Nanogenerators Grow Strong Enough to Power Small Conventional Electronic Devices
November 11th, 2010
ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2010) — Blinking numbers on a liquid-crystal display (LCD) often indicate that a device’s clock needs resetting. But in the laboratory of Zhong Lin Wang at Georgia Tech, the blinking number on a small LCD signals the success of a five-year effort to power conventional electronic devices with nanoscale generators that harvest mechanical energy from the environment using an array of tiny nanowires.
Welcome the Bloom Box… is this the future?
March 1st, 2010
This is an interesting idea to solve the energy crisis.
New Tesla Model S
June 1st, 2009
I think that we should all consider getting one of these cars. Can you imagine the world with a great looking sedan like this, and it is fully electric with performance stats as listed on their site. Then lets couple that with solar on the roof and an extra battery for those long trips. Wow it would change the world for 2030.
Topics: Automotive, Car, Electric Car, Electric Vehicles, Energy, Green vehicles, Model S, New, Road Transport, Sedan, Sedans, Technology, Tesla, Tesla Motors
William McDonough: Designing Cradle to Cradle
May 17th, 2009
Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account “all children, all species, for all time.”
In Cradle to Cradle, McDonough and Braungart argue that the conflict between industry and the environment is not an indictment of commerce but an outgrowth of purely opportunistic design. The design of products and manufacturing systems growing out of the Industrial Revolution reflected the spirit of the day-and yielded a host of unintended yet tragic consequences.
“To use something as elegant as a tree. Imagine this design assignment: design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colors with the seasons, and self-replicates, then say why don’t we knock that down and write on it.”
- William McDonough – TEDtalks 2007
Today, with our growing knowledge of the living earth, design can reflect a new spirit. In fact, the authors write, when designers employ the intelligence of natural systems—the effectiveness of nutrient cycling, the abundance of the sun’s energy—they can create products, industrial systems, buildings, even regional plans that allow nature and commerce to fruitfully co-exist.
Cradle to Cradle maps the lineaments of McDonough and Braungart’s new design paradigm, offering practical steps on how to innovate within today’s economic environment. Part social history, part green business primer, part design manual, the book makes plain that the re-invention of human industry is not only within our grasp, it is our best hope for a future of sustaining prosperity.
In addition to describing the hopeful, nature-inspired design principles that are making industry both prosperous and sustainable, the book itself is a physical symbol of the changes to come. It is printed on a synthetic ‘paper,’ made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers, designed to look and feel like top quality paper while also being waterproof and rugged. And the book can be easily recycled in localities with systems to collect polypropylene, like that in yogurt containers. This ‘treeless’ book points the way toward the day when synthetic books, like many other products, can be used, recycled, and used again without losing any material quality—in cradle to cradle cycles.
Topics: Architect, Art, Building, Change, Commerce, Cradle to Cradle, Design, Design, Designer, Energy, Green-Minded, Industrial, Innovation, Prosperity, Revolution, Talk, TEDtalks, Theory, Time, Video, William McDonough, Wisdom, YouTube
The Energy Non-Crisis
June 22nd, 2008
Wow, starting to think the oil companies are starting to try and argue that tapping Alaska is something we should tap, oh… and the speculators are at the root of this mess. Watch this video… makes me wonder.
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