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Aid programs for poor families yield sustainable positive outcome, study shows
The impact of programs designed to lift families out of extreme poverty has typically been guess work at best. This may be about to change thanks to the very first science-based study conducted for five years in six countries. In clinical-study fashion, it assessed and compared the evolution of Read More...
For children, happiness trumps regardless of life circumstances
There is no correlation between how much stuff children have and how happy they are, according to a new survey of 53,000 children across 15 countries. The brazen optimism of children regardless of their circumstances is very reassuring news. What if we could retain that virtue and strength Read More...
Let us develop a healthy awe of water
We take water for granted, and how could we not? Most of us grew up surrounded by its abundant flow from faucets and sky. The Water Book by Alok Jha aims to tell us a very different story—one that is bound to crack open our awe and reverence for the extraordinary element that is water, from its Read More...
Google’s autonomous cars to hit California’s roads this summer
Driverless cars are about become a lot more real. Some of us who have grown familiar with the Google self-driving Lexuses cruising around the San Francisco Bay Are, can get ready to witness the next iteration of Google’s automobile project: tiny gumdrop-shaped cars that can’t exceed 25 mph and Read More...
California’s 2030 renewable energy plan will save $51 billion a year
Governor Jerry Brown made headlines last January when he announced an ambitious plan to source 50 percent of energy from renewables by 2030. A new analysis by Strategen Consulting now confirms that the plan is not only achievable, but also “economically sound (and) environmentally beneficial.” Read More...
Swedish food packaging design combines beauty and functionality of nature
Food packaging is typically made of landfill-bound materials like plastic, aluminum-lined paper or Styrofoam that outlive their content way longer than necessary. Tomorrow Machines has come up with alternative solutions whose materials, functionality and esthetics borrow from nature. We watched the Read More...
Moth’s eye and lotus leaf inspire more efficient, easier to maintain solar panels
Just as the cost of solar energy has been dropping precipitously, innovations sprout to accelerate the trend while improving the technology. In a recent example of biomimicry applied to solar, Oak Ridge National Lab was inspired by the moth’s eye to create an antireflective coating that increases Read More...
Public bench turns mundane moment into blissful break
What if our public spaces were filled with playful opportunities to take a happiness break and connect with strangers? This is the vision of artist George Zisiadis whose merry-go-round bench was tested at the Market Street Prototyping Festival in San Francisco last month. Watch the video and go Read More...
Meet Charles Arntzen, creator of world’s most promising anti-Ebola drug from tobacco plants
Bioengineered plants meet vaccines. It actually is a lot more promising than it may sound. A pioneer in the field is Arizona State University Professor Charles Arntzen. He has been working on nothing less than the world’s most promising anti-Ebola drug. ZMapp is an injectable synthetic serum made Read More...
Global warming soundtrack sounds eerily beautiful
An astonishing experiment by a music student and his teacher at the University of Minnesota has yielded a piece for string quartet that is as hauntingly beautiful as it is moving. Their goal: giving global warming a sound representation, just as animated color maps from NASA provide a visual Read More...