Popular Science - June 2009

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THE HEADQUARTERS OF CRAFTSMAN

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june ’09
contents
this month’s guide to innovation and discovery
VOLUME 274 #6
FEATURES
THE 2009 PopSci
INVENTION AWARDS
37 This year’s ultimate garage creations
and the big thinkers behind them.
38 THE FASTEST TANK

An unmanned machine tops 60 mph.
42 A BETTER CATHETER
A guided needle prevents vein punctures.
43 TOUGH ON FISH,
EASY ON LAKES
This lure biodegrades for clean waters.
44 HEIGHTENED REALITY
The next generation of Minority Report–
style interfaces.
ON THE COVER: JOHN B. CARNETT; THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JOHN B. CARNETT (4); MEDI-MATION; CRAIG PHILLIPS; JOHN B. CARNETT (2)
46 ROBO-LEGS
An exoskeleton that lets paraplegics walk
and even climb stairs.
48 POWER MADE FROM SHOCKS
Turns bumpy roads into a car’s electricity.
38
50 GREAT ESCAPES
An emergency harness lowers evacuees PLUS
from the tallest skyscrapers.
51 ELECTRONIC VOICE BOX WHERE
A stick-on gadget restores speech by
translating neural signals.
ARE
52 GREEN STYROFOAM THEY
Mushrooms produce an ecofriendly
alternative to traditional insulation.
NOW?
53 GREASE LIGHTING 43 44 50 “We recently
Used frying oil in one end, electricity
out of the other. received the
contract to begin
manufacturing
PopSci innovator
the Paragon Dive
54 AN ARMY OF ONE MIND System for final
The Segway failed to transform society,
Navy certification.”
but Dean Kamen isn’t done trying. Now
—Taber MacCallum,
he’s taking on clean water, robotic arms
2008 winning
and gas-free driving. And his greatest feat
invention:
might be making a lot more people into
inventors like him. By Rena Marie Pacella 54 51
sewage-proof suit
INSTANT EXPERT—special edition

60 THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE 60
TO STEM CELLS
Everything you need to know about
the hottest topic in medicine:
stem cells’ cures and controversies.
By Elizabeth Svoboda 53
POPSCI.COM JUNE 09 POPULAR SCIENCE 03
www.freedowns.net
CONTENTS
30
71
THE
FUTURE
NOW
POPSCI QUIZ
16 QUESTION 1 lar system?

ets are in the so
How many plan
REGULARS
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FRANK GREENAWAY/GETTY IMAGES; JEFF SCHULTZ; MARTIN POOLE/GETTY IMAGES; NASA; COURTESY J. PINKSTON/L. STERN/U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY;
QUESTION 2 dihydrogen
mon name for
$MEGAPIXELS What’s the com
10 A virus up close and personal; a disaster-rescue robot. monoxide?
$WHAT’S NEW QUESTION 3
ve brains?
15 GADGETS Do jellyfish ha
A laptop’s screen pops off to be an independent tablet. a network of
ne
Answer key: 1) rves but no central location
16 THE GOODS ter; 3) Nope,
8, now that Plu to
to’s been demo it.
ted; 2) Wa
An ergonomic camcorder; a fingerprint-reading suitcase. they have
18 AUTO TECH
Road-testing the gadget-heavy BMW 7-series.
WHAT’S YOUR SCI-Q?
24 RECREATION You’re smart, but how much do you really know about science? We’ve
A lightweight, carbon-fiber kayak for extreme maneuvers. written a pop quiz, so don your thinking caps. Put your knowledge to the
$HEADLINES test at popsci.com/quizme, and find out if you’re a whiz or a dunce.
27 EXPLORATION
Searching for life in pristine lakes beneath Antarctic ice. NEW SLIDESHOWS AND FEATURES
28 AVIATION
A plane attempts to circle the globe on solar power alone.
Hubble Retrospective
30 30-SECOND SCIENCE PopSci.com takes a look back at the Hubble Space
Animals attack: mutant rats, Ebola pigs and filthy flies. Telescope, from the wrong-mirror debacle to the
33 UPDATE THE TEXTBOOKS images of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet crashing
Does the Internet actually make you smarter? into Jupiter. See it all at popsci.com/hubble.
$HOW 2.0 Hands-on Science
71 YOU BUILT WHAT ?! Browse decades of DIY stories from the POPULAR
An 18-foot-tall robotic exoskeleton. SCIENCE online archives, updated with how-to
74 GRAY MATTER instructions for new projects. Get ready to make
Think mercury’s a liquid? Not if you freeze it. something crazy at popsci.com/archiveupdate.
77 USE IT BETTER
The best hacks for your Google cellphone.
ROBBERT KOENE/GETTY IMAGES; LUIS BRUNO
Ice That Burns

78 ASK A GEEK Oil is in short supply, but there’s a massive store
Are high-end HDTVs worth the cash?
of natural gas frozen at the poles. Scientists
$FYI are devising ways to turn this icy gas into useful
energy. Get the inside scoop at popsci.com/ice.
80 Can birds fart? Will crocodiles move to the poles?
$OTHER STUFF Show Us Your Labs
06 FROM THE EDITOR Do you tinker in your garage or experiment in
08 THE INBOX your basement? Tell PopSci.com about your home
100 THE FUTURE THEN workshop or laboratory at popsci.com/yourlabs.
04 POPULAR SCIENCE JUNE 2009
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FROM THE EDITOR
THE
FUTURE
NOW
Editor-in-Chief Mark Jannot

Deputy Editor Jacob Ward
Creative Director Sam Syed
EDITORIAL
Executive Editor Mike Haney
Features Editor Nicole Dyer
Editorial Production Manager Felicia Pardo
Copy and Research Director Rina Bander
Senior Technology Editor Seán Captain
Children of Senior Associate Editors Doug Cantor, Bjorn Carey,

Seth Fletcher, Martha Harbison
Associate Editor Lauren Aaronson
Assistant Editor Susannah F. Locke
Editorial Assistant Amy Geppert
Invention Editor at Large Dawn Stover

Contributing Technology Editor Steve Morgenstern
Contributing Editors Eric Adams, Theodore Gray, Eric Hagerman,
Joseph Hooper, Suzanne Kantra Kirschner, Preston Lerner, Gregory
Mone, Rena Marie Pacella, Dave Prochnow, Jessica Snyder Sachs,
Rebecca Skloot, Mike Spinelli, Elizabeth Svoboda, Kalee Thompson,
Phillip Torrone, James Vlahos, Speed Weed
Contributing Troubadour Jonathan Coulton
Contributing Futurist Andrew Zolli
Editorial Intern Catherine Schwanke
MAYBE I’VE SUCCUMBED to sampling error here, but it seems to me that ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY
inventors are getting younger. Unlike our Brilliant 10 honorees, chosen each Art Director Matthew Cokeley
Photo Editor Kristine LaManna
fall from a roster of scientists under 40, the annual POPSCI Invention Award Staff Photographer John B. Carnett
Senior Designer Stephanie O’Hara
recipients [page 37] get no favoritism for being fledgling. Even so, the roll is Contributing Artists Kevin Hand, Nick Kaloterakis, Graham Murdoch,
Bob Sauls, Paul Wootton
packed with young’uns this year. Photo Intern Jack Forbes
Geoff and Mike Howe started
THE WHIPPER- working on their light, speedy
POPSCI.COM
Digital Content Director Megan Miller
Digital Content Manager Taylor Hengen
Associate Web Editor Paul Adams
SNAPPERS ARE Ripsaw tank nine years ago,
when the identical twins were
POPULAR SCIENCE MEDIA GROUP
Group Publisher Gregg R. Hano
TAKING OVER 25. Michael Callahan came up
with his Audeo voice box at age
Associate Publisher Wendi S. Berger
Executive Assistant Christopher Graves
THE WORKSHOP. 22, inspired by a skateboard-

Marketing Director Mike Gallic
Financial Director Tara Bisciello
Vice President, Corporate Sales and Marketing Pete Michalsky
ing accident he had at 17. And Northeast Advertising Office: Alex DeSanctis 212-779-5129,
Susan Faggella 212-779-5007, Chris Young 212-779-5148,
the five guys who came up with the GenShock power-generating suspension Taryn Young 212-779-5030
Midwest Advertising Office: Manager John Marquardt
system were all MIT undergrads at the time. If the company they’ve created to 312-252-2838 Ad Assistant Krissy Van Rossum
Los Angeles Advertising Office: Manager Robert Hoeck 310-227-8958
manufacture and market the technology takes off, they might never work for Digital Account Manager Kate Gregory
Detroit Advertising Office: Manager Edward A. Bartley 248-282-5545
anyone other than themselves. Ad Assistant Diane Pahl
At the risk of sounding ageist, I’m thrilled to see signs that the whippersnap- San Francisco Advertising Office: Jill Stankoski 415-496-2700
Southern Regional Advertising Office: Manager
pers are taking over the workshop. This spring, we launched our first POPULAR Jason A. Albaum 404-892-0760
Classified Advertising Sales Patrick Notaro 212-779-5555
SCIENCE National School Inventors Challenge, inviting kids to submit their ideas Direct Response Sales Alycia Isabelle 800-280-2069
Interactive Sales Director Rob Pfeiffer
for world-changing inventions. (Hurry! The deadline for submissions is June 30; Digital Account Managers Jessica DeBiase, Jesse Parker, Jenny Smith
Digital Sales Development Manager Brian Glaser
go to popsci.com/sciencecontest for more info.) When we debuted the program Sales Development Managers Alexis Costa, Kerri Levine
Creative Services Director Mike Iadanza
at a science-teachers conference in New Orleans in March, nearly 700 educators Marketing Art Director Shawn Woznicki
made the commitment to get their students involved. Promotions Manager Eshonda Caraway
Consumer Marketing Director Bob Cohn
I suspect Dean Kamen would be gratified to learn of that out-of-the-blocks Associate Directors Lauren Rosenblatt, Andrew Schulman
Senior Planning Manager Raymond Ward
momentum, although it wouldn’t satisfy him. Kamen may always be best New Business Manager Cliff Sabbag
Retention Manager Connie Cotner
known as the inventor of the Segway, but as Rena Pacella’s profile on page 54 Single Copy Sales Director Vicki Weston
Publicity Manager Amanda McNally
makes clear, he’d far prefer to be recognized as the founder of FIRST, an orga- Human Resources Manager Kim Putman
Production Associate Erika Hernandez
nization that stages robotics competitions as a way to bring about its (and his) Group Production Director Laurel Kurnides
central vision: “to transform our culture by creating a world where science and Operations Director Mimi Rosenfeld
technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science
and technology heroes.”
Rock-star engineers? It’s a notion that’s Chairman Jonas Bonnier
Chief Executive Officer Terry Snow
all too easy to dismiss as a pipe dream. But Chief Operating Officer Dan Altman
Chief Financial Officer Randall Koubek
take a stroll through our Invention Awards, Vice President, Consumer Marketing Bruce Miller
Vice President, Production Lisa Earlywine
and I think you’ll agree that these guys can Vice President, E-Media Bill Allman
Vice President, Enterprise Systems Shawn Larson
comfortably wear the mantle of “hero.” Vice President, Human Resources Cathy Hertz
Vice President, Corporate Communications Dean Turcol
Brand Director John Miller
JOHN B. CARNETT
MARK JANNOT Publishing Consultant Martin S. Walker

Corporate Counsel Jeremy Thompson
mark.jannot@bonniercorp.com For service anytime, please use our Web site: popsci.com/
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06 POPULAR SCIENCE JUNE 2009 POPSCI.COM
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THE INBOX LETTERS@POPSCI.COM
Our second-annual How It Works special issue, published

in April, parsed everything from Army helicopters to the
Internet. Some readers would have liked more detail on
that Black Hawk; others called it our best issue ever.
HOW IT WORKED
I’ve been a dedicated POPULAR SCIENCE reader since 1971, and
the April issue is the best I’ve seen. It was so crammed with
technically interesting and intellectually stimulating stories, it’s
hard to believe you fit it all into just 100 pages. I congratulate
you for producing a truly excellent magazine and applaud you
for keeping up the spirit that has made it great for 137 years.
Peter Karp
Via e-mail
Editors’ note: Forgive us a moment while we toot our own horn,

but Mr. Karp isn’t the only one abuzz about POPULAR SCIENCE these
days. We’re proud to share some exciting news: The American
Society of Magazine Editors has named POPSCI a finalist for
a 2009 National Magazine Award for General Excellence, the
industry’s highest honor. Big thanks to all of our loyal readers,
who keep us inspired.
ALL MIXED UP Corrections

“The Most Advanced Mixing Board” [How It Works] is an We neglected to credit the inventor of the Sun-brella in “Power
example of technology enabling people to create things more for from the People” [March]. He is Arian Reyes, CEO of Solar Solace.
their own satisfaction than for customers’. My wife and I are both
69, and because of all the sounds competing with actors’ lines, In “Easy Rider” [What’s New, April], a picture of the single-speed
neither of us can understand much of what movie characters say. Trek bicycle the District was mistakenly identified as the eight-
We comprehend the spoken words in older movies—made before speed Soho. The District is $930.
advanced mixing boards came into vogue—just fine, and we
enjoy watching them more because of it. In “The Thinnest, Most Colorful TV Yet” [How It Works], the
Larry Strawhorn labels for the anode layer of the OLED TV screen and the thin-
Olney, Md. film transistors were switched.
syndication, please contact

FROM OUR CONTRIBUTORS SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES
Report changes of address syndication@popsci.com.
THE
FUTURE and subscription
Contributing writer Arianne NOW
problems to: LETTERS
Cohen is tall—really tall. At POPULAR SCIENCE Send letters to the
MAIN OFFICE P.O. Box 420235 editor to letters
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and other surprising ways
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will arrive in stores this comes from certified forests that
are managed in a sustainable way
month. You can head over to meet the social, economic and
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to preorder your copy. Wright’s Reprints at 877-652-5295.
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megapixels the must-see photos of the month
A MILLION
LITTLE
PIECES
SCIENTISTS CREATE
AN IMAGE OF A VIRUS’S
PROTECTIVE CASING
After three years of piecing together hundreds
of individual x-ray images, researchers were
able to produce the first high-resolution
picture of the five million atoms that make
up a virus’s protective shell. The yellow- and
red-colored ribbons were highlighted to illus-
trate how four identical proteins join to form
the building block of the blue-hued shell, or
capsid, of the Ps V-F penicillin fungus-attacking
virus. The virus does not infect humans, but its
shape is similar to those that do, making it a
valuable model for developing future medi-
cal treatments. “If we know how to package
a virus, we could apply that information to
gene-therapy delivery mechanisms and dis-
ease control,” says Yizhi Jane Tao, an assistant
professor of biochemistry and cell biology at HANDLE WITH CARE To pro-
Rice University. BY CATHERINE SCHWANKE tect itself, a virus like the one
PHOTOGRAPH BY J. TAO AND J. PAN shown here uses a protein shell
to seal off its genetic payload.
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See more amazing photos at popsci.com/gallery.
RICE UNIVERSITY
POPSCI.COM POPULAR SCIENCE 11
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MEGAPIXELS
www.freedowns.net
See more amazing photos at popsci.com/gallery.
JUST
PRESS
“SAVE”
DISASTER SEARCH-
AND-RESCUE IN
ROBOT-CRAZY JAPAN
No, it’s not a robot uprising. This is the Tokyo
Fire Department’s Rescue Robot, also known
as RoboCue, taking a mock patient to safety
as part of a training exercise for dirty-bomb
containment and casualty rescue, held late
last year in Tokyo. Designed by the fire depart-
ment itself, the search-and-recover ’bot is
tethered by a 328-foot cable and equipped
with infrared cameras, a megaphone, and
ultrasonic sensors that find victims in places
where human rescuers cannot go, such as
burning houses. It also has an onboard
oxygen canister for those who might need it.
Two feeler appendages gently load the victim,
whether injured by the blast or trampled in
the ensuing chaos, onto a sleigh bed before
wheeling him safely out. The only drawback:
Hauling multiple victims is not possible with
this particular model. BY BRIAN ASHCRAFT
PHOTOGRAPH BY KIYOSHI OTA
GETTY IMAGES
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FROM CGI TO OMG
'LVFRYHU\&RPPXQLFDWLRQV
SCIENCE OF THE MOVIES

PREMIERES TUES MAY 26TH • 9PM EP
Host Nar WIlliams gives you a nerd’s-eye view of the biggest special effects.
sciencechannel.com/scienceofmovies
iiiCool: A Mars vacation. Uncool: “Are we there yet?” for 40 million miles. SPACE WEEK STARTS JUNE 21ST E
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what’s neW tech that puts the future in the palm of your hand
18 20 24
We drive BMW’s Cameras that see Gear for kayaking
ultra-techie 750i in the dark trips and tricks
SPLIT PERSONALITY
POP OFF THIS COMPUTER’S The electronics and a three-to-five-hour battery hide
behind the display, instead of under the keyboard, so the
SCREEN FOR A TABLET TO GO screen has a life of its own. Add the keyboard, and its battery
Soon you’ll be able to hang a photo on the fridge without even provides extra juice—up to 15 hours total, the company says,
printing it out. Always Innovating’s Touch Book will be the first or three times as long as most laptops. This longevity comes
budget laptop whose display detaches to become a standalone from a simple Linux operating system and a fast but low-power
touchscreen tablet. Removable magnets on the back cover let processor that’s also found in advanced cellphones. Future
you stick the one-pound, half-inch-thick sliver on any metal models might link the screen with Bluetooth, so you could even
surface for use as a digital frame, calendar or notepad. type fridge memos from the table.—Amanda schupak
ALWAYS INNOVATING
TOUCH BOOK
SCREEN: 9-in. resistive touchscreen
PROCESSOR: Texas Instruments
600-MHz OMAP3
GREGOR HALENDA
PRICE: $400 ($300 for tablet only)

