Tag: sustainability
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Dialogues across the Seas. The Ocean that keeps us apart also joins us. Charting knowledge and practice in the Anthropocene – 2nd edition
Is now out the second English edition of the eBook Dialogues across the Seas. The Ocean that keeps us apart also joins us. Charting knowledge and practice in the Anthropocene. This second edition is updated and is enriched by the contributions of new authors. Texts by Pasha Ian Clothier, Nina Czegledy, Roberta Buiani, Pier Luigi…
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Titanic robots make farming more sustainable
There’s a lot riding on farmers’ ability to fight weeds, which can strangle crops and destroy yields. To protect crops, farmers have two options: They can spray herbicides that pollute the environment and harm human health, or they can hire more workers. Unfortunately, both choices are becoming less tenable. Herbicide resistance is a growing problem…
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A new concept for low-cost batteries
As the world builds out ever larger installations of wind and solar power systems, the need is growing fast for economical, large-scale backup systems to provide power when the sun is down and the air is calm. Today’s lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most such applications, and other options such as pumped hydro…
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Dialogues across the seas: the ocean that keeps us apart also joins us. Charting knowledge and practice in the Anthropocene
This publication is about two events on the impact of the climate crisis on the seas and the marine environments. The first one was entitled “From the Mediterranean to the Pacific. Dialogues across the seas”, and took place on July 27-28, 2018, in Cervia, a coastal city nearby Ravenna where the Po Valley ends…
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Pavegen
Pavegen is a people powered, kinetic tech floor tile that creates clean electricity and captivates the imagination of anyone that steps on it. WHO WE ARE Let’s create cities that work for citizens, not machines. Technology alone won’t make cities perform more efficiently. It’s about changing behaviours. Pavegen is a smart, innovative platform that also…
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Interview with Danielle Siembieda
Danielle Siembieda is the Managing Director of Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST). Siembieda brings over 15-years of experience in community development and strategic communications. As an active leader in the art, science, and technology community, she has served on the board of the Women Eco Art Dialogue and Emerging…
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Lithium-oxygen batteries are getting an energy boost
A new type of lithium-oxygen battery could pack more energy and last longer than its predecessors. Lithium-oxygen batteries, which are more energy-dense and made of more sustainable materials than typical lithium-ion cells, are promising candidates for the next generation of rechargeable batteries (SN: 1/21/17, p. 22). But lithium-oxygen batteries aren’t widely used yet because they…
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From Seaweed to Fiber, Is Biology The Future Of Fashion?
Is biology the future of fashion? Well, Algiknit seems to think so. The biomaterials company has been developing biomaterials that can play a key role in the future of sustainable manufacturing. Addressing the ecological damage caused by the fashion industry, Algiknit is looking to make an impact by operating in a closed loop product lifecycle…
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Is the future in the countryside?
By Rem Koolhaas The modern world is preoccupied with cities. More than half of mankind is now urban, which has been the pretext for an almost exclusive focus on the city. They are seen as the engines of economy, of emancipation, of the ultimate “lifestyle”. Since “Delirious New York” (1978), I have probably been associated…
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Interview with Elif Ayiter
Elif Ayiter, aka. Alpha Auer. I was trained as a graphic designer, and worked for many years in the graphic design industry as an art director; after which I switched to academia. Nowadays, I teach full time at Sabancı University, Istanbul. My areas of instruction are graphic design, art and computing, theory of creative practice,…
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A Biodegradable Car
A concept car in the Netherlands is constructed almost entirely of materials the grow in the soil. Called “Lina,” the biodegradable car is the work of students at Eindhoven University of Technology and is composed mainly of sugar beet resin and flax. It weighs in at under 700 pounds and can reach a top speed of…
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Ambio, bacterial lamp
Ocean waves glowing blue in the dark of night, anyone who has ever experienced this knows how magical it looks. The phenomenon is caused by bioluminescent micro-organisms in seawater that emit light when provided with oxygen every time a wave turnes. This principle inspired me to combine my passion for design and biology in a…
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Interview with Christa Sommerer
Christa Sommerer studied Biology and Botany (1982-85), followed by Art Education and Art Study in Modern Sculpture (1985-90) in Vienna, Austria. She concluded her post graduate study at the Staedelschule Institut for New Media, Frankfurt (1993-94). Subsequently, Christa Sommerer was an artist-in-resident at the NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Application, Beckman Institute (US) and at…
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The world is a complicated place
The world is a complicated place. Our planet is made up of millions of networks from microscopic ecosystems to global migration. How can we ever hope to understand and predict the complexity of our mulit-networked world? New research may have the answer… This 4k data visualisation was created by Mauro Martino, and Jianxi Gao (Northeastern…
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Interview with Annick Bureaud
Annick Bureaud is an independent art critic, curator and event organiser, researcher and teacher in art and technosciences. She is the director of Leonardo/Olats, European sister organisation to Leonardo/Isast. She is a co-founding member of the Collectif Nunc. She wrote numerous articles and contribute to the French contemporary art magazine Art Press. She is the co-editor of the collection of essays Connexions…
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Electricity with living plants
Plant-e develops products in which electricity is generated with living plants. The products are based on a technology that was developed at Wageningen University. In 2007 the technology was patented, and Plant-e was able to get the patents from the university in 2009. The technology enables us to generate electricity with living plants at practically…
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Synthetic “Leaf” That Produces Oxygen
Julian Melchiorri, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, claims to have developed a silk leaf that could create oxygen for space travel as well as make the air nicer here on Earth. The leaf was developed in conjunction with a silk lab from Tufts University The leaf is created from a matrix of…
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Turning Pine Sap Into ‘Ever-Green’ Plastics
Chuanbing Tang at the University of South Carolina is developing new plastics that are “green” from the cradle to the grave. Given that the new polymers he’s working on often come from pine trees, firs and other conifers, he’s giving the word “evergreen” added resonance. Rather than tapping a barrel of oil to obtain starting…
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CHAAC HA’, Water System Collector
“We addressed the issue of scarcity, over exploitation and pollution of water. It makes evident and urgent a rational and responsible water use, which allows its supply in quantity and quality over time through a dynamic and ecological balance. Therefore the effort to study the characteristics of our region such as the resources availability, population…
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Open Source Ecology
Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been creating the Global Village Construction Set, an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with…