Posted on July 27th, 2010 by jxh
Bathrooms may dispose of waste, but they create it, too: The average person flushes the toilet five times a day, using between 8 and 35 gallons of water. Not only that, but Americans each use about 50 pounds of toilet paper every year.
Now, thanks to Tom Broadbent, an industrial design graduate from De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, bathrooms may start impacting the environment in more positive ways by becoming power generators.
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Filed under: Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, Trailblazers, e-News | Comment »
Tags: Civil, Environmental, Mechanical
Posted on July 21st, 2010 by axb
Staying cool can be a challenge in the summer months, especially when global temperatures seem to be hitting an all-time high. Fortunately for your electric bill, a new metal alloy could someday increase the efficiency of your air conditioner by as much as 175%.
The “smart” metal, which would replace liquid coolants in refrigerators and air conditioners, is currently being tested by materials engineers at the University of Maryland.
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Filed under: Environmental, Materials, e-News | Comment »
Tags: Environmental, Materials
Posted on July 16th, 2010 by axb
NASA satellite image of the oil slick from July 12, 2010
The New York Times is reporting that a cap placed yesterday on the exploded BP oil well appears to be holding steady. After the disastrous oil rig explosion on April 20 off the Gulf of Mexico, BP has struggled to find a solution to stop the deadly leak.
See this graphic for a timeline of previous attempts to cap the leak, and this video for views of the current containment apparatus.
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Filed under: Environmental, Ocean, e-News | 1 Comment »
Tags: Environmental, Ocean
Posted on July 15th, 2010 by jxh
President Obama recently announced that he will be investing $2 billion into two established solar companies in an effort to strengthen the U.S. solar industry.
One of these, Abengoa Solar, is constructing the largest solar power plant in the world. Located in Arizona, the plant will be capable of powering 70,000 homes and drastically cutting CO2 emissions.
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Filed under: Electrical, Environmental, Materials, e-News | Comment »
Tags: Electrical, Environmental, Materials
Posted on July 14th, 2010 by axb
Anyone who commutes frequently or just watches the news these days knows that the U.S. has a serious infrastructure problem. Although crumbling roads and bridges have the potential to cripple our transportation system, they also present an opportunity to rebuild in smarter, more technologically advanced ways.
One of the most promising new transportation solutions comes from the company Solar Roadways, which is working to repave parts of the country with roads equipped with energy-storing technology.
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Filed under: Electrical, Environmental, Materials, e-News | 1 Comment »
Tags: Electrical, Environmental, Materials
Posted on July 12th, 2010 by jxh
Most people hear NASA and think of rocket ships and outer space.
But the space agency will assist in an effort to relocate 70,000 sea turtle eggs from northern Gulf beaches that have been affected by the BP oil spill.
To save them, biologists are carefully digging up 700 sea turtle nests by hand, with each nest containing approximately 100-120 eggs.
The eggs will be placed inside Styrofoam coolers and buried in the damp sand taken from their nests, and then transported in a temperature-controlled truck to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Researchers will monitor the eggs until they hatch, after which the young turtles will be quickly moved to nearby beaches so they can make their voyage to sea.
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Filed under: Environmental, Transportation, e-News | Comment »
Tags: Environmental, Transportation
Posted on July 1st, 2010 by axb
One of the greatest challenges and sources of opportunity for modern engineers is thinking up ways to repurpose the waste material that pervades our planet. Many organizations are already finding clever ways to tackle this issue. For example, every year the PBS show Design Squad holds a “Trash to Treasure” competition, which challenges students to design something useful produced from waste materials. Now meet Waste for Life, a non-profit coalition of students, designers, and engineers who are working in Argentina and Lesotho to upcycle waste into usable materials:
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Filed under: Environmental, Materials, Mechanical, e-News | 1 Comment »
Tags: Environmental, Giving Back, Materials, Mechanical
