The European Union (EU) Commission is proposing an ambitious transportation that will transform the way goods and people travel. The proposal calls for investments in infrastructure as well as changes in systems and policies.
Technology for a greener future
Archive for March, 2011
Soon you may be driving a fruitmobile
How would you like your banana? As packaging or car parts ? Imagine driving a car where the majority of the parts are made from fruit. That image may not be too far in the future since Brazilian scientists have discovered that such fruits as pineapple leaves and stems, bananas, coconut shells, agave, curaua and cattails can be used to make plastics that are lighter and stronger than petroleum based plastics. Meanwhile Malasian scientists have developed a fruit based plastic called Fruitplast that is ten percent cheaper to produce and provides durable, biodegradable packaging.
With nuclear energy what risks are we willing to take
Nuclear energy is currently on the ropes after the ongoing destruction of several reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Both the United States and Japanese governments are reevaluating the safety of nuclear power plants. The European Union is calling for nuclear plant stress tests. So the question really becomes, what risks are we willing to take when it comes to nuclear power?
ASUS packs its motherboards in their own cardboard case
ASUS has decided to provide a cardboard computer case to those who purchase their motherboards. The idea is to cut down on waste while providing a way for DIY computer makers a low cost way of building and testing components prior to buying that really rad case to house it all in.
New memory will save battery life and cut costs
Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a new type of memory that uses 100 times less energy. Less energy means longer battery life and cheaper storage costs.
Eric Pop, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois and affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois, led a team of engineers in this discovery.
Hydrogen buses prove unsustainable in Charlottetown
Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) in Canada has expertise and experience with hydrogen buses. They just can’t use them anymore. Unfortunately, the buses proved too expensive to run and so the buses are being shipped back to Ford.