design

/  by Thomas DeVoss

realcleverscience:business-and-technology:FM radio becomes the world’s first plant-powered appliance Moss, as a rule, isn’t that impressive. In the wetter regions of the world, the stuff grows pretty much wherever you let it. It’s green and squishy…

realcleverscience:

business-and-technology:

FM radio becomes the world’s first plant-powered appliance

Moss, as a rule, isn’t that impressive. In the wetter regions of the world, the stuff grows pretty much wherever you let it. It’s green and squishy and pretty enough, we suppose. What moss isn’t is a good source of electricity, or at least it wasn’t until recently. By wiring together 10 little pots of the stuff, a group of scientists from the University of Cambridge have actually harvested enough moss-grown electricity to power an FM radio.

How the moss actually powers the radio is thanks to something called a Photo Microbial Fuel Cell (Photo-MFC). These are comprised of three basic parts: an anode to collect the electrons the moss strips from water during photosynthesis, a cathode where the electricity is consumed and an external circuit to connect the two. Each of the ten moss pots contained in the Moss FM rig is hooked up to its own Photo-MFC, and these in turn are hooked up to a battery.

The battery stores what energy it can from the process, currently about .01 percent of the moss’s output and then powers the radio. So far, that .01 percent output is only enough to run the radio’s speaker and tuner for a couple of minutes. That’ll change in the coming years, however, since researchers at the University of Georgia have already found a way, using microscopic nanotubules, to produce twice as much electricity from plants as you can get from today’s photovoltaic cells. Once the two approaches merge, we could easily see everything from moss to the trees lining our streets turned into, quite literally, the greenest power plants around.

Every now and then I read about an approach like this. I don’t know if it’s feasible, but it’s damn fascinating!

/  by Thomas DeVoss

engineeringisawesome:

Some more information on the 3D-Printed cast.

futuretechreport:

Cortex: The 3D-Printed Cast

After many centuries of splints and cumbersome plaster casts that have been the itchy and smelly bane of millions of children, adults and the aged alike the world over, we at last bring fracture support into the 21st century. The Cortex exoskeletal cast provides a highly technical and trauma zone localized support system that is fully ventilated, super light, shower friendly, hygienic, recyclable and stylish.

The cortex cast utilizes the x-ray and 3d scan of a patient with a fracture and generates a 3d model in relation to the point of fracture.

By Jake Evill

/  by Thomas DeVoss

sin-vida:

Step one: Blow up a balloon.

Step two: Soak any piece of cute cloth or lace in wallpaper glue.

Step three: When putting the cloth on the balloon, make sure the sides overlap each other so it stays formed once balloon is gone. Let dry overnight.

Step four: Pop the balloon, attach string, hang!

/  by Thomas DeVoss

mothernaturenetwork: If Hoyoung Lee’s concept printer becomes reality, you’ll never throw away another pencil stub and never buy another ink cartridge. The pencil printer separates the wood from pencils and uses the lead to print documents. There’s…

mothernaturenetwork:

If Hoyoung Lee’s concept printer becomes reality, you’ll never throw away another pencil stub and never buy another ink cartridge. The pencil printer separates the wood from pencils and uses the lead to print documents. There’s even a built-in eraser component that allows you to remove text from a page and reuse the paper, so you’ll be saving money and trees.
15 bizarre — but cool — green inventions