…Multi-Purpose Pizza Box, World’s Fastest Camera, Solar Power Map and MORE.

Self-Healing Concrete
University of Michigan researchers have created a new self-healing concrete that bends and cracks in narrow hairlines, unlike traditional concrete which breaks and splits in wide gaps due to strains like earthquakes or overuse.

“It’s like if you get a small cut on your hand, your body can heal itself,” Victor Li, a professor of materials science and engineering at the university, said at U.S. News & World Report. “But if you have a large wound, your body needs help. You might need stitches. We’ve created a material with such tiny crack widths that it takes care of the healing by itself.”

The bendable, engineered cement composite can react with water and carbon dioxide to heal and form a thin white scar of calcium carbonate. In the lab, the researchers subjected the new concrete to a 3 percent strain and it was able to recover most, if not all, their original strength. Traditional concrete can’t carry a load at 0.01 percent strain.

“By reversing the typical deterioration process, the concrete could reduce the cost and environmental impacts of making new structures,” Li said. “And repairs would last longer.”

Pizza Box Doubles as Plates and Storage
Environmentally Conscious Organization, Incorporated created a pizza box dubbed Green Box that converts into plates and then into a storage container. Watch it transform below.

Vending Machine Prints Book in 5 Minutes
Billed as “the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press,” the Espresso Book Machine can print and bind books within five minutes. Launched at Blackwell bookshop in London, the bookselling company says the machine signals “the end to the frustration of being told by a bookseller that a title is out of print, or not in stock, the Espresso offers access to almost half a million books.”

Blackwell hopes to increase the Espresso’s library to over a million titles by the end of the summer. That’s equal to 23.6 miles of shelf space or 50 bookshops rolled into one, the U.K. Guardian notes. There are Espresso machines in the U.S., Canada, Australia and in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.

Learn more about how the Espresso works in a video found HERE.

Green Living Under Quantitative Spotlight
Tips on living green are plentiful, but will following all of them really help save the planet? David MacKay, a University of Cambridge professor, tries to answer that by comparing how the green lifestyle fares under a quantitative spotlight. MacKay found that “some of these sacred cows do not fare too well, and some come through with flying colours.”

He cites these examples:

1. Turning thermostat/air conditioning down — the single most effective energy-saving technology, it can reduce heating/cooling costs for every degree it is turned down;
2. Hydrogen-powered vehicles — “an energy disaster,” they use more energy than the fossil-fuel vehicles. The average fossil car in Britain uses 80 kWh per 100 km (62 miles), the BMW Hydrogen 7 uses 254 kWh per 100 km (62 miles);
3. Electric vehicles — is the most energy efficient, using only 6 kWh per 100 km; and
4. Small-scale combined heat and power — the practice of putting individual power stations in each building are only about 7 percent more efficient and use natural gas — a fossil fuel.

MacKay also adds that turning phone chargers off when not in use is about as feeble a gesture as bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon. (See earlier: 10 Green Heresies to Accept)

Camera Snaps 6 Million Pictures per Second
Scientists have made a camera that can take 6.1 million pictures per second at a shutter speed of 440 trillionths of a second. Light moves just a fraction of a centimeter in that time. The makers say the “world’s fastest camera” works by illuminating objects with a laser that emits a different infrared frequency for every single pixel.

Solar Power Capacity Map
In its series on the U.S. electric grid, National Public Radio charts the sources of power in the nation. In the solar power map it shows the solar power capacity of the U.S. as well as a plan for high-capacity electric transmission lines that would transport the solar energy into the national grid.

The map is color-shaded to show how much solar energy hits a surface in a given amount of time. The darkest part on the map, the Southwest, has the highest isolation. Check out the solar power map plus the power plant map and wind power map HERE.
Toodles!