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Apr 15, 2009 | 18
It's no wonder inventors are racing to develop the best type of engine to power tomorrow's fleet of hybrids as automakers rush to get enviro-friendly cars on the road and consumers are tempted by a new $7,500 tax incentive being offered for buying one. But it's not only new inventions that are vying for a piece of the action: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, and other entrepreneurs are attempting to put a new face on technology that's been kicking around for more than a century—an electromagnetic engine that turns mechanical into electrical energy.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week published a patent application describing an internal combustion engine that "converts mechanical energy of a piston to and from electrical energy during each piston cycle" submitted in October 2007 by Searette LLC, part of Intellectual Ventures, a Bellevue, Wash., company launched in 2000 to buy and license patents. Gates, who was still Microsoft's chief software architect at the time the patent was filed, is listed as one of 10 inventors on the application.
Nov 17, 2008 | 2
It was 38 years ago today that the U.S. Patent Office officially recognized an invention that would help make computers more accessible to the masses. We are, of course, talking about Douglas Engelbart's "X-Y position indicator for a display system," more commonly known today as the computer mouse. Engelbart, 83, then a researcher at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, Calif., filed the patent in 1967 but had to wait three years for the government to acknowledge his technology, which provided the tool needed to navigate graphics-filled computer screens with a simple motion of the hand rather than by wading through screens filled with green-tinted text using keys or a light pencil pressed up against a computer monitor.
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beatricebiology @FlyingTrilobite It's such a fine line. I really want to keep FB'ing and tweeting about my book, but I don't want to be overbearing.
ChristiansenJen From @j2250's #URMA2013 talk: ~"I know you're thinking 'oh no he didn't. He used Comic Sans.' Yes I did. But I'm using it satirically."
FlyingTrilobite @beatricebiology I know whatcha mean. I always feel everything has to be new to market, which makes no sense when there's always new peeps.
Deadline: Jun 29 2013
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The Seeker for this Challenge desires proposals for chemical methods that could rapidly degrade a dilute aqueous solution
Deadline: Jul 15 2013
Reward: $5,000 USD
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