Grist List
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Project Aura bike lighting system puts wheel reflectors to shame
Project Aura is the brainchild of two Carnegie Mellon students, who challenged themselves to make a bike lighting system that would make night riding more secure. Currently, most bike lights focus on the front and back of the bike, and are all but invisible from the side; with Project Aura's wheel-mounted LEDs, bikes are unmissable […]
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West Virginia’s new coal-to-gasoline plant will produce dirtiest fuel known to humanity
Well hello there, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin! The last time we checked in with you, you were literally putting a bullet into climate change legislation. And today you're celebrating the opening of a new plant that will turn coal into gasoline, which is pretty much the single worst possible technology we could pursue if […]
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Solar breakthrough could lead to 90 percent efficient panels … someday
A researcher at the University of Missouri is making some eyebrow-raising claims, including that a new technology he has developed could lead to solar panels that convert 90 percent of the sun's energy to electricity. If he's even a little bit right, this would be more than amazing; it would be earth-shattering. So he's probably […]
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Another danger of non-organic farming: Exploding watermelons
People opt for organically-farmed food for all different reasons, but here's one of the more compelling ones we've seen: Agricultural chemicals can make watermelons explode. Chinese watermelon crops just had an unfortunate run-in with the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, which makes plants' cells divide faster to pump up growth rates. Supposedly forchlorfenuron can bump up harvest […]
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Critical List: Senate wimps out on oil subsidies bill; solar storms loom
The Senate voted down a bill that would have ended tax subsidies for the five biggest oil companies. The bill had little to no chance of passing the House and becoming law, but the Senate wussed out on taking a stand even on a bill crafted only to score political points. In Maryland, "renewable energy" […]
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Mercury? Arsenic? We’ll deal with those problems later, says EPA
Does this story sound familiar? A court orders the EPA to take action under the Clean Air Act. The EPA comes out with a set of rules. Business interests complain. The EPA relents, delaying and then relaxing rules that have compliance deadlines years down the line. That's about the tack the EPA has taken on […]
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U.S. infrastructure needs a $2 trillion make-over
Like those bridges and roads and trains tracks you've got there? Want to keep them? That'll be $2 trillion. That's how much the Urban Land Institute estimates the U.S. needs to invest in infrastructure just to keep what's already in place from falling apart. Everybody else in the world gets this. In Europe, countries realize […]
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More evidence cell phones kill bees
There's a new study fingering cell phones as the culprit behind mysteriously dwindling bee populations. That's been one of the theories floating around for years — others include viruses, global warming, insecticide, and en masse return to the planet Melissa Majora — but new research out of Switzerland provides solid evidence that cell phone signals […]
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Eco-geeks rejoice: Here is Nathan Fillion with an electric car
Remember when we called the Arcimoto SRK "an electric car for the Facebook generation"? Apparently it's also an electric car for the "Firefly" generation. Actor Nathan Fillion got all excited about the car at its launch, and his remarks get at the main reasons for wanting an electric car: Spaceship resemblance and revenge. Thank you […]
