Archive

LiveScience Topics: Powerful Ideas

Powerful Ideas

This occasional series looks at powerful ideas — some existing, some futuristic — for fueling and electrifying modern life.

Explore Powerful Ideas

Robotic Spy Planes Go Green

Military vehicles powered by alternative energy provide more than environmental benefits.
Powerful Ideas: Winery Waste Make Fuel

Waste byproducts from brewing wine can be used for energy.
'Smart Grid' Gets $3.4 Billion Jolt

President Obama will announce $3.4 billion in grants aimed at reducing blackouts and cutting utility bills.

More Powerful Ideas News and Information

Powerful Ideas: Reducing China's Carbon Emissions a Breeze

China is now the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide, the most important global warming pollutant.
Powerful Ideas: Cars Could Run on Watermelons

Sugar from watermelons could be a sweet deal for your car.
Powerful Ideas: Bacteria Clean Sewage and Create Electricity

Batteries made with microbes could help generate power by cleaning up organic waste at the same time.
Powerful Ideas: Spray-On Solar Cells

Nano-inks could allow for spray-on solar cells.
Powerful Ideas: Wind Turbine Blades Change Shape

A wind turbine that adapts to windy conditions may harness more energy.
Powerful Ideas: Beer Waste Makes Fuel

After beer is made, the waste from breweries could help generate power, researchers now suggest.
Powerful Ideas: Fungus Sex Forced for Fuel

Scientists hope to breed fungus that can help the environment.
Powerful Ideas: Shrimp Cocktail Helps Make Biodiesel

Scientists are turning to shrimp shells to help save the environment.
Powerful Ideas: Chicken Feathers Could Store Fuel

Chicken feathers may help hydrogen cars go the extra mile.
Powerful Ideas: Military Develops 'Cybug' Spies

Scientists can already control the flight of real moths using implanted devices.
Powerful Ideas: Alcohol Could Run Artificial Muscles

Artificial muscles driving the robots or prosthetic limbs of the future might be powered by the kind of alcohol that can make people blind.
Powerful Ideas: Miles-High Kites Could Generate Electricity

Rotors spinning miles high could help supply electricity worldwide.
Powerful Ideas: Electronics Grown by Germs

Ancient germs that hunt bacteria are now getting recruited to assemble the electronics of the future.
Powerful Ideas: Fusing Atoms Just Might Work

Nuclear fusion facilities are trying to fuse nuclei using lasers and magnets.
Powerful Ideas: Teaching an Old House New Tricks

Retrofitting old houses could do more to save energy than increasing the energy of new homes.
Powerful Ideas: Humans as Renewable Sources

Humans can make power while they work out at the gym, push open a door or just walk.
How Green Gifts Could Power the Future

A few holiday ideas that can spread cheer by reducing energy consumption.
How Crazy Ideas Could Power the Future

The next X Prize competition is organizing a contest of crazy green ideas.
How Fishy Technology Could Power the Future

A new technology inspired by fish could extract energy from slow-moving currents.
How Geothermal Heat Pumps Could Power the Future

A geothermal heat pump can work anywhere.
Power of the Future: A Timeline to Energy Independence

When might we expect exciting alternative technology to become our ho-hum everyday energy supply?

Advertisement

Powerful Ideas Features

Other LiveScience Topics

Human Evolution

Many mysteries remain about the origin and...
Doomsday

Prophets of doom can have religious or sec...
Science Lives

ScienceLives is an occasional series that ...
Halloween

The history of Halloween and the science a...
Prey

Find out everything there is to know about...
Barack Obama

Find out about politics and stay updated o...
Healthy Geezer

Fred Cicetti takes your questions on senio...
Innovation

Information About Innovation From LiveScie...
Sports Science

Dan Peterson's Sports Science column delve...
Water Cooler

What people are talking about in the world...