A New Tool to Help Innovators Protect Intellectual Property

Any innovator hoping to turn a bright idea into a marketable product or successful company needs to know how to protect their intellectual property (IP). They may now find help from theNational Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which have joined forces to develop the Intellectual Property Awareness Assessment Tool. The tool is designed to help aspiring and actual entrepreneurs and business owners in the United States find out how much they know about this arcane yet crucial aspect of innovation and fill the gaps in their knowledge. 

The free online tool takes about 20 to 30 minutes to provide a detailed assessment of one's awareness of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and design patents, as well as of strategies for protecting and using valuable IP. It then offers appropriate learning resources based on what the assessment reveals.

The site emphasizes that its resources do not constitute legal advice and that people thinking of filing for IP protections should get knowledgeable legal help. But the site can help orient non-lawyers to the issues they need to understand in order to safeguard IP.

THE POWER WITHIN YOU

Despite being raised in a family that instilled fear in us everyday I have always known the power and much much more was within us. As I grew into adulthood & tried to make sense of all the craziness in my childhood I began to see miracles happening everywhere & I WAS POWERLESS TO STOP THOSE MIRACLES HAPPENING!

Like when I was 22 years old & I placed my hands on a work colleagues chest (who was my age I am now - in her 50's at the time) to relieve some intense pain she was having in her heart. We later found out her blood tests showed she had had a massive heart attack & should have been dead but all her heart tests showed she had the heart functioning of a 22 year old - my age at the time.

Or the time I drove my old car with black smoke pouring out the back of my car (I used to call it my Spiritual haze!!) through a police roadside check & not one of them saw me - not one of them & there was like 10 police cars & 20 policeman looking over cars they had pulled over. (I had been told to go another way but didn't listen to Spirit!!)

There were many car miracles that happened around that time because I only worked part time & worked the rest of the time as a  GATEKEEPER  & used to hang out in the HUGE cemetery across the road from where I lived assisting lost souls to go home. I didn't make or have a lot of money but GOD my life was a blast! And many miracles happened in that cemetery too.

A few years ago after the fires had come through the hills in Melbourne & nearly 200 people lost their life, there was reports on the news that a massive EARTH QUAKE was going to hit nearby & there had already been a number of tremors there........... When I checked with Spirit they told me it was because of all the grief that was being projected onto that area & Mother Earth was struggling................. Spirit then told me complete a new EARTH Chakra meditation they had just taught me a few weeks earlier & THEN TO TAKE THE GRIEF INTO THE CENTRE OF MOTHER EARTH & TRANSMUTE IT BACK TO LIGHT........................ Myself & a couple of Spiritual friends went out into the bush & did what Spirit asked................We never heard of the earth quake again.....................THAT IS HOW POWERFUL WE ALL ARE........ You all have so much power within you & we all do have the power to stop anything if we choose including earthquakes or natural disasters!!!  We just have to choose the LIGHT...... the war has been won & all we need to do is step up into THE LIGHT.

Likewise about 6 months ago Spirit asked me to start doing some MP3 recordings to assist people to integrate the HIGHER FREQUENCIES of LIGHT pouring into Mother Earth at this time.........I personally could not see how this was possible in a MP3 recording.............. so I procrastinated!!!  But as usual Spirit got their way as everything stopped until I began these recordings........... AND BOY HAS THERE BEEN CHALLENGES AS THE DARK SIDE HAS TRIED THEIR HEART OUT TO STOP THESE FROM GOING AHEAD......But as my American Indian friends say..... this is the very reason we must continue..........Because we are the ones we have been waiting for!!!

SO PLEASE EVERYONE........ if you need help integrating these HIGHER FREQUENCIES OF LIGHT............ PLEASE, PLEASE JOIN US ON THURSDAY NIGHTS where a bunch of powerful Spiritual beings come together to heal their Hearts, Body, Mind & Soul in a powerful, uplifting & joyous meditation......... This is not about fixing or healing anything.....these evenings are about raising your vibration so you can accommodate the higher frequencies of light pouring into Mother Earth so you can use them to do more GREAT WORK ON MOTHER EARTH..

25 Ways Project People Can Train Their Mental Flexibility

Projects are about humans. Deal with that! And when dealing, it’s a project manager’s flexibility that comes in most handy since not only does mental agility ensure you keep yourself actively thinking, using those grey cells, it means you have the resilience to adapt to the only constant in life… change. Jonah Lehrer, in his article; Aging Gracefully — It’s a Real Workout, refers to the studies conducted on the cognitive development of a ‘thinking’ mind.

“Not only does an active mind have more cortical matter to lose — scientists refer to this as “cognitive reserve,” since the extra tissue serves as a buffer against cell death — but it also seems better able to adjust its activity in response to the insults of age. “The brain operates on a use-it-or-lose-it principle,” says Merzenich. “And the ability to cope with change seems to really be something you either use or lose.”"

So if your mum ever told you it would only gain you to use your brains for a change, it wasn’t far from what the scientists say today. Development of this essential flexibility for a good project manager demands a constant mental exercise, and sometimes just plain common sense. Let’s move on to the 25 ways to gain a flexible mind. Every item has a short link to an article on this blog, for if you want to explore that particular subject more in depth.
1. Ever wondered why the client needs a professional project manager? He can hire a team to do the job for him without paying you extra bucks but you still get the job of thrashing out ways to achieve a goal. You channel the scarce resources so they lead to one end aim that may actually be a moving target if the client decides on changes in the requirements. Similarly the coders themselves can be in a fix over something; maybe the big question would be ‘authority’ since projects are usually temporary set ups that move in different directions once the project is complete. It is your job to be able to communicate with all stakeholders and come out of a project with no losers. Work on your people skills and understand why they are needed. Soft skills make or break the aura of dependability around you, the very thing that lets the stakeholders trust you to get the job done for or from them. [more]
2. Self realization comes from self evaluation, if the process is never initiated a person can spend a lifetime in mediocrity and never really get to know himself. Watch for parts of your behavior that is there just to appear professional. Some people insist they cannot label humans, the assertion seems flawed when you consider how we put ourselves in boxes; conforming to notions, or expectations that become the group we wish to be in. Take for instance, your dressing for work. Managers wear suits. Period. Interestingly, while your suit may not have the brains to stitch itself, your professional appearance is important to your boss and for your team to be able to trust your professionalism. Flexibility does not demand that you try to stand out and refuse to wear the suits; it is conformation of the mind to plan-driven project management that means you compromise your flexibility for conformation, thus caging all resourcefulness. Never put your mind on autopilot just because you planned once in the distant past. [more]
3. Logic would say that if a certain number of individuals did something the way they did, it must have some thought behind it. That logic also dictates that to divert from those norms sets you out as a rebel but have you thought that the hoards of PMs before you could actually have been creating an aura for themselves? Doing things just to look important? To be an agile project manager, the challenge is to evaluate each norm and justify it to your best judge, yourself. Take time to explain your actions to yourself. Does that Gantt chart really help your planning? Is it really necessary for you to flaunt those precise two digit risk factors at the start of work when you know the project is based on variables? [more]
4. There is nothing more complex than managing a set of resources based on variables alone. For a project manager, there are no actual constants in the whole project situation. How many of us have been through projects that have even had the end goals changed when the client realized original aims were not viable? To stay on top of the game, a project manager has to realize he can never afford to stop learning since the only valuable experience is one you learn from, the rest is what you dragged through without any positives except the paycheck. Stay in active discussions with other PMs; you can even use their experiences to guide your own if you are smart. For the flexible mind, keep studying the complex cause and effect relationships because an otherwise simple 1+2 just never equals 3 in our field. [more]
5. Principles are important; we need those in life to be able to gain moral strength. But as a project manager, if your principles include never changing your mind and sticking with what you once planned, you are planning your own downfall. Meditate; see the project process as a flow. Your team is the resource you need to utilize to get to the aim, but there cannot be a trickier resource than people. Once a resource is not available, another has to be looked up. If a path is blocked, you can either remove the hurdle or you can take another route. The world moves on with or without us, so should your project. Being adamant and denying facts leads nowhere but the failed street. [more]
6. Flexibility in communication skills is a great asset for a PM. Realize that using technical jargon in front of a non technical person will result in nothing but wasted time with neither of you any wiser. The same applies for languages. You can only gain when you exercise your mind so the suggestion is to learn to speak the language your listener understands, especially if you are going to be in constant contact with the clients or offshore teams. While it has many benefits, including getting a perspective in the conversation you could never get otherwise, it is not always possible to learn the language of your clients. You can, however, strive to get off your platform and communicate with your audience in a language they understand or at least adapt and be comprehensible. [more]
7. Be a project shrink; be your own therapist. Self reflection is one of the best forms of mental exercise. And seriously, just to get to understand your own ideas, try writing. Use blogging as a sounding board to build your network and interact with other project managers who can share ideas and views with you. Unlike the spoken word which at times gets frivolous, written word has to be a lot clearer so the reader gets your purpose of writing. Suddenly your charismatic personality does not matter, the gestures cannot be seen; your words represent you and your opinions. This makes for a thorough exercise, and there will be times when you will realize a particular point felt complicated only in conversing, while writing you will be able to rationalize much better. [more]
8. Meditate. No, I am not repeating myself. There is the relaxed reflective meditation and then there is the real process of meditation. Find your empty corner and at least start your breathing exercises. Once you are ready, you will know when to up the ante on the exercises. This approach to empty your mind and set it free from the constant chatter inside it will actually give you a new perspective to your job. And a freer mind that’s not being held back by needless bias always lead to better judgment and flexibility. [more]
9. Inspirations go a long way in life. Untamed ambition can be your worst enemy, but without ambition mastered by morals, there can be meaninglessness to life that sinks people like nothing else. Always look for things that inspire you, some sports provide great inspiration. While it can be anything that makes you want to be the best at what you can be, inspirations in your field can help more since you can directly relate with them. You Tube, for instance, can give you access to many inspirational speeches or interviews with people who have achieved goals they aimed for. [more]
10. Inspirations do not always come from real life successes. Situations can compare very favorably to television shows as well. Relate project scenes / scenarios to your favorite television shows. Mental flexibility granted through an active imagination will lead you to some unconventional yet implementable ideas, not to mention PM metaphors. The A-Team’s resourcefulness comes to mind and you start believing you do not need to be Superman, nor do you need super machines to get to your goals, it is all in the mind and how you adapt your environment to suit your project needs. [more]
11. Try to come up with three different metaphors for your project. This may sound odd to some, but there is hardly a better exercise for the mind than to look for similarities and think through the images you come up with. Interestingly enough, mental chess games of cause and effect relationships with your metaphors actually help you find creative solutions if your metaphors are truly applicable to your project. [more]
12. We need our metaphors and one of the best that cover the complexity of our situation is the fish pond with big fish as well as the little ones. The need for drainage and maintenance is the same as your need to keep your team’s environment free of toxic coworkers who just cannot help but pollute the team spirit. The survival metaphor applies, so does a lot else. Dwell on the idea and view your project or organization as a fish pond. Work out the similarities in your mind like the organizational structure of your organization and that of the pond, there is a lot you can learn from the little fellows. [more]
13. Half the challenge of adapting to a change is to understand the problem, and the rest is about implementation of plan B. To understand the hurdles in your way, the ability to empathize can be a huge plus for you. We have a natural tendency to be harsh in our evaluation when we are detached from a situation. Emotions just do not make sense until we experience them and therefore, I suggest practice putting yourself in another’s position when you are about to judge them because then you can actually be more fair in your evaluations. This, by the way, can also guide you in how to handle a team member in trouble because you can get a fair picture of the situation. [more]
14. As a project manager, you are a leader and your team looks up to you. To increase your resilience, as well as to enhance your team’s capabilities, think about your team. Work them out and try to understand their psyche as individuals and as a team. While they will work for the money, you can get more out of them cent per cent if they are motivated instead of when they are dragging their feet. Spend time with them; communicate in a manner that tells them you are a part of the team instead of someone there to pick out their mistakes alone. There are so many ways you can motivate your team, use them and in doing so, you will be motivating yourself as well. A motivated mind can think through anything. [more]
15. People are complex beings, you cannot hack slash through a project without coming out with bruises yourself and coworkers who would rather starve rather than work with you again. Instead, study the behavior of individual coworkers and deal with them according to their character dimensions [more]:

