Tag: #83

Old plastic bottles can be made into tiny houses, but it's better to dispense with single-use plastic altogether. A schoolgirl from the UAE encouraged 314 pupils from 7th grade to do just that. Her method? Individual barcodes for those with returnable bottles. These were scanned at the start of the school day, creating data sets about pupils’ habits. Leaderboards...

Our brains are lazy, and some people learn quicker than others. An app helps children with dyslexia. Perceiving new situations often poses challenges for people within the autism spectrum. Now, following a 30-person study, a research team in Tel Aviv has evaluated a new method of learning. On the first day, participants were asked to study a visual task...

Warm walls help generate energy. Now, the startup of a Finnish research team is using sand to store solar- and wind electricity. The renewable energy powers a device that circulates hot air in a silo with some 100 tons of sand which heats up to 600-1000℃. This way energy can be stored for months without using lithium and cater...

Our blood can reveal a physical illness. A hairband may be equally helpful, so too a sympathetic text. And now a Swiss startup has launched an app to support people with chronic illnesses such as asthma, migraines or bipolar disorder. Users respond to 3-5 daily questions, which help record their mood. Next come data from smartphones and wearable devices...

Body heat and sweat generated through sport can be useful. Now, a research team in Singapore has found a way of producing electricity from air moisture. First, a fabric made of wood pulp and polyester was coated with carbon nanoparticles. Hydrogel made using sea salt was applied to one half, while the other stayed dry. Positively charged sea-salt ions...

Around half a billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide each year, some of them in edible vessels. Now a Swiss firm is ensuring coffee-lovers produce even less waste in search of their caffeine hit. Their product: coffee 'balls' encased in sustainable packaging. Instead of an aluminium capsule, the coffee and its aroma are contained in a flavourless, seaweed-based...