There are very few experiences we all have in common, but I can say with relative confidence that most of us have been caught with dying cell phones at inopportune times. A new application for Nokia phones called Green Phone attempts to remedy this problem by maximizing battery life through … [continued]
Worcester County Jail is jumping on the renewable energy bandwagon and installing a wind turbine test tower for a 12 month trial. The 160 foot tall meteorological tower will gauge wind speed, direction, and turbulence at the prison site. Noise levels, environmental area, and air space will also be evaluated.
Perhaps the uranium industry’s fear of peak uranium is unfounded. Intellectual Ventures is preparing to spin off a company called TerraPower to develop nuclear reactors that run primarily on depleted uranium. While most nuclear reactors use enriched uranium, the depleted variety has many advantages— most importantly, a smaller amount of … [continued]
Coffee grounds are beginning to seem like quite the multi-purpose substance. First we heard about the possibility of grounds being used as biodiesel, and now we’ve received word that the world’s first printer to use coffee grounds for ink is a contestant in Core 77 and Inhabitat’s Greener Gadgets Design … [continued]
[social_buttons] Lots of college students complete a thesis or final project, but few can claim to have finished something as impressive as the hydrogen fuel cell motorcycle built by Swarthmore College seniors Alex Bell and Andres Pacheco. The enterprising duo built the motorcycle in an attempt to evaluate the viability … [continued]
The Internet revolutionized the world of computing – it took us from a world of large centralized mainframe computers with terminals attached to a world of any-to-any connectivity. The Internet evolved from a military need for survivability; by having a mesh of network nodes that could instantly re-route traffic around … [continued]
[social_buttons] In a sampling of two thousand recycled mobile phones, 99 percent were found to have sensitive data like banking information and confidential emails. The sampling was done by Regenersis. They processed over 2 million handsets in 2008; that’s one handset every 15 seconds. During a random sampling in December … [continued]
Those of us in cooler climes often forget that malaria is an epidemic in many parts of the world— according to the World Health Organization, 300-500 million cases are diagnosed each year. And while insecticides are helpful, mosquitoes quickly build a resistance to the treatment. Fortunately, a Kentucky engineer named … [continued]
The solar industry has taken a beating lately. At their low in November, solar stocks were down 70%. Natural gas and oil prices have plunged, reducing the value of renewable energy. Financing is scarce, making the upfront cost of solar energy a challenge. Perhaps these conditions will encourage innovation. Here … [continued]
As the world approaches peak water, technology to harvest freshwater from non-potable sources becomes increasingly important. Researchers at Yale University have recently developed such desalination technology using the power of osmosis.
