Inhabitat's Week in Green: holiday gift guide, 155 MPH biofuel truck and a solar-powered buckyball
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
This week Inhabitat got set for the holiday season as we officially launched our Green Gift Guide, which is chock full of 21 categories and over 300 presents - including a great set of DIY projects you can make yourself and a round-up of our favorite gifts for gadget geeks. Speaking of high-tech gizmos, we also showcased several amazing examples of cutting-edge robotics as researchers developed a new breed of disaster detecting cyborg insects and Otherlab created a line of lightweight inflatable robots that can walk on water. Scientists also successfully completed the first round of trials on a new type of contact lens that could one day send emails directly to your eyes, and NASA announced that the new Mars Curiosity Science Laboratory will be powered by nuclear energy instead of solar.
Green transportation advanced by leaps and bounds this week as a student-built 155 MPH biofuel truck broke a world speed record and we brought you exclusive photos of the 6 sexiest green cars from the Los Angeles auto show. We also caught wind of several hot new vehicles on the horizon as Infiniti leaked the first shots of its upcoming plug-in hybrid sports car, SynergEthic unveiled its versatile three-wheeled Tilter EV, and South Africa rolled out the Joule - its first electric vehicle. Meanwhile, Jay Leno announced that he has driven his Chevy volt for an astounding 11,000 miles on a single tank of gas and a team of Northwestern University researchers developed a new breakthrough battery that could charge EVs in ten minutes flat and increase their range by 500 miles.
It was also a big week for alternative energy as Scotland unveiled plans to build a two-bladed wind turbine so large that it has its own helicopter pad, researchers created a new "everlasting" battery that could charge the grid, and an out-of-this-world solar-powered buckyball landed on top of Art Institute of Chicago. In other news, Kelly Ripa demoed a not-so-subtle booze-filled wonder bra, Jambu launched a heated "Volt" boot designed to keep toes toasty, and we brought you 5 ways for children to connect with out of town family during the holidays.
