BY: ANGELICA LITSIOU Julian Melchiorri, a Royal College of Art graduate working with Dezeen and MINI Frontiers, has designed a synthetic biological leaf that would absorb water and carbon dioxide and produce oxygen the way a plant does. “Plants don’t…
Innovation
Landfills are turning trash into energy and cleaning the environment
BY: SWIKAR OLI Methane has always had a bad rap. Often associated with trash or manure, and dreaded by environmentalists for trapping 25 times more heat per pound in the atmosphere than CO2, it could use a second introduction. With…
Six NASA recruits are living in a dome to mimic life on Mars
BY: ZOE MELNYK For the next year, these six NASA recruits are living in a cramped dome with very little privacy, no fresh food, and no fresh air all for the sake of science. They will be simulating life on…
Weed-laced dog biscuits are relieving extreme pain in sick animals
BY: SWIKAR OLI While the thought of giving Rover a hit of something should make any pet owner scream blue murder (and rightfully so), there may be medical reasons to get some of our furry friends properly lit — well,…
Pop-up stores all around the world are giving free clothes to the homeless
BY: SWIKAR OLI Finally, a pop-up store that anybody can get behind. The Street Store sees innocuous cardboard posters popping up all over the globe from big cities like Cape Town and Sao Paolo to lesser-known burgs like Cartersville, Georgia and…
World’s largest fully solar-powered airport will reduce 300,000 tons of carbon emissions in India
BY: SWIKAR OLI It seems India is as sick as we are of hearing about its pollution. Recent studies have linked their pollution to scary health effects and mounting death tolls. While their environmental policies are well overdue, the recent…
This spaceship-like vehicle lets you travel on abandoned railways
BY: ZOE MELNYK What was once a trashed pickup truck and some scrap metal is now the most ingenious form of uncongested transportation that will interest any traveler who’s passionate about taking the scenic route. Two brothers from Guadalajara, Mexico,…
Now you can help plant trees while sitting on your ass
BY: LISA CUMMING Tree planting is no picnic. The hours are long and the work is quite literally backbreaking. Unfortunately since the early 2000s, wages earned from tree planting have been dropping rapidly. This drop could be attributed to anything…
The pages of this book will turn contaminated sewage water into clean drinking water
BY: M. TOMOSKI When someone makes the claim that a book can save lives, skepticism is likely the most reasonable response. It may even be fair to assume that they had just emerged from a crowded auditorium where the past…
This shipping container home was built in just three days to house the homeless
BY: KAROUN CHAHINIAN Shivering bodies cloaked with torn newspapers and curled up beside urban buildings is the image I see when the word “homelessness” comes to mind. Sadly, this image has become too familiar. Every night, over 100 million people…
This community fridge in Spain reduces food waste and combats hunger at the same time
BY: MELISSA MYERS Think the rise of Little Free community libraries is cool? Well, what about community fridges? The northern Spanish city of Galdakao has taken to storing leftovers on the streets to combat hunger within the community. This stationary, mini…
These office workers share their cubicles with an urban farm
BY: JESSICA BEUKER In Japan, 126 million people occupy a very small land area, making it one of the most densely urbanized countries in the world. It’s a crowded place for the people who live there, and leaves very little…
Japan’s answer to a shortage of graveyard space is literally a stairway to heaven
BY: SHAY ANSARI The Japanese have created a futuristic cemetery where the dead can rest. In Tokyo, the price of graveyard space has soared and can go up to $100,000 USD per plot in central areas. Architect Kiyoshi Takeyama has…
The first food grown in a floating greenhouse in space was just eaten
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA The first food grown in a microgravity environment—the only lettuce ever harvested without an atmosphere— was just consumed by NASA astronauts at the International Space Station. This means big things for space agriculture, and for the…
Cigarette butts are being recycled into backpacks
BY: Jack M. Environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy lists discarded cigarette butts as the number one piece of trash found on our roads, beaches, parks, and in oceans and lakes. And a report by National Geographic suggests that New York State…
This motorcycle can travel 500 kilometres on a single litre of water
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Water-powered vehicles have come a long way from their conception in the early 19th century by Swiss inventor Francois Isaac de Rivas, who built a six-metre-long car that weighed almost a ton and was powered by hydrogen…
Smart E-bike maps out the fastest and safest routes to keep shit drivers out of your face
BY: KAROUN CHAHINIAN We’ve all heard of smart phones, well now there’s a smart E-Bike, courtesy of Brooklyness, that let’s you ride on cruise control during your dreadful morning commutes. Whether there’s construction, a closed off street, or traffic, the…
Inspired by Lego, a company is using disaster debris as building blocks for new homes
BY: JESSICA BEUKER It was five years ago that a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, affecting more than three million people. Over 250,000 houses and 30,000 buildings collapsed, leaving people without jobs and families without homes. The nights that followed the…
NASA just confirmed “Earth’s Twin” exists. This is what it means. (Video)
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA NASA’s Keplar space telescope confirmed the existence of the 1030th known planet. Even more staggering, it’s the closest thing NASA has found to being Earth’s closest relative. Keplar-452b revolves in a “habitable zone” around a sun-like…
This vending machine feeds starving stray animals in exchange for empty plastic bottles
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Istanbul, one of the world’s largest cities, is home to over 14 million people. It is also home to over 150,000 stray cats and dogs – a number that keeps increasing due to animal smuggling and lack…