SIZE: 9.4 x 7 x 1.4 in. WEIGHT: 2 lbs.
AVAILABILITY: summer (est.)
GET IT: alwaysinnovating.com
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WHAT’S NEW
Personal Sound Advice

Baggage This scanner listens for doubled-
Keep out snoops with the first up pages to avoid misfeeds. It
fingerprint-reading suitcase. sends ultrasonic waves through
Press your thumb to its incoming paper, and a sensor
sensor, and an electronic recognizes the change in
lock opens only if your print sound caused by air trapped
matches one of several you between two sheets.
can store in its memory. Fujitsu ScanScap S1500
Heys USA BioCase $500; fujitsu.com
From $1,100; heysusa.com
GOODSTHE
12 MUST-HAVE PRODUCTS
By Amanda Schupak Total Recall
Back up your entire PC, including
documents, programs and the
Silent operating system, without
Movie complicated software. The
Get crisp shots 250-gigabyte Replica hard
whether taking drive begins copying data
12.1-megapixel as soon as you plug it in
stills or 1080p high- and updates continuously
def movies. The as long as you leave it
GH1’s autofocus connected. Seagate Replica
motor works in From $130; seagate.com
both modes and is
even insulated to
keep its whirring
sound out of your
movies. Panasonic
Crime-Scene
GH1 Price not set;
Analysis
Archerfish is the first home
panasonic.com
security system that analyzes
the video it records. It can
recognize key events, such
as a person entering a room,
and send an alert by e-mail
or text message. Archerfish
by Cernium $2,500 plus $25/
month; myarcherfish.com
Coloring Book
The first color e-reader can display
JAPAN
thousands of hues. One charge powers ONLY
it for 40 hours, thanks to a new kind
of LCD that consumes electricity only
when you turn pages (although page
flips take longer than with grayscale
e-paper). Fujitsu FLEPia $1,000 (est.);
www.frontech.fujitsu.com/en
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Camera Angle
Aim your camcorder with less effort. The HMX-R10 puts
its lens and sensor at a 25-degree angle, so they point
straight ahead when you hold your hand up naturally—
no need to tilt your wrist or elbow backward. Samsung
HMX-R10 $550; samsung.com
go your own way

This GPS unit tailors route
recommendations to its owner's
driving habits. It records your
average speeds on different
types of roads, like highways and
local streets, and uses that info
to estimate drive times. Navigon
4300T Max $280; navigon.com
POPSCI PICK OF THE MONTH

Carry a Tune Far Sighted
Roland updates the Binoculars with built-in cameras use separate lenses
1980s-style keytar by for the cam and the specs. These are the first that let
building in a sound you focus both sets by turning a single knob, ensuring
generator, that your five-megapixel picture is as sharp as the view
so the you see through the binoculars. Bushnell Sync Focus
AX-Synth ImageView $280; bushnell.com
doesn’t
require
an extra
synthesizer
or other
equipment
Shooting the to turn its
Breeze digital notes
This Bluetooth headset lets pals into sound.
hear you on windy days. When Just plug it
gusts prevent its microphones into an amp,
from picking up low tones, it and rock out.
adds sound gathered by a vibra- Roland
tion sensor against your skin. If AX-Synth
winds really howl, it warns you $1,250;
to move. Aliph JawBone Prime rolandus
Earcandy $130; jawbone.com .com
Better Boater This boat shoe saves knees from the

vibration of a humming motor. Hard plastic inserts keep your foot
steady, and a small air pocket in
the midsole redirects force out
to the sides. Sperry Top-
Sider ASV Solution $140;
sperrytopsider
.com
www.freedowns.net
WHAT’S NEW AUTO TECH
SMART CAR
GADGET MOBILE The thoroughly
tricked-out 2009 BMW 750i
TESTED
THE NEW BMW 7-SERIES IS A FUNHOUSE OF AUTOMOTIVE
TECHNOLOGY. BUT DOES ANY OF IT MAKE DRIVING EASIER?
When even an $18,000 Honda offers to equip the cockpit of the Starship more fun. Some fancy bits, such as the
a navigation system, an $81,000 Enterprise. We spent more than 1,000 Pedestrian Detection system, remain
luxury sedan has to work harder to miles testing and grading the 750i. Our undercooked or unsatisfying. Where it
impress. For BMW’s 7-Series, the conclusion: It, along with its sibling, counts, though—in power, handling, and
techno lures include computer- the long-wheelbase 750Li, ditches the the navigation and multimedia systems—
enhanced performance from the twin- silly-gadget overload for technology the technology makes this a BMW worth
turbocharged V8 and enough gizmos that actually makes driving safer and every penny.—Lawrence Ulrich
Engine controls Four-wheel High-beam Night Vision

Grade: A Grade: A Steering Assist Grade: C–
With direct fuel injection The rotary iDrive knob that Grade: B Grade: A BMW’s thermal-imaging
and two turbochargers manages navigation and When you make a turn at A truly bright idea: The safety system adds
nestled efficiently between other functions—and once low speeds, the BMW’s car detects approaching Pedestrian Detection, in
the “V” of the cylinder made even basic radio rear wheels point in the vehicles from more than which the navigation screen
banks, a new 4.4-liter V8 tuning complicated—is opposite direction of the half a mile away, using a shows an animated outline
produces 400 horsepower. suddenly intuitive. The fronts, tightening the car’s camera mounted near the of people and animals
It also generates a fourth-generation iDrive turning circle to 39.4 feet. rearview mirror. The system lurking at up to 1,000 feet in
COURTESY BMW OF NORTH AMERICA
prodigious 450 pound- banishes buried submenus That’s better than any automatically dims the high front of the car. If it detects a
feet of torque, more than and illogical functions. Old- comparably large sedan, beams until the oncoming person 330 feet or less away,
BMW’s 6-liter V12. The fashioned buttons for often- and it makes parking vehicle passes and then it flashes a warning on a
engine hurtles the 750i used functions surround surprisingly easy. Still, it’s switches them back on. head-up display. But the
from 0 to 60 mph in an a slimmed-down console not a home run. The system The result: no more on- novelty fades quickly—for
improbable 5.1 seconds, knob. A huge, 10.2-inch adds cost and complexity, again, off-again with the system to be truly useful,
XXXXXXX
yet it’s quiet and civilized high-res screen displays and at higher speeds the the high-beam lever on you’d have to stare at the
in everyday driving. easily readable graphics. benefits are subtle. darkened roads. screen instead of the road.
www.freedowns.net
www.freedowns.net
WHAT’S NEW PHOTOGRAPHY
IN A TWO CAMERAS AIM TO SHOOT EXTREME VIEW

Sony and Fujifilm
DOES IT IN THE DARK—AND THE SUN introduce new tech-
WORK? nologies for taking
NEW LIGHT photos in very dim or

very bright scenes.
Dim moonbeams or glaring rays: Sony DSC-HX1 Fujifilm F200EXR

Either can ruin a photo. New cameras THE TECH This 9.1-megapixel camera THE TECH In dim conditions, this
from Fujifilm and Sony promise sharp takes six pictures and combines them camera can double its light-gathering
pictures in all kinds of tricky lighting. into one. Because pixel noise varies with power by combining data from every
Both try to conquer darkness each shot, the processor cancels out two pixels on its 12-megapixel sensor,
by erasing pixel noise—white or specks that appear on only one of the producing a crisp 6-megapixel image. In
colored flecks that appear in photos photos to produce a single clean image. high-contrast scenes, you can program
when there isn’t enough light for the half the pixels to a low sensitivity for
camera’s image sensor to get a good THE RESULTS Low-light photos of still capturing bright features and half of
reading. Fujifilm’s model also takes objects had only mild pixel noise. But them to a high sensitivity for dark areas.
on high-contrast settings, in which the in removing the fuzziness, the HX1 also
range between bright and dark parts erased actual details from the photos. THE RESULTS Photos of the bridge at
of a scene exceeds what the sensor Because the camera took about two night had only a few white speckles in
can measure. For example, in photos seconds to capture the six pictures, its the dark sky—far less than images from
on a bright day, a blue sky often noise-reduction tech didn’t work with competing cameras, which were riddled
comes out white. action photos at the game, which came with colored spots. By day, it captured
We tested the cameras by photo- out splotchy. And waiting that long for slightly more detail in the shadows
GREGOR HALENDA
graphing a bridge—both at night and each photo was frustrating. under the bridge, while maintaining a
in strong sunlight—and a basketball $500; sonystyle.com truer blue sky. $400; fujifilm.com
game with a bright court and a sha- EDITORS’ RAting EDITORS’ RAting
dowy huddle of players.—Dan Havlik
www.freedowns.net
www.freedowns.net
WHAT’S NEW HOME ENTERTAINMENT
IT’S ABOUT
TIME GET YOUR GAME ON
CREATE VIDEOGAMES WITHOUT CRUNCHING CODE
From Second Life to The Sims to Spore, obstacles such as mountains. Then If you don’t want to start from
games have long encouraged users establish the number of points you win scratch, select premade characters,
to develop content, such as fashions if you shoot down a spaceship or you environments or entire games and
or creatures, and share it online. But lose if it destroys your castles, and add modify them as you wish. Once you’ve
Microsoft has taken creativity to the next a scoreboard to keep track. Kodu also finished your game, you can share
stage with Kodu, a program that allows lets you customize your game world by it with friends through the Xbox Live
players on an Xbox 360 or a PC to craft adding land, trees and bodies of water. online community.—Sean Portnoy
entire games using just the controller to
In Kodu, you select icons to
select icons. build rules that describe how
You develop your creation by choosing objects and characters behave.
objects and characters and setting rules
for how they behave. For example,
select the game’s enemies—say,
spaceships—from among the 20
characters that come with Kodu,
and then choose the actions
they perform, such as shooting
at castles and moving away from
GET IT:
Microsoft
Kodu
$10 (est.);
xbox.com
SATOSHI; SCREEN IMAGES, FROM TOP: COURTESY MICROSOFT; COURTESY NCSOFT
IN RELATED NEWS: CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

Millions of people participate in online of its players, allowing them to devise
role-playing games like World of Warcraft . storylines, modify characters, and write
But they are limited to a handful of scripts. Programming is a cinch: Would-be
missions designed by the games’ authors select from drop-down menus to
developers. City of Heroes, a comic- specify, for example, the superpowers and
book-inspired adventure for Mac and costumes of heroes and villains, and they
PC, is the first to let loose the creativity simply type dialogue in boxes.
City of Heroes
$20, plus $15/month;
cityofheroes.com
www.freedowns.net
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Bike is shown with optional accessories. *Only available at participating dealers. Offer ends May 31, 2009, or while supplies last. $12,999 applies to 2009 Vegas 8-Ball. California models
are subject to additional $250 low-emissions fee. **The industry’s only full-line five-year limited warranty is available on all new unused Victory bikes for a limited time. ***Offer is valid
only in the U.S. and Canada and does not apply to prior purchases. The five-year coverage consists of 48 months’ POLARISTAR ESC coverage in addition to the Victory 12-month factory
warranty for a total of five years. The ESC carries a standard $50 deductible and no mileage limitation. The ESC will be mailed six to eight weeks from receipt of purchase. Victory and
Victory Motorcycles® are registered trademarks of Polaris Industries Inc. Always wear a helmet, eye protection, and protective clothing and obey the speed limit. Never ride under the
influence of drugs or alcohol. ©2009 Polaris Industries Inc.
www.freedowns.net
WHAT’S NEW RECREATION
FULLY
LOADED WATER ROCKET
BRAVE THE RAPIDS WITH THIS SUMMER’S LIGHTEST, TOUGHEST GEAR
Whitewater kayaking is virtually an aerial sport, with paddlers maneuver, thanks to the rigid frame. But it proved no match
in freestyle competitions performing tricks like airscrews— for river rocks, which cracked the hull. In three subsequent
barrel rolls above a rapid. The lighter your kayak, the higher you prototypes, Wave Sport added Kevlar strips to reinforce the
can go, so instead of conventional polyethylene plastic, Wave parts of the kayak that take the most abuse. The resulting six-
Sport turned to composite materials for its 54 Cx kayak. The first foot-two-inch boat—the first carbon-fiber freestyle kayak made
prototype, a pure carbon-fiber model, weighed just 19 pounds in the U.S.—weighs a bantam 20 pounds but is sturdy enough to
(about 15 pounds less than a plastic kayak) and was easier to survive a hotdog paddler’s acrobatics.—Mark Anders
GET IT: Wave Sport 54 Cx

$2,500 (limited run
of 50); wavesport.com
HEAD SHOTS tight fit WATER SAFETY PERFECT PADDLE
TECHNOLOGY; COURTESY OUTDOOR RESEARCH; COURTESY TEVA; COURTESY GOPRO

Capture the entire river with These slim boots squeeze inside This sealed nylon canister keeps Unlike most paddles, which have
this waterproof helmet cam’s the smallest hulls. But their sturdy gear like GPS units, cameras and separate blades attached to a
170-degree lens. Set it to record wraparound soles, made from mobile phones dry under three shaft, the 42-ounce Eddy is molded
XXXXXXX FROM TOP: COURTESY WAVE SPORT; COURTESY ADVENTURE

up to 56 minutes of video or to rubber similar to that used on feet of water for up to 30 minutes. as a single piece of braided carbon
shoot five-megapixel stills every climbing shoes, protect your feet And its padded interior protects fiber and Kevlar. The stiffer design
two or five seconds. GoPro from rocks and provide a solid them from impacts. Outdoor transfers more power to the water.
Helmet HERO Wide $190; grip on slippery riverbanks. TEVA Research SeaVault Capsule Adventure Technology Eddy
goprocamera.com Cherry Bomb $65; teva.com $55; outdoorresearch.com $329; atpaddle.com
CLOCKWISE
www.freedowns.net
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headlines discoveries, advances and debates in science
28 30 34
Fly around the world Ebola-infected A football helmet that
on solar power pigs run amok keeps players cool
EXPLORATION
South Pole
Lake Ellsworth
Lake Vostok
Ross
Ice
Shelf McMurdo
Station
ICE CAPADES Scientists use explosives to

generate seismic maps of Lake Ellsworth
[left] and GPS to track water flow [above].
ILLUSTRATION: PAUL WOOTTON; PHOTOGRAPHS: NEIL ROSS/UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
UNCHARTED WATER
A NEW SCIENTIFIC PROJECT JOINS THE RACE TO EXPLORE LAKES UNDER ANTARCTIC ICE
This winter, Russian scientists will resume fluids, the Russians have cleaned up their below Antarctica’s icy surface, more than
drilling into what may be the most pristine act just 500 feet from breaching the lake. 400,000 years before humans existed. Any
environment in the world: Lake Vostok, an But they are no longer the only scien- microbes living there can survive total
unfrozen body of freshwater the size of Lake tific group with its sights set on tapping darkness, high pressure, near-freezing
Ontario cut off from the world for millennia Antarctica’s lakes. A team led by glaciolo- temperatures, high acidity and oxygen
beneath two miles of Antarctic ice. The sedi- gist Martin Siegert of the University of debt—and, as such, possibly possess
ment on the lakebed could hold clues to past Edinburgh in Scotland recently unveiled never-before-seen biology. “It could be
climate changes, and the waters could be an even more ambitious plan: Drill into like a super-Galápagos,” Siegert says.
teeming with new forms of life—but the slight- the six-mile-long Lake Ellsworth, two “Given that we’ve found microbial life
est mistake could spoil the lake for good. miles below the ice in western Antarctica, in other environments thought too harsh
After more than a decade of technical and search for life using remote-control to support living things, such as seismic
difficulties, and objections from the scientific probes, in December 2012. vents in the ocean floor, it would be sur-
community that the project could contami- Scientists know that ice covered the prising if we don’t find something living in
nate the lake with outside bacteria or drilling lakes, two of some 150 bodies of water these lakes,” says [continued ON page 29]
www.freedowns.net
HEADLINES
AVIATION
RACING THE SUN

A SOLAR-POWERED PLANE GEARS UP FOR A ROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHT
This fall, Swiss adventurer Bertrand prove that this plane will fly,” he says. batteries that power its propellers.
Piccard and his team will begin test Led by CEO André Borschberg, the Traveling at a leisurely, energy-
flights of a prototype of Solar Impulse, team has implemented major design efficient 45 mph, Solar Impulse will take
a sun-powered plane designed to revisions since announcing the project three weeks to loop the world, landing
circumnavigate the globe without in 2003, such as bowing the wings to every few days to change pilots and show
burning a drop of oil. Piccard wants improve handling and substituting light- off the technology to the public. Piccard
the project to demonstrate the poten- weight engines, but the basic idea is the hopes the sight of the plane in flight
tial of green technology, and he’s same. Photovoltaic cells on the wings will prove that renewable energy can
feeling the pressure. “We still have to will gather solar energy, recharging the transform even the most energy-hungry
STURDIER TAIL
Moving down the horizontal stabilizing
wing streamlined the plane and reduced
stress on the body in turbulent winds.
This allowed the team to trim weight from
the already light carbon-fiber fuselage.
FRESH AIR
Piccard’s grandfather, Auguste Pic-
card, invented the pressurized cabin,
but the prototype plane won’t have one,
so its top altitude will be 28,500 feet.
www.freedowns.net
[continued from page 27]
Mahlon Kennicutt, president of the Scientific