• Process vs. Content: Usually it is the management that swoons over the planning of a project and the people actually implementing the plans want to focus on the content. Don’t generalize though, individuals differ.
• Reference Group: Find out who aspires for what status; programmers will usually have role models in their field, managers in theirs The source of inspiration tells you how the person thinks.
• Change versus Status Quo: Some people embrace change, and others hang on to the status quo as long as they can. You have to motivate both types, especially the latter because they will be the ones losing their beloved set ways when you need to adapt to a change.
• Defined versus Creative: Know who likes to conform to the plans and who wants space to exercise creativity. Usually the status quo wants to conform; the creative ones look out for change.
• Group versus Individual: Some people work best when left alone at their work, give them the objectives and they will come out tops, putting them in team conditions hampers their productivity, the opposite is valid for those who work best with others.

16. With foreign teams and outsourced jobs, the evaluation of personalities gets trickier than for your known culture since the basic values differ in so many ways. Evaluate the behavior of your foreign coworkers based upon these 6 largely cultural dimensions [more]:

• Future “Present” Past Orientation: Some cultures dwell in their past, some think present is everything and then there is still another belief that the future can be honed to your desires through impeccable planning. Each stance grooms different personalities and it is up to the PM to recognize them.
• Time-Plentiful vs. Time-Is-Money: There are two types of people; one that believe what is good today will be so tomorrow as well. That no fuss approach is a contrast to the view that time is money; each moment wasted is a loss.
• Respect For The Man: Just being the boss in some cultures will get your respect, which may actually mean you never get ‘no’ for an answer, in other cultures you will have to earn the respect and in still others, you can earn your respect and still never be able to get things your way unless you happen to be able to convince your team.
• Me vs. Us: Your project team’s capabilities depend on how they gel and think as a team. There is a world of difference between those that operate as individuals and those that work as a team.
• Spelling Everything Out vs. Its Only Natural: Similarly qualified people can have different views to what is taken for granted and what needs explanation. One programmer might want you to go into each minute detail to know exactly what you want; another might take it as an offense that you are explaining the petty stuff.
• Doing Everything At Once Or One Thing After The Other: Not everyone responds to multitasking well. Some work systematically while others may start everything and get different modules ready for compilation at the end.

