One good thing that has come out of this global warming craze is the wealth of ideas on how to recycle and create alternative forms of fuel. Recently, there was a story about how scientists are now able to microwave plastic grocery bags to recycle them back into oil. Well, now a gaggle Welch scientists have taken recycling one step further by developing a process which takes a car’s exhaust and recycles it for an alternative fuel sources. Sort of.

Actually, the process uses the exhaust, along with a modified algae to create a kind of bio fuel. Called the GREENBOX, the process can not only work for automobiles, but also buses, buildings, and even power plants. So far, however, they haven’t been able to test the product in aviation. But the results do look promising.

Testing a Greenbox the size of a barstool for over two years has created a capture rate between 85 and 95 percent. And the scientists are pretty confident that they can make the box about the size of a standard car exhaust which can hold the gases in a safe, inert state until conversion. After a full tank of gas, the Greenbox would need to be replaced and then taken to a bioreactor to be emptied.

The scientists actually came across the process accidentally as they were experimenting with carbon dioxide to help boost algae growth for fish farming. In addition to water vapor, the process also has methane gas and fertilizer as a waste product. Both of which can also be captured and used for other processes.

One thing is certain, this may be the happy medium between maintaining the current state of oil use and cleaning our environment until technology gives birth to a better way to get around.

Source: Reuters

Prototypes are the next best thing when compared to mere concepts, as it offers the opportunity for a manufacturer to flesh out ideas in the real world. Sony is no different in this aspect, unveiling the Hana (’flower’ in Japanese) audio prototype home device. Not only does it function as a lamp, it also comes with a built-in MP3 player and full-length speakers to complement its silver-plated flower petal shape. No idea if this will ever emerge from manufacturing lines, but we can always keep our fingers crossed.

Source: Plastic Bamboo

Seeking to make space suits easier to use and space walks more fashionable, an MIT professor of aeronautics, astronautics and engineering has taken an idea from the sixties that simply needed technology to catch up. The result is a Space suit that and uses modern materials to create a new form fitting and yet functional suit that is on par with it’s bulkier cousins.

Previous versions of an astronaut’s space suit were bulky and difficult to move in due to the protective atmosphere captured by the suit which rendered it difficult to maneuver in due to the pressure of the protective gas bubble that had to be maintained.

However, the Biosuit is designed to replace the pressurization that protects the astronaut’s body from the vacuum of space with a concept called “mechanical counter-pressure,” which is achieved by wrapping the astronaut in several tight layers of Spandex and nylon. The pattern designs of the Biosuit provide a “stiff” kind of exoskeleton that accomplishes the same protective goal as gas pressurization, but also provides maximum flexibility. In addition, the suit will also serve as a resistor for the muscles in the human body, which can lose up to forty percent of their muscle mass while in space.

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Looks like the Nintendo Wii has certainly sparked a revolution in more than just gaming. While most people have dismissed it as a mere gimmick, the Wii has stayed at the top of sales charts every week in Japan when it comes to home consoles, and consistently posing a fair challenge to the Xbox 360 in America. Part of the appeal would definitely be the “gimmicky” Wiimote that is often talked about, enabling casual or new gamers to pick up gaming and be of some good without having any prior experience. Australian scientists have taken this idea and came up a device which enables TV viewers to change channels, turn on the DVD player, or even turn off the TV with a simple hand gesture.

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Designer Johan Frossen has come up with this concept video recording device that seems to jump out of a sci-fi movie. The user wears this over their eye, letting it record whatever they see, making this a truly cool hands-free video camera. You wear this camera around your neck, where a semi-large lens and microphone reside on one end. There is no need to stuff memory inside this thing though, since it will upload all your video in real-time wirelessly to a nearby computer, but the downside would be remaining within the vicinity of a wireless network. Wish I could beam one of these from stores.

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The folks at Parkoz Hardware must be smoking some pretty strong stuff to come up with this Transformer-inspired cellphone, changing from your average clamshell handset into a bi-pedal mini weapon of mass destruction which looks like the ED-209 of Robocop fame. A pair of miniguns are more than enough to shred away anything in its path though, and could work great when it comes to threatening your boss for a pay raise. I wonder what the battery life is on this thing, and what do the miniguns actually use as bullets? Broken pieces of plastic?

Source: Gizmodo

I’m a huge fan of the works of SuperUber. To create the mood in a party to celebrate the launch of Audi TT in São Paulo, Brazil, they developed two multimedia projects, Super Bar and Interactive Shadows. They had the help of Muti Randolph, which created the images and cenography to the party. The Super Bar uses a camera with a sensor to create a very long touchscreen interface. When someone puts a glass our touches the bar, the point is connected with lines to other points. The lines create connections between the objects and hands over the bar.

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According to organizers of the annual Glastonbury Festivals, concert goers who spend the week rocking out tend to abandon the tents they sleep in during the rockfest. And it’s growing from 10,000 abandoned tents in 2005, to 15,000 this year. Not very environment friendly in these globally sensitive economic times.

But what seems like a budding ecologic disaster in Glastonbury, turns into an economic opportunity to Designer James Dunlop, who’s Myhab disposable habitats can solve the problem of what to do with tens of thousands of barely used, yet abused, tents left behind. “People use and abuse their tents because they are so cheap,” Dunlop said, “they are just tired and want to go home after festivals. They do not want to mess about putting their tent away.”

That’s why myHab was born, but that’s not the only use Dunlop envisions. There’s also disaster relief and with 2012 Olympics coming to London, and possibilities for incoming sports fans are endless.

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