Four years later, the patent landscape demonstrates that Alice has become a train wreck for innovation. To be successful, patent practitioners must show the PTO, courts, and Congress the importance of our clients’ innovations and explain why the type of technology should not dictate whether there is enforceability.

Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new ultrasound transducer, or probe, that could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners to as little as $100. Their patent-pending innovation—no bigger than a Band-Aid—is portable, wearable and can be powered by a smartphone.

When You Wu was growing up in China, officials would shut off water to his community for half a day each week in the name of conservation. The experience contributed to Wu's interest in the scarcity of water, which he chose to study more in-depth after moving to the United States 10 years ago. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, now 28, has developed a robot that can find leaks in water pipes. As the robot moves with the water through a pipe, its "hands" touch the pipe and feel the suction forces caused by leaks, Wu told Business Insider.

It may be possible in the future to screen patients for Alzheimer’s disease using an eye exam. Using technology similar to what is found in many eye doctors’ offices, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have detected evidence suggesting Alzheimer’s in older patients who had no symptoms of the disease. Their study, involving 30 patients, is published Aug. 23 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.

A team of scientists at the University of Akron in Ohio is working to solve one of the most pressing issues humanity will face in the future: access to fresh, clean drinking water. To do that, the team is developing a prototype water harvester that can essentially produce up to 10 gallons per hour of drinking water from thin air. "Every human should be entitled to fresh water," Dr. Josh Wong, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Akron, told Business Insider. "Not just the 0.1%"

Plane maker Boeing is actively working on technology that would remove the need for two pilots in the cockpits of its passenger jets. Existing European aviation rules state that passenger planes with more than 20 seats must have a minimum of two pilots in the cockpit. But Steve Nordlund, a vice president at Boeing, said autonomous technology that would allow for a reduction in on-board crew was being developed at a “good speed”.

Dethleffs came up with an innovative new camper concept built for electric cars. It has its own battery pack, electric motors, and solar panels to reduce the load on the vehicle towing it. The idea is pretty simple: towing a camper reduces the efficiency and the range of your vehicle, electric car or not, but by adding its own power to the trailer, it mitigates the impact that the trailer has on the overall range.

A space shuttle-era main engine is undergoing a series of daily test firings to demonstrate its suitability for use on a reusable spaceplane under development. The Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-22 engine is in the midst of a series of 10 100-second engine firings over the course of 10 days at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. As of July 2 the company has completed six such tests and was on track to complete the rest on schedule.

Toyota is sponsoring the world's first autonomous hydrogen-powered ship on a six-year world tour. The specially adapted race boat, Energy Observer, uses solar, wind and wave-generated power – as well as carbon-free hydrogen generated from seawater. The base technology already exists for use on land, where it helps overcome the problem of intermittent power supply from renewables, but this is the first time it's been used at sea to produce hydrogen 'live' during stopovers and navigation.

The longer we wait to take serious action on climate change, the more necessary it becomes to remove some of the CO2 we've already put in the air. In fact, the scenarios in the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in which warming was limited to 2°C relied heavily on CO2 removal. Adoption of the necessary technology still seems too far off, given the current lack of market incentives and supporting policies. The technique seen as most likely to scale up involves growing...

An HIV vaccine that has the potential to protect people around the world from the virus has shown promising results. The treatment, which aims to provide immunity against various strains of the virus, produced an anti-HIV immune system response in tests on 393 people, a study in the Lancet found. It also protected some monkeys from a virus that is similar to HIV.

Space agencies and private companies already have advanced plans to send humans to Mars in the next few years – ultimately colonising it. And with a growing number of discoveries of Earth-like planets around nearby stars, long-distance space travel has never seemed more exciting.

Half of young people in the UK would like to own an electric car – compared with just a quarter of their parents, a survey suggests. The research comes from motoring group the AA, which says myths about electric vehicles are putting off many drivers. This matters because cleaning up air pollution and tackling climate change both depend on mass ownership of electric vehicles (EVs).

A new 3D color medical scanner invented by father and son scientists in New Zealand recently scanned its first human subject, according to a news release from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. The novel imaging device, called the MARS spectral x-ray scanner, can capture enhanced detail of the body's chemical components—such as fat, water, and disease markers—by measuring the x-ray spectrum to produce images in color. Producing more detailed images than MRI or CT may allow physicians to identify and diagnosis diseases earlier.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he believes the Model 3 is the last product on which the company will have to bet its livelihood in an interview with Bloomberg. "I believe Model 3 is the last bet-the-company situation," he said. "To the best of my judgment, I do not think we have any future bet-the-company situations. We will still need to work hard and be vigilant and not be complacent because it is very difficult just to survive as a car company. But it will not be the same level of strain as getting to volume production of Model 3."

Snaking through Western Australia’s Outback, a driverless train has made the first autonomous delivery of iron ore from a Rio Tinto Group pit to a coastal port, as the No. 2 miner looks to reap the benefits from a $940 million plan deploying the world’s biggest robots.