17. Give your team feedback. It is usually not our favorite way to exercise out mental capabilities but it has to be done. There are pros and cons of every method of feedback; be it verbal, written or in shapes of graphs and power point sheets. If you do well, the problems can be sorted out by the motivated minds; if you do not there just might be trouble around the corner. The question you have to deal with is choosing the medium of your feedback. You can do it verbally but there are problems with cross referencing later if no records are kept, so the best way is to back that up with written feedback. It is not a bad idea to mentally prepare what you are going to say because a wrong word, or an accusatory tone, can ruin your team’s morale. Be kind but honest in evaluation. [more]
18. The ‘agile’ management theory takes on the oft asserted statement that change is constant. The preplanned management style, on the other hand, defines all the minute details before starting out; often needing to change plans when things do not go right. There will be times when either system fits a project perfectly but that won’t be often. True flexibility comes from not being fixed on one theory. It is the combination of both methods that ensures you salvage some periods during the project where you can relax the mind and avoid working it too hard, it makes for more stable working conditions as well. [more]
19. Deliberate every process element of your plan and mull over what it is supposed achieve. Waste of time is always a loss of a scarce resource to a PM. Instead of working out exact plans for development, figure out why you need each element of the process in the first place. Once you answer why a process exists, you can be flexible in how you implement the elements of the plan and you will be able to skip an element of the plan when it is actually redundant. [more]
20. Analogies go a long way in thinking things through and the comparisons make you appreciate the complexity of life itself. Think about a big city, and try to associate different parts of town with your organization. Your client views your work from a distance, a detached figure just concerned with the output of the city, the numbers and digits. The project manager, on the other hand, has to zoom in and out to know what is happening. As you zoom in, the complexity of each task and the teams performing the task at a personal and at a team level becomes clear. You have to keep zooming out from time to time as well, just to make sure that one area you were looking at fits the whole picture perfectly. It is the whole that makes the city produce what it does, that’s what the client is interested in, but disruption in one area might affect the whole situation. [more]
21. Play with Google Earth, another interesting tool you can use to enhance your vision. You can zoom in or out like you would in your project’s overview, just to see if everything works together or not and you can focus on different fields of your project as well. The tool basically carries the analogies forward. [more]
22. Observation is a key to knowledge and for a project manager the toughest resource to figure out is the people he is working with. You cannot experiment with people’s emotions (that would be a bit drastic) but you can find models in simulation that follow essentially the same principles. Play The Sims to see how people react in different circumstances. Since the game is based on living conditions, social, personal and economic needs you can get a good overview to base further observations on. Don’t take this too literally though, most humans do not keep swimming till they run out of energy when you delete the ladder from the swimming pool! [more]
23. “Quite frankly, in today’s highly competitive marketplace we have to touch base often to manage expectations and meet industry standards… so when rubber hits the road we can make it a plus for all stake holders and reinvent ourselves. If we have the courage of our convictions we can make this into a win-win situation for all stakeholders.” What did I just say? A lot, but basically nothing other than ‘hey, we can probably do it but we are not doing so well just now’. Clichés are a great way to hide the truth, or to obscure it, or present it in a manner that makes it vague enough to not be as glaring as the truth would be. Or sometimes it is used simply to avoid answering the question. Create a large list of your (or your colleagues) project management clichés, check when you resort to one. [more]
24. Mull over why your project / company or industry is located around the world the way it is. I know it is going into the basics but while you can, mull over the trends in the world. Why is your company outsourcing to the developing countries? Why are the jobs going elsewhere? Consider the effects of globalization and how it is affecting the environment around the world. [more]
25. We create our own categories; they are logical conceptions that a variety of individuals may agree on and base a system upon. When taught in management classes they become pseudo realities for project managers. We can subscribe to either view and stick to our guns all the way, or we can ponder the artificiality of ‘agile’ as well as ‘plan-driven’ management. Consider why we let these artificially imposed images dictate to us. This of course gets you back to your project goals; if there are no ‘agile’ or plan-driven projects, the job is as easy as getting the work done with the most effective method possible. [more]

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Bas de Baar, blogging as “The Project Shrink“, is taking his message to the International Project Management community with a vengeance: “Projects Are About Humans, Now Deal With That!” With over a decade spent in the trenches as Software Project Manager within the publishing industry, running multi-national teams, he has a lot to talk about. Bas is the editor of SoftwareProjects.org, a website dedicated to all those people who make up IT projects. He holds a masters degree in Business Informatics and currently lives with his wife in the coastal town of Zandvoort, The Netherlands. His latest book, “Surprise! Now You’re a Software Project Manager“, was published in September 2006.

