Science

Maritime shipping using water, wind and solar

Maritime shipping relies heavily on bunker fuel and other fossil fuels. High time for a change: three ideas for low-emission cargo shipping.

0A.Alech

Coronavirus-killing UV lights

What if we could use light to kill the coronavirus and get back to life as we once knew it? Huge UV spotlights could be a promising way to ensure virus-free outdoor city life.

0The Tea Team

Your friend the robot

These five social robots could improve your daily life. They can watch your kids or mix you up a special cocktail behind the bar, with a little extra lemon, just how you like it.

0N. Berghausen

The success of the Ice Bucket Challenge

For all those who doubted that pouring a bucket of ice water over your head could make the world a better place, doubt no longer. Six years after the hype, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has financed the development of a drug for the deadly disease it targeted.

0R. Meissner

In your face: hacking facial recognition systems

So big brother is watching, so what? This picture editing program that is fooling facial recognition software.

0The Tea Team

Burgers, pasta and bread made from CO2

Would you eat carbon dioxide? It might not sound very appetising at first, but after reading this article, you might want to give it a try! For all of you trying to find planet-friendly alternatives to meat or soy, we have got the solution for you.

0R. Adam

Doing more with less

What developing countries can teach rich countries about how to respond to a pandemic.

0M. Mormina, I. Nsofor

Rapid COVID19 testing: Will at-home kits allow a return to normality?

A quick test to rule out the coronavirus before a party, or to check the risk of infection in the office: Newly developed rapid tests could allow for at-home testing for Covid-19.

0Rome Meissner

Turning shipping containers into COVID-19 hospital wards

An international team of designers, engineers and medical professionals has invented mobile intensive care units for COVID-19 patients built inside shipping containers. Easy and fast to deploy, they offer a safe alternative to hospital tents.

0The Tea Team

Favela communities’ corona dashboards

While the Brazilian government continues to downplay the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, Rio de Janeiro’s favela inhabitants are taking action. They have created a number of local data dashboards to share information on infection rates and death tolls, and one even provides medical advice.

0R. Brabbins

A Revolutionary Mind

It would have been a great boost for her career, a jump into the star league of science, if she had turned over her findings on the H5N1 to the WHO. But virologist Ilaria Capua decided to make them publically accessible instead. Thanks to her and her opposition, the latest findings on Covid19 are now immediately available to the world as well.

0Rome Meissner

Wash your hands with captured CO2

Due to the Corona pandemic, companies around the world are switching from making liquor and perfumes to making ethanol for hand sanitizer. New York based vodka producer Air Co. is doing the same – only their sanitizer is made out of captured CO2. How’s that even possible?

0R. Adam

Let your windows power your coffee machine

What if our smartphones generated energy instead of just consuming it? A new transparent solar panel is making its way onto the solar technology market.

0R. Adam

How to spot bogus science stories and read the news like a scientist

With plenty of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other scientific topics floating around social media, you need to read science stories, even well-known publications, with caution.

0J. Gimenez, D. Specht

These five initiatives want to beat plastic pollution in Southeast Asia

To solve our plastic problem, we have to clean up the oceans, minimize production and recycle as much as we can. But until we get there, we need to keep the madness under control. These five initiatives from Vietnam and Cambodia are trying just that.

0P.Hellier

How fungi can help create a green construction industry

Buildings and construction contribute 39% of the world’s carbon footprint. Building materials made out of mushrooms might reduce it dramatically.

0I. Fletcher

Going invisible

Childhood dreams come true: Quantum Stealth is a material that can make things and people almost invisible.

0R. Adam

New battery can charge an electric car in 10 minutes

One of the reasons electric cars are still not very widespread is that they can take hours to charge. But that may soon change: researchers at Pennsylvania State University have developed a new lithium-ion battery that charges in as little as 10 minutes.

0R. Adam

The world’s first fully solar powered airport

Under pressure from skyrocketing electricity prices, an airport in India’s southern state of Kerala came up with the idea of generating its own electricity.

