Posted on August 31st, 2011 by axb
On a hike through the Catskill Mountains in New York, seventh-grader Aidan Dwyer noticed that the branches of oak trees seemed to grow in a certain pattern. Inspired to try his hand at biomimicry, he created a tree-like arrangement of small solar panels capable of generating 20-50% more energy than traditional flat designs.
Dwyer’s solar tree is based on a mathematical concept called the Fibonacci sequence, which was discovered in the late middle ages.
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Filed under: e-News, Environmental | 5 Comments »
Tags: Biomimicry, Energy, Environmental, Green Technology, Solar
Posted on August 12th, 2011 by axb
In Manila, the capital of the Philippines, lack of electricity keeps millions of the city’s poorer inhabitants in the dark. Metal rooftops on the city’s slum houses also block natural daylight, but students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a cheap and elegant solution to the problem: plastic water bottles.
By filling a plastic bottle with water and bleach (to prevent algae from growing), students and residents can fashion a solar lamp that fills even the gloomiest shelters with light. It works thanks to phenomenon you may have learned in physics class – refraction. When sunlight passes through the bottle and hits the water, its rays bend and disperse in many different directions.
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Filed under: Chemical, e-News, Environmental | 10 Comments »
Tags: Chemical, Environmental, Giving Back, Green Technology
Posted on May 19th, 2011 by jxh
We have previously reported on many green initiatives related to building and roadway materials: smog-eating cement, concrete that can heal itself when it detects cracks, and pavement with solar-storing technology.
Now, civil engineers at Purdue University are working to design a cost-effective mixture for road construction and bridge support.
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Filed under: Civil, e-News, Environmental, Materials, Transportation | 4 Comments »
Tags: Civil, Environmental, Green Technology, Materials, Transportation
Posted on May 12th, 2011 by jxh
The average washing machine uses between 40 and 45 gallons of water per load of clothes. In addition, a large amount of energy is needed to heat the water. When you include the cost of laundry detergent on top of all that, you realize that washing clothes can be a pricey affair.
However, researchers at the British company Xeros Ltd have developed a new washing-machine technology that cleans clothes using a mere cup of water and just a drop of detergent.
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Filed under: e-News, Environmental, Materials | 6 Comments »
Tags: Environmental, Green Technology, Materials
Posted on April 25th, 2011 by jxh
Is your lunch fresh enough to eat? Now the plastic wrap can tell you
Consumers often throw away perfectly edible food because they think it has “gone bad.” As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that food scraps constitute 12 percent of municipal landfills, making food the single largest component of the country’s waste stream.
To help prevent consumers from prematurely throwing away food, researchers are developing a plastic wrap that will change colors when the food is no longer safe to eat.
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Filed under: Agricultural, e-News, Environmental, Materials | 2 Comments »
Tags: Agricultural, Environmental, Food, Green Technology, Materials
