Is there anything the iPhone can’t do? Researchers at NASA’s Homeland Security Cell-All program have brought the latest mind-boggling application to Apple’s phone in the form of a stamp-sized chemical sniffing device. The prototype chemical sensor can sniff small amounts of chemicals like methane, ammonia, and chlorine gas.

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Post tags: chemicals, Design for Health, gases, green design, iPhone, methane, nasa, sustainable design

Earlier this week, Regen wowed us with their sleek, modular iPhone charger. Now the electronics company is back again with another impressive Apple-related product: the Reverb, an eye-catching 3-foot tall iPod dock that blasts out the equivalent of 60 watts of sound from a conventional speaker. And best of all, it’s solar-powered.

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Post tags: clean tech, green design, Greener Gadgets, ipod, regen, renewable energy, Reverb, Solar Power, solar-powered, speakers, sustainable design

If you’re like the rest of us, you’ve got a pile of chargers left over from retired cell phones. You can’t use them with your new phone, but finding an innovative way of recycling the tangled up mass of wires can be difficult — quite the ecophile’s conundrum. Luckily, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) aims to revolutionize the cell phone industry. The UN group recently unveiled its Universal Charging Solution, a charger that can be used in all future cell phone makes and models — as long as cell phone companies comply.

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Post tags: eco-friendly cell phone, GSMA, International Telecommunication Union, universal cell phone charger, Universal Charging Solution

Harvard scientists believe in the power of the good earth — literally. A team at the Boston-based college have created microbial fuel cell (MFC) batteries that derive energy from naturally occurring bacteria in soil. If the product takes off, the eco-friendly batteries could provide power for some of the 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to electricity.

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Post tags: bacteria-powered batteries, Breakthrough Awards, green tech in Africa, green tech in developing nations, lebônê, microbial fuel cells, popular mechanics

If we were stuck on a desert island with only one book, this recently unveiled solar e-book would be at the top of our list! Designed by LG Display, the sleek reader features a wafer-fin photovoltaic cell that provides it with a steady stream of solar energy. Whereas most e-books run the risk of losing juice mid-sentence through your next novel, this solar reader’s omnipresent energy source makes it a winning design in our book.

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Post tags: e-book, electronic book reader, green design, green gadgets, lg display, solar e-book, sustainable design

We’ve covered wooden gadgets before, but NTT Docomo’s TOUCH WOOD concept phone is possibly the first wood-encased smart phone ever. The phone, developed in conjunction with Sharp, Olympus, and a reforestation project called “more trees,” contains surplus wood from forest-thinning operations in the Kochi prefecture of Japan.

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Post tags: cell phone, Japan, ntt docomo, touch wood, wooden phone

Wow those around you by transforming any old household object into a lamp with this “LED Pin” by Korean designer Sungho Lee. To create this subtle, yet awe-inspiring illuminating accent Lee stylized and whitewashed the form of a traditional clothespin. The refreshing take on a familiar design successfully turns the object’s dollar-store stigma into a museum store find, but it’s the techy twist that makes it even more notable.

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Post tags: clothes pin, DIY, illuminate, Korean Design, led light, Lighting, repurpose

For those of you with the latest iPod or iPhone Touch, in a months time you’ll be able to charge your Apple gadgets with a fancy schmancy new solar case. Novothink, a manufacturer of alternative electronic devices, has just released their Solar Surge for the iPod and iPhone Touch. Your igadget slides easily into the hard case solar charger and can get fully juiced up from the sun! With something this handy and easy, you’ll never have to worry about a dead battery. It’s brilliant really. Can they please make one for Blackberrys too?

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Post tags: iPhone, iphone solar charger, ipod, ipod solar charger, novothink, phone case, solar charger, surge solar charger

Imagine a design exhibit design that’s completely recyclable. Transpose that vision to a set of artfully-arranged cardboard structures framing a large warehouse space, in a sunwashed wharf in glimmering Copenhagen. And that’d be ShowHow, one of the most genuinely sustainable of the many exhibits on display for Copenhagen Design Week.

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Post tags: copenhagen design week, copenhagen showhow, Denmark, event, Furniture, green design, sustainable design

Researchers are developing ways to mass-produce tiny robots the size of a fly that operate like swarms of insects to collect data to aid in surveillance, micromanufacturing, medicine, and more. Measuring in at under 4 mm square, the microbots have all the equipment necessary to move, communicate, and collect data, plus they generate all of their own power via solar panels.

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Post tags: green design, microbots, microchip, robots, solar panels, Solar Power, solar powered robot, sustainable design

From time to time we come across some ideas that are so brilliant that it’s a no-brainer for them to be out there in the marketplace. This last year in particular we’ve seen a number of green gadgets that are so ingenious that we’re left scratching our heads and wondering why they haven’t been produced yet — especially because they are all powered by renewable energy sources. With this in mind, we present to you our top five green gadgets that we wish existed!

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Post tags: concepts, green gadgets, Greener Gadgets, top 5, top five

The hot hand-held gadget of choice may not be the iPhone for much longer – if this wearable and solar powered wrist phone comes to market, everyone on the streets may soon be sporting it. Inspired by photosynthesis, the Leaf is a wearable phone concept created by Seungkyn Woo and Junyi Heo. The flexible device incorporates solar cells into the front and is capable of rolling up into the form of a wristwatch so that users can wear it and keep it charged while they’re on the move.

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Post tags: bracelet, bracelet phone, cell phone, flexible cell phone, Solar Power, solar powered cell phone, solar-powered

The Reclaim – Samsung and service partner Sprint’s newest green phone – has innovative features that go beyond the bare bones that similar products like Motorola’s W233 Renew phone offers. This eco-conscious smart-phone is 80 percent recyclable and made mostly of corn-based bio-plastics, but that’s not all this compact phone has up its green sleeves.

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Post tags: bioplastic, Cooper Hewitt, corn-based bio-plastics, eco cell phone, eco-phone, green cell phone, green gadget, green phone, phone packaging, reclaim, recyclable cell phone, recyclable materials, samsung, samsung reclaim, smartphone, soy ink, sprint

It goes without saying that there have been some truly impressive and useful innovations in world of eco-friendly products, but with everyone racing to develop the next big thing there are bound to be a few flops. Here at Inhabitat we applaud every effort to help us reduce our carbon footprint and live greener cleaner lives, but we can’t help but notice that some attempts have missed the mark. This list is comprised of our favorite silly eco inventions, products and ideas. Really, what fun would it be if we only covered the good stuff?

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Post tags: Eco Button, PETaPOTTY, silly eco-inventions, solar-powered bra, solar-powered fan cap, top five silliest eco-inventions

Solar power doesn’t have to be limited to Earth-based gadgets — at least, not if Carnegie Mellon roboticist Dr. William Whittaker has anything to say about it. Whitaker and Astrobiotic Technology have teamed up to develop a solar rover prototype that will explore the Apollo moon landing site and find out how materials used in the mission have fared over all these years.

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Post tags: "solar energy", astrobiotic, Google, green design, lunar x prize, Solar Power, solar rover, sustainable design