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Transport for London has today (Wednesday 27 August) announced that it is to trial innovative technology that will enable specially designed buses to wirelessly charge their batteries while they wait at bus stands.

Organic food manufacturer Amy's Kitchen, Farm Aid, Clif Bar & Company, The Urban Farm, Organic Seed Alliance and the Center for Food Safety are among more than 150 farm organizations, millers, retailers, bakeries, seed businesses and food processors urging the US Department of Agriculture to improve its oversight of experimental trials of genetically engineered crops.

Mayor Bloomber is starting a program to make food composting a requirement. Residents will sort trash in their homes and place food sraps in a brown trash can for curbside pick up. Going to start trial phase soon with actual residents and school

Drone boats will soon hit the famous, rusty bike-filled canals of Amsterdam. The ambitious "ROBOAT" project, a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS), will start a five-year trial of the vessels from 2017 to give the multi-purpose boats all sorts of interesting tasks for the busy waterways. The boats will support an array of sensors that can measure water pollution and quality, making assessments about how best to improve the environment. "Water is the bearer of life," says Arjan van Timmeren, professor and scientific director at AMS. "By focusing on the water system of the city, ROBOAT can create opportunities for new environmental sensing methods and climate adaptation."

Norsepower Oy and Bore say the sea trial of Norsepower's Rotor Sail - a new wind propulsion technology for ships - verified by NAPA and supported by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, confirm fuel savings of 2.6 percent using a single small Rotor Sail on a route in the North Sea. With these fuel savings, the technology has a payback period of 4 years, the companies say.

Japanese scientists are preparing to launch a satellite that will use a 300-meter electromagnetic tether to snag orbiting trash left over from past satellites and space missions. The magnetic field will slow the trash, causing it to gradually fall closer to Earth and eventually burn up in the atmosphere. It's thought there are tens of millions of trash fragments in orbit around the Earth.