Paving the way to clean air

Words Liz Villegas

Concrete probably isn’t the first thing that you associate with clean, safe air, but scientists at the Netherlands’ Eindhoven University of Technology will beg to differ. They’ve come up with a kind of concrete that purifies air. Or more specifically, concrete that can cut down the nitrogen oxide (NOx) spewed out the tailpipes of automobiles.

To test their creation, they paved about 1,000 square meters of the busy Castorweg Road with their concrete, and another area of the same size with regular paving stones. After running three air-purity measurements, the scientists found that their air-purifying concrete reduced the NOx content by up to 45 percent. The concrete’s magic lies in a titanium dioxide-based catalyst, which removes the nitrogen oxide from the air and, with the aid of sunlight, converts it into harmless nitrate, which can then be rinsed away by rain.

High-tech car to let the blind drive

Words Ria Rivera-Boquiron

For the visually impaired, walking from point A to point B is already a challenge, given that they cannot see where they are going. As such, driving is an impossible task.

But not for long, as scientists are inching closer to developing a special car which can be driven by blind motorists. The car, a result of a collaboration between the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and engineers from the Virginia Tech University, will be equipped with a new technology called non-visual interfaces, which will guide its driver through traffic by transmitting information about nearby vehicles or objects.

The mouse goes invisible

Words Lara Tan

The personal computer has evolved so much over the years, both technologically and aesthetically. And when you think about it, the lowly mouse hasn’t changed much. Yes, various multi-touch and gestural technologies have been explored as a means to implement alternative methods to interact with a computer. But despite these advances in computing hardware technologies, the computer mouse remains the predominant means to interact with a computer.

However, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think otherwise. Led by MIT PhD student Pranav Mistry, the team has invented a mouseless computer mouse.

Say what?

The mouseless mouse is created by using your hand as the hardware. All you have to do is cup your palm as if holding a mouse, move it around on a table, and a cursor on the screen hovers. Tap on the table like you would click a real mouse, and the computer responds.

Flash night

Words Kimberly U. Go

Scientists at the National Institutes of Standard and Technology and JILA have developed a device that would get the likes of Mojo Jojo and Two-Face jumping up and down with glee—a laser that shoots beams of darkness. Well, more like non-light.

Whereas regular lasers transmit information by using darkness as a zero point and light pulses as data, this one uses light as a zero point, with darkness as the data. The research is said to be a promising development in the study of fiber optic communications.