A New Form of Oil Spill Clean Up – A Swarm of Robots…?
[1] The Seaswarm in action
Two years ago, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began working on a prototype which involved using robots to clean up oil spills… automatically.
The technology, called Seaswarm is more efficient and also cheaper than conventional methods. It is a vehicle capable of cleaning up oil spills automatically, with minimal human effort. What’s more, it can work around the clock, using nanotechnology in the form of nanowire to absorb the oil. Developed by Professor Francesco Stellacci, it is able to “ absorb twenty times its weight in oil,” while at the same time repelling the water. These are two aspects essential in the clean of up oil spills in the ocean. The green technology gets even better, as it runs primarily on solar power, which makes the clean-up process both energy efficient and self-sustaining.
In a few years, will the old-fashioned, oil propelled skimmer boats just be history, replaced with these more efficient, greener “Seaswarms?”
More about this new technology at: http://web.mit.edu/press/2010/seaswarm.html
The technology, called Seaswarm is more efficient and also cheaper than conventional methods. It is a vehicle capable of cleaning up oil spills automatically, with minimal human effort. What’s more, it can work around the clock, using nanotechnology in the form of nanowire to absorb the oil. Developed by Professor Francesco Stellacci, it is able to “ absorb twenty times its weight in oil,” while at the same time repelling the water. These are two aspects essential in the clean of up oil spills in the ocean. The green technology gets even better, as it runs primarily on solar power, which makes the clean-up process both energy efficient and self-sustaining.
In a few years, will the old-fashioned, oil propelled skimmer boats just be history, replaced with these more efficient, greener “Seaswarms?”
More about this new technology at: http://web.mit.edu/press/2010/seaswarm.html
The Seaswarm
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MIT - Nanowire technology for easy oil clean-up
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Betting on extinction?
The drain on biodiversity has caused more than just friendly concern. A gambling webstite, PaddyPower.com has starting a bet for which animal will go extinct first from the Gulf Coast oil spill.
[1] http://senseable.mit.edu/seaswarm/