Capturing some of the energy in and around the wheels of a car as it travels down the road is an interesting idea, and one we’ve seen addressed by big tire makers before, such as Goodyear’s BH03 concept back in 2015. Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber is throwing another possibility out there, with a tire design that would leverage friction down below […]

Although eco-minded people do send their discarded paper off to be recycled, the recycling process isn’t entirely environmentally-friendly – it generally requires a lot of power, and incorporates toxic chemicals. Now, however, scientists have developed a new method of simply removing the printed text from sheets of paper, so they can be reused. First of all, we have already seen […]

Waiting for the bus is typically pretty uneventful — unless you live in one Dutch city. Utrecht, a city in Holland, the Netherlands, recently gave makeovers to 316 bus stops, outfitting them with “green roofs,” The Independent reports. The roofs are covered with sedum flowers and other plants, which act as an oasis for bees. Plus, the added greenery has a slew […]

When buildings are being insulated or torn down, a lot of waste “mineral wool”-type insulation ends up in the landfill. Thanks to new research, however, that material may soon instead find use in an improved type of construction mortar. Mineral wool is made by spinning molten minerals, and according to Spain’s Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, it accounts for approximately 60 […]

Central Saint Martins post-graduate student Mi Zhou has created toiletry bottles called Soapack that are cast from soap and melt away once they are no longer useful. To make each Soapack, vegetable oil-based soap is dyed using pigments from minerals, plants and flowers and formed in a mould, in a process similar to slip-casting ceramics. A thin layer of beeswax […]

Full of trains, electronics and people packed in like sardines, subway tunnels are pretty warm places. In theory, all that heat could present an untapped source of energy, if only it could be captured. Now, researchers at EPFL have crunched the numbers on heat transfer in the air of train tunnels, and outlined a geothermal heat recovery system that could […]

As the world teeters on the brink of suffocating from single-use products, some designers are quickly coming up with ingenious ways to reduce our waste. For example, Greek designer George Bosnas has just unveiled the Biopack, a compact egg carton made out of cleared paper pulp, flour, starch and biological legume seeds. Instead of throwing out the eco-friendly container at […]

Fossil fuels cop the brunt of attention for reducing climate-changing emissions, but they’re far from the only culprit – livestock like sheep and cows are responsible for huge amounts of methane being released into the atmosphere. Now, an international team of researchers has analyzed the gut microbes of different sheep and found clues that may help us curb the problem. […]

There are currently fewer than 80 Southern Resident Killer Whales left in North America’s Pacific Northwest, and unfortunately boat collisions with them are on the rise. In order to address the problem, scientists are now looking to artificially-intelligent infrared cameras. Southern Residents are a distinct sub-population of killer whales (aka orcas), found mainly off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington […]

It’s winter in Antarctica, but a temporarily unoccupied British research station is still operating thanks to a new autonomous system. Using technology developed by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) engineers, the Halley Research Station is still partially powered by a micro-turbine as robotic sensors continue to collect scientific data. The Antarctic isn’t exactly a comfy garden spot at the best of […]