To study the behavior of mysterious animals, scientists routinely fix them with GPS location trackers. But such devices’ battery capacity limits how long they operate, often bringing an early end to vital conservation work.

Solar-powered trackers break easily, making them a poor choice for devices tied to larger mammals—and they don’t work for nocturnal (夜行的) creatures. So biologist Rasmus Worsoe Havmoller of the University of Copenhagen and his colleagues turned to another abundant power source: kinetic energy (动能) generated by an animal’s movements.

Their kinetic tracker, which Havmoller’s team recently tested on domestic dogs, a wild small horse and a European bison, could theoretically survive for the entire life span of an active animal. It is also lighter and cheaper to make than its battery-powered counterparts.

“The design is clever and exciting,” says Mark Hebblewhite, a habitat ecologist at the University of Montana, who was not involved with the new work. The proof-of-concept kinetic tracker works by means of a magnetic pendulum (磁摆) that swings around a copper coil, generating electricity as the tagged animal moves. The dogs and bison in the study were active enough to create the energy to transmit one location per day for 14 days and 17 days, respectively. One of the wild horse’s trackers lasted at least 146 days but didn’t generate adequate power for daily transmissions, the researchers reported in PLoS ONE.

“The limited power generated by the animals’ movements means the technology isn’t ready for prime time just yet,” says ecologist Emily Studd of British Columbia’s Thompson Rivers University, who wasn’t involved in the study. When the researchers want to monitor animals closely, they often need GPS fixes more than once a day. But Studd says that “with a bit more development, this could be a game changer for wildlife animal research and monitoring”.

Havmoller and his colleagues hope conservation workers can one day use this technology to track species such as tigers, leopards and wolves, which can easily destroy solar-powered trackers and which hunt and travel at night.

For better or worse, many of us never forget those typical British school days—and with a site that now has over 32, 200 educational institutions as well as a growing number of users, you won't have to.

SchoolMates is a nice networking platform which offers a refreshing alternative to traditional social media in that the focus is on building more meaningful relationships and encouraging interaction between users. While social media sites are customarily designed to form an interactive online community, SchoolMates aims to help people find friends from their past.

“At SchoolMates, our mission is simple. We've created a platform aimed specifically to help people reconnect and keep in touch with former classmates,” explains founder and CEO Chris Goodwin. “Our site encourages people to revive those special relationships from their youth, letting them look back to the ‘good old days’ of summer holidays spent with friends, memorable school trips, as well as less memorable moments like those awful school lunches.”

SchoolMates brings together more than 32, 000 schools, colleges, academies and universities across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and is aimed to help users get back in touch with former classmates. Aimed at the 35 plus age group, which represents 50% of the population, the easy-to-use website enables users to recall and share conversations, jokes, stories, memories and photographs.

Chris was diagnosed with a tumour at the age of 18. He couldn't move and could only sit in a wheelchair. Determined to conquer the world of the Internet and own a successful online business since completing his studies in computer science, he did not let his disability become an excuse to give up on his dreams; he had a successful business career before going on to start up SchoolMates.

Human beings are the most intelligent of all animals because we are gifted with the ability to think and reason logically. Scientists and even common people with special intelligence have made a lot of inventions and contributions to modern lifestyle in the past. “Houses” have been the most popular area for discoveries and inventions in the past and even now.

Many household items have been the result of inventions of people who desired better functioning of the existent products. Every individual has intelligence and if it is used properly for the right purpose, it leads to invention of a new tool or device. Many new household inventions are made almost every day and there are specific companies, which particularly keep a record of all these inventions.

A lot of inventions have been made recently in the household field. These products are patented and have trade mark licenses. The patented sliding cinch is a very simple but effective method to prevent shoulder stress and injury for those who work before computers all day long. Vanity PC is a type of computer furniture that specifically hides all the computer wires and keeps a clean and good look. All the outdoor dust, mud and snow can be kept out of the house by fixing the dirt drain (排水管)at the entrance of the door. Another important invention is the automatic toilet night-light, in which a small light starts when the lid of the toilet seat is opened and closes as soon as the lid is closed.

These are some of the new household inventions invented mostly by common people. Thus, a variety of new household items are invented every day, which helps in a better functioning of household chores and in a more useful manner.