Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Click to enlarge. Credit: Randy Wind/Martin Roelfs (illustration); Kudernac, Ruangsupapichat et al

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union nations must nearly double investment in power grid building in the decade after 2020 if it is to get on the path to carbon-free electricity by the middle of the century, think-tank the European Climate Foundation (ECF) said on Monday. The European Commission raised the goal of virtually emissions-free electricity in its 2050 road map toward a low carbon economy, published earlier this year, as the means to achieve an 80-95 percent cut in carbon scientists say is needed by then to stave off the worst effects of global warming. [More]

By Allison Martell and Barbara Lewis (Reuters) - The United Nations body responsible for civil aviation weighed in against the European Union's emissions trading scheme on Wednesday, increasing pressure on the EU to back down in what threatens to become a serious trade dispute. [More]

Navigation, thanks to a bunch of innovations, is about to get futuristic in a way Star Trek's Mr. Chekov would be impressed with ..

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is teaming up with Beijing to fund a series of revolutionary agricultural and biotech initiatives. China might be using Gates to further its economic imperialism

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is teaming up with Beijing to fund a series of revolutionary agricultural and biotech initiatives. China might be using Gates to further its economic imperialism

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is teaming up with Beijing to fund a series of revolutionary agricultural and biotech initiatives. China might be using Gates to further its economic imperialism. But maybe that's not such a bad thing

A brief encounter between a European spacecraft and a large asteroid has revealed that the space rock is likely a mostly intact leftover from the planetary formation process. But the flyby raised more questions than it answered, providing tantalizing but somewhat puzzling hints about the asteroid's makeup and internal structure

Cosmetics and pharmaceutical drug delivery systems could be improved thanks to a new method developed to precisely measure the capability of capsule-like biological membranes to change shape under external stress. This work is outlined in a study about to be published in European Physical Journal E by Philippe Meleard and Tanja Pott from the Rennes-based Institute of Chemical Sciences at the European University of Brittany and their colleagues from the Center for Biomembrane Physics at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.

A team of scientists from Italy and Germany has recently developed a model to predict the friction occurring when a rough surface in wet conditions (such as a road on a rainy day) is in sliding contact with a rubber material (such as a car tire tread block) in an article to be published shortly in the European Physical Journal E.

By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazine Galileo, the largest program ever launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) will enter its latest phase with the launch of two navigation satellites on 20 October. [More]

Curt Richardson escaped a moribund industry by taking control of his company's product line and tapping into mobile technology trends. Like many fabled company founders, Curt Richardson launched his first business in his garage.

By Susan Young of Nature magazine The Ta

Carpooling--going strong overseas--may be finally rev up here thanks to the domestic launch of Europe's incredibly successful ridesharing program. Carpooling--which has has never really taken off in the U.S.--is about to get a little help from a European invasion. Carpooling.com , launched as an MBA class project in Germany six years ago, is now a continent-wide phenomenon that has cracked what it takes to get millions of people to open their doors to relative strangers: safety, convenience, and a little cash.

In the competitive space of philanthropy and philanthrocapitalism, how do you break through the clutter and get people engaged in an issue that isn’t the tug-on-your-heart-strings norm?