Although many industries and individuals have made strides to become more environmentally friendly in recent years, humanity as a whole is still pretty wasteful. And with global warming now set to shift into high gear, we’re gonna need some pretty huge breakthroughs in science and engineering if we hope to avoid a Kevin Costner Waterworld-type scenario in the future. Fortunately, there seem to be a few brilliant minds on the job. Here are eight great solutions for our pollution problems.
8. Turn Air Pollutants into Printer Ink
Because air pollution is a leading factor in a myriad of illnesses such as lung cancer and heart disease, many professionals consider it to be one of the greatest environmental health risks around today.
In an effort to remove some of the pollutants in the air, Anirudh Sharma from MIT developed the Kaala-printer—a printer that takes the soot particles commonly found in air pollution and turns them into a type of powdered ink. By combining the powdered ink with some oil and rubbing alcohol, Sharma was able to print at 96 dots per inch. It’s thought that the soot particles gathered from a diesel engine exhaust over the course of an hour would be enough to fill a typical ink cartridge.