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ANNOUNCING THE 2ND ANNUAL "ZEITGEIST MEDIA FESTIVAL" GLOBAL AWARENESS EVENT, 2012!
Apr 01, 2012
Beginning the weekend of August 3rd 2012, The 2nd Annual Zeitgeist Media Festival Global will commence! Read More >
ANNOUNCING THE 4TH ANNUAL "ZEITGEIST DAY" GLOBAL AWARENESS EVENT, 2012
Mar 01, 2012
Beginning the weekend of March 9th 2012, The Zeitgeist Movement's 4th Annual Global Awareness Project, known as "Zeitgeist Day" ["ZDAY"], will commence. Read More >
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Zeitgeist Movement: Live from Israel
Feb 01, 2012
PETER JOSEPH AND THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT ISRAEL TO CONDUCT "ZFEST" WORLD PEACE AND SUSTAINABILITY EVENT- Feb 2012 Read More >
TZM Response to "Occupy Wall Street"
Sep 27, 2011
On Sept 17th 2011, a grassroots expression of contempt was launched in the heart of the world's financial center in lower Manhattan of New York City, also commonly known to the world as the institution of "Wall Street". As of Sept 26th, there have been o Read More >
Zeitgeist Media Festival 2011 - 12,000 Meals raised via 40 Events in 20 Countries
Sep 23, 2011
The Inaugural 2011 Zeitgeist Media Festival Global Event set, which enabled a socially conscience Arts and Media platform across 20 countries, accessing about 10,000 people in person and almost 200,000 through free live Webcasts, was a notable success. Read More >

More Press Releases >

- The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement Interview with RGVPride.com
  
  The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement, formed in August of 2010, is the local chapter of the global Zeitgeist Movement (www.thezeitgeistmovement.com). We are an open membership organization that promotes and advocates for radical changes in society that would allow for our scientific understanding, technical capability and an enlightened social consciousness to provide for every human need for every person on our planet.
  
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- Designing Food Systems
  
  When we think of food production today, most people imagine large fields of monocrops or grassland for grazing. We think of agriculture. Many people believe that agriculture (10,000 years ago) is inextricably tied with the human species. But when considering that modern humans have existed for over 200,000 years, this agricultural preoccupation does not seem so integral to our humanity.
  
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- When the communications revolution meets the energy revolution meets the social revolution
  
  We're already in the communications revolution, and when that really hits the upcoming energy revolution, i.e., green tech, renewables, etc.; it will merge together and manifest as a social revolution. The social revolution will likely make governance and business more free-distribution-oriented, and will largely be driven by automation.
  
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- How Can You Change the World Yourself?
  
  People often feel helpless regarding how to truly effect change in the world. Here are a few concrete examples you can incorporate in your day-to-day lives. If millions of people around the world would utilize these basic ideas we could shift into a new paradigm.
  
  What can you do now to change the world? (Hint: you want to stop supporting the current system - erode it from within really. Sorry, there’s no quick fix.)
  
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- How Will a RBE Resolve Health Problems?
  
  Recently on TZM Blog, some attention has been paid to health and medicine. A resource-based economy would provide humans with education, clean air, water, food and a cleaner socio-psychological environment, solving many of our health problems. However, if we want to remedy the many health problems that still linger, then our model of modern medicine will require some examination and contemplation.
  
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- The Human Health Matrix: How and Why our Industrial Complex is Approaching the Critical Mass to Kill Us All
  
  Matrix: an environment in which something develops; a surrounding medium.
  
  In the context of our health, the word "matrix" refers to the totality of your environment - everything but your genetic makeup. Barring a few exceptions (such as rickets and hemophilia), it is what elicits the manifestation of every health disorder.
  
  To paint a slightly clearer picture, your health matrix (environment) includes:
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- In Otherwise Grim State, Zday 2012 Provides Optimism
  
  It is not hard to understand why some people take solace in blissful ignorance. The amount of accessible doom-ridden information on oppressed human rights and freedoms throughout history is disheartening, to say the least. Mind you, any truth seeker has surely come to realize that going back to a sheltered, dependent state of mind is futile once a certain threshold of consciousness is transcended.
  
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- US wins right to extradite any European citizen it deems a terrorist.
  
  "Trend: Tyranny"
  EU Court of Human Rights grants US Extradition Claims, Ignores Human Rights Act
  Ryan Jones – April 11th 2012.
  
  Yesterday the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg ruled that the USA has the legal right to extradite Abu Hamza and 4 other suspected of terrorism. Upon first glance at this recent breaking news, the casual observer may think ‘well, the terrorists are being brought to justice for their crimes'.
  
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- Fictional Dictator
  
  When I think about the developments of culture, the agents of creation and destruction, I can't help but ponder the fundamental instincts we have to create new technologies and products. The Zeitgeist movement offers lots to say about our motivations to make cheap, convenient and disposable products for the market.
  
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- TZM Together: A Support Group and my experience in the Socio-Economic system
  
  Since finding about the Zeitgeist Movement in December 2010, I have undergone some significant changes in my life, especially the worldview aspect and to a lesser extent, lifestyle changes as well. I told my family and friends about TZM and what we advocate, and my friends tended to accept it more than my parents.
  
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- The Zeitgeist Movement in Taiwan： Around the Island film
  
  Original with Translation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT3A1vXp9B4 If you wish to translate this into other languages, please register and use this online tool location: http://dotsub.com/view/67e4765f-32e9-4ec8-ac45-504f992c4d0d An activism initiative from the Zeitgeist Movement chapter of Taiwan. Music: "The Album Leaf-Within Dreams", sound recording administered by: WMG PIAS This is a non-profit educational video.
- TZM Global Radio Show - May 16th '12 | Host: Bakari Pace [ THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT ]
  
  Host: Georgia, NC Coordinator: Bakari Pace Topic: Effective Nonviolent Communication. Helpful source material, such as from Thorstein Veblen, Dan Pink, & Robert Sapolsky and others are discussed and suggested for further education. Free TZM Global Show Archives: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/radio_shows
- TZM GLOBAL RADIO - Douglas Mallette - MAY 9th 2012 [ THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT ]
  
  May 9th 2012 - Space Shuttle Systems Engineer Douglas Mallette. Douglas Mallette talks with Kevin Tilsner. Free TZM Global Show Archives: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/radio_shows About : Started in 2009, TZM Global Radio is a weekly radio show presented by various coordinators/lecturers of The Zeitgeist Movement in a rotational fashion.
- TZM GLOBAL RADIO - JIM PHILLIPS - MAY 2ND 2012 [THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT]
  
  TZM Global Radio Show returns this Wed., May 2nd 2012 at 4pm EDT with Jim Phillips of TZM Education who considers the nature of education exclusively and its role in shaping our values and society itself. Free TZM Global Show Archives: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/radio_shows About : Started in 2009, TZM Global Radio is a weekly radio show presented by various coordinators/lecturers of The Zeitgeist Movement in a rotational fashion.
- Realise And Empathise | Z-Day 2012 | Myles Dyer
  
  Myles Dyer shares his YouTube experiences and how the Universal Solutions Project can unite the world. PLEASE SHARE THIS VIDEO! More USP info on Facebook @ http://on.fb.me/universalsolutionsproject Music: Residual Presence by Ascension of The Watchers The talk was the final day of Myles Dyer's 'Realise and Empathise' UK Lecture Tour at Friends House, London for Z-Day 2012. Myles Dyer (25) uses YouTube as a vehicle for social change, obtaining 7+ million views (and over 6m live broadcast views) since 2006. Video blogging has been his method of challenging traditional establishments in an attempt to help them evolve with the new emergent cyber technology. His talk will commence with how YouTube changed his life. Whilst telling this story, he discuss his involvement with various establishments in society. These include: Charity -- Founder of Stickaid: World's biggest 24hr live charity broadcast Education -- Spoke at global blended learning conference Politics -- Received video response from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and was invited by the Foreign office to talk with Digital Diplomacy. Entertainment -- Constructed a team which went on to win the BBC Reality TV show 'Upstaged'. Health -- Developed a theory for curing various forms of depression. Activism -- Founder of the Universal Solutions Project (USP) This leads onto how USP can unite the world through education and open source. The goal is to create an empathic global society. Myles has lived & breathed online community since YouTube began, and spends every possible moment helping people realize their potential to change society regardless of their geographical location, experiences or passions. This UK tour provides an extraordinary opportunity to inspire people who already wish to make a difference, but perhaps do not yet realize the methods in which they could achieve their goals. The world is becoming an increasingly scary place, and with the tools for social change already there in front of us, we must act in unity before it's too late. My personal Facebook profile @ http://www.facebook.com/Myles376 Follow me on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/Blade376
- Chilean television channel anounces showing of Zeitgeist: Moving Forward
  
  http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
- Catastroika - Greek Documentary (English subs)
  
