Clancy: Envisioning the Nanosuit

Some may believe that nanoparticles - let along their weaponized applications - are the stuff of crude science fiction.  However, as recent sources and TED Talks suggest, nanotechnology is an emergent reality that will bring massive innovations across various sectors of modern society.  Clancy shares thoughts on how he is tapping into the promise of the field below:

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A nanosuit, as worn by a soldier from Crytek’s video game Crysis. 
Image located at crysis.wikia.com.

The idea of this particular [nano]suit is to fully enhance the user physically and mentally, making them 100% effective in a combat situation. The suit is specifically a type of hybrid nanosuit that weighs in at approximately one thousand pounds. The suit has four layers that all correspond with each other to keep the user functioning at physical capacity. The first layer actually acts as two; it is the contact layer. This means it is the layer that is responsible for reading the user's bio-electrical signals. The layer is crucial to the suit's design. It is comprised of, on the inside, a crystal compound that can speed up bio-electrical signals and ping them through the suit to a neural transmitter. The first layer on the outside acts as a foundation for the second layer. The first layer resembles a wetsuit. Once the user puts the first layer on, it is filled with a carbon-based gel. This serves as the sub-layer and a median for the active nanite life support system. The second layer is a titanium nano-composite material which is used to construct nano muscle packs. The muscle packs will act as a secondary choice to exo skeletons, having the same functions and properties as a traditional exo in a much more compact, natural-looking, and normal-feeling system. The second layer will have the capability to transfer power to the inner and outer layers. The third and outer most layer is titanium alloy plating, which is magnetically bolted to the second layer. The plates are between three and four inches thick. The third layer has a piezonucleic coating of gold and lithium-hydrate. This is woven into the third layer at 14 nano meters. This coating produces energy for the suit. My hypothesis is that it can also project energy, forming a shield around the suit.

Thoughts or questions for Clancy? Please post in the comments section below!

Sal: Surfing in Rockaway

A street sign pointing to Rockaway Beach. 
Photo Credit:  Sbazzone (Own work) [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons.  Picture located at
joedicondina.com.

Sal entered the year intending to continue studying the topic of his 10th grade Personal Project:  happiness.  Wishing to examine the intersection between joy and photography, he researched TED Talks on emotions, planned a test evaluating the aesthetic of happiness, and reflected upon his own pleasures:  his photography, his artistic influences (e.g., Darren Ankenman, Robert Mapplethorpe), and his drive to capture the mood of NYC through art.  Not long after declaring his topic, however, Sal waned in his effort.  He entered a period of indecision during which he occupied his attention with research into surfing.  He had long relished the ride and the codes of conduct for surfers, so he passed the time by exploring Rockaway Beach (located in Queens, NY), a shoreline boasting both a surfing subculture and Manhattanite values.

Soon Sal transformed the quasi-interest into his topic proper.   Almost overnight, for instance, the Edge Team discovered him spending the majority of his time in the campus's dark room with a worn surfboard.  When asked what he was doing, he replied that he wished to restore and plane the platform.  Sure enough, after a few days as well as mounting collections of styrofoam dust, the board began to boast meticulous curves and the outlines of slats.  Sal complemented his hands-on work, too, with comprehensive research.  He doubled his efforts to follow professionals such as Mick Fanning (@Mick_Fanning), and he constructed a timeline of board designs beginning in the 1960s.  He analyzed the literature, music, and art of surfing sub-cultures in California by reading William Finnegan's memoir, and he explored posts on surfers' social media profiles.  Finally, he channeled his writing and photography to reflect upon his evolving understanding of surfing.  Indeed, he applied these skills in a multimedia assignment that we share with you now. (NOTE:  In order to present Sal's words in their unadulterated form, we The Edge Team have not modified the piece beyond those revisions we conducted with him.)

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For a life long surfer, living in landlocked Amenia is hard, especially when Instagram is flooded with pictures of the north shore. But there is a ray of hope from 2:01 to 3:39, my Edge time. Edge is a program offered to 11th and 12th grade students that allows them the freedom to work independently on a topic of their choosing. I end my school day doing something I love, whether it’s reading surf articles or working on shaping my surfboard. For the last 2 periods I’m able to immerse myself in everything surfing (besides “really” surfing). I am hand-shaping a surfboard, with no real instruction, I use my sandpaper and a plainer, that's it. Going over the same spot by hand over and over trying to achieve the perfect board it's hard but extremely satisfying. Everyday I learn something new about surfing and everyday I look forward to 7th and 8th period Edge.

