This week's question concerns the world-renowned Australian scientist Professor Frank Fenner - who helped to wipe out smallpox - and his prediction that humans will probably be extinct within 100 years. His reasoning includes overpopulation, environmental destruction, and climate change. Fenner stated that homo...

This week's question concerns our online "personas". While social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook encourage members to use their real identities, a recent study on the usage habits on these sites has shown there's little correlation between how people act on...

This week’s question concerns the EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Last Thursday, the US Senate failed to pass legislation that would have prevented the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating CO2 emissions from large factories, electric power companies, and automobiles. What do...

This week's question concerns a recent news item about how a Utah woman injured by a motorist while following a Google Maps route has filed a lawsuit claiming Google supplied unsafe directions (the motorist is also named in the lawsuit). The woman used her phone to download...

The 2450 Series WOB-L® compressor from Thomas Division, a Gardner Denver Co. (Sheboygan, WI) features a footprint of 8.3 × 4 × 6.4" and sound levels of 50 dBA @ 20 PSIG. The compressor features a monolithic head that reduces leak paths, optional intake locations on the side and bottom, boltless construction to reduce vibration and...

A company needs to extend horizontally the loose end of a small coil of lightweight stored material without external support; essentially, achieving a cantilever supported only at one beam end. Material, beam cross-section, and beam structure are on the table, but the solution must meet strict criteria in...

A company seeks biological, pharmaceutical, or dietary countermeasures to act as radioprotectants for humans exposed to higher doses of radiation — either chronic exposure or acute exposure. The company is searching for any successful radiation countermeasures, mitigants, and...

This invention addresses the stormwater backup damage to finished basements and below-grade construction that occurs during power outages when the AC pump cannot operate and DC battery backup pumps are unable to operate for long duration. Even during harsh storm conditions, however,...