Original source : http://www.smashinglists.com
Posted : March 2011
Author : the admin
A well known misquote said that everything that can be
invented has been invented. That was uttered more than a hundred years ago, and
if it had been true, we wouldn’t be reading this article sitting hundreds or
thousands of miles apart in front of a lit up glass screen. Thank God for the
spirit of invention and innovation. Even the most skeptical among us sits up to
take notice when some breakthrough happens. But the really interested of the
lot go out looking for any new cool invention that’s being cooked up. Last time
we saw 10 amazing inventions that you didn’t know existed, now we have 10 more
of them!
10. Self-Inflating Tires
One of the things that causes us a great deal of annoyance
is the sight of a flat tire just as when we have an urgent task at hand, right?
Well, its time these worries were brought to an end. Coda Development has
already come up with a tire design that is self-inflating. This self-inflating
tire, developed in the Czech
Republic, takes this out
of your hands by inflating automatically through a device called a peristaltic
pump which inflates the tire as it turns, keeping it at a constant, safe
pressure level. This technology, if adopted widely, will not only make the
roads safer, but will have a positive environmental impact by way of savings on
fuel (cars with under-inflated tires use more fuel), resulting in a reduction
in carbon dioxide emissions, and an increase in the lifespan of tires.
9. Invisibility Cloak (Optical Camouflage)
The words “invisibility cloak” tends to summon images of
fantastic adventure, magical espionage and otherworldly deception. Well
Muggles, science has some good news for you: Invisibility cloaks are a reality.
Optical camouflage delivers a similar experience to Harry Potter’s invisibility
cloak, but using it requires a slightly complicated arrangement. Optical
camouflage doesn’t work by way of magic. It works by taking advantage of
something called augmented-reality technology - a type of technology first
pioneered in the 1960s by Ivan Sutherland and his students at Harvard University
and the University
of Utah. The invisibility
cloak is still in its infancy and real-world applications are still being
tested. Invisibility allows light to bend around an object. Once this
technology becomes more advanced, scientists believe that it can be used for
many safety measures, including eliminating blind spots in cars and planes to
prevent accidents.
8. Bionics
Bionics is a term which refers to flow of ideas from biology
to engineering and vice versa. Hence, there are two slightly different points
of view regarding the meaning of the word. In medicine, Bionics means the
replacement or enhancement of organs or other body parts by mechanical
versions. Bionic implants differ from mere prostheses by mimicking the original
function very closely, or even surpassing it. In technology, Bionics refers to
the development of specific technologies which mimic biological adaptation to
the environment. Examples include a ships hull that mimics the thick skin of a
dolphin, or sonar, radar, and medical ultrasound imaging imitating the
echolocation of bats. Is it done? Yes. This technology has been in development
for a number of years and, while still in the early stages, has already
produced many devices. Examples of technological bionics include Velcro and
Cat’s eye reflectors. Examples of medical bionics include artificial hearts and
the cochlear implant.
7. Read My Lips Lipstick
A new lipstick has gone on sale that shows when women are in
the mood for sex. The saucy slap changes from clear to deep crimson as the
wearer feels frisky. Invented in California,
the Mood Swing Emotionally Activated Lip Gloss works by reacting with a girl’s
body chemistry. Priced at 12 pounds each, the tube comes with a colour chart so
men can work out how randy their partner is feeling. “The colours change
depending on your emotional state,” the Sun quoted a spokesman for makers Too
Faced as saying.
6. Weather Control Device
Each year, hurricanes or typhoons may cause billions of
dollars’ worth of damage and a large number of fatalities. It would be hugely
significant if we could find an effective way of reducing the destructive power
of these storms, which convert heat energy from warm oceans into damaging
kinetic energy in the atmosphere. Arkadii Leonov at Ohio’s
University of Akron has “invented” a method of
dissipating hurricanes that threaten populated areas. The method,
according to the patent submission, involves flying supersonic jets in
concentric circles around hurricanes, allowing the released sonic booms to
disrupt the delicate air pressure balances these weather phenomena need to
operate. is the act of manipulating or altering certain aspects of the
environment to produce desirable changes in weather. Weather control can have
the goal of preventing damaging weather, from occurring; of causing beneficial
weather, such as rainfall in an area experiencing drought; or of provoking
damaging weather against an enemy or rival, as a tactic of military or economic
warfare. Weather modification in warfare has been banned by the United Nations
5. Smell-o-Vision
In 1965, BBC TV played an April Fool’s Day joke on their
viewers. The network aired an “interview” with a man who had invented a new
technology called “Smellovision” that allowed viewers at home to experience
aromas produced in the television studio. To demonstrate, the man chopped some
onions and brewed a pot of coffee. Viewers called in to confirm that they had
smelled the aromas that were “transmitted” through their television sets. But
now its no joke, watching Nigella will never be the same again. Scientists are
developing an astonishing gadget that releases evocative aromas to match the images
on a television or computer screen. The Smell-O-Vision style device will send
out a waft of delicious cooking smells when a television chef serves up a dish.