TOP INVENTIONS OF PAST YEARS.

The Top 50 Inventions of the Past 50 Years

1955—TV REMOTE CONTROL

It marks the official end of humanity's struggle for survival and the beginning of its quest for a really relaxing afternoon. The first wireless remote, designed by Zenith's Eugene Polley, is essentially a flashlight. When Zenith discovers that direct sunlight also can change channels on the remote-receptive TVs, the company comes out with a model that uses ultrasound; it lasts into the 1980s, to the chagrin of many a family dog. The industry then switches to infrared.

1955—MICROWAVE OVEN
In 1945 Raytheon's Percy Spencer stands in front of a magnetron (the power tube of radar) and feels a candy bar start to melt in his pocket: He is intrigued. When he places popcorn kernels in front of the magnetron, the kernels explode all over the lab. Ten years later Spencer patents a "radar range" that cooks with high-frequency radio waves; that same year, the Tappan Stove Co. introduces the first home microwave model.

1957—BIRTH-CONTROL PILL
Enovid, a drug the FDA approves for menstrual disorders, comes with a warning: The mixture of synthetic progesterone and estrogen also prevents ovulation. Two years later, more than half a million American women are taking Enovid—and not all of them have cramps. In 1960 the FDA approves Enovid for use as the first oral contraceptive.

1958—JET AIRLINER
The Boeing 707-120 debuts as the world's first successful commercial jet airliner, ushering in the era of accessible mass air travel. The four-engine plane carries 181 passengers and cruises at 600 mph for up to 5280 miles on a full tank. The first commercial jet flight takes off from New York and lands in Paris; domestic service soon connects New York and Los Angeles.

1959—FLOAT GLASS
There's a reason old windowpanes distort everything: They were made by rapidly squeezing a sheet of red-hot glass between two hot rollers, which produced a cheap but uneven pane. British engineer Alastair Pilkington revolutionizes the process by floating molten glass on a bath of molten tin—by nature, completely flat. The first factory to produce usable float glass opens in 1959; an estimated 90 percent of plate glass is still produced this way.


1961—CORDLESS TOOLS
Black and Decker releases its first cordless drill, but designers can't coax more than 20 watts from its NiCd batteries. Instead, they strive for efficiency, modifying gear ratios and using better materials. The revolutionary result puts new power in the hands of DIYers and—thanks to a NASA contract—the gloves of astronauts.

1961—INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
The Unimate, the first programmable industrial robot, is installed on a General Motors assembly line in New Jersey. Conceived by George C. Devol Jr. to move and fetch things, the invention gets a lukewarm reception in the United States. Japanese manufacturers love it and, after licensing the design in 1968, go on to dominate the global market for industrial robots.

1962—COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE
Telstar is launched as the first "active" communications satellite—active as in amplifying and retransmitting incoming signals, rather than passively bouncing them back to Earth. Telstar makes real a 1945 concept by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who envisioned a global communications network based on geosynchronous satellites. Two weeks after Telstar's debut, President Kennedy holds a press conference in Washington, D.C., that is broadcast live across the Atlantic.

1962—LED
Working as a consultant for General Electric, Nick Holonyak develops the light-emitting diode (LED), which provides a simple and inexpensive way for computers to convey information. From their humble beginnings in portable calculators, LEDs spread from the red light that indicates coffee is brewing to the 290-ft.-tall Reuters billboard in Times Square.

1964—UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES
Widespread use of remotely piloted aircraft begins during the Vietnam War with deployment of 1000 AQM-34 Ryan Firebees. The first model of these 29-ft.-long planes was developed in just 90 days in 1962. AQM-34s go on to fly more than 34,000 surveillance missions. Their success leads to the eventual development of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles widely used today.

STATS

1962/VIDEO GAMES MIT programmers write Spacewar; 43 years later 89 percent of school-age kids own video games. 1955/POLIO VACCINE The year Jonas Salk finds a way to prevent polio, there are 28,985 global cases; by 2005, the number drops to 1200. 1957/THREE-POINT SEATBELT According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, more than 15,000 American lives are saved in 2005 by Nils Bohlin's device.

The first general-purpose computer, the nearly 30-ton ENIAC (1947), contains 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors and 10,000 capacitors. In 1959, the INTEGRATED CIRCUIT puts those innards on one tiny chip. Before the entire world is networked, there is the ARPANET—four computers linked in 1969. It introduces the concept of "packet switching," which simultaneously delivers messages as short units and reassembles them at their destination. The Apple II, Commodore Pet and Radio Shack's TRS-80 are introduced in 1977—four years before IBM, soon to become synonymous with the term "PC," unveils its PERSONAL COMPUTER. In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee creates "hypertext markup language" (HTML) to make Web pages and the "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL) to identify where information is stored. These breakthroughs form the foundation of the WORLD WIDE WEB.

