WaterSmart, a software startup that uses meter data and behavioral science to nudge consumers to conserve water, has raised $7 million in equity, the company said Tuesday.

The San Francisco company creates a monthly or bi-monthly report that shows each water customer who much water he or she used in the previous billing period and compares that to prior months and years as well as to similar homes in the neighborhood. Research has shown that such comparison can effective modify behavior because people like to think they can use energy as efficiently as their friends and neighbors. The report also comes with water-saving tips.

A water bill historically tells people their water use, of course. But those numbers often dont come with context or language that helps to explain their significance and grabs consumers attention.

A pie chart that shows where your water is going helps to educate consumers and make them feel more informed, said Jeff Lipton, director of marketing at WaterSmart, explaining one of the ways to present data more effectively. That raises the level of engagement that leads to greater savings.

In a pilot project at the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Northern California, WaterSmart demonstrated that its home report could reduce consumption by an average of 5%. That result and the persistent drought in southwestern United States has helped WaterSmart lining up other utility customers. Its other customers include the California cities of Sacramento and Glendale and Park City, Utah.

For Park City, WaterSmart added a leak detection service. The company uses meter and property data, such as the size of the home, its occupancy and the number of bathrooms, to figure out a certain period of unusual or excessive use of water; from there it could surmise whether there might be a leak. The service includes tracking whether those who received leak alerts followed up to fix the problems.

WaterSmart has about 40 customers, though not all of them have rolled out the home report service across their territories. Its service covers 2 million water meters in North America, which has over 100 million water meters. The company and others like it will likely win more attention from water utilities in states such as California, where state regulators are instituting a mandatory water use cut of 25% (compared to the 2013 levels) and funding technology that could help water districts to cut wasteful consumption.

The startup has raised $13.5 million in equity total since inception in 2009. Its investors include the Westly Group, Apsara Capital, Physic Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Continued here:
A Water Data Startup That Helps To Fight Drought Raises $7M

The Superman stance probably won't boost your testosterone.

In 2010, researchers at Harvard Business School claimed to have found(PDF) that striking powerful poses caused hormonal and behavioral changes. "Power poses" seemed to raise testosterone, lower cortisol, and increase risk-taking behavior.

As with all research, replication was needed to check the validity of the results. An attempt at replication using additional controls, published recently in Psychological Science, found no behavioral or hormonal effects of power poses," although they did result in a boost in subjective perception of power. In other words, the original research did not hold up.

The idea that powerful poses could have hormonal effects ties in with a prominent idea in behavioral science: the hypothesis that physical interaction with the environment affects cognitive behavior. It would make sense that there should be a physiological vehicle (such as hormonal changes) for this effect.

A team of researchers led by Eva Ranehill at the University of Zurich tried to replicatethe original Harvard Business School study with some important tweaks. First, they used a bigger sample size. The original study used 42 participants; the replication used 200. Secondly, they controlled for experimenters bias, which is the possibility that subtle cues from the researchers could be affecting the results.

The basic methods of the study were the same. Each participant started out by providing a saliva sample. They then performed a filler task while in a series of two different poses, either powerful or powerless. The powerful poses took up space, like leaning back in a chair with feet up on a table or leaning across a desk. In contrast, the powerless poses were closed in, like having someone hold theirhands in their lap while hunched forward. The poses were the same as in the original study but were held for three minutes instead of the original one minute.

The replication deviated from the original study at this stage by giving the pose instructions via computer, which should prevent the researchers from subtly biasing their subjects. The experimenters' own biases were also handled because they didnt witness this stage, so they wouldnt know later on which poses the participants had taken. But, after the experiment was concluded, they reviewed footage of this step to ensure that participants had complied with the instructions.

Next, the participants played games that assessed their willingness to take risksgambling a sure payment on the chance of a higher paymentand their inclination to be competitive in a math task. They provided a second saliva sample, allowing the researchers to compare their hormone levels before and after the power stances. Finally, theyfilled in a questionnaire that asked about their feelings of powerand checked whether they had found their stances physically uncomfortable.

The results were very different from the original experiment. Participants who had taken powerful poses reported feeling more powerful, but there was no trace of this feeling in the behavioral tasks. Of course, its possible that these were just the wrong kinds of tasks and that a subjective feeling of power could influence behavior in circumstances other than risk-taking or competitiveness. Nonetheless, it representeda failure to replicatethe result seen in the original study.

There was also no difference in hormone levels between the powerful group and the powerless group. The researchers also analyzed the effect on each gender and checked whether it made any difference to exclude participants who had found the positions physically uncomfortable. There were still no significant differences in hormone levels.

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Power poses might not be so powerful after all

Is the Do-It-Yourself Retirement Model Failing Us?
401(k) auto-enrollment and auto-escalation programs have made a big difference, but too many retirement savers are still being left behind, says behavioral science and economics professor Richard...

By: Morningstar, Inc.

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Is the Do-It-Yourself Retirement Model Failing Us? - Video

CONWAY -- The bionic hand fashioned by 14-year-old Destany Ballard can hold and pick up objects that are as heavy as 2 pounds.

Relying on rubber bands, sturdy plastic bars and a simple system of pulling the two with a chain, the mechanical hand can be made at home at a low cost, Destany said, which could help a person who can't afford higher-technology prosthetics.

Destany, a freshman at Buffalo Island Central High School in Monette in northeast Arkansas, presented the hand Saturday at the Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair held at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. She was among about 250 high school students who displayed their theories and inventions.

Students mingled with new friends and their parents on the Jeff Farris Health and Physical Education Center gym floor, which was covered Saturday in tables and colorful tri-fold poster boards. The students ate cookies and awaited a decision about who would be selected to take part in the national science fair competition later this year.

The projects spanned the vast imaginations of Arkansas high school students: a behavioral study of what motivated people to sleep more hours at night, a somewhat stomach-turning study on the decomposition of ants and their release of oleic acid, and the ambitious "Enhancement of the Photocurrent Response of Tungsten Nano-Structures Using an Indium Oxide Coating," a project undertaken by three Little Rock Central High School students.

The event also had a robot, designed to follow lines and make turns while propelling itself.

Destany came up with the idea for a bionic hand last year after realizing that many soldiers return from combat having lost limbs. Concerned about the cost of replacing limbs, Destany decided to see what she could do to help.

"People spend a lot of money on hands," she said.

Since January, Destany has spent Tuesdays and Thursdays after school constructing the hand. Next year, Destany wants to create a voice-command system that would trigger the mechanical fingers to move.

Other science and engineering fair entrants have spent multiple years putting together their projects.

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Science fair displays students' ingenuity