Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a textile-based generator that could enable garments to convert the wearer’s movement into electricity to power personal electronic devices.

The researchers coax billions of zinc-oxide nanowires to grow radially from a Kevlar fiber, yielding a structure they liken to a bottle brush. A generator features two such fibers arranged in parallel. One of the fibers gets an additional coating of gold that allows it to serve as the electrode. Employing the same basic principles as an earlier harvester, the generator creates electrical energy via the piezoelectric effect when movement causes the two fibers to rub together (see “Energy harvester generates continuous nanoampere current,” EDN, May 24, 2007).

The researchers have measured 4 nA of current and 4 mV of output voltage from a generator employing 1-cm fibers. They estimate that, with design improvements, a square meter of fabric should be able to generate 80 mW. One major barrier to commercialization remains, the team admits: Zinc-oxide is vulnerable to water, so the technology still needs a mechanism for washing-machine survival.

U.S. researchers have used a new technique named cryo-EM (short for ‘Electron cryomicroscopy) to capture images of a virus at a resolution of 4.5 angstroms — less than half of a nanometer. As said the lead researcher, ‘This is the highest resolution ever achieved for a living organism of this size.’ The team thinks this should help to develop new disease treatments. Of course, this kind of research has a cost. It requires high-end electron microscopes and powerful computing resources. The next microscope used for this project will be installed in 2009 for a cool $2 million. And in order to generate the 3-D images at this very high resolution with their current microscope, the research team used the power of 7,000 computers at Purdue University. But read more…

You can see above an image of the bacteriophage Epsilon15 studied by Wen Jiang. On the left, the bacteriophage which has approximative diameter of 700 angstroms is shown at a resolution of 4.5 angstroms — the highest resolution achieved for a living organism of this size. On the right are shown “seven subunits in an asymmetric unit, annotated in different colours. Each subunit contains one copy of [baseplate proteins gp7 and gp10? (Credit: Wen Jiang lab, via Nature). Here is a link to a larger and better version of the image on the top left.

This research project has been led by Wen Jiang, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University, and members of
his research group. “In addition to Jiang, Matthew L. Baker, Joanita Jakana and Wah Chiu from Baylor College of Medicine, and Peter R. Weigele and Jonathan King from Massachusetts Institute of Technology worked on the project.”

Now, let’s look at the advantages brought by the cryo-EM imaging technique. “The imaging technique, called cryo-EM, has the added benefit of maintaining the sample being studied in a state very similar to its natural environment. Other imaging techniques used regularly, such as X-ray crystallography, require the sample be manipulated. ‘This method offers a new approach for modeling the structure of proteins in other macromolecular assemblies, such as DNA, at near-native states,’ Jiang said. ‘The sample is purified in a solution that is very similar to the environment that would be found in a host cell. It is as if the virus is frozen in glass and it is alive and infectious while we examine it.’”

And why is this imaging technique different from other ones currently used? “In electron microscopy, a beam of electrons takes the place of the light beam used in a conventional microscope. The use of electrons instead of light allows the microscope to “see” in much greater detail. Cryo-EM cools specimens to temperatures well below the freezing point of water. This decreases damage from the electron beam and allows the specimens to be examined for a longer period of time. Longer exposure time allows for sharper, more detailed images.”

For more information, this research work has been published in a recent issue of Nature under the title “Backbone structure of the infectious 15 virus capsid revealed by electron cryomicroscopy” (Volume 451, Number 7182, Pages 1130-1134, February 28, 2008). Here is a link to
the abstract. The images above have been extracted from this page.

Sources: Purdue University News, March 5, 2008; and various websites

An excerpt:

Further proof of clean tech’s move from marginalized to mainstream is abundant. A growing number of governments announced plans to generate electricity from renewables. Corporations continued to jump on, if not lead, the race to transition to a cleaner, greener economy. Venture capitalists in the U.S. invested $2.7 billion in the clean-energy sector, representing more than 9 percent of total VC activity. Cleanenergy indices outpaced the broader markets in 2007. For example, the NASDAQ® Clean Edge® U.S. Liquid Series index (co-developed by Clean Edge and NASDAQ) was up 66.67 percent last year, compared with 3.53 percent for the S&P 500 index and 9.81 percent for the NASDAQ Composite index.