Even though the next-generation GT-R sounds like it's still a ways away, one Nissan exec is already talking up the R36's supposed capabilities. Speaking to Autocar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Nissan's Senior Vice President of Global Design, Alfonso Albaisa, says the company's upcoming Godzilla replacement will be nothing short of a game-changer, going as far as saying it must be "the fastest super sports car in the world." Big claims for a car that hasn't even found a powertrain style, apparently.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has successfully developed the industry’s first 10-nanometer (nm) class* 8-gigabit (Gb) LPDDR5 DRAM. Since bringing the first 8Gb LPDDR4 to mass production in 2014, Samsung has been setting the stage to transition to the LPDDR5 standard for use in upcoming 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered mobile applications.

You have to admit, there is something sweet and crisp in the air of a home that’s filled to the brim with flora and fauna. It’s clean, chemical free oxygen! And it’s the doing of all those lush, overgrown plants you’ve finally managed to keep alive. They’re pretty and functional—who knew?

Researchers made an enormous leap recently by moving one step closer to stable fusion nuclear energy. They discovered a way to stabilize plasma in fusion reactors, thus preventing temperatures and densities from oscillating. It is believed that nuclear fusion is the answer to providing inexhaustible green energy just as long as researchers can control this kind of power source. And now, it seems that they are closer to stabilizing plasma in fusion reactors, even though it is through simulations!

‘This is not a private jet for the ultra-wealthy ... we want to get the economy of the plane down so that anybody who flies can fly fast’

Mikhail Kokorich, the founder of Momentus, a new Y Combinator-backed propulsion technology developer for space flight, hadn’t always dreamed of going to the moon. A physicist who graduated from Russia’s top-ranked Novosibirsk University, Kokorich was a serial entrepreneur in who grew up in Siberia and made his name and his first fortunes in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson says his Virgin Galactic spaceflight company is just about ready to launch.

For years, scientists have been exploring how we can use signals from the brain to control prosthetic limbs. Usually, this work is focused on restoring motor function to people who have lost an arm or a leg, but new research from Japan shows how the same technology can also be used to augment existing human capabilities.

Grow-your-own organs could be available for desperately ill patients within five years, after scientists successfully transplanted bioengineered lungs into pigs for the first time.

This versatile concrete machine makes curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and barrier walls. Following is a transcript of the video. This machine perfectly pours concrete. It's the 5700-C machine by Power Curbers & Power Pavers. This versatile machine makes curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and barrier walls. It can even handle irrigation ditches and bridge walkways.

CSIRO researchers in Queensland have developed a game-changing technology that produces hydrogen from ammonia, allowing the fuel to be shipped safely around the world.

Its now official, the 2019 Porsche Taycan will get a 600hp electric motor with 500km range.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk seems like the ideal person to get excited about flying cars. The Tesla CEO has made a fortune in developing future-facing vehicles, but he’s rather downbeat about the idea that the skies could hold the solution to congestion woes. Instead, during an interview about his new tunnel-digging venture, he said the future of transport lies underground, naturally.

Scientists claim they have developed a material that could help regenerate tooth enamel to prevent decay and sensitivity. Enamel, the outer coating of the teeth, is the hardest tissue in the body and can resist extreme temperatures and acidic food and drinks. But unlike other tissues it cannot regrow, leading to pain and tooth loss for roughly 50% of the world's population.

In astronomy, cutting-edge technology often begins with a bunch of bulldozers, busted rocks, and dump trucks. So it goes with the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which will the world's largest and most powerful when it sees "first light" in 2024. Astronomers hope to use the huge observatory to study the ancient universe and look for signs of alien life. Construction crews atop a Chilean mountain range broke ground for the $1 billion project on Tuesday.

Analysts at Swiss investment bank UBS believe that by 2030, we could all be living without much of a carbon footprint — at least at home. The analysts believe that the cost of renewable energy will continue to dive heading into the next decade, and that by 2030, costs will be so low they will “effectively be free,” according to new research published this morning in the Financial Times (paywall).

Smoothing out the rough patches of a material widely used to filter saltwater could make producing freshwater more affordable, researchers report in the Aug. 17 Science. Desalination plants around the world typically strain salt out of seawater by pumping it through films made of polyamide — a synthetic polymer riddled with tiny pores that allow water molecules to squeeze through, but not sodium ions. But organic matter, along with some other waterborne particles like calcium sulfate, can accumulate in the...

With turbulence set to get almost 200% worse with climate change, Boeing wants to help pilots avoid the pockets of air responsible for hundreds of injuries each year. Turbulence is a serious problem for airlines the world over. Firstly, the FAA says that 44 people were severely injured by turbulence in 2016. In addition, injuries from turbulence are estimated to cost US air carriers over $200m each year. Given these figures, it is no wonder that Boeing want to help detect turbulence up ahead.

Las Vegas isn't the first place that springs to mind as a sustainable agriculture hub. But the city could soon become a major purveyor of fresh greens, thanks to a new $30 million vertical farming facility. At 215,000 square feet, it's one of the largest indoor vertical farms in the US. The facility is home to Oasis Biotech, a startup that transformed a vacant Las Vegas industrial property into a center for hydroponic farming — a process of growing plants without soil to conserve water and speed up the maturation process.