二零零九年，時代雜誌所選五十最“炫”發明。 The 50 Best Inventions of 2009 - 天高地闊隨意行

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二零零九年，時代雜誌所選五十最“炫”發明。 The 50 Best Inventions of 2009

2009/11/17 12:53

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每年年底，時代雜誌會選出五十大最“炫”發明。

幾樣與民生息息相關的發明，引頸期盼。

想像有一天。。。。

家庭、公寓的屋頂鋪著太陽能屋瓦（Solar Shingle）

電力除了室內正常供電，還能養一個溫室，種著垂直陳列的蔬菜花卉（Vertical Farming）

充足了電，開著電動車上路。

近程的距離，騎著折疊電動雙輪車（Yike Bike , 好酷的Video），時速可達每小時十二英里（二十公里），二十磅重（九公斤）。又不用擔心停車問題。（但會不會小命不保。）

LED 燈泡，用少於十瓦特的電力，發出相當六十瓦特鎢絲燈泡的照明，有兩萬五千小時的壽命。（Philips LED Lightbulb）
最近，剛買了一個 LED 頭燈（LED headlamp），夜行、登山、單車，輕巧方便，光束強而集中，亮度能達三十公尺遠。三個 AAA 電池，能用多久，有待觀察。

還有這個奇奇怪怪的電動單輪車（Ｕniversal Ｕnicycle）。時速低達每小時三.七英里（六公里），十公斤重。用走的不是更快。
身體左傾右傾，控制方向。

其它有趣的發明，還有續航最遠的紙折飛機， 27.6 秒。
(與其它發明並列，這個折紙玩意像個小笑話。）

紙折音箱（Foldable Speaker）。能聽嗎？

幾樣“毛骨聳然”的發明，下回再敘。

注：二零零九，時代雜誌所選五十最“炫”發明。

請看 http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1934027,00.html

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

－The Solar Shingle
The Dow Chemical Co. has developed a new roof shingle that doubles as a solar panel. The shingles, which can be incorporated into rooftops alongside traditional asphalt shingles, use low-cost thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide. While Dow expects to profit greatly from the Powerhouse Solar Shingle — the company predicts it will bring in as much as $10 billion in revenue by 2020 — there will be significant benefits for consumers too. The innovative shingle is expected to cost 10% to 15% less than traditional solar panels and will be cheaper and quicker to install

－The Nissan Leaf。。。。 It's not the world's first electric car, but the Nissan Leaf, launched in August, is the first fully electric vehicle built for mass production for the global market. To help drivers shift their thinking from gas to green, Japan's third largest automaker has about 30 partnerships worldwide focused on developing an infrastructure of battery-recharging stations to keep electric vehicles on the roads. The car's top speed is more than 90 m.p.h. (145 km/h), and its range is 100 miles (160 km) on a full charge. When it moves, it makes a futuristic sound like the flying cars in Blade Runner. Nissan will produce 50,000 Leafs each year at its Oppama plant, southwest of Tokyo, starting in the fall of 2010.

－The Vertical Farming
Real estate — the one thing we're not making any more of. That might be good news for landlords but not for the world's farmers, who have finite cropland to feed a growing global population. The answer: build up by farming vertically. Valcent, a company based in El Paso, Texas, is pioneering a hydroponic-farming system that grows plants in rotating rows, one on top of another. The rotation gives the plants the precise amount of light and nutrients they need, while the vertical stacking enables the use of far less water than conventional farming. But best of all, by growing upward instead of outward, vertical farming can expand food supplies without using more land.

－The ＄10 Million Lightbulb
With the flick of a switch, Philips Electronics may have just dramatically lowered America's electric bill. In September the Dutch electronics giant became the first to enter the U.S. Department of Energy's L Prize competition, which seeks an LED alternative to the common 60-watt bulb. Sixty-watt lights account for 50% of the domestic incandescent market; if they were replaced by LED bulbs, the U.S. could save enough electricity per year to light 17.4 million households. If Philips wins the L Prize, it will claim a cash award and federal purchasing agreements worth about $10 million.

