pollution
Design
The Unibody Coca-Cola Can
12:51AM Jesus Diaz | It doesn’t only look beautiful and it will make Jon Ive and Steve Jobs wet, but this naked Coca-Cola can would help save energy while reducing air and water pollution. Would it really make a difference? Let’s do some maths: More »
Design
7:25AM Brian Lam | The Living Light Sculpture looks like a giant metal flower, or a man-made approximation of a jungle canopy with artificial sunlight coming down through its branches. It’s actually a digital map sculpture reporting air quality in Seoul, Korea. More »
The Living Light Sculpture
7:25AM Brian Lam | The Living Light Sculpture looks like a giant metal flower, or a man-made approximation of a jungle canopy with artificial sunlight coming down through its branches. It’s actually a digital map sculpture reporting air quality in Seoul, Korea. More »
Science
Russia To Ring The Arctic With Floating Nuclear Power Stations
7:00AM Jack Loftus | Poor Mr. Polar Bear. When he’s not jumping from melting ice chunk to ice chunk trying desperately not to drown, he’s avoiding the floating Russian nuclear power stations and their potential toxic waste. More »
Robots
Robotic Carp Unleashed Into the Sea to Sniff Out Pollution
5:30PM Elaine Chow | Those crazy looking robotic carp now have a job-a whole school of them are going to be released into the sea off northern Spain to help detect hazardous pollutants in the water. More »
Press
60 Minutes Reporter Investigates China’s E-Waste Pits, Gets Attacked
3:25PM Gizmodo US Edition | 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley went to Guiyi, China to document the lives of Chinese e-waste workers there. He was able to get footage of what these pits, which process much of the toxic electronic scrap we in the West throw away, look like–despite being jumped by angry e-waste lot owners and nearly having his camera confiscated. More »
Vehicles
Blade Exhaust Filters: An Eco-Friendly Gadget That Actually Makes Your Car Look Cooler
6:00AM Sean Fallon | Generally speaking, the idea of eco-friendliness doesn’t conjure up images of badass looking vehicles. However, one look at these Blade exhaust filters might change all that. According to the manufacturer’s lab testing, Blade can reduce vehicle air pollution up to 57 percent and CO2 emissions up to 34 percent while increasing fuel economy up to 500ml per km. It seems a little far-fetched (and it probably is), but Blade does have support from both the California Air Resources Board and the EPA. If those claims are anywhere near true, the $US200 up front cost of the system plus the $US20 a year for filters should pay for itself rather quickly. [Blade via Treehugger via Wired Gadget Lab] More »
Science
Dutch Town to Be Paved With Air Pollution-Sucking Bricks
7:39PM Kit Eaton | The small Dutch town of Hengelo is about to test out a new kind of concrete paving slab that actually grabs onto the car-exhaust pollutant nitrogen oxide (a key smog and acid rain ingredient) sucking it out of the air and rendering it harmless. The special bricks contain a component based on titanium dioxide that acts to “fix” the pollutant with the aid of sunlight. The best bit is that the resulting nitrates just wash away with the next rain. Clever stuff: and if the trial results next summer show improved air quality, I’m sure we’ll see environmentalists dancing along singing “Follow the green concrete road!” Or something. [Physorg] More »
Gadgets
Sony Ericsson Wins Greenest Electronics Company Award
12:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | Congratulations, Sony Ericsson, for winning what was ultimately a barely challenging competition to become the greenest electronics company around. Our favourite Swedish-Japanese conglomerate rose to the top of Greenpeace’s Greener Electronics Guide by exceeding Energy Star requirements, making all its models PVC-free and banning the most harmful chemicals from phones launched since January 2008. Unfortunately, it was valedictorian in a class whose scores have plummeted all around. More »
Science
Group Sues EPA For Not Regulating Nano-Silver Pollution
7:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Those nano-silver socks you’ve been using to soak up the rank of your athlete’s foot—not only are they leaching poisons into fish habitats every time you wash them, their effects on your own blood stream could be just as bad but the EPA’s not doing anything about it. Fed up by government inaction, a consumer safety group is now suing the EPA for failing to regulate nanomaterials. More »
Gadgets