Committee on Antarctic Research, a nongov-
ernmental advisory body. Past discoveries of
such microbes have led to the development of
better artificial sweeteners and key enzymes
used in DNA research, among other things.
Drilling into Vostok has been difficult.
human activities, sparking interest and The ice at the lake’s perimeter consists of
investment in green tech across the globe. LIGHTWEIGHT ENGINES extremely hard crystals of up to five feet
Takeoff of the full-size plane is slated for The four lightweight, custom- long, and friction on the crystals from the
built engines that replaced the
2011, but Piccard and Borschberg are cur- drill melts a layer of water that causes the bit
original layout of two larger,
rently focused on getting the prototype off to slip, slowing progress. “No one had ever
rear-mounted engines will put
the ground by September and working their less strain on the wings encountered ice like this before,” explains
way up to 36-hour overnight flights. “We and body. Valery Lukin, director of the Russian expedi-
have the plane,” Piccard says. “This is really tion. This December, Lukin’s
the moment of truth.”—GREGORY MONE team will drill to the
cusp of the lake,
after which they “IT WOULD BE
will replace the SURPRISING
kerosene anti-
freeze in the hole
IF WE DON’T
with inert silicon FIND LIFE IN
oil (concern that
the kerosene
THE LAKES.”
EFFICIENT SOLAR CELLS could contaminate
The photovoltaic cells are 25 percent more efficient than the lake has stalled
those that were planned in 2003. The 12,000 cells will the project in the past).
crank out only six kilowatts on average—just enough to Next year, they will pierce
run the four 10-horsepower motors. the lake so that water flows back into the
hole, which they will allow to freeze and then
remove for analysis a year later.
The U.K. team has refined its equipment
THE UPS AND DOWNS to better cut the ice and preserve the lake.
OF SOLAR FLIGHT They plan to carve through the ice with a jet
of 200°F water melted from ice extracted
from the hole itself. The water, filtered twice
Solar Impulse will fly eastward around the equator for to remove any bacteria or viruses from the
the most possible sun exposure. The plane will take off outside, also sterilizes the equipment. But,
from the ground before dawn with fully charged bat-
Siegert says, it’s impossible to do this type
teries. It will reach 10,000 feet by that sunrise, and the
of research without leaving some mark: “It’s
solar cells will begin restoring the power spent during
the initial ascent. The plane will peak at 39,000 feet so like leaving footprints on the moon.” Although
it can gradually descend to 10,000 feet during the night his crew won’t strike water until two years
to conserve energy, ready to recharge and ascend after the Russians do, he believes that his
when day breaks again. If it drains its batteries before mission’s sample-collecting phase will ulti-
GRAHAM MURDOCH; INSET: PAUL WOOTTON
sunrise, the pilot can land it like a glider. mately provide the more valuable data. The
team will lower a pair of probes into the lake
to capture video and retrieve water and sedi-
39,000 ft. ment samples—and any microbes in them.
Of course, the groups might not find any-
thing, but that’s what makes drilling into this
vast, completely unexplored realm so excit-
ing. “We’ve never sampled this water, so we
have no idea what’s down there,” Kennicutt
10,000 ft. says. “But it is becoming clear that Antarctica
is a very dynamic place.”—TOM CLYNES
www.freedowns.net
HEADLINES
SHRINKAGE
ENDLESS
MEMORY
COMING SOON: THE TWO-
ACHIN’ BACON An Ebola strain has jumped TERABYTE FLASH CARD
from monkeys and bats to pigs and people. Cameras run out of memory at the
30-SECOND SCIENCE worst times—like when you faced down
Michael Jordan at the poker tables in
ANIMAL ATTACK
Vegas. But a new flash-memory sys-
tem could pack up to two terabytes of
storage, or 480 hours of high-definition
video, into the average memory card.
VERMIN AND FARM CRITTERS STIR UP HEALTH SCARES Current SD memory cards store
THIS LITTLE PIGGIE HAD EBOLA files using the 10-year-old FAT32 stan-
In January, the Ebola virus leapt from pigs to farmers in the Philippines. But dard filing program. FAT32 often splits
don’t panic. Despite being a cousin of the deadly African strains, this one, Ebola- photos or videos into small pieces,
Reston, merely causes flu-like symptoms in humans, says Pierre Rollin, a which it saves in random locations on
biologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To be safe, the Philip- the card. This slows down the flash
pine government ordered farmers to euthanize 6,500 pigs from infected farms. drive as it saves and retrieves files,
Ebola-Reston was first seen in Philippine monkeys in 1989 and has since passed capping storage at 32 gigabytes—any
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY SD ASSOCIATION; FRANK GREENAWAY/GETTY IMAGES; DAVID SILVERMAN/GETTY IMAGES
to other species. Scientists think contagious bats urinated in pigs’ water supply, more would make the card impracti-
and the swine then coughed the virus onto humans.—KATharine GAMMON cally sluggish. So new SD eXtended
Capacity (SDXC) cards will feature
Microsoft’s exFAT system, which opens
SUPERBUG FARM Flies
feed on bacteria-ridden the door to bigger storage by saving
chicken feces and spread files in one piece in an organized way
human diseases. that makes them quicker to find.
The first SDXC cards, due out from
Panasonic this year, will offer 64 giga-
bytes—space for 3,500 12-megapixel
photos or a 50-gig Blu-ray movie—
and read/write speeds 10 times as fast
as current cards. As companies scale
down transistors (the circuits that
YIKES Rats’ genetic mutations let
physically store data), standard cards
them survive poison.
could theoretically store two terabytes.
CALL IN THE SWAT TEAM UNSTOPPABLE MUTANT RATS Although the cards won’t work in
Roughly 70 percent of all the antibiotics Sixty years of killing rats with poison SD-card-reading devices, SDXC cam-
used in the U.S. are for warding off bacte- might be making them stronger, eras in the pipeline will prove your
rial infection in farm animals so they can according to new research. A series wildest stories—as long as your battery
grow big fast. The trouble is, these bacteria of small mutations in some rats’ doesn’t die.—MARSHALL LOUIS REAVES
eventually develop resistance to the drugs genetic code allows them to survive
and, researcher Jay Graham of Johns high doses of warfarin, the most com-
TOTAL RECALL Revamped flash cards
Hopkins University has recently shown, monly used rodenticide. Warfarin
could store 40
flies are spreading the resistant bacteria inhibits blood clotting, causing fatal
Blu-ray movies.
around. The flies can pick up strains from internal bleeding. Although “super-
chicken droppings that cause human ill- warfarin” poisons are available, study
nesses such as meningitis and carry them leader Simone Rost of the University
as far as 20 miles. Graham recommends of Würzburg in Germany warns that
sterilizing animal waste with the same the rodents might develop immunity
techniques used for human sewage. to those chemicals as well.
www.freedowns.net
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HEADLINES
INSPIRED BY NATURE
ELECTRIC
GLIDE
ENGINEERS TAKE CUES FROM BEETLES WATER BUG Electrodes propel
TO MAKE A SUPER-EFFICIENT ROBO-BOAT this boat by breaking the sur-
face tension of water, as a leaf
Dolphins are elegant swimmers, but waterlily leaf beetle beetle larva does.
larvae take first place for the simplest stroke. The insect just
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY SANG KUG CHUNG/UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH; COURTESY DAVID L. HU/ JOHN W.M. BUSH; COURTESY INTERCYTEX PLC/FARJO MEDICAL CENTRE (2); ISTOCK
arches its back to manipulate a basic physics principle that of making a bendable craft, Cho
lets it glide across water. Now engineers have borrowed this attached a Teflon-coated elec-
technique to make a tiny boat that could autonomously patrol trode to the plastic boat’s stern.
water reservoirs for months on just a watch battery. Teflon usually repels water, but when you charge it with elec-
The larva’s efficiency relies on surface tension, the force tricity it breaks the surface tension, as the beetle does, to push
that causes water molecules to stick together. By arching the boat along. A side-mounted electrode turns the boat. Cho
its body, the larva disrupts the water’s tension in such a way suggests that his device could be up to 100 times as efficient as
that the bug moves forward. Sung Kwon Cho, an engineer at mechanically driven mini-boats and, in a few years, could scale
the University of Pittsburgh, decided to harness the tension, up to power a sensor-toting surveillance dinghy five times the
like the beetle does, to move an inch-long boat. But instead size of his prototype.—SUSANNAH F. LOCKE
MED TECH
SEND IN
THE CLONES
COVERING BALDING HEADS WITH CLONED HAIR 1 2
Surgical solutions for restoring lush locks have always involved
TOUPEE 2.0
a painful trade-off—transplanting hairs from the rear of your Intercytex’s technique
head to the top could leave you thin in the back. But Bessam involves extracting
Farjo, a hair-loss specialist at the British company Intercytex, has 100 hair-making cells
devised a less barbaric fix: cloning patients’ hair cells. “The con- from the back of the
cept is to create a limitless supply of donor hair,” Farjo says. head, reproducing
Male pattern baldness is caused when some hair-producing them in the lab until
there are millions, and
dermal papilla cells begin growing thinner, less visible hairs.
injecting them into
Standard transplant procedures involve plucking roughly 6,000 the scalp to stimulate
healthy cells, but Farjo takes only 100. He clones these in the new hair growth.
3
lab until he has millions and then injects them into sparse scalp
regions, where each can sprout a fresh hair and even encourage which 40 percent of the implanted cells, paired with blood-
additional hair growth in neighboring scalp tissue. The procedure flow-stimulating scalp massage, produced new hair. His
isn’t just a matter of vanity; it could provide insight into how to next goal: growing complete hair follicles in the lab, which
clone other tissues for therapeutic uses. could make the transformation from Mr. Clean to Donald
Farjo recently wrapped up a 13-man, 48-week clinical trial in Trump even more certain.—ELIZABETH SVOBODA
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HEADLINES
SPORT TECH
BURN Antenna
NOTICE
A FOOTBALL HELMET
TELLS THE SIDELINE
WHEN PLAYERS
ARE DANGEROUSLY
OVERHEATED
Football championships, coaches say,

are won during preseason workouts. So
football players, from high-schoolers
up to the pros, report to mini-camps
every summer to run windsprints and
engage in full-contact drills. Broken
bones and blown-out knees are the
typical player’s biggest concern, but 39
football players, mostly high-schoolers,
have died from overheating since 1995.
Now Hothead Technologies in Atlanta
is introducing a helmet that monitors the
temperatures of an entire football team
in real time so coaches can pull players
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY HADLEY’S INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS (2); TOM OLMSCHEID/AP PHOTO
off the field before it’s too late. The Heat Radio
Observation Technology (HOT) system transmitter
uses an electric thermometer called a
thermistor, a spoon-size device made
of metals whose electrical resistance
Thermistor
vary with temperature. Inserted under
the padding of a standard helmet, the tering morning practice in July 2001. His PREVENTIVE
thermistor measures the temperature in body temperature was 108.8°, and he MEDICINE The
the player’s temporal artery and uses a died of organ failure hours later. “It took Hothead helmet
built-in radio to transmit temperatures Stringer some time to get into the danger [shown without
padding] sends
between 99.9° and 110°F—heat illness zone,” says Jay Buckalew, Hothead’s
body-temperature
typically sets in around 104°—every 10 CEO and founder. “I have no doubt that
data to a PDA [right]
seconds to a PDA monitored by a coach our device would have detected that.” to prevent deaths
or trainer on the sidelines. Rain, sweat Hothead is currently wrapping up like that of Korey
and ambient temperature typically skew deals with the major helmet companies, Stringer [below].
the results from skin-contact thermom- including Riddell and Schutt, and is nego-
eters, but Hothead is nearly as accurate tiating with the NFL. Teams with HOT
as a rectal thermometer, which sets the helmets will pay a $50 activation charge
standard for the industry. per player per year, plus an additional
Simply resting and hydrating over- $100 annual team fee for the PDA service.
heated athletes would go a long way The helmet companies have placed 10,000
toward preventing deaths like Korey orders for this year, and Hothead expects
Stringer’s. The 335-pound Minnesota to roll out 400,000, mostly to high schools
Vikings lineman collapsed after a swel- and colleges, by 2011.—BRETT ZARDA
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Check out video of the winning inventions at popsci.com/invention.
THE 2009 POPSCI
INVENTION
AWARDS
right now, somewhere in America, there’s an inventor in a garage on the verge of something big. It might not be a cure for
leukemia or a rocket to Mars, but some unexpected innovations can be almost as profound. Like the fisherman who made a lure
that doesn’t damage the environment. Or the college kids who built a shock absorber that saves fuel by turning potholes into
power. Here in our third-annual Invention Awards, we present these and eight other standout inventors whose creativity and
hard work are making our lives better, as well as the secrets for getting your own great idea out of the garage and into the world.
INVENTION INVENTORS INVENTION INVENTORS

A 60mph Geoff and Shocks The MIT
Tank Mike Howe That Create Team
38 Power 48
INVENTION INVENTOR INVENTION INVENTOR

A Better IV Amir Belson An Escape Kevin Stone
Catheter Harness for
42
Skyscrapers 50

A Stronger, Ben Hobbins A Decoder Michael
Greener for Impaired Callahan
Fishing Lure 43 Speech 51
INVENTION INVENTORS INVENTION INVENTORS

The World Pattie Maes Insulation Eben Bayer
As a Web and Pranav Made from and Gavin
Interface 44
Mistry Mushrooms 52 McIntyre

Robo-legs Amit Goffer An All-in- James Peret
One Grease
46 Refinery 53
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN B. CARNETT ILLUSTRATIONS BY BLAND DESIGNS JUNE 2009 POPULAR SCIENCE 37
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
THE FASTEST TANK

AN UNMANNED BEAST THAT
CRUISES OVER ANY TERRAIN HOW IT WORKS To glide
over rough terrain at top
AT MORE THAN 60 MPH speed, the Ripsaw has shock
absorbers that provide 14
INVENTION inches of travel. But when the
Ripsaw suspension compresses, it
INVENTORS creates slack that could cause
Geoff and Mike Howe Track Spring-loaded wheel a track to come off, poten-
tially flipping the vehicle.
COST TIME So the inventors devised a
$760,000 9 years spring-loaded wheel at the
HORIZON front that extends to keep
PROTOTYPE PRODUCT the tracks taut. The Ripsaw
has never thrown a track.
www.freedowns.net
AMATEUR INVENTORS FAQ
MEAN MACHINE Troops could use
the Ripsaw as an advance scout,
sending it a mile or two ahead of
“SHOULD I
a convoy, and use its cameras and PATENT MY
new sensor technology to sniff out
roadside bombs or ambushes.
INVENTION?”
GETTING A PATENT is expensive
and time-consuming, so don’t just
start filling out an application as
soon as you come up with a bright
idea. John Calvert, the administrator
for the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office’s Inventor Assistance Pro-
gram, offers advice on whether it’s
truly worth it.—Sarah Z. Wexler
#Short of a getting a patent,

legally there’s not much you
can do to protect an idea that
could be easily replicated.
#You can expect to pay about

$5,000 to the patent office to secure
and maintain the rights to a patent,
and another $3,000 to $15,000 for
attorney’s fees. But the more leg-
work you can do—from researching
similar inventions to making
sketches—the less it will cost you.
Patent attorneys in cities like D.C.
or New York often charge more for
the same services as those in places
like Alabama or North Dakota.
Many will work with you remotely,
potentially saving you a few grand.
#Once you’ve filed, you still won’t

have any rights to stop some-
one from making a product that
infringes on your idea. At that
point you can send the infringers
a cease-and-desist letter, but you
cue up the Ripsaw’s greatest hits couldn’t agree on their next project: can’t sue them. Once you receive
on YouTube, and you can watch the Geoff favored a jet-turbine-powered the patent, potentially years down
the line, you can take legal action.
unmanned tank tear across muddy off-road truck; Mike, the world’s fastest
fields at 60 mph, jump 50 feet, and tracked vehicle. “That weekend, Mike #Mark your invention “pat-
crush birch trees. But right now, as its calls me down to his garage,” Geoff says. ent pending” after you’ve filed.
remote driver inches it back and forth “He’s already got the suspension built That’s fair warning to potential
for a photo shoot, it’s like watching for the Ripsaw. So we went with that.” infringers that you can send
Babe Ruth forced to bunt with the Every engineer they consulted said a cease-and-desist letter.
bases loaded. The Ripsaw, lurching they couldn’t best the 42mph top speed #Remember that there’s no such
and belching black puffs of smoke, of an M1A Abrams, the most powerful thing as a worldwide patent. Some-
somehow seems restless. tank in the world. Other tanks are one in China can (and probably will)
Like their creation, identical twins built to protect the people inside, with see your idea, rip it off, and sell
Geoff and Mike Howe, 34, don’t like frames made of heavy armored-steel it there without consequence.
to sit still for long. At age seven, they plates. Designed for rugged unmanned
#Still, an approved patent can
built a log cabin. Ten years later, they missions, the Ripsaw just needed to go
be extremely valuable, giv-
converted a school bus into a drivable, fast, so the brothers started trimming ing you a mini monopoly in the
transforming stage for their heavy-metal weight. First they built a frame of welded U.S. for 20 years. After that, it
band, Two Much Trouble. In 2000 they steel tubes, like the ones used by Nascar, expires, and you can’t renew.
POPSCI.COM POPULAR
POPSCI.COM SCIENCE 39
POPULARSCIENCE 39
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
that provides 50 percent more strength weaponized unmanned ground vehicles

at half the weight. (UGVs). That led to a demonstration
When you reinvent the tank, finding for Maine Senator Susan Collins, who
ready-made parts is no easy task, and helped the Howes secure $1.25 million
a tread light enough to spin at 60 mph from the Department of Defense.
and strong enough to hold together at The brothers founded Howe and
that speed didn’t exist. So the Howes Howe Technologies in 2006 and set
hand-shaped steel cleats and redesigned to work upgrading various Ripsaw
the mechanism for connecting them systems, including a differential drive
in a track. (Because the patent for the train that automatically doles out the
mechanism, one of eight on Ripsaw right amount of power to each track for
components, is still pending, they turns. The following year they handed it
will reveal only that they didn’t use over to the Army’s Armament Research BEHIND THE WHEEL The Ripsaw’s six
the typical pin-and-bushing system Development and Engineering Center cameras send live, 360-degree video to
a control room, where program man-
of connecting treads.) The two-pound (ARDEC), which paired it with a remote-
ager Will McMaster steers the tank.
cleats weigh about 90 percent less than control M240 machine gun and put
similarly scaled tank cleats. With the the entire system through months of
combined weight savings, the Ripsaw’s strenuous tests. “What really set it apart the corner and roughly a football field
650-horsepower V8 engine cranks out from other UGVs was its speed,” says away, drives it straight over a three-foot-
nine times as much horsepower per Bhavanjot Singh, the ARDEC project tall concrete wall. The brothers think
pound as an M1A Abrams. manager overseeing the Ripsaw’s that when the $760,000 Ripsaw is ready
While working their day jobs— development. Other UGVs top out at for mass production this summer, feats
Mike as a financial adviser, Geoff as a around 20 mph, but the Ripsaw can like this will give them a lead over other
foreman at a utilities plant—the self- keep up with a pack of Humvees. companies vying for a military UGV
taught engineers hauled the Ripsaw Back on the field, the tank has contract. “Every other UGV is small
prototype from their workshop in been readied for the photo. The and uses [artificial intelligence] to avoid
Maine to the 2005 Washington Auto program manager for Howe and Howe obstacles,” Mike says. “The Ripsaw
Show, where they showed it to army Technologies, Will McMaster, who is doesn’t have to avoid obstacles; it drives
officials interested in developing sitting at the Ripsaw’s controls around over them.”—Bjorn Carey
OVER THE HILL Despite the best efforts of

inventors Mike [left] and Geoff Howe, the
Ripsaw has proven unbreakable. It did once
break a suspension mount—and drove on
for hours without trouble.