  Note to viewers: This is an indipendant, third party documentary and only posted as informational. It has no direct connection to the movement or shares necessarily the same views. It was at the beginning of 1989 when the French academic Jacques Rupnik sat at his desk, in order to prepare a report on the state of the economic reforms in Mikhail Gorbatsov's Soviet Union. The term that he used in describing the death rattle of the empire was "Catastroika". In Yeltsin's time, when Russia instituted maybe the biggest and least successful privatization experiment in the history of humanity, a group of Guardian reports assigned a different meaning to Rupnik's term. "Catastroika" became synonym of the country's complete destruction by market forces; the sell off of public property; and the steep deterioration of citizens' living standards. Now, Catastroika's unit of measurement was unemployment, social impoverishment, declining life expectancy, as well as the creation of a new cast of oligarchs, who took over the country's reins. A few years later, a similar effort to massively privatize public property in unified Germany (which is presented as a model for Greece) created millions of unemployed and some of the biggest scandals in European history. It is this "Catastroika" that is coming soon to Greece; to "Europe's last Soviet Republic" as the MPs and the ministers of its former "socialist" government liked to call it. Catastroika is the logical aftermath and continuation of "Debtocracy". Therefore, the logical sequence of our first documentary, which examined the causes of the debt crisis in Greece and the European periphery as a whole. For more info visit the website: http://www.catastroika.gr/detailsen.php?id=135&type=s
- Los Angeles The Zeitgeist Movement Townhall April 2012 - Q&A
  
  Q&A Session from the April 2012 Townhall meeting hosted by the Los Angeles Chapter at the University of Southern California.
- Los Angeles Townhall April 2012 - "Social Awareness" [By Brandon Kristy]
  
  This short talk was part of a Townhall meeting at USC. Brandon Kristy expands upon the need for the 'social interest' to become 'self interest' in order to solve ongoing human problems and how environment impacts human relationships.
- Los Angeles Townhall April 2012 - "The Ripple Effect" [By Philip Richlin]
  
  LA member Philip Richlin speaks about the impact people have on other in the spreading of ideas and how they "ripple" outwards from one person to another.
- Los Angeles Townhall April 2012 - "Navigating TZM" [By Jason Lord]
  
