Inventors and Remarkable People

400th robotic-assisted heart surgery

By Emily Clark

01:03 June 24, 2008 PDT

The rise of robotic surgery has marked a new age in medical science and one of its pioneers has just reached a major milestone. Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood, Jr. has performed his 400th robotic-assisted mitral valve repair at Pitt County Memorial Hospital. Read More

The Mundaneum – the analog internet

By Mike Hanlon

23:00 June 17, 2008 PDT

Historians typically trace the origins of the World Wide Web through a lineage of Anglo-American inventors like Vannevar Bush, Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson. Now Belgian Paul Otlet another pioneer of information management and universally accessible information is beginning to gain recognition for his Mundaneum. Great video here on the life of the man who used terms like web of knowledge, link, and knowledge network to describe his vision for a central repository of all human knowledge – 100 years ago. Read More

French cyclist to attempt channel crossing on pedal-powered airship

By Loz Blain

18:29 April 30, 2008 PDT

May 1, 2008 Those magnificent men in their flying machines... the first purely human-powered aircraft, the Gossamer Albatross, crossed the English Channel in 1979 with its pilot Bryan Allen pedaling the feather-light winged plane across in two hours to collect the UKP100,000 Kremer prize. This feat caught the imagination of French cyclist Stephane Rousson, who this European summer will attempt to cycle across the Channel pedaling a twin-tilting-rotor helium airship. It's the first pedal-powered airship of its kind, complete with very delicate aerodynamics that mean Rousson will need to chance upon one of the three windless days of the year if he hopes to stay up-diddly-up-up and not go crashing down-diddly-own-down. Read More

Kalashnikov Burglar Alarm

By Mike Hanlon

23:20 April 13, 2008 PDT

April 14, 2008 The Kalashnikov has been the common man’s rifle for sixty years and has been responsible for more misery and wasted humanity than any other invention of history. Now an ingenious Afghan inventor, Hanif Molavizadeh, has built one into a burglar alarm - a highly effective, seat-of-the-pants mash-up that includes a cell and speaker phone, sensors, and armed response. Trigger the alarm by waving a hand outside the window of Molavizadeh's one-room home and the alarm sounds. It also calls Molavizadeh's cell phone so he can have a conversation with the would-be burglar via a speakerphone in the alarm, and if he doesn’t like the answers he gets, he can fire the Kalashnikov remotely. He’s working on an equally punitive anti-theft system for his car. Read More

35th Anniversary of the first public cell phone call

By Noel McKeegan

23:14 April 3, 2008 PDT

April 4, 2008 With around half the world's population expected to be carrying a mobile phone by the end of this year, it's hard to believe that its just 35 years since the first ever public cell phone call was made. Yesterday marked the anniversary of the historical call made on the streets of New York by portable cell phone inventor Martin Cooper, then general manager of Motorola’s Communications Systems Division. Read More

Barilliant - new system for an old industry

By Mike Hanlon

01:51 February 27, 2008 PST

Alcohol is one of the world’s most traded commodities. Central to the liquor industry are the millions of liquor serveries which serves millions of litrer of alcohol each day, a glass at a time. The biggest problem of this massive service industry is shrinkage – around 10-15% of tap beer goes straight down the drain in most pubs. New bar management system Barilliant monitors and minimizes wastage by accounting for every milliliter of alcohol using sensors, wireless technologies, and RFID staff identification, right down to how effectively every barman pours a beer. The system can be expected to save 5 to 10 percent of total throughput – very big bikkies. Read More

Groundbreaking system to prevent collisions between whales and sea-craft

By Noel McKeegan

17:38 February 24, 2008 PST

An unlucky passenger who died when a high-speed ferry rammed into a sperm whale in the Canary islands was the world’s first known victim of a new form of pollution – ocean noise. In places where marine traffic is heavy, vessels fast and whale numbers expanding, violent encounters are increasingly common. The cause of the accident, says marine biologist and Rolex Awards for Enterprise Laureate Michel André, most probably lay in damage to the whale’s sensitive hearing apparatus caused by the rising roar of man-made noise throughout the oceans. The whale was stone deaf – and simply didn’t hear the ferry coming in time to avoid it. Julian Cribb reports. Read More

