RSS Feeds
|
US Edition
Babblebaby
|
Defamer
|
Gizmodo
|
Kotaku
|
Lifehacker
There's really nothing great that can be done with Styrofoam other than not produce it in the first place, but in lieu of recycling it or throwing it away, one man and his son, inspired by this artwork, took 5 years worth of Styrofoam packaging and did the next most logical thing—built a giant robot.
An Australian PhD student has found a cheap way to make solar cells with nail polish, a pizza oven and an ink jet printer. 23-year-old Nicole Kuepper's invention, named iJET, doesn't require the pricey clean rooms and high-temperature ovens of traditional solar panel manufacturing plants, thus dramatically lowering the cost of solar and paving the road for introducing the technology to third-world countries.
AC manufacturer Greencore has come up with a long-awaited solution to the inherent problem in solar-powered air conditioning units--solar panels are still not efficient enough to power the energy-gobbling machines on their own. The company's 10200 model uses a single 170-watt solar panel during the day and electricity from the power grid during the night to charge its batteries, leading to massive energy savings even if the solution isn't 100% solar.
Looking to save water? Say hello to the EcoJohn, a toilet that uses no water. Instead, after you do what you do, you "close the lid and a large, screw-like auger turns and carries the waste to the burn chamber where the propane burner then bakes urine, feces and paper into ashes." Wow, that's horrifying! This thing isn't even classified as a toilet. It's classified as a barbecue. If you're looking for a sure-fire way to ruin your family's summer cookout plans, I think you just found it. [OC Register via Neatorama]
Solar panels are great, don't get me wrong, and the technology still has plenty of room to improve. But today, they still only capture about 20% of the energy coming from light...and there's a young, promising challenger on the horizon. The technology is called a nanoantenna skin. It can suck 92% of the energy from infrared light (in theoretical simulations, about 80% in early lab testing). And because it doesn't simply collect energy from the visible light spectrum, it even can harness the Earth's solar energy it stores during the day and radiates at night.
Electronics manufacturer Hoshino has just announced "the world's first biodegradable USB disk." It's constructed of the corn-based plastic polylactide, and just in case you forget that fact, they've shaped the drive like an ear of corn. We don't have a lot of information on the device, but it appears they've figured out how to make the entire drive biodegradable, not just the casing (though that cop-out is certainly a possibility). Since most of our electronics we're using right now won't be part of our daily arsenal in two to three years, it's good to see manufacturers at least considering how we'll dispose of all this junk. [Hoshino via Gearlog]
Another contender has stepped into the ring of energy efficient lighting: called ESL (electron-stimulated luminescence), this new type of bulb works by using accelerated electrons to light up a phosphor coating on the inside of a glass bulb. ESLs can turn on instantly, can work with dimmers, and creates a light quality that's similar to incandescents and halogens.
The oceans already absorb megatons of atmospheric carbon, but scientists say that there's a way to boost this so that CO2 levels could drop to pre-industrial age levels. The answer sounds like a cocktail recipe: add lime. Limed seawater has boosted alkalinity, which lets it absorb more CO2 and stops it from releasing it back so readily. The idea's been around for a while, but the new proposition is that lime production should occur in areas rich in energy resources and limestone, but where commercial power generation is overly expensive. One suggested location is Nullarbor Plain in Australia which has limestone and abundant sunlight for solar power. Sounds like a whacky but not-infeasible scheme, though I suspect there're quite a few "polluting the oceans" concerns to get around before it could be tried out. [Physorg]
In an effort to figure out the best areas to harvest wind energy, scientists from NASA's Earth Science Division have used several years of QuikSCAT satellite data to produce some pretty awesome looking wind power density maps. According to them, if the areas with high wind power--an average wind of greater than 30 knots (45 miles an hour)—were tapped, they could potentially supply 10 to 15 percent of the world's energy needs.
For some reason or other, we've shown you a lot of robotic snakes here on Giz. But this new one is kind of a robot snake in reverse: it's designed to float just beneath the surface of the sea and capture wave energy, which it then turns into electrical power. A science team in the UK has been working on the design, and is now testing small versions in a test tank: ultimately the "real" machines would be 7 metres across and 800 metres long, and be able to generate 1 megawatt. Check out the video to see how "Anaconda" works.