1964—MUSIC SYNTHESIZER
Robert Moog develops the first electronic synthesizer to make the leap from machine to musical instrument. Moog's device not only generates better sounds than other synthesizers, it can be controlled by a keyboard rather than by punch cards. The subsequent acceptance of electronic music is a crucial step in developing audio technology for computers, cellphones and stereos.

1966—HIGH-YIELD RICE
The International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines releases a semi-dwarf, high-yield Indica variety that, in conjunction with high-yield wheat, ushers in the Green Revolution. Indica rice thrives in tropical regions of Asia and South America, raising worldwide production more than 20 percent by 1970.

1969—SMOKE DETECTOR
Randolph Smith and Kenneth House patent a battery-powered smoke detector for home use. Later models rely on perhaps the cheapest nuclear technology you can own: a chunk of americium-241. The element's radioactive particles generate a small electric current. If smoke enters the chamber it disrupts the current, triggering an alarm.

1969—CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICE
Bell Labs' George Smith and Willard Boyle invent a charge-coupled device (CCD) that can measure light arriving at a rate of just one photon per minute. Smith and Boyle's apparatus allows extremely faint images to be recorded, which is very useful in astronomy. Today, its most noticeable impact is in digital cameras, which rely on CCD arrays containing millions of pixels.

1970—DIGITAL MUSIC
James Russell, a scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, invents the first digital-to-optical recording and playback system, in which sounds are represented by a string of 0s and 1s and a laser reads the binary patterns etched on a photosensitive platter. Russell isn't able to convince the music industry to adopt his invention, but 20 years later, Time Warner and other CD manufacturers pay a $30 million patent infringement settlement to Russell's former employer, the Optical Recording Co.

1971—WAFFLE-SOLE RUNNING SHOES
Bill Bowerman, the track coach at the University of Oregon, sacrifices breakfast for peak performance when he pours rubber into his wife's waffle iron, forming lightweight soles for his athletes' running shoes. Three years later, Bowerman's company, Nike, introduces the Waffle Trainer, which is an instant hit.

RADICAL FIBERS

From easy-on shoes to lighter tennis rackets and stronger planes, revolutionary materials have changed our lives.

In 1955, Patent No. 2,717,437 is issued to George de Mestral for VELCRO, a fabric inspired by burrs that stick to his dog's fur. In 1961 researchers in Japan develop high-quality CARBON-FIBER COMPOSITES, capping a decade of experimentation with plastics reinforced by carbon fibers. Thanks to DuPont's Stephanie Kwolek and Herbert Blades, who in 1965 invent a high-strength polymer called KEVLAR, the body armor of 2920 police and correctional officers has protected them from fatal attacks. The term "FIBEROPTIC" is coined in 1956, but it isn't until 1970 that scientists at Corning produce a fiber of ultrapure glass that transmits light well enough to be used for telecommunications.

1972—ELECTRONIC IGNITION
Chrysler paves the way for the era of electronic—rather than mechanical—advances in automobiles with the electronic ignition. It leads to electronic control of ignition timing and fuel metering, harbingers of more sophisticated systems to come. Today, these include electronic control transmission shift points, antilock brakes, traction control systems, steering and airbag deployment.

1973—MRI
Everyone agrees that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a brilliant invention—but no one agrees on who invented it. The physical effect that MRIs rely on—nuclear magnetic resonance—earns various scientists Nobel Prizes for physics in 1944 and 1952. Many believe that Raymond Damadian establishes the machine's medical merit in 1973, when he first uses magnetic resonance to discern healthy tissue from cancer. Yet, in 2003, the Nobel Prize for medicine goes to Peter Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield for their "seminal discoveries." The topic of who is the worthiest candidate remains hotly debated.

1978—GPS
The first satellite in the modern Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) is launched. (The GPS's precursor, TRANSIT, was developed in the early 1960s to guide nuclear subs.) It is not until the year 2000, though, that President Clinton grants nonmilitary users access to an unscrambled GPS signal. Now, cheap, handheld GPS units can determine a person's location to within 3 yards.

1981—SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE
By moving the needle of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) across a surface and monitoring the electric current that flows through it, scientists can map a surface to the level of single atoms. The STM is so precise that it not only looks at atoms—it also can manipulate them into structures. The microscope's development earns IBM researchers Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer a Nobel Prize and helps launch the emerging era of nanotechnology.

