Audi has come up with a suspension system that turns rough roads into electricity
Engineers at Audi have created a prototype shock absorber that would give you a new appreciation for bumpy roads. Dubbed the ‘eROT,’ this shock absorber generates kinetic energy generated by the movement of the car’s suspension while making the ride much smoother. With each little movement, Read More...
The plan that will make use of Alberta's abandoned oil wells
The continuously falling price of oil has left thousands of oil wells abandoned in Alberta, but a new proposal may have found a way to make use of those wells again. The Living Energy Project wants to use the waste heat produced from the idle facilities to allow crops to grow, even in Canada’s Read More...
Elon Musk wants to make your roof entirely out of solar panels
Instead of installing solar panels on top of roofs, why don’t we just construct rooftops made out of solar panels? During SolarCity’s latest earnings call, Elon Musk unveiled that his company is developing a “solar roof” that would utilize every inch of space to produce energy for the home Read More...
Overpopulation? Fewer women are having babies than ever before
Overpopulation is perceived to be a big threat in many future environmental scenarios. But should we really be concerned about too many people on the planet? Advance countries, like Italy and Japan, are dealing with declining populations. That would also be the case in Germany were it not for net Read More...
Study: Reading linked to a longer life
Bookworms live long, suggests a new study. A sedentary lifestyle can lead to all sorts of health issues, but new research shows that there’s at least one good thing you can do during all that time of your feet: read a book. Researchers found that readers have strong cognitive skills that, Read More...
China's LeEco to invest $1.8 billion in electric car factory
China's Le Holdings Co Ltd, also known as LeEco, said on Wednesday it would invest 12 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) to build an electric car plant in eastern China with eventual annual production capacity of 400,000 cars. The company said in a statement its first China factory would be built in two Read More...
Zagster, a bike-share from Cambridge, offers another take on the sharing economy
Zagster, a Cambridge-based bike-share company that wants to become the Zipcar for cyclists, is carving out a niche outside large cities. Unlike city-sponsored programs like Boston’s Hubway, with thousands of bikes, Zagster makes its money by leasing smaller numbers of bikes to companies and Read More...
At long last, the Hydrogen Highway may soon be here
Stephen Beatty was looking through some old papers not long ago and found a report prepared for then-prime minister Joe Clark on Canada’s hydrogen-powered future. “It talked of the hydrogen economy being only 25 years away,” Toyota Canada’s vice-president says. “That Read More...
Scotland just generated more electricity through wind power than the country needs
For the first time on record, wind turbines have generated more electricity than was used in the whole of Scotland on a single day. An analysis by conservation group WWF Scotland found unseasonably stormy weather saw turbines create about 106 per cent of the total amount of electricity Read More...
Urban agriculture may be inefficient, but it’s a model for a sustainable future
There’s no innovation agenda without design thinking Ian Clarke is an artist, brain-cancer stem-cell scientist, urban farmer and biomimicry design researcher. He is associate dean of the faculty of liberal arts and sciences and School of Interdisciplinary Studies at OCAD University. It’s time Read More...