Call it a Roomba for the ocean. The non-profit Ocean Cleanup has come up with an invention to help the Pacific Ocean rid itself of some of the 8 million tons of plastics. The plan is to set up enormous floating barriers in rotating tidal locations around the globe (called gyres), and let the plastics naturally flow into the "corrals," reports Gizmodo.

Unlike nets which entangle and can kill sea life, these enormous, V-shaped buffers anchored by floating booms are no threat to ocean creatures.The current will flow beneath the booms, where animals will be carried through safely. The floating plastic will be concentrated at the surface for easy removal. The system will be deployed next year. The first massive plastics-catching barrier - 6,500 feet wide - will be placed near the Japanese island of Tsushima between Japan and South Korea. If the pilot system works, more of the floats will be placed elsewhere in the Pacific.

Self-driving cars have become a frequent topic for auto executives as the technology for the vehicles emerges. The market for autonomous technology will grow to $42 billion by 2025 and self-driving cars may account for a quarter of global auto sales by 2035, according to Boston Consulting Group. By 2017, partially autonomous vehicles will become available in "large numbers," the firm said in a report in April.

But self-driving cars may cause U.S. auto sales to drop about 40 percent in the next 25 years because of shared autonomous vehicles, forcing mass-market producers to slash output, a Barclays Plc analyst said. Vehicle ownership rates may fall by almost half as families move to having just one car. Driverless cars will travel twice as many miles as current autos because they will transport each family member during the day. Sharing autonomous vehicles, acting like a robot-taxi, could push that even lower. Every shared vehicle on the road would displace nine traditional autos, and each pooled shared vehicle would take the place of as many as 18, according to the report.

Automakers are working to overhaul their business models for a world where mobility is being redefined as most of the global population crowds into large megacities during the next two decades. Driverless cars that move in harmony may become essential to keep people and goods flowing safely and efficiently. Embracing the disruption may be the only way to keep pace with alternative forms of transportation competing with automobiles in this changing world. "While extreme, a historical precedent exists. Horses once filled the many roles that cars fill today, but as the automobile came along, the population of horses dropped sharply."

Of all the potential solutions offered for Arizona's water challenges, one has a decidedly science fiction feel: planes flying over the Rockies, seeding clouds with aerosolized silver iodide to stimulate rain and snow. It's not magic or raindancing but a very real process that dates back to the 1940s. Cloud seeding works by adding ice nuclei, or the initial seed of a rain drop or snowflake, into a cloud that has extra moisture. That's typically done with silver iodide in an aerosol form. The Central Arizona Project has put about $1 million toward research since 2007, in hopes of increasing the supply in the Colorado River system.

A recent Wyoming Weather Modification pilot project suggested cloud seeding causes an increase of seasonal snow water accumulations of 5 to 15 percent and a 1.8 percent increase in stream-flows. "Percentage-wise, that might seem modest, but for the investment you put in that's actually pretty good," Mahmoud said. Compared to other alternatives for water augmentation, like desalinating seawater, cloud seeding is the cheapest option. "It's a simple way to try to have a new supply in our efforts to mitigate potential shortage on the Colorado River that could happen as early as 2016 or 2017," he said.

Worldwide, statistics show that crickets are the most widely cultivated insects for the human diet and are considered the "gateway bug" for people who choose to eat insects. Crickets are readily available in pet stores as food for turtles, frogs, and other pets. They are considered delicacies or snacks for people in many countries. Cricket flour is now commonly found in protein bars, baked goods, and protein powders. Crickets have been touted as much better for the planet-environmentally and financially-than livestock, due to the supposedly more-efficient rate at which they convert feed into body mass. But in reality, there is very little data to support this.

Researchers measured the biomass output and feed conversion ratios of crickets (Acheta domesticus) that were reared on foods ranging from grain-based to high in cellulose. Crickets fed on processed food waste grew to harvestable size with conversion efficiency similar to industrial-scale production broiler chickens. But over 99 percent of the crickets fed minimally processed, municipal-scale food waste died before reaching a harvestable size. The measurements were made at a much greater population scale and density than any previously reported studies. These feed conversion ratios are much less efficient than those reported from studies conducted at smaller scales and lower population densities.

Naranda Modi (prime minister of India) and Stephen Harper (prime minister of Canada) recently met in Toronto where they announced a new 5-year agreement for India to purchase uranium from Saskatoon's Cameco corporation to generate nuclear energy in India. In an article at thehindu.com, Modi is reported as describing India's moves to support the so-called "saffron revolution" in which his administration is growing their commitments to nuclear, solar, wind, biomass and energy saving missions in India. The Hindu article states that: "At the heart of Mr. Modi's speech was his repeated assertion, jan man badla hai, or "The minds of the people have changed," over his 10 months in office, and that India was finally on the move".

