technology

For Bill Gates, toilets are serious business. The billionaire philanthropist kicked off the Reinvented Toilet Expo in China and unveiled a new toilet that does not require water or sewers, and uses chemicals to turn human waste into fertilizer, Reuters reported. “We are all here for one reason: because more than half the world’s population […]

Google announced Wednesday it would expand its innovative, street-by-street air pollution mapping program to an international fleet of 50 Google Street View cars, Business Wire reported. The program is a partnership with Aclima, a San Francisco company that maps air quality on a block-by-block scale. The announcement comes a day after a report from the […]

The problem of food waste made headlines last month with the release of a study that found that about one third of all food is wasted, and that amount is projected to grow by another third by 2030. Luckily, there’s an app for that. Swedish startup Karma buys leftover food from restaurants, cafes and grocery […]

By Sabine El Gemayel The Trump administration is considering proposals for a national 5G wireless infrastructure in order to counter China’s position in global technology markets, despite the many uncertainties and potential dangers of this technology for human health and the environment. According to a PowerPoint deck produced by a senior National Security Council official, […]

By Patrick Byrne and Karen Hudson-Edwards Nearly five billion people worldwide will use a smartphone by 2020. Each device is made up of numerous precious metals and many of the key technological features wouldn’t be possible without them. Some, like gold, will be familiar. Others, such as terbium, are less well-known. Mining these metals is […]

By Olga Naidenko As the school year begins, the movement to exercise caution in students’ use of cell phones and other wireless devices is gaining international momentum. The French Parliament voted last month to ban cell phones in nursery, elementary and middle schools. More than 5,000 miles away, San Francisco educators are urging the school […]

By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute There is growing evidence that our addiction to cellphones could be impacting brain functionality and be the cause of stress, anxiety, insomnia and a lack of attention and focus. Now a new report has found that we’re not the only living things to be affected by our increasing dependence […]

By Jan Minx, Dr. Sabine Fuss and Gregory Nemet Despite the ambitious long-term climate goals of the Paris agreement, there remains a distinct lack of success at ushering in immediate and sustained reductions in global CO2 emissions. This cognitive dissonance has seen the topic of “negative emissions“—also known as “carbon dioxide removal”—move into the limelight […]