0R. Venkiteswaran

The engineer who fixed his own heart

When Tal Golesworthy was told he was at risk of his aorta bursting, he wasn’t impressed with the surgery on offer – so he came up with his own idea. His invention not only saved his own life, but also of many others.

0G. Watts

Poly-fuel and paving roads: turning non-recyclable plastic into a resource

A lot of our attention is focused on reducing plastic waste, but what can we do with the huge amount of plastic waste we already have? Two innovative Indian companies have come up with creative solutions: they are transforming plastic waste into fuel or using it to build roads.

0R. Pardikar

BIO-LUTIONS: a biodegradable alternative to single-use plastic

What are the alternatives for single-use platic? A German company stands out for a particularly environmentally friendly solution – as cheap and available as plastic, but entirely biodegradable.

0R. Pardikar

Sexual violence stinks

A bracelet that emits a repellent smell in an emergency, protecting the wearer from attack.

0Empowering people.Network

Self-healing display glass

Thanks to a new polymer compound, broken displays could soon be a thing of the past

1Tea Team

How a computer game is inspiring girls to code

A revolutionary computer game is teaching kids to code in a playful way. Originally designed to encourage girls to take up programming, with its cool graphics and entertaining story, Erase all Kittens is unisex and timeless.

0L. Van Der Linde / Tea Team

The Garden of Four Seasons

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a weather guarantee sometimes? In Milan’s Garden of Four Seasons, you will soon be able to choose summer, autumn, winter or spring at any time of year.

0Tea Team

Milk without the packaging

Small, but oh so practical – sugar milk capsules could be the way forward, reducing rubbish and even our laundry bills.

0enorm

Cheaper and better healthcare for everyone

A Kenyan start-up is promising patients cheaper and better access to healthcare through iSikCure – a free mobile phone app.

1M.Lantum

Breast cancer: Maintaining your beauty with 3D printing

3D-printed breast prostheses from South Africa are helping women come to terms with a mastectomy.

1N.Nkholise

Human magnetism: the new sixth sense

Animals have a magnetic sense: birds can "feel" the earth's geomagnetic field and use this information for orientation. With a new implantable tool, humans may soon be able to feel magnetism too.

0M. Simone

Using data to track down serial killers

A former investigative journalist has developed an algorithm that uses FBI homicide data to track down murderers.

0T. Hargrove/Tea Team

The Algorithm Lawyer

This free robot solicitor represents people who cannot afford a ‘real’ one.

0Tea Team

Mobile Ultrasound for Remote Medical Services

A new data-processing method developed by Israeli Technion University is helping to digitalize ultrasound imagining.

0Y. Eldar/Tea Team

VR time-travel improves learning

Virtual reality has just made time travel at least a virtual reality.

0B. Greve/Tea Team

Saving newborns’ lives with a hypothermia monitoring bracelet

How a bracelet for newborns has saved over 1,000 children from death

0Tea Team

How to grow vegetables under water

0Tea Team

Print yourself a new liver

Looking for alternatives to the long-drawn process of organ donation, Dr. Anthony Atala and his team at the US-based Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have successfully grown organs in their laboratory. Now they are experimenting with using bioink for 3D to print tissues and organs.

1A. Atala/A. Kohn

The Seawater Greenhouse: Eco-friendly farming in the desert

Did you know that large-scale greenhouse agriculture often takes water out of the ground faster than it can be replenished? Not the Seawater Greenhouse: This simple technology allows farmers to irrigate huge crop fields without harming the environment at all but rather helping to restore it.

2C. Paton

One of the world’s first self-sustaining water treatment plants

What can you do with just a toothbrush and a bit of lemon juice? Clean one of the first completely self-sustaining water processing plants in the world!

0P.Otter, T.Jaskolski

Villa Welpeloo: Constructed from waste materials

Villa Welpeloo is a house in the Netherlands constructed from 60 percent salvaged material. Google Earth helped detect the best construction area and identify waste stock.