When I'm not caught up in my surfing, I'm looking at photography, a hobby I picked up when the waves were flat. Sadly, on the east coast, that is most of the time. I started taking pictures of what interests me, naturally the beach is one of my big interests but I also like to document the towns and neighborhoods that sit next to the beach.

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As we look back at his journey, we believe that Sal recognized - on some level - that the study of emotions proved too sterile for him.  He modified his pursuit, personalizing his investigation by asking himself the question that he wished to pose to others, "What causes you happiness?"  Such a step, bred from a moment of confusion and doubt, was all that he needed to begin to flourish.  We at Edge are grateful to have you as an Edge Maker, Sal, and we applaud your diligence in editing and helping us publish another student-led blog post!

Have a thought on Sal's journey? A resource for his investigation? Please post in the comments below!

Jacob Riis Park (Rockaway, Queens). 
Photo taken by Sal and shared
 with the Edge Team.

Block 148 (Rockaway, Queens).

Photo taken by Sal and shared with

the Edge Team.

Beach 148 (Rockaway, Queens). 
Photo taken by Sal and shared
with the Edge Team.

Cameron Herold: "Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs" @ TEDxEdmonton

Speaker, author of Double, Double:  How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less, and an influential source in increasing the revenue of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? from $2 million to $106 million in just six years, Cameron Herold (@CameronHerold) is - first and foremost - an #entrepreneur.  Four years ago, he delivered a TED Talk (@TEDTalks) at TEDxEdmonton (@TEDxEdmonton) during which he called upon parents and teachers to alter their rearing and educational practices in one fundamental way:  by instilling entrepreneurial skills in ALL children.  Herold, after all, "has been a entrepreneurial innovator since launching his first company at the age of 21" (passage taken from Herold's bio); he began acquiring business strategies at a very young age, so he understands the importance of nurture AND nature in developing an entrepreneurial mindset.

Herold goes on to frame a sort of psychological and educational profile of entrepreneurs.  Does this sound familiar...?

I just came back from speaking in Barcelona at the YPO global conference, and everyone that I met over there who's an entrepreneur struggled with school. I have 18 out of the 19 signs of attention deficit disorder diagnosed. ... Attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder. Do you know that bipolar disorder is nicknamed the CEO disease? Ted Turner (@TedTurnerIII)'s got it. Steve Jobs has it. All three of the founders of Netscape had it. I could go on and on. Kids -- you can see these signs in kids. And what we're doing is we're giving them Ritalin and saying, 'Don't be an entrepreneurial type. Fit into this other system and try to become a student.' Sorry, entrepreneurs aren't students. We fast-track. We figure out the game.

Are our dyslexic students/​children predisposed to greater entrepreneurial prowess? Do you have a strategy, lesson plan, etc. to help our kids practice innovation in life and in the classroom? Please write in the comments section below.

Description of image:  Herold delivering his "Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs" @ TEDxEdmonton.  Picture located at static.squarespace.com.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the above photo.

Vladimir Nabokov: Lifelong IPian

Polyommatus blue, pictured above.  Image located at nytimes.com.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the photo above.

A Russian author who published works in English, Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) has received international recognition for texts such as Lolita, Pale Fire, and Speak, Memory:  An Autobiography Revisited.  He is respected even today for a beautifully precise diction and his post-modern considerations of literature and art.  He recently garnered attention, however, also as a lepidopterist (one who studies butterflies).  Having developed an extensive collection of butterflies, taken many butterfly excursions, and served as the curator for the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, he was fascinated with a particular specimen:  the Polyommatus Blue.  He was so enthralled that he not only peppered his stories with vague descriptions of "blue" but also proposed an evolutionary theory concerning the species:  a series of migrations to the New World from Asia over millions of years.

Nabokov was primarily invested in literature during his life, so the scientific community did not take him seriously.  At first.  As hinted earlier, the The Proceedings of the Royal Society of London was recently shocked to learn that Nabokov's theory on the Polyommatus Blue is absolutely correct.  And the kicker? He was self-taught.  As a New York Times article explains, a teenage "Nabokov went on butterfly-hunting expeditions and carefully described the specimens he caught, imitating the scientific journals he read in his spare time."  What began as a hobby and informal explorations led to a lifelong passion and scientific acclaim.

Let us remember Nabokov, then, by cheering on our own "self-taught" IPians.  After all, what begins as a topic of choice may become something truly earth-shattering in the future.

Vladimir Nabokov, pictured above.  Image located at nytimes.com.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the photo above.