  A short orientation on how to navigate some of the main Zeitgeist Movement websites that exist around the internet and where to start when coming into this information for the first time. Jason does a visual tour of the global site, radio, video, blog, chapters & more.
- TZM Global Radio Show Apr 18 '12. Host: McLeish [The Zeitgeist Movement]
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * TZM Global Radio Show Apr 18 '12. Host: McLeash Ben McLeish, of the UK TZM Lecture Team gives updates on feedback from Z-Day 2012 London, the US Prison system and ALEC, the films Owned & Operated by Crackin Studios, and "I lost My Job" by New Future Media, gives details on upcoming events, followed by a second interview with the Molecularist Movement. Free TZM Global Show Archives: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/radio_shows About : Started in 2009, TZM Global Radio is a weekly radio show presented by various coordinators/lecturers of The Zeitgeist Movement in a rotational fashion.
- Ben McLeish - Prison, Punishment and Profit | Z-Day 2012 [ The Zeitgeist Movement ]
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * "Visibility is a Trap." - Michel Foucault The modern incarnation of the prison system is evaluated at its root value set, and core functions. Discussed are the origins of prison in torture and public spectacle, its inversion into modern incarceration models, and the morphing of the carceral model into one which reflects the dominant economic value system - profit before intended function, and its resulting violent social costs. Additionally, prison's effects upon non-criminals (including guards) are detailed in order to demonstrate the system's wholly undermining effects upon social integrity, regardless of criminality. The solution to crime is not more prisons, but the wholesale reorientation of society to a supportive, human-centered global citizenry, where the causes of crime are dealt with by the removal of stresses on the individual level, and the replacement of a competitive, divisive economic-social model with one of support, collaboration and rational, humane global village. Main Sources: Books: Discipline & Punish - Michel Foucault Violence - James Gilligan Preventing Violence - James Gilligan The Lucifer Effect - Dr Phillip Zimbardo The Show of Violence - Dr Frederic Wertham Zero Degrees of Empathy - Simon Baron-Cohen The Spirit Level - Wilkinson and Pickett Value Wars - John McMurtry (esp. Part II - Unlocking the Invisible Prison, pp 70-78) Journal Articles: Private Prison Management - Panacaea or Pretense? - Sarah Vallance Prison's Dilemma: Do Education and Jobs Programmes Affect Recidivism? - Sedgley, Scott et al The Psychopharmacologic Treatment of Violent Youth - Gilligan and Lee The Last mental Hospital - Gilligan Other: Site Visit to Leoben Correctional Center, Austria
- TZM Global Radio Show Apr 11 '12. Host: Jason Lord [The Zeitgeist Movement]
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * TZM Global Radio Show April 11th '12 | Host: Jason Lord Jason Lord, the California Coordinator continues the conversation of activism in the Movement. This show will cover public engagement, how to distinguish what's relevant, self directed learning and a call out for new chapters. Free TZM Global Show Archives: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/radio_shows About : Started in 2009, TZM Global Radio is a weekly radio show presented by various coordinators/lecturers of The Zeitgeist Movement in a rotational fashion.
- Peter Joseph Radio Lecture "A Profile of Collapse" [ The Zeitgeist Movement ]
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * From his Oct 2010 Radio Broadcast. This Lecture discusses the different component of social collapse based on the trends noted at the time. www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
- The Zeitgeist Movement Global Radio - April 4th - Hosts: Peter J & Cliff F
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * Topics: Peter Joseph will cover the success of Zeitgeist Day 2012 along with coming chapter changes, the 2012 Zeitgeist Media Festival, along new shifts in movement activism and awareness actions; the release up new educational/administrative materials. Cliff Faber, in the second half, with cover some new Chapter Projects [ "One Planet Project"]and ideas for increasing exposure through more effective street activism. Free TZM Global Show Archives: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/radio_shows About : Started in 2009, TZM Global Radio is a weekly radio show presented by various coordinators/lecturers of The Zeitgeist Movement in a rotational fashion.
- Zeitgeist Day 2012 - Wales, UK - Part 3 - Vivak Shori - Deflation
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * Z-Day 2012 @ Full Moon, Cardiff (Wales, UK) Presentation no.3 - Deflation by Vivak Shori from Zeitgeist Cardiff
- Zeitgeist Day 2012 - Wales, UK - Adam Buick - World Socialist Movement
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * Z-Day 2012 @ Full Moon, Cardiff (Wales, UK) Presentation no.2 by Adam Buick from World Socialist Movement
- Zeitgeist Day 2012 - Wales, UK - Part 1 - Justin Liley - Positive Money
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * Z-Day 2012 @ Full Moon, Cardiff (Wales, UK) Presentation no.1 by Justin Lilley from Positive Money
- Zeitgeist Day 2012 San Diego, CA, USA - Discussion (The Zeitgeist Movement)
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * http://zeitgeistsd.groupsite.com/main/summary Great work.
- Ben McLeish-The Zeitgeist Movement "Potential of a Resource Based Economy"
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * EBTV on http://evolvingbeings.com presents host Evita Ochel wish special guest Ben McLeish - lecturer and activist for the Zeitgeist Movement. Ben shares how he got started with the Zeitgeist Movement, what the Movement is all about, what is a resource based economy, and how it can help our current economic, political, social and environmental problems. Ben also talks about how people can get involved, including Global Z Day - March 10, 2012
- Zeitgeist Day 2012 - Toronto, Canada
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * The Zeitgeist Toronto chapter started in January 2009 with the first meeting at the Toronto public library planning the local event as part of the first global one call : Z-Day (zeitgeist day) since then the chapter has had many events, public meetings, invitations by universities,screenings, town hall, awareness campaigns , radio and internet media ; as well had been involved in social activities as such food collection and donation and also in connection or partnership with another mind like groups . Please join the chapter http://zeitgeist-toronto.com/index.php Thanks EBTV for the video http://evolvingbeings.com
- [2] Zeitgeist Day New York City Hans Roy : "Our responsibility in a world.."
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * Hans Roy conducted an interactive talk at Z Day NYC 03 18 12 More: http://www.youtube.com/user/Pertemba40?feature=watch Support NYC TZM: http://zeitgeist-ny.com/
- [1] Zeitgeist Day New York City 2012 : Bakari Pace: Intro to a Resource Based Economy.mp4
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * Bakari Pace gave a brief lecture on Introduction to a Resource Based Economy. Z Day NYC 03 18 12 More: http://www.youtube.com/user/Pertemba40?feature=watch Support NYC TZM: http://zeitgeist-ny.com/
- Zeitgeist Day 2012 Intro - Tri-City Michigan, USA
  
  *Please sign up for our main Mailing List: http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/ * More: http://www.youtube.com/user/tricityzeitgeist?feature=watch http://tricityzeitgeist.groupsite.com/main/summary

- Psychologist: Achievement goals can be shaped by environment
  
  A new study by Stanford psychologist Paul O'Keefe suggests that the culture of our learning and working environments can have long-term effects on our goals and motivation. Think about the ideal student. He or she focuses on learning, not grades; improvement, not appearances; competency, not competition. This person wants to understand and grow, not just prove how smart he or she is. So how is that mindset – which tends to lead to high levels of engagement and performance, resiliency in the face of failure and a thirst for knowledge – fostered and maintained? A new study by Stanford psychologist Paul O'Keefe, Adar Ben-Eliyahu of the University of Pittsburgh and Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia of Duke University suggests that the way we design our working and learning environments can change people's motivation for achieving important tasks. The study says being in an environment that emphasizes learning for learning's sake will dampen concerns about outperforming others and enhance intrinsic motivation even after one returns to a culture that places more value on demonstrating skills than developing them. "The study suggests that, once this goal orientation has been fostered and reinforced, the adaptive patterns of motivation endure," said O'Keefe, a postdoctoral
- Performance Boost for Microchips
  
