Royal College of Art graduate Julian Melchiorri has created the world's first man-made, biologically functional"leaf,"reports Dezeen.
plants are the powerhouses that produce all of the sustenance On earth. This process also produces the oxygen that we breath,
and scrubs the air of pollutants and excess carbon dioxide, and helps to regulate the planet's climate.
which was developed as part of the Royal College of Art's Innovation Design Engineering course in collaboration with Tufts University silk lab,
and the silk protein is extracted from natural silk fibers. Like the leaves of a plant, the material requires only exposure to sunlight and a small amount of water to produce oxygen."
"Silk Leaf is the first man-made biological leaf, "claimed Melchiorri.""It's very light, low energy-consuming,
it's completely biological.""The potential applications for the invention are countless. Aside from producing oxygen for astronauts,
the Silk Leaf could also be used as building material to produce clean air for buildings. Melchiorri has developed even some simple home uses for the material,
such as lampshades that produce oxygen while they beautify. Most importantly, though, the material could serve as an artificial carbon offset
and thus help regulate Earth's climate and combat global warming. Deforested land could potentially be offset with buildings
and other structures that are lined with Silk Leaf material. You can view a video presentation of the incredible Silk Leaf below w
#BMW offers free (and fast) EV charging Thinking about buying an electric car but worried about range and places to plug in?
Don worry so much. The charging world is moving fast and public stations are becoming widely available in fact many of them are free to lucky owners.
Nissan recently said that Leaf buyers will have free public charging for two years in 25 U s. cities with 10 of them already online.
What more a single EZ-Charge card will give Leaf-ers access to stations run by Chargepoint Blink Carcharging Group NRG evgo and Aerovironment.
The 10 cities are Los angeles San francisco Sacramento San diego Seattle Nashville Phoenix Dallas-Fort worth Houston Portland (Oregon)
and now BMW is jumping in with two announcements to support its new i3 electric and i8 plug-in hybrid models.
According to BMW spokesman Dave Buchko t a DC fast charger at half the size and a third of the size of previous fast chargers.
It 31 inches tall weighs less than 200 pounds and can be wall-mounted. Businesses and municipalities that partner with BMW will be able to buy the charger
which is capable of charging an i3 (to 80 percent) in 30 minutes for $6548.
BMW's fast charger weighs less than 200 pounds and can be mounted on the wall. Photo:
BMW) BMW fast charger uses the Society of Automotive Engineersomboplug which makes it compatible with most U s
. and German EVS (including the Chevrolet Spark) but not with the Nissan leaf which uses the more established Japanese CHADEMO standard.
Is it a headache that there isn just one fast charging standard? You bet. One positive development is the availability of chargers that have wands for both types
but the low-cost BMW unit is not one of those the company said. BMW second announcement is about a Chargenow partnership with NRG evgo and Chargepoint.
By the end of 2015 the utility will have installed 100 of its own fast chargers (15 in 2014) around California said Rob Healey EV infrastructure manager for BMW of North america.
Through the end of next year i3 drivers will be able to enjoy 30-minute free charges at those stations
and have access to others. Theyl be able to use the same Chargenow card for BMW fast chargers NRG reedom stationsor Chargepoint units. t the first step to true interoperabilityhealey said.
Not all BMW i3s are fast-charge capable by the way. It a $700 option. But trust me on this it worth the money for the flexibility it adds.
It would be interesting to know how many i3s have been sold and what options are being taken (including the split between standard
and range extender REX cars) but BMW Healey says the data isn there yet. he i3 has only been on the market for two
and a half monthshe said m
#Navy's futuristic laser weapon ready for action The laser has a variety of attack modes,
'The next generation of futuristic weapons has arrived. The U s. Navy announced that its high-tech laser weapon is ready to disable
and destroy enemy drones and small boats, should the need arise. The 30-kilowatt laser weapon system (Laws) is housed aboard the USS Ponce,
a naval vessel stationed in the Arabian Gulfa body of water located south of Iraq that separates the Saudi arabian peninsula from Iran.
militaries are allowed not to use laser weapons directly against people a condition that Klunder said the U s. Navy with abide by, according to Optics. org.
Sailors operate the laser using a video game-type controller according to Navy officials. With this controller, they can perform a variety of operations.
