emergentfutures:

Powerhouse Solar Cell Inspired by Leaf Biomimicry

A team of scientists headed up by Princeton University has achieved a whopping 47 percent increase in electricity generation from flexible plastic solar cells, simply by texturing the surface to mimic the wrinkles of a typical leaf.

Full Story: Cleantechnica

fastcompany:

It’s only appropriate that Eric Ries is the subject of the first video for Fast Company’s new series: The Pivot. He’s the author of a best-selling book, The Lean Startup, and the man who made the term “pivot” part of the business vernacular. During the course of his entrepreneurial adventures, he realized that some of the most iconic companies of our time—Twitter, YouTube, Groupon—had abruptly changed course before they achieved success. If they hadn’t, Twitter would have stuck with audio podcasting, YouTube would have been a video dating site, and Groupon would have continued organizing political protests (and you likely would have never heard of them). Virtually every startup he could think of had pivoted at one time or another. Ries’s observation quickly morphed into a kind of Moore’s Law for startups, which he believes are almost certain to change course before becoming successful.

Watch the video->

thedailyfeed:

Why just donate to a project when you can invest in one? That’s the premise behind Gambitious, a sort of Kickstarter for video games — except Gambitious investors will actually share in the project’s profits.

“Gambitious is the first equity-based, crowd-funding platform that solely concentrates on the video game industry,” Paul Hanraets, the company’s managing director, told The Daily. “Our model is the first of its kind, providing a new way for small and large investors to directly invest in a wide selection of promising game projects, thus taking home a share in any eventual profits from the venture.”

Gambitious