1984—DNA FINGERPRINTING
Molecular biologist Alec Jeffreys devises a way to make the analysis of more than 3 billion units in the human DNA sequence much more manageable by comparing only the parts of the sequence that show the greatest variation among people. His method quickly finds its way into the courts, where it is used to exonerate people wrongly accused of crimes and to finger the true culprits.

USES

LIFESAVERS

Over the past 50 years, a few pivotal medical discoveries have helped to boost adult life expectancy dramatically.

In 1956, Wilson Greatbatch grabs the wrong resistor and connects it to a device he is building to record heartbeats. When the circuit emits a pulse, he realizes the device can be used to control the beat; in 1960 the first PACEMAKER is successfully implanted in a human. Rene Favaloro performs the first CORONARY BYPASS SURGERY in 1967, taking a length of vein from a leg and grafting it onto the coronary artery. This allows blood to flow around the blocked section. Thanks in part to these advances, the number of deaths from heart disease declines in the U.S. by almost 50 percent. The outlook for people infected by HIV also dramatically changes. The FDA approves Invirase, the first of a class of drugs called HIV PROTEASE INHIBITORS, in 1995. By blocking the function of enzymes used in the virus's replication, the inhibitors can reduce HIV to undetectable levels for sustained periods in up to 90 percent of patients.


1985—POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION
Biochemist Kary Mullis invents a technique that exploits enzymes in order to make millions of copies of a tiny scrap of DNA quickly and cheaply. No matter how small or dried-out a bloodstain is, forensic scientists can now gather enough genetic material to do DNA fingerprinting. With PCR, doctors also can search for trace amounts of HIV genetic code to diagnose infection much sooner than by conventional methods.

1987—PROZAC
Prozac becomes the first in a new class of FDA-approved antidepressants called "selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors," which block the reabsorption of the mood-elevating neurotransmitter serotonin, thereby prolonging its effects. Though at times controversial, Prozac helps patients cope with clinical depression, reshaping our understanding of how personality and emotion can be chemically controlled. Within five years, 4.5 million Americans are taking Prozac—making it the most widely accepted psychiatric drug ever.

1998—GENETIC SEQUENCING
Scientist Craig Venter announces that his company will sequence the entire human genome in just three years and for only $300 million—12 years and $2 billion less than a federally funded project established to do the same thing. Venter uses a method called "shotgun sequencing" to make automated gene sequencers, instead of relying on the laborious approach used by the government program. The result is an acrimonious race to the finish, which ends in a tie. Both groups announce the completion of the human genome sequence in papers published in 2001.

1998—MP3 PLAYER
Depending on who you ask, the MP3 is either the end of civilization (record companies) or the dawn of a new world (everyone else). The Korean company Saehan introduces its MPMan in 1998, long before Apple asks, "Which iPod are you?" When the Diamond Rio hits the shelves a few months later, the Recording Industry Association of America sues—providing massive publicity and a boost to digital technology.

2002—IEEE 802.16
The geniuses at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers publish a wireless metropolitan area network standard that functions like Wi-Fi on steroids. An 802.16 antenna can transmit Internet access up to a 30-mile radius at speeds comparable to DSL and cable broadband. When it all shakes out, 802.16 could end up launching developing nations into the digital age by eliminating the need for wired telecommunications infrastructure.

FORWARD DRIVE

With 196 million licensed drivers in the U.S., a little automotive innovation can conserve a whole lot of oil.

The fuel cell goes back more than 150 years, and the first FUEL CELL VEHICLE—a 20-hp tractor—is built in 1959. But it isn't until 1993 that a Canadian company, Ballard Power Systems, demonstrates the first zero-emissions fuel cell bus. Since then, progress toward an economically viable fuel cell car has remained slow but steady. Likewise, Ferdinand Porsche wins his class at the 1902 Exelberg Hill-Climb in Austria in a front-wheel-drive HYBRID-ELECTRIC CAR. But it is almost a century later, in 1997, that Toyota surprises its rivals by unveiling the hybrid Prius to Japanese consumers. It takes nearly three years for the Prius to reach North America.

Read more: The Top 50 Inventions of the Past 50 Years - Popular Mechanics 



 
1958/LASER BEAM Whitens teeth, removes tattoos, corrects vision, scans groceries, tracks missiles. 1978/GENETIC ENGINEERING Produces insulin, creates vaccines, clones sheep, increases shelf life of tomatoes, manipulates human cells to prevent disease. 1958/SUPER GLUE Repairs a broken taillight, reassembles a vase, strengthens knots on a hammock, closes wounds, lifts fingerprints.

3-D model of rat brain circuit created

3-D model of rat brain circuit created

After six years and several million dollars, scientists have created a 3-D model of a rat brain circuit.

The accomplishment is a first step toward creating a complete computer model of the brain that will allow a deeper understanding of how our noggins work — and what causes them to malfunction, according to the scientists behind the feat.

