Getting drunk on ice cream used to be the stuff of dreams, but thanks to Will Rogers, inventor and owner of WDS Dessert Stations in Hinkley, Illinois, it has become a delicious reality. The Below Zero ice cream machine uses a unique technique to freeze alcohol, which allows you to turn beers, cocktails and even spirits (烈酒) into delicious soft —serve ice cream.

Rogers was trying to create a highly — caffeinated espresso ice cream flavor when he realized he could use the same technique with alcoholic beverages. He started experimenting with various gums and stabilizers commonly used in the ice cream industry and eventually patented something called the NEA gel. It’s this magical concoction (调制品) that allows the alcohol to freeze to a near solid inside the Below Zero ice cream machine.

Even though Below Zero changes the texture (质地) of beer, cocktails and even spirits, essentially turning them into soft —serve ice cream, it does not affect the alcohol content at all. The ABV (酒精度) remains exactly the same, which means you can get drunk on ice — cream just as you would on the same concoctions in liquid form.

Will Rogers claims that it takes around 30 minutes for beer to go from liquid to ice cream form, but higher alcohol content drinks take longer. Essentially, the higher the alcohol level, the longer the wait.

The American inventor plans to sell Below Zero ice cream machines to bars and breweries wanting to surprise their patrons. Metro reports that machines will sell for about 6,000.

One of the most important changes cities must make to improve life in them is to separate people from their cars. Even when you have a strong public transport system in moving people between population hubs, the last mile - that section between the railway station and someone’s home, for example - can lead to car use if it’s considered too far or too dangerous to walk.

The idea of a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) - where cars are banned from quieter ‘rat runs’ (偏僻小路) to keep them on the major routes - has taken off in parts of the UK. LTNs attempt to filter out cars from residential streets using bollards, camera-controlled gates or even planters full of flowers placed across the road, while pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles can still pass.

Analysis for the active transport charity Sustrans found that “driving a mile on a minor urban road is twice as likely to kill or seriously injure a child pedestrian, and three times more likely to kill or seriously injure a child cyclist, compared to driving a mile on an urban A-road,” and that heavy car traffic in residential areas can lead to a rise in social isolation. LTNs reduce this danger, leading to a three-fold reduction in injuries, and have been shown to increase the number of visitors to local businesses.

Also popular are e-scooter hire trials, which are taking place in towns and cities including Middlesbrough, Bristol and Chelmsford. The trials see gaggles of electric scooters available to be picked up from street corners. The scooters are hired using an app and then, once they’re finished with, parked elsewhere inside the trial area, where they’re collected and recharged by the hiring company. A Department of Transport report on e-scooter use found they were “widely perceived to have environmental and convenience benefits,” but suffered from comparisons to children’s toys.

But that’s not all. The world’s first hub for demonstrating electric air taxis and drones opened in Coventry earlier this year. The taxis and drones based at the hub all take off and land vertically like helicopters and are being used to travel short journeys or deliver cargo.

Weaning us off our car addiction is one of the more difficult barriers standing between us and healthier cities. The first step that needs to be taken will be to tackle the dominance of the car.

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Student team TU/ecomotive at the Eindhoven University of Technology has developed a sustainable electric passenger car that captures more carbon dioxide (CO₂) than it emits while driving. Called ZEM, for zero emission mobility, the two-seater purifies the air through a special filter (过滤器). By storing the captured CO₂ and then dealing with it, ZEM can contribute to reducing global warming. The students will continue to improve the vehicle with the goal of making it carbon-neutral (碳中和) for its entire life cycle.

The car can capture 2 kilograms of CO₂ through a special filter at 20,000 travel miles per year. This means that ten cars can store as much CO₂ as an average tree. That may not seem like much, but the overall payoff is significant if you were to utilize it in every passenger car. After all, there are more than a billion passenger cars driving around the world, which could capture net CO₂ instead of emitting it.

A life cycle analysis with SimaPro software can be used to determine the extent to which the life cycle of the vehicle — from construction to use and afterlife — is carbon-neutral. Several innovations contribute to this goal. Consider the 3D printing techniques used by the students. The body panels are made through 3D printing, resulting in almost no remaining waste. In addition, the student team prints plastics that can be recycled for other projects.

The electric and sustainable four-wheel drive has a sporty look. With the good reason, say the students, because a sporting challenge awaits the automotive industry. After all road transport must become much more sustainable.

Nikki Okkels, external relations manager at TU/ecomotive, says: “We call on the industry to pick up the challenge, and of course we are happy to think along with them. We haven’t finished developing yet, but we believe it will eventually hit the road. We warmly invite car makers to come and take a look.”