AirCarbonHumans produce 660 billion pounds of plastic a year, and the manufacturing process creates three times as much carbon dioxide by weight as actual plastic. “That’s an insane amount of material,” says Newlight Technologies CEO Mark Herrema. “Wouldn’t we be better off using plastic as a conveyor belt for capturing and sequestering carbon emissions instead?” That’s exactly what his company does. Typically, plastic is made by exposing hydrocarbons from fossil fuels to tremendous pressure and energy. Newlight’s first commercial plant, in California, captures methane generated by a dairy farm’s waste lagoon and transports it to a bioreactor. There, enzymes combine the gas with air to form a polymer. The resulting plastic, called AirCarbon, performs identically to most oil-based plastics but costs less—creating a market-driven solution to global warming. Companies have already signed on to use AirCarbon in their products, including KI desk chairs (pictured), Dell computer packaging, and Sprint smartphone cases.
Rice That Fights Global WarmingSUSIBA2: Rice That Fights Global Warming
More than half the global population relies on rice as a regular part of their diet. But rice paddies have a downside for the planet too: They produce as much as 17 percent of the world’s total methane emissions. So Christer Jansson, a plant biochemist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, spent the past 10 years developing SUSIBA2, a genetically modified rice plant that emits almost no methane. Splicing a single barley gene into common rice, his team found, changed the way the plant handles photosynthesis: Instead of sending carbon to the roots, to feed the bacteria that produce methane, the plant directs it toward the grain and leaves, increasing the starch level and yield. “It’s a win-win,” says Jansson. The rice performed well in field tests in China, and now scientists are studying how cultivation affects it. Jansson says there’s no telling when the rice might be commercially available, but considering how severely methane can accelerate climate change, its eventual impact could be huge.
HoverBikeAt the Paris Air Show earlier this month, hoverbike maker Malloy Aeronautics announced they’d partnered with American company Survice to prepare a working hoverbike for the U.S. Army. Here’s how the Army says it will be used:
"The TRV concept could unburden Soldiers while increasing their capabilities regardless of the environmental conditions, in manned and/or unmanned operations. Besides mitigating the dangers of ground threats, capabilities for the TRV concept could include aiding in communication, reconnaissance, and protection; sensing danger or even lightening the Soldiers' load."
Anti-Theft Dots: Get Your Stuff BackCops across the country have rooms packed with stolen items but no way of locating their owners. Anti-Th eft Dots fix that. Th ey’re tiny nickel disks with identifying numbers chemically etched into them that link owners and property through a database. Th eir adhesive glows under black light, alerting cops to their presence, and can be applied to nearly anything: laptops, watches, TVs, and bikes. By year’s end, 2,000 police forces nationwide will support them. $33 per kit, which can mark 50 items.
NYPD DAS Mobile: The App That Keeps Cops SafeNYPD DAS Mobile: The App That Keeps Cops Safe
Relaying 911 information to cops on the beat—by radio—hasn’t changed in decades. But there’s only so much intel dispatchers can convey that way. This year, the New York City Police Department—the largest force in the United States—began sending ancillary data to some cops via smartphone. It’s the first police force in the country to do so. The app is secure, requiring a PIN code and an ID scan to log in. Cops get background intel on prior arrests and outstanding warrants at the dispatched address, or helpful details such as whether burglars typically enter it by the back door. For an officer on the street, such extra information can be lifesaving.
Hybrid Wind-Solar millWindstream Technology Solar Mill: An Alternative-Energy Powerhouse
With limited roof space, it’s often not possible for do-good homeowners to harness both solar and wind power. WindStream solved that problem by creating a hybrid system. A trio of corkscrew-shaped vertical-axis turbines turn below a photovoltaic panel, saving space.
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Siemens: Hydrogen Energy's Green Giant
Massive wind farms require massive systems to capture and store surplus electricity. The “green hydrogen” plant that opened this summer in Mainz, Germany, is larger than any other. Thanks to Siemens’ special electrolyzer, the plant can transform up to 6 megawatts of electricity (even from fluctuating sources) and use it to split hydrogen from water. The hydrogen can be stored, then either turned back into electricity or sent to refueling stations to power up to 2,000 fuel-cell vehicles.
Whirlpool HybridCare Heat-Pump Dryer:Whirlpool HybridCare Heat-Pump Dryer: A Hybrid For Your Hamper
The average clothes dryer can consume as much energy per year as a refrigerator. To balance the scales, Whirlpool built a ventless heat-pump model. Instead of releasing hot, moist air, the HybridCare condenses the water internally. The dry air is then recirculated—reducing energy costs by 40 percent over standard dryers.
