Short stories of human inventions
Archive for May, 2009
Can We Stop Earthquakes?
Is it possible and has mankind reached the point in which they can now stop Earthquakes? By knowing all the pressure points along major fault lines is it possible to alleviate pressure and prevent the “big one” or the Monster Quake in California which we all know is only a matter of time?
This very serious topic has recently come up in an online think tank and has been discussed at length. It seems almost an impossible task to accomplish although it has been the dream of many tectonic researchers indeed.
Of course the faults would have to be completely mapped and we would need to determine exactly how the weight distribution works and where. But making or stopping an Earthquake may not be so difficult once all this in known. Pop a pressure point in a large fault line between plates or within plates and it will give way and you have a quake.
Relieve pressure slowly and the event is a lot of little slippage without damage to civilizations. But in doing so you may be changing… More >>
Medicine and Nuclear Science
Hal Anger, a nuclear scientist, was the man who invented the gamma camera. Is a medical device, a camera, that is used to look at the internal organs and how they are functioning at the time. He invented it back in the 1950′s and it is still around today, nearly 70 years later.The gamma camera works by through gamma rays. The patient is given a solution to drink or injected with a solution that contains a low level of radiation that will emit gamma rays. Depending on the organ that is being target to be looked at, a different type of solution is given. The reason for this is because certain types and mixes of the solution will be absorbed by different organs.Once the solution is in the patient, they are then put under the gamma camera. The first part of the camera to receive the gamma rays coming from the patient is a part called a collimator. Like a colander that strains liquid from the solid, the nuclear medicine collimator on the gamma camera channels all of the gamma rays into the camera head that is full… More >>
Invention and Innovation As a Problem Solving Process
Introduction:It has been my experience as a professional inventor that every “AH-HA” moment is followed by several “Uh Oh!”, “Oh No!” and some coarser expletives. It seems that every “solution” that I have tried to implement and commercialize required the solving of, what time seemed like, an endless series of problems.What solved a problem for the end user often created another problem in the manufacturing, costs or some other area of the project. Based on my experience is that problems never completely disappear but are broken down, altered and transposed to some other area. That is, appearing to make a problem disappear just means that it has been transferred to some other area in whole or in part and appears as another single problem (of similar size) or a collection of several smaller problems.However, I have developed a process for coming up with the initial innovative idea(s) and solving the subsequent string of problems in its development.? This process is discussed below.Defining Product Features and Characteristics:The first part of this step is to identify the problem that is going to be addressed.? The next step is to examine… More >>
Electronic Medical Billing Software – A Proven Way to Improve Medical Billing
Have you ever wondered how a medical practice gets payments for the services rendered to the patients? It is by a process called medical billing. Medical billing and coding are two separate entities that work together in order to process the insurance claim. While medical billing involves submission of insurance claims to the insurance carriers, medical coding is more of making the documentation. Medical coders assign unique codes to the diagnosis, treatments and tests that help the billers to process the claim.Earlier, paper billing was the preferred choice to submit the claims to the insurance companies. However, paper submission is a snail pace process and it involved lot of manpower and expenses. Since the entire documentation was done manually, the errors were higher and rejection rates were very high. However, the introduction of software technologies to the medical field has made the billing process an easy task.The invention of electronic medical billing software has dramatically changed the process. While using the software, hospitals need not wait months together to get reimbursement for the services provided to the patients. As back office staffs of the hospital enter the patient… More >>