Trend Toward Home Backup Electric Generators: Standby electric power generators for homes are on the rise in areas where grid electricity outtages can last for hours or days. These are not the small noisy gas-guzzling backup generators... homeowners who can afford it are installing whole-home systems to generate as much as 40 kilowatts from propane, natural gas, or photovoltaics. The systems can be costly, but in some affluent neighborhoods they are becoming status symbols. [Christian Science Monitor via FuturePundit]
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Artifical Muscle Displays Enable More Lifelike Color: Today's plasma and LCD screens produce color images by mixing three basic colors of red, green, and blue. A new development in optics uses and adjustable diffraction grating technology to fine-tune those three basic colors, resulting in a much fuller range of colors than is currently possible, giving such a life-like viewing experience that it could be hard to go back to your old TV. The invention could begin showing up in competitively priced consumer products in eight years. [What's Next In Science & Technology]
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