The Best Invention

The Best Inventions

전세계에서 하루 동안 발명되는 상품이 수백 가지에 이른다.
그 중에 우리의 이목을 끌만한 것들을 소개한다.

Lab-Grown Lungs

역시 반가운 제품이다.
특히, 흡연가들에게는. 머지않아 우리 몸의 대부분은 공장에서 만들어질 것이라고 호언하는 사람도 있었지만,
내 생전에 그것을 보게 될 것이라고 생각하지는 않았다. 담배를 끊을 것인가.. 말 것인가..

Growing new body parts has always been more science fiction than science reality, but that balance may quickly be shifting,
at least in the lab. Relying on more sophisticated biosimulators that can better mimic body conditions, researchers have re-created
the delicate architecture of a rat lung accurately enough for it to assume 95% of a normal lung’s inhaling and exhaling functions.
The key to their respiratory success was starting with a skeletal rat-lung template, including a matrix of blood vessels and collagen and
other connective tissue, then seeding it with stem cells and nutrients to generate lifelike tissue that exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide
just like normal lung tissue. The ultimate goal is to replicate the feat on a larger scale:
to replace enough human lung tissue to aid patients with emphysema or lung cancer.

The X-51A WaveRider

군사 기술에 관심이 많은 사람들은 이 물건에 주목하라.
1천킬로미터를 단 10분에 날아간다고 한다.
무엇이 불가능할까?
전세계 어디든 단 1시간이면 갈 수 있다.

After decades amassing an immense arsenal to defeat entire countries, the U.S. military is developing tools to fight isolated conflicts
requiring speed and precision. The X-51A WaveRider demonstration project, part of the U.S.’s Prompt Global Strike initiative to attack
any spot on the globe within an hour, is a prime example. The WaveRider is hypersonic, traveling 600 miles in 10 minutes.
Even more incredible, its nose is designed to take advantage of the train of sonic waves it creates by making them break at the optimal angle.

Body Powered Devices

우리가 그냥 숨만 쉬고 있어도 에너지가 발생한다. (걸을 때는 훨씬 더 많이)
이러한 신체 활동의 에너지를 모아주는 장치가 만들어졌다.
앞으로 몸에 각종 스위치와 콘센트를 주렁주렁 매달고 살게 생겼다.
핸드폰 배터리가 떨어지면 간단하게 100미터 달리기만 하면 되는 것이다.

Everything we do generates power — about 1 watt per breath, 70 watts per step. This year, Michael McAlpine of Princeton University and
colleagues figured out how to turn locomotion into power by embedding piezoelectric crystals into a flexible, biocompatible rubberlike material that,
when bent, allows the crystals to produce energy. Put the crystals in shoes, say, or implant them directly into the body and they could produce
enough power to charge personal electronics or internal medical devices. Elsewhere, telecommunications provider Orange introduced a prototype
of Orange Power Wellies — rubber boots that convert heat into current. Campers at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival were the first to demo the footwear.
(With the current model, it takes 12 hours of walking to charge a cell phone for an hour.) Of course, if you assemble enough people in a tight space,
they don’t even need to move to generate energy: in Paris, engineers have captured the warmth generated by bodies on the Métro subway
to heat a public-housing project on Rue Beaubourg. By 2011, the Métro heating system will cut carbon dioxide emissions from
the housing project’s heating system by a third.

Deep Green Underwater Kite

녹색에너지에 관심을 쏟아야 할 때다.
흔히 태양열 에너지를 생각하지만 사실은 풍력이나 조력이 더욱 효율적이다.
이 조력발전용 수중연은 조류의 흐름에 따라 움직이며 전기를 생산해낸다.
거대한 구조물이 심해에서 움직이는 모습은 그 자체로도 장관이 아닐까 싶다.

Swedish company Minesto’s underwater kite resembles a child’s toy as it swoops and dives in ocean currents.
But since seawater is 800 times as dense as air, the small turbine attached to the kite — which is tethered to the ocean floor —
can generate 800 times more energy than if it were in the sky. Minesto calls the technology Deep Green and says it can generate
500 kilowatts of power even in calm waters; the design could increase the market for tidal power by 80%, the company says.
The first scale model will be unveiled next year off the coast of Northern Ireland.

The Straddling Bus

버스와 버스가 아닌 차량의 공존. 다리가 달린 버스 한대에 무려 1,200명이 탑승할 수 있다.
그런데..방향을 바꿀 수는 있는 것일까.

A boom in car sales has caused traffic mayhem in many of China’s major cities. One company wants to improve the situation — by
putting even more people on the road. But rather than add more cars, Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment is developing a massive
“straddling bus.” Cheaper than a subway, the partly solar-powered behemoth will span two lanes and carry up to 1,200 people in a carriage
raised 7 ft. above the roadway, thus allowing cars to pass, or be passed, underneath. Passengers on the new bus should rightly expect
to feel above it all. The company is awaiting government approval for a trial project in Beijing. If that comes through this year,
test runs could begin by the end of 2011.

Lifeguard Robot

멋진 근육을 가진 구릿빛 피부의 구조대원은 아니지만 그보다 훨씬 빠르게 헤엄치고,
쉼없이 바다에 떠 있을 수 있다. 훨씬 더 믿음직스럽지 않은가.

Her nose isn’t coated in bright white sunblock, but she might just save your life. EMILY, or the Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard,
is a robotic buoy that can swim through riptides at a speed of up to 24 m.p.h. Her inventor, entrepreneur and engineer Tony Mulligan,
says that makes her about 15 times as fast as human lifeguards. Powered with a tiny electric pump that shoots a forceful stream of water,
the 4-ft.-long robotic buoy has been tested at California’s Zuma Beach. The device is operated by remote,
but next year’s model features sonar technology controlled with an iPhone app that will allow EMILY to detect riptides and submerged objects.

X-Flex Blast Protection

벽에 붙이기만 해도 집의 내구성이 대폭 증대되는 벽지.
지진, 화재, 폭발 등 다양한 재난으로부터 최소한의 안전을 확보할 수 있다.
만약 이러한 소재로 옷을 만들어 입으면 어떻게 될까? 혹은 피부에 붙이면?
보통사람이 X맨이나 판타스틱4의 일원이 될 날이 머지 않았다.

X-Flex wallpaper won’t make your walls aesthetically pleasing, just safe from collapsing from lethal force.
This startlingly resilient covering is designed to reinforce buildings against man-made blasts, flying shrapnel and
destabilizing natural disasters. Once the wallpaper is applied, its Kevlar-like material, combined with an elastic polymer wrap,
becomes virtually stronger than the wall it’s shielding — so strong that it’s being considered to protect U.S. military bases overseas.
Now if only they could make some to cover the windows.