Light up the World: tens of thousands benefit from pioneering solar project

By Noel McKeegan

15:42 February 17, 2008 PST

Tens of thousands of people living in disadvantaged areas around the world now have reliable household lighting thanks to Scots-Canadian photonics engineer Dave Irvine-Halliday. For ten years he has been supplying low-cost lighting in developing countries through his foundation, Light Up The World, an achievement that has earned him a Rolex Awards for Enterprise. It is a project with potential to make a huge difference to the world as a whole: each year the kerosene lamps that flare in the homes of the poor liberate 244 million tonnes of CO2. Dave’s solar lighting sets offer huge scope to reduce those emissions and save poor people money at the same time. Francesco Raeli reports. Read More

RoboTrac: pre-programmable, semi-autonomous tractor concept

By Noel McKeegan

17:55 February 13, 2008 PST

February 14, 2008 Designed to perform a range of pre-programmed agricultural tasks in vineyards, coffee farms, orchards and nurseries, this futuristic driver-less tractor concept aims to boost efficiency, minimize crop damage and remove humans for hazardous environments using GPS and Internet to track its location. The Valtra RoboTrac from 25 year old Estonian industrial designer Hannes Seeberg - whose portfolio also includes an intriguing Skylift self-propelled boarding aircraft boarding system - combines an 85 hp engine diesel engine and rear-wheel steering in either a two or four wheel drive configuration with the remotely programmable computerized navigation system to enable anything from tilling and plowing to planting and spraying. Read More

World's biggest fish gets a black-box flight recorder

By Noel McKeegan

16:27 February 12, 2008 PST

This year the secret life of one of the Earth’s largest and most mysterious creatures, the whale shark, will be laid bare for the first time when some of the gentle giants off Western Australia’s coral Ningaloo coast are equipped with "black box flight recorders". The project is the result of a collaboration between two Laureates of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise – Australian Brad Norman who set up the world’s first photo-ID system for identifying whale sharks and Briton Rory Wilson, who has developed the world’s most sophisticated device for monitoring the activity of animals in the wild. With capabilities beyond those of GPS-based animal tracking systems, Wilson's logger monitors changes in an animal’s acceleration in every direction – forward/back, up/down or sideways - at a rate of up to 32 times a second, and, combined with a compass, determines the animal’s speed, direction and position. Julian Cribb and Graeme O'Neill report. Read More

The Electric Super Tipper Truck

By Mike Hanlon

14:42 February 11, 2008 PST

Most of us first encountered the concept of a tip truck in the sand pit as toddlers – and they’ve been pretty much all the same basic concept since then. The electric-powered Super Tipper Truck is not confined by traditional thinking as it does not require a traditional power train and with no problems about storing lots of heavy batteries for delivering massive electrical power to each in-wheel motor, the Haishan Deng-designed Super Tipper delivers more unloading and loading options, greater accuracy, greater worker safety and more efficiency to the construction industry. “I set out to find a ‘new way’ for this important equipment of construction,” said innovative designer Haishan. “The concept concentrates on enabling more possibilities for the loading and unloading process. Common trucks can only unload to backward or sidewards”. Read More

iPhone named Time Magazine Invention of the Year

By Noel McKeegan

16:24 November 5, 2007 PST

November 6, 2007 Having crashed its way into the lexicon as well as the marketplace in spectacular fashion in June, Apple’s iPhone has been recognized as Time Magazine’s Invention of the Year for 2007. Read More

Remarkable inventor pioneered human-powered flight

By Emily Clark

18:00 September 5, 2007 PDT

September 6, 2007 The aeronautical world is mourning the loss of visionary inventor, designer and engineer Dr Paul MacCready, who passed away on 28 August 2007. Among his very long list of accomplishments, he was most widely known as the "father of human-powered flight". Using a craft he created, the Gossamer Condor, MacCready made the first sustained, controlled flight by a heavier-than-air craft powered solely by its pilot's muscles. Read More

