Miscellaneous
Mining for gold in sewage
Wastewater is a potential mine of valuable metals, according to researchers at the United States Geological Survey, who presented their findings Monday at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. Consumers encounter metals everywhere in their daily life, including in Read More...
Happiness? Go Scandinavia!
The International Day of Happiness, last Friday, was the perfect time to be reminded that Denmark is the happiest country on Earth, according to the most recent United Nations happiness study available. It is closely followed by Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and even Iceland. Canada and Read More...
Virgin is working on electric cars, may take on Tesla
Sometimes it seems that Elon Musk and Tesla are already dominating the emerging electric car future. But that may not be for long. Yesterday Richard Branson told Bloomberg that his Virgin Group that covers airlines, mobile phones, spaceships and more, is working on electric cars. Branson spoke with Read More...
Landmark ruling in Connecticut could erase marijuana possession convictions
In the U.S., a conviction for possession of marijuana can follow you for a lifetime. This may change. Earlier this week, Connecticut’s supreme court ruled in favor of 31-year-old Nicholas Menditto who argued that his two marijuana possession convictions should be erased now that less than a Read More...
3-D printing in science fiction way works up to 100X faster
Current 3-D printing is, in fact, 2-D printing repeated until a three-dimensional object emerges. As clever as it is, it’s a long and cumbersome process that takes hours. Yesterday at TED 2015 Joseph DeSimone, professor at the University of North Caroline Chapel Hill, and cofounder of Carbon3D, Read More...
Free, public Wi-Fi is finally making its way to Cuba
Most Cubans have never been on the Internet. The government allows Internet access only sporadically with limited bandwidth. Now, a state-supported cultural center in Havana has begun rolling out free, public Wi-Fi. The connection is slow, but it’s still better than no Read More...
Scientists transmit wireless power; clean energy from space step closer
In space, there are no cycles of day and night or clouds, making it the perfect place for 24-hour solar energy generation. But how do get the electricity down to earth? Scientists of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) have succeeded in transmitting electricity through microwaves. They Read More...
Self-cleaning paint makes soap superfluous
Imagine washing your car only with a hose without any soap or scrubbing the dirt off. A research team at the University College of London has developed a water-repelling paint. The active ingredient in the paint is coated titanium dioxide nanoparticles. These cause liquid to bead up and roll off Read More...
Bitcoins: Goldman Sachs sees the writing on the wall
Why would we write about a boring report by a bank in The Optimist Daily? Because the report is on bitcoins and the bank is Goldman Sachs, an important pillar of modern finance. “Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are part of a technology ‘megatrend’ that could change the fundamental mechanics of Read More...
A new health center in Haiti is built to tackle cholera
Five years after Haiti’s worst cholera outbreak, a newly opened cholera treatment center in Port-au-Prince has been designed to battle the highly contagious disease. This open-air center “is framed by ocean-hued walls that allow light and air to sweep through the space, adding cooling cross Read More...