This year, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (a.k.a the “money factory”) is all about the Benjamins. The new $100 bill was unveiled this April, and it looks to be much flashier than its predecessors. But this bill, the most technologically advanced the country has ever printed, was specially engineered not only to look cool but also to discourage criminal copycats.
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:
How would you like to own a bulletproof T-shirt, pants that charge your iPod, or even an invisibility cloak? With the advent of nanotechnology and smart fabrics, items like these might actually be part of your wardrobe some day.
This month, New Scientist writes that invisibility cloaks are much closer to becoming a reality than they were just four years ago, when a research team at Duke University produced a cloaking effect that could hide two-dimensional objects, when viewed from certain angles.
