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Animal behavior and conservation class helps inmates develop compassion
Relating with nature helps people connect to what makes them human. Even when behind bars. Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, has been teaching "Animal Behavior and Conservation" to male prisoners for over a decade. In this Read More...
Urban agriculture is sprouting in Africa
The recent development of urban agriculture is not limited to the rooftops of Brooklyn and the community gardens in San Francisco. The phenomenon is surging is African cities, as rural populations are flooding to urban centers in search of better opportunities. In some places, it was sowed by Read More...
University professor gives lesson in humanity
Ordinary heroes abound. They live with us every day, nurturing or restoring our faith in humanity—as the case may be—and teaching us something about ourselves in the process. One recent example is Sydney Engelberg, a Hebrew University professor in Jerusalem who did something both remarkably Read More...
Global solar market to grow 30-percent this year
The price of solar panels keeps tumbling but manufacturers are finding a sweet spot after three challenging years: volume is finally making up for the price drop as demand surges. The solar panel market is expected to grow by 30 percent this year, according to Bloomberg, driven by growing Read More...
Renewable energy deployment creates twice as many jobs as fossil fuel development
Some 7.7 million people are now employed across the global renewable energy value chain, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). That’s up 18 percent from 6.5 million in 2014. In other words, renewable energy job creation continues to far outpace that for economies Read More...
Brewing beer from the Chilean desert’s fog
The Atrapaneblina (fog catcher) brewery is an irresistible case of the human inventive spirit thumbing its nose at adversity. In Chile’s Atacama Desert, its crew is able to retrieve enough water from the fog to produce 6,300 gallons of beer per year. The process starts with special nets designed Read More...
Limestone-producing bacteria is key to self-repairing living concrete
Cracked concrete is unsightly. It can also severely compromise structures if water is allowed to seep through it. After several years of development, a Dutch research team at Delft University of Technology has come up with a solution inspired by nature: a living concrete infused with the ability Read More...
Mind over matter: why cultivating a positive mindset is essential to health and well-being
There is such a thing as beating the odds thanks to a positive attitude, research shows. Here is a list of behaviors that have been found to be typical of healthy individuals in old age, despite poor genetic predisposition or exposure to toxic environments. Consider it a shopping list of healthy Read More...
Caterpillar is new weapon for war on drugs
Colombia, one of the world’s top producers of cocaine, plans to resort to an organic agriculture trick to destroy its most problematic crop — coca. The chemical herbicide glyphosate, which the government has been routinely using to spray the illegal plants, was recently declared carcinogen by Read More...
Bladeless turbine to make wind-energy systems affordable and easy to maintain
Spain has long been a wind-energy pioneer. It should only be fitting that the latest, hottest wind innovation comes from the South European nation. Spanish startup Vortex Bladeless has developed a technology to harvest energy from wind without using blades—as it names suggests. Because it has no Read More...