Each quarter Friess Associates, managers of the Brandywine Funds, share samples of innovative ideas that cross their research team's radar screen even though opportunities to invest in them may lie in the future or never surface. Some of these innovations might be showing up near you already while others fail to evolve into practical applications. Here are some recent ideas:
- Making a Star on Earth. Recently completed, the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California is preparing to conduct its first experiments to demonstrate nuclear fusion, a phenomenon that scientists believe occurs at the center of a star and generates massive amounts of clean energy. The size of three football fields, the NIF sends 192 laser beams through a fiber-optic lines, magnifying their power 10 billion times before directing them at an eraser-sized capsule of hydrogen. If successful, the extreme temperatures and pressures imparted by the lasers will cause the hydrogen to release more energy than was used to create the reaction. Experiments are set to begin this June.
- Defense Contractor Defends Fruit. Raytheon Co. is using technology originally designed to identify aircraft to aid in farming's ongoing fight against frost. The company's Tempwave system has been successful in tests conducted in freezing temperatures on a California orange grove owned by Paramount Citrus. The system consists of a series of antennae that continuously emit low powered radar waves specifically tuned to water molecules. The waves agitate the water molecules just enough to keep them from freezing. According to Raytheon, the waves pose no threat to humans or animal exposed to them.
- Designed to Keep the Spine Fine. Researchers at the University of British Columbia are developing helmet technology that they believe will reduce the risk of spinal-cord injuries in sports where collision is common. Prototype helmets demonstrated reductions of as much as 56 percent in impact to the neck at the time of collision. The helmets sport internal shells that tilt the wearer's head slightly forward or backward at contact, dissipating the load delivered to the spine. The researchers envision making the helmet technology commercially available in about three years.
- Devices Charged with Movement. Someday the phrase "shake a leg" might come to mean recharge the electronic device in your pocket if scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology continue to build on their progress in developing a "nanogenerator." Research presented at the 237th national meeting of the American Chemical Society detailed technology for converting mechanical energy from body movements into electrical energy that can be used to power a wide range of electronic devices. The nanogenerator utilizes zinc oxide nanowires, which produce electric current when subjected to mechanical stress. The scientists envision harvesting energy from low-frequency movements as delicate as a heartbeat. The research is funded by a handful of government bodies, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which hopes soldiers in the field will one day be able to activate electronic devices without batteries.
Editor's Note: Founded in 1974, Friess Associates, P.O. Box 576, Jackson, WY 83001 manage more than $6 billion in the Brandywine mutual funds, www.brandywinefunds.com, as well as separately managed portfolios.
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