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Current projects, businesses and creative endeavors that highlight our innate abilities or enhance self-sufficiency and benefit the planet.

Car Fuel from Algae - The benefits of Butanol from Algae

Car Fuel from Algae

A team of chemical engineers at the University of Arkansas has developed a way to convert common algae into butanol—a renewable fuel for combustible engines. “Our conversion process is efficient and inexpensive...

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Are we in a new Mass Extinction Era? - Current Mass Extinction Rate

Are we in a new Mass Extinction Era?

65 million years ago, dinosaurs and other creatures were wiped out in a mass extinction. Now, a new study by paleobiologist Anthony Barnosky of the University of California, Berkely predicts that three-quarters of today’s animal species...

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Happy People Live Longer - How Joy Affects Peoples Lives

Happy People Live Longer

A recent article in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being reviewed more than 160 studies of how happiness affects human and animal subjects. Lead author, Ed Diener, Professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Illinois...

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Scientific Discovery Goes Viral - Citizen-Research Efforts Expand thr Rate of Scientific Discoveries

Scientific Discovery Goes Viral

In 2007 Chris Lintott, who works at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois and colleagues decided to launch a website asking for volunteers to help characterize over 1 million images of galaxies. After some news coverage, “Galaxy Zoo” went viral...

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How Willpower Equals Success - The Benefits of Self-Control

How Willpower Equals Success

Self discipline as an indicator for success is not new: in the 1960’s Walter Mischell, a psychologist at Columbia University, tested the ability of 4-year olds to resist eating Oreo cookies when left alone. He found that children who were...

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Benefits of Meditation in the Brain - How Meditation Can Change Your Brain

Benefits of Meditation in the Brain

A recent study, led by Massachusetts General Hospital researchers and senior author Sara Lazar, PhD, has documented structural changes in the brain of individuals who took part in an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program...

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Human Skin Printer - Advanced Reconstructive Skin Technology

Human Skin Printer

James Yoo of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina has designed a printer that can scan a human burn, analyze it, create a 3D reconstruction, and then print restorative skin cells in less than an hour...

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Living Life In 3-Second Frames - How 3 Seconds Can Define the Present Moment

Living Life In 3-Second Frames

During the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, Developmental psychologist Emese Nagy of the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom decided to research the time length of 188 hugs between athletes from 32 nations...

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A State of Fearlessness - Life Without Fear

A State of Fearlessness

When she was ten, anonymous test subject SM damaged her amygdala. Now, not only does SM have two symmetrical black holes where her amygdala should be, but she also experiences life without fear. Although the amygdala is known to...

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Recyclable Solar Powered Backpack - Cradle to Cradle Backpack with Solar Power

Recyclable Solar Powered Backpack

Karan Singh Gandhi, a Mumbai designer has devised a backpack that has multimedia capabilities, and is completely sustainable. With the Androcell Backpack, Gandhi aims to explore the role of technology in green design. Not only does the backpack...

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