robotic surgery demonstration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NZLpWrJGgk

Robot Peeling a Grape
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvUIocA12pc...

Surgical robotics was little more than a medical curiosity until 1999, the year Intuitive Surgical introduced the da Vinci® Surgical System. Today, Intuitive Surgical is the global leader in the rapidly emerging field of robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery. Since its inception, the company has consistently provided surgeons and hospitals with the tools needed to improve clinical outcomes and to help patients return to active and productive lives.

The German biogas plants market plunged 80 per cent in 2008 pushed by the close succession of the global financial crisis, rising energy crops prices, and the revision of the German Renewable Energy law (EEG). However, because the German biogas market accounted for nearly 70 per cent (1 billion USD) of the global/European total in 2009, Germany will likely remain the key market arena for biogas plants in 2010.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that despite recent economic instability, the construction of larger plants producing natural gas continues to be highly lucrative for both farmers and financial investors in Germany, with over 30 new plants planned for 2010.

Other countries are starting to mimic German renewable energy policies. The US and the EU are already implementing policies that will grow the biogas market sector while targeting farmers as primary users, assuming regulatory conditions are favorable. For example, in a bid to reduce greenhouse gases, enhance the economic position of farmers, and generate interest in biogas plant production, the US government launched a campaign on the treatment of hazardous waste from livestock farms.

'The market for biogas plants is currently at a turning point and can grow at a CAGR of 8 or 24 per cent during the period 2010-2016,' says Frost & Sullivan's Environment Senior Analyst Nuno Oscar Branco. 'In Germany, the market will continue to grow, driven by the strong regulatory framework already in operation in the country. Therefore, if other European countries, together with the US and Canada, follow the German lead and implement a similar business environment that attracts farmers and investors, market growth will be limited only by the ability of the industry to meet demand.' adds Branco.

http://www.environmental-expert.com/result...

"This is as green as you get," Henriod says, holding a handful of damp, sweet-smelling wood chips.

"If we have a fuel source, why not use it?" Especially if it's free, renewable, bypasses the county landfill and cuts down on David E. Norman Elementary School's heating bill, which Henriod says costs the school a whopping $1,000 every three days in heating oil. The wood chips, if all works out according to plan, will keep students warm for free; the nutrient-rich potash Henriod shovels from the furnace periodically keeps county property green and its flowerbeds showpieces.

Still, one neighbor living near the school's mulch yard on Pinwheel Lane is uneasy about the joint venture between the White Pine County School District and the Nevada Forestry Department.

What the NFD is proposing is taking the school's mulch storage yard to the next level: encouraging county residents to bring their tree limbs to the site where they will be turned into fuel for the elementary school and into mulch for use by the county. The new buzzword for tree limbs and waste wood (but not construction waste) is woody biomass. And the area is rife with woody biomass.
http://www.elynews.com/articles/2010/03/10...

The VILLAGER SUN OVEN® is designed for large-scale feeding situations that require cooking great volumes of food quickly. Even though it is called an oven, enormous quantities of food can be boiled, steamed or baked at cooking temperatures of 500° F / 260° C with no fuel costs.

The world has entered an era of increasingly higher energy costs. These costs are often viewed from an economic perspective, but the toll they take in human and environmental terms, while difficult to measure and often overlooked, are even more devastating. Feeding programs are often forced to choose between buying food or the fuel to cook it. VILLAGER SUN OVENS® were developed to help feed large groups of people without destabilizing the environment or contributing to deforestation.
http://www.sunoven.com/international/villa...

In 2009 Sunlabob was awarded a World Bank financed procurement contract, handled locally by the Rural Electrification Office of the Department of Electricity (part of the Ministry of Energy and Mines), to supply 6,560 solar home systems (20W, 30W and 50W), including spares, to 14 provinces across Laos. With a country average of 5.9 people per household (2005 census), this programme will benefit over 30,000 people nationwide.
The video documents Sunlabob's work in this project and the great logistical challenges which had to be met.

http://www.sunlabob.com/video-power-to-the...

China may be mired in energy problems, but efforts on the local level could help reduce their rising CO2 emissions. The Fenghuang village in the Sichuan province, for one, has turned to biogas as their energy resource, Reuters reported.

Standards of living have improved in rural areas, meaning that people are using more electricity and power, Ma Zhong, a professor of environmental studies at Beijing's People's University, told Reuters' Roya Stephens. So while those in the big city rely on oil and coal, those in developing rural areas should move toward biogas.

It is a relatively new form of energy, but it could help China collectively cut down on its CO2 emissions and ease the region's smog problem, Reuters reported.

"We produce wheat, corn, and agricultural crops, and these are all natural resources," Li Yonggui, a biogas station worker told Stephens. "As long as we'll continue to produce these crops, they'll create new energy resources, and this is the biggest benefit."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/c...