drag2share: This Innovative Lock Aims To Create The 'Airbnb Of Bikes'

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/skylock-bike-sharing-2014-5

San Francisco startup Velo Labs is launching a funding campaign for what may be the most advanced bicycle lock in the history of bicycle locks, according to NPR.

The company claims its Skylock will start "the age of connected cycling." The lock comes with a corresponding app that allows cyclists to share their pass code with other riders, allowing them use their bike while its stationary.

Eventually, the access wouldn't just be limited to friends and family. Velo Labs said the bike share could be managed in a whole community.

"We definitely see the idea of being able to open this to anybody, allowing anybody to 'Airbnb' their bikes," Jack Al-Kahwati, cofounder of Velo Labs, told NPR. "If you wanted to start your own informal bike-share, it's completely possible right out of the gate."

And you don't have to memorize a combination to unlock your bike — you just have to press a button on your phone.

However, if you can't be bothered with that, the app can go keyless through Bluetooth, where the lock opens when you walk up to it.And that's just one hi-tech feature. The lock has sensors that can tell if someone is holding onto your bike too long, potentially trying to steal it. If that's the case, the app will send you a text alert.

Additionally, if it senses a crash-like movement when you're riding, the app sends a message asking if you if you're OK. If there's no response, it will reach out to either rescue agencies or emergency contacts.And if all that still doesn't impress you, the lock is powered by built-in solar panels, making it "virtually chargeless," said Al-Kahwati.

Skylock is looking to ship by early 2015 for $159. After the "introductory period," the makers say the price will rise to $250.

SEE ALSO: The World's Largest Helicopter Can Lift An Airliner With Remarkable Ease

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drag2share: High-Tech Farming: The Light Fantastic

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/high-tech-farming-the-light-fantastic-2014-5

Indoor farming may be taking root.

A grey warehouse in an industrial park in Indiana is an unlikely place to find the future of market gardening. But it is, nevertheless, home to a pristine, climate-controlled room full of eerily perfect plants.

They grow 22 hours a day, 365 days a year in 25-foot towers, untouched by pests and bathed in an alien pink light.

Critical to this $2.5m techno-Eden, run by a firm called Green Sense Farms, are the thousands of blue and red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) supplied by Philips, a Dutch technology firm. The light they give off is of precisely the wavelength craved by the crops grown here, which include lettuce, kale, basil and chives.

The idea of abandoning the sun's light for the artificial sort is not new. It offers plenty of advantages: no need to worry about seasons or the weather, for instance, not to mention the ability to grow around the clock (although a couple of hours a day are necessary, says Gus van der Feltz of Philips, for the plant equivalent of sleep).

Moving plants indoors allows them to be coddled in other ways, too. Water can be recycled continuously, and sensors can detect which nutrients are missing and provide them in small, accurate bursts.

However, LEDs offer a host of benefits over traditional, fluorescent growing lights. For one thing, they are far more efficient, which helps to keep electricity bills down. High efficiency means less heat, which makes air conditioning cheaper.

Being cooler, the lights can be placed closer to the plants, so the crops can be planted more densely. The wavelengths of the light can be fine-tuned so that lettuce is crisper, or softer, says Robert Colangelo, the president of Green Sense Farms. Your correspondent tasted soft, sweet kale nibbled straight off the plant. It was delicious.

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The crops grow faster, too. Philips reckons that using LED lights in this sort of controlled, indoor environment could cut growing cycles by up to half compared with traditional farming.

That could help meet demand for what was once impossible: fresh, locally grown produce, all year round. Hydroponic, naturally lit greenhouses, such as those built by BrightFarms, a firm based in New York, are already supplying produce to cities such as Chicago and New York.

Green Sense Farms is not the first to try growing under LEDs, and despite their efficiency, energy costs have been a challenge for its predecessors. But Mr Colangelo is confident. LEDs are becoming cheaper all the time, and the involvement of Philips, which has invested heavily in the technology, suggests that costs can fall further.

Farms such as these are unlikely to be suitable for heavy crops like corn and potatoes--which grow pretty efficiently in vast fields. But if Green Sense Farms can prove its commercial worth, this form of farming could become widespread for leafy greens and other high-value crops.

A new national climate assessment, published on May 6th, sets out the threats that American agriculture is facing, such as growing numbers of insects and other pests and a rising incidence of bad weather. Indoor farming is, happily, immune to both.

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drag2share: A Material Found In Silly Putty Could Triple Your Smartphone's Battery Life

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/silly-putty-material-in-smartphone-batteries-2014-5

Silly Putty is more than just a child's toy, at least that's what researchers at The University of California believe.

A team of scientists in the university's Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have discovered a way to use an ingredient found in Silly Putty to make batteries that are more energy efficient for smartphones.

Lithium ion batteries based on this Silly Putty material are said to last three times as long as the industry standard smartphone battery, according to UCR Today, a campus publication.

"We are taking the same material used in kids' toys and medical devices and even fast food and using it to create next generation battery materials," Zachary Favors, the lead author of a paper that was just published on the research, said to UCR.

The substance, called silicon dioxide, was attractive to the team because it's abundant, non-toxic, and environmentally friendly, according to UCR.

Silicon dioxide has been used in lithium ion batteries previously, but the effects haven't been as impressive.

That's because the engineers at the University of California have found a way to use silicon dioxide in nanotube form— a shape that allows lithium ion batteries to produce more energy, as Gizmag reports.

