Etech stands for Emerging Technology, and every year tech publisher O'Reilly brings together an amazing and startling collection of speakers who represent the cutting edge of science and tech innovation. Even explosion innovation: Chemistry researcher Christa Hockensmith will be visiting from New Mexico Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (AKA the Explosion Lab) to talk about the latest breakthroughs in explosion science. There will also be talks from synthetic biologist Drew Endy, game theorist Jane McGonigal, scifi author Maureen McHugh, hacker David Molnar, and io9 co-conspirator Lisa Katayama.

I was on the programming committee for Etech this year, which is partly why I'm pimping it: I've looked over all the talks and after-hours goodies and I know it's going to be a rip-roaring geek time. io9 readers get a special 10% discount off the cost of the conference if you use this special code: et09io9. And if you can't afford the cost of the conference, there are evening events that are open to the public.

Hope to see you at Etech, and if you can't make it, I'll write about some of it here so you can get the scoop.

Etech Conference

Image by Paul Shambroom.

The Ground Bot — For Exploring Other Planets
Designed by Swedish physicists for exploring other planets,the GroundBot can roll up to 6 mph through just about anything—mud, sand, snow and even water. Two gyroscopically steadied wide-angle cameras and a suite of sensors give remote operators a real-time, 360-degree view of the landscape, letting them zoom in on prowlers or detect gas leaks, radioactivity and biohazards. Image of GroundBot via John MacNeill Illustration.

Self-Regenerating Hearts
If your heart has failed you, you may not have to wait for a compatible donor to get a new one. According to PopSci:

Biologist Doris Taylor and her team at the University of Minnesota have created a whole new approach: Take a donor heart, remove the cells, and put the patient’s cells back into it. The technique promises not only to shrink the transplant waiting list but also to keep patients’ bodies from rejecting their new hearts.

Our Terry Johnson covered this technology in his Ask a Biogeek column.

This Car Drives Itself - But Isn't as Annoying as KITT
Using lasers, cameras, and specialized software, this car — called "Boss" — can drive itself around a racetrack at about 30 mph without making any errors. Just make sure you download those updates or your crash may be a little worse than the sad Mac. Says Captain, "Be sure to check out the video of me driving Boss!"

Handheld Spectrometer Would Make Spock Proud
Though it looks rather large and gas-pump-esque, this baby is the most portable spectrometer around. Which is to say, it actually IS portable, and will allow you to analyze the molecular composition of potential toxins — whether in air, liquid, or solid form. Strap it to the outside of your Hazmat suit and get ready to decontaminate.

Bombs, Not Boobs
This device is for use in airports and other places where guards want to make sure you're not carrying firearms. But luckily for you, it's also designed to preserve privacy by not showing off your naughty bits while you're being scanned.

Yet Another Hydrogen Car — But This One Just Might Work!
It's the Honda FCX Clarity, which the manufacturer says can pack its energy-making fuel cell into a 65 percent smaller space than competing models. It has a 280-mile range. How does it work? PopSci explains:

Inside the fuel cell:
 Hydrogen and air flow from top to bottom in Honda’s fuel cell through wave-shaped channels. Along the way, an electrolyte surface transforms the hydrogen into water and electrons. The cooling system runs horizontally through the channels to keep the cell from overheating.

Take a Vacation — In Space!
It's another confection from Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism venture. The WhiteKnight Two is the largest carbon-fiber aircraft ever built, and will carry smaller craft into suborbital space — just for fun. You could be one of those suborbital joyriders as early as 2010. WhiteKnight Two might also be used to launch satellites.

Electric Plane for Two
This totally silent electric plane is called a Taurus Electro, and two lithium-polymer batteries provide 30 kilowatts of power. Though it's classified as an experimental plane, there's a good chance you'll be able to buy one next year.

"Best of What's New 2008" [via PopSci]

In an April 22 press release, the University of Kentucky News introduced the prize:

"The Curry Stone gift will enable the College of Design to reward and encourage innovative uses of design to transform the everyday lives of people—in Kentucky but also around the world," says Michael Speaks, dean of the College of Design. "Specifically, the gift will fund an annual, international design prize awarded to a designer or team of designers whose work has made a significant and positive contribution to society. The idea is to reward great design—urban design, architecture, graphic and product design—but also, and perhaps more importantly, to expand the very notion of design itself. Design is a means of acting in and transforming the world, and the Curry Stone Design Prize will reward design that does just that."

Ambitious and awesome — incentives like this are exactly what we need to make the 21st century more promising than ever. This year's first-ever Curry Stone nominees took humanitarian ideas, paired them with technology, and ran. The results are exciting, and with the help of a no-strings-attached $100,000 for the winner, they could become downright thrilling.

Pictured above is 27-year-old MIT graduate Shawn Frayne, who already won a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award in 2007 for his Windbelt generator. The generator suspends a magnet-covered mylar membrane between two coils; with the aeroelastic flutter created by a simple breeze, the generator can harness enough power to run lamps, mini-fridges, and cell phones. If you're reading this, you've probably just plugged your computer into an AC wall outlet, but that isn't an option for people in Petit Anse, a fishing village in Haiti where Frayne spent time in 2004. Its citizens, like those in many other communities in the developing world, don't have a giant power plant nearby — so the Windbelt generator is, cornily enough, a windfall. Yet if Frayne's company has its way, it will cost only five dollars to build.

While Shawn Frayne powers houses, Ball State University professor Wes Janz will happily build them. The structure you see above may look like a fancy country gazebo, but its beginnings are quite humble; like all of Janz's projects, it was built from trash. He traveled with groups of students and collaborated with locals to erect these recycled houses in low-income sections of Los Angeles, Bangkok, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, and probably anywhere else you want to guess. He shares his thoughts on architecture innovations in his Curry Stone nominee profile:

According to Janz, these "informal pioneers of global urbanism" have much to teach contemporary professional architects who have heeded "the same voices, the same pieces of architecture, and the same logic systems for too long." As the demand for safe, low-cost shelter grows around the world, Janz argues, global citizen-architects have an important role to play.

Janz's forthcoming book One Small Project gathers stories from everyone involved with revitalizing the nature of architecture in these "leftover spaces." As he keeps working, the places we think of as "the projects" will take on a whole new meaning, especially — and most crucially — for their inhabitants.

Whether your money's on Frayne, Janz, or any of the other three inventors, there's no doubt that the unveiling of the Curry Stone Design Prize winner will be a singular event indeed. September 25 will see the announcement of this first award at the Idea Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. Even though only one of these nominees will head off with the money, it's a pretty safe bet that all of them will keep working to revolutionize the mission of modern design.

Images from the Curry Stone Design Prize official website.