A Special Place for Blog Lovers with a Touch of Science!

'Flying' Seabubbles boat on a test run in Lake Geneva. © Axel Phélipon

Zero-emission water transport

All aboard! Europe's ferry industry has set sail for an emissions-free future. It's leading the eco-friendly revolution with electric and hydrogen-powered boats that are destined to make urban transport more sustainable.

In just a few months' time, passengers in Stavanger, Norway, will be able to begin commuting on a revolutionary ferry that doesn't produce any greenhouse gas emissions. Called Medstraum, which means both "to go with the flow" and "with electricity" in Norwegian, it will be the first high-speed vessel in the world that runs purely on electric power, replacing a diesel-powered ferry that currently shuttles people to surrounding islands.

Credit: Gettyimages

There is something wrong with the way human beings are treating each other, isn't it? Why should we fight, kill, and destroy our brothers and sisters around the world? Is that the natural way, is that the only way? Every couple of decades there is war, separation, and conflict somewhere over the world. And that is actually an optimist's point of view. Some would say it has never stopped. Well, let's not take an extreme position.

Credit: Gettyimages

Through citizen science, ordinary people can take part in extraordinary research

While the story of science is full of larger-than-life figures such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie or Albert Einstein, not everybody can win a Nobel Prize for their individual insights.

But working together as part of a community with professionals, citizen scientists can play an important part in genuine scientific discovery, experiments, data collection and analysis.

Through citizen science, ordinary people can take part in extraordinary research.

Credit: @neilrkaye

Maps are of great importance not only for orientation but also for shaping our perception of the world. Comparing the size of countries is one of the favorite games of young pupils. Which one is the largest continent, or the biggest country? And on the contrary, which are the smallest ones? The depiction of the world, we have all seen in Geography classes, on paper maps, and in more recent days, on Google Maps and many similar applications, is actually distorted. This is true, especially when speaking of the northern hemisphere. The size of almost all countries in the north of the equator is represented as bigger than it is. The northern we get, the more deviation we have. However, in terms of guiding our journeys from point A to point B, the map works perfectly well. How is that possible, and why?

Credit: Hendrike

U.S. National Science Foundation grantee computer engineers based at Duke University have developed virtual eyes that simulate how humans look at the world. The virtual eyes are accurate enough for companies to train virtual reality and augmented reality applications.

"The aims of the project are to provide improved mobile augmented reality by using the Internet of Things to source additional information, and to make mobile augmented reality more reliable and accessible for real-world applications," said Prabhakaran Balakrishnan, a program director in NSF's Division of Information and Intelligent Systems.