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Take a hydrogen atom, comprised of one proton and one electron. Strip the electron and run a car. That’s the basic premise behind the energy efficiency crowd’s latest craze, the fuel cell—a unit that facilitates the chemical reaction described above using compressed hydrogen gas and oxygen, and creates electricity for…
“Do you want to push it?” 33-year-old Kathy NiKeefe asks from the driver’s seat of her 2001 VW Golf TDi. I lift my hand toward a button on the dash labeled “veggie switch” in cut-out letters. Once the button is pressed, the car’s engine switches from diesel to used vegetable…
If it's Riviera glitter you're after, head to Monaco. But for endless climbing, epic singletrack, and wild seacoast adventure, set a course for Finale Ligure.
Hybrid vigor has long been a trusted tenet of biology: Cross a shiny red tomato with a frost-resistant tomato, and chances are you’ll get a superior offspring that’s both beautiful and cold hardy. A similar idea gave rise to the auto industry’s new breed of hybrid cars– they combine the…
Making ethanol is a bit like following a recipe from an old Farmer’s Almanac: Grind corn into flour; add water and enzymes to turn the flour into sugar; add yeast until you have a syrupy concoction; strain the solids out; distill. Essentially, ethanol is a taste-bud killing moonshine with a…
SPLASH FIGHTS: Water issues chronically become water wars. Here are some collisions in progress—from bang-ups over how to divide spoils to clashes over big cleanups—that need to be resolved in the years ahead.