The Rude Awakening
Scotland, Edinburgh
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 ------------------------- - Tiny towers of solar power,
- If paper money talked, what would it say?
- For better or worse - inventions shaping our lives and plenty more…
------------------------- From Edinburgh, Scotland, Joel Bowman reports… If inventions are to be blamed for behavior, Scotland has a lot to answer for. In 1929, Scotsman John Logie Baird introduced the world to the first practical television system, setting the stage for countless billions of hours around the world spent wasted in front of reality programming and daily soap operas. Although he emigrated to Canada with his family at age 18, it is Edinburgh-born Alexander Graham-Bell who father's of gossiping teenage daughters have to blame for bank-breaking telephone bills. His invention was patented in 1826. Golf widows all around the world also have a bone to pick with the nation that is home to St Andrews Links Old Course, Carnoustie, Royal Troon and Gleneagles, among many others. The nation is widely credited with the invention of the game sometime around the 15th century. Even the publishers of financial newsletters have reason to begrudge this rainy little nation. If it weren't for Scotsman Adam Smith and his towering work of economic genius, "The Wealth of Nations," we might all be blissfully unemployed. Had they not redeemed themselves with the invention of whisky and the thermos flasks used to both transport and conceal it, we might begin to wonder why we had moved here in the first place. Of course, the inventions above (along with other notables such as, penicillin, refrigerators and even the unsung savior of all us mathematically inept students, the decimal point) are marvelous contributions to mankind. In the column below, Jonathan Kolber explains three, somewhat more recent technological breakthroughs that could mean big things for frontier investors… --- Urgent Buyout Profit Alert --- Breakthrough: Beat Big Pharma to 3,000% Gains A small, under-the-radar pharmaceuticals pioneer has brought America's most dreaded disease to its knees… Gains of 30-60 times your money or MORE are all but certain if you're holding shares when Big Pharma buys it out - which could happen any day now! Get The Story With: The Emerging Capital Report ---------------------------------- Rats on Smack
By Jonathan Kolber It sounds like something out of a bad sci-fi movie, but it's real. Groundbreaking research has established a new, deeper understanding of the nature of addiction. Researchers at Brown University have discovered that heroin, for example, induces changes in the victim's brain that create the sensation of a terrible thirst, akin to severe dehydration. In effect, a healthy brain stimulus response system is being rewired into an unhealthy one. Thus, a heroin addict who continues craving "a fix" years after kicking the habit is not simply weak-willed. He may be tormented by enduring changes in the brain caused by the drug itself. By conducting experiments on rats, the Brown researchers found that even a single dose of morphine physically altered the brain pathways that cause craving. It lasted long after the drug had worn off. The study, published in the journal Nature, supports a new theory that sees addiction as a disease that "remodels" brain mechanisms related to learning and memory, according to the lead author, cellular physiologist Julie Kauer. Intriguingly, the findings offer the possibility of a pharmaceutical antidote to addiction. (A natural one may already exist. The African plant iboga is reportedly able to cure hard drug addictions in less than a week in about half the cases.) The research focused on the activity of synapses, which connect brain cells. Excitatory synapses increase the flow of chemicals, while inhibitory synapses impede flows. "You have to have both, because they create checks and balances on the system," Kauer explained. Previous studies have shown that excitatory synapses are strongly linked to building capacity for memory and, like muscles, grow stronger over time with frequent use. "Addiction is a form of pathological learning," Kauer continued, in which the brain rewards something that is harmful to the body. The study also showed that morphine continued to block receptors long after the drug was absent from the animal's system. "The fact that the [neurological changes] are long lasting could be one of the reasons that the craving for drugs is so hard to conquer, and suggests that addictive drugs are producing persistent physical changes," Kauer said. The study breaks ground in numerous ways: It begins to put drug abuse on a scientific basis for the first time, it shows similarity between intense craving and addiction and it suggests the possibility of a drug to neutralize intense cravings, which could help addicts avoid relapse. Reach Out and Touch Something If you were reading this email on paper, rather than on your computer screen, would you like to touch it? Probably not, unless touching it brought out different responses from the paper… different information and different images -- maybe even sound? Wouldn't that be interesting?
NewScientist.com reports that researchers are using special conductive inks in the laboratory to print ultra-thin touch sensors and speakers right into paper. They call it "Paper Four." Here's why.
"The first generation of paper was for display, like books," says Mikael Gulliksson, a researcher at Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, "the second for packaging and the third for hygiene -- we are investigating what the fourth might be."
They've already built prototype billboards, and when people touch them, they play sound clips. It works the same way as a touchpad on a laptop computer.
Amazingly, even though these new papers include electronics, almost 100% of the material is paper. This makes it potentially easy to manufacture and easy to recycle.
It could even be scaled down to make packaging materials. However, I can think of an even better application. You may have noticed that greeting cards often include a tiny speaker attached to a tiny battery and a computer chip upon which is recorded a message or song. Open the card, and it plays the recording. There's no question that greeting card manufacturers will want to use this technology. This is part of a trend that's been continuing for some time: embedding electronics and electronic components into things that used to be inert, making them become multi-dimensional and even seemingly alive. I expect this trend to spawn an entirely new industry, full of fast-growing companies… Solar Power…the Next Generation A solar boom is underway. Now, Physorg.com reports that researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute have found a 3-D way to design solar cells. The design uses tiny "tower" structures like high-rise buildings in a city. The new cells trap light between their tower structures. Jud Ready, a senior research engineer on the team, said, "Our goal is to harvest every last photon that is available to our cells. By capturing more of the light in our 3-D structures, we can use much smaller photovoltaic arrays. On a satellite or other spacecraft, that would mean less weight and less space taken up with the PV system." The tiny towers are 100 microns tall and 40 microns by 40 microns square. They stand just 10 microns apart, and contain millions of carbon nano-tubes. Flat polysilicon-based solar cells reflect much of the light that strikes them. Unlike flat cells, the new towers absorb light received from many different angles. This means they are efficient even when the sun is not directly overhead. This gives them the advantages of active solar systems that track the sun, but at the expense of energy use. They could be used on spacecraft, reducing weight and complexity and improving reliability. These are all vital considerations where each pound is worth millions of dollars. Further, because the 3-D cells absorb more of the photons than conventional cells, their coatings can be made thinner. This means the electrons can move to power lines more quickly, which cuts the re-absorption of electrons -- a problem with conventional solar cells. Not surprisingly, nanotechnology is involved. A special process grows the towers at the molecular level on an iron substrate. They are then coated with cadmium telluride and cadmium sulfide to create photovoltaic layers. A thin coating of conducting material is added to complete them. Cadmium was chosen because it seemed a suitable material. However, many other materials can be used and will be tested to optimize efficiency. Likewise, height and spacing for the towers needs to be optimized. NewCyte, a private Ohio company, is developing designs for using the towers in Earth-based solar collector panels. I'll be watching these developments very closely… --- Options Hotline Red Hot Streak Alert --- Steve Sarnoff, options guru, has not had one recommendation lose value since Aug. 8, 2004. He's on a Red-Hot Winning Streak with a… Double-Your-Money Average On Every Trade! With that kind of impressive hot streak going…you could have racked up $513,964.02 in gains since Aug. 8, 2004, with a $5,000 initial stake in each play! Join The Winning Circle Right Here: Options Hotline | 
