Vibro-wind

Turbines are expensive to build, noisy, big, and they kill birds. Perhaps these pad panels would be better suited to generating electricity from the wind.

The wind panels are the brainchild of Francis Moon, a professor of mechanical engineering at Cornell University. He created a panel of 25 pads that oscillate in the wind, much the way leaves vibrate when a gust of air sifts through a tree. The pads attach to piezoelectric materials that produce electricity from each vibration.




Typewriter Animals

This octopus and this deer by Jeremy Mayer are made entirely from the parts of typewriters that he has disassembled and then reassembled into sculptures without soldering, welding or gluing.  I'm lost for words.

Do they "wow" you?

Gold Nanoparticles Make Trees Glow

Research by Taiwanese scientists has revealed that adding gold nanoparticles to plants can induce luminescence in leaves.  Dr Yen Hsun Su and his colleagues are imagining a future where streetlights are replaced by trees, reducing the pollution of cities in two ways: a) no electricity is used to create the light, and b) trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen as a waste product.  It sounds like a fantastic idea, although I'm slightly skeptical about the practicalities.

Does the thought of walking down a leaf-lit street at night (or seeing it from above) "wow" you?

How else could this technology be used? Glowing Christmas trees? Potted night-lights for young children?


Photo © Paul Dex