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According to a joint World Health Organization/UNICEF report issued this week, an estimated 768 million people relied on unimproved drinking-water sources in 2011, with 185 million of these relying on surface water to meet their daily drinking-water needs. WHO and UNICEF have set a 2030 target for everyone to have access to a safe drinking-water supply and new water-purifying “nanoscavengers” developed by researchers at Stanford University could help achieve this goal. Read More
Like an army, science needs the high ground. This is true when it comes to oil exploration and especially so in the rugged landscape of Norway. The Virtual Outcrop Geology (VOG) group at the Norwegian Centre for integrated petroleum research (CIPR) is working to capture this vantage point in a distinctly 21st century way, by using UAVs to seek out oil by helping geologists build 3D models of the terrain. Read More
The architectural designs of Tom Wiscombe are overtly futuristic, to the point that were you to drop his concepts into the depictions of the London and San Francisco of the year 2259 in Star Trek Into Darkness, they wouldn't look out of place. His Lo Monaco House almost resembles a futuristic shuttle on a launchpad, yet the influences for this design are entirely removed from the realm of space fantasy – according to Wiscombe himself, that is. Read More
Given the low costs and extensive applications that could be possible with flexible paper circuit boards, we've seen many ideas for their production, from printing with silver ink to embedding chips within paper. Now, however, scientists have developed an elegant method for selectively changing the very nature of the paper itself into conductive graphite. Unlike polymer-based flexible circuits, these paper circuits are, ironically, able to withstand the high temperatures generally used in the production of electronics. Read More
Gmail lets you send all kinds of files as attachments. And Google Wallet lets you pay for just about anything. Why not combine the two? That could have been the thinking by someone at Google, as the search giant is set to launch a payment system that’s the love child of Gmail and Google Wallet. Read More
Most cloud storage solutions like Dropbox and Google Drive give users storage space at a premium, but the actual data is stored in a data center in some remote location. A new product called Space Monkey aims to take the storage out of the data center and put it back in the hands of the user. This allows it to offer more data than traditional cloud storage solutions for a much lower price. Read More
Cats may love batting at tantilizingly-dangled kitty toys, but most of us can’t dangle those toys for our felines all day long – not even by remote control. The Solar Chaser was designed to pick up the slack, using an integrated solar panel to power its toy-bobbing arm. Read More
Scheduled to sell for less than half the price of the current cheapest car in America, the Elio is a 3-wheeled "car" that hopes to shake up the automotive world. It eschews the trendy electric powertrain for a small gas system, but thanks to its small, light, aerodynamic design, it promises to keep drivers away from the gas pumps for as long as possible. Read More
As search technology advances, it’s going to become more and more like human interaction. Apple’s Siri might have popularized conversational search, but many of us feel that Google Now quickly surpassed it – with its faster and more accurate results. Soon much of Google Now’s functionality will be arriving on PCs, by way of the Chrome OS and web browser. Not stopping there, Google also added some improvements to Android’s Google Now. Read More
If you're in the market for a 3D printer, there are plenty of qualities to weigh. Price, ease of use, size, and print resolution are all factors that could influence the types of objects you're able to create. If you want a printer that fits on your desk and can print objects the size of a basketball though, you may want to consider the latest model from Aleph Objects, Inc. The LulzBot TAZ 3D printer boasts an open source hardware approach in design and claims to have the largest print volume for desktop printers in its price range. Read More
