DIY: How to Make a Hydrating Avocado Hair Mask to Revitalize Your Hair

If winter’s left your hair looking like a pile of straw, revitalize it with this easy-to-make DIY hair mask. Whipped up by LUSH Cosmetics product inventor Helen Ambrosen, this rich mask uses just a few natural ingredients like avocado, olive oil, and honey, and can be whipped up in just a few minutes right in your own kitchen. Check out the instructions here.

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Subaru 2014 XV Crosstrek Hybrid Unveiled at the 2013 New York Auto Show

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Bacteria May Provide More Sustainable Biofuel Production

Biofuel, like many alternative energy sources that are on the rise, faces its share of criticism. While it sounds ideal to create fuel from plants rather than limited fossil fuels, many methods of producing biofuel come at a high environmental cost all their own. Land used for biofuel production, for example, could be better put to use growing consumable crops instead of “sustainable” power for our cars.

Although biofuels from wood or grass may have a better future than less sustainable sources like corn, they are much more difficult to produce. The first step in turning biomass from grasses, trees, and certain algae into biofuel is getting through lignin, the tough material of their cell walls, and the compound isn’t an easy one to break down.

However there are some bacteria that digest lignin quite well, and harnessing the chomping power of these microorganisms could eventually lead to easier and more sustainable biofuel creation. While researchers at Mississippi State University had focused on identifying the digestive bacteria in panda poop, researchers at Brown University are also studying microorganisms that can break down lignin--and have figured out the chemical switch to start the lignin digestive process in the bacteria Streptomyces.

One of the few microorganisms that can consume lignin, Streptomyces begins the digestion process by releasing enzymes to break lignin down into its constituent compounds. This lignin-derived carbon, which the bacteria uses for growth and reproduction, is also where the magic begins for biofuel production: Streptomyces converts some of it into triglycerides, essential components of biodiesel, as well as other useful compounds. The Brown researchers’ previous work showed which genes encode enzymes to break down one particular compound: protocatechuate. When Streptomyces was grown where protocatechuate was present, PcaV, a protein usually attached to the DNA that stops those genes clusters from encoding, lost its affinity for DNA--and those unblocked genes gave the green light for enzyme production.

While being able to kickstart the lignin digestion process could lead to an easier transformation of woody biomass into biofuel, producing biofuel through Streptomyces on a commercial scale is still a long way away. Nevertheless, this research is a step forward for bacteriology as well as sustainable bioenergy.

Image via Sello lab/Brown University

via: Inhabitat

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Mapping a Better Walking Route

We've discussed the pedestrian resource Walk Score before, but there's a new company taking a different angle on rating the walkability of communities. While Walk Score rates addresses, Walkonomics rates streets. The UK-based company has only covered locations in England as well as US cities New York and San Francisco so far, but Walkonomics has the ambitious goal to rate every street in the world, according to criteria that go way beyond distance traveled. Using publically available data and user ratings to fill in the gaps, Walkonomics attempts to account for everything from hilliness and crime statistics to how much fun or relaxing it is to walk in any given area. Eight criteria are rated individually and tallied into a street's total score, so if some factors are more important than others to users, the score's breakdown is readily available.

Adam Davies, the company's founder, envisions Walkonomics will eventually offer customized directions based on each user's needs. Unfortunately, as Pando Daily reports, the company has a long way to go before this is possible. If they continue to rely heavily on publicly available data, opening in places like my small Connecticut city seems to be far off. However, if the company can continue to expand and gain more resources, they'd serve as another widely-available source that helps pedestrians, encourages walking, and emphasizes the importance of designing more pedestrian-friendly communities.

That last one's a stretch, to be sure--of course no app alone can engender or even promote changes in urban design. However, the more pedestrians literally take to the (safe to walk) streets, perhaps the more communities will increase their walkability and make structural changes to accommodate. Any technology that can empower pedestrians seems (pardon the obvious pun) a step in the right direction.

If you happen to live in New York City, San Francisco, England, or plan on walking through these places anytime soon and have a smartphone, you may find some use in their iPhone or Android app. According to their website, they've rated over 600,000 streets in these locations.

image: screen capture via Walkonomics website

via: Treehugger

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Cree LED Light Bulb Hits Milestone Price Point

Several years ago, the $10 level was a turning point for the widespread adoption of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). Once the bulbs were priced that low, people were willing to take a chance to try one or two and see how they liked them and how they performed. Now, the same point has been reached in the development of LED lights.

A couple of years ago, 60-watt equivalent LED bulbs were priced around $30 to $40, and a couple years before that, they were closer to $100. Now, Cree is offering three LED bulbs with a price close to $10 (though only one of the three is actually under $10 retail price).

Cree is offering three different LED bulbs: a warm white 60-watt replacement, a daylight 60-watt replacement, and a warm white 40-watt replacement. These bulbs have the performance we've come to expect from LEDs, with a 25,000 hour lifespan rating and use only about 15% of the energy used by and equivalent incandescent bulb.

The Cree bulbs also have a "normal" looking package as compared to the now-familiar curly CFL. These LED bulbs also have a coated glass bulb, rather than a plastic covering like many other LEDs have had. Although the LED bulbs are not drastically more efficient than CFLs, the LED bulbs are also instant-on and are dimmable, which are features many CFLs do not have.

Cree is rolling out a selection of slogans to try to promote these bulbs, including "The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb," and "Its non-weird shape emits non-weird light." The company also is touting the below $10 price, although both of the 60-watt equivalents are priced somewhat higher. Nevertheless, this is still a big move in the lighting market.

Hat tip: Studio Z

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Motor Vehicle Companies Team Up on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Research

Automakers Ford, Daimler, and Renault-Nissan are joining forces to develop the technology for fuel cell vehicles and to make it more cost effective. Investments in the research will be spread evenly among the companies, who hope their alliance will produce a fuel cell system to power new electric vehicles that can travel further between refuels than the battery electric vehicles currently available on the market. Furthermore, Ford aims to have a hydrogen fuel cell car on the mass market in as little as four years.

Sharing both research and resources, this new partnership gives the trio a chance to do what no single motor vehicle company has done yet: craft a mass market hydrogen-powered vehicle. Costs have been too high so far to make this possible. If they succeed, however, it could be a step forward in reducing our dependence on oil to fuel our travels. The hydrogen fuel cell technology also promises less pollution than fossil fuels produce, as hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles only emit heat and water vapor.

The companies have a combined 60 years of experience working on this technology, and their test vehicles have gone over 6.2 million miles. The engineering work ahead for the partnership will be spread throughout their worldwide facilities. The companies will also work to develop other parts for fuel-cell powered vehicles, in addition to the individual fuel cell development, in order to reduce costs further.

image: CC BY-SA 2.0 by Lars Plougmann

via: Huffington Post

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Mercedes-Benz Debuts 2014 B-Class Electric Drive at the New York Auto Show!

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