A team in Cambridge has created a plastic electronic circuit with the architecture and functionality of a CMOS silicon chip. 

The printed circuit is believed to be the fastest-operating and lowest-power plastic logic oscillator created to date.

The full commercial potential of plastic electronic circuits has been hampered by their lower speed and by the requirement of high supply voltage (of the order of 100V), which means that they are unable to compete with conventional silicon-based electronics especially in off-the-grid applications, which are the most attractive for this technology.
via Read More → "Fast-switching plastic circuit mimics CMOS function"

The 20% Doctrine: How Tinkering, Goofing Off, and Breaking the Rules at Work Drive Success in Business is a recently published book that explores the concept of how employees taking a fifth of work time to focus on personal projects can be a good thing. It is authored by Gawker’s tech gossip blogger, Ryan Tate. via Laughing Squid

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NOAA has made sea floor maps and other data on the world’s coasts, continental shelves and deep ocean available for easy viewing online. Anyone with Internet access can now explore undersea features and obtain detailed depictions of the sea floor and coasts, including deep canyons, ripples, landslides and likely fish habitat.

The new online data viewer compiles sea floor data from the near shore to the deep blue, including the latest high-resolution bathymetric (sea … Read More → "NOAA releases new views of Earth’s ocean floor"

IKEA constantly manages to churn out innovative, affordable products. The latest, however, is seeing it move directly into the technology sector: it’s launching its own TV, which comes integrated into a piece of furniture to completely banish cables from your home.
via Gizmodo

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The GeekDad community at Wired.com is committed to helping you raise geek generation 2.0. Back in March, we posted a list of our favorite books to read aloud to our kids before the age of ten. The post turned out to be a bit of a crowd-pleaser. Many educators and parents asked us to put together a printed version of “67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10.”
via Wired</ … Read More → "67 books every geek should read to their kids: a printable list"

Japanese ad agency I&SBBDO was approached by a client who wanted to boost their flagging business after the 2011 tsunami in Japan– the product, however, was nori (sheets of Japanese seaweed used in sushi). In an effort to reinvent this simple square of seaweed without losing sight of the age-old traditions embedded in their culture, I&SBBDO decided to laser cut classic Japanese patterns into the … Read More → "Laser-cut seaweed for sushi rolls"

Biking can be a great way to get around, or stay in shape, or just have a little fun, but I’ll bet you never considered that it could be a way to doodle. Neither have I, but WallyGPX has, and he’s gotten quite good at it. By plotting intricate rides around the Baltimore area, WallyGPX — real name Michael J. Wallace — has … Read More → "Biker uses GPS for line art, makes Baltimore his own personal Etch-A-Sketch"

“During the week of July 21-27, 1921, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone camped at a site about six miles east of Hancock in Washington County. During the weekend, President Warren G. Harding joined the “vagabonds” — the name the wealthy industrialists gave themselves when they camped together. The 200-acre farm where they made camp was located about one mile north of the National Turnpike along Licking Creek. Today, the campsite lies inside … Read More → "Edison, Ford, Firestone, and President Harding go camping, July 1921"

Netflix awarded a $1 million prize to a developer team in 2009 for an algorithm that increased the accuracy of the company’s recommendation engine by 10 percent. But it doesn’t use the million-dollar code, and has no plans to implement it in the future, Netflix announced on its blog Friday. The post goes on to explain why: a combination of too much engineering effort for the results, and a shift from movie recommendations to the “next level” of personalization caused by the transition of the business from mailed DVDs to … Read More → "Netflix never used Its $1 million algorithm due to engineering costs"

In an effort to find cheaper alternatives for the exploration of Mars following recent budget cuts, earlier this year NASA established the Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG). To seek out the best and brightest ideas for a reformulated Mars exploration program, the group is calling on the public to submit ideas and concepts that will help inform new strategies for exploration of the Red Planet.

The call for innovative ideas and concepts is aimed … Read More → "NASA seeks public input for future Mars exploration missions"