posted by admin on Jul 7

We have always wanted to create a ‘hover’ anything – and now we have……

Inventor Chris Malloy has apparently created a ‘flying’ machine that looks a bit like the Star Wars floating ‘bikes’ that Princess Leia flew through the woods after meeting the Ewoks!

It has been no easy task – and he has spent his life’s savings and over 2 years of his life just creating the prototype! And it is still tethered to the ground as he isn’t sure what might happen if it actually flies anywhere….

The Design:
His hoverboard is based on the seating and controls of a standard motor bike, but this one can travel at 170mph/270kph and at heights of up to 10,000ft/3,000m!

It has a large propeller attached to the front and another to the rear to stabilise it in flight, but obviously there are no wheels on this ‘bike’; so it sits directly on the floor. And from above looks totally different to how you would expect! Quite sleek and modern looking, made of carbon fibre, and without being too ‘space-age’ or clunky.

However, having no contact with the when moving – it make it great for travelling across muddy fields or across rough terrain! Which may be why he has been designing it with farmers in mind. They could do with a vehicle that doesn’t have to stick to the roads – or worry about what they are travelling through either.

However, he is hoping that they will pay around £30,000 or US$48,000, for the bikes which can fly for around 45 minutes on a single tank.

His Progress:
However, it could still be some times before they are in regular use as it is still in the testing phase – and his prototype is stuck in his back garden!

But he has a great website devoted to it’s progress – and is asking for donations to help get things moving on. He is also running it as a competition, where each doner is in with a chance of winning a prototype of the hoverbike for themselves…..

Due to the technical specs of his invention, Chris explains that it is virtually the same as designing and creating a functioning helicopter – so won’t be fast or easy. He also reminds potential owners that they will need to train themselves to use it in a similar way to a light aircraft or helicopter too.

Other Applications:
Apart from herding up cattle and popping to the store – this vehicle could have a lot of other useful applications in many fields, for example; to survey land or products that usually require scaffolding, cranes or other machinery.

By flying on the hoverbike you would be able to scan for other things too, like conduct aerial wildlife or ecological surveys (if your subjects weren’t scared off by the engine noise of course) or maybe even chasing car theives without adding another car to the chase!

Other areas of use could be in the search part of search and rescue, watching over parks and wildlife areas and even filming documentaries or films.

Obviously, this is all in the future – but helps with funding and the design process.

If you want to know more then visit his site yourself – although there is no video up yet of the machine flying – click on Hover-Bike.com. Maybe if you keep an eye on his progress – or fund him yourself – then you can see it in action very soon!

posted by admin on Jul 1

Could this pretty blue flower really be at the forefront of fighting crime?

Would you believe it if I said that a piece of pollen from a garden plant could be the key evidence in a murder trial – dating back from the 1950′s?

I wouldn’t have thought it possible myself a few years ago, yet with the growing science of forensics in general and now more specifically forensic ecology – it is all so very true!

photo credit: ChodHound

Pollen Power:
In exactly that same way that we can date particles from history to tell a Bronze Age barrow from an Iron Age settlement; or work out what the age of a pre-historic grain store is – we can find out what plants you have in your garden from their residue on your shoes.

Every habitat in the world has a unique botanical footprint – and sometimes they just need a few spores or pollen fibres to work it out.

For example forget-me-not pollen can last 1000′s of years before degrading – a perfect place to look to link a person to a place.

It’s just one step on from identifying clothing materials and other products really – however, pollen can be so small that even a change of clothes won’t quite get rid of them all!

They can travel on your hair, skin and shoes as well as pass into your nasal cavity or ears – places you least expect to look for more traditional fingerprints.

And whole plants can be used too. New shoots on trampled plants, or germinating seeds on dumped clothing can help to date the time of last disturbance – even if it was months or even years ago.

Hair Of The Dog:
And it’s not just plants that are getting in on the action – pets and furniture can also give away a criminal! Those few cat hairs on your coat or the fibres from your carpet could plant you firmly at the scene of a crime these days – with virtually no argument!

These mostly microscopic particles – things that we don’t even think about day to day – that can be found and used by forensic scientists in all aspects of our life.

They can trace virtually anything to virtually anywhere – usually just at the click of a button!

photo credit: Svadilfari

posted by admin on Jun 8

Only 2.5% of the Earth’s water is fresh – and a third of that is frozen solid!

However, humans and animals can only drink fresh water – and you can’t water plants or crops with salt water either – so where are we supposed to get our extra water from?

Up until recently, there was only the process of either brute distillation or reverse osmosis available to take the salt out of sea water – both were very energy demanding and cost a lot of money for the ‘fresh’ water. As a result there weren’t many such plants across the globe.

So to keep getting water (rather than start to use less) most people just kept diverting rivers and making more and deeper wells to drain the planet of water to feed our rising population and demand for water.

Regardless of what we use it for – we need water, and due to our endless demands – we are now prepared to pay for it. Needless to say as a result of this – more companies are happy to extract water from even deeper or to dabble with alternative desalination processes.

There are currently 3 new alternatives for purifying sea water, and it is still to be seen which one will become the successor to reverse osmosis over time.

Forward Osmosis:
Rather than making the salt stay behind during the processing – they are encouraging the water the pass through the membrane.

Basically, the process of osmosis is where the concentration of a certain ‘thing’ needs to equal itself out and so spreads from where there is a lot to where there is little – to reach a balance.

A good example of this is milk in coffee. You add the milk to the top – but it doesn’t stay there – it spreads out until the coffee takes on a slightly lighter colour. Same with adding a dye to a jug of water. Half the jug doesn’t stay clear water – it all takes on a touch of the dye.

