On a recent trip to the south of Spain, I visited the beautiful Cathedral of Seville, amongst the largest of all medieval and Gothic cathedrals, in terms of both area and volume. According to Wikipedia, the interior is the

One of the biggest floor-care brands in Britain has unveiled a cardboard vacuum cleaner made from its own packaging, the Vax ev. And it was created by a student.Open and Assemble—Without the Packaging Waste The vacuum is sold in a

I wrote last year about the Boulder-based Unreasonable Institute's search for people who have great ideas, who think big, who want to change the world, and who seem like they can. Last year's fellowship was a great

This technique transforms used plastic bottles into beautiful jewelry by burying them into hot desert sand -- and the project creates a sustainable business for Saharawi refugees.

The US federal government announced a big bet on big data today. What is Big Data, what does the government have to do with it, and where could this lead?

An amazing wooden bicycle, hand-made in Spain by two brothers for professional cyclists. The wooden frame is lightweight, resistant and beautiful!

The Buchstabenmuseum is an NGO dedicated to preserving, restoring and exhibiting old signs from Berlin and around the world. Its owners save obsolete letters from the dump and instead tell their stories. It is a museum like no other!

FOROBA YELEN is the name given by villagers in Mali to the lighting prototype following an anthropologic study. A shared technology to improve work, education and rituals.

Decommisioned parachutes are being transformed into lightweight rain harvesting systems to provide drinking water in semi-arid regions.

While advances in energy technology and smart home apps and devices have given us additional tools for living more sustainably, low-tech and simple solutions can make a difference too.

Kris De Decker questions some of our most cherished assumptions.

Huge wind turbines, solar, wave power, battery storage and a lot of electric cars—these remote Scottish islands may provide a glimpse of the future.

Corn mills, water pumps, blenders and more: the bicycle as a tool for self-empowerment.

Scientists find signs that the germ causing strep throat and flesh-eating disease may be moving closer to resistance to penicillin and other related antibiotics.

Many in-home drinking water filters may not remove the most concerning contaminants.

The diet appears to act on gut bacteria in a way that helps hinder physical frailty and reduce cognitive decline in older age, researchers find.

Indulging in a Western-style diet for 7 days impaired the brain function in healthy young people and made them want to overeat, researchers find.

Coronavirus has led to a shortage of hand sanitizers, but worry not: The CDC generally recommends hand-washing over hand sanitizers.

There is a lot of research that shows that it does more harm than good.

In a world of rapidly disseminated information, and misinformation, the WHO has published a list of mythbusters.

Half of antibiotics prescribed by primary-care doctors are done so inappropriately and are fueling the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

Let's have a clap of clean hands for Ignaz Semmelweis.

From social distancing to self-quarantine or isolation, being apart from people doesn't have to mean being bored and lonely.

It's not likely to happen up north, especially while gas is so cheap.

The big light bulb manufacturers get what they want out of the DOE and the President. We should all stop buying anything from them.

The American Institute of Architects just announced its 2007 Housing Awards; among the winners were our beloved Loblolly House and in the Special Housing Category, the Designhabitat2 house, from The DESIGNhabitat 2 Studio School of Architecture,

That's the simple premise behind this campaign. Cameron Sinclair, "lumberjack sized Brit", author of Design Like You Give a Damn, and co-founder of Architecture for Humanity tells the story of meeting Natalie "Alabama" Chanin at a conference

Alabama is contemplating a pipeline to the Great Lakes. We've said it time and again: transient drought will not drive the US Federal government to pipe Great Lakes water to the drought stricken states. If it becomes severe enough, and the impacts come

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is proposing a rate increase due to extreme drought having reduced their ability to ramp up hydroelectric generators in time for customers to turn on the bright kitchen lights and cook dinner - after 4:00PM. Only 6

Image: Google Maps. We think this is the Widows Creek power plant where the spill happened, but if anyone from Alabama could confirm, please do so in the comments. Coal Waste Spill at At Alabama Coal Plant It wasn't so long ago that we were writing

A little salamander that is found in only a

Floating residues from the ongoing BP oil 'blowout' in the Gulf are expansive enough to be easily visible from space. Satellite photos of oil on salt water

I'm a big fan of scenario thinking. Although no one can predict "the future," several plausible scenarios can be constructed, informing decisions made difficult by many unknowns. A good decision works in

A most painful demonstration of Murphy's Law - that

British Petroleum has created a 22 mile long undersea oil plume, measured as "dispersed" beneath the ocean's surface, stretching from the wellhead, toward Mobile Alabama. Via the Chron: "The thick plume was detected

"People are visible Wednesday, June 6, 2007, on the beach in Dauphin Island, Ala., where a section of the $4 million protective sand berm was washed away by higher-than-usual tides over the weekend. An intact section of the berm can be seen in the

Large swaths of US southern states are experiencing severe drought

Last weekend, January 22nd - 23rd , over 500 volunteers from Alabama and across the country came together in Mobile Bay to lay the beginnings of oyster reefs. The volunteers strapped on boots

A beautiful film celebrates doing things, like starting a fire entirely by hand, that are no longer necessary. There are lessons for us all.

Environmentalists and Urban Planners on the run as smart growth and sustainability become illegal in the State.

Even in the dark pit of poverty, where rays of hope shine their dimmest, there's often still light enough for a new life to take hold.

In York, Alabama they now have public space where before they had a collapsing house.

Cece Durden, a 17-year-old from Uniontown, Alabama, fights coal ash pollution in her hometown

There is a new use for your smashed iPhone: a clock.

They have toilets but they just dump the sewage out the back. This is nuts.

In rural Alabama, an existing landmark building is converted into a new community gathering spot, instead of being torn down.

We just noted the rising popularity of e-books as Amazon announced sales of digital books have consistently surpassed sales of hardcover books. However, don't think libraries will turn to ancient ruins quite yet. Pop

A seasoned dumpster diver who lived without cash for a year, Mark Boyle—aka the Moneyless Man—knows more than most about getting by without money. Having explored how to travel without cash, he's

How was your "buy nothing" day? Did you really buy nothing? Did you miss that rush, the unmistakable high of exchanging your musty old cash for something you can brag to your friends about, or for the gift that will simply take the

Lisa Gansky sees a new emerging business model emerging. One she has dubbed, The Mesh. "... one in which consumers have more choices, more tools, more information, and more power to guide those choices." A model