Green

Build a DIY $1000 Fusion Reactor in Your Basement

Most college freshmen fill their dorm rooms with clothes, books, and electronics. Thiago Olson also brought his fusion reactor. But Vanderbilt University drew the line: No do-it-yourself reactors in the dorm! Instead, his device was housed in a nearby laboratory.Read More

IBM Develops Higher-Efficiency Solar Cells Using Non-Rare Materials

IBM researchers have created a high-efficiency solar cell that is 40 percent more efficient than any similar cells, and is made of earth abundant materials.Read More

PlanetSolar Debuts The World's Largest Solar-Powered Yacht

A skipper's dream of sailing across the ocean using solar power is about to come true. More impressively, he'll be sailing on arguably the world's largest pollution-free yacht, the PlanetSolar, which was unveiled Thursday at the HDW Shipyard in Germany.Read More

Already powering major Silicon Valley companies, Bloom Box fuel cell designer hopes to soon see it power your house

Silicon Valley doesn’t just produce innovative web companies — it’s also a mecca for the green tech boom. Bloom Energy has built a refrigerator-sized box that can power your whole house.Read More

Perpetual motion machine tested. Fact or fiction?

The Steorn Orbo is a motor designed to generate more power than is put into it. An independent panel of scientists question its validity, but that didn’t stop the company from showing off the concept, most recently, in Dublin. JL Naudin decided to reproduce this magnetic motor, and begin studying its effects.Read More

Experimental machine that mimics a planet’s magnetic field is designed to tame nuclear fusion for power generation

MIT

It’s amazing no one thought of it before: nuclear fusion from a levitating tire-sized magnet surrounded by 10-million-degree plasma. But that’s exactly what a joint project between MIT and Columbia University are tinkering with over at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.Read More

While many people are trying to save trees, apparently some people think the future of cars depend on firewood

During World War II, almost every motorized vehicle in continental Europe was converted to use firewood, according to an article in Low-Tech Magazine. The Swedish government, and Volvo, have been working on more updated versions of this seemingly outdated technology.Read More

New energy-saving LED lightbulb that lasts 60 years has been developed by scientists at Cambridge University

Photo: MASONS

Cambridge University researchers have developed cheap, light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs that produce brilliant light but use very little electricity. They will cost about $3.00 and last up to 60 years.Read More

They haven't figured out how to mow it yet, but architects and federal officials plan one of the world's most extensive vertical gardens in downtown Portland — what amounts to a series of 250-foot-tall trellises designed to shade the west side of an 18-story office building.Read More

U.S. Government Invests $78 Million in Algae Biofuels Research

Scientists have been trying their best to turn algae into the biofuel of the 21st century, and now the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) wants to put some serious muscle behind all that research. That muscle translates into $78 million of federal funding split between two biofuel consortia.Read More