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20th Apr 2008

Houses of the Future


Chris Smith
A Barrel House

Sustainable Solar power in Sydney, home-generated electricity and green-housing developments go under the microscope this week as we explore the science of sustainable living. Meanwhile Dave goes for gold in water recycling by purifying and drinking water from urine, and we also find out how vitamin supplements can kill, discover an atom-thin transistor and hear how testosterone provoke boom and bust on the stock market. So join us as we become eco-estate agents and go through the keyholes of the Green Houses of Tomorrow!

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News

(c) David Richfield

Vitamin death-link hard pill to swallow

Vitamin supplements might make you die sooner, say researchers. Goran Bjelakovic and his colleagues, from the University of Copenhagen, looked at the results from 230,000 people who had taken part in 67 previously published placebo-controlled trials of anti-oxidant vitamins and their effects on hea...

(c) Dr Thomas Szkopek

Atom-Thick Transistors

Scientists have made the world’s thinnest ever transistors – the devices that switch current on and off in all electronic equipment.  At their very smallest, the new transistors are just one atom thick and ten atoms wide.  They’re made of a material called graphene: carbon atoms joined tog...

(c) US Federal Government

Testosterone beefs up market bubbles

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered that the performance of financial traders is linked to their hormones. Joe Herbert and John Coates followed 17 city traders in London over an 8 day period, logging their daily profits and losses, and comparing them with the traders' testost...


Kitchen Science

(c) Dave Ansell
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How you could drink your own urine safely?

If you were trapped on a desert island with nothing to drink what would you do? We show you how to purify various unappetising liquids...


QotW

Lightning on TV

Should you unplug your TV in a thunderstorm?


Interviews

(c) Gray Watson

Sustainable Solar Solutions?

Solar panels seem to be turning up on rooftops all over the place, but are they really worth using? You may be generating electricity for free – but how long does it take to pay back the costs of buying them in the first place?   We spoke to Australia’s Dr Karl Kruszelnicki who recently turned...

(c) Richard Wheeler

Generating Heat and Power at Home

So how else can we generate electricity at home? Well Elaine Ball is from Baxi Group – and they’ve developed a household boiler system called the Ecogen which, as well as heating the house and water, also generates electricity. And here’s the really good news – the electricity effectively comes for ...

(c) Fir0002 @ Wikipedia

The Science of Survival

With Ben and Dave doing the ultimate in water recycling, we sent Meera to find out how to be water wise...

(c) Paul Miller

Zero Energy Housing

Is it possible to build houses that produce more energy than they use? ZEDFactory aim to produce developments which are Zero Energy, perfect for the Houses of the Future...


Questions

Why do doctors remove air from syringes?


Are graphene-based transistors sensitive to lightning strikes?


Why do fizzy sweets make your mouth cold?



I am also vey wary about the overall concept of microgeneration.  If a substantial fraction of out electricity were going to be provided by micro...
- 22nd Apr 08
"what are the big power generating companies going to do about the loss of business?"
Well, if I have my own wind/ solar powered genera...
- 23rd Apr 08


Rising  prices and restricted supply is not a problem for the power generators (in fact it can be an opportunity to increase their pr...
- 23rd Apr 08
Which house of what future?
I remember being at school in Milton Keynes in the 80's, we had a house of the future near us, and our class had...
- 5th Nov 09
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