  The semiconductor industry is faced with the challenge of supplying ever faster and more powerful chips. The Next-Generation Lithography with EUV radiation will help meeting that challenge. Fraunhofer researchers have developed key components. Flat computers, powerful cell phones and tablets the integrated circuits, our computers' power centers, are becoming increasingly smaller and more complex. The microchips in today's computers already contain some two billion transistors. To get the chip density right, the structures are exposed onto the chips by means of lithography. To be able to meet future requirements, the semi-conductor industry is planning to convert the exposure using a wavelength of 193 nm to a wavelength of just 13.5 nm. This can be achieved only with completely new radiation sources. The favorite of the Next-Generation lithography is EUV light with wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet range. Dr. Klaus Bergmann, Dr. Stefan Braun and Dr. Torsten Feigl from the Fraunhofer Institutes for Laser Technology ILT Aachen, for Material and Beam Technology IWS Dresden and for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF Jena, have developed, with their teams, key elements for EUV lithography: light sources (ILT), collector optics (IOF) and illumination and projection optics (IWS). They
- UC students design a better pill bottle for the blind and visually impaired
  
  It’s easy to see that University of Cincinnati design students Alex Broerman and Ashley Ma are on to something with their new design and prototype for a prescription-medicine pill bottle that better serves the needs of the blind and visually impaired by means of a simple and inexpensive innovation. The design and prototype by Ma and Broerman will be on display June 5-9 at “DAAPworks,” the display of senior projects in UC’s nationally top-ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). In fact, the two students have filed for a provisional patent on their design – a design intended to have universal appeal but to fill the special needs for the more than 1.3 million Americans who are legally blind as well as those who suffer less-severe vision impairment. As the baby boomers age, it’s expected that the number of American suffering from blindness will increase 70 percent by the year 2020. The students’ design features • A lid on “hinges” that flips open, as lost caps are a problem for the visually impaired. And twist caps can be a challenge for the elderly. (At the same time, the students’ flip lid is child proof.) • A
- Using Sunlight to Make Renewable Hydrogen
  
  Hypersolar, the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using water and sunlight, today announced that recent development breakthroughs will allow its technology to use most any source of water for the production of renewable and carbon-free hydrogen fuel. By eliminating the need for clean water, the company is able to reduce the cost of renewable hydrogen. The company has teamed up with the University of California at Santa Barbara to accelerate the development process. Conventional electrolysis of water uses electrical voltage to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Theoretically, this technology can be used to produce clean and renewable hydrogen fuel to power a carbon-free world. However, in practice, current commercial electrolysis technologies require the use of highly purified water to prevent fouling of system components.. The required added steps to purify water is among the major barriers to reducing the cost required for mass adoption of water-splitting technology for hydrogen production. HyperSolar’s nanotechnology approach is designed from the ground up to optimize solar electrolysis of water at the nanolevel to
- Telerobotics offers third way for space exploration
  
  SPACE exploration may have a new direction. In the 1960s, humans did the exploring but since the last moon landing in 1972, NASA's only explorers beyond low Earth orbit have been semi-autonomous robots. Now the agency is pondering a third approach, sending astronauts who would remain in orbit around alien worlds and explore via robotic rovers.On Earth, human-controlled robots are used for tasks ranging from delicate surgery to exploration of the deep sea. But in space, robotic "telepresence" could be even more promising.Telerobotics would be orders of magnitude more productive for exploration than semi-autonomous robots like the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, says NASA's George Schmidt, an organiser of the Exploration Telerobotics Symposium earlier this month at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Nothing beats having human cognition and dexterity in the field," he says.But there is a hitch in trying to control from Earth a robot that's exploring another planet: the huge time lag as the signals travel back and forth. Real-time reactions are needed for it to work. For example, surgeons can perform operations well as long as the robot responds to their actions within
- MIT researchers create robotic elephant trunk
  
  With multiple jamming segments and four control cables, the robotic arm can flex and grip like an elephant's trunkRegular readers might remember the robotic universal gripper that can pick up a wide variety of objects thanks to an elastic membrane filled with coffee grounds. Earlier this year, the developers revealed they had given their versatile gripper the ability to “shoot” objects some distance, and now a team at MIT has “extended” the technology to create a robotic arm that can twist, flex and grip in a way not dissimilar to an elephant’s trunk.Just like the universal gripper developed collaboratively by researchers at Cornell University, the University of Chicago and iRobot, the robotic arm developed at MIT also uses “jamming granular media” (more commonly known as coffee grounds) that are loose and flexible until the air is pumped out and the coffee grounds jam together to become rigid.While the gripper uses this process to deform around an object when the coffee grounds are loose and grip it tightly when air is sucked out of the balloon by a vacuum, the MIT team has essentially stuck a bunch of the grippers
- Dopant gives graphene solar cells highest efficiency yet
  