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For a starting point, researchers at the Max Planck Florida Institute are focused on how the rat brain processes information gathered by a single whisker.

They did so because studies in their lab and elsewhere have shown that a single whisker is able to detect, in complete darkness, whether a gap is safe to jump over and, if so, trigger the order to jump. 

What's more, there's a specific region of the brain "that is dedicated to processing information from a dedicated whisker," Marcel Oberlaender, a researcher at the institute and the first author of a paper explaining the research in the journal Cerebral Cortex, told me today.

That region is called the cortical column, a vertically-organized series of connected neurons that form a brain circuit and an elementary building block of the cortex. 

The cortex is the part of the brain responsible for many of the higher functions, such as memory and consciousness.

To build the model, the researchers studied the cortical column in awake and anesthetized rats as well as brain slices and then used computer software and other tools to reconstruct it.

"The model we built is really based on a complete reconstruction of these nerve cells," Oberlaender said. "So how the model looks in the end resembles how it would look in the real animal."

It is composed of 16,000 neurons, each of which can be divided into one of nine different cell types that has characteristic functional, structural and connectivity properties, he added.

The model can now be used to run computer simulations that show, in realistic detail, how signals flow within the brain. So, they can begin to understand, for example, what neurons fire as the rat detects the gap and decides whether or not to jump.

Until now, researchers have only been able to see how a single neuron or a small group of neurons interact during such a process. "We can now, in simulation experiments, mimic what is really going on in these circuits," Oberlaender said.

Going forward, the researchers should be able to use the methodology developed to build this model to add more parts to it, thus incorporating other brain functions such as the motor system that sends a signal down the spinal cord and makes the limbs move so that rat can jump over the gap.

More on brain science and technology:

• 3-D brain model could revolutionize neurology
• Test-tube brain aces 'plop' quiz
• 'Brain in a dish' may lead to stroke recovery
• Cat brain inspires computer of the future
• IBM unveils brain-like chip
• Breakthrough chip mimics human brain function

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Prestige Microchef, A New Cooker For Microwave Oven Arrives

India's own home appliances company Prestige has come out with a novel pressure cooker dubbed as ‘Microchef’ that can be used in microwave oven. With this, the company hopes the usage of microwave oven would increase in India.

 

“Prestige has always been on top when it comes to consumer preferences and Microchef is one such product which was created to suit the growing needs of Indian women,” Managing Director of TTK Prestige S Ravichandran was quoted as saying.

 

 

The cooker is made of superior plastic and also ensures preserving nutrients as the vessel is kept closed in the microwave oven.

 

“The speedy cooking in microwave oven ensures you save time and energy. This innovative kitchen appliance not only maximises the use of microwave oven, but also preserves the nutrients that are otherwise lost using a open vessel in the microwave oven. Discover healthy cooking like never before with Prestige Microchef,” Prestige said in its website.

 

The Microchef comes priced at around Rs.1,345.50 in the Indian market. The cooker comes in two shades- red and green. Prestige also sells the cooker online with Rs. 90 additional charges for shipping.

If Facebook Made a Phone, Would You Friend It?

If Facebook Made a Phone, Would You Friend It?

Why would you want to buy a "Facebook phone," if—as is widely rumored—one is under development? 

Here's why: if social networking is already the center of your online activity, a Facebook smart phone might be far easier to use. If a fraction of Facebook's 800 million users were to make the switch, they would represent a powerful market force.

The phone project was revealed in reports last week that said Facebook had forged a partnership with handset maker HTC and was planning to use a version of the Android operating system, which will be tweaked to integrate Facebook deeply into its services and will support HTML5 as a platform for mobile games and apps. The reports said the phone could take 12 to 18 months to reach market. Facebook is saying nothing about the project; a spokesman said the company would not comment on "rumor and speculation."

Already, Facebook's are among the most popular apps on most smart phones. The company says that its apps on different platforms have 350 million active mobile users. The problem Facebook confronts is that its product is not very deeply "integrated," in industry parlance, into the devices that people use socially every day to e-mail, send photos, and keep in touch with friends.  It's just one of many apps people use.

For example, on an iPhone, if you open a Web page and click on the menu, you have the option of tweeting the link but not of sharing it on Facebook. That's because Twitter got itself integrated, and Facebook, for whatever reason, did not. On some Android phones, Facebook is integrated in this way, but it could be even better integrated into the devices.

To use an iPhone to send a link to your Facebook friends, you need to take more steps to open and use the Facebook app. And much the same problem pertains to reporting your location, sending a photo, playing games, or engaging in any of a host of other activities.

But on a Facebook phone, such functions could be the default option. And people would find it easier to use Facebook itself—making Facebook an even more titanic Hoover of personal information than it already is.

Facebook could go even further by directing all communications—including voice and text messaging—through its platform. And it could use that same platform to deliver content, including music and video, to users.