40 POPSCI.COM
www.freedowns.net
www.fantamag.com
www.storemags.com
www.fantamag.com
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www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
A BETTER
CATHETER
A NEW DESIGN THAT HELPS DOCTORS START
AN IV SUCCESSFULLY, EVERY TIME
INVENTION INVENTOR
Vascular Pathways Amir Belson
COST TIME HORIZON
$600,000 6 years PROTOTYPE PRODUCT
When Amir Belson flew from Israel for a pediatric

fellowship at Stanford University in 1998, he carried a list of
64 ideas for medical inventions. Many of the concepts were
influenced by the years he served as a flight surgeon in the
Israeli air force, while others came from time spent in a neonatal
intensive-care unit. One of them was an idea for a better
intravenous catheter, one that wouldn’t damage veins or kink
inside of them. By 2005, he had made his first prototype.
The design of the IV catheters that drip medications and
fluid into patients’ bodies has changed little in 30 years. Belson
found that as many as 40 percent of first attempts to start an
IV fail. Advancing a needle blindly often leaves veins clogged Needle
HOW IT WORKS The guide wire forms
and useless for weeks, bruises patients, exhausts clinicians, and
a curlicue at its end for easy advancing.
costs hospitals thousands of dollars a week in extra needles and The catheter is inserted over the guide
labor. Some research has been done to thread catheters using wire, which steers the catheter’s tip to
ultrasound technology or infrared light, but both techniques are avoid kinking against the vein’s walls. Guide wire
expensive and require additional training.
Belson’s Vascular Pathways prototype, inspired when he
spent an entire shift working to insert an IV into a newborn, is a
more practical design based on standard catheters. As with any WHEREARETHEYNOW?
needle, a medical professional using Vascular Pathways knows
the vein has been reached when blood flashes back through 2008 INVENTION WINNER
the needle. She then slides forward a lever, which advances a PROSTHETIC FOOT
2008 INVENTION AWARDS
guide wire safely out from inside the needle. The guide wire
rolls into a curlicue before the catheter slides over it, preventing “My company
the catheter tip from hitting the vein’s walls. Finally, the needle was awarded
and guide wire are retracted, leaving the catheter in place. “It’s
a $750,000
NO FLAT FEET Jerome Rifkin
watches his prototype foot
flex in a testing rig he built.
going to make a big difference in saving a lot of what are now the idea
A MORE NATURAL ARTIFICIAL FOOT

unavoidable re-sticks,” says Jeff Stuart, medical director of the Small Business description
Mimics the jointed motion of a real foot for easier walking
name
K3 Promoter
time cost to develop
INVENTOR
Jerome Rifkin
horizon
HOW IT WORKS
A flexible midfoot joint makes the
prosthetic stable on uneven ground,
and a spring-loaded toe provides
push-off for each step.
Washington Outpatient Surgery Center in Freemont, California.

Midfoot joint
Innovation
8 years $100,000 Prototype Product
G
ORDON LINK, A DIABETIC and foot amputee, building and
is not looking to climb Mount Everest, run a rebuilding
marathon, or snowboard off a cliff. “I just want to the flexible
After testing the device on large veins in pigs, Belson started

walk without stumbling like I’m a drunk,” he says. mechanical foot for more than eight years—ever since
It may not sound like a tall order, but until he was fitted with he broke his hip in a bicycle accident and spent three
a prototype prosthetic foot that simulates the body’s natural years learning to walk again. The mechanical engineer
Research grant
movements, walking on uneven ground was like navigating had studied prosthetics as an undergrad, but his physical
an obstacle course. “Hitting a low spot of even one inch with therapy was a crash course in the biomechanics of walking.
my old foot was like a non-amputee stepping into a four- “That’s when I realized that prosthetic feet were nothing
inch hole,” he adds. “Not good.” like natural feet,” he says.
IVs in the tiny veins in rabbits’ ears, where muscles keep the ears Link has been testing the new foot for the past six
months, but 36-year-old inventor Jerome Rifkin has been

With 26 bones, 35 joints, and the awesome responsibili-
ties of weight-bearing and propulsion, the foot is one of
bouncing around. Of 100 pricks made, only one failed. Having from the National
received FDA approval, in April Belson began a two-month trial
with people. If successful, he plans to team up with Australian Center for Medical Rehabilitation
company Telesso Technologies and sell Vascular Pathways at a Research.”—Jerome Rifkin
price comparable to current catheters, hoping, he says, “to make
this catheter the gold standard worldwide.”—Corey Binns
www.freedowns.net
Polyester-
mesh tubes
TOUGH ON FISH, HOW IT WORKS
EASY ON LAKES
The IronClads’s
twin polyester-
tube skeleton
acts like rebar
in concrete,
A LURE THAT USES A SURGICAL TRICK TO PREVENT GETTING giving the lure
TORN FROM HOOKS, AND DOESN’T CONTAMINATE THE WATER the tensile
strength to
INVENTION INVENTOR withstand
IronClads Ben Hobbins anything
but a direct
COST TIME HORIZON chomp from
$375,000 3 years PROTOTYPE PRODUCT the biggest,
toothiest fish.
Ben Hobbins didn’t set out to clean up his local

lakes, but his IronClads baits do exactly that. The Wisconsin
inventor’s idea—fishing lures that are extra-strong, eco-friendly
and nontoxic—solves a serious, if little-known environmental
problem. Flexible and cheap soft plastics are the most popular
type of lure among sport fishermen, but almost all of them
eventually end up at the bottom of lakes and rivers because
they easily detach from their hook when they’re cast or bitten.
Once there, the baits disintegrate over time, releasing harmful
phthalates and other petrochemicals. According to one study, 25
million pounds of the lures are left in U.S. waters every year.
In 2006, Hobbins, an avid fisherman, was really just trying to
come up with a stronger version of the lures he was using for ice
fishing, when the concept came to him. “I hate rebaiting hooks
in zero-degree weather,” he says. A former biotech strategist, he
speculated that methods used in the industry for skin grafting—
using an expandable mesh to ensure that a graft stays intact
and in place—could also work for reinforcing lures. The result
was IronClads, which stay firmly on their hooks because of a
microtube of polyester mesh that lends strength to the plastic,
just as rebar gives tensile strength to concrete. The lures can
sustain 93 pounds of tensile strain, so only fish with serrated
teeth and considerable heft could possibly bite through them.
Hobbins sold his initial IronClads to local stores. Inspired
by the praise he received for their environmental impact, he
then set out to solve the remaining problem: the fact that the
plastic was still toxic. Last summer he began work on an equally
strong silicone-based version that, if it does tear off,
biodegrades without the toxins released by soft baits
made from plasticized polyvinyl chloride. (Neither
version contains the usual flexibility-lending
plasticizers made from phthalates, which Congress
has banned from children’s toys.) Now testing the
greener version, Hobbins has enlisted the help of
the University of Wisconsin, which also worked
with him to raise funding and create the initial
prototypes of the lures. He expects the silicone
IronClads to hit stores this year.—Christopher Steiner

POPSCI.COM 00
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
HEIGHTENED REALITY
A SYSTEM THAT TURNS YOUR SURROUNDINGS INTO A COMPUTER INTERFACE
INVENTION INVENTORS
SixthSense Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry
COST TIME HORIZON
$350 8 months PROTOTYPE PRODUCT
FINGERS ON THE
PULSE Using Sixth-
Sense, grad student
Pranav Mistry can
operate his laptop,
snap photos, and
more with hand
signals alone.
www.freedowns.net
HOW IT WORKS
A webcam captures
Webcam video, including spe-
cific hand signals that
the laptop reads as
commands. A mini-
projector then displays
the relevant content—
e-mail, stock charts,
photos—on the nearest
Projector surface.
Laptop
IN THE NEWS The SixthSense can scan newspaper stories and

retrieve related video from YouTube or other Web sites, which it
projects directly onto the surface of the paper.
When he’s wearing the out a prototype in just three weeks. cap or piece of tape, recognizes the
SixthSense, a combination miniature Although the system has evolved gesture, and instructs the projector to
projector, webcam and notebook considerably since then, the basic flash the image of a watch onto his
computer, Pranav Mistry can snap concept has stuck. A pocket projector and wrist. For book-recognition, Mistry
photos just by making the shape of a a webcam hang on Mistry’s chest, both activates the program with a gesture,
frame with his fingers. He can conjure wired to a laptop in his backpack, and and the system snaps a photo of the
a phone keypad in the palm of his hand he wears four different-colored marker book, compares it with book-cover
and tap the virtual numbers to place caps or pieces of tape on his thumbs images it finds online, computes a
a call. The system can even recognize and index fingers. When he switches on match, and retrieves and projects the
a book in front of the camera, retrieve the system, the webcam starts capturing ratings. Future functions will similarly
its Amazon listing from the Web, video and streaming it back to the rely on computer vision algorithms.
and project its rating on the cover. computer. Then the computer’s vision “It recognizes what’s in front of the
Watching Mistry, a graduate student algorithms take over. The real brains user and augments those things with
in the Massachusetts Institute of of this system, this software filters out relevant information,” Maes explains.
Technology’s Media Arts and Sciences background imagery, determines x and This summer, Mistry will begin
program, demonstrate the device is like y coordinates for each cap or tape color working with Samsung engineers to
witnessing a magic show. But he and his in the video frame, and tracks them compress the entire system into one
adviser, Pattie Maes, a digital-interface over time. The computer discerns which of the company’s new smartphones,
specialist at MIT’s Media Lab, expect the colors are moving which way, so it can which has a built-in projector. With
SixthSense to do a lot more than evoke follow freehand gestures. These, in turn, further improvements to the algorithms,
wonder. Within a few years, they hope, trigger various functions. eventually even the markers and tape
it will let people operate smartphones Say, for instance, Mistry wants to could go away and the device could
without touching a button, do instant know the time. He traces a small circle track fingers alone, making it even
research on objects around them, and on his wrist with his index finger, and easier to enhance your surroundings
generally offer the kind of enhanced- the computer tracks the red marker anywhere you go.—Gregory Mone
reality experience that’s now confined
to science fiction. AMATEUR INVENTORS FAQ
Maes hit on the idea last October
while discussing g-speak, a real-world “HOW SECRETIVE SHOULD I BE?”
version of the gesture-controlled
interface in the movie Minority Report. LOOSE LIPS can sink potential inventions. So be very careful about sharing proprie-
She liked the notion of using hand tary information. Anytime you write about your invention on the Web or in a published
signals to manipulate digital content article, display it at a trade show, or make it public in certain other ways, that could
but wanted something cheaper that qualify as a legal disclosure. From that moment on, you have only a one-year grace
period to file for a patent; if you don’t, you lose the claim rights, and anyone else
you could walk around with, projecting
can try to patent it. Louis Foreman, author of the upcoming Independent Inventor’s
content and interacting with it anywhere Handbook, suggests that you have anyone you discuss the invention with sign a non-
you liked. Mistry, nicknamed “Zombie” disclosure agreement, a legally binding document in which the signer agrees to keep
because of his aversion to sleep, turned mum. You can download a sample NDA on our Web site at popsci.com/nda.—S.z.w.
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
ROBO-LEGS
AN EXOSKELETON THAT ENABLES
Tilt sensors
Computer
PARAPLEGICS TO WALK
INVENTION INVENTOR
ReWalk Amit Goffer
Motors
COST TIME HORIZON
$2 million+ 10 years PROTOTYPE PRODUCT
HOW IT WORKS
The user plants the
crutches out front
and leans forward.
After breaking his neck in a 1997 fall, Israeli A sensor registers
engineer Amit Goffer learned that he would be confined to a the motion, and the
wheelchair for the rest of his life. He soon concluded that this computer instructs
motors in the hip
mode of transportation was outdated and began work on the
and knee of one leg
ReWalk, the only wearable exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to swing it forward.
to stand, amble, and even climb stairs. Soon, more than a dozen
patients in the U.S. will strap in and start strolling.
Goffer, now 56, needed a design that would be not only safe second leg ahead. Stand up straight, and the device halts.
but also energy-efficient enough to last for an entire day. “I was Like the crutches, many of the components, including the
worried you would need a truckload of batteries,” he recalls. motors and battery pack, are off-the-shelf. Goffer says it’s the
To solve that problem, he made a design choice that meant he control algorithms that make the difference. For example, early
could never use it. Goffer is paralyzed from the chest down, but in the ReWalk’s development, he and his team found that the
he realized that if wearers could use crutches, it would conserve tilt sensor could be thrown off by variations in the way users
energy and simplify balance, since the device wouldn’t have to dressed (for example, its angle could be changed if a user wore
keep the person upright all on its own. a large belt buckle underneath the harness), so they wrote
The 44-pound prototype, which takes just a few minutes software that accounts for those differences and corrects them.
to get into, has several modes—among them, walking, sitting, The code also has to filter out vibrations from the ground,
and climbing/descending stairs—that the user selects on a initiate the most energy-efficient steps so the batteries don’t
wristband controller. Plant one of the crutches and lean forward drain prematurely, quickly recognize a stumble and recover in
in walk mode, for example, and a tilt sensor in the ReWalk’s time to prevent a fall, and more.
shoulder harness registers the motion. A computer in a Goffer says the next version will be down to about 30
backpack interprets this data and instructs electric motors in the pounds. Several patients have already tested the prototype
hip and knee of one leg to move it forward. (Other exoskeletons, successfully abroad, and U.S. clinical trials are set to start soon.
like Honda’s walking-assist device, take cues from users’ One of ReWalk’s testers, 41-year-old paraplegic Radi Kaiof,
actual leg motions or electrical signals in their muscles, which thinks patients will be satisfied. When strapped in, he says, “I
wouldn’t work with paraplegics.) Another plant of the crutches speak eye-to-eye with people, not from the bottom up. There is
and another lean, and the motors on the other side swing the one life in a wheelchair, and this is a new life.”—GREGORY MONE
“HOW DO I GET INVESTORS?”

