How Plant Microbiomes Could Disrupt Farming – The Innovator news. Replacing fertilizer with plant probiotics could slash greenhouse gases. Pivot Bio just got a $70 million infusion from Bill Gates’s energy fund and other investors to launch its commercial product next year.
The science: The biotechnology company, based in Berkeley, California, is creating probiotics for plants. Indigo Agriculture 2018 Disruptor 50. Sharing is caring. So why are European cities falling behind? New mobility services like Uber and Lyft offer the potential to get cities moving, improve quality of life and reduce emissions.
But this will only happen if new and traditional mobility services can be integrated to make a more attractive offering that finally persuades drivers out of their cars, write Greg Archer and Yoann Le Petit. Are there chances of an increased use of E-mobility on the horizon? VW launches We Share electric car sharing service. Technology is changing our relationship with nature as we know it. University of Washington psychology professor Peter Kahn has spent much of his career analyzing the relationship humans have with nature—and he thinks that relationship is more fragile than many of us realize.
Kahn works to understand the intersection of two modern phenomena: the destruction of nature, and the growth of technology. As UW’s director of the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab (HINTS), Khan researches humans in relation to both real nature and “technological nature”: digital representations of the wild, such as nature-focused documentaries, video games, and VR stimulations. Bloomberg. The potential of using virtual nature in therapeutics - BlueHealth. Stress recovery by exposure to nature in virtual reality. Why Blockchain Can Be An Effective Tool For Fighting Environmental Crime. This article is the first of a five-part series with David Luna, CEO and president of Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies LLC.
The effects of environmental crime and illicit trade are vast and often irreversible. Time. The night skies might soon have company: Chinese scientists are planning to launch an artificial moon into orbit by 2020 to illuminate city streets after dark.
Scientists are hoping to hang the man-made moon above the city of Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, according to a report in Chinese state media. What would a truly disabled-accessible city look like? To David Meere, a visually impaired man from Melbourne, among the various obstacles to life in cities is another that is less frequently discussed: fear.
“The fear of not being able to navigate busy, cluttered and visually oriented environments is a major barrier to participation in normal life,” says Meere, 52, “be that going to the shops, going for a walk in the park, going to work, looking for work, or simply socialising.” What would the ultimate child-friendly city look like? Imagine you are 10 years old.
You live in a medium-sized city and want to visit your best friend, a five-minute walk away, so you can go to the park, another 10 minutes’ walk. Smart cities have the ability. With the amount of data available today, cities are constantly innovating, finding new ways to apply insights in ways that benefit citizens.
This is no small task, as new technologies are constantly reshaping what’s possible when it comes to using and making sense of data. Data creates opportunities. Cities are rife with challenges that not only impact their own residents but society at large. Ceramic honeycomb air filters could cut city pollution. A new type of outdoor filter that could cut city air pollution and is scheduled to be debuted at the 2024 Paris Olympics has been awarded the €3 million Horizon Prize on materials for clean air.
The prize, which was announced on 30 October at the Innovative Industries for Smart Growth Conference in Vienna, Austria, was launched by the European Union in 2015 to find the most affordable, sustainable and innovative solution to reduce the concentration of particulate matter in urban areas. Electric food – the new sci-fi diet that could save our planet.
It’s not about “them”, it’s about us.
The horrific rate of biological annihilation reported this week – 60% of the Earth’s vertebrate wildlife gone since 1970 – is driven primarily by the food industry. Protein produced from electricity to alleviate world hunger - News - LUT. A batch of single-cell protein has been produced by using electricity and carbon dioxide in a joint study by the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Protein produced in this way can be further developed for use as food and animal feed. The method releases food production from restrictions related to the environment. The protein can be produced anywhere renewable energy, such as solar energy, is available. "In practice, all the raw materials are available from the air. In the future, the technology can be transported to, for instance, deserts and other areas facing famine.
Along with food, the researchers are developing the protein to be used as animal feed. "Compared to traditional agriculture, the production method currently under development does not require a location with the conditions for agriculture, such as the right temperature, humidity or a certain soil type. Tenfold energy efficiency 50 per cent protein Further information: