10 world-changing inventions 2008

'Breakthrough Awards' is voted annually by Popular Mechanics magazine of America. The following is the '10 world-changing 2008 inventions', a category in this year's award, announced on November November's Popular Mechanics, called 'inventions for future life'.

Aptera aerodynamics: Design by Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony, founders of Aptera Company. An aerodynamic 3-wheel model, ultra-light composite fiber body, very high energy efficiency. At the end of 2008, Aptera Typ-1e 2 seats, weighed 680kg, an 8-hour battery charger went 190km, will be launched to the market for $ 30,000. Next year, there is Aptera Typ-1h running both electricity and gasoline.

Phoenix explores Mars: The design of NASA's Barry Goldstein team of scientists, Ed Sedivy at Lockheed Martin and Peter Smith at the University of Arizona. Phoenix's $ 420 million mission has provided significant evidence of the existence of water and life-supporting substances that can exist on Mars.

Reconstructed Amyris diesel: The invention of Kinkead Reiling, Neil Renninger and Jack D. Newman, the founders of Amyris Biotechnologies Company. They created a new genetically modified bacterium, the same yeast to convert sugar cane into similar diesel from petroleum but environmentally friendly.

Cancer early detection chip: The invention of biomedical engineer Mehmet Toner, Massachusetts General Hospital, helps to diagnose cancer effectively and cheaply. Doctors often find it difficult to know metastatic cancer until symptoms are present because it is difficult to detect tumor cells circulating in the blood (CTC), which are only a few millionths of the blood component, moreover, when outside CTC body is difficult to survive to detect when blood test. The Toner device is a business card-sized silicon chip that has 78,000 smaller holes in the hair and coated with CTC antibodies. When blood is put into the chip, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets are ejected, only CTC sticks. The device can detect up to 99% of cancer cases, helping doctors have early therapy.

Body motion reading system: The design of Andrew Tschesnok (Organic Motion Company) and Jonathan Rand, allows computers to recognize and translate human movements into information. Organic Motion system includes cameras located throughout the room and smart software, recognizing people, capturing and redrawing patterns in every movement with 120 frames per second. The system has many great applications such as bio-data collection of neuromuscular patients; make special effects for movies; revolutionizing the computer interface, changing the online game world when players only need to move to control the character, turning 'network connection' into 'entering the network'; The house can 'track' the owner to adjust the temperature, music . suitable .

PUR water purification powder: Greg Allgood's invention, initially co-produced by P&G with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). After P&G withdrew, Allgood ran the 'Safe drinking water for children' program, with the support of UNICEF and WHO, to supply this country's powder in more than 40 developing countries. PUR powder helps precipitate suspended solids, heavy metals, kill bacteria, viruses . in water. One tablespoon of powder can filter 10 liters of water in 30 minutes, giving water of equivalent quality to clean water from the factory at a much lower cost.

Stirling solar system: Design by Chuck Andraka (Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque) and Bruce Osborn (CEO of Stirling Energy Systems). This solution collects solar energy but does not use photovoltaic cells but uses giant mirrors concentrating on the hot sun 'Stirling machine': The system contains hydrogen expanding when heated and shrinking when cold, pushing the pistons to run generator. In Southern California, two new power plants are coming into operation, with a capacity of 1,750 mW, enough for more than 1 million families.

International wheelchair IMI: Design by Rudy Roy, Ben Sexson, Daniel Oliver and Charles Pyott as a student. Currently 4 have graduated and are running a non-profit organization, Intelligent Mobility International (IMI), which specializes in wheelchairs for people with disabilities in developing countries. From 2 bicycles and smart design, the team created the wheelchair model all terrain, suitable for bad roads, steep hills and, more importantly, just bringing the model into any bike shop can also be processed.

Johnson's Thermal-Chemical Conversion System (JTEC): Design by nuclear engineer Lonnie Johnson, founder of Johnson ElectroMechanical Systems. JTEC is a revolutionary power generation system because there are no moving parts, only taking advantage of the temperature difference to apply pressure to push ions through the membrane electrode to generate electricity. In JTEC, hydrogen circulates between two membrane electrodes as in fuel cells but unlike fuel cells, JTEC is a closed system because there is no need to provide more hydrogen. The membrane electrode is a heat collecting head (from sunlight), the membrane electrode is the heat sink (into the surrounding air), when the membrane enters heat, the membrane produces electricity.

Design application for developing countries: Solution by Amy B. Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This is the Leadership Award, giving the initiator of a high-tech application movement, helping people in developing countries by solutions' smart design + experience in developing countries + hearts passion = solving complex problems with low-cost and simple techniques'. Ms. Smith used to design a non-electrical medical lab, improve cereal mills ., to remote places Haiti, Ghana, and India . to help improve the lives of the poor.