Lima, Peru, has the unfortunate distinction of being the second largest capital in the world located in a desert. It rarely rains there, and many of the residents are forced to get their water from dirty wells. But on the flipside, the humidity also hovers around 98 percent, so the local University of Engineering and Technology designed a clever billboard that’s able to harvest the moisture in the air and turn it into potable water. More »
This week, ubiquitous middle-shelf bourbon Maker’s Mark announced that it would be watering down its whiskey from 90 proof to 84 proof in order to meet demand. Not surprisingly, everybody freaked out. That’s dumb. Here’s why. More »
NASA’s Landsat program recently turned the big four-oh, and what better way to deal with the mid-life crisis by getting a new satellite as a present? Accordingly, the space agency has just launched Landsat 8 into orbit to give its Earth Science program a new injection of youth. The new vehicle improves the accuracy of existing light and thermal sensors while widening the scope to better reflect modern climate studies — number 8 now tracks aerosols in the atmosphere, high cirrus clouds and the telltale signs of water quality and consumption levels. We won’t get the first USGS-derived results from the new satellite until after a 100-day shakedown period, but we’re sure the deeper understanding of our planet will help the Landsat program forget all about those first few gray hairs.
Filed under: Science
Source: NASA
There can be no denying that designer Guillaume Binard’s “Oceanwings” look slightly ridiculous. But with the promise of letting you fly underwater, they’re a strangely tempting prospect, too. More »
Aside from the sweltering daytime heat and the freezing night-time temperatures, the biggest problem for folks living in desert regions is finding sources of water. Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology and Hong Kong Polytechnic have leveraged those temperature swings to help solve the arid region hydration conundrum with a cotton material that absorbs water straight from the surrounding air. Of course, it’s not your run-of-the-mill fabric woven from fluffy white stuff. This cloth is coated in a special polymer, called PNIPAAm, that’s hydrophilic (read: super absorbent) at temperatures 34°C and below, but becomes hydrophobic (read: repels water) when it gets any hotter.
In absorption mode, the cloth can hold 340 percent of its own weight — compared to just 18 percent without the polymer’s aid — and when it warms up, it releases the collected moisture as clean and pure potable water. So, it can help hydrate both plants and people in desert regions around the world. The boffins who created the stuff claim it’s reusable and can be used on locally-sourced cotton fabrics for a minimal, 12 percent cost increase given current manufacturing conditions. Not impressed? Well, the magical moisture-absorbing material may get even better, as the plan is to increase the amount of water the material can hold and lower the temperature threshold for its release.
Filed under: Wearables, Science, Alt
Via: Extreme Tech
Planetary scientists at the European Space Agency have released 3D images of the “striking upper part of the Reull Vallis region of Mars,” which reveal a 932-mile-long (1500 kilometer) river running from the Promethei Terra Highlands to the vast Hellas basin. More »
Few of us are fortunate enough to enjoy clean municipal tap water — the rest have to make do with clunky bacteria-riddled filters and wasteful bottled H2O. Enter Zuvo Water, which has hopped on Indiegogo to fund its elaborate and tech-centric Stratus water purification system. It includes WiFi-enabled hardware, filters, optional “intelligent” faucets and a cloud-connected smartphone app that’ll tell you when to swap out old cartridges for new ones. These are no ordinary filters either — they go beyond simple carbon filtration by combining ultraviolet light (UV), oxygenation, and carbon with a patented five-step process, which Zuvo claims makes it the “only filter system in the world that is self cleaning.” Beat that, Brita.
Two kinds of Stratus filters can be part of the setup: a countertop model for existing taps and another that fits under the counter to accommodate one of Zuvo’s touch-sensitive faucets designed by D2M (which was incidentally behind Kickstarter-success Instacube). The faucets come in Bamboo, Acacia tri-flow and Hibiscus designs, and with chrome, brushed nickel or oil-rubbed bronze finishes. In case you don’t have your smartphone app handy, the taps are equipped with LED lights to show the water’s filter status as well — blue means clean, yellow means not so much and red means you should probably get a new filter, pronto. In addition to managing your filters, the aforementioned app also offers a personalized hydration coach that’ll remind you of your daily water consumption needs.
Continue reading Zuvo Water’s Stratus cleans your H2O with WiFi filters, cloud-connected app
Filed under: Household
Source: Indiegogo
Panasonic has developed a revolutionary hot water pipe that can actually turn the heat into usable electricity, as long as there’s also a source of cold water. The conversion process relies on the temperature difference between the hot and cold water, and since the entire pipe is used to harness heat, the power output is three or four times higher than previous efforts. More »
NASA has confirmed a surprising, counterintuitive discovery. The burning hell known Mercury—the closest planet to the Sun—has water. Frozen water. Three new research papers, based on data obtained by the Messenger spacecraft, show undeniable evidence. More »
A gigantic storm is set to hit the West Coast later today, bringing with it over a foot of rain. It’s what meteorologists call an Atmospheric River—but what is that, exactly? More »
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