January 2008 Feature Articles

Visualizing Electronic Health Records With "Google-Earth for the Body"

IBM researchers develop 3-D visualization tool for electronic health records

Flood or Hurricane Protection?: The New Orleans Levee System and Hurricane Katrina

Why was the New Orleans levee system so vulnerable to failure in Hurricane Katrina?

Learning From Katrina

Hurricane Katrina can teach engineers a lot about the unintended impact of technology as well as what can be done to prepare for the next catastrophe

Synthetic Fuel From a Solar Collector

Solar energy powers greenhouse-gas-free synthetic fuel production in Sandia experiment

Greenhouse Gas Trends

A tale of two perspectives

Why Losers?

We don't do this because we're mean spirited. We do it because we care

Winner: Solving the Oil Equation

A team of geophysicists and computer scientists closes in on the ultimate seismic-imaging code for finding oil

Loser: Algae Bloom Climate-Change Scheme Doomed

Planktos's ploy to combat global warming by sequestering carbon in the oceans holds no water

Winner: The Ultimate Dielectric Is...Nothing

IBM packs wires in vacuum to speed chips and save power

Loser: Satellite TV Soccer Moms Will Hate

Sirius's car TV may be great technology, but it will drive parents crazy

Winner: Make Your Very Own Virtual World with OLIVE

Forterra's OLIVE software makes the business of virtual-world environments real

Loser: No Payoff for Galileo Navigation System

Europe's answer to GPS isn't worth it

Winner: Sprint's Broadband Gamble

A new cellular service will sell high-speed data access instead of phones and phone calls

Loser: Social Networking Goes To The Dogs

A $200 RFID dog tag tells owners—and their neighbors—when their pets are alive, at home, and sniffing things

Winner: Restoring Coal's Sheen

Swedish energy company takes a novel approach to carbon capture

Loser: Still Waiting For Nanotube Memory Chip

Nantero's alternative to flash memory has reached its sell-by date

Loser: Another Fuel-Cell Charger Flunks

Fuel cells look great on paper, but who wants to run a laptop off one?

You Tell Us

Winning ideas are often doomed by poor execution or by nothing more than being ahead of their time. Here are a few products that could go either way. Tell us how you think they'll fare.

You Tell Us: Microsoft Surface Runs the Table

You Tell Us: Dutch Start-up Hopes to Spark Takeoff of Flying Car Market

You Tell Us: Fuel-Cell Motorcycle May Help to Rev Up Hydrogen Economy

You Tell Us: An Electronic Pen That Listens and Talks Back

You Tell Us: Gigabit Wireless on the Cheap

You Tell Us: Video Glasses for the Spy in All of Us

Tell Us What You Think