If you’re planning on entering the 2013 Arctic Innovation Competition,
it wouldn’t hurt to take a peek at the inventions that wowed the judges
of this chilly contest, so here are the grand prize winners from 2009 to
2012 for extra inspiration:
Carbon aerogel created by Chinese scientists from Zhejiang University has a measured density of 0.16 mg/cubic centimeter or one-sixth as dense as air! The ultra-light synthetic material is also able to absorb up to 900 times its own weight, offering environmentalists a potentially useful tool for cleaning up oil spills and hazardous waste leaks.
The government of South Korea, Inter-American Development Bank, Nordic Development Fund and GDF SUEZ, have pulled together to seek out energy solutions from Caribbean, South and Central American nations, and there are huge cash prizes for the best ideas!
Researchers with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory have undertaken a large project that will allow them to measure the carbon footprint of megacities – those with millions of residents, such as Los Angeles and Paris. Such an endevour is achieved using sensors mounted in high locations above the cities, such as a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains and a high-up level on the Eiffel Tower that is closed to tourist traffic.
The sensors are designed to detect a variety of greenhouse gases, including methane and carbon dioxide, augmenting other stations that are already located in various places globally that measure greenhouse gases. These particular sensors are designed to achieve two purposes: monitor the specific carbon footprint effects of large cities, and as a by-product of that information to show whether such large cities are meeting – or are even capable of meeting – their green initiative goals.
Such measuring efforts will be intensified this year. In Los Angeles, for example, scientists working on the project will add a dozen gas analyzers to various rooftop locations throughout the city, as well as to a Prius, which will be driven throughout the city and a research aircraft to be navigated to “methane hotspots.” The data gathered from all these sensors, both present and slated for installation, is then analyzed using software that looks at whether levels have increased, decreased, or are stable, as well as determining where the gases originated from.
One of the examples given is vehicle emissions, with scientists being able to determine (using this data) the effects of switching to green vehicles over more traditional ones and whether its results indicate that it is something worth pursuing or whether it needs to be further analyzed for potential effectiveness. Reported the Associated Press, three years ago California saw 58-percent of its carbon dioxide come from gasoline-powered cars.
California is looking to reducing its emissions levels to a sub-35-percent level over 1990 by the year 2030, a rather ambitious goal. In 2010, it was responsible for producing 408 million tons of carbon dioxide, which outranks just about every country on the planet, putting it about on par with all of Spain. Thus far into the project, both the United States and France have individually spent approximately $3 million the project.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Researchers track megacity carbon footprints using mounted sensors is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
If you can demonstrate how to build something useable that is truly
worth raiding the recycle bin to create, you could win over $1,000 worth
of prizes from Voltaic, REI, Nokero and more!
If you’ve got an invention that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, pitch
your idea to the judges at The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge for a
chance to receive € 500,000 to develop your business plans.
Many of us use small lights throughout our flats or homes, whether they’re in the form of night lights, mood lights, or lighting accents. The number of lights used increases when you look out your front door, with street lamps lining the roads, for example. In the future, all those lights could be replaced by plants – glowing plants. Such is one of the goals of a synthetic biology project on Kickstarter that promises certain backers seeds to grow their own glowing plants.
According to the individuals behind the project, a lot of the work has already been done, including the development of the DNA designs, researching the legality of creating plants that glow, and more. The Kickstarter is to raise funds for printing the DNA and bringing the project to fruition. The sequence printing is done via the Genome Compiler.
Once printed, the DNA sequences are then inserted into the plants, resulting in plants that naturally glow. The process is being done using bioluminescence genes and the Arabidopsis flowering plant. The insertion process will be done via “a special type of bacteria” that imparts its own DNA into the plant, which is shuttled to the seeds, with those seeds then growing a plant that glows straight from the dirt.
According to the project’s page, it costs at least a quarter of a dollar per DNA base pairs, with the DNA they have created coming in at 10,000 base pairs. The printing of several sequences is planned. The project was seeking $65,000, and has thus far hit $284,373, with 28 days remaining. The minimum pledge is $1, but you have to shell out at least $5 to get anything in return, with $40 being the minimum amount to receive seeds. If you’re feeling especially generous, you can pledge $10,000, for which any word under 30 characters will be written via DNA into the plant’s genome.
[via Kickstarter]
Biohacking Kickstarter project promises glowing plant seeds is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We’ve heard quite a bit on the climate-change effects of pollution, but much of it has centered on increased global temperatures, resulting in reduced ice caps and particularly volatile storms that have ravaged many places around the world in the last decade. Now a new study has shown that pollutants can also have a cooling effect on our planet via their effects on clouds.
Clouds can have both a warming and a cooling effect on our planet, depending on their formation. Condensed water droplets are the substance of clouds, with the size of the particles upon which they are suspended being directly related to the brightness of clouds as determined from above. Obviously, the brighter a cloud, the more sunlight it reflects away from our blue marble, something that has been widely known.
In this study, the effects of pollution on clouds was looked at, in particular the effects of organic compounds released by pollutants, which make their way upwards and serve as particles. Because of their nature, the pollutant particles cause larger droplets to form, and the result is brighter clouds, which in turn reflect more sunlight. Says the researchers, though, the effects aren’t likely powerful enough to combat increasing global temperatures.
Said the project’s author Gordon McFiggans: “More cloud droplets lead to brighter cloud when viewed from above, reflecting more incoming sunlight. We did some calculations of the effects on climate and found that the cooling effect on global climate of the increase in cloud seed effectiveness is at least as great as the previously found entire uncertainty in the effect of pollution on clouds.”
[via Science World Report]
Earth is being cooled by pollutants, say researchers is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Whether preparing for the apocalypse (zombie or otherwise) or merely stocking your post-Cold war bomb shelter, you’ll be bowled over by soft drink can sized Emergency Rice rations from Japan. The manufacturer, CTC, designed the good-looking, no-nonsense packaging because hey – in an emergency no one has time for nonsense, amiright?
They’ve already done it with frogs and sheep, so what’s to stop them from doing the same thing with trees?
I’m talking about cloning and how some people in the scientific community are turning to it to repopulate the earth with species that were once abundant before humans and other factors came and endangered their existence.
A non-profit group called Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is eager to jump-start reforestation programs of old trees before they become extinct. Described as group ”that locates and propagates the world’s largest and most iconic trees,” AATA will employ traditional and modern methods in the process.
The cloned trees will come from all over the world and will represent the “best” of old growth tree populations.
During this year’s Earth Day, the group planted and distributed redwood trees in Germany, Ireland, Wales, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. Now this is one application of cloning that I have no qualms about.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
