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Taffykay writes:
Fuel cell technology is set for prime time as major automakers unveil street-ready hydrogen cars – but the question remains how best to fuel them. Well, here’s an idea – run them on poo power! Yesterday I test drove a futuristic Toyota Mirai (one of five pre-release vehicles in the US) to the Fountain Valley Renewable Hydrogen Station, where I refueled it with clean hydrogen gas made from raw sewage.
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Taffykay writes:
Biology and computer science students and professors at Wake Forest University have teamed up to develop a device to assist the visually impaired. Following the principles of echolocation used by bats and moths, the interdisciplinary team has developed a watch-like unit that allows the wearer to navigate their environment using sonar. To make the project even more remarkable, all the parts and materials for the prototype cost less than $60.
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Taffykay writes:
According to new statistics released by the World Wildlife Fund Scotland, Scottish renewable energy had a “bumper month” in October, 2014, with wind power alone generating an estimated 982,842 MWh of electricity. This is enough clean energy to power around 3,045,000 homes, and equates to 126 percent of the electricity needs of Scottish households. Solar power and hot water generation also performed well, despite the country’s reputation for grey and misty weather.
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Taffykay writes:
The crumbling stones of the Giza pyramids may be a sight familiar to most people, but the original look of these ancient structures was considerably different. In a recent short documentary made by the Smithsonian Channel Harvard University, Egyptologist Jacquelyn Williamson explains the way each of the stones was manually polished to create glistening outer shells of the famous pyramids.
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Taffykay writes:
The blazing Sahara sun may power homes a world away by 2018. The people behind a new $13 million project called TuNur farm propose to build a massive 100-square-kilometer solar farm in Tunisia. The farm would then connect directly to the UK, pumping energy through a 280-mile-long underwater cable.
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Taffykay writes:
Italy’s WASP (World’s Advanced Saving Project) aims to help the world’s impoverished by 3D-printing sustainable dwellings using all natural materials. Unveiled at the Maker Faire Rome, the portable 3D printer called the Delta can be transported to areas in need to print homes on site. The printer works with locally-sourced materials like mud and fiber to create structurally sound homes with a culturally-sensitive, vernacular aesthetic.
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Taffykay writes:
Previously unknown archaeological monuments have been discovered around Stonehenge as part of an enormous digital mapping project that has transformed scientists’ knowledge of this iconic landscape. A team from the University of Birmingham’s Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project have used remote sensing techniques and geophysical surveys to map the area to a depth of three meters below ground, resulting in the most detailed archaeological digital map of Stonehenge and its surrounds ever produced.
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Taffykay writes:
The oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Pyramid of Djoserat Saqqara, is being destroyed by the very company the Egyptian government has hired to restore it. The roughly 4,600-year-old structure has been in trouble since an earthquake hit the region in 1992, but in a difficult political and economic climate for the country, those now tasked with preserving the pyramid are said to be doing more harm than good.
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Taffykay writes:
Science recently scored a simultaneous victory over pollution for both recycling and renewable energy! A team of researchers at MIT has come up with plan to turn old car batteries into durable solar panels. According to Phys.org, the system proposed by a group of MIT professors and published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science uses a fairly new solar cell technology that includes a compound called perovskite, which is nearly on par with traditional silicon-based cells but takes significantly less material to manufacture.
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Taffykay writes:
Living on Mars might seem like a dream, but we're one step closer thanks to a brilliant new housing design. Noah Hornberger won NASA and MakerBot’s Mars Base Challenge with a series of hive homes. The contest called for 3D designers to imagine a scenario that would make Mars habitable by designing homes built either from materials found on the Red Planet, or brought from Earth and 3D-printed on site. Hornberger’s 3D-printed two bedroom, two bathroom Queen B nabbed first prize with its bee-inspired hexagonal grid.
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Taffykay writes:
Do you give much thought to horseshoe crabs? No, me neither. But it turns out that without them, we could be in a very precarious position. Horseshoe crabs – or to be more precise,
their incredible, baby blue blood – are used to test for bacterial contamination, thus saving countless lives each year during medical procedures. The only trouble is, we have to catch a quarter of a million horseshoe crabs each year to do this, and then we have to drain their blood.
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almda writes:
One year ago 19-year-old Boyan Slat unveiled an Ocean Cleanup Array that he claimed could clean 7 million tons of plastic from the world's oceans. The design went viral and received it's share of criticism — however a newly released one-year feasibility study shows that the array would indeed work as planned. Slat claims that a single array could remove half the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just 10 years.
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Taffykay writes:
Ford just announced that they have teamed up with Heinz to turn mostly tomato skins (but also leaves, stems and seeds) into a composite bioplastic for use in their vehicles. Although still in the feasibility stage, the project could reduce food waste and lower the embodied energy footprint of Ford's vehicles, while reducing vehicle weight and improving fuel economy at the same time.
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Taffykay writes:
Slashdot readers are sure to be familiar with Terrafugia's plans to launch a flying car — and a new report shows that it may actually hit the market within the next two years. The company is currently seeking to raise $30 million in funding to bring the vehicle to market in 2016 at a price point of $279,000.
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Beverley Mitchell writes:
Germany is set to unveil the country’s very first zero-waste supermarket. Berlin’s Original Unverpackt is the brainchild of friends Sara Wolf and Milena Glimbovski. Frustrated by the overpackaging and wastefulness they saw in the retail food industry, the young women decided to take action and launched a crowdfunding campaign in early May that has succeeded beyond all expectations. They now have the funds to open their first outlet this summer, with a second to follow soon after.
