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Blogging the future

Scientists at UC Berkeley, California have engineered materials that can modify the natural visible direction of light, and make the object appear invisible to human eyes. These 3D materials curve light waves around the object in which they are applied. Thanks to this new technology, it may actually be possibility to walk around with an invisibility cloak in the near future.

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It was 1961 when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby designed “The Fantastic 4”, giving life to a very popular series of comedies, including personalities that entertained millions of readers. Out of you readers, who has heard of the adventures of Susan Storm, the “invisible woman”. After around 40 years, the fiction that seemed to remain confined to comics, spread to scientific laboratories.

Some interesting trials have been conducted since 2006. Researchers from Duke University, directed by Prof. David Smith, created a “meta-material”, made from electromagnetic waves, which rendered objects visible only to specific detectors. In only 3 years, this field has taken a giant leap forward.

At the University of Berkeley in California, a team of scientists led by Prof. Xiang Zhang, from the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center put together for the first time a 3-D material capable of deflecting the natural direction of visible light through infrared lighting. Xiang has created a carpet cloak from nanostructured silicon that conceals the presence of objects placed under it from optical detection.

This discovery could contribute to further create a base material that will have an optic effect on images and render them invisible. A creation like this would be a hit with fantasy film fanatics. One can only wonder than limitless possibilities and applications that will come from this discovery, and hoping that not only the military sector will benefit from the innovation.

More Info.:

• http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/08/11_light.shtml
• http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/15/invisibility-cloak.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4zwzlnExVU
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ-aLyiU_i0&NR=1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja_fuZyHDuk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeiFcJC7diA

The artificial tree—product of GRT (Global Research Technologies of Tucson, in Arizona)—holds carbon dioxide, thanks to an absorbent coating formed by water and calcium; but in contrast to natural trees, it is not capable of releasing oxygen back into the air.

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According to the EPA, the median amount of CO2 emissions produced by a family of two amounts to 13 tons of CO2 in the atmosphere every year, without taking into account transportation. We thought that we could solve the problem of pollution by simply increasing the “green spaces” and nature and let photosynthesis take care of the rest. Unfortunately, this isn’t an efficient proposal.

Perhaps some of you may remember the Sleipner project, active from off the shores of Norway since 1995: one of the many project developed for entrapment of carbon dioxide. Due to these activities it has been possible to acquire a lot of significant experience for the future development of CO2 recycling systems.

Professor Klaus Lackner, a geophysics professor at Columbia University in New York—interviewed in the video by BBC for the series “Five Ways to Save the World”—has in fact worked since 2003 on a car that would be capable of capturing carbon dioxide and transform it into dust, and in this way allow us to store it underground or in the ocean, lowering the consumption of petroleum or gas.

Lackner has also studied ways to store CO2 based on the process of rock weathering: when the gas that bonds to magnesium forms carbonic rocks that hold the carbon in a permanent and safe manner.

Lackner’s project is truly interesting, but the cost and amount of energy in order to capture the carbon dioxide is greater than what we could achieve by recycling the CO2.

Respecting the protocol of Kyoto, there is no doubt that there is a need to go down the path of reduction of consumption of fossil fuels. Above all, if we are conscious of the demand for energy coming from developing countries, and of the serious environmental damages and problems we will face should we not succeed in balancing our energy consumption within a few years.

More Info.:

• http://www.grestech.com/
• http://www.americanenergyindependence.com/recycleco2.aspx

Alternative fuel methods are springing up all over the world, showing that gasoline is not our last source of hope to power vehicles. Everything from electricity, to solar power, to hydrogen, and now: vegetable oil, has been shown to power cars just as effectively while also helping the world with pollution.

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Vegetables: often seen as health food items with countless positive benefits for the body, now can have a positive impact on the environment as well.  The following invention shows that when vegetables are manipulated to the fullest extent, they can be used for virtually anything imaginable.

The first ever race between cars was in 1887, the cars were mind numbingly slow, and the wheels seemed more like that of a bicycle instead of a modern day race car. Today formula one cars have intricate, powerful engines that can push the boundaries of speed to new limits. They all ran on gasoline powered engines, and lightweight metallic frames, until now.

A formula-3 race car made entirely from vegetables? The thought at first might be absurd, but one needs to see what James Meredith has materialized using this concept over the past few months. The vehicle has a two liter biodiesel engine that can run on vegetable oil left over from frying foods, or also on chocolate powder. The wheel has a carrot base and the wing mirror is made using potato starch. The list goes on and on, showing how every unique part of the race car has pieces of vegetable integrated inside: the body is made from recycled bottles, the seats from soybean oil and recycled foam.

If environmentalists thought the new generation vehicles could not get any greener, the vegetable race car is as environmentally friendly as it gets.

More Info.:

• http://www.worldfirstracing.co.uk/
• http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/

Washing clothes by barely using any water? As impossible as that sounds, a system has been put in place where environmental friendliness meats cleanliness. In the future, doing the laundry won’t be nearly as wasteful for our limited and precious natural resources, and it doesn’t include going to the lake and washing clothes like they did centuries ago.

The first ever washing machine was patented in 1858 by Hamilton Smith. This rotary machine accomplished the simple deed of washing away dirt from clothes. As the years rolled on, washing machines became more and more effective, being able to use detergents as well to make clothes smell like new, while also washing away stains. Now, theses machines are used in most households all over the world. But the environmental consequences are noteworthy, namely: the millions of gallons of water needed for washing machines to operate at optimum capacity.

Researchers at the University of Leeds have developed a washing machine that uses an astonishingly low amount of water. It only consumes a mere 2 percent compared to any other conventional washing machine. This technology is already being dubbed as the “virtually waterless washing system”. The process uses plastic granules that are mixed with the clothing and have the power to remove stains singlehandedly. This process is capable of removing virtually any type of dirt or build up, and when the clothes are taken out, they are almost dry.

The process being developed will have beneficial effects for the earth and water usage. Each washing cycle will lead to less build up at industrial sites such as wastewater treatment centers. As this technology spreads around the globe, fresh, usable water will be available for other services, rather than wasting by the gallon as it washes clothes.

More Info.:

• http://www.leeds.ac.uk/media/press_releases/current/washing_machine.htm