Lotsa Ideas From 2007

NYT has published its 7th annual year in ideas. Some of my favorites: blimp-based wind turbines, a theory for why the human appendix might not be vestigial after all, an experiment in how knots form spontaneously in strings of various lengths, saving gas through left-turb elimination, concrete that neutralizes smog, ocean wave electrical generators using dielectric elastomers, and, of course, the transparency-enhancing idea of the year, wikiscanning.