0Ellen MacArthur Foundation

The floating Dutchman

In the tradition of his water-taming nation, Dutchman Koen Olthuis designs floating islands to dwell and live on – not least because climate change calls for new solutions in architecture.

0K. Schweighöfer

Bringing clean air to the cities

Air pollution is a major problem in big cities. This new approach combines biofiltration with IoT to improve air quality. CityTree is a product, that is not just useful, but also extremely attractive.

0P. Sänger

Shoes that burst into flower

Designer shoes that double as seed banks: Too many old, worn-out shoes end up in our landfills. OAT Shoes has created a biodegradable sneaker that sprouts into lovely flowers when planted.

0Lena Unbehauen/Good Impact

How IoT and Bitcoins could save your privacy

Your data might be collected by every device surrounding you in the near future. Recently a new idea has been making the rounds that could offer an answer to these privacy concerns: the Bitcoin technology.

0A.Kohn

What if furniture had superpowers?

Spatial restrictions in urban flats do not have to mean lifestyle limitations. Architectural robotics is one of the latest innovative trends making living in small spaces not only efficient, but comfortable as well.

0H. Larrea

Living Architecture

When architecture interacts with humans: 6 examples of architecture coming to life.

0C.Ratti

Life in Plastic

How building houses out of used plastic could solve the world’s plastic waste problem.

0J.Stodgel

Robots on the Catwalk: What’s cooking in the digital fashion innovation pot?

The fashion industry has long been slow in adopting new technology tools. Now things are really taking off though: Some thoughts on mass customization and a new generation of makers.

0A.Schubert

Turning waste into green energy

A Kenyan engineer has developed a smart biogas dome to turn waste into clean and affordable energy for Nairobi’s slum areas.

1P.Kimanga Muiruri

Wohnwagon: Stylish and self-sufficient living in a caravan

The idea of a well-kept detached house in the suburbs including the obligatory nosy neighbors and high utility bills doesn’t sound attractive to you? You’d rather live a self-sufficient life surrounded by nature? The "Wohnwagon" represent a viable alternative.

0T. Steininger

The world’s first 3D printer made from e-waste

3D printers number among the most sophisticated technological machines today. But would you have guessed that you can actually build one yourself using nothing but e-waste? No? Then take a look at “W.Afate”, the first open-source upcycling e-printer from Togo.

0J.Tchirktema

Grofie: Elegant green option for your office decor

This green & stylish innovation from Budapest brings a dash of nature into your everyday life.

1T.Koltai

Green architecture: Living in treescrapers

The trend is moving towards green urban planning. What happens though when architecture not only employs eco-friendly, renewable materials, but also takes the word “green” quite literally and tries to integrate houses into the natural environment?

0R. de Hullu

Printing out your DNA and cancer-fighting viruses

Biohacking, DNA robots and 3D printed viruses – unbelievable things have become possible in biotech. They could soon provide a cure for cancer.

0C.Mogk

Egg Power: a tiny portable house

Like Mary Poppins’s handbag, the Ecocapsule is a surprisingly roomy low-energy house.

1Tea Team

The Pearl – on the sunny side of life

The Pearl - catch the sun

0Tea Team

Kingii – the wristband that saves you from drowning

Water sport enthusiasts take note: The age of bulky, annoying life jackets is over. A California development team has created a wristband that immediately pulls you back to the surface if you get in trouble in the water.

0Tea Team

Drones Go Civilian

Drones have an image problem: Very few have positive associations with the flying objects. Most people immediately think of surveillance and drone strikes with deadly consequences. Used responsibly though, drones are uniquely suited for civil applications from locating landmines in Bosnia to mapping historical sites in Peru.

0A. Kohn

SMS for Health

An SMS service is fighting diabetes and cancer in Rwanda, and might also help prevent disease in the US and Europe.

1A.Mutangana

Brave new tech world:
To live is to be photographed – life in a smart world

How smart will the smart home of the future be? Will the walls of our houses soon be screens? And what is the personal price we will pay when this turns us into transparent citizens?

