Smoking Clean Cars

Clean Diesel and Electric Roadsters are hitting the big leagues with Volkswagen and Tesla Motors, respectively.

[Sources: Popular Mechanics (VW) and Motor Trend (Tesla)]

It Does Grow On Trees!

Plants draw water up and out through their leaves. Scientists have figured out how to duplicate the minute structure of a plant to use this anti-gravity process to our advantage. It can be used to humidify, purify and modified to disperse heat.

[Source: Science Daily]

Plants also scrub carbon dioxide out of the air. A scientist wants to develop huge air filter "trees" that will trap CO2. What to do with it once captured seems to be the sticking point.

[Source: BBC News]

You can't smoke a hemp rope

Industrial Hemp has many uses from paper, rope, composites and textiles to fuels, fireproof building materials and even food, but one thing it's NOT good for is getting you high.

The THC content in marijuana (upwards of 20%) is what provides the psychoactive effect, but that is all but non-existent in Industrial Hemp (less than 1%).

Hemp, long a global cash crop for industrial uses, was first criminalized alongside its recreational cousin for numerous reasons in the early mid-20th century. Possibly to allow for greater profits in the powerful timber and chemical industries although public outcry was first raised with anti-psychedelic propaganda.

Canada has boldly allowed the hemp industry to return to North America for the first time in decades, which could pave the way for the U.S. to follow suit once the market potential is RE-realized.

Further Reading:

U.S Department of Agriculture's Market Potential Report from 2000

Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007 proposed to Congress to amend the Controlled Substances Act

North American Industrial Hemp Council

X Marks the Prize

The Progressive Automotive X Prize (the X Prize Foundation in partnership with Progressive Insurance) is a $10 million dollar prize open to any team in the world that can design, build and bring to market a consumer vehicle that can achieve the energy equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.

(The X Prize Foundation is best known for previously awarding $10 million to Scaled Composites in 2004 for private suborbital space flight).

Legendary rocker Neil Young and his team headed by mechanic John Goodwin have been developing a plug-in bio-fuel hybrid 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV convertible with a propulsion system designed by UQM Technologies to enter in the race for the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The film "Linc Volt" tracks their progress.

Solar Cell Rainbow

Normally when a solar cell captures light energy it loses some of it before it can be captured and converted to electricity.

But Scientists at M.I.T. has discovered that by dyeing the surface of the collectors then more light can be retained and a more efficient system can result making solar cells cheaper and more efficient.

The same way fiber optics can send light down filaments, the edges of the dyed glass (or even thin plastic!) can collect light for productive use.

This could mean that instead of bulky and pricey panels on the roof you could use your own windows as solar collectors adding aesthetic value as well as cost and energy efficiency!

[Source: Wired.com, Technewsworld.com, Science Magazine]

Spray Me Solar

Spray-on nano-polymers have the chance to trap infrared and not just visible sunlight. Even fabric could be made and photo-electric solar cell clothing developed! A cheap and easy solar abundance!

[Source: National Geographic]

Also (if that weren't enough) dye-sensitized photovoltaic paint can be adhered to steel sheeting in the manufacturing process turning any building made from them into solar collectors.

[Source: Swansea University]

Step Into The Helix

Instead of the old propeller variety, wind turbines with a helical structure can grab even the smallest of breezes from any direction and generate power.