Surprising Science — March 10, 2011

Fast-Tracking Green Technology

The U.S. Senate has passed new legislation to prioritize patents for technologies of importance to America’s economy, including cutting-edge green technologies.

bigthinkeditor

New legislation that aims to fast-track the patent process for green technology is called the America Invents Act. “The Patent Office’s current pilot program on green technologies has allowed patents to be granted more quickly than the average 2 to 3 year wait. The Menendez amendment would allow the Patent Office to expedite patents of vital national importance. Senator Menendez said, ‘We create jobs by harnessing the ideas of our innovators, not tying them down with red tape. The ideas of the future are within our grasp. An efficient government will register those ideas, and then get out of the way.'”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Surprising Science

Information Technology Trends

Decentralization by way of cloud computing and the rise of green information technology are future trends to look for, says Kamal Sharma, C.I.O. of Mindlance, an I.T. infrastructure provider.