Saturday, March 22, 2014
Zhong Lin Wang and his team at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with a generator that powers your smartphone with nothing more than typing and swiping. The idea is based on the triboelectric effect, which produces an electric charge from the friction of two different materials rubbing together. It’s a breakthrough that has already been successfully incorporated into various objects, and could mean you never have to charge your phone again!
To increase the amount of friction, and therefore output, Wang and his team added microscopic patterns to specially-adapted sheets of polymer. The result is an energy-output device called a triboelectric nanogenerator, or TENG, that can produce enough power to illuminate 1000 LED bulbs with a single stamp of the foot.”The amount of charge transferred depends on surface properties,” explains Wang. “Making patterns of nanomaterials on the polymer films’ surfaces increases the contact area between the sheets and can make a 1000-fold difference in the power generated.”
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Propagate Skyscraper converts harmful greenhouse gases into usable building materials! It is a self-propagating structure whose growth is dependant only on the weather conditions and the quality of air surrounding it. Carbon dioxide is turned into a solid material that builds upon an existing scaffolding structure. This innovative project won 3 prize at this year’s eVolo Skyscraper 2014 Competition.
Propagate Skyscraper introduces the exciting prospect of converting air pollutants into building material. The approach builds upon existing research on capturing carbon gases through carbon-philic resins and transforming them into solid construction material that can create self-propagating structures. A scaffold facilitates the initiation of the process, while the actual pattern and growth of the structure is defined by environmental factors such as wind, weather and the saturation of carbon dioxide within the immediate atmosphere. The growing structure can extend into six directions and promises a possibility of flexible creation of built environments.
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A few years ago, when the economy took a nosedive, a majority of Americans decided for the first time since the 1980s that the economy was more important to protect than the environment. Fortunately, that trend has reversed itself once again. Gallup has released a poll which shows that Americans once again prioritize the environment over economic growth by a 9 point margin, with Democrats leading the shift.
When asked if “protection of the environment should be given priority even at the risk of curbing economic growth,” 50 percent of Americans responded in the affirmative. That’s a large contrast to the 41 percent of Americans who favor growth over the environment. Ever since the question was first asked in 1984, Americans have favored the environment until 2009 when growth trumped environment for the first time. Among those aged 18-29, the margin is even wider with 60 to 30 percent favoring the environment.
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Thursday, March 20, 2014
The United States Navy Research Laboratory has unveiled two modules they are testing to capture solar energy from space and divert its power to earth. The two designs would use reflectors to concentrate sunlight to a satellite that would project the power to a receiver on the earth’s surface. If the plans are approved, the components would be assembled in space by a team of robots.
The futuristic plans headed by Dr. Paul Jaffe comprise two different designs that could create enough solar energy to power a city or a military plant. The first is a sandwich module that keeps electrical components between one enormous square photovoltaic panel that faces the sun and a square base with an extending antenna that directs the powered collected toward the earth. The electronic system in the center transforms the collected solar energy into radio frequency that can be easily beamed to the receiver.
Related: 6 Space-based Solar Power Designs
Jaffe’s second model, which opens up the sandwich design, would be more effective. The zig-zag shaped module has more surface area that extends into a step design to collect more power from the sun, making it more energy efficient. The panels would receive more sunlight without overheating, making the design safer, as well as producing more energy to be directed by the antenna in radio waves. Although Jaffe has tested models of these designs in a space-like chamber, the actual designs would be a kilometer in diameter. The NRL is currently exploring launching Jaffe’s design, either in space or high in the stratosphere.
Via Daily Mail
Related: Japan Plans to Harvest Solar Power From Space by 2030
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Whatever the rights and wrongs of Lloyd's concern that electric cars may make it harder to fix our cities, we shouldn't forget that the much talked about future of electric vehicle dominance—while much more plausible than it was a few short years ago—is by no means guaranteed.
Cars and car-dependent infrastructure are not going to disappear overnight. And fossil fuel-powered vehicles are still by far the most popular in terms of sales, and are likely to be for some time yet.
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From prefabs to using found materials, treehouses nowadays come built in an amazing variety of forms and construction techniques. But building a treehouse that doesn't harm the tree, or restrict its growth often means paying special attention to engineering or using customized components like a Garnier limb.
Toronto-based architecture firm Farrow Partnership Architects approaches this problem by hanging their curvaceous treehouse from the tree's upper trunk, rather than nailing to it.
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The bathroom is one of the easiest rooms in the house to cut back on waste, although you might be surprised to hear that. With a few adjustments to your shopping habits, you may not even need a garbage can in the bathroom anymore, nor will you produce vast quantities of empty plastic containers destined for the recycling bin.
While embarking on my own zero waste quest, I’ve gathered tips from experts such as Bea Johnson and Shawn Williamson (you can read more about them in my post about going zero waste in the kitchen), and through experimentation on my own. Here are the most significant changes one can make in the bathroom:
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Perhaps the biggest story within the electric vehicle industry to date is Tesla's planned Gigafactory. But where will it be? Tucson, if Tesla likes Tucson's proposal.
Tesla has stated that it will put its $5 billion Gigafactory (which will manufacturer more battery cells than are used in all the laptops of the world each year) in either Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, or Texas. Needless to say, officials in these states are hopeful Tesla will pick them, and bring the estimated 6,500 gigafactory jobs to their jurisdictions. Tucson has now submitted an official proposal.
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When it comes to food, it can be fairly simple and straight-forward to read the ingredients and make a decision about whether or not we want to eat it, and to avoid buying products with ingredients that don't agree with us, such as dairy or gluten or common allergens.
But when it comes to all of our personal care items, from soap to lotion to cosmetics, it isn't nearly as easy to understand which ingredients may be risky or hazardous, unless we've memorized the names of specific chemicals and additives that are known or suspected to be unhealthy for our bodies.
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