Science & Tech
Wonder View is an immersive light experience designed to keep children in the backseat visually and educationally engaged. Built-in tablets on the back of the front seats allow children to interact by choosing from categories such as stargazing, cloud watching, and plane viewing. Once a category is selected, a colorful
Science & Tech
The advancement of tracking technology and its application to wildlife conservation efforts, as discussed in "How Radio Telemetry Helps Protect Wildlife", inspires this sketch exploring the possible translation of this technique into local state parks. By tracking the movements of potentially dangerous animals like bears throughout state and
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This article from Wildlife SOS describes how advancements in tracking technologies have contributed to wildlife conservation, and how the information gathered can be used to lessen the impact of human activity on threatened species. "Conservation technology aims to maximize the capacity of technology in management systems for different environmental
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This episode of the Netflix docuseries, Our Planet, examines the incredibly important, fragile connections and interdependent relationships between the plants and wildlife that inhabit Earth’s forests. Towards the end of this episode, the power of forests to recover from human interference is displayed through the reappearance of life in
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In “Hammerheads: Shark Side of the Moon” from National Geographic, Dr. Pelayo Salinas De León of the Charles Darwin Foundation conducts a study to prove that the migration patterns of scalloped hammerhead sharks are linked to the lunar cycle. He tags and tracks pregnant females on their reproductive migration around
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For businesses, one of the critical barriers to recycling efforts is the cost of cleaning and sorting the many different plastic objects in circulation. That's what "PolyToken" aims to address; imagine a fun middle school program that incentivizes plastic collection through friendly competition. Each month, one
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Much like the asphalt industry, the plastic industry is also being pressured to reduce its environmental footprint. NecoTECH’s RAP programs mirror some ways that plastic manufacturers have already been able to mitigate and reuse plastic material into an economically viable cycle. The asphalt industry is under increasing pressure to
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The Marble Plastics company, who is partnering with the Local Loops capstone team, relies primarily on recycled HIPS plastic for their products. Differing from base Polysterene (resin code #6), high-impact polysteryene introduces an additive impact modifier that is useful for the product's material properties. High-impact polystyrene (HIPS plastic)
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This study explores the challenges of mobilizing solid waste through urban communities while also documenting the insights of field professionals. While the exact kinds of solid waste are not explicitly disclosed, the article does refer to demolition debris, waste that can be recycled, and organics for composting. The Regional Waste
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Polymers are generally categorized into two groups: thermoplastics and thermosets. The defining characteristic between these two types of polymers are how individual monomer chains are bonded to each other. Thermoset plastics contain polymers that cross-link together and create an irreversible bond, meaning they can’t be remelted - once they
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Cradle to Cradle is considered a landmark book in the design and civil engineering spaces. Written in 2002 by product designer's William McDonough and Michael Braungart, it addresses fundamental flaws in the way the modern world creates products. Chiefly, most products are made, consumed, and disposed of. This
Science & Tech
This article from the Tahoe Daily Tribune features BEBOT, a robot that sifts through the sand, collecting litter from the beaches of Lake Tahoe, and proving to be an impactful technological innovation in environmental conservation and sustainability efforts. "It all started with an ambitious idea from JB Harris, Co-Founder