Philips' LED bulb emits the same amount of light as its incandescent equivalent but uses less than 10 watts and lasts for 25,000 hours — or 25 times as long

－The Ｕniversal Ｕnicycle
No, it's not a Segway or a unicycle. Honda's U3-X "personal mobility" contraption is a device that combines technology from Honda's ASIMO robot project with its omnidirectional driving system, which allows riders to scoot in any direction simply by shifting their weight. What appears to be a single-wheeled design actually includes several smaller motorized wheels, which make side-to-side movement possible. Still in the experimental-model stage, the U3-X has a top speed of 3.7 m.p.h. (6 km/h) and weighs less than 22 lb. (10 kg). A fully charged battery can power it for up to an hour.

－The YikeBike
It's like getting your first Big Wheel all over again — and you don't even have to pedal. An innovative bicycle-design concept derived from the old-fashioned penny-farthing, the YikeBike is a folding electric bicycle out of New Zealand. The rider sits on the seat, holds on at the sides and zooms around at a top speed of 12 m.p.h. (20 km/h). You lean left or right to steer, and it even comes with electronic antiskid brakes. The first 100 YikeBikes will be road-ready by mid-2010 in New Zealand as well as the U.K. and selected other countries in Europe.

The YikeBike weighs roughly 20 lb. (9 kg) and runs on a lithium phosphate battery that can be charged to 80% capacity in 20 minutes

－The Living Wall
Patrick Blanc specializes in vertical gardens: verdant patches that climb the walls of office buildings, shopping malls, museums and public spaces around the globe. His newest creation is the green-bearded exterior of the Athenaeum Hotel, on which some 260 species of plants (more than 12,000 in all) form a forest façade rising eight stories over London's ritzy Mayfair district. Recognizing that not all plants need soil to grow, Blanc affixes synthetic felt to a frame onto which roots can cling. Part gardener, part botanist, Blanc uses automated irrigation and fertilization systems to keep his specimens healthy and arranges them so that each enjoys optimal growth conditions.

－The Foldable Speaker
Taking an entertainment center on the road can be a pain, as even the smallest portable speakers weigh a pound or two and take up valuable space. Chicago-based OrigAudio has come up with an ingenious solution: self-powered, 1-watt speakers made of heavy-duty recycled paper. Assembly is easy: simply fold the paper into a 3-in. (7.6 cm) cube. For travel, unfold it and slip the flat sheet into your laptop sleeve. Sold through the company's website, Origaudio.com, and at select retailers, the speakers ($16 a pair) can be hooked up to any audio device with a headphone jack. Part of the proceeds supports the nonprofit Music National Service, which brings music to public schools and low-income communities. Origami has never sounded so good.

－Dandelion Rubber
A fast-spreading fungus is ravaging the world's rubber trees. But thanks to researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, there's now an alternative: dandelions. Scientists have long known that the weed's sap contains latex, but it's difficult to harvest because dandelion ooze polymerizes — goes gummy — when it hits the air. The Fraunhofer team overcame that sticky problem by switching off a key enzyme. The new, improved dandelion produces 500% more usable latex than the old weed does.

－The Sky King
In early April, Takuo Toda, chairman of the Japan Origami Airplane Association, set the world record for the longest flight by a paper airplane: he bested the previous record of 27.6 sec. by 0.3 sec. Toda's record-breaking design, called the Sky King, was made from a single sheet of paper, with no cuts and no gluing. He aspires to launch his planes one day from space — and then retrieve them once they've sailed to Earth.

Foil Board
在雲端上沖浪（Surfing on The Cloud）－ Foil Board
能踩在百呎以上的巨浪， On and On Forever，理論上。

從經驗、感覺、想像，開發出的新產品。可不是一群數學工程博士在實驗室用數學算出來的。

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1樓. BinH 2012/09/12 11:25 None Rubber applies broadly on all products in industry. This is a wonderful invention that can have big impact on people's lives also. By experience, it may be a long way from a successful experiment in the research laboratory to the final mature product in the market, for the reason of cost, technical barrier of mass production..... Let's keep following up on this magic invention. http://bioproducts.osu.edu/index.php/news-room/150-bioproduct-innovation-receives-national-award