  By taking advantage of graphene’s favorable electrical and optical properties, and then adding an organic dopant, researchers have achieved the highest power conversion efficiency yet for a graphene-based solar cell. The 1.9% power conversion efficiency of the undoped devices increases by more than four times to 8.6% after doping. The researchers, led by Sefaattin Tongay and Arthur F. Hebard at the University of Florida in Gainesville, have published their study on the high-efficiency graphene solar cells in a recent issue of Nano Letters. “Here, not only we have taken advantage of graphene's beautiful optical transparency, but also we have reduced graphene's electrical resistance by adjusting the Fermi level of graphene using a cheap and environmentally stable organic coating layer,” Tongay told Phys.org. “During this step, Nature favored us by yielding a higher rectification and electric field at the interface, further improving the solar cell’s efficiency.” In the new solar cells, a single layer of graphene placed on top of a silicon wafer serves as a Schottky junction, the main component of simple photovoltaic devices called Schottky junction solar cells. Under illumination, electron-hole pairs are photogenerated in the silicon. The photogenerated electrons and holes are
- Nanomedicine: Quantum dots appear safe in pioneering study on primates
  
  A pioneering study to gauge the toxicity of quantum dots in primates has found the tiny crystals to be safe over a one-year period, a hopeful outcome for doctors and scientists seeking new ways to battle diseases like cancer through nanomedicine. The research, which will appear on May 20 in Nature Nanotechnology online, is likely the first to test the safety of quantum dots in primates. In the study, scientists found that four rhesus monkeys injected with cadmium-selenide quantum dots remained in normal health over 90 days. Blood and biochemical markers stayed in typical ranges, and major organs developed no abnormalities. The animals didn't lose weight. Two monkeys observed for an additional year also showed no signs of illness. Quantum dots are tiny luminescent crystals that glow brightly in different colors. Medical researchers are eyeing the crystals for use in image-guided surgery, light-activated therapies and sensitive diagnostic tests. Cadmium selenide quantum dots are among the most studied, with potential applications not only in medicine, but as components of solar cells, quantum computers, light-emitting diodes and more. The new toxicity study completed by the University at Buffalo, the Chinese PLA General Hospital, China's ChangChun University of Science and Technology, and
- The Quadrofoil: Ecologically-sound electric hydrofoil sportscar for the water
  
  The field of motorized recreational toys is currently undergoing a renaissance due to the availability of high performance electric motors, new materials, computer aided design, new manufacturing techniques and a new wave of educated designers with no understanding of the word "cannot." The Quadrofoil is a prime example of this phenomenon, having been created by three young Slovenian designers inside six months, and launched at Slovenia's Internautica exhibition last week. So successful has been the response from the public that a short production run of 100 units will be completed before the year is out, giving the Quadrofoil a concept to market time of less than 12 months, and with some ambitious plans for faster future models and perhaps even a race version. The company is now in capital raising mode to fund production plans for more than 10,000 units a year from 2013 onwards. The retail price of the Quadrofoil will be EUR15,000
- Electric vehicles the key for a modern, clean Vientiane
  
  Laos is booming, nowhere is that more visible than in Vientiane, with the capital city growing in population by 5% per year and due to double in size in the next 20 years. Lao people are seeing huge increases in service provision and opportunity, but as the city grows, it has to face up to a difficult problem its air quality is getting worse. The geographical location of Vientiane is partly to blame; with wind speeds typically only a couple of metres per second, the vehicle pollution does not really blow away from the city. But now with vehicle numbers growing at around 14% per year in Vientiane over the past 10 years, the city has to face up to the huge challenge of dealing with air quality issues. It is internally constrained, and authorities have concluded that building lots of faster new roads will be hard and
- 'Copper pump's' potential benefit in cancer treatment
  
