Issue#06 : Covid-19

Home office with a view… and what a view!

Since you’re not allowed to commute to the office anyway, why not work at the pool, or even better, from a Ferris wheel cabin? Japan’s Yomiuriland has been offering infection-proof office booths for remote workers in the amusement park – portable WIFI and charging ports included.

0The Tea Team

Covid-19

About a global pandemic – and on how people are coping with it.

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

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

Design meets pandemic

Coronavirus masks are an integral part of our lives these days whether we like it or not. The designer world has responded quickly, turning a necessity into a fashionable accessory – hip, elegant and stylish.

0The Tea Team

Homegrown PPE

Yes, you read right: You can grow your own effective, particle-filtering mask at home in future. All you need is water, sugar, tea – and a certain bacteria.

0The Tea Team

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

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

Doing more with less

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

0M. Mormina, I. Nsofor

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

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

Computers against Covid

A bunch of dedicated geeks gave thousands of Singapore school kids access to home-based learning during the Covid pandemic.

0The Tea Team/ Saad Chinoy

Stay the fuck home bar

St Petersburg firm creates online bar for self-isolating extroverts.

0M. Edwards

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

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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

Ink Made of Smog

Tailpipe soot could be seen as just another resource – all you need is a good way to use it. In ink, for example, the pollutant is suddenly quite useful.

0The Tea Team

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

“Tlacuilos”: the graffiti artists of Central America

Central America’s graffiti scene is still relatively young, but it has already produced some unique styles and artists. A new documentary follows its development over 20 years, from the very start to the present day.

0F. Peixoto

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

Re-cycling polluted air

Cycling prevents enormous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, as bicycles generate about 10 times fewer greenhouse gases than individual motorized transport. But what if we could do even better, and ride smog-cleaning bicycles that sucks up polluted air?

0R. Adam

AWA Bike: Kickstarting Nigeria’s cycling revolution

In traffic-ridden Nigeria, people are still reluctant to use bicycles, due to the lack of infrastructure and the shame of using a poor man’s mode of transport. AWA Bikes is planning to change these attitudes – and start a cycling revolution.

0L. Unah

Edible, compostable, ecological: Natural packaging alternatives for your drink to go

Plastic cups and PET bottles will soon be things of the past, as biodegradable and plastic-free packaging is being developed for beverages as well. We introduce some companies that package milk in a sugar crust, coffee in coffee-bean husks, water in sea algae and beer in cardboard.

0N. Berghausen