A Bridgewater company is betting the road to success goes through some of the world's poorest countries.
With $100,000 in funding from the World Bank, a group of graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a solar energy system that generates electricity, heating, and cooling -- using little more than sheet metal and automobile parts. They hope to turn their invention into a viable business, under the name Promethean Power.
"Can this be a multi-hundreds of millions of dollars company? The potential is there," said Sorin Grama, an immigrant from Romania who just completed a master's degree in system design and management at MIT's Sloan School of Management.
Grama created Promethean Power's business plan, and it was good enough to win a $10,000 prize in MIT's annual entrepreneurship competition.
Science & Technology
Archaeologists in Peru have uncovered the human skeleton of what they conclude is the earliest known gunshot victim in the New World.
Digging in an Inca cemetery in the suburbs of Lima, they came on well-preserved remains of an individual with holes less than an inch in diameter in the back and front of the skull. Forensic scientists in Connecticut said the position of the round holes and some minuscule iron particles showed that the person most likely was shot and killed by a Spanish musket ball.
Ceramics and other artifacts in the 72 examined graves established the approximate time of the burials, archaeologists said, and this indicated that these were casualties of combat between Inca warriors and Spanish invaders, who seized the Andean empire in 1532. Spanish chronicles describe a pitched battle, a last stand of the Incas that was fought in the vicinity in 1536.
Digging in an Inca cemetery in the suburbs of Lima, they came on well-preserved remains of an individual with holes less than an inch in diameter in the back and front of the skull. Forensic scientists in Connecticut said the position of the round holes and some minuscule iron particles showed that the person most likely was shot and killed by a Spanish musket ball.
Ceramics and other artifacts in the 72 examined graves established the approximate time of the burials, archaeologists said, and this indicated that these were casualties of combat between Inca warriors and Spanish invaders, who seized the Andean empire in 1532. Spanish chronicles describe a pitched battle, a last stand of the Incas that was fought in the vicinity in 1536.
News Corporation has discussed swapping MySpace, its internet social networking unit, with Yahoo! in return for a 30 per cent stake in the enlarged group.
The discussions remain tentative and could collapse after the departure of Terry Semel as Yahoo!'s chief executive and his replacement by Jerry Yang this week. Mr Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! and incoming chief executive, yesterday pledged to "dig in" to his new role, and acknowledged the difficult task he faces to arrest the decline in the internet portal's shares.
News Corp, the parent company of The Times, is interested in a deal even if it means losing some control of MySpace because it would give the media group exposure to a far larger internet-based business.
Other News Corp digital assets, including the games network IGN, bought in 2005 for $650 million (£326 million), are also thought to have been offered to Yahoo!.
The discussions remain tentative and could collapse after the departure of Terry Semel as Yahoo!'s chief executive and his replacement by Jerry Yang this week. Mr Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! and incoming chief executive, yesterday pledged to "dig in" to his new role, and acknowledged the difficult task he faces to arrest the decline in the internet portal's shares.
News Corp, the parent company of The Times, is interested in a deal even if it means losing some control of MySpace because it would give the media group exposure to a far larger internet-based business.
Other News Corp digital assets, including the games network IGN, bought in 2005 for $650 million (£326 million), are also thought to have been offered to Yahoo!.
Seamus Byrne takes a look at some extraordinary technologies that are just around the corner.
Goodbye, Dolly...Hello, Synthia!
J. Craig Venter Institute Seeks Monopoly Patents on the World's First-Ever Human-Made Life Form
ETC Group Will Challenge Patents on "Synthia" - Original Syn Organism Created in Laboratory
J. Craig Venter Institute Seeks Monopoly Patents on the World's First-Ever Human-Made Life Form
ETC Group Will Challenge Patents on "Synthia" - Original Syn Organism Created in Laboratory
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A Roman road has been found by workers building a controversial £840m natural gas pipeline across Wales.
The historic roadway was discovered in the Brecon Beacons, on the path of the 190-mile (320km) National Grid pipe from Milford Haven to Gloucestershire.
The historic roadway was discovered in the Brecon Beacons, on the path of the 190-mile (320km) National Grid pipe from Milford Haven to Gloucestershire.
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| ©BBC |
| Richard Field on the Roman road found on the pipeline's route. |
Yang Zhou is no cyberdissident, but recent curbs on his Web surfing habits by China's censors have him fomenting discontent about China's "Great Firewall".
Yang's fury erupted a few days ago when he found he could not browse his friend's holiday snaps on Flickr.com, due to access restrictions by censors after images of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre were posted on the photo-sharing Web site."
"Once you've complained all you can to your friends, what more can you do? What else is there but anger and disillusionment?" Yang said after venting his anger with friends at a hot-pot restaurant in Beijing.
Yang's fury erupted a few days ago when he found he could not browse his friend's holiday snaps on Flickr.com, due to access restrictions by censors after images of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre were posted on the photo-sharing Web site."
"Once you've complained all you can to your friends, what more can you do? What else is there but anger and disillusionment?" Yang said after venting his anger with friends at a hot-pot restaurant in Beijing.
A fossilised skull of the earliest giant panda has been discovered and reveals that two million years ago the animal was a pygmy.
It is the first skull of the extinct species to be found and provides a clear idea of what the ancient creature would have looked like.
It dates back at least two million years and the remains show that, at 3ft (1m) long, it was little more than half the size of the modern giant panda, which is 5ft long.
Apart from size, however, it was much the same as the modern species anatomically. The structure of the teeth shows that it had already developed a taste for bamboo.
It is the first skull of the extinct species to be found and provides a clear idea of what the ancient creature would have looked like.
It dates back at least two million years and the remains show that, at 3ft (1m) long, it was little more than half the size of the modern giant panda, which is 5ft long.
Apart from size, however, it was much the same as the modern species anatomically. The structure of the teeth shows that it had already developed a taste for bamboo.
Forest scientists at Oregon State University have used genetic modification to successfully manipulate the growth in height of trees, showing that it's possible to create miniature trees that look similar to normal trees -- but after several years of growth may range anywhere from 50 feet tall to a few inches.
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| ©Oregon State University |
| All of these genetically modified trees are from the same poplar variety, were planted at the same time, and are two years old but clearly are growing to very different heights, shapes and colors. |
After glancing at the nearby caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were stored, I walked through the entrance to the main building at Qumran, checked out the scriptorium with its ink wells and oil lamps and the pottery-making workshop, and then up to the four-story tower for spotting approaching Roman legions.
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| ©SDNHM |
| A still from the Qumran Visualization Project |
