The Innovators: Desalination Unit Brings Clean Water on Wheels
The “Desolenator” operates as a mobile desalination unit that can take water from the sea, rivers, and boreholes—as well as rain—and clean it for human consumption. The device, which looks like a thick solar photovoltaic panel on wheels, is aimed at a wide range of users. Given that an estimated half of the world’s population will be living with water stress, sustainable solutions for the provision of clean water are acutely needed.
 
Helping Smallholder Farmers Build Stronger Businesses with Information and Communication Technology
More and more, information and communication technology—often referred to as ICT—is changing the way smallholder farmers do business. Smallholder farmers benefit greatly from training on agricultural techniques, post-harvest handling practices, and finance and business skills. ICT provides the possibility for increased ease and breadth of spread of this knowledge.
 
Greenhouse in the Sky: Inside Europe's Biggest Urban Farm
Located in a concrete building in The Hague, is a modern experiment: Europe’s largest urban farm. There is some serious interest in rooftop farms as the future of commercial urban agriculture, but it remains an open question whether it is something more than a temporary fad and whether urban farms can find commercial success.
 
Could a Giant Umbrella Made of Tiny Robots Save Us from Climate Chaos?
We might be able to stop the Earth from overheating by shooting 16 trillion small robots into space to form a huge sunshade. A better idea would be to just stop burning fossil fuels, but, since we’re not doing so well on that front, scientists are cooking up various geoengineering scenarios to help us avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The theory is that blocking just 2 to 4 percent of the sunlight coming to Earth could prevent catastrophe.