Startups are helping the city of Flint turn the tide after the water crisis
Whenever the city of Flint, Michigan, finds itself in the headlines, it’s rarely for anything good. The city has long suffered from divestment and exodus, and the water crisis five years ago didn’t help fix the national image of Flint being a site of intractable poverty. But all of this fails Read More...
Tiny teeth-cleaning robots could soon calm your fears of the dentist
A visit to the dentist typically involves time-consuming and sometimes unsettling scraping with mechanical tools to remove plaque from teeth. Plaque deposits are usually the product of biofilms – little communities of micro-organisms, bacterial and otherwise, that gather together and coat on your Read More...
A South Korea school is enrolling illiterate grandmas to save it from closing
South Korea’s birthrate has been plummeting in recent decades, falling to less than one child per woman last year, one of the lowest in the world. The hardest hit areas are rural counties, where babies have become an increasingly rare sight as young couples migrate en masse to big cities for Read More...
Washington becomes first state to make human composting legal
Isn’t it weird that humanity has advanced so far when it comes to technology, and yet, we have only two options for disposing of human bodies after death? There’s a traditional burial, which requires wood and steel and means leaking dangerous chemicals into the ground, and cremation, which both Read More...
Turn your leftover eggshells into an all-natural fertilizer for your plants
You may not realize it, but the leftover eggshells from your sunny side up can help your garden grow greener and stronger. You see, eggshells are full of calcium, which is an essential plant nutrient, as well as other minerals. By fusing hot water and eggshells, you can make an eggshell tea (yum!) Read More...
The London Marathon replaced plastic bottles with edible seaweed pouches
If you’ve ever been to a huge sporting event such as a marathon, you’re probably aware of the massive amount of plastic waste that gets left behind. The London marathon is usually no different, but this year, the organizers arranged for participants to be handed edible pods made of seaweed Read More...
Why countries around the world are building highway overpasses just for animals
Highways are disastrous for the environment. These wide, dangerous roadways can cut wildlife from the resources they need to thrive, causing them to make the perilous journey from one side to the other. Countless animals have become roadkill as a result, not to mention the many drivers who have Read More...
Waste from Ghana’s chocolate production is being used to create a clean biofuel
The majority of chocolate is made from cocoa beans coming from Africa. For every ton of cocoa beans harvested, another 10 tons of cocoa pod husks are produced, which are typically left to decompose on the cocoa plantation or thrown away. Now, researchers have developed a system that will use the Read More...
Beyond Meat is going public. That's a good sign for the alt-meat industry
Companies that offer plant-based meat alternatives are becoming increasingly popular nowadays as the concept shows great potential in fixing many problems associated with our food system. For instance, Beyond Meat – the company that has managed to produce vegan burgers that look, taste, and even Read More...
Try using reflexology to treat common discomforts and body pains
You hate the taste of medicine but you are having a bad headache and rushing to finish your work. What do you do? Well, rather than reaching for those over-the-counter painkillers, try considering reflexology, an alternative medicine practice of applying pressure to specific “reflex points” Read More...