FROM THE TIME you come up with an idea, expect to spend 50 to 70 percent of your time raising capital from angel investors, says
FACING PAGE: ILAN MIZRAHI/WPN
Ellen Sandles, executive director of the Tri-State Private Investors Network. Here’s what you need to know to get the big check.—S.z.w.
#Know your angel. Some invest only in #Plan on dipping into your own pocket. If # You don’t need to have any rev-
start-up ventures, whereas others seek you expect investors to risk their money enue yet. You do need to be working
more mature companies. on your venture, you should contribute 20 on a marketing plan to prove that you
#Most angels invest anywhere from percent of your own net worth. ultimately can generate revenue.
$25,000 to $100,000. #Approach investors only after applying #You’ll get far more attention if
#If you haven’t actually run a business, you for patents, and come with a prototype you line up customers who are will-
should partner with somebody who has. and a solid business plan in hand. ing to test or sample your product.
www.freedowns.net
“People didn’t believe me.
They’ve been trying to develop
these exoskeletons for the
paralyzed for 50 years.”
—ReWalk inventor Amit Goffer
WALK ON Inventor Amit Goffer can’t use it himself,

but the ReWalk allowed Radi Kaiof [right], a para-
plegic, to walk for the first time in nearly 20 years.
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
POWER MADE Hydraulic

fluid
FROM SHOCKS
A SHOCK ABSORBER THAT GENERATES HOW IT WORKS
Hydraulic
motor
As the vehicle
ENERGY AND INCREASES FUEL EFFICIENCY moves, the shock Piston
compresses and its
INVENTION INVENTORS piston pumps fluid
GenShock Shakeel Avadhany, Zack Anderson, to drive a hydrau-
COST TIME Zack Jackowski, Ryan Bavetta and lic motor and an
electric-motor gen-
$100,000 2 years Vladimir Tarasov erator. The power
HORIZON that’s produced lets
PROTOTYPE PRODUCT the engine-driven Electric-motor generator
alternator do less
work, saving fuel.
POWER PLAYERS Still in their early 20s,

Zack Anderson [left], Shakeel Avadhany
and the other team members handle
everything from the company’s busi-
ness plans to GenShock’s electronics.
www.freedowns.net
The idea for an energy-producing AMATEUR INVENTORS FAQ
shock absorber started humbly enough,
just another wild invention tossed out “CAN I GET RICH?”
during a late-night dorm-room bull
session. Only, the students involved
BEFORE YOU START DREAMING of an early retirement in Tahiti, you need to
were among MIT’s best, and they face facts: Most inventors don’t get wealthy from their idea. Selling your inven-
actually went ahead and built it. Two tion to a major company will usually get you 2 to 4 percent of the gross sales as a
years later, they’ve got a shiny Hummer licensing fee. If licensing isn’t an option, you can try taking it to market yourself.
H1, loaned by the manufacturer to That route is riskier and can be hugely expensive—anywhere from $20,000 to
use as a rolling testbed, and their $200,000 for development, to thousands more for production—but you can make
40 to 50 percent margins.—S.z.w.
GenShock may soon find its way into
the military’s fleet of Humvees.
The team—Shakeel Avadhany, varies resistance over the shocks. of real-world testing, they began
Zack Anderson, Zack Jackowski, Ryan MIT’s licensing department showed replacing existing components with
Bavetta and Vladimir Tarasov—came interest in acquiring the technology, custom miniaturized parts to scale
up with a way to harness the energy but in 2007 the group decided instead down the shock’s size and weight and
generated by the up-down motion of a to incorporate as Levant Power. Later, generate more power, while meeting
vehicle’s shocks as they compress over one of their professors brought their the military’s sky-high standards
dips, bumps and potholes. The power work to the attention of Paul J. Kern, a for durability and performance.
that the GenShock system produces retired four-star army general and the The system must last the lifetime
lets the alternator, which is driven by president of Humvee manufacturer AM of the vehicle, operate effectively
the engine and provides electricity to General. He wanted further evidence when submerged in water, and limit
charge the battery, do less work. And of GenShock’s electricity-generating electrical noise that could cause
that, ultimately, saves fuel. potential. “It started as, ‘Let’s see what interference with other equipment.
They began by creating a simple you can do,’ ” Avadhany recalls. “We The group is now speaking with
hydraulic system, in which the shock weren’t expecting them to ship us a the Office of Naval Research; the
absorber’s piston pumps fluid to drive Hummer in the mail.” When the device army’s Tank Automotive Research,
a hydraulic motor and a miniature showed promise in tests, a lucrative Development and Engineering Center;
electric-motor generator. The team’s development contract followed. and truck builders such as Navistar and
first prototype generated a total of 800 Working between classes from Mack Trucks. If any of those groups put
watts of continuous power with four a rented warehouse and makeshift in an order for the GenShock system,
shocks, and up to five kilowatts—about office in South Boston, the team the inventors, now all graduated, won’t
seven times as much as a typical outfitted the hulking SUV with even have to send out their résumés.
car alternator produces—over nasty the GenShock system and data- “This is it,” Anderson says. “This
off-road terrain. They estimate that acquisition gear. During 500 miles company is our job.”—Lawrence Ulrich
their next version could double the
generating capacity, boosting fuel
mileage on paved roads by 2 to 5 WHEREARETHEYNOW?
percent in commercial trucks and 6
percent in military vehicles, which 2008 INVENTION WINNER 2008 INVENTION AWARDS
when fully armored can slurp diesel MINE TRACKER the idea
TUNNEL VISION
at a dispiriting four to eight miles
“This month, we expect
description
Finds lost miners with the same tech found in guided missiles and the Nintendo Wii
name INVENTOR
HOW IT WORKS
per gallon. Hybrids, which can store InSeT System

time
2 years
cost to develop
$475,000
horizon
Russell Breeding
Prototype Product
GenShock electricity in their batteries, to have a beta system I

N JANUARY 2006, an explosion rocked West Virginia’s
Sago coal mine, trapping 13 miners. Rescuers searched an
area 500 feet wide by two miles long and didn’t reach the
miners until 41 hours after the blast, eventually pulling out
12 bodies and one survivor. Jim Ponceroff, who led a rescue
riner knew what
it felt like to be
trapped in tight
and dangerous
spaces. And he
A sensor tracks a
miner’s location and
relays it to the surface over
a network of transceivers.
would gain the most—up to 10 percent. installed in one of the

team, says that the biggest challenge in recovering miners is
locating them quickly so that engineers can drill a borehole for
fresh air and, ultimately, rescue. Sago, like most of the coun-
try’s nearly 900 active mines, relied on radios that transmit
realized that the technology used to plot the position of a
submarine could do the same for a miner.
So Breeding designed a system, called InSeT, that
employs a wireless radio network to provide real-time loca-
As a retrofit for large commercial

signals over a thin wire that’s easily damaged in a cave-in. tions. Miners wear walkie-talkie-size transmitters that hold
Russell Breeding watched the Sago disaster unfold on TV. a battery and an inertial-motion sensor, a device similar to
Although he had never set foot in a mine, the former subma- those used in guided warheads and Nintendo Wii controllers
trucks, “the system could pay for itself largest underground coal to track motion on three axes. “It’s basically taking a missile-
guidance system and strapping it to a guy’s hip,” he says.
Radio transceivers bolted into the mine’s roof pick up
the transmitter’s signal and relay the positions of miners to
an aboveground computer, which places them on a map of
the mine. The tricky part is compensating for “drift,” small
mines in southeastern
inaccuracies in the motion sensors that build up over time.
in fuel savings in a little over a year,” Breeding, who works with similar technology in his day job
as a navigational consultant for government contractors,
spent two years creating algorithms that account for this
drift. His current system can locate a
miner to within 10 feet, even at the end
Avadhany says. Although paved roads of an eight-hour shift. Dave Chirdon,
Ohio. We’ve received

who is responsible for approving elec-
trical equipment for the federal Mine
Safety and Health Administration, says
generate less shock movement, the

the technology has the potential to be
the most accurate available.
The transceivers are covered in bul-
letproof plastic, but even so, Breeding’s
regular high-frequency oscillation can $400,000 in funding and MINE MAN In Virginia’s
plan calls for a highly redundant radio
grid with 30 hours of battery power so
that signals will get through even if sev-
eral transceivers go down.
Breeding has successfully tested his
system in three mines and hopes to start
still produce useful power. And as a Pocahontas Mine, licensing the technology by year’s end.
a loan for $792,000.”

Russell Breeding Ponceroff can’t wait. “This is going to
wears a transmitter
be the best thing we’ve had ever, as far
that tracks miners
deep underground. as I’m concerned,” he says. “I hope he
makes a billion dollars.”—Kyle Stock
bonus, the invention could potentially 60 POPULAR SCIENCE JUNE 2008 VISIT THE NEW POPSCI.COM
provide better performance and —Russell Breeding

handling when coupled with a computer
sensor system that reads the road and
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
GREAT ESCAPES
A HARNESS FOR EVACUATION FROM SKYSCRAPERS
INVENTION INVENTOR be flawed or impractical, so he designed
Rescue Reel Kevin Stone a device based on a fishing reel, a
simple harness that would lower people
COST TIME
steadily from skyscraper heights on a
$335,000 6 years
secure length of cord. The Rescue Reel
HORIZON
affords people an easy way to engineer
PROTOTYPE PRODUCT
their own escape: All users have to do
is open a file-drawer-size container and
hook a Kevlar cord to a secure object
As the 9/11 inferno unfolded or connection point (such as between
on television, one question kept dogging a door and its frame). Then they step
Kevin Stone: Why weren’t the people directly into the one-size-fits-all harness
trapped in the World Trade Center able and rappel through an open window
to make their way to safety? “I said up to 100 stories from the ground. No
to myself, This is crazy,” recalls Stone, special training is needed, and the entire
an orthopedic surgeon and seasoned sequence could take less than a minute.
inventor in San Francisco. “There should Stone’s major innovation is a
be a better way to exit a skyscraper when centrifugal braking system that
something like this happens.” automatically controls the rate of
Stone found all the existing systems descent. The Rescue Reel’s cord unwinds
for rescuing people from high places to from a spool and wraps around a shaft
connected to a brake. As the shaft
spins, a set of brake pads exerts force
on the inner edge of the brake housing,
smoothly slowing the user down. Should
the automatic brake fail, the device is
also equipped with a manual backup
brake lever. Descending from 100 stories
up takes less than four minutes—about
two seconds per story.
Cord Stone tested a prototype in 2007,
and Skala, a company specializing in
Brake rope-access systems, has since conducted
extensive tests of the device at California’s
Cord spool Vallejo Fire Department. It’s a significant
upgrade from the slow, cumbersome rope
HOW IT WORKS systems firefighters usually use for high-
As the cord unwinds, a floor rescues, says fire-safety consultant
self-adjusting braking Scott Douglass. “It’s a lot more automated,
system ensures that and it’s easier and more intuitive for the
the wearer descends trapped person to use.” He thinks it could
at a constant rate.
be used for cliff rescues as well.
Now that testing is complete, Stone
is preparing to market the Rescue Reel.
A commercial-ready version should be
available next year for about $1,500. He
foresees lowering the price considerably
once he starts mass production, making
it practical for building owners who want
to give their tenants an escape clause.
—Elizabeth Svoboda
www.freedowns.net
ELECTRONIC
VOICE BOX
A DEVICE THAT ALLOWS PEOPLE WITH
IMPAIRED SPEECH TO COMMUNICATE CLEARLY
INVENTION INVENTOR
The Audeo Michael Callahan HOW IT WORKS Three electrode sensors on the user’s neck
capture electrical signals between the brain and the vocal
COST TIME HORIZON cords. The device’s processor sends the amplified signals to
$330,000 5 years PROTOTYPE PRODUCT computer software, which decodes them and turns them into
spoken words that can be heard through the speakers.
When Michael Callahan was 17, he lost his short- Illinois, studying everything he could about signal processing
term memory when he hit his head in a skateboarding accident. and neuroscience. It took him four years to determine how
“The neural pathways were all wrong,” he recalls. Within weeks, to filter out unwanted electrical noise from the environment
he was back to normal, but the incident left him thinking, how and the body (like the heartbeat) and detect only the signals
could he help people who had permanently lost abilities that needed for speech synthesis. He met his business partner,
most of us take for granted? Five years later, he came up with fellow engineering student Tom Coleman, in 2005, and the two
the Audeo, a tiny device that detects electrical activity between formed Ambient Corporation later that year.
the brain and vocal cords and turns it into audible speech. Callahan isn’t the only one trying to perfect silent speech.
When we speak, three basic things happen: the lungs NASA’s Ames Research Center is working on a similar device
deliver air, the vocal cords vibrate to create sound, and the to control rovers and help astronauts communicate even when
mouth moves. The Audeo helps people for whom at least one there’s significant distance or noise. That version, however, uses
of the three processes malfunctions due to ALS, traumatic brain pattern recognition and can distinguish just preprogrammed
injury or other problems—those whose brains and vocal cords words. The Audeo allows people to use all English-language
are intact but whose impaired motor skills prevent them from phonemes (the roughly 40 sounds that make up words, like
moving their lungs and mouth. “aw” and “ch”), so there’s no limit on what a user can say.
Here’s how it works: Three pill-size electrodes on the throat The technology does have room to improve. Right now,
pick up electrical signals generated between the brain and the the Audeo can pick up a maximum of 30 words per minute,
vocal cords. A processor in the device then filters and amplifies about one fifth the rate of normal speech. And learning the
the signals and sends them to an adjacent PC, where software “language” of speaking in phonemes takes days of practice.
decodes them and turns them into words spoken through Once mastered, though, the Audeo can do neat things like
the PC’s speakers. By placing the electrodes on the neck and enable people to carry on phone conversations without making
“speaking” silently through vocal-cord movements (but without a sound. Ambient is also working on a cellphone interface, with
moving the mouth), the wearer generates enough neural the goal of scrapping the computer completely and reducing
activity to trigger this chain of events. the price. “Eventually,” Callahan says, “we want it to cost as little
Callahan started working on the Audeo at the University of as a Bluetooth headset.”—Lisa Katayama
“ARE THOSE INVENTION-HELPER ORGANIZATIONS WORTH IT?”

BE CAREFUL OF invention-marketing Web sites; the U.S. Patent Office lists complaints about 60 such sites that make money by
exploiting inventors. That said, some of the best help you can get is at your computer. Here are four of the most useful sites. —S.z.w.
USPTO.GOV and EDISONNATION.COM UIAUSA.ORG WEB.MIT.EDU/INVENT

GOOGLE.COM/PATENTS A social network where you The nonprofit United Inventors The Lemelson-MIT Pro-
To avoid overlapping with an can find other groups of Association offers a 10-part gram’s handbook provides
invention that has already inventors by field or region educational series on top- help with issues like how to
been patented, search the and take advantage of the ics such as licensing deals, prove an idea is yours, devel-
official government site and wide membership. Survey financing, market research, oping a solid business plan,
the more beginner-friendly people by posting a question, avoiding scams, and other and deciding whether your
Google Patent Search. or start your own group. need-to-know basics. invention is worth patenting.
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
GREEN
STYRO-
FOAM
AN ECO-FRIENDLY INSULATION
MADE FROM MUSHROOMS
INVENTION INVENTORS
Greensulate Eben Bayer
COST TIME and Gavin
$1,500 2 years McIntyre OUT OF THE WOODS Eben
Bayer [left] and Gavin McIn-
HORIZON
tyre want mushroom-based
PROTOTYPE PRODUCT Greensulate to replace plas-
tics and other materials.
Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre

want to line the walls of your home with HOW IT WORKS Greensu-
late’s strength derives from
mushrooms. The young entrepreneurs
billions of mycelia, or tube-
have created a strong, low-cost like mushroom roots that
biomaterial that could replace the intertwine with agricultural
expensive, environmentally harmful castoffs like seed husks.
Styrofoam and plastics used in wall One cubic inch of the mate-
insulation, as well as in packaging and rial contains eight miles of
a host of other products. Wind-turbine mycelium fibers.
blades and auto-body panels aren’t out of
the realm of possibility, either.
“We like to call it low-tech biotech,” they first met as mechanical-engineering and won $16,000 in funding through
Bayer says. In the lab, the inventors students at Rensselaer Polytechnic the National Collegiate Inventors and
grow mycelia, the vegetative roots of Institute. When the two set out to make Innovators Alliance. A year later, joined
mushrooms that resemble bundles of biodegradable and renewable insulation, by now-COO Ed Browka and other
white fiber. But instead of soil, the roots they started testing different varieties of team members, they took the $700,000
grow in a bed of agricultural by-products mushrooms grown in Tupperware. Many prize at the PICNIC Green Challenge in
like buckwheat husks, and those prototypes later, lab tests confirmed Amsterdam.
intertwining fibers give the material their early hunch about the unusual Ecovative has begun a trial run of
structural support. The mixture is placed properties of the mushroom-derived Greensulate panels as replacements for
inside a panel (or whatever shape is insulation. Mixed-in seed husks, for insulation in a Vermont school gym. The
required) and, after 10 to 14 days, the example, helped the mycelia withstand partners expect to complete all industrial
mycelia develop a dense network—just a blowtorch. And besides being cheaper certification and testing by the end of
one cubic inch of the white-and-brown- and eco-friendlier than petroleum- the year and have enlisted Jeff Brooks of
specked “Greensulate” insulation contains derived products, Greensulate can grow the Timberline Panel Company to advise
eight miles of interconnected mycelia at room temperature and in the dark, them on meeting American Society
strands. The panels are dried in an doesn’t require expensive manufacturing for Testing and Materials standards
oven at between 100° and 150°F to stop equipment built to withstand industrial for building insulation. “If they get to
mycelia growth, and at the end of two conditions, and can easily be tailored to the point where I think they’ll get,”
weeks, they’re ready for your walls. different levels of strength and flexibility. he says, “there’s a chance there would
Bayer and McIntyre’s work with In 2007, the inventors incorporated be no reason to use conventional
mushrooms has come a long way since under the name Ecovative Design foam products.”—Jeremy Hsu
www.freedowns.net
GREASE
LIGHTING
A GENERATOR THAT PROVIDES RESTAURANTS’
POWER USING THEIR LEFTOVER COOKING OIL
INVENTION INVENTOR
Vegawatt James Peret
COST TIME HORIZON
$300,000 4 years PROTOTYPE PRODUCT
HOW IT WORKS Dirty grease passes through a series

of tanks and filters that scrub, heat, and refine it
into fuel that burns clean in a diesel generator.
Filtration reservoir Diesel generator
Filtered oil Power
OIL MAN James Peret wondered why restaurant owners gave

away their excess grease instead of using it to power their busi-
ness. Then he discovered that no one had given them the option.
The nondescript six-foot-tall box behind Finz generator, the bread-crumb-filled muck is deposited into a
restaurant in Dedham, Massachusetts, looks like a tool shed, but reservoir and undergoes a multi-stage cleaning, treatment and
actually it’s a self-contained grease refinery and five-kilowatt filtration process. At this stage, the oil is prepared for combustion
generator. Engineer James Peret’s Vegawatt is the first all-in-one with a method Peret devised that draws heat from the exhaust
device that processes grease to continuously provide a building system. After that, the processed grease moves into a tank that
with electricity and hot water, heralding a significant change feeds the modified15-horsepower diesel generator. Heat from
in alternative-fuel applications. “It’s a brilliant idea,” says Josh the Vegawatt’s engine coolant is used to warm the water in the
Tickell, author of Biodiesel America. “A waste stream to an building’s pipes, further reducing the restaurant’s energy needs.
energy source, with no intermediary.” The Vegawatt can process about 80 gallons of grease a week
Last December, after a year of 80-hour weeks on the (standard for large restaurants) and produces five kilowatts of
development, Peret, 33, installed the first Vegawatt at Finz, energy an hour, which could translate to monthly savings of
a joint that offers loads of fried seafood. With patents still $1,000, a 10 percent reduction in power costs. Peret is now selling
pending, he’s reluctant to give specifics on its inner workings, the machine through his start-up, Owl Power Company, pitching
but it begins with staff members pouring in 10 to 12 gallons of it as the perfect way to go green, save money, and serve delicious
used deep-fryer oil each day. Before going into the Vegawatt’s fish and chips at the same time.—GREGORY MONE
FUTURE TECH:
inventor: MILITARY
fred pearson
A muscle-numbing magic wand that
A SHOCKING protects cops and citizens, Jedi-style
NEW WEAPON Stunstick Neuroscrambler