According to Clean Edge research:

• Biofuels (global production and wholesale pricing of ethanol and biodiesel) reached $25.4 billion in 2007 and are projected to grow to $81.1 billion by 2017. In 2007 the global biofuels market consisted of more than 13 billion gallons of ethanol and 2 billion gallons of biodiesel production worldwide.
• Wind power (new installation capital costs) is projected to expand from $30.1 billion in 2007 to $83.4 billion in 2017. Last year’s global wind power installations reached a record 20,000 MW, equivalent to 20 large-size 1 GW conventional power plants.
• Solar photovoltaics (including modules, system components, and installation) will grow from a $20.3 billion industry in 2007 to $74 billion by 2017. Annual installations were just shy of 3 GW worldwide, up nearly 500 percent from just four years earlier.
• The fuel cell and distributed hydrogen market will grow from a $1.5 billion industry (primarily for research contracts and demonstration and test units) to $16 billion over the next decade.

Together, we project these four benchmark technologies, which equaled $55.4 billion in 2006 and expanded 40 percent to $77.3 billion in 2007, to grow to $254.5 billion within a decade.

For those of you that might be interested in the wind sector in particular or clean energy in generatl, the latest issue of Renewable Energy World has a couple of great articles worth the read:

• Britannia to rule the waves?: Ambitious for Offshore
• 40,000MW by 2020: Building Offshore Wind in Europe
• Powering China’s Developmen: The Role of Renewable Energy
• A Roundup of News from around the world

Enjoy.

It will take years before bacteria can generate enough energy to generate electricity for transportation, homes or businesses, but researchers at the University of Minnesota studying bacteria have found a way to convert waste into electricity. They’ve discovered that riboflavin (also known as vitamin B-2) is responsible for much of the energy produced by a bacteria named Shewanella, which is commonly found throughout aquatic environments from the Arctic to the Antarctic. As said one of the researchers, ‘This is very exciting because it solves a fundamental biological puzzle. Scientists have known for years that Shewanella produce electricity. Now we know how they do it.’ But read more…

The Shewanella oneidensis is well known. You can see above an “AFM topograph of the metal reducing bacterium Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1 cultivated under electron acceptor limitation to induce the production of electrically conductive appendages known as bacterial nanowires” (Credit: M. El-Naggar, USC and Y. Gorby, J. Craig Venter Institute, via this page on Asylum Research website, a company developing atomic force microscopes).

It’s the third time that this Shewanella oneidensis appears on my blog. Here are the links to two previous posts, “Bacteria can build nanowires” (July 11, 2006) and “Cleaning uranium waste with bacteria” (August 12, 2006).

Now, let’s go back to the researchers involved in this project. They include assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, Daniel Bond and the members of his lab, and Jeffrey Gralnick and the members of assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology
his lab.

But how these bacteria produce electricity? “In nature, bacteria such as Shewanella need to access and dissolve metals such as iron. Having the ability to direct electrons to metals allows them to change their chemistry and availability. ‘Bacteria have been changing the chemistry of the environment for billions of years,’ said Gralnick. ‘Their ability to make iron soluble is key to metal cycling in the environment and essential to most life on earth.’”

This research work has been published as an open access article in the March 3 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences under the name “Shewanella secretes flavins that mediate extracellular electron transfer.” Here is the beginning of the abstract. “Bacteria able to transfer electrons to metals are key agents in biogeochemical metal cycling, subsurface bioremediation, and corrosion processes. More recently, these bacteria have gained attention as the transfer of electrons from the cell surface to conductive materials can be used in multiple applications. In this work, we adapted electrochemical techniques to probe intact biofilms of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 and Shewanella sp. MR-4 grown by using a poised electrode as an electron acceptor. This approach detected redox-active molecules within biofilms, which were involved in electron transfer to the electrode.”

For more information, here is a link to the full article (PDF format, 6 pages, 915 KB).

