Malaysian scientists have found a new use for waste from processing pineapples（菠萝）: using it to make small pilotless aircraft drones（无人机）. Scientists developed a way to use pineapple leaves to make frames（框架）for the drones.

Pineapples are harvested once a year in Malaysia. The leaves have been thrown away because there is little use for them before. Professor Mohamed Thariq is the director of the project. He has been trying to find uses for pineapple waste. The waste is mainly created by local farmers. "We are changing the leaf of the pineapple into the material that can be used for a drone," he told reporters.

Mohamed Thariq explained that natural materials can be better than man-made ones. They are less expensive, lighter and stronger than other materials. If the drone is broken, the frame can fully break down in soil within two weeks. So it won't pollute the environment. The research team hopes to create a larger drone that includes cameras. It can meet agricultural need and also take pictures.

William Robert is a member from a non-governmental group, helping to design the drone and advise on the project. He said: "Our role here is to help the farmers increase their income and make their jobs much easier".

It’s raining microchips. One day, they could float gently through the air while gathering environmental data, land on the ground and then disappear when their work is done. That’s the future a team of engineers see for what they’re calling “microflier”, a tiny winged microchip with designs inspired by nature.

The accomplishment belongs to a team of scientists at the Northwestern University in Illinois, who developed the microflier, a flying microchip that spins like a helicopter. It is the size of a grain of sand but with small wings and an aerodynamic design that allows it to fall in a controlled manner thanks to its barely visible propellers. The engineers used nature’s “manual” to get their inspiration for the microflier, analyzing the behavior of various types of wind-spread seeds.

How does that work? Instead of using a motor or engine, the tiny flying microchip uses the power of the wind to catch a flight, spinning through the ground at low speed. It is a stable flight, and the microflier can stay in the air for a long time, which is why it could prove to be useful for a variety of applications.

While nature has designed seeds with very sophisticated aerodynamics, the Northwestern team claims its microflier is better, as it is even smaller and its structure allows it to fall with more stable paths and at slower speeds than equivalent seeds from plants or trees.

The engineers built the flying structure to be used for purposes such as population monitoring, pollution monitoring, disease tracking and so on. And while this might look like a simple, limited device right now, researchers see its potential for becoming a highly functional electronic device. The microflier can be equipped with really sophisticated technology, such as tiny sensors, antennas for wireless communication, or embedded memory for data storage.

Best Inventions

People who buy solar panels (嵌板）for their home hope to help the environment and save some money. But they end up with large metal boxes on their roof. Tesla, a car company, solved the problem. The solution is the Solar Roof. It is a series of tiles (瓦) made to look like traditional roofing material while using the power of the sun. Tesla developed it with SolarCity, a longtime provider of solar panels. It is now available to the public.

Echo gives users the ability to talk to their tech. Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana do that too. But in many ways，Amazon’s version，Alexa, which is built into Echo，is more powerful. Alexa has grown since it was put on the market in 2014, and today, you can use it to turn on the lights, order a pizza, and more. Echo costs $ 180. Amazon recently developed a junior version, the $ 50 Echo Dot.

Goodyear is reinventing the wheel. It introduced its Eagle 360 spherical tire (球形轮胎) in March, 2016. The tires allow cars to move in many directions, including sideways, and at angles to handle slippery surfaces. The key is magnetic levitation (磁悬浮). Tires are fixed to cars, but Eagle 360s float beneath them. They’re meant for self-driving cars of tomorrow.

Jeff Woolf had a serious bike crash. If he hadn’t been wearing his helmet, he would have been badly hurt. He wondered why so many riders didn’t wear helmets. That turns out it was mostly because helmets were big and hard to carry around. Woolf, an engineer, came up with Morpher. The helmet is made from interwoven plastics (交错编织的塑料). It is strong, but it’s also flexible enough to fold almost totally flat. That makes it easy to carry. Morpher is priced at $ 119.