7 Reasons The Future Is Electric
Seven concepts — fungibility, ubiquity, loose coupling, electronics outperforming the physical, human nature, economics and the future already being here — make it clear that the future is electric.
electronics
Wall Street: Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature With Zero-Sum Externalities
In this year of major climate decisions, we need to remember who’s really responsible for global warming and the problems it is causing. Yes, climate change derives from industrial activity, but few of us realize exactly how much. A study called Natural Capital At Risk has now come close to quantifying … [continued]
A Room-by-Room Guide To Ousting The (Energy) Vampires Lurking In Your Home
By Gene Wang, People Power Did you know that the average household has 25 electronic devices plugged in at any given time? But many of these devices aren’t used daily, and are left plugged in. I challenge you to take a quick tour of your home to take an inventory … [continued]
EPEAT Under Fire from Greenpeace for Apple MacBook Pro Approval
American product evaluation method EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) came under fire from the international environmental organization Greenpeace this week over some shenanigans involving Apple. Yes, of course, THAT Apple. […]
Tiny Biofuel Cell Turns Insects into OH MY GOD RUN FOR YOUR LIVES
While biofuel stories often fill me with gimlet-eyed suspicion, I’ve now and then said to myself: if only we could mount lasers on insects and then somehow power those lasers with electricity generated from their own blood, THAT would be a biofuel application I can get behind. Well, consider me … [continued]
Greenpeace Ranks HP as Greenest Electronic Maker
Environmental organisation Greenpeace has today released their new and upgraded Guide to Greener Electronics which has placed consumer electronics company HP at the top of its rankings ahead of Dell, Nokia and Apple.
Experimental Smart House Completed In Tokyo University
The Institute of Industrial Science of Tokyo University, widely regarded as the top university in Japan, has erected a “smart house” on their Komaba Campus, in cooperation with LIXIL Housing Corporation’s Eyeful Home Company. The current structure, the COMMA house (COMfort MAnagement), is the start of a series of prototypes and tests geared toward creating more-or-less self-sufficient home. The project is expected to have plans for a standard smart house by 2020.
Quantum Tunneling Composites Lead to a More Efficient Flashlight, And More!
Most of us have grown up in an environment where power comes from a plug in the wall, and lights are fixtures or lamps that take advantage of that system. But in many parts of the world, this infrastructure doesn’t exist, and so people spend a lot of money on dirty, smelly Kerosene to light their houses at night. Something so simple as a bright, dependable LED flashlight can be an excellent leapfrogging technology for people in such places, as it can provide clean, safe light that can be ‘filled up’ with a tiny solar battery charger.
Greenest Consumer Electronics
Want to know what the greenest desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, computer monitors, mobile phones, smartphones and televisions are? Greenpeace is helping you out. It has just released its latest green consumer product reviews. The good news overall is that electronics companies are becoming greener. “Our survey shows that electronics manufacturers … [continued]
Graphene, the New “Miracle Material,” Can be Made from Plain Sugar
Table sugar, that bane of nutritionists everywhere, may be on the verge of redeeming itself. A team of researchers at Rice University has found that ordinary table sugar can be manipulated to form sheets of graphene. Something of a new miracle material, graphene could be used to create a new … [continued]