The announcement arrives at the same time that the journal Nature has published an opinion piece by Alan Rusbridger, editor--in-chief of the Guardian (London), that scientists must increase their professional and personal activism against the search and use of new fossil fuel energy sources. Rusbridger notes that: "the Guardian Media Group has, in the space of two months, moved from not really thinking very much about the issue to announcing that its 800-million (US$1.2-billion) fund will divest from fossil fuels within 2-5 years".

These events beg the question of which countries and technologies will be the winners and losers in the reshaping of the global energy supply in the coming decades and what the economic value of yet-to-be-exploited hydrocarbon resources will be going forward as well?

The continent of Antarctica had its hottest day ever in recorded history earlier this week, as temperatures soared to 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit (17.5 C) for the first time, eclipsing a record that's lasted over 50 years.

Base Esperanza, a research station run by Argentina situated on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, recorded the warm weather. The last time the region experienced such a high temperature was in April of 1961, when a high record of 62.7 degrees Fahrenheit was set at Base Marambio, another Argentinean base in the region. Scientists were particularly puzzled at the high temperature because it took place directly in the center of the autumn season for Antarctica. Base Esperanza typically experiences its hottest days in December with averages of around 37.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Normal March averages, in comparison, are closer to 31.1 degrees Fahrenheit (-0.5 C).

Scientists at the University of Florida have confirmed the Asian and Formosan subterranean termites - both formidable non-native species - are mating in south Florida. The offspring of these species thrive by combining the strongest qualities of their parents. The two species are considered particularly damaging and difficult to control, since they travel underground and burrow up through buildings. What sort of termite do they produce? The bad news is that based on lab results, the hybrid colonies appear to grow faster than those of either species that produced them.

"The combination of genes between the two species results in highly vigorous hybridized colonies that can develop twice as fast as the two parental species," said Thomas Chouvenc, research assistant at the University of Florida's Subterranean Termite laboratory. "The establishment of hybrid termite populations is expected to result in dramatically increased damage to structures in the near future."

The annual cost of termite damage and control measures in the U.S. is estimated at $5 billion.

Fireplaces may no longer invoke the same kind of warm memories they used-to. While a fire in the hearth may look good, it's bad for the heart and lungs. It's also becoming illegal. An onslaught of new research linking fireplace smoke with heart attacks and lung disease, coupled with stricter air regulations, daily bans on wood-burning, and higher insurance rates may soon erase that Norman Rockwell fireplace scene from real estate brochures. Air districts in California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and in China and Greece are asking the public not to burn wood. Utah even proposed a near-complete ban on wood burning, but retracted the measure after overwhelming public opposition. While a low-tech solution, it is an inexpensive way to cut emissions. "We've spent 50 years trying to control air emissions from every source, but this one has gone unregulated."

Wood burning creates on average 5 tons of PM2.5 emissions each day in Southern California, about four times the amount of PM2.5 from all the power plants. These tiny pollutants get sucked into the deepest part of the lungs, the alveoli, interfering with oxygen exchanges, causing lung disease, emergency room visits, heart attacks and even premature deaths, and only an industrial type of face mask can block them. People with asthma or respiratory diseases, children or the elderly should not be in a room with a wood-burning fire, even after it has been extinguished. In many areas, wood smoke is the single biggest source of air pollution in the winter months. While newer EPA-approved stoves emit up to 90 percent less pollution than traditional stoves, even the cleanest wood stove is 60 times more polluting than a natural gas furnace. Many lower-income residents, who burn wood as their sole source of home heating, cannot afford the approx. $3,000 upgrade. The EPA estimates there are 10 million wood stoves in operation in the United States, with 65 percent of them older, inefficient conventional stoves.

Apart from the introduction of twist-off caps, glass bottles have remained impervious to innovation for centuries-mainly because there's nothing wrong with them. Except they're fragile and awfully heavy. That's the insight behind Paperboy, a new brand of wine packaged in cardboard bottles.

The container is made mostly of industrial paper waste that's 80 percent lighter than its glass cousin, so it takes less fuel to transport. Even with fuel prices dropping, gas and oil remain a huge expense for businesses. The packaging is molded from paper pulp (think of the material used in egg cartons) and lined with a plastic bladder, made by GreenBottle. Benefits include lighter weight, extra insulation keeping drinks cool longer, no risk of breaking, and cardboard is easier and more efficient to recycle than glass.

Beer manufacturer Carlsberg says they are also working on cardboard beer bottles, but unlike other cardboard bottles their design won't have a plastic bladder on the inside. Instead, the 100% biodegradable & recyclable cardboard will be treated with a coating on the inside to prevent beer from seeping through. They aim to release them in the next three years.

Quelab has created a balloon shaped as a tetrahedron with transparent top and black bottom which lifts with just solar power. They begun this project "to enable us to know that flight is possible without using either the scarce and non-renewable gas Helium, the possibly-dangerous Hydrogen, or even the fossil-fuel Propane".

As a funny side-note: The Tetroon escaped and got reported as UFO.