about you than you know yourself. This one has the interesting niche of picking an optimal partner.

Genepartner.com: DNA matching – Love is no coincidence: “At GenePartner we are dedicated to help you find your ideal life partner. Our formula is based on research on hundreds of couples and analyzes the pattern of genetic combinations found in successful relationships. Using this formula we will determine the probability for a satisfying and long-lasting romantic relationship between two people. “

Power from Nuclear Waste?

Britain may attempt a program to re-use nuclear waste to get more power…

A plan by the nuclear industry to build a ¬£1bn fuel processing plant at Sellafield is being backed by the government’s chief scientist. The plant would turn the UK’s 60,000 tonnes of high-level nuclear waste into reactor fuel that will provide 60 per cent of this country’s electricity until 2060, it is claimed.’We can bury our reactor waste or we can treat it and then use it as free fuel for life,’ said the cabinet’s chief science adviser, Sir David King. ‘It’s a no-brainer.’

But the plan is controversial. A report by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which operates the Cumbrian plant and backs the plan, acknowledges the move could have ‘downside’ economic costs, although it also stresses it has many benefits. In addition, green groups say the move would lead to the creation of ‘a plutonium economy’ in Britain that would see large quantities of nuclear fuel being transported across the country.

Nuclear waste could power Britain | Science | The Observer

Interesting Links

• Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology: TI Shows Cell Phone Projector
• FOXNews.com – Tech Experts: ‘Widgets’ Are Huge Security Risk
• Recruiters’ New Secret Weapon: Psych Tests that Predict Job Performance on BNET
• Google tries out interactive ad format
• Google Cashing in on Widget Craze
• Email: Yahoo Mail Innovates, Gmail Stagnates – Lifehacker
• ‘An innovation calendar is a must for every company’ – Daily News & Analysis
• 7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make – lifehack.org
• CIOs Seen as Obstacle to Innovation
• Google Official Leading Health Projects Resigns – WSJ.com
• Vitamin D increases life expectancy, study finds

Innovation Unlimited

Idea Festival is an annual thinker’s festival held in Louisville, KY. This year will be a great year as there will be many great hosts from The Woz, the Apple Founder/ PC inventor, to Michio Kaku, imminent physicist.

Check out all the speakers and events here. There are a wide, wide array of speakers on everything from cutting edge architecture, Internet, business, physics, robotics, Globalization, Green Tech, Independent Film, Neuroscience, and even innovative chefs.

So, if you are interested, check it out.

 

Flying Windmills

Flying windmills could harness the jet-stream to generate electricity.

I like the idea of harnessing ocean currents better then having flying windmills tethered to the ground and flying in the wind. Just my preference.

 Check it out…

From New Scientist:

“If we were able to tap 1% of the wind energy at high altitude, that would be enough to supply all the world’s energy needs,” says David Shepard, president of renewable energy startup Sky WindPower, in Coronado, California.

Flying windmills could harness the jet stream – earth – 26 July 2007 – New Scientist Environment.

 

 

Free Energy Device To Be Unveiled Tomorrow, but maybe not

UPDATE: Hmm, the company that built a machine that defies a fundamental law of physics is having some problems launching their product due to the… lighting.

Hmmm.

 

Further to Steorn’s announcement yesterday (5th July) regarding the technical difficulties experienced during the installation of its “Orbo” technology at the Kinentica Museum in London, Steorn has decided to postpone the demonstration until further notice.

Sean McCarthy CEO stated that “technical problems arose during the installation of the demonstration unit in the display case on Wednesday evening. These problems were primarily due to excessive heat from the lighting in the main display area. Attempts to replace those parts affected by the heat led to further failures and as a result we have to postpone the public demonstration until a future date.”

He continued that “we apologise for the inconvenience caused to all the people who had made arrangements to visit the demonstration or were planning on viewing the demonstration online.”

Over the next few weeks the company will explore alternative dates for the public demonstration.

News.

 

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Steorn, who has been profiled before on Tomorrow’s Trends, is ready to unveil their free energy device, dubbed “Orbo”. The unveiling has been postponed until tomorrow, July the 5th.

SiliconRepublic describes how the machine is supposed to work:

“The law of conservation of energy has been very reliable for 300 years, however it’s missing one variable from the equation, and that’s time,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy explained to Silicon Republic that Orbo technology works on the basis that occurrences in magnetic fields do not happen instantaneously, and are therefore not subject to time in the way that, say, gravity is.

This time variance allows the Orbo platform to generate and consistently produce power, going against the law of conservation of energy which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed.

“This is as big a claim as you can possibly make in the world of technology and science,” said McCarthy.

SiliconRepublic.com: Irish technology claims energy breakthrough.

The demo is to be broadcast at this link.

 

 

Interesting Links

Virtual Goods: the next big business model
“People spend over $1.5 billion on virtual items every year. Pets, coins, avatars, and bling: these virtual objects are nothing more than a series of digital 1s and 0s stored on a remote database somewhere in the ether.”

New Record for Quantum Cryptography…
“European scientists have broken a distance record for sending quantum information from one place to another, paving the way for a system that relies on the laws of physics to provide communications that can’t be tapped. If they can extend the reach of their signal a little further, they’ll be able to use satellites to send perfectly secure data around the world.”

A Wirelessly Powered Lightbulb
“Researchers at MIT have created a revolutionary device that could remotely charge batteries and power household appliances.”

Rise of the Prosumer
“Mark this word in your mental diaries: Prosumer.The word is a combination of producer and consumer that perfectly describe the millions of participants in the Web 2.0 revolution.”

Interesting Links

 

 Emerging Technology – Jim Rapoza’s 10 Emerging Technologies that Flopped

You know about the mouse – but remember the “cat”? Remembering 10 emerging technologies that flopped.

 

What can the Danes teach us about happiness?

 

Do-It-Yourself Quantum Eraser: Scientific American

This is an actual physics experiment you can do at home that demonstrates one of the top mysteries of physics. Hmm, this looks like the ultimate science fair project – even better if you discover the reason the universe plays this trick on us. Then, there would be a few more prizes you would win.

 

Electric Car: Chevrolet Volt: Chevrolet 

 

Which Wiki is Right for You?

If you plan on keeping up with the times at work or in an new venture, you will probably be creating or using a Wiki at some point. Here is a guide on choosing a wiki.

Interesting Links

Wipe out a single memory – Drug can clear away…

New drug may be able to wipe out a specific memory.

MIT to offer its courses free online by year end…

Ten Things I Hate About You, Web 2.0

E Ink’s blueChute bluetooth enabled e-ink …

9 Lessons for Would-be Bloggers

SXSW Panel: How to bluff your way in Web 2.0 -…

 

Interesting Links

Using the Web to Get the Boss to Pay More…

New Internet technologies are providing information that has never been available to the average person and transforming the way they sell homes or buy airline tickets. It could have the same effect on the 47 million people who look for new jobs each month and the countless others who think they are underpaid at the ones they have.

13 things that do not make sense …

There are many things that have scientists baffled. Take a look at 13 of the things that have the top scientists stumped.

India’s IT Labor Pinch
A scarcity of young, college-educated engineers has turned recruitment in India’s fast-growing tech sector into a free-for-all