Posts about Great Inventions

Halfpipe and bikers: Sounds of the city captured virtually everywhere.

City tourism: Sound-hearing soon enhancing Sight-seeing?

15.12.2015

What are the sounds usually associated with a city? The irritating ones issued from cars hooting, tyres screeching, trams rumbling, from air-conditioning units humming relentlessly? From ambulances swishing by with sirens amplified by the Doppler effect that hurts our eardrums and sets our minds on alert? When embarking on a trip to a busy metropolis, an undistinguishable concoction of man-made noise will have to be tolerated as an inevitable part of the package. Positive connotations are asking for more pleasant experiences, though.

Conquering an urban jungle by mapping it out via the typical sounds it exudes, is an idea temporarily put into practice in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam during an “ambient marketing” campaign: from interactive audio billboards, the “Sounds of the City” could be tapped by means of a personal headphone plugged into jacks directly embedded in the “neighbourhoods” of choice.

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Powered by the people: Britain’s first Bio-Bus

4.10.2015

How many facets there really are to sustainability respectively to the options of a new raison d’ être for recycled waste of varyingly appetising origin, is being demonstrated by a treatment plant located in the South-West of England. The company’s core objective is to „develop environmentally sustainable waste treatment processes and to increase the production of renewable energy“ in an „innovative and cost-effective“ fashion. Should your argument be that most treatment plants offer similar solutions, perhaps you are right. But this one has been awarded an ‘outstanding’ status in the Times Top 100 UK Companies listings. And it is taking its environmental efforts to new realms – by providing the first public biogas bus with fuel derived from food waste and human sewage.

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Swooshing through Japan: The Shinkansen bullet train

27.04.2015

Can a train really go as fast as 600 km/h? It can, obviously, since it has done so in spring of 2015: The record-breaking speed had been achieved by Japan’s Maglev bullet train in a test run by its developer Central Japan Railway Company. Instead of sitting on regular tracks, the superconducting Maglev hovers above them, enabling frictionless and low-noise movement by „magnetic levitation“ = Maglev. Thus the breathtaking tempo. If all goes well and according to the company’s ambitious plans, Tokyo will be connected with Nagoya within as little as 40 minutes by 2027. At present, the ride takes twice as long. Another two decades ahead, by 2045, travel time for the total distance from Tokyo to Osaka might shrink from 142 to sensational 67 minutes.

„Regular“ Shinkansen have been successfully cannonballing through the nation for fifty years.

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Twinkind: A man looking at his 3D-printed mini look-alike.

3D-Technology: Print yourself another you

26.01.2015

There’s screeching violins and scary guns, minute bikinis and most interesting food. Human stem cells, bionic ears, fetuses or King Richard III.’s reconstructed face. With appliances becoming more affordable, 3D printing has not only enriched the options for the science and technology sectors considerably. A wide array of objects can now be designed and printed up to a certain scale with the range stretching from things practical to weird and from commercial products to manufacturing parts. Bioprinting of portions of the human body for medical purposes has revolutionised the field. And a wealth of exciting developments is still in the pipeline. Experts predict that privately owned 3D printers will be a frequent commodity in the not too distant future and 3-dimensional DIY activities a realistic option for virtually everyone.

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TED Talk. Will Marshall’s Space Doves

4.12.2014

Tiny satellites show us the Earth as it changes in near-real-time

Digital maps and detailed images of the world’s surface are readily available online. Will Marshall, cofounder of Planet Labs, says that improvement and refreshment of existing data could easily be accomplished. In this talk, he introduces minute earth-observing satellites no bigger than 10 x 10 x 30 centimetres. When launched as a flock, they provide high-res images – updated daily – of the entire planet. William Marshall calls himself a “quantum physicist cum space scientist in search of world peace and harmony.”

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