Creating fire is still one of man’s greatest achievements. The problem arises when you have to control it or put it out.
This summer, the state of Colorado was helpless as hundreds of thousands of acres went up in flames. Homes and lives are lost worldwide at the hand of this merciless element everyday.
DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has been tinkering with a way of using physics instead of chemistry to combat our half friend, half foe.
Courtesy of Hitachi
“The volume of data being created every day is exploding, but in terms of keeping it for later generations, we haven’t necessarily improved since the days we inscribed things on stones. The possibility of losing information may actually have increased.” -Hitachi researcher Kazuyoshi Torii
To combat this problem, Hitachi is looking towards an unlikely source: slivers of quartz glass.
Courtesy of Peugeot.com
Peugeot engineers wanted to make a futuristic green concept car that rewrote the way we thought about designing an automobile. With their Onyx supercar, Peugeot’s goal was a success.
A few of the most notable features of the Peugeot Onyx include an uncoated raw copper exterior, a one piece carbon fiber interior coated in felt, and a sleek dashboard comprised solely of recycled newspaper sheets known as “newspaper wood”.
Via XD Design
Our lives are more on the go than ever and keeping our cell phones, music players, cameras, computers and tablets charged is a top priority. We all know how inconvenient it is to forget or lose our chargers and it is something that does happen more often than we’d like to admit. Luckily XD Design, a company based in the Netherlands, has a solution to that: a solar powered charger.
Courtesy of IceJacket.com
You’ve probably seen those steezy frozen shot glasses or mugs at friendly gatherings, but unfortunately science makes their use short-lived.
Frozen H2O is fun though; isn’t there a better way to incorporate ice into our evenings?
From the department of chill accessories comes the older and more sophisticated cousin to the frozen shot glass, the Ice Jacket.
Courtesy of FLIZ
It’s always cool to keep up with futuristic forms of green transportation and the pedal-less bike is a newcomer with swagger.
Combining the world’s oldest form of exercise with one of man’s greatest inventions, the pedal-less bike could help turn triathlons into biathlons.
From the department of “why didn’t I think of that” comes the pedal powered washer and dryer. The aptly named GiraDora (spinner in Spanish) works without electricity, is affordable at $40, and gives you a nice calf workout to boot!
The sun is scheduled to burn out approximately 5 billion years from today. Until that tragic day occurs, we’re going to be able to harvest solar energy. Most of the current solar cell technology is strikingly inefficient, but a group of researchers at the University of California Los Angeles is making huge strides in where and how we can harvest the power of our 10,000 °F friend.
Body parts, jewelry, food: what once required extreme craftsmanship and an incredible amount of time and resources is being reduced to an afterthought. Our grandparents would never have believed that we could sit at home andprint a feedwater heater for a 1907 White Steamer, but that’s exactly what’s happening. Although 3D printing may break down barriers and revolutionize manufacturing, we’re quickly learning about a number of dangerous drawbacks.
The segway, the invention that was supposed to revolutionize human transportation, now has some competition. Honda, makers of some of the more dependable vehicles on the road, is trying to change the way we move through our homes and workplaces.