Sources: University of Minnesota news release, March 3, 2008; and various websites

This image caught my eye as I have always been a fan of mind-mapping type concepts. This particular image is by Brandy Agerbeck, a Chicago artist and graphic facilitator. Here is the specific link to her gallery of graphic facilitation. The except describing this work is:

This is a drawing summarizing 3 speakers talking about Innovation: Craig Sampson of IDEO, David Ormesher of Closerlook and Robin Cook, participant in the Innovation University. I drew this in real time during the talk using black pens in a variety of line widths, a silver pen and two oranges.

One thing I really like about this type of work is how it captures the essence of a subject talks. You can really see the relatedness of the conversation that went on that day. Compared to what I usually use for capturing the contents of a talk/presentation/meeting, this type of real-time graphic captures ten times the data and meaning. Below two other examples of graphic facilitation by the same artist: a talk by Tom Friedman of “The world is Flat“, and a talk by Tim Hurson about “Think Better”

If you are interested in mind-mapping or topic-mapping or more information on this, I ran across this link that give some great examples.

John Doerr is quite a legend in the VC community and has helped to fund many startups that are now in the common venacular (Amazon, Netscape, Google, and Compaq for instance) as a partner in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. His Bio is is here is you are interested in learning more. He goes so far as to say that “going green may be the “biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.” His theme of the talk centers around the situation that our actions have put us in and that he absolutely thinks that we must correct the problems we have created in the past century with mismanagement of our environment. What is really refreshing in his talk is that he does not think that legislation alone will bring the change needed. He urges that the real solution to our plight is the combination of greentech and business acumen. Greentech that also saves money is the key to widespread adoption. He cites a few early examples of this. Listen to the talk and see what you think. Then analyze in what areas of your business can you create and sell solutions that not only make sense from a financial point of view but also from an environmental point of view?

While looking at the time lapse movie linked above I starting thinking about how concept is fairly universal and might apply to business and innovation projects.  Anyone that has worked on a work  project of any length whether related to innovation or not has encountered the situation where program progress takes longer than someone thinks it should.  I was thinking about this today especially as it relates to time-scale expectation for a programs with larger impacts and time horizon.    Those longer term projects that are expected to pay off in 2 years seem to be an eternity  when business performance of your organization is measured on a quarterly type basis.

Then I started thinking about what project timing expectations are associated with where you are in an organization.    The sales person whose salary is based on short term sales has a drastically different tolerance to project time than an Executive whose main concern is steering a business to strategic position for long term success.   So the theory of relativity says your program or project will be looked upon dramatically different depending on the time horizon of those viewing it.

1. Passion (Do it for the love not the money)
2. Work (Hard work, be a worka-frolic)
3. Good (Get damn good at something)
4. Focus (x-ray vision focus)
5. Push (through shy-ness and self-doubt)
6. Serve (others something they value)
7. Ideas (have them)
8. Persist (through the Criticism, Rejection, and Pressure)

For those of you that may not be familiar with William McDonough here is an introduction from the TEDTalk site that might give you a little insight.

“Architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account “All children, all species, for all time.” A tireless proponent of absolute sustainability (with a deadpan sense of humor), he explains his philosophy of “cradle to cradle” design, which bridge the needs of ecology and economics. He also shares some of his most inspiring work, including the world’s largest green roof (at the Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan), and the entire sustainable cities he’s designing in China.”

Here is a link to the website for his book “Cradle to Cradle“.

For those of you interested in design, lifecycle, and how to couple the two, you are in luck. Check out the TEDTalk topic of “Design Like You Give a Damn“.

I then looked at the associated links ala youtube style. It was interesting to see the wealth of presentations when you search for innovation. This is really a way you can cross-pollinate and get outside what you are used to without leaving you computer. For those of you on LinkedIN check out “leveraging Social Networks for Results below”

• Word of Mouth Marketing, WOMM
• Outside Innovation
• Leveraging Social Networks for Results (Interesting)
• CX Innovation Summit 2007, Miami
• Speeding Up Innovation
• BusinessSummaries.com summary of the book Seeds of Innovation
• Finding Innovation in the 500lb Gorilla
• The Art of Innovation by Guy Kawasaki
• 10 Lessons of Innovation - Idris Mootee Keynote