Introducing the Window Socket, a solar charger that adheres to windows with suction and acts like an electrical socket converting energy from the Sun. Its inventors are Kyuho Song and Boa Oh, two industrial designers. Each Window Socket contains a 1,000 milliamp- hour battery, equivalent to the batt

Here’s an interesting fact. Greater than half of the population of this planet prepares meals each day using indoor open fires or cook stoves. There are enormous health implications for those families, and in particular infants, who breathe in the toxic smoke that includes carbon monoxide (CO)

It isn’t just newspapers and mass circulation magazines that are being impacted by the rise of e-publishing and the Internet. Science journalism is also taking a hit as traditional print media advertising revenues dry up. Those who write the journal articles may not see it hit their pocketbook

Last week I finished reading Al Gore’s latest tome, a follow up to his well publicized “An Inconvenient Truth,” probably his most significant contribution to the global climate change debate, although I would think “debate” is an over statement at this stage. As I diges

A resort hotel to be built in China plans to use surface heat from the ocean to provide its energy requirements. Called Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion or OTEC, this is technology that uses the difference between warm tropical ocean surface water and colder deep water to generate electricity. The te

What technology and science stories caught my eye this week? Several in biomedicine. And two involving 3D printing, one for making liver, the other for mass customized manufacturing. A forecast of changes to climate zones as our atmosphere continues to heat. And a new commercial rocket joining the c

Every year the MIT Technology Review picks the ten technologies that represent significant breakthroughs.  Past years have included crowdfunding in 2012, gestural interfaces to computers in 2011, engineered stem cells in 2010 and low cost DNA sequencing in 2009, just to name a few. What’s on t

We are all too familiar with the destructive power of ammonium nitrate when mixed with gasoline or diesel fuel. At the same time we know it as a common fertilizer needed to ensure good agriculture yields. Is there a way to neutralize the stuff so that people like Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma City b

It’s always nice to write about technological innovation coming from your own country. So today I’m happy to introduce you to Canada’s current and future contribution to the nuclear energy mix. Canada produced the CANDU reactor in the 1950s, its contribution to current nuclear ener

Quebec-based Lito Green Motion has developed an all-electric motor bike that comes with a 12 Kilowatt lithium-polymer battery. Called the Sora which means “sky” in Japanese, the bike has a range of 300 kilometers (185 miles) per charge. Using a conventional outlet it takes 8 hours to rec