JoVE: the Journal of Visualized Experiments

We just stumbled upon a great resource, a scholarly journal that Nature calls the "YouTube for test tubes". It's actually an all video format journal, something you don't see very often in the halls of academia. So, by JoVE, what is it exactly? (I'm sure I'm the first person to make that joke about this journal...) Well, from their website:

"Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) is a peer reviewed, free access, online journal devoted to the publication of biological research in a video format. JoVE was established as a new tool in life science publication and communication, with participation of scientists from leading research institutions. Visualization greatly facilitates the understanding and efficient reproduction of both basic and complex experimental techniques, thereby addressing two of the biggest challenges faced by today’s life science research community: i) low transparency and poor reproducibility of biological experiments and ii) time and labor-intensive nature of learning new experimental techniques."

You can check out their website at http://www.jove.com/ or you can find them indexed in the PubMed database.

Tech Review's 10 Emerging Technologies 2008

Technology Review presents their list of the 10 technologies that they think are most likely to change the way people live. Technologies profiled include: modeling surprise, probabilistic chips, NanoRadio, wireless power, atomic magnetometers, offline web apps, graphene transistors, connectomics, reality mining and cellulolytic enzymes.

Let's hope the rains don't come early this year...

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, iconic for his use of eco-friendly and lightweight materials, lifts the veil on a paper bridge over the Gardon River in southern France. Read more...>>

(Source: BoingBoing)

PS- The post title was enough, we'll spare you the 'don't burn your bridges' joke. You're welcome.

Source of the Week: Changes in Innovation Ecology ('Science' Editorial)

The June 2007 issue of Science Magazine features an editorial by William A. Wulf, past president of the National Academy of Engineering, about cultivating and stimulating innovation in our current technological environment, a topic that could be considered particularly relevant here at an institution that is looking to create a climate of innovation.

From the article: "Globalization has introduced both uncertainties and opportunities worldwide. In the United States, a flurry of recent books and reports has told the country how to be competitive in the 21st century, from Thomas L. Freidman's The World is Flat, to the National Academies'Rising Above the Gathering Storm, and at least a dozen more. All note the historic strength of the United States in innovation and suggest that reinvigorating this capability is key to future prosperity. The resulting recommendations relate to an "ecology" of interrelated institutions, laws, regulations, and policies providing an innovation infrastructure that entails education, research, tax policy, and intellectual property protection, among others. Unfortunately, this ecology is more fundamentally broken than is generally recognized." Read more...>>