Technology

More than any other vital organ offered for transplant, the lung is susceptible to injury that is difficult to prevent, detect, and predict. To err on the side of caution, 80 percent of organ donors' lungs are rejected as unsuitable, a waste lamented by doctors and patients alike. Now, the University of Pennsylvania and five other medical centers are testing technology aimed at improving the situation. It involves cleaning and refurbishing donor lungs while the organ "breathes" in a specially designed machine.

The Consumer Electronics Show will turn Las Vegas into a technology wonderland next week, as 3,260 companies from around the world vie for attention from the media, the public, and potential business partners. For consumers, the show provides a window onto what's in store in the months ahead. Sometimes it's a preview of big hits, and sometimes of misses. Last year, Intel showcased a "reference design" for a light, long-lived Windows laptop billed as an alternative to tablets and to Apple's popular MacBook Air. So far, sales of Intel-based "Ultrabooks" have underwhelmed, though the technology is promising.

Forget watching college football bowl games on TV and nursing hangovers. If you're a Philadelphian, one New Year's Day activity trumps all others. We speak, of course, of the Mummers Parade, the now-112-year-old orgy of banjos, glockenspiels, feathers and sequins that as much as anything we hold dear, symbolizes our sweetly eccentric corner of the universe. But for something that virtually defines the word "tradition," the Mummers Parade is a surprisingly evolving entity, which is likely why the relic of the horse-and-buggy era has survived into the time of Instagram and "Gangnam Style.

Camden County's ability to accept 911 text messages this summer will lead the state with a technology advance that will better protect residents, officials said. "This is not a replacement to the ability to call. It's another option," said Freeholder Scot McCray. "I think it's going to help every community in Camden County. " Supporters say the text service would be useful to those with speech or hearing problems, or could prove crucial in circumstances - such as a burglary - where individuals are hiding and afraid to speak while seeking help.

Camden County's ability to accept 911 text messages this summer will lead the state with a technology advance that will better protect residents, officials said. "This is not a replacement to the ability to call. It's another option," said Freeholder Scot McCray. "I think it's going to help every community in Camden County. " Supporters say the text service would be useful to those with speech or hearing problems, or could prove crucial in circumstances - such as a burglary - where individuals are hiding and afraid to speak while seeking help.

Imagine a particle 1/10,000 of a cross-section of a human hair. That's the size of a protein, way smaller than a cell. Bernardo Cordovez, 29, and his partners have come up with something they call a NanoTweezer that allows them to pick up and move that kind of teeny-tiny particle using a laser beam of light. There's been a lot of talk about trying to bring high-tech, high-potential businesses to Philadelphia, and the story behind how Cordovez's very small company, Optofluidics Inc., landed here provides an object lesson.

Debra Nussbaum is an adjunct journalism professor at Rowan University When Emily Post penned her famous tome on etiquette in 1922, she never could have envisioned that, decades down the road, there would need to be many new chapters written on civility and manners, thanks to technology. E-mails, texts, Facebook messages, and tweets have presented modern dilemmas on what constitutes polite behavior. The biggest challenge for many of us may be figuring out when communicating electronically is just not appropriate.

RALEIGH, N.C. - N. Joseph Woodland, 91, the coinventor of the bar code that labels nearly every product in stores and has boosted productivity in nearly every sector of commerce worldwide, has died. Mr. Woodland, who was born in Atlantic City, died Sunday in Edgewater, N.J., from the effects of Alzheimer's disease and complications of his advanced age, his daughter, Susan Woodland, said Thursday. Mr. Woodland and Bernard Silver were students at Philadelphia's Drexel Institute of Technology - now Drexel University - when Silver overheard a grocery executive asking an engineering school dean to channel students into research on how product information could be captured at checkout, Susan Woodland said.

A pyramid of reflected laser beams is hardly what Frank Lloyd Wright had in mind when he referred to the Elkins Park synagogue he designed as an incandescent vision of Mount Sinai. But the historic Beth Sholom Congregation building is being re-created as hundreds of thousands - if not a million - points of light, all in an effort to preserve it. The 1959 structure of aluminum, glass, and steel is part of a global initiative to create high-definition 3D digital models of important historic sites.

Earlier this month, City Council hosted a hearing over two days about Philadelphia's business climate. Allow me to boil down the more than eight hours of testimony after having reviewed several hundred pages of transcripts: Philadelphia needs to attract more capital and technology talent. Oh, there was plenty of discussion about changing taxes. ( University of Pennsylvania finance professor Robert Inman , for example, says tax residents where they live, not where they work.)