-Fujifilm Corp. and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have developed a resin sheet that generates electricity, utilizing the temperature difference between human body and the air.

The sheet uses the thermoelectric effect, which generates a voltages due to the temperature difference between the surface of an object and its reverse side. The sheet is 0.4mm thick and soft. In a normal environment, the temperature of the air is lower than that of the human body or the surface of clothes. That temperature difference can be used to generate a steady flow of electricity.

It can be used as an additional power source for portable devices by attaching it to a human body or clothes. Heat emitted from TVs, steam in a bathroom, curtains in sunlight or a car’s body can also be used to generate electricity. >> Read More

Reserve Bank governor D Subbarao today warned against “casino banking” that has over- financialised the real economy, and called for inclusive growth to quell the growing disenchantment of the public. 

“A growth process that increases inequity lacks durability, and indeed even legitimacy, eventually threatening the economic and social stability. Evidence in support of this is overwhelming–the `Occupy Movement’ of the past year being just the latest manifestation of the discontent associated with inequitable growth,” Subbarao said at a seminar. 

Inaugurating two-day international conference on ‘Leveraging cooperative advantage’, organised by the RBI-run College of Agricultural Banking as a part of International Year of Cooperatives of the UN in Pune, Subbarao said, “The recent financial crisis has taught us some very important lessons. 

“The general disenchantment with ‘casino banking’ in certain developed economies underscored the dangers of over-financialisation of the real economy,” Subbarao said. 

Casino banking is the practice whereby a commercial bank engages in unduly speculative or risky financial activities with the aim of achieving high profits.  >> Read More

A bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard has the potential to change transportation habits from the world’s most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa, its Israeli inventor says.

 Izhar Gafni, 50, is an expert in designing automated mass-production lines. He is an amateur cycling enthusiast who for years toyed with an idea of making a bicycle from cardboard.

He told Reuters during a recent demonstration that after much trial and error, his latest prototype has now proven itself and mass production will begin in a few months.

“I was always fascinated by applying unconventional technologies to materials and I did this on several occasions. But this was the culmination of a few things that came together. I worked for four years to cancel out the corrugated cardboard’s weak structural points,” Gafni said. >> Read More