NanoMarkets Predicts Thin-Film Solar Cell Industry Will Produce More than 26 Gigawatts by 2015 – “According to NanoMarkets, a leading industry analyst firm based here, the thin-film photovoltaics (TFPV) market will produce the equivalent of 26 gigawatts (GW) by 2015 and will generate well over $20 billion in revenues in that same time frame. This extraordinary growth rate is due in part to the rapid deployment of photovoltaics of all kinds, but also to the low cost, flexibility and manufacturing advantages associated with TFPV compared with the now dominant crystalline silicon PV…”

While U.S. Off-Shore Wind Industry Struggles, Germany Announces 30 New Wind Farms – “Germany’s transport minister, Wolfgang Tiefensee, announced this weekend that his country plans to build up to 30 off-shore wind farms to meet the country’s renewable energy targets, reports Der Spiegel. Tiefensee said he hopes to see some 2,000 windmills in the North and Baltic Seas, to provide 11,000 megawatts of electricity…”

Brain Foods: More Good Press for Omega 3 – “It’s common knowledge that eating a healthy balanced diet and exercising regularly helps prevent heart disease and cancer – but you may not know that it also protects the brain and wards off mental disorders…”

Rare Microorganism That Produces Hydrogen May Be Key To Tomorrow’s Hydrogen Economy – “An ancient organism from the pit of a collapsed volcano may hold the key to tomorrow’s hydrogen economy. Scientists from across the world have formed a team to unlock the process refined by a billions-year old archaea. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute will expedite the research by sequencing the hydrogen-producing organism for comparative genomics…”

The New ‘Chatter Box’ – “Psychologists at The University of Manchester, working together with a team from the University’s School of Computer Science, have developed a powerful super computer to mimic the part of the brain that controls speech and language functions to better understand what goes wrong after brain damage caused by trauma or stroke. The approach employs a speech and language model that uses a computer system that will be up to 1,000 times more powerful than a standard PC. The computer is the first of its kind and will be used to try and understand how, for example, the details of complex visual scenes are encoded by the brain…”

Seven tips to keep Windows XP running – “running Windows XP for another 1-2 years is a very real possibility for some. After all, many who despised Vista will likely not only wait for Windows 7 to release. They will most likely wait for the first service pack to arrive before making a change. That would put us possibly into 2011. So if you want to see Windows XP make it to the ripe old age of ten, you should likewise take steps to keep it in good health…”

Why the Economy Went South – “After months of housing-market debris, Congress is still grappling with temporary solutions. One question they should be asking this week: How could these problems have been avoided?”

Why NASA Isn’t Trying to Human-Rate the Atlas V or Delta IV Rockets – “Some commenters have raised a very reasonable question: Why doesn’t NASA just human rate an expendable launch vehicle like the Atlas V or the Delta IV? It seems reasonable because they fly all the time, they are big, they are reliable and they are already built. So what is the problem?”

Scientists Uncover Deadly Ebola Virus’s “Achilles’ Heel” – “In a breakthrough that could eventually help tame one of the deadliest virsuses known to man, researchers have laid bare the key to Ebola’s power: a lone protein that resides on its surface. The discovery paves the way for new treatments that target and destroy the designated culprit, rendering impotent a virus that, though rare, can kill up to 90 percent of the people it infects…”

Pre-quake changes seen in rocks – “Scientists have made an important advance in their efforts to predict earthquakes, the journal Nature says…”

75 Bleeding-Edge Search Engines To Beat Google – “Whether for niche searches or for the whole web search prize, whether by human-powered or visual methods, whether by developing cunning semantic algorithms or by Social means, all these platforms have one thing in common: they all want to take a bite out of Google.com’s posterior…”

Odd Fish Find Contradicts Intelligent-Design Argument – “The discovery of a missing link in the evolution of bizarre flatfishes—each of which has both eyes on the same side of its head—could give intelligent design advocates a sinking feeling…”

College Students Design Future Aircraft In NASA Competition – “Sixty-one students from 14 colleges and universities around the globe have imagined what the next generation of airliners and cargo planes may look like…”

iPhone App Store Has Launched (Updated) – “Apple’s iPhone App Store is now live, several hours ahead of its rumored 9 am PST launch. To access it, download iTunes 7.7 here. Once iTunes has upgraded, you can access the App Store…”

Suing George W. Bush: A bizarre and troubling tale – “Call me Alice — because this is a tale directly from Government Secrecy Wonderland, the bizarre and unnerving adventures of suing President Bush for apparently violating a federal law. I’ll swear under penalty of perjury that what follows is true and correct. Otherwise, you might not even believe it…”

Top Ten Worst Uses for Windows – “After all these years I am willing to admit that Microsoft has won the desktop and server wars. Thanks to VMWare Windows is spreading throughout the datacenter. And, of course, there is only one operating system to use if you are dependent on Microsoft apps like Outlook, Word, and Excel. While I have joined the chorus of security folks who rail against the Microsoft Monoculture I still cannot believe some of the uses for Windows. Some of them are just downright silly, some you may claim are criminally negligent…”

Can Tomatoes Carry An Oral Vaccine Against Alzheimer’s Disease? – “The humble tomato could be a suitable carrier for an oral vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease, according to HyunSoon Kim from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) in Korea and colleagues from Digital Biotech Inc. and the Department of Biological Science at Wonkwang University…”

F1 and GOSH – where motorsport and medicine meet – “One of the most perilous points when caring for the seriously ill is the handover between surgery and intensive care. As each moment ticks by on the transfer from operating table to ward bed, the risk to the patient increases. It’s an age-old issue, but one that the doctors at Great Ormond Street were determined to improve…”

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