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Original Article from EDN Magazine Online (Link)
By Matthew Miller — EDN, 2/28/2008

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.

Originally this was posted over at Roland Piquequaille’s Emerging Trends Blog. (Link) 

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

Original article is here over at Roland Piquepaille’s “Emerging Technology Trends”. I think this is a fairly significant line of work. Directly harnessing electricity generated at the microbe level stands to be a while new class of energy harvesting.

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

I was browsing around google images today. I always enjoy seeing what comes up visually with certain search terms. I was looking at “innovation” this time. Actually a word a do a lot of searching about and thinking about. I ran across this image below at loosetech.com .

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.

While browsing TEDTalks in anticipation of the 2008 installment, I ran across this gem by Richard St. John. I thought it was one of the most concise statements of what I have heard from many people I respect. Richard aggregated this view by interviewing 500 successful people over a 7 year period.

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)

Guy Kawasaki has a great interview with Jeffrey Pfeffer (Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University) related to his book What Were They Thinking?: Unconventional Wisdom About Management. What really struck me as interesting was how true some of sentiments rang with me. I few Questions and Answers that really hit home are quoted below.

Question: What can companies do to get smarter?
Answer: Companies learn just like people learn—by trying new things and seeing what happens. That requires, first, a tolerance for failure, since by definition, learning means doing things you aren’t very good at.Second, it requires structured self-reflection—after-action or after-event reviews so that instead of having one year of experience repeated 20 times, people and companies actually accumulate learning over time.”

Question: What are the characteristics of a good work week and vacation policy?
Answer: We live in a world where ideas and innovation are paramount. But people can’t be creative if they are exhausted. And when people work when they are tired, they make mistakes. If we have learned anything from the quality movement, it is that the cost of finding and fixing mistakes is greater than the cost of preventing them. So, give people time off. And, by the way, the younger generations want a life as well as work. Work-life balance is a great way to attract—and retain—great people.

Question: What are the characteristics of a good incentive plan?
Answer: Incentives should be large enough to provide an occasion for celebrating success but not so large as to distort behavior. And incentives can include recognition and things other than money. Companies get themselves into trouble all the time by being too clever with their incentives.
Stock options did reward leaders for getting the price of the stock up—it’s just that it was often for a short period, and was accomplished by distorting earnings. Be careful what you pay for—you might just get it.

Question: What role should budgets play in the management of an organization?
Answer: Budgets should be general guidelines. As hard and fast rules, they become subject to “gaming.” People delay doing sensible things, push expenses around, hide sales, etc. And also, budgets often just reward the best forecasters and negotiators. It is possible to make “budget” as you lose market share and go broke, as long as the targets are set low enough.

Think about your organization and how these questions and opinions line up with what your company does or does not do? How would some of this advise go over at your company? Is it unconventional or down-right heresy? Have some of the effects mentioned by actions in these questions come true at your organization?

I have a couple of interesting links that people may be interested in.

• My friend forwarded this transcript of a pre-commencement lecture given by Narayana Murthy (chief mentor and chairman of the board, Infosys Technologies) at the New York University (Stern School of Business) on May 9. The theme of the lecture was the great impact that chance events played in shaping his life. Quite a good lecture. It really got me thinking as to the random events that lead to long friendships, family, professional success, and perception altering moments.

• I got a note in my email today with links to 3 new TED Talks.
  • John Doerr: Seeking salvation and profit in greentech
  • Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Photosynth demo on SeaDragon and PhotoSynth (AMAZING)
  • Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: How to help Africa? Do business there

• Also some interesting articles in SmallTimes this month. NanoDynamics is planning an IPO.

• The rankings for the top Schools with Nano programs according to SmallTimes is out. ( or the quick view for the impatient).
• The SmallTimes mergers and acquisitions summary this month seem to have quite a few interesting tid-bits.

  • Xradia with it’s minaturized microscope offerings with some new funding.
    
  • NaturalNano Funding deal is in there (Notice the much improved website with their new money).
  • SolarDiesel with a huge buyout deal on the plans to builds the worlds largest biodiesel plant.
  • Arrowhead Research Corporation continues its end-run to gobble up all the SWNT patents it can find with the purchase of C Sixty Inc. and CNI

• This story from Seth Godin about alignment is concise and to the point.

“When there’s a gap between someone doing her job and doing the right thing, then management has failed.”

I have been doing quite  a bit of driving lately and have been using the opportunity to go back and listen to some of the older killer innovations podcasts that were put out before I discovered Phil McKinney.   If you are interested in creativity, innovation, or how to bring new ideas life and are not a listener, you should be.    He is not a consultant, or guru, or professor,  or someone trying to sell a book.  He is the real deal and does this in a business setting for a well known and large corporation.   Listen and you will see.

If you are new and really want to dig in quickly to, then a recent post on his site lists the 5 most downloaded podcasts.   One of my personal favorites is the Sept 11th 2006 podcast that is a recording of a talk given at Reuters.  It really captures very succinctly some of what he has developed over many years as an innovation champion.

As someone who has lead an “innovation team”  in a corporate setting,  I wish I had known about him before undertaking that endevor.    Give him a listen,  If you don’t find it useful, write me an email.

Guy Kawasaki has a good post on TrendHunter Magazine (warning, some content not suitable for work on there). Guy’s post gives some great examples.   Also look at the Science category and the Art and Design Category. This is a mix of the weird and strange mixed with the  insightful and coo .    As with anyone that is a trendsetter they are usually on the fringe which is extremely evident from the links above. You can see the tongue-in-cheek in this publication, but take a look at the about trendhunter page and the associated list of publications at the bottom.

An Example of one trend post is the M3 Heliodisplay from iO2 technology.

So how do you use Trendhunter? Where are the gems there you can develop? Are there some common threads on there that would make the basis of a trend you could ride and tailor your products to? Can you market to a fringe customer base? Should you?

On a related subject Phil McKinney has a great podcast over at Killer Innovations that deals with the “Trend Safari.”  Well work the listen.  The transcipt is also there for the podcast/mp3 challenged.

Here are a couple interesting articles thrown together here for your clicking pleasure.

1.  Guy Kawasaki has a great post talking about some studies on which is more effective:  a raise or a bonus?
2. Innoblog  has a great post on Cisco pulling an  “if you can’t beat em buy em” move purchasing WebEx for $3.2 billion.     Seems to me a great example of a large company  co-opting a disruptive technology for themselves.
3. Innoblog has another post on  an example of entering your market with a more expensive product/service positioned against non-use as opposed to fighting the dominant and lowest cost supplier in an already developed market. For those of you familiar with “The Innovator’s Solution” or “Seeing what’s next” will recognize this as an example strategy from these texts.
4. Seth Godin Points to Amazon adapting the citation model so popular in the science citation index.  Which books link to your favorite book and which books does your favorate reference?
5. Endless Innovation points to this article on Wired blog about the history of the computer mouse.  Interesting to remind yourself how that ubiquitous interface we all use started and developed to what it is.