gadgets and inventions that can change our lives for the better

What kind of music can touching another person produce? What does a dying coral reef need to hear to begin to recover? How to make an innovative and stylish chair using flax fiber and cornstarch? How can a jacket charged with solar energy glow in the dark? The answers to these and other questions are provided by old and new inventions with great potential, which Kommersant continues to talk about.

Music of touch

Humanity has come up with many musical instruments that are capable of producing a variety of sounds and creating music. But, perhaps, until now there has not been such an instrument that would give birth to music in response to the touch of a person to a person. And now it exists thanks to Dutch designers Jack Chen and Dennis Schijvens, who came up with Crdl. Crdl looks like something you definitely want to touch or pick up. The instrument is made of hardwood while maintaining the structure of the material. Crdl is pleasant to stroke, feeling the warmth of the wood and catching the ornament applied to the surface with your fingertips. An electronic device is hidden inside the instrument, which is invisible to the eye and does not interfere with the sense of harmony arising from the appearance of the Crdl.

The principle of operation of the tool is simple: two people place one hand on the Crdl ornament and touch each other with the other hand. From this touch Crdl begins to sound. The sound will vary depending on the touch.

Crdl can respond with the sound of a cello to a handshake, a piano melody to a pat on the shoulder, or the sounds of nature to a stroke.

According to the creators, Crdl arose not from a desire to entertain, but from an attempt to make meaningful moments of communication with people suffering from somatic or cognitive impairments, including the blind, people with autism, dementia, etc. Touching the sufferer through Crdl provides an unusual sensory experience and emotional experience and have a pronounced therapeutic effect. The tool has been successfully tested by doctors, teachers, and people who have elderly or sick loved ones. The innovativeness of the development was also noted by the magazine TIMEwhich included Crdl in the list of the best inventions of 2023.

Symphony for the reef

The music of nature can not only make contact between relatives warmer, but also “cure” a dying coral reef. Although reefs occupy less than 0.1% of the seabed and ocean floor, they support more than 25% of all marine biodiversity, serving as habitat and food source for more than 1 million species of animals and plants. And the death of reefs negatively affects the life of the seas and oceans. Scientists estimate that the total area of ​​coral reefs in the 1980s was about 600 thousand square meters. km, and by 2000 it had decreased to 250 thousand square meters. km. Since the 1950s, the diversity of animal and plant species living in reefs has declined by more than 60%.

Scientists at the Institute of Oceanography in Woods Hole (USA), working on the task of saving coral reefs, found key to solving the problem. They found that if a decaying reef is broadcast the sounds that accompany the life of a healthy reef, inhabited by many creatures, then the “sick” will begin to recover. Research off the U.S. Virgin Islands shows that coral polyps were seven times more likely to settle on dying reefs that were exposed to live reef sounds. Scientists call these sounds “the symphony of a healthy ecosystem.”

According to scientists, if speakers with these sounds are left near the reef for a long time, not only coral polyps rush to the reef, but fish also return.

And this “symphony” has a beneficial effect on reefs even at a distance of 30 m. Commenting on the study results, marine biologist from the University of Bristol Steve Simpson notes that “coral reefs are the first marine ecosystem that the world could lose due to climate change. This means that it is also the first ecosystem that we can save. If we can save reefs, we can save anything.”

Charged by the sun

Specialists from the British startup Vollebak, specializing in the development of innovative sportswear, have created a windbreaker Solar Charged. Its name speaks for itself. The windbreaker is really charged by the sun, for this it is enough to spend at least a few minutes in the sun, even not very bright, like on a cloudy day. And then, once in the dark, the windbreaker becomes phosphorescent. This feature is provided by an ultra-thin membrane inside the material from which the windbreaker is made. The fabric itself is waterproof, windproof and very light: the finished product weighs 230 g.

The material reacts not only to the sun. It collects energy from any light source, be it a hand-held flashlight or even a smartphone screen.

Using a light source, you can draw pictures or write words on your windbreaker. All this will glow in the dark. The creators of the windbreaker note that its features can not only surprise others or distinguish the owner from others, they can even save a person. For example, if a person wearing such clothes gets lost in the forest or suffers in an accident somewhere in the mountains, then rescuers will easily find him even in the dark. When washing or cleaning a windbreaker, its properties do not disappear.

Linen and corn chair

In recent years, designers have increasingly tried to use biodegradable materials and renewable resources to ensure that the final product does not harm the environment during production, use or disposal. Guided by these principles, Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma created a chair Flax. It is made from biodegradable flax fiber combined with polyactide, also a biodegradable, thermoplastic material made from corn or sugar cane.

The composite material is formed into panels, each making one chair: a single smoothly curved element is the back and seat, and the strips remaining on the sides of the panel go to the legs of the chair. This way there is no waste left.

According to the designer, she has been researching flax fiber for many years, and now uses “this precious material that has traditionally been used to produce high-quality fabrics.” Christien Meindertsma emphasizes the unpretentiousness of flax, which “needs very little to grow.” The environmental friendliness and quality of the Flax chair were appreciated by the jury for the best design of the Dutch Design Awards.

Edible battery

In today’s world, batteries of all shapes and sizes are used everywhere. It is not uncommon for children to swallow them, which end up in the stomach, followed by a chemical reaction that melts the tissue and can lead to deep ulcers. But science does not stand still, and scientists from Italian Institute of Technology They have developed a battery that will not cause any harm to health, even if a person swallows it. The battery is edible because it is made from materials that would normally be eaten.

As the developers say, the idea was suggested to them by the chemical oxidation-reduction reaction that occurs in all living organisms. They developed a battery that uses riboflavin (vitamin B2) as the anode (where the oxidation process occurs) and quercetin (a food additive and substance found in capers, among others) as the cathode (where the reduction process occurs).

• Activated carbon in this process serves to enhance electrical conductivity, and the electrolyte is water-based.
• The separator, which is needed in the battery to prevent short circuits, was made from nori seaweed by the developers.
• The battery capsule is made of beeswax, the contacts are made of gold foil, which is used to decorate confectionery products.

The battery potential is 0.65 V, which cannot cause harm to the human body if it is swallowed. A battery can provide 48 mA of current for 12 minutes, or several amperes for more than an hour. This energy is sufficient to operate low-power devices such as LEDs. The battery can be recharged.

The scope of application of batteries, according to the developers, is wide. For example, they can be used to power diagnostic devices that are introduced into the human body, as well as to test the quality of food or in the development of soft robotics.

Scientists are now working on an edible battery with a larger capacity and smaller size. As the developers note, “our edible batteries cannot, of course, power electric vehicles, but they are proof that batteries can be made from safer materials than currently used lithium-ion cells.” The scientists said they hope their development will inspire their colleagues in the global scientific community to create safe batteries “for a truly sustainable future.”

Alena Miklashevskaya