Green Options

A research team with the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) in Australia is working on a project to integrate energy-generating materials into our clothing. By simply collecting the energy in our movement, vibrations, and friction, our clothing could create enough juice to power up our mobile phone, mp3 player, etc. The Australian Defense Department awarded the team of researchers a $4.4 million grant to deem the technology feasible.

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Renewable energy is big, big, big: Josh just wrote about the world’s largest wind farm possibly going up in South Dakota (yahoo!), California could see the world’s largest solar power plant, and now Singapore is in the foray with landing the largest solar manufacturing facility the world’s ever seen.

A Norwegian company called Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) will build the complex, which will be completed in different stages to incorporate wafer,

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Depending on whom you ask, emissions from air travel make up 2-6 percent of the planet’s total CO2 emissions (as a whole, the transportation sector makes up about a quarter of those emissions). But airlines in particular have been getting a bad rap among some in the environmental community because of it, and a recent conference of European airline industries debated how to brighten their image.

One British strategic communications firm argued that the airline

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This Friday is the opening day of the 3rd Solar Decathlon Exhibition. The exhibition takes place on the National Mall in Washington DC from October 12th to 20th. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the competition invites 20 teams from colleges and universities across the United States, Germany, Spain, and Canada to participate. The objective is to "design, build, and operate

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I’ve found once or twice over the past several years that ideas are popping up that will one day go down in history as groundbreaking, and possibly world-saving. They are the important discoveries, steps forward and goals that you pin up with those such as JFK’s manned moon mission and the advent of the internet.

And while this idea may be just short of the computer in terms of overall impact, it very well

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Here’s an example of a global warming consequence that wasn’t exactly on my radar, and some strange news from our neighbors to the north.

The Canadian navy has traditionally had a good relationship with the garbage on board its ships: the cold Arctic temperatures have kept the mess frozen, allowing refuse and olfactory senses to live harmoniously.

Then came global warming. The increased temperatures have caused quite the stink on Canadian naval ships, so much so

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Designer Scott Amron has created a catalogue of conceptual products designed to persuade people to use less energy, or at least think about how many things are plugged into sockets in their homes. The experiment is called "Die Electric," named after the insulating properties of a dielectric material. A dielectric is a substance that is highly resistant to the flow of an electric current. The experiment is about

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Mankind has had its share of great accidents, among them x-rays, penicillin and the internet. They pop up because of scientific endeavor being allowed to flourish. It comes as no surprise, that what could be heralded as the answer to our future energy concerns could be solved due to an inherent accident.

John Kanzius, from Erie, Pennsylvania, has come across a way to burn sea-water. Obviously, scientists have not seen this

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Who ever thought that asking your neighbor for sugar could carry more connotations than that of baking necessities? Well, Sony is working on a product that will make your neighbor think twice about your consumptive demands.

Sony recently announced their current activity in developing a new bio-battery. The battery generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst. The sample battery has proven to be able

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Right now, a uniquely modified pickup truck is making its way across the country. Starting from Detroit and heading to San Francisco, the vehicles developers are seeking to draw attention to an overlooked fuel alternative. The truck uses a special fuel, something widely available throughout the country, but until now, not widely considered as a fuel for transportation: the truck is carrying three tanks of ammonia in its bed. In addition

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