Gizmorama

May 4, 2011
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Good Morning,

A new concept phone may depict what phones and other related
technology may look like very soon. Check out the second
article for more information on this unique, revolutionary
design.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Mass. drops backing for wood power

BOSTON - Massachusetts is turning against wood-burning power
plants, once considered a green energy source. Regulations
proposed Tuesday would revoke renewable energy credits for
three proposed large biomass generators. Smaller plants that
produce electricity and also use the heat would remain eli-
gible, The Boston Globe reports. Richard Sullivan Jr., state
secretary of energy and environmental affairs, said the
rules, which will be reviewed for 60 days, resulted from
"rigorous scientific study and a robust public process.''
Wood burning has been promoted in the belief that forests can
absorb the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by burning
wood, but a study the state commissioned last year concluded
the plants emit more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than
oil, coal, or natural gas. Biomass Power Association Presi-
dent Bob Cleaves said the state was changing "the rules in
midstream'' after a decade of incentives. "Our forests are
not fuel,'' said James McCaffrey of the Massachusetts Sierra
Club. "Forest biomass is a carbon-spewing polluting form of
energy. The science is now clear and recognizes the tremen-
dous negative impacts of burning forests and trees to gener-
ate electricity.''


Next up, paper-like flexible phones

KINGSTON, Ontario - In a few years, cellphones and tablet
computers will fold in your pocket like paper, a Canadian
media developer says. Roel Vertegaal, director of Human
Media Lab at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, is
presenting his prototype, the PaperPhone, at the Association
of Computing Machinery's Computer Human Interaction confer-
ence in Vancouver next week. "This is the future. Everything
is going to look and feel like this within five years," he
said Wednesday. "This computer looks, feels and operates like
a small sheet of interactive paper. You interact with it by
bending it into a cellphone, flipping the corner to turn
pages, or writing on it with a pen." The PaperPhone's display
is a thin, flexible display that measures 3.7 inches
diagonally. When documents can be stored on larger versions,
offices will no longer need paper or printers, Vertegaal
says. "The paperless office is here. Everything can be stored
digitally and you can place these computers on top of each
other just like a stack of paper, or throw them around the
desk," he said. A study on the interactive use of bending
flexible thin film computers is to be published at the con-
ference, and Vertegaal's team also will demonstrate a wrist-
band computer called the Snaplet.


Insect with extra set of wings found

MARSEILLE, France - A cicada-like creature called the
treehopper has a third pair of wings in a reversal of usual
insect evolution, French scientists say. The findings by
Benjamin Prud'homme and colleagues at the Institute of the
Biology of Development in Marseille are reported in the
journal Nature this week. Insects' wings vary widely, but
it was believed they grew only from the second and third
segments of the thorax. The treehopper's "helmet," which
grows from the first thoracic segment, runs the length of
the body, and has a range of colors, shapes and sizes. Pre-
vious research suggested the helmet came from exoskeletal
plates on the first thoracic segment. Prud'homme and his
team say it is actually a fused pair of wings, although it
is not used for flying. The researchers say the treehoppers'
helmet is the first known example of new body appendages
appearing in more than 250 million years of insect evolution.


Heat-to-electricity materials advance

PASADENA, Calif. - New materials hold the promise of effic-
iently converting waste heat, such as from auto exhaust, into
electricity, researchers say. Jeffrey Snyder and colleagues
from the California Institute of Technology report in the
journal Nature this week they altered the chemical composit-
ion of materials to boost their thermoelectric efficiency.
Most thermoelectric materials have a "figure of merit," a
measure of overall performance, of less than 1, while values
of 1.5 or higher are needed for many applications. These
higher values can be reached by nanostructuring, but Snyder's
team achieved similar gains more simply by carefully control-
ling the composition of a bulk material. They say they
engineered the desired combination of thermal and electrical
properties into an alloy of lead, tellurium and selenium,
producing a substance with a thermoelectric figure of merit
of 1.8.

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