Hackaday Prize Entry: Collaborative Water Purification

Look over any description of a water treatment plant, and you’ll find a description that includes the words, ‘coagulation tanks’. What are these treatment plants coagulating? You don’t want to know. How are they doing it? With chemicals and minerals. Obviously, there’s something else that can be done.

For their Hackaday Prize entry, [Ryan], [designbybeck], [Clint], [Wanda] and [Maker Mark] are investigating electrocoagulation. It’s an alternative to a frothy brew of chemicals that uses electricity to pull pollutants out of the water.

Right now, the tests are much smaller in scale than the tens of thousands of gallons you’d find …read more

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Cordless Water Pump!

A water pump is one of those items that are uncommonly used, but invaluable when needed. Rarer still are cordless versions that can be deployed at speed. Enter [DIY King 00], who has shared his build of a cordless water pump!

The pump uses an 18 volt brushed motor and is powered by an AEG 18V LiPo battery. That’s the same battery as the rest of [DIY King]’s power tools, making it convenient to use. UPVC pipe was used for the impeller — with a pipe end cap for a housing. A window of plexiglass to view the pump in …read more

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The Fight to Protect This Swath of Wilderness Is Going to Canada’s Supreme Court

The Peel Watershed, in the Yukon, is one of the largest intact pieces of wilderness left in North America. The Supreme Court will decide its fate. Continue reading The Fight to Protect This Swath of Wilderness Is Going to Canada’s Supreme Court

Riverkeeper Marty Baum Is Out to Stop Florida’s Algae Apocalypse

This resident of the Sunshine State is fighting an uphill battle against the governor, Congress, and public apathy, to save the lagoon he calls home. Continue reading Riverkeeper Marty Baum Is Out to Stop Florida’s Algae Apocalypse

Tear Gun Transmutes Emotions Into Firepower

Frustration is tough to deal with. When driven to the point of tears it’s sometimes a short step to lashing out irrationally. Focus in these situations helps, channeling your frustration into something useful. [Yi-Fei Chen] has done that — quite literally — by designing a gun that fires her shed tears.

The gun’s design manifested following a strenuous midterm presentation. Her insistent tutor drove her to tears as frustration clashed with the deep cultural values of her native Taiwan which prevented her from speaking up against authority.

A silicone cup resting against her cheek collects the tears which flow into …read more

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H2O’s Deep Water puts deep learning in the hands of enterprise users

screen-shot-2017-01-26-at-12-25-50-pm To complement existing offerings like Sparkling Water and Steam, H2O.ai is releasing Deep Water, a new tool to help businesses make deep learning a part of everyday operations. Deep Water will open up new possibilities for the TensorFlow, MXNet and Caffe communities to engage with H20.ai. This also means that the GPU is set to become a greater part of business operations for the entire… Read More Continue reading H2O’s Deep Water puts deep learning in the hands of enterprise users

The Dakota Access Water Protectors Were Leaving—Then Came Trump’s Order

After Trump’s order greenlighting construction of the pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe is ready to fight again. Continue reading The Dakota Access Water Protectors Were Leaving—Then Came Trump’s Order

These Plankton-Like Robots Are Drifting Through the Ocean to Help Save Sea Life

The M-AUE robots may look like Minions from the movies, but they are the culmination of 20 years of hard work. Now, if only scientists could stop them from getting picked up at bars… Continue reading These Plankton-Like Robots Are Drifting Through the Ocean to Help Save Sea Life