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Results for posts tagged "water" on Gizmodo Australia.
Australian researchers have developed a new fuel cell prototype that could lead to much cheaper, more efficient fuel cell vehicles in the near future. Scientists at Monash University in Melbourne created a new cathode that could bypass the need for expensive platinum nanoparticles, which adds about US$3500 to US$4000 to the sticker price of current fuel cells.
Solar power has a lot of promise, but until recently there hasn't been an adequate way to store the energy the sun produces. Scientists at MIT have come up with a new fuel cell process that mimics the way plants store the sun's rays that is both efficient and inexpensive, not to mention environmentally sound. Without getting too technical, the system uses sunlight to separate water's hydrogen and oxygen atoms and then puts them back together in a fuel cell, providing energy. This means an almost limitless supply of clean energy might be just a few years away, though it's still too early to say when you'll have what you want: a solar powered laptop. [PhysOrg]
For those of you who've finally repressed Frucci's homoerotic slow-mo watergun facial montage, we'd like to offer a piece of apparel to commemorate the occasion (and bring back painful memories). By ReThink clothing, the Super Soaker T-shirt gives a metallic sheen to the classic water weapon, putting it on aesthetic par with something far more deadly. Like a Super Soaker 2000, or something. [ReThink via Tcritic]
NASA just announced that the Phoenix Lander has successfully scooped up a Martian water ice sample and placed it in its oven for scientific analysis. "Mars Odyssey discovered this ice six years ago, but we've now touched it and tasted it, which is something that hasn't been done before," said a scientist at today's press conference. The sample has been dubbed the "Wicked Witch" (because it's meeeelting, meeeelting--get it?) and it will continue to be analysed over the course of the coming weeks as data trickles in. Exciting, exciting stuff from this very successful mission. More details and new hi-res surface images to follow.
Giz reader Nicholas Buechi created this real liquid display that really doesn't display anything but bubbles. And that's enough, because it is mesmerising enough as it is. The liquid display is driven by an Arduino processor, and the events are triggered by a water keyboard. Sounds crazy, but in action it looks very pretty and soothing:
The RainwaterHOG is a design-y rainwater tank (yes, there is such a thing) that collects rain to re-use in the garden, give to your dog or fill up your Super Soaker without draining the mains. Most people don't save rainwater because they don't want a giant open bucket/mosquito-larvae farm on their porch. But now, you can store it away in a nice recyclable virgin polyethylene tank. Each HOG holds 178 litres, and they can be linked up like Lego.
AU: Obviously the US hasn't had to suffer through water restrictions like we have in Australia. Looks pretty good, although doubt we'll see it in Oz...[RainwaterHOG via PopTech]
For only US$4, I can see little reason not to get this ingenious little Faucet Fountain attachment for the sink. It eliminates waste (no more paper cups in the bathroom), it saves you from having to wash extra cups in the kitchen, and it recreates those grade school gym class memories all in one. Plus, when not in use, the bottom pops out and allows the faucet to work normally.
A part of the American Dream is to be able to retire comfortably in your favourite area, say on a lake, with a large home. But not everyone dreams the same, some people love giant water slides, and this family went a little nuts and installed one inside their house for the kids. Not for the adults, mind you, the kids. It's thirty inches in diameter and totals thirty feet long, all indoors. It's built to wrap around the used parts of the house so you'd never notice. This is pretty damn cool and makes me resent my parents even more for never doing anything remotely this cool, ever. [The Craig Caboodle]
Luckily, my cat was always too dumb to make the connection between the faucet and fresh water, so she's made do thus far with just sipping from her water dish. But I've heard that once kitties taste from the tap, they never want to go back. For running water addicted cats, MAKE contributor tsruzik has constructed a pretty ingenious automatic cat faucet using an IR sensor and some tubing.
Now that we're headed deep into the middle of summer, it's time to bring out water balloons and figure out ingenious ways to fling them at your enemies. Here's a great tutorial at Instructables for making a wicked water balloon catapult using surgical tubing, a rag and other random doohickies from around the house. According to the dude responsible for this weapon of watery destruction, this shooter will never explode the water balloon prematurely, unlike some of the types you get in stores. [Instructables]