6 years
$50,000
’m in a dark garage in the desolate woods of a small mountain Despite the fact that Pearson, a 51-year-old drywall contractor,
I town, and Fred Pearson is about to send 50,000 volts of elec-

tricity through me. To stop him, I dodge the sparking claw of
electrodes at the tip of his yard-long rod and grab hold of the
had never invented anything, he knew he could solve this prob-
lem. He took apart his son’s toy, wound fiberglass tape around
the shaft, lined it with wire, and augmented the electronics. Two
WHEREARETHEYNOW?
device, hoping to take it away from him. A shock surges through weeks later, the three-milliamp, 50,000-volt Neuroscrambler was
my hand, leaving me weak and trembling from fingertips to elbow. done. Press a button, and the entire shaft becomes electrically
“You asked for it,” Pearson says. He’s right. I’m playing guinea charged, making it virtually impossible to disarm the operator.
pig for a prototype of the Tennessee inventor’s Stunstick Neuro- “You can’t take what you can’t touch,” Pearson says.
scrambler, a new nonlethal weapon that causes enough pain to Like other stun devices, the stick works by delivering a high-volt-
make any mugger reconsider his career choice. age, low-amperage electrical charge that overrides messages from
Pearson dreamed up the weapon six years ago while watching the brain to the muscles, leaving the victim unable to control that
his 10-year-old son slash the air with a toy light saber. He noticed part of his body. But, unlike any other weapon, it can also act like a
the ease and speed with which the boy’s sword could telescope Taser, the weapon most often used by police. A Taser delivers higher
to three times its length. If electrified for real, it would enable the voltages and, by making contact in two points, contracts muscles
person wielding it to remain beyond arm’s reach of an attacker throughout the body, causing the subject to collapse.
—something no handheld stun weapon can do. “That could be That versatility is a boon for cops, who don’t always want to
a game-changing advantage in a real-life scenario,” says New Taser an attacker into submission, Heal says. “Sometimes we just
York–based martial artist Allain Atienza, who trains civilians, FBI want to get a person to stop doing whatever it is he’s doing.” Heal
agents and Army Special Forces in close-combat fighting. The is eager for Pearson to begin human-effects testing—a first step to
problem with most such devices is that you have to be in contact LASD adoption—which should happen later this year at the Army’s
with your attacker to use them, notes Sid Heal, the commander Target Behavioral Response Laboratory in New Jersey.
2007 INVENTION WINNER STUNSTICK “I hope to have StunStick in full

and technology-procurement specialist at the Los Angeles County As I shake my dead arm, trying to restore sensation, I don’t envy
Sheriff’s Department. “I don’t know a single police officer who the test subjects. “That wasn’t so bad,” I lie. “Next time,” Pearson
has purchased [a stun gun] for his wife or daughters.” tells me, “I’ll put in fresh batteries.”
production shortly. I’m also in discussions with Neiman Marcus

about debuting the civilian model in its catalog.”—Fred Pearson
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
The creator of the Segway is one of the most

successful and admired inventors in the world.
He leads a team of 300 scientists and engineers
devoted to making things that better mankind.
But Dean Kamen won’t feel satisfied until he
achieves his greatest goal: reinventing us
BY RENA MARIE PACELLA
“Let’s run it through from the top. This is going downhill.”

Dean Kamen is standing on a six-inch riser in an almost empty room in the basement
of Westwind, his 32,000-square-foot house in Bedford, New Hampshire, trying to get
this thing right. It’s crunch time for FIRST, the high-school robotics competition Kamen
founded two decades ago in an effort to get kids jazzed about engineering, to make
science as sexy as sports. (FIRST = For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Tech-
nology.) In less than a month, 42,000 students on 1,700 teams will gather at 43 regional
championships to showcase the ball-throwing ’bots that each team has spent six weeks
assembling in novel ways from nearly identical boxes of parts. At stake besides glory is
$9 million in scholarships. Kamen would dearly love to speak at every one of those 43
regional games, because he can’t afford to squander any opportunity to reach any one
of those 42,000 fertile minds. But even Dean Kamen can’t be multiple places at once, so
he’s decided to clone himself through the magic of video. And that’s why Kamen and his
FIRST Robotics Competition co-founder, Woodie Flowers, are standing here peering into
a teleprompter, trying, take after painful take, to perfect their message.
“You can bail out a bank, but you can’t bail out a generation,” Kamen recites for the
tenth time in the past hour, and then his reedy voice trails off. “You can’t bail out a gen-
eration . . . you can’t bail out a generation,” he mutters to himself, the wheels turning.
This is supposed to be a pep talk—the barn burner the coach delivers to hype up the
players before they storm the field, Kamen and Flowers taking turns exhorting these
junior roboticists to new heights. But somehow the message keeps twisting away from
simple inspiration toward something a bit more complicated.
www.freedowns.net
ILLUSTRATION BY CRAIG PHILLIPS
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
do it while sliding over a tennis-court- like to know that while he barely eked out
“You can bail out the banks by printing size field as slick as an ice rink. The his high-school diploma, as a teenager he had
money, but you can’t bail out a generation low-friction polymer surface is meant already turned his parents’ basement into
of dumb people by printing diplomas. . . . to simulate the crippling effect of the a machine shop and was making 60 grand
Although I personally think printing more moon’s one-sixth gravity, which helps a year rigging sound and light shows at
money is about as dumb as printing diplo- explain the name Kamen and crew museums and hotels around New York City.
mas.” As Kamen (who, for what it’s worth, have given this year’s game: Lunacy. (He’s an ADHD dyslexic, that classic driven-
never earned a college diploma) wanders fur- By day three, team captain Adam innovator double threat.) You might like to
ther and further off-script, Flowers tries to Cohen, drill in hand, is ready to start know that he’s a creature of habit, offloading
reel him back: “After I say, ‘The world needs building. A couple dozen students pesky daily decision-making by wearing the
more and more people like you, dedicated gather in the machine shop of Colum- same uniform of Levi’s jeans, denim button-
to solving problems, problems that really bia University’s engineering school. down shirt and work boots every day for
matter,’ then, Dean, you need to go right into The gymnasium-size shop, packed nearly 30 years and eating at the same mid-
‘But we have to get started,’ ” says Flowers, with lathes, mills, grinders and CNC dling Italian chain restaurant almost every
fully aware that trying to direct Kamen is machines, will be their second home for night. It might intrigue you to learn that he
futile. “We’ve been at it for 18 years,” corrects the next six weeks. Wearing a “Robots is a pop-culture conscientious objector, a
Kamen. “We can’t say ‘get started.’ ” have feelings” T-shirt and a heavy tool man who has watched Star Wars dozens of
Finally, hundreds of edits later, Kamen belt, Cohen is already taking apart the times and every other movie exactly never.
seems to feel that he’s gotten it right. “There bearings on four plastic wheels. Most of And that in his garage resides the 14th Tesla
is a lot at stake in the world today,” he the other kids are still in brainstorming electric Roadster to roll off the factory floor,
intones. “We need you to be able to tackle
energy challenges, advance our abilities in
medicine, and develop entire new industries.
Innovation is absolutely an essential part of
the solution. Even before the current finan-
cial crisis, we were in a deep competitive
hole. Too many people were making money
from money, or money from flipping houses
and hamburgers. Too few were using hard-
earned science and engineering skills to
devise real solutions. We need more of you
to make your investment in learning and
thinking—to be innovators. But we have to
hurry. World leaders may be able to bail out
the banks by printing money, but you can’t
bail out a generation by printing diplomas. It
takes hard work, but it’s worth it.”
No one ever said inventing was easy. And
make no mistake, that’s what the man who
created the Segway is doing here. He’s work-
ing on refining the invention that will trump
all others, that will establish his legacy long mode, and lead mentor and engineer with a license plate that says “FIRST,” plus
after he’s gone. Except this invention isn’t Bob Stark, who runs the shop, encour- a Porsche coupe and a military-grade Hum-
made of gears and gyroscopes. What Kamen ages any and all ideas. “How about we mer. In another garage are his two Enstrom
is doing is trying to reinvent our entire cul- use a turret to shoot the balls?” says one helicopters, a three-seat piston-engine model
ture. And the brains of these high-school student. Suggests another, “We could he’ll sometimes take for a three-minute
students is where he’s going to start. use a laser, like the laser in your com- commute to his office and a turbo-powered
puter mouse, to track the acceleration.” 480 for longer jaunts, like when he decides
Six weeks to game day: It’s day Today is laid-back and low-key. to head over to North Dumpling, his private
one of build season, and the Morris High Soon, though, they’ll be napping on three-acre island in Long Island Sound that
COURTESY ADRIANA GROISMAN/FIRST
School FIRST robotics team from the cold cement floors and eating leftover in 1987 he declared (only half-jokingly) an
Bronx—dubbed 2Train, for the subway pizza off workbenches in the little independent and sovereign nation.
line that takes them to team meetings—is snatches of downtime they can grab You might be interested to know all that,
still wrapping their minds around the chal- between fabricating parts, writing but, according to Kamen, you shouldn’t be.
lenge that has just been unveiled. Teams code, and wiring electronics. “Have you looked out the window lately?
must design and build robots that gather Read the news? The world is a mess!” he
balls off a court, shoot them into goal YOU MIGHT BE interested to know a few says. “We’re obsessing over distractions and
baskets attached to opposing robots, and things about Dean Kamen. You might pastimes while the world unwinds itself!”
www.freedowns.net
Kamen is sitting in his office, across from goal to figure out how, in the shortest Three weeks to game day: Team
a chair that’s painted to look as if Einstein period of time possible, to make the 2Train is revving up to test-drive Tan Tan,
were seated on it. Above him hangs an aerial most money,” says Kamen as he wanders the five-foot-tall boxy robot that the stu-
photo of his lighthouse home on North through the cavernous top floor of a dents have packed with $7,000 worth of
Dumpling, the image emblazoned with a newly acquired, gutted industrial space a controllers, gears, motors and conveyor
characteristically provocative boast: “The quarter-mile upstream from Deka, num- belts. At the moment, they’ve got Tan
only 100% Science Literate Society. America ber nine in his collection of abandoned Tan sprawled on its back in a corner of
could learn a lot from its neighbor.” textile-mill buildings. “They set out to the machine shop, its innards exposed for
Kamen is not entirely averse to the make a machine that could fly, or make inspection and adjustment. A handful of
propagation of the Dean Kamen mythology. night safe by making light.” the students crowding around Tan Tan
Indeed, if he’s going to rally the troops neces- Of course, Kamen makes money—a begin to speculate about who will drive
sary to rescue this country from its descent great deal of it, actually. But, he asserts, the robot at the upcoming competitions.
into moral complacency and moronic dol- “making money is a consequence of good Tryouts are in a week. “I don’t want to be
drums, attaining rock-star status would be a invention, not a motivation for invention.” a driver,” says sophomore Steve Thoma-
wise tactical move. He’d just like to control And that’s how he runs his Manchester son, in baggy jeans and a black hoodie.
the message. So here is what he would research outpost. Beholden to no stock- “It’s too much pressure. Maybe a shooter.”
like you to know about him, something he holders and no bottom line, he has From the sidelines, two students will
deems a worthy investment of your mental fashioned an inventor’s paradise, where drive the robot with joysticks, while three
energy: that every one of his inventions— the laws of physics and thermodynam- more will shoot “moon-
the wearable drug-infusion pump he devised ics are the only ones that rocks” into the opponent’s
LETDOWN The Segway has

yet to transform personal
mobility, and production of
the iBot wheelchair [left] was
discontinued in January.
NEW YORK’S FINEST Noah

Kleinberg and Gabriel Ruiz [first
and second from right] pilot
2Train’s creation at the FIRST
regional semifinals in New York.
in 1973 at age 22, the Segway scooter, his matter, the laws of economics banished baskets. “The guys shoot a lot of b-ball,”
COURTESY DEKA RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT; COURTESY SEGWAY INC.
water purifier for impoverished communi- to some less evolved place and time. says mentor and Columbia engineering
ties—has been designed for the betterment Deka is a strange, cultish world of really, student Hans Hyttinen, a former FIRST kid
of mankind. And that in 1982 he built from really smart do-gooders who have the himself, “so we’ll score big there.”
nothing a company of inventors-for-hire will and the capacity to build life-altering Thomason also has his sights set on
called Deka Research, with the express machines, and they couldn’t care less another position: scout. Several students
mandate that they only invent products if the rest of the country thinks they’re will be assigned to identify teams at the
that make the world better. It’s also worth crazy. It’s an extension of Kamen himself. competition that would make good allies.
knowing that Kamen’s definition of better is “Deka is a masterpiece,” says bioen- Alliances are a huge part of the game. Each
not flexible: Better means giving humanity gineer Jason Demers, who has worked two-minute match pits one three-team
what it needs, not what it wants. Once we’ve with Kamen for 15 years. “One person alliance against another, and the alliances
provided the basic necessities (water, power, can do only so much. But when you get change with every round. So the players
health care) for the nearly seven billion peo- 300 people to think like you—and with have to work well not just with their own
ple on the planet, Kamen explains, then we your strengths—well, that’s when you teammates but with their competitors too.
can go back to chasing a quick buck. can get a whole lot done.”
“I don’t think Wilbur and Orville and Now if Kamen could only get the IN 1987, A DOCTOR named William Murphy
Thomas Edison set out as their primary rest of the world to run like Deka. died and left his most prized possessions to
www.freedowns.net
2009INVENTIONAWARDS
arm-twisted companies like Xerox and was to a mystified Diane Sawyer’s “That’s
his son, a doctor named William Murphy Baxter to foot the bill for the games it?” Instead of transforming the way we
Jr. Not long after that, Murphy Jr. invited and to sponsor 28 student teams, all get around cities, the way we design cit-
Kamen, who was already a successful mentored by professional engineers. ies, the Segway has hit roadblock after
inventor of medical devices, to his home. It sounds small by today’s standards, regulatory roadblock, suffers weak sales,
When, through casual conversation, Kamen but it was four times the size of any of and appears destined to remain a novelty.
learned that neglected somewhere in his the MIT contests, and it was an instant Kamen hoped his iBot wheelchair,
friend’s house, jammed into a cluttered hit with the kids. By 1995, the contest which climbs stairs and raises a user to eye
closet or packed in a box, there was a Nobel had more than doubled in size, and level, would transform the way disabled
Prize—the actual Nobel Prize diploma that it’s been growing rapidly ever since. people interact with their environment.
his friend’s father had received in 1934 “If you give a clever kid just one The iBot is one of the key innovations
for his treatment of anemia—something wish, he’ll wish for 10 more wishes,” behind his selection for some of the
fired in Kamen’s brain. Suddenly he could says Kamen. “I’m that clever kid. nation’s most prestigious honors, includ-
see it clearly: We’re celebrating the wrong If you ask me what my greatest ing the National Medal of Technology, the
stuff. We should celebrate the heroes in sci- invention is, I’d say it’s more inven- Lemelson-MIT Prize and the Heinz Award.
ence and technology the way we celebrate tors, thousands of them, tens of But in January, with insurance companies
sports figures and entertainers. We need thousands of them. It’s FIRST.” and Medicare refusing to foot the device’s
an organization directed at kids that exists Forgive him his urgency, his evan- steep $26,000 price tag, the Johnson &
solely for inspiration and recognition of gelism, his hard-earned sense that not Johnson division that manufactured it had
science and technology. We need FIRST. enough people out there get it. Over no choice but to discontinue its production.
WHAT’S NEXT Deka’s Luke arm [left]

is the most advanced prosthetic in the
world. Kamen’s personal Think car [right]
is powered in part by a Deka-designed
Stirling engine [below], as is the water
purifier that he hopes to deploy in impov-
erished communities worldwide.
That was in 1989. Now Kamen had a nearly four decades, Kamen has built “I am the most frustrated man on the
vision, and soon he had a nonprofit and a an unparalleled portfolio of trans- planet,” Kamen pronounces. “But after
snazzy red, white and blue logo designed formative medical devices: portable someone kicks sand in your face, you’ve
by his father, the acclaimed pulp comic- insulin pumps, stents, mobile dialysis got to keep on going.” For all his setbacks,
CAR PHOTOGRAPHED AT FIVE FORTY NORTH ASSOCIATES
book artist Jack Kamen. Not long after, machines, a breakthrough prosthetic he is still a true believer. It’s not his solu-
Kamen and Flowers met for the first time, arm. But when it comes to his more tions that fail; it’s the rest of the world that
and, as Flowers recounts it, “had a philo- ambitious “fixes,” the ones with the fails—fails to see the value in his solutions.
sophical love-in.” Flowers, a mechanical potential to affect tens or hundreds
engineering professor, had founded an of millions of lives, the world tends One week to game day, 10 hours
engineering contest at the Massachusetts to give him a much cooler reception. to robot shipping: “OK, turn it on,”
Institute of Technology that attracted more Before the Segway debuted in 2001, says Hyttinen. “It is,” replies Noah Klein-
fans than the school’s football games. The the media was falling over itself to get berg, a senior in charge of programming.
contest, the two came to agree, should a glimpse of the new machine, which Nothing. No electricity runs through
be blown out into a homecoming-game- was $100 million and 10 years in the Tan Tan’s wires. It’s past 2 a.m., and the
style sporting event for high-schoolers: making behind the closed doors of robot must be crated up and ready for
the NCAA of smarts. By the inaugural Deka’s skunkworks lab. When Kamen transport to the New York Regionals by
FIRST competition in 1992, Kamen had finally lifted the shroud of secrecy, it noon tomorrow. The tick of the clock is
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nearly deafening. The robot has logged
many hours on the sample sheets of
slippery polymer the team laid out to
Clean Water for everyone make a test field in an empty parking
Kamen’s Stirling engine–run Slingshot burns grass or cow dung or whatever is lot. Tan Tan wasn’t exactly graceful, but
handy to power the world’s poorest, grid-less villages and convert their brackish it moved when and where it was sup-
water into clean drinking water. For the power, the Stirling alternately heats and posed to, mostly. Now it won’t respond
cools (and in turn expands and compresses) helium sealed inside a cylinder, push-
to even the most basic of commands: on.
ing pistons to create work. Channeled into the Slingshot, that energy boils water
in a chamber. The steam is superheated by a compressor and, as it condenses into They systematically disconnect
clean water, releases heat that can be recaptured to keep incoming water boiling. and reconnect everything, part by
part. Tick, tock, tick, tock. After an
POWER SOURCE hour, Hyttinen steps back and real-
izes that the sleep-deprived students,
when swapping in some new motors,
wired them backward. An easy fix.
By 3:30 a.m., all systems are go.
Ball-shooting time. The students start
feeding Tan Tan moonrocks, rolling them
toward it. The robot’s lower belts spin
so fast they suck in one ball, two balls,
three. But nothing comes out of the top.
Adam Cohen sums up the prevailing
verdict: “Now we’re sort of screwed.”
ONE DECEMBER EVENING at UnWine’d, a