  Researchers at UC San Diego used experimental results and modeling studies to discover that the human copper transporter protein forms a trimer (purple, aqua, and red) in a cell’s membrane, with one end (top) extending outside the cell and the other end (bottom) extending into the cell’s cytoplasm. Credit: Igor Tsigelny, San Diego Supercomputer Center and Department of Neurosciences, UC San Diego. A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has made new discoveries about a copper-transporting protein in the membranes of human cells that drug-discovery scientists can co-opt for the development of new anti-cancer drugs. The findings, published May 9 as an online-first paper in Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, describe how the copper transporter works as a biochemical pump to seize copper atoms outside of a cell and whisks the atoms through the otherwise impervious cell membrane into the cell cytoplasm. The same pump transports the platinum-containing drug cisplatin into cancer cells to help kill them. Igor Tsigelny, a research scientist at the university’s San Diego Supercomputer Center and Department of Neurosciences, is lead author of the paper. The body needs only a tiny
- X-ray laser uncovers secrets of complex oxide material
  
  This diagram shows alternating stripes of charges and spins that self-organize in a particular nickel oxide at sufficiently low temperatures. This pattern constitutes a new quantum state, and it provides a model system that scientists can use to learn about electron correlations and their impact on the properties of materials. Doped holes (dark red in the background) primarily reside on the nickel “3+” atoms (red circles) located in every fourth vertical row. This is called the “charge order” (CO). The electron spins (arrows) of each of the next three rows of nickel “2+” atoms (gray circles) are oriented in opposite directions, that is, antiferromagnetically. The period of this “spin order” (SO) is twice that of the charge order. Credit: Wei-Sheng Lee An international team of researchers has used SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to discover never-before-seen behavior by electrons in complex materials with extraordinary properties. The result is an important step forward in the investigation of so-called strongly correlated materials, whose unusual qualities and futuristic applications stem from the collective behavior of their electrons. By understanding how these materials work, scientists hope to ultimately
- Is it ripe? Carbon nanotube-based ethylene sensor establishes fruit ripeness
  
  The term ethylene (ethene) generally brings to mind polyethylene plastics, not fruit. However, ethylene is more than just a feedstock for chemical industry, it is also the smallest plant hormone, and it controls physiological processes, such as the ripening of fruit, seed germination, and the blooming and wilting of blossoms. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, American researchers have now introduced a highly sensitive ethylene sensor that could be used to determine the ripeness of fruit. The ripening process of many fruits is triggered when ethylene binds to a specific receptor. Bananas, for example, are usually unripe when they are harvested. They are transported under a nitrogen atmosphere to stop the ripening process and are then exposed to ethylene gas in a ripening facility before delivery. However, they must not be ripened too much because bananas become “overripe” very fast. It is thus important to precisely control the ethylene concentration in storage facilities. It is also interesting to know how much ethylene fruits release at any given point in their development because this could help determine the ideal time for harvest. As a small, nonpolar molecule, ethylene (C2H4) is difficult to detect. Conventional methods
- Chemists merge experimentation with theory in understanding of water molecule
  
  The water hexamer, shown, is the smallest assembly of water molecules that adopts a three-dimensional structure displaying hydrogen bonding patterns characteristic of liquid water and ice. Water is the most abundant and one of the most frequently studied substances on Earth, yet its geometry at the molecular level – the simple two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, and how they interact with other molecules, including other water – has remained somewhat of a mystery to chemists. Most understanding at that level is theoretical, requiring the use of supercomputers to make innumerable calculations over periods of weeks to make educated guesses as to the arrangements and structure of water clusters before they form into liquid water or ice. But a new study, using experimentation with a highly advanced spectrometer for molecular rotational spectroscopy, has removed some of the mystery and validates some very complex theory involving the way water molecules bond. It is published in the May 18 issue of the journal Science. "We set out to determine quantitatively the structure that small assemblies of water adopt, and then compare them to theory to see how well
- Measuring transient x-rays with lobster eyes
  
  Goddard scientists (clockwise) Scott Barthelmy, Gerry Skinner, and Jordan Camp are show here with their prototype "Lobster Transient X-ray Detector," a cross-cutting instrument that would detect transient X-rays and ammonia leaks on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Debora McCallum A technology that mimics the structure of a lobster's eyes is now being applied to a new instrument that could help revolutionize X-ray astronomy and keep astronauts safe on the International Space Station. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are developing the "Lobster Transient X-ray Detector," which they hope to deploy on the space station in three to four years. From its perch on the orbiting outpost, the cross-cutting instrument now being developed by Jordan Camp, Scott Barthelmy, and Gerry Skinner would detect with unprecedented accuracy transient X-rays — those fleeting, hard-to-capture high-energy photons produced during black-hole and neutron-star mergers, supernovae, and gamma-ray bursts created much farther away in the early universe. But the lobster-eye technology also could carry out another much-needed job. It could check for ammonia leaks on the International Space Station — a problem that engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center
- After 50 year search, research team finds plutonium signature
  
