Tech Universe: Thursday 23 June

Google collaborated with oceanographers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory to create undersea tours. Photo / Thinkstock

DOWN DEEP: Ever wondered how they dig the trenches for undersea communication cables? Well, it's the job the CTC Marine UT-1 Ultra Trencher was built for. It's lowered over a cable, then uses high power jets of water to turn the surface below the cable into a fluid so the cable sinks down. It weighs more than 60 tons and can gouge out a trench 2.5 metres deep and up to 1 metre wide. Walking across the seabed to bring us the internet, hurrah! Gizmodo.com and video here.

GOOGLE SEAFLOOR: Google collaborated with oceanographers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory to create undersea tours of portions of the Earth. Data is available for around 5% of the seafloor — half of all that's been mapped so far. Coming soon: Google Centre-of-the-Earth. New Scientist has details, video
here.

PUBLIC PHONE: Students at Belgrade University had a bright idea: the world's first public solar charger for mobile phones. A small tower has solar panels on top, and a comfortable bench around it. Cables for different models of phones are available from the central post. Since being installed it's charged thousands of phones. That's a whole new meaning for public phone box. More details
here.

SAVE YOUR SKIN: It can take many months to recover from serious burns, and may involve difficult grafts. ReCell technology from Avita takes skin cells from the person with the burn, cultures them and then sprays them back on. ReCell makes the spray-on material available in less than a week, rather than the several weeks other methods may require and the variety of cells collected means fewer scars. What a difference a spray makes. Singularity Hub has more.

CHECK THE EXITS: The SafetyNet is a redesigned trawling net for fisheries. It includes illuminated reinforcing rings that make holes for smaller bycatch fish to escape the net. The rings may be powered by batteries or by built-in turbines. Around 27 million tons of fish each year are discarded from catches as they're too small or the wrong species. Lighting up the rings lets the fish see where they can exit.
Exit towards the rear of the net please. More details here.

- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz