materials

The Olympics are not the only thing rocking Asia this past few weeks. In South Korea, Samsung is set to reveal their latest entry in the field of environmentally conscious mobile phones, known throughout the industry as "eco-phones". The Samsung ... E200 Eco contains parts that are made from bioplastics, that is, materials extracted from corn. Amazingly, it is not the first mobile phone to contain such materials. It is the first, however, in which the entire phone casing is made from bioplastic materials. (Source: reghardware.co.uk ) But what features does a phone made from corn have to offer? In ... (view more)

Greenpeace, largely considered to be the most popular environmental advocacy group in North America, has publicly accused Apple of knowingly selling products made from a number of hazardous chemicals that could be decomposed into harmful pollutants. ... The iPhone is considered to be the least "environment-friendly" of the Apple products currently available on the market. If these mobile devices are thrown away at a non-designated disposal site, the results could be severely hazardous to the environment. Greenpeace explained that Apple was well aware of the hazardous chemicals contained in the ... (view more)

Announced last week, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) is the newest post-secondary institution to join Google's controversial library project -- a venture that strives to provide user access to various library collections and digital ... reference materials. The project, dubbed Google Book Search, utilizes the same technology as the company's main search engine and allows users to wade through millions of publications by searching for a particular phrase or topic. Google's project was launched last year with five renowned libraries participating: Harvard University, Stanford University, ... (view more)