It will release the smell of candy floss when someone watches a home video of a
fairground. The technique uses printers to spray small amounts of scent rather
than ink. Dr Kenichi Okada, of Keio University, Tokyo,
told New Scientist: “We are using the ink-jet printer’s ability to eject tiny
pulses of material to achieve precise control.” Ink jet printers work when a
pulse of current heats up a coil of wire and creates a bubble that forces a
small amount of ink down a tube an onto the page at high speed. And it will
even emit the scent of the seaside when someone looks at their holiday snaps on
a computer. The gadget is the brainchild of Japanese researchers who have
adapted an ordinary ink jet printer to release precise doses of scent. Although
the invention is still at the early stages, its creators believe it could
revolutionize the way we watch television or enjoy old pictures.
4. Artificial Brain (Artificial Intelligence)
Artificial Intelligence is a staple of science fiction
thrillers–from HAL 9000 to Wargames. The second we established the concept of
AI, we pretty much knew that it would hate us with an undying passion. Perhaps
we just have collective self-esteem issues; no sci-fi masterpiece depicts an AI
that, upon coming online and searching its database in an effort to better
understand mankind, responds by shouting, “You guys are awesome! We should get
nachos!” It’s not that far-fetched: Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain
Project, claims that scientists will most likely perfect the artificial human
brain in the next decade. They’ve already simulated an artificial rat brain
which, incidentally, might explain why the Internet keeps hissing at us and
scurrying into the corner. He told the TED Global conference in Oxford that a synthetic
human brain would be of particular use finding treatments for mental
illnesses.
3. Energy Shield (Force Deflector Shield)
Typically, energy shields are some form of force field
designed to protect against weapons or elements by deflecting or absorbing
their impact. The field is projected along the surface of, or into the space
around an object. They usually work by absorbing or dissipating the energy of
the incoming attack; prolonged exposure to such attacks weakens the shield and
eventually results in the shield’s collapse, making the protected area
vulnerable to attack. A number of efforts to design defensive energy fields are
occurring in real life. Deflector shield to protect spacecraft that leave the
natural defense of the earth’s magnetic field has been invented and is
undergoing lab tests. This involves creating a cloud of charged plasma around
the ship, which would stop highly charged particles, from the sun or distant
supernova, from reaching the ship. The engineering details of how to use this
technology on a spaceship must still be worked out.
2. Love Anti-love Pills
After the passion of Valentine’s Day, here is some sobering
news for lovers. Pop a love pill, and you are on. And pop an anti-love pill,
you are done – without any lingering emotions. Scientists say it will soon be
possible to fall in and out of love at whim – just like hopping into a bus and
then getting off two stops later. They say that since falling in love is merely
a chemical reaction in the human brain, a love pill may be invented soon to
trigger this chemical reaction to make people in love. And then there could be
an anti-love pill to make people fall out of love. According to an American
neuro-scientist, researchers may soon find the right kind of chemical mixture
to help people fall in and out of love. Larry Young of Atlanta ’s Emory University School of
Medicine told a television network at the weekend that researchers may soon be
able to show that emotions such as love are directly triggered by biochemical
events in the human brain. By injecting various levels of oxytocin into a
female prairie vole’s brain, Young was able to get the animal – a notoriously, fiercely
monogamous creature – to immediately drop her current lifelong mate and bond,
just as permanently, to the nearest male instead. In addition to officially
using science for the saddest thing ever (crushing the hearts of adorable
rodents), Young has also stumbled onto something potentially world-changing,
because oxytocin has already shown similar effects in human patients.
1. Computer Assisted Memory
Computer assisted memory is a recent goal, in that the very
idea itself didn’t crop up until we started pretty much practicing it anyway.
We started uploading family photos to Flickr and burning our home movies to DVD
and now that we’ve pretty much started doing it already, we want to go farther.
From the still far-off goal of silicon enhanced artificial neurons, to the
shaky present-day experiments already underway that simply photograph your days
and archive them in searchable databases – computer assisted memory, in one
shape or another, is going to happen. What if you could remember everything? No
foreign language would ever get rusty, no keys would ever be lost, no
anniversary would ever be forgotten and hastily covered for by purchasing last
minute gifts at the gas station. That could all happen with the complete
archival of actual memories on an external system. Just imagine it: Terrabytes
of storage, and nothing ever forgotten. Wisdom, after all, is little more than
the possession of a larger database of memories from which to draw, so picture
a world where simply purchasing a new hard drive puts you on par with the Dalai
Llama. With an archival memory system, even death wouldn’t be the end; your
every thought and memory could be accessed by anybody, anywhere, forever. You
could have Einstein on a thumb drive to browse through when bored. No genius,
artist or visionary would ever be truly lost again.
~Blog Admin~
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