Key component of calculus identified two centuries before Newton

By Emily Clark

19:28 August 15, 2007 PDT

August 16, 2007 New research suggests that a key aspect of the calculus, commonly attributed to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz in the late 1600s, may in fact have been discovered more than two centuries earlier by scholars at the Kerala School in southwest India. Read More

Happy birthday to the WWW

By Mike Hanlon

03:40 August 7, 2007 PDT

August 7, 2007 The invention of the Internet cannot be pinned down to any specific time, place or person as it was developed primarily for military and scientific applications throughout the 60s and 70s in the US. The World Wide Web on the other hand, the basic software building-block that makes access and categorisation of the billions of documents that sit on the Internet possible, can be attributed to one person - Tim Berners-Lee. The world wide web turned 16 yesterday – here’s the original post that started it all. Read More

13-year old CEO seeks $100k in venture capital.

By Loz Blain

May 21, 2007 Thought YOU were ambitious? How's this from a 13-year-old: "Our goal is to achieve 1 million dollars in revenue by the end of middle school, which is next year." The surprise hit of this year's TiECON, the Elementeo chief has already booked 450 sales of his upcoming first product. His whole executive team is around the same age, including his 11-year-old sister, VP of sales. He's looking for US$100k in investment capital, or 2500 pre-orders, to start production of Elementeo - and with his ability to deliver an elevator pitch like this on demand, you'd have to back him to get it. Via VentureBeat. Read More

HP Garage gets listed on National Register of Historic Places

By Mike Hanlon

May 18, 2007 The garage-start-up that becomes a global company is part of every budding entrepreneurs dream. In America, the HP Garage has become a symbol of what can rise from humble beginnings with hard work and determination. Now the National Park Service has begun listing the famed HP Garage and house at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto on the United States National Register of Historic Places. Recognized as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, the garage was the building in which Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard set up shop in 1938. One hopes that they’ll subsequently consider the Cupertino garage where Wojniak and Jobs kicked off Apple in 1976 and the rented Menlo Park garage where Sergei Brin and Larry Page set up Google in 1998. Read More

Scientists move a step closer to being able to make objects invisible

By Mike Hanlon

May 4, 2007 A computer model designed by a mathematician at the University of Liverpool has shown that it is possible to make objects, such as aeroplanes and submarines, appear invisible at close range. Scientists have already created an ‘invisibility cloak’ made out of ‘metamaterial’ which can bend electromagnetic radiation – such as visible light, radar or microwaves – around a spherical space, making an object within this region appear invisible. Until now, scientists could only make objects appear invisible from far away. Liverpool mathematician Dr Sebastien Guenneau, together with Dr Frederic Zolla and Professors Andre Nicolet from the University of Marseille, have proven - using a computer model called GETDP - that objects can also be made to appear invisible from close range when light travels in waves rather than beams. Scientists predict that metamaterials could be of use in military technology, such as in the construction of fighter jets and submarines, but it will be some years before invisibility cloaks can be developed for human beings. Read More

Dupont's ETFE - the miracle polymer that's shaping public architecture

By Loz Blain

May 2, 2007 Dupont's innovative ETFE polymer is 1% the weight of glass. It stretches to three times its normal length without losing its elasticity, has controllable shading and noise insulation properties, and never gets dirty due to the non-stick properties it shares with its cousin Teflon. Laid out in sheets or blown up in pillows, it's being used in a number of fascinating major architectural developments, including the stadium and aquatic centre being built for Beijing's 2008 Olympics. It's developing a reputation as a "miracle polymer" for public architecture. Read More

Scientists Develop New Tool To 'Freeze' Crime Scene Memories

By Mike Hanlon

April 27, 2007 The Crime Scene Investigation TV writers regularly impress us with their rapid deployment of new technologies, so it’ll be interesting to see how long it is before we see Gil Grisham or Horatio Kane employing the latest innovation developed by scientists at the University of Portsmouth. It’s a self-administered interview that 'freezes' the memory of crime scenes in the minds of witnesses. The tool - a self-administered interview applied by witnesses at crime scenes - combats natural memory decay by using the latest research in cognitive psychology techniques. It 'freezes' images and details of crime scenes and perpetrators in the minds of witnesses, particularly small and seemingly insignificant details that provide major leads for detectives that turn out to be crucial in solving cases. Read More

Steorn’s “perpetual motion machine” – power broker or power joker?

