University of Otago

Electric vehicles have been a reality for more than 100 years, but it’s only in the last decade or so that the world has truly woken up to their potential as a viable, cleaner urban transport alternative to their combustion engined cousins. During this EV renaissance much of the focus has been on developing improved

New Nature Communications paper shows yields have plateaued or dropped in many places for world’s most important crops The Green Revolution has stagnated for key food crops in many regions of the world, according to a study published in the Dec. 18 issue ofNature Communications by scientists with the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the

The state of California is leading the way in the use and development of energy storage, a relatively new technology that the Department of Energy (DOE) is calling a potential “major breakthrough” within the energy sector. Recently, California-based electrical supply company Southern California Edison decided to retire its San Onofre nuclear reactors (pictured) and also

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in every 59 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism, up from one in every 150 in 2000. They report that “about half a million people on the autism spectrum will become adults over the next decade, a swelling tide for which the country is

Image by Kevin Krejci via Flickr Environmentalists around the world agree — plastic bags are choking our landfills and polluting our seas. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher is developing new laboratory methods using corn starch and sugar to help sustainable plastics — those that biodegrade and are even tougher than those made from petrochemicals

“Our laser communication technology will revolutionize earth observation and satellite communication.” The first ever gigabit transmission via laser of imagery between the radar sensor on Sentinel-1A and Alphasat satellites, the latter built by Airbus Defence and Space, has taken place successfully. This advanced communication system based on the Laser Communication Terminal (LCT) technology is a

British scientists invent aircraft wings that can fix themselves in mid-flight in breakthrough for ‘self-healing technology’ It’s a futuristic concept bordering on science fiction but scientists believe they have created aircraft wings that can fix themselves in mid-flight – and they say it heralds a breakthrough in self-healing technology. This week the team of British

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed technology that enables a smartphone to perform lab-grade medical diagnostic tests that typically require large, expensive instruments. Costing only $550, the spectral transmission-reflectance-intensity (TRI)-Analyzer from Bioengineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor Brian Cunningham’s lab attaches to a smartphone and analyzes patient blood, urine, or saliva samples as reliably as clinic-based

Riddle me this: how are dandelions, oranges and sunflowers related to car tires? These three items may be the future of tires and their production. Tire manufacturers are searching for alternative ingredients for tires as the demand for rubber and eco-friendly products increases. Engineering innovation and organic ingredients are ushering in the next era of tires. It’s

Image via Wikipedia For 15 years, Eddie Anderson, a farmer, has been a strict adherent of no-till agriculture, an environmentally friendly technique that all but eliminates plowing to curb erosion and the harmful runoff of fertilizers and pesticides. But not this year. On a recent afternoon here, Mr. Anderson watched as tractors crisscrossed a rolling