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HomeTags#93

Tag: #93

Healthier choice

Flexible travel is now possible for people with limited mobility - thanks to a tailored search engine and an app which provides assistance for those changing trains. Now, a woman from London is helping the capital’s underground users select the healthiest route. Even below the surface, the air quality index of 25 particles per cubic metre is exceeded through...

Clean back-up

Inventive genius isn’t age-restricted. In recent times, school-age children have developed a lead filter for water taps, while this 23-year-old student created a new smog filter. Air quality is equally important for a 12-year-old English girl whose mother has asthma. She developed a rucksack which filters polluted air, incorporating an air filter and ventilators onto the front of her...

Second wind

The smallest wave movements can be converted into electricity. Air streams, meanwhile, power wind turbines. But their enormous blades take up a lot of space and only last for 15 years. Instead of vibrating alternatives without blades, a founder from New York is backing a slender design whose vertical axis is divided into individual floors like a building. Fixed...

Robust treatment

Pineapple peel is good for fish health, while domestic food waste can be made into chicken feed. Now, a food science research team from Cornell has discovered that an apple a day not only keeps doctors away from humans, but also benefits chickens. Their focus is on pomace, the fibrous waste produced when apples are pressed. It contains enough...

Tasty stability

Steel can be replaced by bamboo and tiles made with bacteria. Now, a Japanese research team is converting food waste into biodegradable construction material, using discarded items from supermarkets such as vegetables, tea leaves and coffee grounds. Following their patent-pending process, the food waste is dried, pulverised and then heat-pressed into a mould. Depending on its contents, the resulting...

Steamy illumination

A natural alternative to single-use plastic was inspired by spiders. Now, an international research team from India and the US has turned its attentions to the animal kingdom to generate sustainable electricity for domestic use. The team struck lucky while experimenting with silkworm cocoons. When dry, the protein membrane is insulating. But with the help of water vapour it...

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