A milestone in decarbonization today as Sweden’s SSAB made the world’s very first “fossil-free” steel delivery, created with green hydrogen instead of coal and coke, to a customer, Volvo, where it will be used in electric trucks. SSAB’s HYBRIT process uses hydrogen as the reductant as iron ore and limestone are combined to create steel, replacing “coke,” or baked coal. […]
First “Fossil-Free” Steel Delivered To Volvo
Lightweight Composite Changes Colors To Warn Stress Levels
When lightweight composite materials are used in fields such as aerospace, it’s vitally important to know if they’re experiencing mechanical stress – before they fail. A new composite is able to do so, simply by fluorescing under UV light. Created by scientists at Switzerland’s ETH Zurich research institute and the University of Fribourg, the experimental composite is composed of laminated […]
Recyclable Wooly Cooler
Looking to offer outdoor-enthusiasts a more eco-friendly solution than your typical polyurethane-walled cooler, or even worse, one of the disposable styrofoam variety, startup Wool Street has come to the party with the world’s first wool-insulated cooler. Stylishly pieced together entirely from recyclable materials, the Wooly cooler comes with a couple of handy extra features and is claimed to retain ice […]
Floating Eco Hotel
A new floating eco-hotel design by Hayri Atak Architectural Design Studio (HAADS) boasts a zero-waste system and will generate its own electricity by slowly rotating. The studio envisions sitting the hotel off the coast of Qatar. It will take 24 hours for the round hotel to complete a full rotation. The revolving concept is based on dynamic positioning, the same computer-controlled system […]
The Beach Cleaning Robot
Plastic in the environment has become a circular problem. It’s wasteful during production, often has a limited life-cycle in single-use products and ends up in waterways and food supplies. That process brings microplastics right back to our table inside seafood and field-grown crops. Determined to battle the plastic problem, 4ocean and Poralu Marine have joined forces in the fight. 4ocean has a […]
Hydration Pack Bag
Hydration packs are great for keeping a water supply close at hand when you’re out biking or running, but … you might feel kind of funny wearing one on your daily urban commute. That’s where the Danú Bag comes in, as it’s designed to look like a regular backpack. Created by Colorado-based entrepreneur Aubree Holly, the Danú features a waterproof […]
Retractable Campo Tent
The Mollusc Nano was one of our favorite camping innovations of 2015, but for years it plodded along as an interesting design that wasn’t quite ready for market success. That’s about to change, though, as the redesigned and rebranded Campo Escape M4 hits the scene as the “world’s first retractable tent,” letting outdoor revelers lift up the tent fabric and […]
Tready Robots Terrain
When it comes to robots designed for traversing rough terrain, there are typically treaded and legged models. The new Tready robot, however, combines the best of both approaches, by utilizing its four treaded “flippers.” Manufactured by Pittsburgh-based HEBI Robotics, the bot is designed for applications such as search and rescue, industrial inspection, or simply the study of robotics. “Tready is […]
Sea-Doo Steered Pontoons
Sea-Doo has gotten a little less “personal” with its watercraft lineup, launching the Switch family of pontoon boats to carry up to nine people on the water. The Switch pontoons remain Sea-Doo to the core, though, bringing together PWC-style handlebar steering and Rotax jet drives. A fully modular deck makes it possible to quickly adjust each boat’s layout around leisure […]
Can Cutting Cholesterol Keep Alzheimer Away?
One interesting area of Alzheimer’s research focuses on the relationship between cholesterol in the brain and onset of the disease, with studies suggesting the compound can greatly accelerate the buildup of troublesome brain plaques. A new study has expanded our knowledge of this phenomenon by observing it in action in live mice, with the scientists even finding they could intervene […]