It’s easy enough to find a solar-powered charger for iPods, cell phones, and other gadgets, but this ultra-tiny solar-powered sensor system is smaller than anything else on the market — 1,000 times smaller than standard systems, in fact. Developed at the University of Michigan, the 2.5 x 3.5 x 1 millimeter system is the smallest in the world, and it can harvest energy from its surroundings almost perpetually.
Ocean-bound shipping containers are an often-overlooked source of CO2 emissions — over 90% of all non-bulk cargo carried worldwide arrives in containers, and many of them are sent back empty. Enter the innovative Cargoshell collapsible shipping container, which can drastically cut emissions on return trips by collapsing to a quarter of its full size.
One of the biggest challenges of building a sustainable future is figuring out how to efficiently move people and objects from one place to another. Electric cars and biofuel-powered planes might be the answer in the short-term, but now a physicist at Tohoku University in Japan has figured out how to teleport energy from one point in the universe to another.
As more and more people across the world adopt cars as their primary mode of transportation, well-lit highways become increasingly important. But how can we sustainably power all those energy-sucking lights? TAK Studio addressed that question in their entry into this year’s Greener Gadgets competition to find the green technology solution of the future. Dubbed the Turbine Light, their design aims to illuminate our roadways using the power of the wind.
Imagine: a solar-powered screen that could quickly charge up your new iPad. Solar chargers are certainly nothing new, but this circuit is embedded right in the touchscreen, so you don’t have to set the device on its back to catch light. It’s not a reality yet, but it might be soon, courtesy of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.
Cork is a useful material for making a number of things — wine bottles, furniture, and cork boards, to name a few–but airplane parts? A group of Portuguese cork producers recently launched the Aerocork project, which is investigating the feasibility of replacing plastic PVC with cork in the fuselage, wings, and flaps of light aircraft. The cork-based parts could be coated in carbon fiber sheets to create a lightweight, fire-retardant material.
A proposed 239-unit development in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley has yet to come to fruition, leaving an ugly, empty lot in its place. Seeing this, a group of enterprising citygoers have decided to turn the lot into Hayes Valley Farm, an education and research project sponsored by the San Francisco Parks Trust.
Many of us invested in the success of sustainable agriculture have a knee-jerk response against genetically-modified foods, and for good reason — they often come with patent protection, pesticides, and other undesirable features. But a new development from the National Institute of Plant Genome Research in New Delhi suggests that GMO crops could have at least one positive use: dramatically increasing the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
As oil supplies become more scarce and the Hummer looks more and more like an extravagant joke, it only makes sense that someone would decide to turn the jumbo car into the ultimate symbol of bygone times: the horse cart.
We were excited to learn last year that the new Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco would be built with green features in mind. We’re even more excited now that the $4 billion terminal has just received a $171 million loan from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) to go ahead with phase 1 of the project, which will replace the current Transbay Terminal.
The tragic earthquake in Haiti has provoked a number of architects to think about how they can help with disaster relief. One recent example we looked at was the SEED project, which uses shipping containers as temporary housing. Now architect Andres Duany has designed a fireproof, waterproof, and moldproof flat-pack temporary house that could easily be shipped to the ailing country.
Piezoelectric energy is nothing new, but researchers at Princeton University have developed a new type of electricity-harvesting rubber sheet that has the potential to change the way we power electronic devices. The flexible rubber sheets are imbued with piezoelectric ribbons and are durable, versatile, and open up exciting new applications for harvesting kinetic energy.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave the past few weeks, you probably know about Apple’s new iPad, which was just unveiled moments ago. We’re excited for the iPad’s release, but we still have to ask: how green is it?
England’s weather is about as far from tropical as possible — except within the bubble of this amazing “Heart of Africa” biodome coming soon to the Chester Zoo. The 112 foot-high zoological attraction will simulate the rainforest habitats of the African Congo.
What better way to get attention at a design fair than with an artfully designed booth? Taking this logic to heart, students at Germany’s Trier University of Applied Science turned late night pizza cravings into an ultra-unique booth at the imm cologne design fair. Their cardboard creation is made entirely from recycled pizza boxes arranged with the help of a computer program called Booth Generator.
Affordable housing developments are all too often shoddily built, with little consideration given towards environmental impact. That’s why Ironhorse at Central Station, a planned development in Oakland, California, is so impressive. The development, built on abandoned former industrial land, will feature 99 sustainably built one, two, and three bedroom apartments when it is completed later this year. What’s more, all of the apartments will be priced for families with incomes of $18,000 to $50,000.
Forget biodiesel, hybrids, and electric vehicles–Swiss engineer Mark Muller has designed a car capable of taking a 40,000 km (24,855 mile) trip around the world using only wind and solar power. The car, built as part of the ICARE project gets its juice from solar panels during the day and a wind-powered generator at night.
Sure, it’s easy enough to find a quality portable solar charger, but powerful, portable wind turbines are a different story. Enter the Eolic, a portable turbine that can be mounted on its telescopic pole in just three steps.
Biomimicry: is there anything it can’t do? The latest example of science imitating nature comes from researchers at MIT who have discovered that the shell of a tiny deep-sea snail could give way to tough, lightweight body armor. The snail in question — Crysomallon squamiferum, or the scaly-foot gastropod — was first discovered in 1999. It possesses a unique three-layered shell that can easily fend off attacks from crabs.
Vertical gardens are nothing new — avid readers of Inhabitat may even remember PNC Bank’s announcement that it completed North America’s largest living wall back in September — but the garden currently being planned for a Portland, Oregon high-rise is one of the most unique we’ve seen. A series of 250 foot tall trellises will shade the west side of the 18-story Wyatt Federal Building, which is undergoing a $135 million green remodel by SERA Architects courtesy of federal stimulus funds.
