Technology in the news – Articles from 2011

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Environmental news articles

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NZ Herald, 16 February
A variety of technology innovations, such as:
Lund University in Sweden is experimenting with air hybrid engines. They claim fuel consumption of city buses could be reduced by as much as 60%.
The Cray XT5 Jaguar is a 1.75 petaflop supercomputer (peaking at 2.3 petaflops), only recently beaten out as world's fastest. When it was used to model air flows around semi trucks some areas for significant fuel and cost savings showed up.
Happyzine.co.nz article, 06 March
Remarkables Primary School, a newly built enviro school, is one of a handful of schools throughout the world which can boast a green roof, which doubles as an outdoor classroom.
Discussion starter:
• Building design: Optimising land use; aesthetics and functionality
New York Times online, 14 March
The difference between a partial meltdown and a full meltdown at a nuclear plant is enormous, both in the degree of damage and in the potential release of radiation.
Discussion starters:
• Characteristics of Technological Outcomes: Catastrophic failur
• Technological products: Technological Products: relationship between the properties of materials and their performance capability
Newscientist.com article (with embedded video), 17 March
Among proposed solutions is an innovative and affordable submarine-shaped reinforced concrete structure that would literally ride the waves, keeping up to 80 people safe inside.
Known as the STATIM Shelter System, the tubular structures would be tethered, but could float freely. Designed to survive temporary submersion and to be self-righting and built from reinforced concrete, they should also be sturdy enough to survive being battered with debris in a major tsunami.
Discussion starters:
• Technological Products: relationship between the properties of materials and their performance capability
• Technological systems: Redundancy and reliability
• Manufacturing technology: modular construction
Stuff.co.nz article, 21 March
A Taranaki designer is calling on businesses to take some pride in their surroundings and embark on a planting binge to transform the "asphalt jungle" he says dominates the sector.
Discussion starter:
• Human factors in design: landscape design
Taranaki Daily News, 23 March
The Opunake Surf Reef Trust is struggling to contact the company building its problem-plagued artificial surf reef.
Representatives from ASR Ltd failed to turn up to a meeting with the trust and South Taranaki District Council in January to discuss what can be done to get the reef to work.
ASR has also not provided the trust with any details of what needs to be done to finish the project.
"They haven't turned up. I've tried and tried and tried to get them to come to a meeting and to send some information down and none of it has arrived, so I'm getting rather frustrated," trust chairman David Lusk said.
"They were to have sent information down regarding what was required to complete the reef and I haven't even seen that."
NZ Herald online article, 22 April
Power blackouts caused by damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant have prompted a Christchurch company to begin marketing its solar powered products to Japanese consumers scared of being left in the dark.
Discussion starters:
• Characteristics of technological Outcomes: proper function / alternative function
• Enterprise attributes
New York Times online, 3 June
To help cut weight and increase driving distances, engineers are developing car frames and bodies made of carbon fibre-reinforced composites, plastic materials that can be 50 percent lighter than steel but provide superior strength and rigidity. Although used in a handful of exotic sports cars, carbon composites remain too costly for mass-market cars.
One potential solution is to build autos with carbon composites that can also serve as batteries. The dual-function materials could make E.V.'s and hybrid vehicles lighter as they simultaneously provide extra electricity.
Discussion starters:
• Transport technology: structural power technology
• Technological products: new material formulation
nzherald.co.nz, 11 June
An engineer named Jerry Woodall at Purdue University has developed an alloy using aluminium that could simultaneously generate heat and purify water. He hopes that it could eventually replace coal and oil, and believes it will greatly benefit poverty stricken areas for water sterilisation.
Discussion starter:
• Technological products: new material formulation
NZHerald online, 25 June
Two North Shore City high-school students have caught the attention of the world's scientific community with an invention that cleans greenhouse gases out of car exhausts.
Discussion starter:
• Technological modelling: Proof of concept
BBC.com online article, 12 July
Wars have been fought over scarce resources like oil and water. But are the future global tensions going to be over access to Scandium, Neodymium or Dysprosium or any other of the 17 rare earth elements, which, week by week, are becoming more and more important in developing the latest high-tech products? Tucked onto the periodic table of the elements, in a little section once ignored by chemistry teachers, rare earths are now everywhere.
Discussion starters:
• Nature of Technology: Socio-cultural influences
• Technological Products: new material formulation; impact of material use and development on product life cycles / expectancy; material sustainability
www.stuff.co.nz, 12 July
New Zealand is facing a toxic crisis of electronic waste, with a new report estimating that 2.2 million televisions and 1.5m home computers will be dumped in the next few years. The eDay Trust is publishing a report today calling for urgent Government action, in which it outlines the extent of the problem from material such as cathode ray tubes entering landfills.
Discussion starter:
• Technological Products: The impact of material use and development on product life cycles; product stewardship
New York Times online article, 15 July
With the problem that close to one and a half billion people in the world are living without electricity the new global buzz phrase is "sustainable energy for all". But in many cases these people cannot be connected to a supply grid, and given that the vast majority of the unconnected live near the equator, where the sun is at its zenith, the solutions being tried are almost all based on solar power.
Discussion starters:
• Energy Technology; universal access to electricity; recent technological innovation
• Enterprise: socially conscious investment
NZ Herald news article, 31 July
The electricity shortage that caused rolling blackouts in Tokyo after an earthquake knocked out nuclear reactors in March is highlighting the usefulness of electric-car batteries as back-up power sources, according to Nissan and Mitsubishi, the world's two biggest makers of such vehicles.
Discussion starter:
• Product development: proper/alternative function; marketing strategies
Idealog Daily Bacon Blog, 4 August
Skylights are a great way to provide natural internal lighting, but installing them is expensive and if you live in the slums of Manila, you'd think it impossible. Not so. A group of innovative MIT students has found a solution by way of some old soft drink bottles.
Discussion starters:
• Characteristics of Technological Products: proper / alternative function
• Enterprising attributes: Generating and using creative ideas and processes

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