Scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena succeeded in capturing syntrophic (means “feeding together”) microorganisms that are known to dramatically reduce the oceanic emission of methane into the atmosphere.
 

 
Space vegies such as this could solve world hunger, or just create more leftovers
Scientists have said that vegetables grown in zero-gravity conditions in space can grow to huge sizes, which could help solve the world’s food crisis.
According to a report in the Telegraph , it is thought that the near zero gravity conditions in space result […]

 
Surprisingly this isn’t a picture of Cobra headquarters in the new G.I. Joe movie — the Veil Solar Shade might one day grace the schoolyards of some Australian elementary schools. A concept from design firm Büro North, the Veil has a couple of cool things going for it: First, it automatically rotates during the day to ensure the […]

Are LED Lights The Wave Of The Future?

Faiz Rahman, a nanoelectronics researcher at the University of Glasgow, predicts that LED light bulbs for the home will start appearing on store shelves in the next 2-3 years to compete with incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.
If so, the LED bulbs would provide a much greater efficiency (up to […]

LET THE SUN IN!

Summer’s almost here, and it’s warm enough to throw open the windows, letting the fresh air in. Don’t forget to put up those window screens to keep the bugs out. But that’s not all good. Not only do those old screens make everything look hazy, they block out a lot of light, […]

A123’s battery is made from nanoparticles of lithium iron phosphate modified with trace metals
A123’s batteries will make lithium-ion technology practical for the auto industry. Instead of cobalt oxide, they use an electrode material made from nanoparticles of lithium iron phosphate modified with trace metals. The resulting batteries are unlikely to catch fire, even if […]

 No word on what happens when you write a check on this paper and it erases before the bank can process it.
Xerox knows a thing or to about paper, and they’ve come up with self-erasing paper that can be used over and over again. Not erasable, but self-erasing, leaving you with an entirely blank sheet […]

 
TreeBOL, or tree barcode of life, will record and save all tree DNA
The New York Botanical Garden may be best known for its orchid shows and colorful blossoms, but its researchers are about to lead a global effort to capture DNA from thousands of tree species from around the world.
The Bronx garden is hosting a […]

Turning Laundry Into A New Experience
Because Japanese homes are typically small, you’ll seldom find a dryer accompanying the family washing machine, thus resulting in a sea of clothesline-dried laundry covering entire neighborhoods. The archaic practice of drying one’s clothes outside–even in the winter, rain and during pollen season–makes even less sense in the technology forward […]

The falx hybrid-electric tilt-rotor concept in police trim.

Tilt-rotor aircraft have been around since the 1950s, offering the vertical take-off, hovering and landing abilities of a helicopter with the range, high flight ceiling, speed and fuel economy of a turboprop aeroplane. Falx Air Vehicles are planning to push the fuel economy angle even further by using […]

 
Google diving into 3D mapping of oceans
The tool - for now called Google Ocean, the sources say, though that name could change - is expected to be similar to other 3D online mapping applications. People will be able to see the underwater topography, called bathymetry; search for particular spots or attractions; and navigate through the […]

 Pakistani women buy subsidized flour in Lahore. The price of staple foods
and fuel has risen drastically in the country in the last few months.
Around the world, rising food prices have made basic staples like rice and corn unaffordable for many people, pushing the poor to the barricades because they can no longer get enough to […]

The Re-Blowmolding Technique Mobile Headquarters
 
We got a kick out of this crazy-looking machine when we saw it recently at a street fair in Providence, RI. RISD Industrial Design student Mike Hahn has created what he calls a Re-Blowmolding machine. The name refers to the fact that the machine takes #2 plastic bottles that were blown […]

BioSentry Helps You Know When Your Water Is Drinkable

The World Health Organisation states that one billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes this number will rise.

You have probably seen quite a few City Car Concepts over past few months. However, most of them only solve the problem of fuel consumption and harmful emissions. The new Airwaves City Car Concept was designed to not only help with fuel and pollution, but also to save lives and money.

If Caterham Seven-style open-wheelers are last century’s pinnacle of pure performance machines, it seems the concept will survive the transition to the electric age. Evisol’s ThoRR takes its body shape inspiration from a Lotus Super 7, and adds a 272hp Siemens electric motor with a Lithium Polymer battery pack. Quick, light, accurate and nearly silent […]

eSolar has raised $130 million in funding for the deployment of its solar thermal power plants. The scaleable, pre-fabricated power plants are designed to cut construction costs and deliver renewable energy solutions tailored to the needs of particular communities.
Large scale solar utility projects can face significant construction costs in addition to requiring large parcels of […]

This Earth Day, Bon Appetit proposed a challenge to every one of us to reduce our carbon “foodprints” by 25 percent, because just our foodprints — all the energy it takes to grow, process, transport and prepare food — are responsible for ONE-THIRD of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Bon Appetit is serious about its […]

Cargo Bikes for Green Delivery
It’s a fact of life in the business world that companies in urban areas tend to require frequent, small deliveries of merchandise and other goods from the city outskirts and beyond. That’s a recipe for inefficiency, traffic congestion and pollution, as so many delivery trucks make their way in and out […]

You have seen the Automate Garage for cars. Now take a look at one for bicycles. Video after the jump.

While many Funeral Directors would try to sell you the most expensive hermetically sealed casket to bury your loved one in, it’s actually a natural process that our bodies return to the Earth and decompose.

 
To keep ski tourism alive, many resorts are using artificial snow produced by snow cannons.
Artificial snow may help Alpine ski resorts to fight the effects of climate change, but it also creates environmental problems of its own. Is summer tourism the only thing that can save the struggling resorts?
 

Sideskirts on trailers can dramatically cut fuel costs
Creating an improved aerodynamic shape for truck trailers by mounting sideskirts can lead to a cut in fuel consumption and emissions of up to as much as 15%.

Did this little guy loose it’s civil liberties too?”
Plants deserve respect, a group of Swiss experts said on Monday, arguing that killing them arbitrarily was morally wrong - except when it comes to saving humans or maybe picking petals off a daisy.
In a report on “the dignity of the creature in the plant world”, […]

The Ultra Green City

Before you go patting yourself on the back for recycling your water bottle yesterday or turning the tap off while you brush your teeth, consider what life will be like in the eco-city of Dongtan. The city won’t have a landfill. Why would they need one since they don’t plan to have […]