There’s a reason that wind farms are placed offshore rather than in urban areas—the turbines are typically huge, difficult to erect, and need a solid sustained gust to produce any meaningful amount of current. This prototype, on the other hand, will assemble easily and take up little space as it quietly produces kilowatts atop skyscrapers. More »
The thwack of an arrow hitting a target. The splash of a swimmer diving into the pool. The clap of a sprinter’s feet hitting the track. Those are some of the noises you’ll hear broadcast through your TV when the London Olympics kick off next Friday. But you’re not just hearing those signature sounds of sport naturally—in fact, it takes an immense amount of movie-caliber production. More »
The planet is hot and getting hotter. But while most plans to use geoengineering to alter the weather have been rather hypothetical, now a pair of Harvard engineers have announced that they intend to spray thousands of tons of particles into the sky to block the sun’s rays—within the coming year. More »
Antarctica a viciously inhospitable land, averaging a balmy -70 degrees F in the continent’s interior. That’s precisely where an intrepid band of American scientists have dug clean through 3405 meters of ice sheet, in an effort to research an eon’s worth of climate change. To do it, they used this one-of-a-kind coring machine. More »
When you think of LEDs, you probably picture small, nipple-esque lumps of plastic. But if these scientists have their way, the LEDs of the future will look more like bright, glowing paper or fabric. More »
Jeff Bizbub spends his days as a GE engineer, but he also has a degree in music theory. And that works just fine for him, because he’s been able to use his artistic know-how to troubleshoot problems in machines. More »
Bendable electronics are nothing new. But if you’re after an electronic party trick, you’re going to want to get your hands on a new breed of stretchable circuitry. More »
Fuel cells are amazing things but, just like any portable energy source, they occasionally need topping up with juice. This one, however, can keep on going even when it runs out of fuel. What kind of sorcery is this? More »
Scientists worldwide have worked for years to come up with a convincing meat substitute. Whether it’s farmed with soy or synthesized from stem cells, if it tastes real, it will change the world. But not even a $1 million prize has been enough to make it happen—on Wednesday, with less than a week to spare, the deadline for a PETA-sponsored contest to create in vitro meat was extended until 2013. What’s the problem? More »
SSDs are wonderful things that massively speed up your computer and they’re getting cheaper too. But currently they don’t offer the capacity that some users demand. Fortunately, that could all be about to change. More »
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