Kamen haunt in Manchester with live jazz
and a wine selection that rivals the one
in his own home’s basement, something
bad happens: The silent flat-screen TV in
the corner of the bar catches Kamen’s eye.
Heat source Cooling panel “Look at these guys running around in
tights and padding and throwing a ball
Electronics panel Stirling engine core around a field for millions of dollars.” He’s
been snared by highlights from Monday
night’s snooze of a matchup between the
Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston
Texans. “It’s ridiculousness! We get what
we celebrate in this country, and if we cel-
Compressor
ebrate bounce-bounce-throw . . . ”
DISTILLER Superheated steam He’s interrupted by a call from Hawaii
Governor Linda Lingle. After sacrificing
Steam approximately half a second for pleasantries,
he jumps right back onto the pulpit, this
time preaching to Lingle. She’s already a big
Recycled heat Condensing FIRST supporter, but Kamen wants more.
freshwater New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, he
tells her, has pledged to make Kamen’s state
Evaporator unit the first in the union to have a FIRST team
at every high school. Kamen is trying to spur
a race between the two states.
“You rarely see him eat, because when
other people are eating, when their mouths
are full, he’s got a captive audience,” says
Vince Wilczynski, a FIRST game designer
and dean of engineering at the U.S. Coast
Guard Academy. Kamen admits that he’s
shameless about pushing FIRST on anyone
Purified Source water Recycled heat within earshot, barter- [continued ON page 85]
water
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INSTANT EXPERT
special edition
th Svoboda ON
zabe MATI
By Eli NS BY MEDI-
RATIO
ILLUST
Stem Cells 101
Master the Lingo

Sources, facing page: California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine; clinicaltrials.gov; Geron Corporation, National
Institutes of Health; RRY Publications; Time Poll, 2008
scientists talk up all types of stem cells and techniques Induced pluripotent
to create them. But don’t feel overwhelmed—much of the jargon can stem (iPS) cells: These
be boiled down to these fundamental terms. cells are as close as you’ll get
to a fountain of youth. Inserting
Embryonic stem types. This makes them ideal genes responsible for embryonic
cells: The Swiss Army knife for regenerating diseased heart pluripotency into adult skin
of regenerative science, these tissue, repairing spinal cords, cells effectively rewinds their
cells are harvested in the early and replenishing brain cells. developmental clock and gives
fetal stage and have the unique But to critics who believe that them embryonic-like powers to
characteristic of pluripotency, human life begins at conception, morph into heart, cardiac and
meaning that they can turn into harvesting these cells is akin to other tissue types. An added
any one of more than 200 tissue killing a baby. bonus: No embryos necessary.
www.freedowns.net
Everything you need to know
about the hottest topic in
medicine, from big-league
breakthroughs and new therapies
to emerging health risks and the GROUND ZERO A micro-
scopic view of a human
patients willing to take them embryonic stem cell
For more than a decade, researchers have touted

stem cells as the most promising advance in medicine since
Big Money,
antibiotics. And this winter, when President Obama lifted the Bush
administration’s ban on federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell
research, talking heads buzzed that his decision could bring scientists
Big Picture
that much closer to cures—not just treatments—for conditions like This year delivers a major spike
heart failure, spinal-cord injuries and Alzheimer’s disease. Biologists in federal funding for all types of
around the world toasted their new prospects with champagne. stem cells, and new legislation puts
“Lifting the ban will free us up to use additional cell lines,” says fewer restrictions on how to spend
Jack Kessler, director of the Feinberg Neuroscience Institute at it. With just one U.S. clinical trial of
Northwestern University. “It’s very important for science.” embryonic-stem-cell therapy under
The hype surrounding stem cells runs high these days. But way, the hope is that this double shot
getting the straight story—where the cells come from, what they of adrenaline will help American
do, and why they warrant executive orders and billions in research researchers pick up the pace.
dollars—is surprisingly difficult. Making sense of the torrent of
stem-cell research findings, separating the false claims from the Amount of money the National
scientists and studies that matter, requires an unusually well-honed Institutes of Health (NIH) spent on
baloney detector. In this comprehensive survey of the stem-cell stem-cell research in 2008:
landscape, we’ve done the vetting for you: hashing out the core $938 million
science, analyzing the challenges, and getting firsthand insight from Approximate amount of money the
the patients themselves. state-funded California Institute for
Regenerative Medicine has approved
in research grants since its inception
in 2005: $693 million
Number of clinical trials on
embryonic stem cells sanctioned by
the Food and Drug Administration: 1
Somatic-cell nuclear cord-blood stem Estimated number of sanctioned
transfer: This process cells: These multipotent clinical trials involving non-
birthed the famous cloned sheep stem cells are derived from embryonic stem cells: 2,450
Dolly. The basics: Take an egg babies’ umbilical cords. Most Estimated number of companies
cell and replace its nucleus with of them are precursors for developing stem-cell products
the genetic material of an adult blood and immune cells, so they worldwide: 300
cell from the organism to be aren’t as versatile as embryonic Approximate number of patients in
cloned. Shocking the cell yields or induced pluripotent adult the U.S. who have received stem-
an embryo with the same DNA as cells. Recently, however, cord- cell-based therapy within the past
the donor, which eliminates the blood stem-cell transplants three years: 30,000
risk of an immune reaction. But have become a viable Estimated amount of annual revenue
cloning humans may carry too alternative to bone-marrow stem-cell therapies are expected to
much ethical baggage to be truly transplants in treating blood generate in the U.S. by 2018:
worthwhile, especially given the disorders like leukemia, $8 billion
viability of iPS cells, which also especially when a bone-marrow Percentage of Americans in favor of
contain a patient’s own DNA. match can’t be found. embryonic-stem-cell research: 73
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INSTANT EXPERT SPECIAL EDITION
The Study to Watch

all eyes are on the world’s first human
clinical trial of embryonic stem cells
Hans Keirstead will always remember compound is designed to work on spinal-cord patients with
the day he set down a once-paralyzed rat and acute injuries. That means all the participants in the initial
watched it walk away. Keirstead, a biologist at safety trial, slated to begin next month, will have been hurt
the University of California at Irvine, along with within two weeks of treatment. In addition to improved
his team at Geron Corporation in Menlo Park, walking abilities, rats that received the treatment within
California, were investigating a possible way to days of being injured showed significant healing of the
COURTESY CLAUDIA CASTILLO; PRECEDING PAGES, RIGHT: ANDREW PAUL LEONARD/PHOTO RESEARCHERS
treat spinal-cord injuries with embryonic stem cells spinal cord’s protective covering, myelin. Since Geron has
and, before that moment, not a single person in the submitted to FDA scrutiny for years, some scientists say the
lab knew which crippled rats had received the stem time is right to see if human patients can make the same
cells and which had not. “I’ll never forget holding strides as their animal counterparts. “This field needs a big
the animals and knowing, without anyone telling success,” says Robert Lanza, the chief scientific officer of
me, which ones had been treated,” he says. “One Advanced Cell Technology in Santa Monica, California. “The
of my grad students yelled, ‘We broke the code!’ It FDA is very careful. They would never allow clinical trials of
was so obvious. Some of the animals were walking, a therapy like this unless there was proof it was safe.”
and some were not.” But critics worry that it could put patients’ health in danger,
But Keirstead hopes he’ll someday look back on and that a botched trial could sour the public on future stem-
this, the most transformative experience of his life so cell treatments. “I have significant concerns that the spinal
far, as a prelude to something much greater. In January cord is not the best place to use stem cells for the first time.
the Food and Drug Administration gave Keirstead It’s a very complex environment,” says stem-cell expert Jack
and Geron the green light to perform the same Kessler. “Everyone will be watching. If the trial doesn’t work,
treatment again—only in paralyzed human patients. people will lose faith.” Keirstead acknowledges the risks, such
As the first U.S. clinical trial of embryonic-stem-cell as uncontrolled tumor growth [see “What Could Possibly
therapy, Geron’s experiment represents what stem-cell Go Wrong?” page 65], but feels compelled to press forward.
biologists have so long been seeking: a chance to back “We’ve done everything we possibly can to ensure safety. Every
up breezy hopes with concrete, dramatic results. scientist has to strike a delicate balance between scientific
Like the rats in Keirstead’s earlier study, diligence and sympathy for patients’ desperate needs, and I
Geron’s human participants will receive injections feel we’ve struck that balance very well.” He’s looking forward
of GRNOPC1, the company’s proprietary mixture to greeting treated patients in the clinic for the first time—and
of cells derived from embryonic stem cells. The maybe, in his wildest dreams, watching them walk away.
Patient Diary Claudia Castillo transplant a section of trachea into the bronchus.
In 2008, Claudia Castillo, age 30, underwent an I was scared going into the operation. When you’re
operation to repair her windpipe. To eliminate the risk of the first person in the entire world to have a procedure,
rejection, surgeon Paolo Macchiarini of the Hospital Clinic even the doctors don’t know exactly what will happen.
of Barcelona in Spain implanted a section of trachea seeded I walked into the operating room thinking, “Will I wake
with stem cells taken from Castillo’s bone marrow. It was up? Will I not wake up?” They took a section of trachea
the world’s first transplant surgery involving stem cells. out of the donor, cleaned it, and put my stem cells on it
so they could implant it into me.
I was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2004, and it So far, my body hasn’t rejected the organ, and I’m
gave me a lot of problems, especially at night. I feeling good. Now I can walk up stairs without having to
kept coughing and coughing and getting worse. I stop after every two steps. There
spent a lot of time incapacitated, because I had to be is still a lot of recovery time
quarantined. I also had bronchial stenosis, a condition ahead of me, and I’m not like
in which the bronchial tubes narrow and make it hard I was before the illness, but if
to breathe. It’s hard to fix because you can’t just take other people are considering this
out one section of the bronchus and leave the other. surgery, I would say “Go for it!”
But my doctor said he had this new technique to —As told to Tetsuhiko endo
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Nerve
impulse
Injured
area
Myelin
Axon
Myelin
Glial
cell
How It Works
Inside the first government-sanctioned
clinical trial to heal injured spinal cords
with stem cells
A blunt blow or disease can next month, scientists at
cause paralysis by destroying Geron Corporation will begin
nerve fibers, or axons, in the injecting myelin-precursor cells
spinal cord that carry signals derived from embryonic stem
to and from the brain. When cells into patients with newly
these signals are disrupted, injured spines. The hope is
the protective insulation that the new cells will create
surrounding the axons, known myelin and restore the flow of
as myelin, erodes, leaving nerve impulses traveling along
permanent damage. Starting the axons.
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INSTANT EXPERT SPECIAL EDITION
Brilliant Breakthroughs
These landmark studies deliver on the promise of
stem cells and bring real therapies within reach
reversed stroke endowed adult stem cells

damage in rats with embryonic-like powers
Milestone: This 2008 study conducted by Milestone: In 2007, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto
Gary Steinberg and his colleagues at Stanford University in Japan and James Thomson of
University marks the first time researchers the University of Wisconsin announced almost
used embryonic stem cells to create mature simultaneously that they had successfully
brain cells that significantly improved an transformed mature skin cells into multipotent
injured rat’s coordination, without causing powerhouses that could morph into dozens of
tumors. When the researchers transplanted tissue types—a first in the field.
freshly grown neurons into rats that had Why It Matters: Creating stem cells from a
suffered strokes and lost the use of one front patient’s own tissue eliminates problems with
paw, the rats regained control over the limb immune rejection and sidesteps the controversial
within two months. use of embryos, making them virtually ideal to
Why It Matters: In the next few years, Steinberg treat disorders from diabetes to Alzheimer’s. But
hopes to adapt the technique to restore brain their inability to morph into as many tissue types
function in people who have suffered strokes and as real embryonic cells remains a limitation.
other neurological ailments.
Created adult-stem- Cloned human embryos

cell lines for 10 human Milestone: Robert Lanza and his team
diseases at Advanced Cell Technology have made
Milestone: Frustrated by the shortage of significant progress toward therapeutic cloning.
embryonic-stem-cell lines (limited to 22 under By removing the nuclei from human egg cells
the Bush administration), last year George and replacing them with genetic material from
Daley and other scientists at the Harvard Stem adult cells, the researchers proved for the first
Cell Institute took adult skin cells from patients time that the resulting cloned embryos were as
suffering from a variety of conditions, including healthy as normal embryos, adding weight to
Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, and turned the argument that such clones could be viable
them into undifferentiated cells that behave like sources of embryonic stem cells.
embryonic stem cells. Why It Matters: Deriving embryonic stem cells
Why It Matters: These new stem cells could give from a patient’s own genes provides scientists
rise to a limitless supply of tissues that could with a plentiful source of patient-tailored cells
be used to study diseases and test medications and gets us one step closer to a new era of
before experimenting on animals and humans. personalized medicine.
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What
Could Possibly Quack-Science
Go Wrong? Checklist
Stem cells give new hope to thousands of
For all their promise, stem cells people with chronic medical conditions,
but shady researchers and clinics prey
harbor a dark side: tumors on that hope by fabricating results and
It started with a worst-case they are not properly directed to offering untested treatments. Here are
scenario. An Israeli boy was born evolve into distinct tissue types, some hallmarks of sham science.
with a rare disease called ataxia warns Jack Kessler of the Feinberg
telangiectasia, which consumes parts Neuroscience Institute. “If you take Sweeping promises Chinese
of the brain and can cause paralysis. a human embryonic stem cell and surgeon Hongyun Huang lured hundreds
Anxious to halt the disease before the transplant it into a person without of desperate paralyzed patients to
damage potentially turned lethal, the the cell being differentiated, it will his Beijing clinic with claims that his
boy’s family sent him to a clinic in cause a tumor, period. We have treatments would provide “neuro-
Moscow that gave him injections of to remove all possibility of that regeneration, repair and functional
neural stem cells from fetuses—once happening.” recovery.” But when a team of doctors
when he was 9 and then again when Making sure tumors don’t develop investigated Huang’s work in 2006, they
he was 10 and 12. in stem-cell recipients is a tall order, discovered that none of the spinal-cord-
A year after the boy’s final requiring researchers to finely control injury patients they followed showed
treatment, disaster struck. He began the growth of the transplanted stem any benefits from his therapy, and five
complaining of headaches, and scans cells. Too little control, and the cells suffered dangerous side effects. One
revealed that he had developed two divide willy-nilly; too much, and man returned home with holes through
nonmalignant tumors, one on his they lose their regenerative capacity. his skull—Huang had placed cells in the
brain stem and the other on his Researchers have recently learned man’s brain instead of his spine.
spinal cord. Although he eventually more about the biological factors
underwent successful surgery to that control stem-cell proliferation— Blame-shifting After an
have the spinal-cord tumor removed, last year, Jurgen Knoblich of the independent investigation in 2005 found
the case forced experts to reexamine Institute of Molecular Biotechnology that Korean researcher Hwang Woo-
the inherent risks of stem-cell isolated several cell proteins that can Suk had fabricated 11 of his stem-cell
treatment, particularly the tendency regulate or halt cell division. Still, lines, Hwang held a press conference to
of transplanted stem cells to divide the difficulty of striking the elusive apologize but still refused to admit that
out of control. In a report on the cellular balance between stability and he had cheated. Rather, he blamed his
Moscow debacle, Ninette Amariglio clinical effectiveness helps explain collaborators for cooking up fake data
of the Sheba Medical Center in why we haven’t seen more stem-cell and charged that they were involved in a
Israel wrote that mixing stem cells therapies in human trials yet. “I know conspiracy to sabotage his projects.
from multiple fetuses with growth- there’s a lot of public pressure to
promoting compounds “may have demonstrate that stem-cell science is Highfalutin jargon At the
created a high-risk situation where producing something,” says Marius Cancun Stem Cell Clinic in Mexico,
abnormal growth of more than one Wernig, who directs a laboratory patients receive treatments from
cell occurred.” at the Stanford University School a “Hypoxicator” and a “Turbosonic
Other kinds of stem cells could of Medicine, “but things can really Machine.” Without offering any
have similar effects in humans if backfire if we proceed too quickly.” evidence, the clinic’s Web site claims
that these devices “stimulate your body
SEALED FATE These to produce stem cells.”
stem cells will eventually
morph into blood cells.
Police tape In 2006, the Dutch
government shut down the PMC stem-
cell clinic in Rotterdam after one patient
was hospitalized for a serious allergic
reaction to an unproven treatment.
www.freedowns.net
MORE TO SEE Fewer
funding restrictions
should spur research
INSTANT EXPERT SPECIAL EDITION on human embry-
onic stem cells.
What’s
Next?
stem cells: future
cures and controversies
Landmark legislation to lift the ban to see the creation of new research-ready embryonic-stem-
on federal funds for embryonic stem cells, $10 billion in cell lines that carry disease-causing genes. These will help
stimulus money, the first embryonic-stem-cell trial under scientists study the origins of disease on a cellular level and
way in the U.S.—it all adds up to a banner year for stem- test new medicines before experimenting on humans.
FROM TOP: DARREN HAUCK/GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY TIA GEMMELL/CYNTHIA AND DERAK HEXTELL;
cell science. But in a larger sense, things are just getting But as research on embryonic stem cells intensifies, so
started. The next decade will see human trials of stem cells too will the ethical objections. “A lot of social conservatives
designed to treat all manner of illnesses and injuries, from say that destroying any embryo is wrong, and they will
blindness to diabetes, heart failure to paralysis. continue to be a very solid minority,” says David Masci
More immediately, Advanced Cell Technology is of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Those
slated to begin a human trial later this year that involves objections could quiet down if researchers learn to work
PRECEDING PAGES, RIGHT: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/PHOTO RESEARCHERS

implanting embryonic stem cells into retinas to halt with adult stem cells, which don’t involve embryos at all.
macular degeneration. Neuralstem in Rockville, Maryland, Cardiologist Eduardo Marban of the Cedars-Sinai Heart
is lobbying the FDA for permission to start a trial using Institute in Los Angeles began a clinical trial this year that
neural stem cells to treat ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, uses adult stem cells to repair cardiac tissue after a heart
also called Lou Gehrig’s disease). And San Diego–based attack, and Joanne Hertzberg of Duke University plans to
Novocell is developing insulin-producing cells from expand the cerebral-palsy trial in which Dallas Hextell [see
embryonic stem cells and hopes to receive permission to Patient Diary below] participated, eventually offering the
implant the cells in diabetic patients in the next few years. cord-blood stem-cell treatment to 100 children.
As the number of embryonic-stem-cell trials increases, Although adult stem cells are promising, the need to
the number of paperwork headaches that go along with avoid controversy can’t drive things—the field needs all
them will decrease, since reversing the ban effectively the research options it can get. “There’s still so much we
eliminates the artificial division between resources used for don’t understand, so we have no idea what type of stem
federally funded stem-cell research and embryonic-stem- cell is going to be best for which particular disease,” says
cell research. Before, “having to exclude public funds from Advanced Cell Technology’s Robert Lanza. “I think there’s
certain projects was a nightmare,” says Stanford University a consensus in the scientific community that we need to
stem-cell expert Marius Wernig. As a result, we can expect pursue all of the avenues available.”
Patient Diary Dallas Hextell