If an enemy boat or aircraft gets too close to a Navy ship, the laser can deter the threat with an effect known as optical"dazzling."
which will knock out the sensors or control systems on an enemy drone or vessel. If the adversary still doesn't get the hint,
In recent tests, Laws successfully hit targets aboard a small boat that was speeding toward the Navy ship.
The laser weapon also shot a small drone out of the sky according to Navy officials.""We ran this particular weapon, a prototype, through some extremely tough paces,
and it locked on and destroyed the targets we designated with near-instantaneous lethality,"Klunder,
The sailors who tested Laws reported that the weapon worked well even in high winds,
The data collected from these trial runs will be used to develop new laser weapons for the Navy under the Office of Naval Research's Solid-state laser-Technology Maturation program.
These future lasers could one day be deployed on both large destroyer ships (used to launch missiles) and smaller combat ships
These weapons are sought after because they don require highly explosive gunpowder or pressurized gas to destroy enemy targets,
making them safer for military personnel to operate. And since all they require is a steady supply of electricity,
laser weapons may also be more reliable than conventional weapons. Of course, the U s. military is also pursuing this new breed of weapons for economic reasons.
Laser weapons cost less to build install and fire, compared with multimillion-dollar missiles, Navy officials said."
"At less than a dollar per shot, there's no question about the value Laws provides, "Klunder said."
"With affordability a serious concern for our defense budgets, this will more effectively manage resources to ensure our sailors
and Marines are never in a fair fight.""The most recent tests of Laws are part of several rounds of testing that have occurred over the past three years.
In a 2011 test, a laser weapon disabled multiple small boats launched from a U s. warship. And in 2012, Laws downed several drones during a naval test of the system t
#Transparent solar windows generate energy without obstructing the view Imagine being able to generate solar energy on the surface of every window
or electronic device without obstructing the view. It's possible, thanks to Michigan State university researchers who have developed a completely transparent solar concentrator, reports Phys. org.
The key word to this development is"transparent,"according to Richard Lunt of MSU's College of Engineering.
Although research into see-through solar concentrators is nothing new, previous developments have failed to produce effective results with material that is truly transparent.
Although there have been solar concentrators you can see through these have always been colored highly or tinted."
"No one wants to sit behind colored glass, "said Lunt.""It makes for a very colorful environment,
like working in a disco. We take an approach where we actually make the luminescent active layer itself transparent."
"Luminescent solar concentrators generate electricity by concentrating radiation most often, non-ionizing solar radiation. They convert it by luminescence
is guided to the edge of a clear plastic panel where it is converted then to electricity using thin strips of photovoltaic solar cells.
"It can be used on tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e reader.
#Scientists achieve quantum teleportation of data with 100 percent accuracy Dutch scientists working with the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology have made a stunning breakthrough in quantum technology
by successfully teleporting data across a distance of about 10 feet with perfect accuracy reports the New york times. The advance ought to have Albert Einstein who famously dismissed the idea of quantum teleportation as spooky action at a distance rolling in his grave.
For instance a University of Maryland study back in 2009 demonstrated that it could be done but only one out of every 100 million attempts succeeded.
They did so by producing quantum bits using electrons trapped in diamonds at extremely low temperatures. These ultra-cold gemstones effectively acted as prisons trapping the electrons
and allowing the scientists to accurately establish their spin or value. If they can repeat the experiment over distances significantly larger than 10 feet it could mean that incomprehensibly fast quantum computers
and a quantum internet are just around the corner. here is a big race going on between five
IBM accidentally creates the first new polymer in 30 years When you leave a key ingredient out of a recipe,
That's what happened at an IBM laboratory recently when research chemist Jeannette M. Garcia missed a step while mixing and heating a batch of chemicals.
She ended up with a beaker filled with hard white plastic that was so tough she needed to break the glass to get to the material.
The accident has led to the discovery of two amazing new polymers the first new polymers created in 30 years.
the polymers code-named"Titan"and"Hydro"are incredibly strong, lightweight and able to heal themselves.
"Polymers, such as plastics and polystyrene, are long chains of molecules connected through chemical bonds. The main failings of these materials are their poor recyclability
The new polymers solve these problems. IBM said the materials could even potentially be used in airplanes, where their strength, light weight,
resistance to stress and self-healing abilities could allow them to be used on airplane wings.
Beyond the initial accident, the new polymers were developed through a combination of chemistry and high-performance computing,
which allowed them to quickly figure out how the new polymers would react with other materials.
