Israeli device takes the thirst out of war zones

Supplying water in battle zones is expensive and sometimes deadly. Armies around the world spend millions of dollars transporting water to thirsty troops on the front lines, often under extremely dangerous conditions

Chaotic Moon's mind-controlled skateboard

How plastic bottles can lighten up the darkness.

Micro Luggage - luggage that moves you!

Micro Luggage is luggage that moves you! Micro spent 3 years developing Micro Luggage in cooperation with Samsonite. A lightweight, hard shell, cabin-sized case with a built-in kickboard scooter. It can be used as a trolley or as a scooter with a case. Fly past the other passengers and always make it to the gate on time.

Warby Parker: “Why Should A Pair Of Glasses Cost More Than An iPhone?”

If you’ve ever shopped for a pair of prescription glasses, you’ve probably seen first hand how expensive a set can be. Warby Parker’s co-founders are right there with you.

Both fed-up and puzzled over paying hundreds of dollars for a product that’s been around for hundreds of years, the Warby Parker team is shaking up the eyewear industry by selling prescription glasses online, at a price tag of just $95 a pair.

Having crafted their plan during business school, the foursome launched the company two years ago this month. Three weeks after the initial pair went on sale, co-founder, Neil Blumenthal says Warby Parker hit its sales targets for the entire year and adds “we sold out of our top 15 styles in four weeks”. The company has since ramped up to 60-employees.

Two of Warby Parker’s co-founders, David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal recently stopped by TCTV to give Founder Stories host, Chris Dixon the backstory on how the company got started.

As lifelong eyeglass wearers, Gilboa tells Dixon the group couldn’t understand why “glasses cost more than an iPhone.” After doing some research they realized “there’s a handful of companies that control the entire supply chain.” Not content to roll with the status quo, Gilboa says the team set out to change the landscape by creating “our own brand of glasses …. so we could sell the same product that normally costs $500 for $95.”

However, because their product was only available online, the team had to figure out a way for customers to try on the frames. Blumenthal says their solution was to create a “first of its kind” program “in the US where you select 5 frames, we ship it to you free of cost and you have 5 days to try them on at home, with no obligation to buy.”

Gilboa adds that this process enables customers to receive feedback from people “they trust” (versus paid sales staffers) and as an added benefit, Warby Parker receives “millions of free impressions” from users who post tryout pictures to their social networking sites.

As the interview unfolds, Gilboa and Blumenthal share plenty more insights, so sure to watch the entire video to hear more.

Past episodes for Founder Stories featuring Jeff Clavier, Cyrus Massoumi, Stephen Kaufer, Mayor Bloomberg and many other leaders are here.

A Day Made of Glass... Made possible by Corning.

Solar paint could transform houses into giant electricity generators

t's common to see houses with solar panels on the roof harvesting energy to power household electricity, and if lucky the electrical grid. Now, a team from the University of Notre Dame is swinging back around on the idea of solar paint, and using semi-conducting particles to produce energy. This paint would be cheap enough to cover your entire house and turn it into a massive solar powered generator.

The goal was to find a way to move beyond silicon based solar technology. The team centered in on nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide, coated with either cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide. The particles were mixed with a water-alcohol base to create a paste.

When the paste was brushed onto a transparent conducting material and exposed to light it created electricity.

While this is a huge stride in re-envisioning solar power there are still some hurdles. According to Prashant Kamat, John A. Zahm Professor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry and an investigator in Notre Dame's Center for Nano Science and Technology (NDnano), which is leading the research, "The best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we've reached so far is 1 percent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 percent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells."

"But this paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future," he added.

The team has christened the new paint "Sun-Believable and in addition to looking at increasing the efficiency of the product they will also measure stability. Their work on the solar paint has been published in the research journal ACS Nano.

While it is still early days, it does sound like the paint has a bright future.