0S. Kember

How nanotechnology saved a contaminated lake in Peru

Shortly before its irrevocable, complete collapse, the Cascajo wetlands were rescued by Marino Morikawa, a young Peruvian-Japanese scientist who spent his childhood fishing in its waters. He developed a nanotechnology that will soon be used to restore other waters as well – among them the famous Lake Titicaca.

18H.Lozano

How a cute robot will help us conquer our fear of robots

RoboyJunior, a robot not only financed through crowdfunding, but also with a look the community helped define, tours classrooms to show young people how amazing robotics can be.

0R. Hostettler

Learning how to code: 9 tools you can start using right away

Not knowing how to code may be the illiteracy of the future. Yet learning to program is so easy today. Here are nine tips on how to teach yourself the basics quickly and easily.

0D.Zimmermann

20 years on: How will we be living with our robots?

Transcendence, Her and Metropolis – numerous science fiction films claim to show us what a world with self-learning robots might look like. What is already out there, and what can we expect in the future?

0R.Lakämper

Internet to take away:
Fighting the digital divide

New software designed to provide people with internet access worldwide.

0S.Meinrath

Big Brother is watching YOU!

A group of techies have made it their goal to put the technical kibosh on surveillance: Detect IMSI catcher attacks with this smartphone app.

0AIMSICD

How Augmented Reality helps to avoid phantom limb pain

Using open-source software, freeware games and a webcam, a new treatment developed in Sweden successfully tackles phantom limb pain.

0div.

A new technology reconnects amputees to the world of sensation

Scientists have developed a system of electrodes and algorithms that has successfully enabled people to ‘feel’ through artificial hands.

0D.Tyler / J.Zeller

Do You Speak Doctor?

3D animation and easy to understand informational software are designed to make communication between doctor and patient easier.

0J. Allesch

Turning Moss into a Living Power Plant

Are plants the energy source of tomorrow? A promising proof-of-concept suggests this might be possible.

0div.

Using 3D printers to print self-learning robots

Researchers at Oslo University have already succeeded in producing self-instructing robots on 3D printers.

0Y.Vogt

Why Science needs Advertising

Why is Tech in the public opinion cool & sexy and Science not?

0Gemma Milne

Starry Night:
Glowing Cycle Lanes and Smart Road Markings

The Netherlands: Two cycle paths with integrated solar collectors in their surfaces were opened this past winter - a infrastructural revolution.

0The Tea Team

Moss Graffiti: Let it green!

Did you know that you could make graffitis out of moss?

1The Tea Team

The Land of the Giants

0The Tea Team

re:publica 2014

A conference review three months after the conference? Well, yes - but a different kind of review.

0Tea Team

Open source security for mobile devices

Anyone looking for encryption tools to increase privacy should take a good look at this two products from the Open Whisper Systems.

0Tea Team

The crypto mobile is now on the market

It has been a long wait, but now the first apparently tap-proof android smartphone has hit the market.

0Tea Team

Hövding: The airbag helmet with style

Bicycle helmets are a pure aesthetic disaster and the death knell to any hairstyle. Two young designers from Sweden have now demonstrated that bicycle helmets needn’t be ugly at all.

0Tea Team

Cuba's urban farming revolution

Havanas’s unique agricultural infrastructure today provides an exemplary precedent that could be applied worldwide.

0C.Clouse

Water gets local

Plumbing and sewage treatment aren’t the sexiest of pursuits, but innovative approaches are changing cities from their innards out.

0E.Gies

Stunning mobility innovations from around the world

Imagine the year 2050: How will we be moving within our cities? Nextmobility has crowd-sourced ideas from around the world.

0Nexthamburg

"I wish we had less money to spend"

When asked to name three wishes, Patrick Condon says he'd like people to think in a more complex way, for global warming deniers to burn in hell, and that we had less money to spend. He has spent his lifetime investing in sustainable city design and found some simple but effective answers for how to reduce greenhouse gases.

0P. Condon