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Archive for the ‘environmental’ category: Page 14

Aug 4, 2016

How Scientists Plan to Grow Cities Out of Living Organisms

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, education, environmental, robotics/AI, space travel

Imagine a future where there is no need to cut down a tree and and reshape that raw material into a chair or table. Instead, we could grow our furniture by custom-engineering moss or mushrooms. Perhaps glowing bacteria will light our cities, and we’ll be able to bring back extinct species, or wipe out Lyme disease—or maybe even terraform Mars. Synthetic biology could help us accomplish all that, and more.

That’s the message of the latest video in a new mini-documentary Web series called Explorations, focusing on potentially transformative areas of scientific research: genomics, artificial intelligence, neurobiology, transportation, space exploration, and synthetic biology. It’s a passion project of entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, founder of OS Fund and the payments processing company Braintree.

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Aug 3, 2016

Gogoro starts an electric scooter-sharing program in Berlin — By Sean O’Kane | The Verge

Posted by in categories: energy, environmental, transportation

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“Gogoro is bringing 200 of its stylish all-electric scooters to Berlin. Starting today, anyone over 21 with a valid driver’s (or motorcycle) license will be able to rent one of the scooters as part of a new scooter-sharing program”

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Jul 30, 2016

Tesla Launches Gigafactory | Tesla Motors

Posted by in categories: business, Elon Musk, energy, environmental, physics, solar power, transportation

“Building the world’s largest factory to accelerate a sustainable energy future.”

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Jul 27, 2016

How eco-friendly communes could change the future of housing — By Autumn Spanne | The Guardian

Posted by in categories: business, complex systems, economics, energy, engineering, environmental, ethics, food, government, habitats

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“An increasing number of US landowners want to build commune-style villages that are completely self-sufficient and have a low carbon footprint”

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Jul 24, 2016

Why turning China’s smog into diamonds isn’t as crazy as it sounds

Posted by in categories: environmental, health, nanotechnology

Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde has come up with an innovative plan to tackle Beijing’s air pollution problem – and in doing so, turn a health hazard into a thing of beauty.

After a pilot in Rotterdam, the Smog Free Project is coming to China. The project consists of two parts. First, a 7m tall tower sucks up polluted air, and cleans it at a nano-level. Second, the carbon from smog particles is turned into diamonds. Yes, diamonds.

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Jul 14, 2016

Is physical pleasure bad for your health?

Posted by in categories: aging, environmental, life extension, philosophy

Philosophers have been debating the meaning of life for millennia. Billions of people believe that the principal aim in life is to experience pleasure, and they try to enjoy life as much as possible before they die. A minority of others, make it their life’s aim to achieve something which is over and above simple pleasure: not merely to help others, not even to help humanity at large. They aim, whether knowingly or unknowingly, to improve the evolutionary process of nature as a whole.

So far, so good. But it appears that the view we hold about our life, our worldview, has a direct impact on our biology. We know that thinking positively may help improve the immune system. But research also shows that people who aim for pleasure (Hedonia) may have an impaired genetic profile, compared to those who aim for higher virtues (Eudaimonia). There is a distinction between these two terms and it is worth providing a definition here:

Hedonia is an exclusive search for pleasure and avoidance of discomfort. It may involve increased emphasis on eating well, drinking, dancing, playing, and generally enjoying simple pleasures in life. It is contentment, gratification, fun, merriment, satisfaction and, perhaps necessarily, a lack of motivation to search for a nobler aim in life. One may argue that hedonia involves a risk that leads to bad health due to a tendency to excesses (smoking, alcohol, coffee, sweets), a general inclination to avoid uncomfortable physical activity, and a lack of challenging cognitive effort. The risk of addiction may be increased. Erosion of social bonds become a possibility when a hedonist is more concerned about his/her own pleasure and is less sensitive to the needs of others.

Eudaimonia is a term reflecting the highest ‘intellectual good’. It is virtue plus excellence, superior ethical refinement, cognitive sophistication, as well as other qualities such as persistent motivation, wisdom, imagination, creativity, vision and a feeling of purpose. The term has been discussed by many ancient Greek philosophers particularly Aristotle and the Stoics. In modern times and in a wider sense, eudaimonia may be equated with meaningful technological hyperconnection, or ‘Intentional Evolution’, an attempt to constructively improve the human condition in all respects (including those relating to the wider universe). Hedonia is found both in animals and in humans, whereas eudaimonia is only found in humans.

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Jul 1, 2016

Interstellar Comparisons

Posted by in categories: engineering, environmental, space travel

Adam Crowl talking about the energy of the Sun and what we can do with it.


No one thinks big better than Adam Crowl, a Centauri Dreams regular and mainstay of the Icarus Interstellar attempt to reconfigure the Project Daedalus starship design of the 1970’s. If you’re looking for ideas for science fiction stories, you’ll find them in the essay below, where Adam considers the uses to which we might put the abundant energies of the Sun. Starships are a given, but what about terraforming not just one but many Solar System objects? Can we imagine a distant future when our own Moon is awash with seas, and snow is falling on a Venus in the process of transformation? To keep up with Adam, be sure to check his Crowlspace site regularly. It’s where I found an earlier version of this now updated and revised essay.

By Adam Crowl

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Jun 29, 2016

The surprising thing I learned sailing solo around the world — Dame Ellen MacArthur | TED

Posted by in categories: economics, environmental

Jun 21, 2016

Elon Musk Aims to Shore Up SolarCity by Having Tesla Buy It — By Michael J. de la Merced and Peter Eavis | The New York Times

Posted by in categories: business, Elon Musk, energy, environmental, sustainability, transportation

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” … Tesla Motors said on Tuesday that it had offered to buy SolarCity in an all-stock deal, one that could value the latter at as much as $2.8 billion. The aim, Mr. Musk argues, is to create a renewable-energy giant, collecting clean electricity and putting it to work propelling cars.”

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Jun 14, 2016

These Experiments Are Building the Case to Terraform Mars

Posted by in categories: engineering, environmental, space

Maybe the researchers needs to meet with the professor out in University of WA who has been experimenting in shifting weather patterns such as making some areas have more rains while other areas not have as much rain.


If we want to live on Mars, we need to make it warm and wet again.

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