For example when they reinforced the polymer with carbon nanotubes, it became 50 percent stronger. IBM Research's James Hedrick, who co-authored the new paper,
said in a news release that"new materials innovation is critical to addressing major global challenges, developing new products and emerging disruptive technologies.
We're now able to predict how molecules will respond to chemical reactions and build new polymer structures with significant guidance from computation that facilitates accelerated materials discovery.
This is unique to IBM and allows us to address the complex needs of advanced materials for applications in transportation, microelectronic or advanced manufacturing."
"In addition to the hard material that IBM says could be used for airplane wings, they also developed an elastic gel that is mostly liquid
and would dissolve when placed in water. But if it is simply cut in half, it will reattach itself.
The researchers say this could be used as a self-healing adhesive to repair defective semiconductor chips, for example.
IBM says the dissolving qualities of the gel could also allow it to be used as a mechanism to delivery pharmaceuticals to the body h
#Billboard sucks in pollution and turns it into purified air Billboards often line busy roads
and highways where there's lots of traffic and by association lots of air pollution. But what if those billboards could be transformed into giant air purifiers scrubbing the air and turning polluted areas into fresh ones?
That's the idea behind a new billboard archetype created by researchers at UTEC the University of Engineering and Technology of Peru reports Time.
This new billboard is arguably even better for the environment. It can purify 100000 cubic meters of urban air per day
which is equivalent to the work of about 1200 mature trees! The billboard's air filtration system is also capable of scrubbing the air of some pretty heavy-duty pollutants such as the dust metal and stone particles common around construction zones.
Since the fresh air radius of the billboard is up to five blocks it could go a long way toward reducing the health risks to inhabitants of large urban areas.
Lima Peru where the first air-purifying billboard is located is need in particular of the technology. According to the World Meteorological Association Lima has the highest air pollution levels in all of South america most of it related to transportation and factories.
Hills surrounding the city also trap in the pollution making a bad situation worse. Overall the city pollution levels are triple the maximum recommended by the World health organization.
The billboard works on the basis of simple thermodynamic principles. It makes use of shifts in temperature pressure
and vacuum to scrub the air. Aside from separating pollutants from the air UTEC claims that the technology can also eliminate 99 percent of airborne bacteria.
Even better the filtration system uses just 2. 5 kilowatts (2500 watts) of electricity per hour so it's energy-efficient too.
Researchers also hope that by analyzing the pollutants collected by the billboard they can better understand air circulation around the city.
This could lead to other methods for reducing the accumulation of pollution. If these early prototypes are successful one can imagine similar billboards being erected in urban areas around the world.
Large cities in the U s. with poor air quality and high traffic such as Los angeles and Houston would be good places to implement the technology.
Check out the video below provided by UTEC for additional information about the billboards b
#DARPA's'Luke Skywalker'arm wins FDA approval An extremely advanced prosthetic arm sometimes compared to Luke Skywalker's arm from"Star wars"has been approved for clinical use by the U s. Food and Drug Administration
The military research agency launched the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program in 2006 with the goal of developing a prosthetic device"to repay some of the debt we owe to our service members"
Dr. Geoffrey Ling, director of DARPA's Biological Technologies Office, said in a statement. The program aims to provide a more sophisticated alternative to prosthetic devices such as the split-hook device invented in 1912.
The DEKA Arm System, developed by the company DEKA Integrated Solutions in Manchester, New hampshire, uses wireless signals from sensors in the user's feet and other inputs to control the arm's multiple joints.
and is powered battery. The user can select among six different grips. The arm's development would not have been possible without a host of technological advances
including the miniaturization of motor parts, computer controls and sensors and manufacturing that uses lightweight but strong materials.
The FDA approved the device based on a study of 36 participants, funded by the Department of veterans affairs,
#Freaky engineered organism has 6-letter DNA in its genetic code The first report of a bacterium
whose genome contains man-made DNA building blocks opens the door for tailor-made organisms that could be used to produce new drugs and other products.
The man-made DNA could be used for everything from the manufacture of new drugs and vaccines to forensics
"What we have done is successfully store increased information in the DNA of a living cell,"study leader Floyd Romesberg, a chemical biologist at The Scripps Research Institute in La jolla,
Biomimicry: 7 Clever Technologies Inspired By nature DNA alphabet The field of synthetic biology involves tinkering with DNA to create organisms capable of novel functions in medicine, energy and other areas.
