Daniela Muhawi

Throw a fish carcass into a submersible trap, and the ocean's crabs and lobsters are the first to arrive for a full meal before realizing that they've been caught. Lobsters and crabs smell by dragging their antennules through the water where chemosensory hairs on the ends of these antennules come into contact with odor molecules. Researchers are interested in replicating the process in a robotic version, which will be used to sniff out unexploded mines on the ocean floor, and eventually toxic chemical spills. Mimi Koehl of UCBerkeley and Jeffrey Koseff and John Crimaldi at Stanford, developed a mechanical lobster capable of imitating the flicking of real lobster's antennules in attempts...

The Green movement is advancing at an incredible rate. New technologies, green companies, products and energy policies are popping up all over the world. It's not so easy to keep track of it all, especially using the typical search engines. All the information is out there but it's not so easy to find, unless you get a little help from Reegle: a search engine dedicated to everything relating to green technology. The website went live about three years ago, when the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) decided it was time to create an information portal focusing on all aspects of clean energy and technology. Reegle defines itself as a "one-stop-shop for high quality up-to-date information on clean energy policy, with a core objective of supporting the global advancement of energy efficiency and renewables. The website facilitates fast access to constantly updated information for politicians...

Snakes are typically associated with horror movies, snake charmers and energetic men showing off their talents for handling various poisonous reptiles on television. Generally speaking, people tend to avoid snakes and are happiest viewing the creatures from a distance, but it was the shape of a snake that spurred the idea for a unique wave energy system-the "Anaconda". This rubber snake rolls over ocean currents, with an almost soothing motion, absorbing the natural energy created from each passing wave. Created by Francis Farley (a physicist) and Rod Rainey of Atkins Oil and Gas, the 200 meter long Anaconda device is designed to sit in 40 to 100 meter deep water and generates around 1MW of electricity per year-enough to power around 2000 homes. The 'snake' is closed on both ends and filled with water which is affected by the outside pressures surrounding it. As waves push the water in the snake...

A laser beaming energy to earth isn't as far fetched as it sounds. Japan, at the forefront of technology, has developed space saving vertical parking lots, is bringing us a solar powered Toyota Prius and their newest venture involves putting a light-absorbing panel into orbit for unlimited solar power. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has already invested millions into a prototype Space Solar Power System (SSPS) which will be up and running by 2030. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="325" caption="Earth Turning Towards the Sun"][/caption] The idea of sending photovoltaic panels into orbit is not a new one, and was thrown around at NASA as early as the 1970's, but the estimated $1 trillion cost of...

It isn't fog that rolls down the hill these days, but smog. Cars spill noxious fumes out their tailpipes and factories send plumes of smoke into the air. It has come to the point where holding your breath is the only solution when wandering across the street or between shops. These problems won't exist in Masdar, Abu Dhabi the world's first carbon neutral city. Launched in 2007, the completion of this highly ambitious plan will occur around 2020. No cars or any other polluting vehicles are allowed in the city, waste and water are recycled, while recyclable plastics and cement will be used during construction. It is estimated that up to 80% of water used during irrigation will be recycled: water seeps through the earth and while some is absorbed by the plants, the rest will flow into a collection area to be reused again later, while fencing used during construction will eventually be...

Just a little rain transforms the desert floor into an entirely different atmosphere. Branchiopod cysts that mingle with the fine desert sand, survive inconspicuously for up to 200 years. Not only that, but these tiny eggs are unaffected by temperatures ranging from below freezing to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. A curious scientist even went so far as to glue the eggs of brine shrimp (a species of branchiopod) to a space shuttle in a 1980 launch where they survived the tremendous roundtrip completely unscathed to produce healthy animals! It seems like these prehistoric organisms, capable of enduring ridiculous varieties in temperature and even the vacuum of space, found the secret to survival millions of centuries ago. Branchiopods include tiny crustaceans such as fairy shrimp, clam shrimp, and tadpole shrimp that have learned to live in the most extreme environments. This practice of...

Air power is becoming a more common investment. Huge turbines line coasts and hills where constant winds whip through to spin the massive blades. Wind farms comprised of these towering blades are constantly expanding. But why focus on building turbines on such a massive scale, rather than focusing on the alternative; less intrusive smaller turbines on a mini-scale? International award winning designer and exhibitor, Augustin Otegui, asked just that question before coming up with nanoventskin. In Otegui's patented design, tiny turbines spin and make the most out of wind energy by being symmetrically designed: If the wind's direction changes, the turbines adapt by rotating in the other direction ensuring that energy isn't lost. To make the most out of this system, photovoltaic cells will play a role in the energy capturing process as well. The design process is covered in Otegui's nanoventskin blog: "The outer skin of...

Getting fruits and vegetables onto the kitchen table is a stressful affair. Farmers constantly deal with pests, weather changes, pesticides, droughts, increased costs of running equipment and crop diseases. For example, the moth, Helicoverpa armigera, causes crop damage in excess of 5 billion dollars worldwide per year, while the 2008 floods in the U.S Midwest have already soaked through thousands of acres of farmland. Losing a crop is extremely frustrating; especially to farmers who excitedly bought land and then purchased the popular $110,000 180-PTO horsepower diesel tractor to maintain the now demolished harvest. Architects and agriculturalists believe that many of these issues can be solved with indoor agriculture. Not only that, but by incorporating farming into high rise buildings protected from outside variables, the volume of produce harvested increases dramatically. In fact...

Companies are looking to landfills to make their products more "green" by using recycled materials that would otherwise end up wasted. Trucks overflowing with plastics, glass or rubber bring the products to companies instead of dumps. (Ideally these trucks would also run on the biofuel created by the landfill, but that's another story.) Recycled glass, for example, is used to create exotic mosaic tiles that can outlast any comparable material. The Mohawk group, a leader in the flooring industry, has chosen to work with plastics and rubber, both of which are incorporated into their carpets, rugs, vinyl and other home products. Mohawk prides itself on being green and putting a dent in landfills. A nifty calculator placed on their homepage shows viewers how much of a difference Mohawk has made in the few seconds it's taken to glance at their page. In a little less than a minute the numbers whizzing by denote...

Landfill gas is an appealing alternative to increasingly expensive oil-based fuels. This type of biogas is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide that forms a liquefied natural gas (LNG) after being purified, condensed and finally super-cooled. Linde North America and Waste Management are working together to create the world's largest waste-to-energy facility in Livermore, California. Biogas will be used to fuel the fleet responsible for transporting the endless supply of garbage to the facility: This will begin the cycle of garbage fueled garbage trucks, where one would not exist without the other. According to the Linde website "Linde [an international gases and engineering company] is responsible for the engineering of the plant as well as the cleaning and subsequent liquefaction of the landfill gas. Waste Management, North America's leading recycling and waste management company, is supplying the landfill gas...