A Peek at the Future
News, Ideas, and Discoveries
02/05/2012. Human Waste-Powered Robots May Be Future of Machines (Jeremy Hsu and InnovationNewsDaily, Scientific American)
Human waste might someday turn human urine or waste into useful electricity for radios or space robots. (Jeremy Hsu and InnovationNewsDaily)
02/02/2012. Yale Discovers a Fungus That Eats Plastic (Kevin Lee, PCWorld)
Plastic is possibly the greatest commercial creation of last 150 years. It's made it into tupperware, saran wrap, toys, car parts, computer parts, smartphones, and shopping bag all over the world. The only problem is that polyurethane is not biodegradable, and recycling plastic can be equated to just turning it into another product, so all that plastic already in landfills will stay there for centuries to come.
Scientists have not found a single way to break down polyurethane--luckily, nature has found a way on its own. Yale scientists recently found a fungus in the Amazonian rainforest that naturally eats polyurethane. (Kevin Lee)
Scientists have not found a single way to break down polyurethane--luckily, nature has found a way on its own. Yale scientists recently found a fungus in the Amazonian rainforest that naturally eats polyurethane. (Kevin Lee)