  Plutonium,. Pictured against an inch and centimeter rule. Image: Wikipedia. After fifty years of trying by various researchers, a group made up of teams from Los Alamos National Libratory in the US and the Atomic Energy Agency in Japan, have succeeded in spotting the signature of plutonium-239 with magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Using a super cooled sample of plutonium(IV) oxide, the team as they describe in their paper published in the journal Science, was able to stabilize magnetic interference to find the elusive signature. NMR spectroscopy has been used for years to analyze and hopefully gain a better understanding of many materials; of particular interest have been those that have a quantum spin of ½, such as hydrogen and carbon isotopes. One that has been a stickler however, is plutonium-239, which until now has defied attempts by researchers to observe its signature due to its unusually powerful internal magnetic field that results from the strong interaction between two of its electrons with its nucleus. Also complicating matters are restrictions placed on researchers trying to analyze it due to both political and safety issues. Now however, circumstances
- Iron-based superconductors exhibit s-wave symmetry
  
  False-color plots of the superconducting gap distribution of BaFe2(As0.7P0.3)2. The image on the left shows the superconducting energy gap approaching zero (indicated by color), but at a circular horizontal line-node. This immediately rules out the d-wave pairing symmetry, which would give four vertical line nodes in the diagonal directions. Credit: D.L. Feng, et al. Condensed-matter physicists the world over are in hot pursuit of a comprehensive understanding of high-temperature superconductivity, not just for its technological benefits but for the clues it holds to strongly correlated electron systems. One important avenue of investigation is pairing symmetry. It’s a property of Cooper pairs, the bound electron pairs that are a hallmark of all superconductors, whether high-temperature or conventional. The paired electrons act as if they were a single particle, and the energy required to break Cooper pairs is measured by the superconducting gap. The symmetry of the superconducting gap, known as the pairing symmetry, is an important characteristic of Cooper pairs that is intimately related to the mechanism of superconductivity. In conventional superconductors, the Cooper pairs have s-wave pairing symmetry, which takes the shape of a sphere. In
- Bright future for solar power in space
  
  Researchers at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow, have tested equipment in space that would provide a platform for solar panels to collect the energy and allow it to be transferred back to earth through microwaves or lasers. This unique development would provide a reliable source of power and could allow valuable energy to be sent to remote areas in the world, providing power to disaster areas or outlying areas that are difficult to reach by traditional means. Dr Massimiliano Vasile, of the University of Strathclyde’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, who is leading the space based solar power research, said: “Space provides a fantastic source for collecting solar power and we have the advantage of being able to gather it regardless of the time of the day or indeed the weather conditions. “In areas like the Sahara desert where quality solar power can be captured, it becomes very difficult to transport this energy to areas where it can be used. However, our research is focusing on how we can remove this obstacle and use space based solar power to
- 100-Foot Subsea Turbine Successfully Installed at World’s First Tidal Farm Off the Coast of Scotland
  
  Tidal farms, which use underwater turbines to harness the power of the planet’s oceans and convert it into electricity, are something that we frequently mention here at Inhabitat. While there are plans to build them all over the world, Scotland achieved a major milestone this week by successfully installing a 10MW tidal power array in the Sound of Islay, off the coast of Orkney. This week saw the successful installation of a 100-foot-tall subsea turbine. After it was installed, tests were conducted to generate electricity for the surrounding region. Scottish Power Renewables, which is overseeing the project, said the turbine was performing well and is already powering homes and businesses on the island of Eday. It wasn’t an easy installation, as the 1-megawatt Hammerfest Strom HS1000 turbine was lowered into the sea during a storm, with crews facing hostile waters (see a video of the installation here). However, successful tests will pave the way for future turbines. Speaking during the turbine’s installation, Keith Anderson, SPR’s chief executive, said: “This gives us confidence ahead of implementing larger scale projects. The performance of the first HS1000 device has given us great confidence so far. Engineers were able install the device during
- Tiles May Help Shrink Carbon Footprint by Harnessing Pedestrian Power
  
  This summer at the largest urban mall in Europe, visitors may notice something different at their feet. Twenty bright green rubber tiles will adorn one of the outdoor walkways at the Westfield Stratford City Mall, which abuts the new Olympic stadium in east London. The squares aren't just ornamental. They are designed to collect the kinetic energy created by the estimated 40 million pedestrians who will use that walkway in a year, generating several hundred kilowatt-hours of electricity from their footsteps. That's enough to power half the mall's outdoor lighting. The slabs are produced by Pavegen Systems, a London startup launched in 2009 by Laurence Kemball-Cook, a fresh-faced, 26-year-old Londoner who developed his clean energy idea while earning a degree in industrial design and technology at Loughborough University. The 17.7-by-23.6-inch (45-by-60-centimeter) tiles are designed to be used wherever pedestrians congregate en masse: transportation hubs such as including train,