The researchers not only found that these silicon nanotubes were extremely stable for use in lithium ion batteries, but that they can be cycled 100 times without losing their maximum capacity. 

The team at the University of California are now focused on finding a way to scale up production of these silicon dioxide-based nanotube anodes to create a commercially viable product.

This isn't the first time we've heard of silicon dioxide nanotube anodes being used in smartphone batteries. A team of Stanford resea! rchers < a href="http://www.extremetech.com/computing/129299-silicon-nanotube-lithium-ion-battery-stores-10-times-more-power-lasts-6000-charges">made a similar discovery regarding the use of silicon nanotubes in 2012, but the substance hasn't been commercialized yet.

SEE ALSO: Researchers Are Testing A 'Wonder Material' That Could Make Your Smartphone Better Than Ever

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drag2share: An Amazing Cancer Treatment Based On The Measles Virus Saved A Woman's LifeWhy the measles virus?If this didn't cure cancer, what did it do?What this means

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/uivXxTYKvL0/using-measles-virus-to-treat-cancer-2014-5

After years of cancer treatments failed, Stacy Erholtz was out of options. So she let doctors at the Mayo Clinic infect her with a genetically engineered version of the measles virus.

As the virus spread through her blood stream it specifically attacked her cancer cells, shrinking tumors, putting her cancer in remission, and triggering a slew of headlines saying that measles cured her cancer and claiming that her cancer was "killed" or "destroyed."

Yes, it's an amazing story. It showed cancer can be treated with a virus but calling it a "cure for cancer" goes way too far. Nowhere in the study do the researchers claim that the woman's cancer was "cured."

Why the measles virus?

The idea isn't a new one. For decades, scientists have been researching how they could take viruses that target specific cells and use them to fight cancer by modifying them so they only infect and kill the rapidly spreading tumor cells and leave the healthy ones alone, according to Justin Kline, a blood cancer specialist at the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the research.

As the researchers point out in the study, this technique has been effective in mice and in treating tumors in one location, like a melanoma on the skin. But it hadn't been shown to work with a cancer that has spread, like multiple myeloma — which targets blood plasma cells in bone marrow in locations through! out the body.

The modified virus that the researchers chose — which is routinely administered to humans as a measles vaccine — was selected because it targets cells with a specific protein that is common in these myeloma cancer cells but not in healthy cells. That means the virus targets the cancer without making the person sick.

The two women in this study were both "at risk for imminent death" after other cancer treatments failed. That alone is a reason to try an experimental therapy, but there was another important factor at play: their own immune systems.

These women weren't immune to the measles virus like most of us are. That's lucky because doctors believe immunity would prevent the virus from gaining a foothold in the patient's system. The study doesn't say why they weren't immune — either they were never vaccinated in the first place or they might have lost their immunity due to cancer or a side effect of treatments they'd undergone, according to Kline. He says that people who receive chemo are usually later vaccinated again, since they can lose past immunity.

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drag2share: Zagg Invisible Shield Glass: Perhaps the best investment for a new iPhone

Source: http://gigaom.com/2014/05/16/zagg-invisible-shield-glass-perhaps-the-best-investment-for-a-new-iphone/

I’m such a bad iPhone owner. I generally take good care of my handsets, mainly because I sell them to upgrade from one iPhone to the next. But I’m not big into cases. And screen protectors? Don’t get me started: They’ve generally made my screen look or feel worse in the past. After installing a Zagg Invisible Shield Glass protector on my iPhone 5s, though, I’m having second thoughts.

Zagg sent me a Glass protector to try out and I wish I had one when I first bought my iPhone 5s. The protector itself is made from tempered glass, which should completely protect my iPhone’s screen from scratches. And a scratch-free iPhone can be sold for more money than an iPhone that shows some wear. You can remove the protector at any time; I’d do that before selling my iPhone 5s.

The Glass protector was simple to install; it took all of three minutes. The process involves cleaning your iPhone display with an included damp cloth, drying the display with a microfiber cloth — also included — and then placing the Glass protector on your iPhone. Once attached, you simply rub from the center to the edges to remove any trapped air bubbles. The end result? You can’t tell there’s a screen protector at all.

You’ll be adding 0.4 millimeters of thickness to your iPhone with this screen protector, but you’d be hard pressed to realize it. The Glass is silky smooth and has rounded edges. My iPhone 5s display is just as clear and bright as it was before; viewing angles are unchanged. Zagg says the Glass protector is oil-resistant and I’d agree: I see very few smudges or fingerprints on my iPhone display. And my hope is that in the case of a drop or fall, the tempered glass protector will break before the actual iPhone 5s screen cracks because that’s not cheap to replace. Zagg has a lifetime guarantee on the Glass protector.

The Zagg Invisible Shield Glass screen protector for iPhone 5s costs $34.99 directly, which is on the high side for such a product. But this is tempered glass, not a layer of strong plastic like many other protectors. The company also offers a Glass protector for the iPhone 4 and up as well as several Samsung and HTC Android phones such as the new Galaxy S 5 and HTC One M8. For $49.99 you can even buy a large one for the iPad Air.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed by how invisible this solution is, and even though I typically pass on such products, I think Glass is a solid investment to virtually eliminate scratches on my iPhone 5s display.

Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:
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• What first-quarter 2014 meant for the mobile space
• What the global tablet market will look like by 2017
• What future mobile customer experience management looks like

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