For the past year-and-a-half, Google has been secretly testing a new way to measure the air quality in city streets. They worked together with a startup company called Aclima, to attach special sensors to its street view cars. With this sensor, they measured different chemicals that are unhealthy to breathe in, like nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon. Their technology is good enough now to bring air quality data into the world. The goal is to make these data available to citizens so local governments can see and act on pollution on their own streets. For example, if a city knows that certain roadways are full of smog, they could try and change the traffic situation.
Where is the smog? Google will help cities find out by strapping smog-sensors to street view cars
More of Today's Solutions
3D-printed bone implants that release drugs as they heal
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Czech researchers at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague are building titanium joint implants with a ...
Read MoreHow inherited genetics shape the way cancer forms and evolves
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A study published in Nature provides the first experimental evidence that inherited genetics shape not just whether cancer ...
Read MoreAmericans are finally starting to embrace the bidet
Bidet sales are up in America! Editorial confession: We’ve been hoping to write something like that for a long time. If you don’t know ...
Read More5 warm, creative ways to spark better conversations with your kids
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM It’s a familiar scene in many homes: you greet your child after school and ask, “How was your ...
Read More
