Environment

An Energy-Efficient Method to Monitor Soil Moisture

The University of Maine’s Wireless Sensor Networks laboratory has developed a novel method of using AI and machine learning to make monitoring soil moisture more energy and cost efficient.

Radiative Cooling and Solar Heat from One System

Researchers have been exploring how to turbocharge a passive cooling technique — known as radiative or sky cooling — with sun-blocking nanomaterials that emit heat away from building rooftops.

3D Printing Creates High-Performance Metal Alloy

Scientists used a 3D printer to create a high-performance metal alloy with an unusual composition that makes it stronger and lighter than state-of-the-art materials currently used in gas turbine machinery.

Copper Catalyst Converts Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Fuels

A research team has gained new insight by capturing real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they convert CO2 and water into renewable fuels and chemicals: ethylene, ethanol, and propanol, among others.

Turning Plastic Waste into a Valuable Soil Additive

Researchers have moved a step closer to finding a use for the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste produced every year that often winds up clogging streams and rivers and polluting our oceans.

AV Computers Contribute to Global Carbon Emissions

MIT researchers recently explored the potential energy consumption and related carbon emissions if autonomous vehicles (AV) are widely adopted.

Low-Cost Device Can Measure Air Pollution Anywhere

Air pollution is a major public health problem. Now, an MIT research team is rolling out an open-source version of a low-cost, mobile pollution detector that could enable people to track air quality more widely.

New Sensor May Be Groundbreaking Tool for Soil Health

Bioengineers have developed sensors that monitor multiple soil parameters to provide farmers with accurate, real-time, continuous data to improve soil health and productivity.

Fully Recyclable Printed Electronics Use Water, Avoid Toxic Chemicals

By avoiding hazardous chemicals, the work points down a path industry could follow to reduce its environmental footprint.

Predicting Buffet Onset on the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing

Through the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project, Boeing is partnering with NASA to develop and flight-test a full-scale Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) demonstrator aircraft.

Sustainable Housing with 3D-Printed Homes

Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg has partnered with Alquist, a 3D printing home construction company, to 3D print homes in Williamsburg.

5 Ws of a Weeding Robot

MIT alumnus-founded FarmWise uses autonomous machines to snip weeds while preserving crops, eliminating the need for herbicides.

New Battery Aims to Integrate Renewables for Grid Resiliency

A new battery design could help ease integration of renewable energy into the nation’s electrical grid at lower cost, using Earth-abundant metals, according to a study just...

Reused car batteries rev up electric grid

When aging vehicle batteries lack the juice to power your car anymore, they may still hold energy. Yet it’s tough to find new uses for lithium-ion batteries with different makers, ages, and sizes....

Tapping into Wave Energy

A technology developed by Ocean-Based Climate Solutions is converting carbon dioxide to fish food using wave energy.

How Much Do You Know About Desalination?

Desalination is an important source of good-quality water in many parts of the world. How much do you know about it? Take this quiz to find out.

3D-Printed AUV Aims to Thwart Climate Change

The Yonder Deep team installed an entire suite of sensors in its AUV, versatile enough to withstand the frigid Arctic waters as well as the coastal waters of Southern California.

SAE WCX™ 2023 Preview: Paving the Future of Mobility

SAE's WCX World Congress Experience, will be held from April 18-20, in Detroit, MI.

Building Out the EV Battery-Recycling Ecosystem

A robust EV battery-recycling industry has moved to a necessity as automakers, and their suppliers, transition away from internal combustion.

Bioelectronic Devices Enable Real-Time Sensing

If a chemical spill in a river goes unnoticed for 20 minutes, it might be too late to remediate. Living bioelectronic sensors developed at Rice University can help.

Videos of the Month

Videos of the month for March 2023.

Shark Skin Inspires Functional Surface Film for Aircraft

Following nature's example, Lufthansa Technik and BASF have jointly developed the functional surface film AeroSHARK for commercial aircraft.

Lighting the Way to Sustainability with PoE

Commercial buildings are responsible for roughly 18 percent of the total energy consumed in this country.

Scrubbing Carbon Dioxide from Power Plant Smokestacks

Aluminum formate (ALF) has a talent for separating carbon dioxide from the other gases that commonly fly out of the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants.

Thin Flexible Sensor Characterizes High-Speed Airflows on Curved Surfaces

To improve efficiency, it is necessary to characterize and reduce flow separation on curved surfaces.

Longer-Lasting, Recyclable Phone Batteries

Instead of disposing of batteries after three years, we could have recyclable batteries that last three times longer.

A Drone to Protect Bats from Wind Turbines

A study has perhaps solved the wind-turbine issue of causing harm to bats.

Sharp-Shooting Farm Robot

SprayBox can target individual weeds and crops at a 20-per-second rate and then spray them at a millimeter’s accuracy.