MIT scientists have developed a revolutionary process to store solar energy, inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants.  This process allows the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. The oxygen and hydrogen are then recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.

According to this article, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis:  James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale. "This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London.

An inexpensive, easy to deploy system that can seperate hydrogen and oxygen for use by fuel cells.  This could be the Holy Grail of alternative energy.

SharePoint is a revolutionary web server technology.  Think of it as a foundation that provides the core user interface and management system to enable mere mortals to design a complex, role based web application.  Many of our business, educational, and social working relationships could be described as membership/role based.  If find myself recommending it to more and more customers at Blue Sphere. 

I actually started using SharePoint eight years ago to help manage my young business.  Microsoft is planning to release version four in the next year.  SharePoint has become their latest rising star.  There are already thousands of add ons that can be integrated with SharePoint to help it achieve a specific task or purpose.  Many of these are free.  And a version of SharePoint is also free with Windows server products, such as Windows 2003 or 2008.  Many more features are available in  Microsoft Office SharePoint Server version of SharePoint (aka MOSS).

As a psychologist turned technologist, my psychometric past is being rekindled by the possibility of using SharePoint to enable testing systems.  SharePoint is fast becoming a revolutionary tool in the software world. Educational and psychological measurement has been software enabled for quite some time, but web enabled versions of these systems are still rare and expensive to create/maintain. 

Enter the SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK), which is a free learning management system built to integrate with SharePoint.  This platform allows teachers to administer elearning content (including online tests) through a web based interface.  Students log in and see their elearning assignments and/or tests.  Scores and completion of objectives are made available to the teacher.  All of this is completely customizeable because of it's open source license.  The price -- also free.

Psychometricians, or test creators as they are otherwise known, are actually in high demand right now.  Test authoring, especially for online test creation, is particulary sought after.  As a society, we are finding more and more reasons to use online testing as form of gathering critical information.  Test authoring tools such as Courselab are now available that enable teachers and psychometricians (with technial skills) to create their own test content.  And these tools are compatible with the SLK and SharePoint. The price for Courselab -- free.

These free tools aren't just for online testing, they are also for creating elearning content.  So with a little customization, and the right tools, we technically inclined souls can now get on with the business of revolutionizing education and training.

There is an amazing disconnect right now between the corporate world and educational institutions that are slowly trying to catch up with the e-learning revolution.  In businesses all over the world, cost reduction is driving the the adoption of e-learning due to the inherent efficiencies gained by moving to a centralized, collaborative technology enhanced model of training delivery.  

Cost effectiveness, and consequently a more environmentally sustainable training system, are the obvious rewards of e-learning.  Student workers are trained remotely without leaving the office and traveling to take classes in some corporate mother ship.  Aptitude and achievement testing are administered through centralized online systems, and evaluated by managers who provide further training when needed with more online content.

Compare that to our schools.  Change in our school systems is painful and slow, and that is understandable.  But Bob Cringely says that some kids are getting too far ahead of their schools:

"We've reached the point in our (disparate) cultural adaptation to computing and communication technology that the younger technical generations are so empowered they are impatient and ready to jettison institutions most of the rest of us tend to think of as essential, central, even immortal. They are ready to dump our schools."

Schools have to enable technology instead of stifling it, or face losing their customers.  Although they are easily frightened by the prospect of technology threats, parents are taking notice and starting to demand change as our schools fail to keep pace.

And here is the discouraging part:  Technology solutions in education are often not designed to reduce cost, but instead are a source of extra expenditures.  Corporations don't add e-learning and keep their training department, they close the corporate classrooms.  Technology solutions can't start on the fringe of a school system and be successful.  They should be centralized, collaborative, and student centered.  Painful changes?  Yep.

So instead of giving every 10 year old a laptop, we need to completely reorganize the educational system.  Hopefully by the start of the 2008-2009 school year ;)

Microsoft has released a new non-Windows operating system called Singularity.  This OS is written in C#, which is one of the languages we use at Blue Sphere.  Microsoft has made the source code for this operating system available to anyone who can qualify for an academic research license. 

The term "singularity", at least in technology circles, has come to be associated with the possibility that one day, computers and the human mind will function together as one, thanks to the exponential progress we are making in technology.  These guys are working hard to get there (I'm wondering if the man on their home page might actually be a robot).  Much of the "progress" we make in technology can be charted in a line that points towards the singularity. 

Will it happen?  Will evil technologists use this new operating system called "Singularity" to create self replicating nanobots that invade our bodies through ordinary drinking water?  No.  That capability is still a few decades away according to most projections.

But still, very compelling health benefits already await those who dare expose themselves to intelligent nanotech.  The alternative (death) is typically less attractive to such exposure. So the exponential progress will continue, and people like me, will be able to scare people like you, for years to come.

Was Gerald Ford one of our first leaders to advocate for sustainability?  From the Ford presidential library Website, here are some of the proposals he submitted to congress:

• Stimulate effective conservation, including revitalization of our railroads and the expansion of our urban transportation systems;
• Develop more and cleaner energy from our vast coal resources;
• Create a new national Energy Independence Authority to stimulate vital energy investment;
• And accelerate development of technology to capture energy from the sun and the earth for this and future generations.

Of course he was responding to the threat posed by middle east oil cartels forcing gas prices through the roof.  At the time his solutions seemed like the right approach, especially for the long term health of the country.  Sadly we didn't choose to make these goals a priority, but it's not too late.