So, forward osmosis hopes to do just that. By having salt water (separate salt and water molecules) on one side of a membrane and a type of ‘modified’ salt on the other side – they can make the water molecules move over to the other side to balance themselves out.

The result is salt water left on one side and pure water (and modified salt) on the other. Remove the modified salt and you have drinkable water.

Modified Membranes:
The remaining 2 methods both rely on alternate membranes rather than a change in process.

By using nano-technology to hold a electrical charge, these membranes hope to repel the salt molcules allowing only the water molecule through.

Nanotubes – Using carbon technology to hold an electrical charge to hold back the salt molecules as well as funnelling the water through reduced friction tubes.

Biomimetics – Using cells which are naturally found in animal tissue to repel the salt molecules and efficiently transport the water molcules as in a living animal.

However, getting the fresh water isn’t the only problem to consider – as desalination leaves behind a huge pile of concentrated salt water with nowhere to go!

Release it back into the sea and you are raising the salinity for your future desalinations!

posted by admin on May 24

Nobody wants to be tracked while they are driving – but now young people are begging to!

The Co-Operative Society have come up with a great way to find out how safe their new drivers are – and charge them accordingly; by using what they are calling ‘Smartbox’.

Now normally we don’t want to give too much information away about ourselves if we can help it – but when we can be rewarded for our behaviour (and there is money to be saved) we don’t mind!

For example, many people changed to metered water in the UK recently so that they only paid for the water they used – showing that they were using less than the average person. However, water-wasters stil aren’t being penalised as they are only paying the ‘set rate’ still.

But with car insurance it is different! You pay more money for insurance if the insurance companies know that you are more likely to cause them trouble. The equivalent of charging people a huge amount for their water if they don’t commit to a meter to show their exact usage.

How It Works:
Well, young drivers are much more likely to have an accident in their car if they drive too fast, drive irresponsibly and drive in the dark – so their premiums are set high to cover the costs of repairing cars if they drive irresponsibly fast at night!

photo credit: thienzieyung

However, many young drivers don’t drive like that – but are statiscally within the same group – and you can’t take their word that they will behave behind the wheel. So in comes the Smartbox.

Basically, this device is fitted discretely in the vehicle and wired up to the cars electrics – like a black box of sorts – and records various details about driving speed, acceleration as well as having GPS facilities and a slock to record time of day.

Add all of this collected information together and they can tell when, where and how the car is being driven – and reward of penalise as necessary.

The machine can’t lie – so it can easily sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak!

Why Would You Do It?
If you have ever tried to get a car insurance quote when you are young and a new driver – you will know why you would be willing to be ‘recorded’ by the Smartbox: car insurance can be – and regularly is – over £1000 per annum. Way too expensive for most youngsters.

So, why not show that you can be a responsible driver in exchange for massive savings over the year?

All the data collected can be viewed online with the Co-Op, detailing which areas of driving you are very good at and letting you know the areas where you could improve your driving. It isn’t just about the money – it is about creating safer roads for the driver and all other road users.

Literally as you drive safely to and from work or college every day you are saving money – and it can be many hundreds of pounds over the year and into your next years premium too.

And, due to the tracking set up for the driving skills – your car is also tracked if it ever gets stolen!

If I was faced with the choice (and I know I am a good driver) – I would fit one!

posted by admin on May 15

Think that solar panels look unsightly – and you have a heritage home?

Well, worry no more – there is an eco invention that is right up your street! It’s one of the eco inventions that I think all eco advances should be:

It doesn’t take any extra effort from you than fitting a normal ‘solar panel’
It doesn’t create any extra work from you or your family to run
It doesn’t mean that you have to ‘put up’ with a second rate service
It doesn’t mean that you have to lower your standards of appearance or behaviour

The reason that these photovoltaic panels don’t do any of the above is because they are in the shape of and have the appearance of actual roof tiles. Yes – they are sheets of ‘slate’ virtually identical to actual slate tiles!

What a fantastic idea – why didn’t we think of it sooner?

No Extra Effort:
These photovoltaics are so easy to incorporate into your roof that they won’t cause you any more strife than fitting normal pv panels.

Well obviously you won’t be fitting them – an experienced and qualified fitter will do that for you – but I mean they won’t need excessive paperwork to be completed; won’t need extra support scaffolding once in place – and they can’t really ‘fall off’ either.

No Extra Work:
You don’t need to pay to much attention to them either. You don’t need to remember to turn them off when you leave the home (like your lights and electricals); you won’t need to ration their use (like turning off the tap while tooth-brushing); and you won’t need to remember to wash them out before recycling them.

They run themselves with no effort what so ever – just put your feet up and watch a movie!

Same Standards:
Unlike turning down the heating and wearing more jumpers, eating less meat, wearing your clothes more times, using less petrol and not flushing the toilet after every ‘number 1′ – using these photovoltaic slate panels doesn’t affect anything at all in your life.

Just like all alternative energy sources – the power that they generate will be backed up with mains electricity should you have any problems – I mean we all know that it isn’t sunny everyday! So don’t fret about a cloudy day – as the combination of energy sources is seemless. You won’t even know when your kettle is boiling on sunshine and when it needs fossil fuels!

Same (Or Better) Appearance:
And as with few eco alternatives – these slates are actually improving the appearance of your home while you are striving to be ‘green’. You haven’t got giant shiny panels on your south facing – and possibly – street facing roof. The appearance and value of your home should be unaffected by installing these.

And this is particulalry important if your home is a listed building, or you don’t want to distract from its cute cottage or castle appearance with standard solar panels.

Rather than growing broad beans up your front wall and a pile of different colour recycing bins and boxes filling up your front garden – these eco inventions will be all but invisible on your home.

That’s how eco friendly inventions should be!

Visit www.solarslate-ltd.com for more details…..