Ebola vaccinePreventing the Next Pandemic
A new vaccine usually takes six to 10 years to go through clinical trials. The Ebola vaccine took only 10 months. When the West African outbreak was declared a global health emergency in August 2014, the World Health Organization fast-tracked the process. The vaccine, made by swapping proteins from Ebola into another virus, triggers an immune response that protects people from contracting the actual disease. The Ebola vaccine showed that scientists can develop and deploy lifesaving drugs quickly—in the future, preventing other diseases from going global.
Human Epigenome MapHuman Epigenome Maps
June marked the release of the first map of the human epigenome: the chemical markers that tell your DNA what to express when. “Think of the genome as the hardware in your computer and the epigenome as the software,” says Joseph Ecker, director of the institute’s genomic analysis laboratory. Such a map will help scientists see what causes some cells to become liver cells and others heart cells—or malignant cancer cells. Understanding these mechanisms could enable scientists to reprogram them for bioengineering or to reveal new triggers for disease.
First New Antibiotic In Nearly 30 YearsTeixobactin: First New Antibiotic In Nearly 30 Years
Teixobactin can fight resistant strains of bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which (as its name suggests) causes tuberculosis. And because it binds to bacteria on two target regions, in contrast to most antibiotics’ one, bacteria are less likely to develop resistance to it. The drug candidate is still in the pipeline and works for only certain bacteria, but one of them is invasive MRSA, which some 75,000 Americans contract every year.
3D-Printed Human TissueExvive3D: 3D-Printed Tissue
Even after drugs have passed animal tests, many fail in human trials due to kidney or liver toxicity. Organovo, which last year 3D-printed mini livers from human cells, can now synthesize individual mock kidneys. Each contains a number of different cell types in which drug effects can be tested. “Every single drug a pharmaceutical company develops has to be tested for safety in liver and kidney settings,” says Keith Murphy, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “Our system is meant to be the best and final test.”
Hound: Nimble-Minded Digital AssistantHound: Nimble-Minded Digital Assistant
Instead of waiting to process a request or query until after you ask it, SoundHound's Hound app sniffs out the results in real time. Thanks to natural language processing, it can also understand complex queries (“Show me four- or five-star hotels in Miami for two nights, starting on Friday, between $150 and $200 a night”), and it can build upon those results to more finely hone the answers you're seeking.
Amazon Echo: HAL For Your HomeAmazon Echo: HAL For Your Home
For a long time, artificial intelligence existed only in science fiction. Then it started to creep into industrial computers and even phones. Now, it’s coming to your home—and it’s coming in the form of a speaker. The Amazon Echo acts as an intelligent hub for the house, linking together other smart appliances with a voice interface. Once set up, it listens passively at all times. When someone says the wake word—Alexa—it snaps into action. For now, those actions are limited to simple operations, like reciting your calendar events, queuing up your favorite playlist, relaying weather or sports scores and, of course, ordering household items from Amazon. But those tasks won’t remain simple for long. In June, Amazon released the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), opening the platform to dozens of third-party services, devices, and apps, including WeMo, Philips Hue, Pandora, and Wink. Hal 9000, eat your heart out.
MSR Guardian Purifier: Drink Water From A Mud PuddleMSR Guardian Purifier: Drink Water From A Mud Puddle
The U.S. military asked backcountry outfitter Mountain Safety Research (MSR) to create a device that could protect troops from waterborne illness anywhere they deploy. The company came up with the Guardian Purifier, which uses medical-grade fibers to block out dangerous pathogens, such as bacteria, protozoa, and viruses, along with particulate matter like sediment and silt. Also, the device never requires a cleaning: It uses about 10 percent of the water it pumps up to flush out the blocked contaminants. Now it's available to you.
A 3-D-printed carDivergent Microfactories Blade: A 3-D-printed Supercar
Last May, Kevin Czinger created the Blade—the first high-performance supercar that uses 3-D-printed parts and a process that cuts typical auto-factory carbon emissions by up to 90 percent. By using carbon-fiber shafts and 3-D joints for the chassis, a car can be assembled in minutes. As founder of Divergent Microfactories, Czinger plans to open similar places for entrepreneurs to create their own car lines—for as little as $4 million.
THE 100 GREATEST INNOVATIONS OF 2015
, conferred a shift of carbon flux to SUSIBA2 rice, favouring the allocation of photosynthates to aboveground biomass over allocation to roots. The altered allocation resulted in an increased biomass and starch content in the seeds and stems, and suppressed methanogenesis, possibly through a reduction in root exudates. Three-year field trials in China demonstrated that the cultivation of SUSIBA2 rice was associated with a significant reduction in methane emissions and a decrease in rhizospheric methanogen levels. SUSIBA2 rice offers a sustainable means of providing increased starch content for food production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation. Approaches to increase rice productivity and reduce methane emissions as seen in SUSIBA2 rice may be particularly beneficial in a future climate with rising temperatures resulting in increased methane emissions from paddies.