Tag: #109

Adding electrons to aluminium can create a rare metal. An Australian student has been thinking in terms of conversion too - only on a greater scale. His idea is to provide existing cars with internal combustion engines with an electric drive function. He developed a compact axial flux motor that is retrofitted onto the brake disc. The energy required...

Thanks to innovation, people with disabilities can freshen up in the sea. But when it comes to dating, it’s ‘sink or swim’ out there. Enter two American sisters and their new dating app for people with physical, psychological or nervous issues. Users can enter the details of their disability if they choose, with categories such as ‘blind’, ‘deaf’ and...

Used chopsticks are being converted into furniture, while food waste can be redeployed as construction material. And don’t forget about sugarcane. A London-based research team mixed the crop’s fibrous waste with a liquid blend of minerals, then pressed the material into pyramid-like blocks. These can be cured in a week, 21 days fewer than standard concrete. Moreover, they are...

Wood can replace window glass when its biopolymer lignin is removed. Now, a US research team has discovered that the same polymer can be used in a medical context. They combined lignin from spruce trees with positively charged ammonium ions, whose mildly acidic qualities are effective against mould, viruses and bacteria. Tests showed that an infectious but antibiotic-resistant type...

Subjected to high-frequency sound waves, stem cells extracted from fat tissue grow into new bone cells. Audible sound waves are useful too, as this latest innovation from a London-based designer shows: her portable speaker doubles as an air purifier. Internal ventilators along with the music’s waves remove harmful particles from the air and drive them into a special filter...

A toilet break on Mars could be a constructive use of astronauts’ time. And it isn’t just human urine that’s suitable as building material. Algae, already used to make blue lemonade, are showing their versatility here too. The founders of a US startup licensed a proprietary process from their former University in Colorado, harnessing microalgae to develop ersatz cement....