New World Technologies - NWT

On Tuesday morning, a group of Scituate teachers worked in the high school to build small robots that could maneuver through water.They were going to test their creations in a local swimming pool that afternoon, so they wanted to make sure the robots worked correctly.In building his robot, high school technology education teacher John Sullivan kept himself from getting overheated when he felt a little confused. Instead, he contemplated his creation."I'm not really a robotics guy," he said before almost surprising himself by correctly ...

"NO-TAKE zones" might protect coral reefs against overfishing, but no signpost can counter the effects of global warming.Coral bleaching - the loss of colour when coral tissue expels its symbiotic algae - is triggered by very high ocean temperatures and can be fatal. Climate change might make it more common.To look at the effect of 1998's global coral bleaching, Nicholas Graham at Newcastle University, UK, and his team studied reef fish at 66 sites in the Indian Ocean, including no-take zones that ban fishing."These areas weren't desi ...

But business opposition preventing action in General AssemblyIf Maryland doesn't work to combat and adapt to climate change, the state risks problems from heat-related illnesses, harm to crops and livestock, a shake-up of which species of plants and animals survive here and damaged wetlands and coasts, according to a report released today.Preventing the worst effects of climate change will require conserving energy, protecting the coastline and cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, according to the report by the state Commission on C ...

COMPTON - Seven years ago, Dale and Jeanette Balder cashed in on a new state grant and bought a row of photovoltaic solar panels to help power their new home.That simple experiment marked the beginning of a pet project - to achieve complete electricity independence in their 1,200-square-foot house.With the installation of a 120-foot wind turbine in March, five more photovoltaic arrays, and a solar hot water system, coupled with judicious power consumption and radiant heating, they have realized their goal.The project is so successful, ...

The potential of wood as an alternative energy source will be addressed at two public meetings scheduled in September.The meetings are sponsored by the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources, Virginia Cooperative Extension and several partners.Rural issues are the focus of the first meeting, set for September 14th at Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon. Urban and suburban issues will be discussed at the second meeting on September 29 at Virginia State University in Petersburg.Forest management Extension speciali ...

Spellex announces a new spelling software release, which includes specialty words from the medical and pharmaceutical industries and compatibility for new word processing programs from Microsoft and Corel.Benefits: Spellex's new medical and pharmaceutical spelling dictionaries offer an excellent alternative to paper medical dictionaries and pharmaceutical word books. By adding Spellex Medical 2008 and Spellex Pharmaceutical 2008 to a common English language spell checker, the spelling dictionaries will verify correctly spelled medical ...

PHOENIX- With the price of oil still above $100 a barrel, everything from wood chips to chicken fat is being scrutinized as an alternative to traditional fuel. But when it comes to airplanes, finding the right mix poses a special challenge."When you're in an airplane, you don't want your fuel to start solidifying," said Robert Dunn, a Department of Agriculture chemical engineer who is studying biodiesel jet fuel.The airline industry is aggressively pushing for homegrown alternatives to petroleum-based jet fuel, while leaning on custom ...

TOKYO - The Japanese government plans to propose in U.N. talks that developing countries be obliged to join their industrialized counterparts in cutting greenhouse gas emissions under a new international framework to combat global warming to come into force in 2013, according to government sources.The government has submitted five documents related to the proposal to the secretariat of a special working panel meeting to be held in Accra beginning Thursday under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.In the proposal to be pres ...

Global warming and past forest management are making forests in the western United States more susceptible to fire while large wildfires, like two in Utah last year, are blamed with making climate change worse and putting unnatural stress on ecosystems, according to a report released Thursday.In the National Wildlife Federation's 2008 "Increased Risk of Catastrophic Wildfires: Global Warming's Wake-Up Call for the Western United States," the report claims global warming is increasing the risk of fires via rising temperatures, drier co ...

Duke Energy Carolinas expects to spend $40 million to install solar panels on homes and businesses to generate power for distribution across the company's grid.The program, one of the steps the Charlotte-based utility is taking to meet the state's renewable energy requirements, has already generated inquiries from more than 200 customers.Duke would pay to install the panels, about a $12,750 to $42,500 investment on a home, and also pay "rent" of about $50 a year to the 80 or so residential customers it hopes to sign up.The homeowner o ...

Rising fuel costs are driving some fleet vehicle owners to consider going green by retrofitting or purchasing vehicles that run on advanced fuels.Last Wednesday, the Hocking College Energy Institute offered a one-day workshop entitled "Advanced Vehicular Fleet Fuels" to provide basic information on the advanced fuels currently on the market for fleet vehicles. In addition, this event was "designed to connect public and private agencies with possible partnering agencies as well as funding organizations for vehicle conversion and refuel ...

Jacksonville, FL -- Researchers have devised an inexpensive way to produce plastic sheets containing billions of nanoantennas that collect heat energy generated by the sun and other sources. The technology, developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, is the first step toward a solar energy collector that could be mass-produced on flexible materials.While methods to convert the energy into usable electricity still need to be developed, the sheets could one day be manufactured as lightweight "skins" that powe ...

LONDON (AFP) - A grenade that puts out fires, a self-pouring teapot, periscope spectacles, a peach peeler and a moustache protector are among oddball inventions on show at the British Library.The Weird and Wonderful Inventions display, which opened Thursday and runs until November 10 at the national library in central London, is showing off a wealth of eccentric contraptions and ingenious gadgets.The eye-catching devices are from the collection of Maurice Collins, a man with a passion for crazy inventions dating from 1851 to 1951."I'v ...

Palo Alto, 4 August (AKI) - Doctor Roberto Crea, one of the pioneers of biotechnology announced on Monday that he has filed a lawsuit against the City of Hope Medical Center located in the western U.S. city of Duarte, California.According to court documents, Genentech has paid over 700 million dollars to City of Hope Medical Center in exchange for the assignment of these patents, synthetic DNA and technical knowhow under the City of Hope - Genentech agreement.Crea's lawsuit is based on the claim that his two former colleagues, Keiichi ...

How can we store the sun's energy and use it later when the sun isn't shining? That has been one of the biggest challenges facing the widespread implementation of solar power.Now it appears that an answer may come from trying to duplicate what plants do.A Masschusetts Institute of Technology professor has announced what he and his staff believe is a key breakthrough.In a report from the MIT news service, Prof. Daniel Nocera said:"This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years. Solar power has always been a limited, far ...

Drum-Playing Robot Doesn't Quite Threaten the Livelihood of Real Drummersas drum machines are pretty ubiquitous in music these days, the idea of a machine that plays the drums doesn't sound all that groundbreaking. But what about a robot that plays the drums? Eh? Not impressed? What if I told you it played the most rudimentary beats possible? Now are you impressed? I thought so.