eldavojohn writes “A new initiative is being piloted where ‘green’ patents are given special priority over other patents in the backlogged system. David Kappos (Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO) said, ‘Every day an important green tech innovation is hindered from coming to market is another day we harm our planet and another day lost in creating green businesses and green jobs. Applications in this pilot (more…)

Limited edition version might not be available at year’s end.

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…to impregnate women… Researcher Dr. Hasson believes stressful lifestyles, infection and pollution alone cannot explain the high levels of infertility…research suggests they result from an ‘evolutionary arms race’ in which male and female bodies undergo subtle changes to improve fertility.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/

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CWmike writes “Google is developing a product called Fast Flip that aims to make it simpler and faster to browse through news articles on the Web, a process the company says is cumbersome and discourages people from reading more online. Fast Flip, which lets readers glance at pages and browse through them quickly without having to wait for multiple page elements to load, was expected to go live late Monday at the Google Labs Web site. The idea is (more…)

sciencehabit writes “‘Researchers have developed a material that almost instantaneously (30 ms) changes from clear to dark blue when exposed to ultraviolet light, and it just as quickly reverts to clear when the light is turned off. The new material, one of a class called photochromics, could be useful in optical data storage as well as in super-fancy sunglasses.’” A comment to the article notes some of the potential dangers of quick-change sunglasses.

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