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 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 Apr 20

Would you like to own a pocketful of notes that were worth nothing?

Well, there are plenty of people around the world who are happy to do just that! The idea isn’t to not pay for goods and services – it is to not pay for something they are already paying for.

Still none the wiser?

Well, if you were collecting your drivers licence – would you want to pay the clerk extra for just giving it to you? Would you want to pay a passport agent to simply ‘check’ you through customs?

But they want a note from you for the privilege – so what are you going to do?

They know that what they are asking for is illegal – but they are making an easy buck. So now do you see why people are carrying zero currency notes?

photo credit: marksdk

Zero Gain:
Imagine the embarrassment of that official when you wave a giant Zero note in front of them for everyone to see – rather than folding it neatly in half and sliding it across the counter. Officials can go to jail for requesting ‘tips’ like this.

The organisation behind the most notable of these notes (the Zero Rupee) are 5th Pillar – an organisation against corruption in a democratic society. But India is not alone in the fight against corrupt officials; Argentina, Belize and even the United States are using similar notes to try to win support – and make accepting bribes totally unacceptable.

The notes are designed to look just like an existing note from whichever country – but with the Zero wording and figure as well as comments which refer to the fact that they are against ‘bribes’.

Obviously – these notes will not always be appropriate to use – particularly if you are a lone traveller and in a particularly remote area – but for everyday residents, these can make a huge difference.

You are more than welcome to make a donation to the organisation – even if you are not using the notes yourself – as they are distributing them free of charge to ordinary people!

They might be worth nothing to use – but they cost money to design, create and distibute. See the 5th Pillar website for more details.

And if you get your hands on one while travelling – don’t stick it in a box as a souvenir – keep them in circulation, doing what they were designed to do!

posted by admin on Mar 2

There’s plenty of sunshine on deck – but no room for sunbathing!

Floating somewhere in the Pacific Ocean close to French Polynesia is the largest solar-powered boat ever made – and it is on a (hopefully) four-time record-breaking journey around the globe. Check their location for yourself if not reading this today:

This 95-ton, 31 meter catamaran is already 5 months into its amazing journey – one that will hopefully show how renewable energy can become a serious contender in a carbon-reduced world.

The company responsible for this giant floating photo-voltaic panel were also the same company that recently created Earthrace – a boat powered mainly by bio diesel. However, with over 530 square meters of solar panels – this boat is truely eco friendly. It is totally powered by the sun itself – not on processed crops.

And they even got to Cancun in time for the UN World Climate Conference last year to prove a point!

The Boat:
The design needed to be totally energy-efficient and that meant both hydro- and aero-dynamic; I mean just because the sun’s energy is ‘free’ – there is no need to waste it!

They also wanted a boat that would have some usful purpose after the round-the-world adventure – as the massive over-hanging sheets of 825 solar panels don’t exactly scream ‘luxury yacht’.

However the hope is that the boat will still be used after as a personal craft – and that future technology based on this boats achievements will allow for smaller panels generating more energy to be produced.

Due to its energy source – the boat is also silent!

photo credit: Kumaravel

The sun isn’t only beautiful to look at – it could save our planet simply by doing what it has done for billions of years – just shine.

The Aims:
Well, the 4 World Records are just part of the fun of a new invention – but the real targets are proving that the technology of today can do amazing things if harnessed in the right way.

There is all this ‘talk’ of eco inventions being slow to take effect and being more expensive than the normal products or services – but this goes to prove that bigger projects can really work if you set your mind to it.

If such a large boat can power its way across the oceans – then why can’t smaller boats, cars, houses, businesses – all run on solar (where appropriate) or other renewable and sustainable energy sources.

To quote their own website – these are their 6 aims:
1) To demonstrate the potential of renewable energies and photovoltaics
2) To show that we already ahve the technology required for sustainability
3) To take part in the technological development of renewable energy and advance scientific research
4) To inform the public and make them aware of the importance of renewable energy
5) To make the best possible use of energy efficiency
6) To show that the economy and ecology can and must work together.

Read more on their website if you are still interested in their project – or if you have something similar in mind yourself…..

posted by admin on Feb 22

How about something unusual to give as a gift – 60,000 years of their history!

A simple and painless swab on the inside of a mouth is all it takes to find out where you ancesters came from soon after they started on the journey of a lifetime!

So instead of buying the lastest DS game for your nephew, or the newest version of the iPad for your godson – why not let them see something far more interesting and unusual: their family’s past!

Genographic Studies.
It is currently believed that all humans alive today were originally from the exact same place in Africa.

It is also believed that around 60,000 years ago, these early humans decided to move to new pastures, and set off on what turned out to be the journey of mankind.

They may have originally been just looking for better food or water supplies not far from their family, but the journey didn’t stop, and humans spread across virtually the whole globe – changing as they went.

Some set up permanent homes in river mouths or forests and others kept travelling, until we get to today – with many thousands of different cultures, languages and individual traits and preferences alive on almost every continent.

So which path did your family take?

Take The Test!
It is now very easy and relatively cheap to get a detailed history of your past. Where your ancesters have been – or still are – and which branches of your family gave you most of your personal genes today.

Whether you think you know your past – you are from an isolated community – or you have absolutely no idea what your past will hold – you can all take part in this unique not-for-profit and internationally shared research project.

Your initial test is totally separate from the International Study and so you can receive your results and keep them to yourself forever – you are not obliged to share anything about yourself.

However, if you do want to be a part of the larger project – any data you give will be treated anonymously and securely as with any other personal details.

Obviously, offering your results to the wider science community may well have benefits to us all in terms of understanding human evolution, migration, settlement and cultural distinctions.

And it could also give you a chance to learn about other cultures and communities around the world – for example, if you find out your ancestors came through Turkey or Asia etc, you may be inclined to read more about those areas – maybe even inspiring you to travel……. and to learn!

More information about the project can be found on the National Geographic Site in many different languages and answering a myriad of related questions – go to their link: Genome Study to find out more……

photo credit: Alex E. Proimos