In July 2007, Cynthia and Derak Hextell of Derak: The Duke treatment was
Sacramento, California, enrolled their one-year-old son, simple. They just put the IV into his
Dallas, in a Duke University clinical trial to receive cord- arm. It took 15 or 20 minutes for all
blood stem-cell therapy for cerebral palsy, an incurable the stem cells to get into his body.
neurological disorder that affects muscle coordination. Cynthia: Dallas started improving
The hope is that the stem cells will repair the damaged within weeks. It had always
tissues in Dallas’s brain. The first-of-its-kind trial, which seemed like there was a fog over him, and he
will eventually enroll 100 children, is still in progress. just started focusing better. It was like his brain was
Kurtzberg aims to publish her results next year. becoming more of a sponge.
Derak: He couldn’t crawl before we went to Duke, but
Cynthia: Dallas was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when now he’s walking and running.
he was around eight months old. He was missing some Cynthia: Everything points to the fact that the stem cells
milestones, like rolling over, and he cried constantly. worked, but it would be irresponsible to say either way
After the shock of the diagnosis faded, I remembered until there is hard proof. We don’t think Dallas would have
that we had banked his cord blood after he was born, as made the progress he made as quickly as he did without
a form of insurance, and I started doing some research. the stem cells. Now we have to wait for the trial results.
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how 2.0
tips, tricks, hacks and do-it-yourself projECTS
74 77 78
Solid figures from Hack your Google The HDTV features
frozen mercury Android phone worth paying for
YOU
BUILT
what
MAN IN
?!
MACHINE
AN EXOSKELETON THAT MOVES IN
TIME WITH THE PERSON INSIDE IT
Carlos Owens had handled all kinds of machines as an
army mechanic, but he always dreamed of using those
skills for one project: his own “mecha,” a giant metal robot
that could mirror the movements of its human pilot.
Owens, 31, began building an 18-foot-tall, one-ton
prototype at his home in Wasilla, Alaska, in 2004. Working
without blueprints, he first built a full-scale model out of
wood. Moving on to steel, he had to devise a hydraulics
system that would provide precisely the right leverage and
range of movement. He settled on a complex network of
cables and hydraulic cylinders that can make the mecha
raise its arms, bend its knees, and even do a sit-up.
Owens is working on two more prototypes, modifying
the design to make it lighter and more maneuverable.
He foresees mechas having uses in the military and
the construction industry but acknowledges that
right now they’re best suited to entertainment. The
first application he has in mind: mecha-vs.-mecha
battles, demolition-derby style.—Charles Crain
#TIME: 4 YEARS # COST: $25,000
#FRAME This mecha is powered by an 18-horsepower

made of steel. The new design engine keeps hydraulic fluid
is made of lighter but weaker moving through the machine.
aluminum, so Owens has had to #CONTROL As the driver
JEFF SCHULTZ
heavily reinforce the limb joints. moves his arms and legs, steel
INSIDE JOB For the new prototype of his #HYDRAULICS Owens cables transmit those move-
mechanical suit, Carlos Owens is planning to used 27 hydraulic cylinders ments to the hydraulics to
feature a chest plate that swings open so he that act like muscles to control make the mecha walk, bend
doesn’t have to climb in from underneath. the mecha’s joints. A pump down, or open its hands.
! THE H2WHOA CREDO: DIY CAN BE DANGEROUS. We review all our projects before publishing them, but ultimately your safety
is your responsibility. Always wear protective gear, take proper safety precautions, and follow all laws and regulations.
JUNE 2009 POPULAR SCIENCE 71
www.freedowns.net
HOW 2.0
GREEN
TECH
POWER WALKING
BUILD A DEVICE THAT LETS YOU CHARGE BATTERIES FOR YOUR
CELLPHONE OR MUSIC PLAYER JUST BY TAKING A STROLL
··
YOU·RE HALFWAY THROUGH OLVWHQLQJWR/D\OD··ZKHQLW FUHDWHGHYHU\WLPH\RXWDNHDVWHSDQGFRQWLQXRXVO\
KDSSHQV<RXU03SOD\HU·VEDWWHU\GLHV1RUPDOO\\RX·G SRZHUVXSDUHFKDUJHDEOH$$EDWWHU\,WWDNHVDORWRI
KDYHWRZDLWXQWLO\RXZHUHDW\RXUFRPSXWHUWRÀQLVK ZDONLQJWRJHWDIXOOFKDUJHEXWLW·VSHUIHFWIRUUHYLYLQJRU
URFNLQJRXWEXWWKHUHLVDQHDV\DQGHFRIULHQGO\ZD\WR WRSSLQJRIIDJDGJHW2QFHWKHEDWWHU\LVFKDUJHGSXWLW
GRLWRQWKHJR)LUVWVOLSDSLH]RHOHFWULFWUDQVGXFHU³ LQWRD',<ÀYHYROWFRQYHUWHUDQGSOXJLQ\RXUGHDG03
DGHYLFHWKDWJHQHUDWHVDWLQ\FKDUJHZKHQWRXFKHG³ SOD\HU1RZ\RXFDQOLVWHQWRWKHJXLWDUVRORZKLOH\RXZDON
LQWR\RXUVKRH$FRQQHFWHGPRGXOHFROOHFWVWKHYROWDJH VRPHPRUHMXLFHLQWRDQRWKHUEDWWHU\—Dave Prochnow
WALK YOUR WAY TO A CHARGED-UP GADGET

A
B
C
D
STEPS TO CHARGING
#time: 6 HOURS
#cost: $73.12
# easy hard
For more details and a list of parts,

go to popsci.com/powerwalker.
1 Download the wiring diagrams

at popsci.com/powerwalker. Build
the AA battery charger [A]. Connect
the piezoelectric device [B] to the
energy-harvesting-module input. 122222<28·5(287:$/.,1* /8&.,/<<28+$9($)5(6+$$
$1'<285033/$<(5',(6 %$77(5<,1<2856+2(&+$5*(5
2 Mount the battery holder on
the project box. Connect the
battery holder’s terminals to the
energy-harvesting-module output,
and install the module in the box.
3 Test the battery charger by

tapping on the piezoelectric
device and measuring the voltage
ILLUSTRATIONS: PETER PACHOUMIS; PHOTOGRAPH: LUIS BRUNO
output. Then measure the energy-

harvesting module’s voltage output.
4 Adapt the converter [C] for

USB output. Snip off its plastic
connector. Solder the wires from the
circuit board to the USB receptacle’s
pins. Install the converter inside the
USB enclosure. Test the converter
with a fully charged AA battery.
5 Put a rechargeable nickel-

cadmium battery [D] into the
charger, and get a move on.
323,7,1727+(&219(57(5%2; $1'(1-2<<285781(6$6
3/8*,1727+(033/$<(5 <28:$/.2)),1727+(6816(7
72 POPULAR SCIENCE JUNE 2009 See popsci.com/diy for more projects from our super-builder, Dave Prochnow.
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HOW
HOW 2.02.0
GRAY
MATTER
COLD, HARD FACTS
HOW TO CAST SOLID, IF FLEETING, SHAPES IN MERCURY:
JUST ADD A LOT OF LIQUID NITROGEN
What you consider solid, liquid or gas 1 2

depends entirely on where you live. For
example, men from cold, cold Mars might
build their houses out of ice. Women from
Venus, where the average temperature is
about 870°F, could bathe in liquid zinc.
We think mercury is a liquid metal, but
it’s all relative. At one temperature, the mer-
cury atoms arrange themselves into a solid
crystal; at another, they flow freely around
each other as a liquid. Children from Pluto
(like mine, for example) could happily cast NICE CASTING 1. Room-temperature mer-
their toy soldiers out of mercury, because cury poured into a cold cornbread mold.
on that frigid planet it is a solid, malleable 2. Adding liquid nitrogen freezes the metal.
metal a lot like tin. Here on temperate Earth,
you need a stove to cast tin but a tank of liq- in areas, forming a patchwork charac-
uid nitrogen to make mercury figurines. teristic of cast metal. 4
At liquid-nitrogen temperature, about The fun of making frozen mercury
–320°F, mercury acts like any other metal: trinkets is another reason to lament the
You can hammer it, file it, saw it. (It won't fact that this marvelous metal is also an
shatter like other liquid-nitrogen-frozen insidious poison that must be handled
items because there's not enough moisture carefully and never spilled. Schools have
inside.) Watching it solidify is exactly like been evacuated because of one broken
watching tin harden from a molten state. mercury thermometer, and mercury in
As the atoms go from liquid to solid crys- the environment, particularly in fish, is a
tal form, you see the surface pucker. And major public-health concern. Which is, of FROZEN FISH 3. The frost crust forms
because mercury, like most metals, shrinks course, why I made this cute little mer- when water condenses from the air.
MIKE WALKER
when it solidifies, you see the surface sink cury fish.—Theodore Gray 4. Above –38°F, the fish turns to liquid.
ACHTUNG! Don’t handle mercury. It is toxic, and even minor spills can be dangerous and very expensive to clean up.
74 POPULAR SCIENCE JUNE 2009 See a video of this demonstration at popsci.com/mercuryfish

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FYI
[continued From page 81]
power, he notes that “ ‘off’ is

a very 20th-century idea.
—cornelius howland
Crocodile-like reptiles lived

in the Arctic 55 million years
ago. Could it happen again?
Yes, but probably not anytime soon.

The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change estimates that the
planet’s average air temperature
could warm by as much as 11.5°F by
the end of the century. As a result,
the world could be warmer than it
was 55 million years ago, says Mark
Lynas, author of Six Degrees, an anal-
ysis of hundreds of climate studies
that reads like a nonfiction version of
The Day after Tomorrow. Back then,
the Canadian Arctic was as balmy as
Florida and lousy with crocodile-like
animals called champsosaurs.
Determining how individual
species, much less entire ecosystems,
will respond to rapid climate change
is difficult at best, however. In the
same regions where scientists found
!**',%**
remains of champsosaurs, they also
found fossils of their favorite food:
turtles. Modern-day crocodiles could 2#!&#01
5',
certainly be comfortable in a warmer
north, but only if the prey and eco-
systems required to support them QILNBI@M=C?H=??KOCJG?HN
proliferate there too. @ILSIOLM=BIIF
The Arctic air may warm up, but
there will most likely still be plenty
of ice in the winters. Even aggressive
climate models estimate that it will
probably take thousands of years
for the ice sheets to disappear year-
round, so cold-blooded crocs will
have to wait at least that long to head
to the poles.—CHRISTOPHER MIMS .
$0##2-#,2#0
%INIJIJM=C=IGM=C?H=?=IHN?MN
#HN?L<S(OH?
ISTOCK
NORTHBOUND Crocodile-like reptiles

lived in the Arctic 55 million years ago. 1JIHMIL?><S
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According to scientific research, people

can listen to a brain-fitness computer
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findings indicate that the brain can
reshape itself based upon the data it
Richard W. Wetherill
receives from a person’s thoughts. 1906-1989
Taking action that lets the brain grow has appeared to touch live wires, not to speed across an oil slick, and
in our advertising for more than a decade, informing that gravity keeps pedestrians tethered to the earth.
readers of the wrong data that “flabs” the brain, and But, lacking the knowledge of nature’s law of right
leaves people out of touch with reality. behavior, society still believes that suffering and even
The method for releasing the brain’s wrong data death are the inevitable plight of mankind.
was explained by the late Richard W. Wetherill in There are well-meaning efforts being made to
his book, Tower of Babel, published in January 1952. cope with those typical wrong results: charitable giv-
He called the wrong data distortions of logic. He ex- ing to help the needy, finding cures for diseases, and
plained why and how distortions of logic are formed, addressing famine and genocide overseas.
how they affect the brain and subsequent behavior, Our books and public-service advertising tell peo-
how they are released, and the resulting transforma- ple how those problems could be eliminated. In the
tion of a person’s relationships, intellect, and health. meantime, disinterest delays the breakthrough that
It is commonly thought that the brain is the body’s theoretically will come when enough people learn to
computer, receiving data and acting on it accord- conform to creation’s law of absolute right.
ingly. Wetherill defined the process as right thinking As far back as the 1960s, behavioral experts de-
causes right results, whereas wrong thinking causes clared this information too simplistic and unworkable
wrong results. while, at the same time, surreptitiously inserting parts
People’s brains function that way because whoever of it into their own programs.
or whatever is the creator provided natural laws to Do not be deterred by differing expert opinions.
enable human beings eventually to evolve into the Learn about the behavioral law. Conform to it, not to
kind of beings intended by that creator. benefit you (although it will) but to do what is right
Today, natural laws are known as laws of physics, but because that is what nature’s behavioral law calls
there is also a behavioral law identified by Wetherill. for. If that is your approach, you will be astonished
He called it the law of absolute right. It states: Right by the results. If you are not astonished, be sure you
action gets right results; wrong action gets wrong are conforming to creation’s law of absolute right
results, and it defines right action as rational and with the same eagerness as you conform to cre-
honest responses to whatever happens. ation’s law of gravity.
As with all natural laws, our results tell us if we are
conforming to the behavioral law or contradicting it. Visit our Website www.alphapub.com. To speak with
Originally that was the most unpopular information someone about books or to request a free mailing call
ever presented to a society that, from the beginning, 1.800.992.9124. If you reach voice mail, slowly spell
established the practice of blaming wrong results on your name and address and name the magazine you
other people, bad luck, and later on, life styles, faulty learned about The Alpha Publishing House. Write to
diets and inherited genes—almost never on self. us at 411 Eagleview Blvd, Ste 100, Exton, PA 19341.
It is widely known that laws of physics make man- Our mailing list is never distributed.
datory people’s physical activities. Thus they learn not Text by E. Marie Bothe, President of The Alpha Publishing House.
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THE from the popular science archives
FUTURE THEN
SEPTEMBER 1945 TANKS A LOT: MORE TANK STORIES
THROUGH THE YEARS
Treading Water
Then-cutting-edge amphibious vehicles helped the invading American
force transport cargo and troops to the beaches of Okinawa, Japan,
in 1945. Boasting continuous tracks, the LVT (for Landing Vehicles,
Tracked) series of oceangoing tanks could crawl over reefs that
would stall normal landing craft. Once ashore, the beach-busters
easily maneuvered over rough, sandy terrain to carry supplies to the
front line and bring back wounded troops, but they could reach top
speeds of only around 20 mph. See “The Fastest Tank” [page 38] to
read about a modern homemade tank that goes three times as fast,
speedier than any other tracked vehicle today.—Amber Sasse TANK TOURISM
SEPTEMBER 1920
After World War I, one battle-weary tank was
repurposed as a tourist attraction. Fitted with
an upper-deck platform to accommodate extra
passengers, it took customers for joyrides.
SMOKE BOMBS
OCTOBER 1934
The U.S. Army’s newest tank [above] featured
a “smoke-generating apparatus” that created
a protective cloud around advancing soldiers.
Under the white haze, attacking infantry were
hidden from view while the defenders’ chances
of victory went, well, up in smoke.
ROLLING THROUGH
April 1951
The T-41, nicknamed the “Walker Bulldog”
after Lt. Walton Walker, was the army’s
first postwar tank. Equipped with a power-
ful 76-millimeter gun, the “light” 25-ton tank
could reach speeds of 35 mph, run by a new
air-cooled, opposed-cylinder engine.
POPULAR SCIENCE magazine, Vol. 274, No. 6 (ISSN 0161-7370, USPS 577-250), is published monthly by
Bonnier Corp., 2 Park Ave., New York, NY 10016. Copyright ©2009 by Bonnier Corp. All rights reserved.
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