By Mike Hanlon

April 27, 2007 Steorn is publicly unveiling its “perpetual motion machine” this July, according to the latest video from CEO Sean McCarthy. The Irish company made international headlines after declaring news of its invention, which would theoretically violate the so called laws of thermodynamics, in a full page ad in The Economist in August 2006. However, because its “over 100% efficient” energy system still remains over 100% unverified, McCarthy is currently viewed by academia as about as scientific as an X-men sequel. An examination of the model by a panel of 22 scientists, (chosen out of a whopping 4500 applicants), is expected to complete its investigation into Steorn’s claims in the following two months. The result could simply be a punch line to what many scientists already regard as a bad joke...or it could revolutionize the world’s energy systems and utterly demolish our understanding of physics. Read More

Chemist Inventor 'Sniffs' His Way to Prestigious US$500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize

By Kyle Sherer

April 3, 2007 Dr. Timothy M. Swager has a nose for explosives. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor of Chemistry claims he can “almost always take a whiff of a chemical and make a pretty good guess as to what class a volatile compound might be in.” But Swager’s nose is nothing compared to the amplified chemical sensors he invented to detect vapors of common bomb-making chemicals, such as TNT. For his entire body of inventive work, the Lemelson-MIT Program named Swager the 2007 winner of the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, the most-prestigious cash prize for invention in the United States. This year, the prize criteria were modified to specify the winner be a mid-career inventor who is rising in his or her field. Read More

Power Boots enable a human to run at 22mph

By Mike Hanlon

March 19, 2007 A few years ago we ran a story on the Russian-built Saigak Power Boots, which enabled a human wearing them to achieve nearly 22 mph while running. We could never quite understand what happened to the boots as they disappeared from view and … now we know – they were too unsafe in the wrong hands, and The New York Times has an excellent article on Viktor Gordeyev’s petrol-burning seven league boots and why they never got to market and an array of images that we’re sure will fire the imagination of more than a few Gizmag readers. Read More

Gates still tops the world’s 946 Billionaires rich list – but not for long

By Mike Hanlon

March 13, 2007 Forbes magazine does great lists. This week it published a list of the world’s richest people and found there are a record 946 billionaires on the planet and Bill Gates is still numero uno – in a world where success is equated with the accumulation of dollars, no-one plays the game quite as well as Gates, who also donates more money to charity than anyone else in history. Gates has been the world’s richest man for 13 years but could lose the mantle to Mexican Carlos Slim Helu who added an astonishing US$19 billion to his net worth in 2006 and is now just US$7 billion shy of top spot. This year, there were 178 new billionaires and 32 who dropped off the list. The average billionaire is 62 years old, two years younger than in 2005 and 60% of list members made their fortune from scratch. The whole fascinating story can be found here. Read More

First Research Projects Underway at Diamond Light Source

By Mike Hanlon

February 7, 2007 This week marks the dawn of a new era of scientific endeavour as Diamond Light Source, the UK’s brand new synchrotron facility, opens its doors for business and welcomes its very first scientific users. Synchrotron light was first observed at General Electric, USA in 1946, but was not always considered to be such a powerful research tool, in fact particle scientists originally considered it a nuisance, as it indicated a loss of energy of accelerated particles. In the late fifties, a few visionary scientists began to recognise the potential of synchrotron light and started to investigate its powers further - nearly 50 years later, there are around 50 synchrotron facilities throughout the world with circumference ranging from 10 m to 1.3 km. Diamond uses arrays of magnets, called insertion devices, to accelerate the electrons to nearly the speed of light and focus them to generate extremely intense pin-pointed beams of synchrotron light of exceptional quality - around 100 billion times brighter than a standard hospital x-ray machine or 10 billion times brighter than the sun. Read More