The DNA alphabet consists of four letters, or bases: adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine (A t, G and C). Adenine pairs with thymine,
RNA is a genetic material similar to DNA, except it has a different chemical backbone and replaces the base thymine with uracil (U). Living things translate DNA into proteins through a series of steps.
Now that the scientists have demonstrated an organism can incorporate artificial DNA letters into its genome, the next step will be showing it can convert the DNA into new proteins,
because cells can do the work of making them and because molecular biology techniques can be used to help proteins"evolve"to have desired properties,
But proteins are limited to only 20 building blocks, known as amino acids.""Compare this to a medicinal chemist,
who explores a much greater diversity of structures in the small-molecule drugs they synthesize,
"The research paves the way for"designer"organisms with custom-made genomes that are capable of performing useful tasks, like making drugs.
which have man-made DNA sequences in their genomes. The researchers are now working on expanding the DNA alphabet of yeast cells,
The new way to move kids stuff and pizza Order a Domino pizza in Portland, Ore.
But moving kids, pizzas and even entire households with pedal power is catching on big time in the U s. Cargo bikes are he new station wagon,
Jim Motavalli on a carbo bike The author investigates a Belgian Ecopostale van at the International Transport Forum.
She making a documentary called"Less Car More Go, "and both crowdsourcing video for it and raising money through a Kickstarter campaign.
She wants a modest $40, 000, and already has $23, 000. always loved riding my bike, Canning said,
I couldn pull my twins in our double trailerhe hill to our house was too steep.
Bike with a wheelbarrow in front You can watch the trailer for"Less Car More Go"here:
Less Car More Go DHL's courier services are mounted often bike in Europe. Photo courtesy of"Less Car More Go")Cargo bikes have reached scale in Europe.
For instance, DHL Netherlands, which does parcel delivery, replaced 33 trucks with cargo bikes, saving 152 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Arne Melse of DHL says that 10 percent of the company vehicles are bikes. rom our pilots in four EU countries,
we see that it is indeed possible to deliver by cycle. There are already 2, 000 to 3, 000 cargo bikes in London,
Ecopostale is using bike vans to deliver the mail in Belgium (see photo above. UPS is testing pedal-power delivery vans in Germany.
According to Dr. Randy Rzewnicki, a transplanted Bostonian who now works for Europe-based Cyclelogistics, t is boom time for cargo bikes.
Up to 70 percent of delivery costs are in the last mile, and these bikes can save money and increase efficiency.
It a credible solution for young businesses. Canning is a longtime film editor, and"Less Car More Go"will be her first film as a director.
She has modest goals of maybe being able to hire an assistant, pay for music rights,
do a little promotion. Judging from the trailer her editor instincts will lead to a sharply paced film.
but you have to watch this local cyclists band together to move an entire apartment. And it looks like theye having loads of fun doing it t
A low-end kitchen blender can make a high-end batch of this valuable material Blenders can be a great way to make smoothies or margaritas,
Researchers have figured out how to use ordinary kitchen blenders to create thin sheets of graphene, a marvelous high-tech material that is just one atom thick but 100 times stronger than steel.
Graphene is also an incredibly efficient conductor of heat and electricity. All of these qualities make it valuable for use in electronics and a variety of other applications,
but so far production of high-quality graphene has been limited to fairly small batches. This new discovery, published this week in the journal Nature Materials,
A team of researchers from Trinity college Dublin in Ireland and other institutions have figured out that they can take graphite powder (the same stuff found in pencil leads
water and dishwashing detergent, mix them up in a blender at high speed, and come up with graphene sheets.
The researchers did most of their work in a five-liter industrial blender, but they also replicated it in a fairly low-end kitchen blender.
The process still worked in the cheaper, less precise device.""This clearly shows that even very crude mixers can produce well exfoliated graphene,
This doesn't mean that your average person could start mixing up graphene in their kitchen the liquid and detergent need to be removed
and remaining graphite flakes must be extracted without damaging the graphene sheet but an engineer certainly could.
"Those applications could include better solar cells,"smart"coatings, new kinds of computers and all kinds of other devices or components.
graphene will find commercial applications in many areas from high-frequency electronics to smart coatings. Some important classes of applications,
such as printed electronics, conductive coatings and composite fillers, will require industrial-scale production of defect-free graphene in a process-able form."
and when disorders like autism first take root researchers say. This is another installment in our suite of brain atlases to try to map how all genes are used across the brain
Mapping the Brain The institute has developed previously maps of the developing and adult mouse brain the developing monkey brain and the adult human brain.
