December 18 2008 / by smarteconomy
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 3
When I was growing up, Dufferin Street in Toronto was lined with factories producing incandescent light bulbs by GE. Those factories are long abandoned or turned into lofts or condos. The city and the federal government should be looking at attracting the next wave of lighting manufacturers ie the ones that will be producing smart lighting with light emitting diodes (LED) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) systems. (Link)
Consumers are already getting their first taste of LED technology...those outdoor solar-powered Christmas lights
The figure above compares the luminous efficacy (source efficacy) of conventional lighting technologies with the potential of light-emitting diode technology. (N.B. Log scale)
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Cross-posted from
Smart Economy
To design, build or self-assemble objects at the nano scale, or
one one billionth of a meter, you need a series of building blocks,
like the alphabet that goes on to make coherent sentences and
stories.
Last Friday I gave a talk on nanotechnology, that looked at
about 17 basic nano-building blocks. 
Now you can add one more to the growing list.
Here’s another major milestone involving carbon nanotubes. They
can now be used as a memory storage medium, a world first, as far
as I know. This discovery could have far reaching implications.
US Patent 7335408 – CNT with magnetic
or metal inner coating
Electronics manufacturers have a great interest in novel storage
media, especially at the nanoscale . Imagine a nano-magnetic medium
for high density data storage devices. This patent from Fujitsu and
Tohoku University offers a method for coating the inner surfaces of
nanotubes with magnetic or metal material for information storage
and other purposes …. I can think of a range of applications, both
good ones (such as medical and environmental sensors) and bad
ones!!
Stepping into McLuhan’s shoes, we could ask ourselves.
What does this technology enhance? Instant feedback, our moral,
ethical and ecological conscience
What does it obsolesce? Privacy, as we know it today
What does it retrieve or bring back? Global and local
Sense-making, presencing, wisdom of the ages, back to our
“nano-roots”
At the extreme, what does it reverse or flip into? A second
layer; nervous-system for the earth?
Here’s the
link to the original post.
