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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...
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...