Today’s Solutions: March 28, 2024

Design

Six million dollar plant: Scie

Six million dollar plant: Scientists grow cyborg roses

When you think of cyborgs, plants probably aren't the first thing that pops into your head, but it's time for that to change. A team of researchers at the Laboratory for Organic Electronics at Linköping University in Sweden has managed to grow living roses with electronic circuits threaded Read More...

This house runs on poop and fo

This house runs on poop and food waste

An abandoned farm in rural Spain, a mile from the nearest tiny village, is the unlikely site of cutting-edge energy technology. The new farmhouse under construction on the property will eventually be powered partly by the owners' poop. The mini waste-to-energy system takes organic Read More...

Small artificial kidneys may f

Small artificial kidneys may free patients of big dialysis machines

If you suffer from kidney failure, you're confined to visiting a hospital or clinic several times a week, to be hooked up for hours to a dialysis machine. Doing so, you're likely to develop buildup of fluids and minerals, which can result in high blood pressure and breathing problems and require Read More...

North Face launches winter jac

North Face launches winter jacket using synthetic spider's silk

Silk is a remarkable product of nature. For many millennia, silkworms and spiders have known how to make a fantastic fibre that's thinner than human hair, stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. We, humans, are only catching up. Several teams of researchers around the world are exploring how Read More...

MIT researcher turns soot into

MIT researcher turns soot into printer ink

Always watch out when buying a printer: the machine itself is cheap, but the ink is very expensive... Printer companies notoriously make a lot of profit selling cartridges. MIT scientist Anirudh Sharma has now found a clever way to turn soot into printer ink. He made a device that can use harmful Read More...

Bacteria-slaying paint wants t

Bacteria-slaying paint wants to disinfect a wall near you

The very walls of hospitals could become germ-fighting structures. It sounds sci-fi, but paint maker Sherwin-Williams is introducing Paint Shield, a microbicidal paint that kills infection-causing bacteria. The company says it's the first microbicidal paint to be registered with the US Read More...

This building doesn’t need a

This building doesn’t need an AC: The building itself is an AC

Dutch architect Ben Bronsema has developed what sounds like any office worker’s worst nightmare: a large building with no electric air conditioning system. But nobody needs to worry. It’s only because this building itself acts an air conditioner. Without the need for electric fans, this Read More...

Nature wins! Ford looks to bio

Nature wins! Ford looks to biomimicry to sustain auto industry

Biomimicry might not be the first word that comes to mind in association with the US automotive industry, but if the Ford Motor Company has any say in the matter, that’s going to change sooner rather than later. Earlier this week Ford teased out some news about its exploration of two-way Read More...

Scientists can now “squeeze

Scientists can now “squeeze” light, a breakthrough that could make computers millions of times faster

Have you ever wondered why we don’t use light to transmit messages? Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, but while we use light to carry signals along fiber optic cables, we use electrons to process sound and information in our phones and computers. The reason has always been Read More...

Green buildings have higher oc

Green buildings have higher occupancy rates and more satisfied tenants

A study out of the Canadian University of Guelph displays encouraging signs that ‘green’ buildings are good for business and the environment. The study shows that sustainable and energy efficient buildings have higher rents and occupancy rates as well as more satisfied tenants than conventional Read More...