By Robin Lloyd
Researchers in Texas are making car parts out of coconuts.
A team at Baylor University there has made trunk liners, floorboards and car-door interior covers using fibers from the outer husks of coconuts, replacing the synthetic polyester fibers typically used in composite materials.
The approach has potential because coconuts are an abundant, renewable resource in all countries near the equator, including the Philippines, Indonesia and India. The husks are burned or thrown away, generating garbage. This is the first time that coconut fibers have been used to make these automotive products, said Walter Bradley, an engineering professor who is leading the project.
In Ghana, as one of Bradley’s students told him, the discarded husks pile up in mounds, creating a health hazard because they collect water where malaria-causing mosquitoes can breed.
“We are trying to turn trash into cash to help poor coconut farmers,” Bradley said, adding that the long-term goal is to increase demand for coconuts to millions of pounds, and thereby raise their market price.
Currently, there are about 11 million coconut farmers in the world making an average annual income of $500, he said.
Continue reading Car Parts Made from Coconuts
By Robert Roy Britt
he stage has been set for the imminent death of the incandescent light bulb in Europe. The United States is not far behind. Not everyone is thrilled, however.
And in a twist of rapidly advancing technology, the days of highly-touted replacement compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are likely numbered, too.
Here’s the latest in the growing global controversy: European stores have stopped restocking some wattages of the traditional light bulbs as part of a voluntary withdrawal and a government campaign to force people to buy the newer, more energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs, according to the Daily Mail.
The switch, designed to reduce energy consumption, is ironically timely. Russia today cut off gas supplies to much of Europe.
Continue reading End of the Light Bulb Generates Controversy
Wildlife experts in California, US, are concerned about a mysterious illness affecting brown pelicans from San Diego to San Francisco.
Dozens of the birds – bruised and disoriented – have been landing on highways, airport runways, farm fields and house backyards. The pelicans have been coming down many kilometres from their normal habitats. [...]
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s space agency will launch a satellite later this month to monitor greenhouse gases around the world, officials said Wednesday, hoping the data it collects helps global efforts to combat climate change. The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT), to be launched on January 21, will enable scientists to calculate the density [...]
By MARY ESCH, Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. – New York environmental regulators adopted stricter air pollution rules on Tuesday to prevent power plants and factories from belching out more smog and soot. Under rules adopted by the New York State Environmental Board, new industrial plants — as well as existing ones that [...]
A yellow robot submarine will dive under an ice shelf in Antarctica to seek clues to world ocean level rises in one of the most inaccessible places on earth, reports our environment correspondent Alister Doyle. You can see his story here.
The 7-meter (22 ft) submarine, to be launched from a U.S. research [...]
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