The new map is the first to look at the developing human brain specifically the developing neocortex the seat of higher cognitive functions Lein told Live Science.
The team used brain tissue with no known abnormalities or viruses such as HIV. Researchers took snapshots of brains at two different stages of prenatal development.
To measure gene activity the researchers used a powerful tool known as a DNA MICROARRAY which yields a quantitative measurement of the activity of every gene in the human genome simultaneously about 20000 genes in total.
The team compared these gene activity results with data from other species in particular the mouse brain.
Mice are used widely in biomedical research as a model for humans and these maps could give scientists insight into how mice brains are similar
or different from human brains Lein said. Researchers found some genes that were turned on in the developing human brain but not in the mouse's brain or vice versa.
For example the developing human brain contains genes that are more active in the frontal cortex than in the corresponding part of the mouse brain.
The frontal cortex is linked to personality and decision-making. Examples from the prenatal gene expression (left) and reference (right) atlases.
Image: Allen Institute for Brain science) The map of a healthy developing brain also provides clues to the origin of developmental disorders such as autism the researchers said.
Other studies have revealed certain genes that are active in autism. Lein's team saw these genes were turned on in newly generated excitatory neurons
(which activate other neurons) in the prenatal cortex suggesting autism may start in the womb as opposed to later in life.
Taken together these brain maps paint a picture of where and when different genes become active in the brain.
Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter and Google+.+Follow us@livescience Facebook & Google+.+Original article on Livescience v
#Honda Smart Home produces more energy than it uses Wouldn it be great if your house produced more energy than it consumed?
Does that mean negative utility bills? Indeed it does, because solar panels can return power to the grid
and make your meter spin backwards. Japanese companies are fascinated with net-zero energy buildings, usually incorporating transportation as part of the mix.
Panasonic Eco Ideas House, with solar, a fuel cell, battery backup and a plug-in Toyota prius, has stood long next to a company headquarters in Tokyo,
and the company is also developing a green-themed housing development. In Japan, Toyota is invested also heavily in green communities.
Now it Honda turn. The automaker has made a splash with its vehicle-to-grid technology
but now it getting more serious with the Honda Smart Home on the campus of the University of California at Davis
(whose researchers helped develop the property). The house (incorporating elements of Honda's Smart Home System,
below) is furnished fully, and a UC-Davis employee is going to live in it for at least three years.
The company broke ground on the house last year, declaring it to be a"showplace for environmental innovation."
"Honda Smart Home The house design is pleasant enough, but you won see its green features just by looking at it.
Innovations include: A 9. 5-kilowatt solar array, backed up by a 10-kilowatt-hour lithium battery and a 10-kilowatt DC car charger.
The solar will generate more than enough energy to heat the house, supply the appliances, and power a Honda Fit electric car.
With direct DC fast charging, the Fit can be back on the road in two hours. Michael Koenig, Honda Smart Home project leader, said that converting DC to AC wastes energy,
so this is a DC-based project. The Home energy management System (HEMS) optimizes the house microgrid, so that the Fit can charge during the low-demand nighttime,
and run on stored solar power. A geothermal system with eight, 20-foot deep boreholes uses a heat pump to heat
and cool the home floors and ceiling all year. LED lighting, with five times the efficiency of conventional illumination, is used throughout.
UC Davislighting center worked with Honda on a system that mimics the natural circadian rhythms of day and night.
For instance, amber hallway lights are bright enough for occupants to navigate the corridor, but not disruptive of the human eye production of rhodopsin (which helps us see in darkness,
and return to sleep quickly after a bathroom break). Blue light during the day helps maintain alertness.
The home also features a passive design that maximizes heating and cooling (the south-facing windows) and natural light and ventilation (the north-facing windows).
The property is also five times more water-efficient than the normal house, with low-flow fixtures and short-run hot-water pipes.
Graywater was used for irrigation, natural ash replaced half the foundation cement (production of which produces five percent of global CO2 EMISSIONS),
and certified lumber was used throughout. Over a year, the house is expected to generate a 2. 6-megawatt-hour surplus (compared to the average home consumption of 13.3 megawatts.
California official plan calls for all new homes to be net zero by 2020, so Honda house is tomorrow dwelling today.
Here's a video overview of the Honda Smart House, and if you want to learn more,
explore this infographic which goes into more detail about how the house works e
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