The Earth Charity

Moss graffiti, the environmentally-friendly...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:54:00 -0400

Moss graffiti, the environmentally-friendly “vandalism”

Ingredients and tools:

1 can of beer
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Several clumps garden moss

You will also need a plastic container (with lid), a blender and a paintbrush

Directions:

First of all gather together several clumps of moss (moss can usually be found in moist, shady places) and crumble them into a blender.
Add the beer and sugar and blend just long enough to create a smooth, creamy consistency.
Pour the mixture into a plastic container.
Find a suitable damp and shady wall on to which you can apply your moss milkshake.
Paint your chosen design onto the wall (either free-hand or using a stencil). If possible try to return to the area over the following weeks to ensure that the mixture is kept moist. Soon the bits of blended moss should begin to re-couperate into a whole rooted plant – maintaining your chosen design before eventually colonising the whole area.

Recycled 600 Sq Feet Office Warehouse Has Neat Ideas for Small Living in Brazil

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0400

In order to make its employees more comfortable when they want to take a break from work, a sports marketing company from Sao Paulo, Latin Sports, asked Brazilian architect Simone Tasca to refurbish a room to turn it into a chill out space.

An abandoned, humid and dark warehouse was turned into this lovely bright space in two months.

Some cool features include a wall covered with bricks recovered from discarded demolition materials with dry setting and gives a warm, asymmetrical feeling to the room.

At the center of the room there’s a large recovered pallets sofa/day bed with different heights. Even if here it is not intended for sleep, it’s an interesting idea for a studio, an opposite from getting rid of the bed: making the bed into a multi-purpose space.

On the sides, the pallets offer space for magazines or books.

Retro tiles were placed as a mix and match wall in the kitchen, where another neat idea was used: two identical similar, different-width tables were turned into an expandable one by cutting the legs of one a little and placing it under the other. Both were wheeled. This creates a dinning room that can be expanded to double the space in no time.

LEDs were used to lighten the whole space.

In the small washstand, instead of a large mirror the designer decided to use eighteen small ones acquired at a beach fair creating a mirrored wall. Instead of a washbasin, a bucket was used.

The space (via Construir mais por menos) is so complete that it could easily be a 600 Sq feet apartment.

Orphaned Baby Manatee Rescued in the Amazon

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:36:00 -0400

When it comes to adorable animal babies, few species are quite as cute asAmazonian river manatees — or as vulnerable to environmental threats. Each year, countless manatee calfs are left orphaned after their mothers are either killed by poachers or starved due to rampent overfishing in their river habitat. But fortunately for those defenseless youngsters lucky enough to find rescue, a helping hand is never too far out of reach.

Late last week, fishermen in the Amazon discovered this 2 month-old baby manatee helplessly lingering nearby the body of its mother, likely the victim of poachers, and contacted Friends of the Manatee (AMPA) a conservationist group devoted to protecting the species. Last year, the group help save more than a dozen orphaned manatees; this is their first for 2012, reports aCritica.

Working in conjunction with the National Institute for Amazonian Research(INPE), rescuers from AMPA were able to nurse the animal back to health after it had become malnourished without its mother’s milk. Later, the 30 inch, 25 pound manatee calf will be transfered to an aquatics facility where it will remain until it’s mature enough to be returned into the wild.

Amazonian manatees have been protected under Brazilian law since 1967, and are listed as a ‘vulnerable’ species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature — but nevertheless, a number of serious threats persist. Although traditionally manatees have been hunted for food in the Amazon, more recently fishermen have been known to kill the animals for use as bait, and to limit competition for an often scarce stock of fish.

Wind Chime Charges Up With The Breeze For Outdoor Lighting

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:00:06 -0500

Yanko Design/via

What if the pleasantness of a wind chime did double duty as an energy generator that powered an LED light? A team of designers including Chen Yan Zhuang, Zhou Li, Peng Qixuan, Liu Huan-jung, Ke Qi Ling and Zhong Zhida came up with the idea that shifts a wind chime into a energy-gathering device for evening lighting. Yanko Design writes, “The only difference is that the wind movement causes the lamp to harness energy to power the lamp rather than sound the soothing ‘clinks’.”

I think I’d like it better if it included the clinks. This is vaporware to the nth degree, but if we’re in design la-la-land, I’d like to put in a request that the pleasant clinks still be included. Not only does the wind chime generate electricity for the LED light, but the wind-catching board is also a touch board for the user to write down “hopes.” If we can do that then we can certainly keep it clinky.

Yanko Design/via

The Perfect Green Tech Toy for Kids

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:59:06 -0500

© Endrit Hajno

This is a toy for the next generation of kids — kids growing up with smart meters attached to homes with energy management systems always tracking how much renewable energy is coming in, and how much is being used. It’s for kids that will think solar power is second nature, and renewable energy is so, like, duh.

Designed by Endrit Hanjo, Quad is a toy that has to be kept “alive” with renewable energy. It’s like this generation’s Tamagotchi.

© Endrit Hajno

Here’s the description:

Quad is an interactive toy that uses solar and wind energy to sustain its life level. The child is responsible in keeping quad charged at all times for it to live. Quad uses bluetooth technology that synchronizes its solar and wind data to an online game. Here children can compete in who sustains their quad best by evolving into advancing game levels. The child can develop responsibility in a fun and competitive nature.

© Endrit Hajno

Okay, so it’s not exactly cuddly. But neither were those Tamagotchi toys. And if this Quad design isn’t training kids to be responsible and savvy about renewable energy and power consumption, I’m not sure what is. This concept design sounds fantastic. Now, to find a toy company eager to do something with the idea…

© Endrit Hajno

What Would It Take? Solving Climate Change

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:42:00 -0500

What would it take to shape a planet on which people, other living things, and the systems that support us can sustainably coexist? For a special issue, Momentum magazine invited experts from around the world to share their thoughts on how we might craft solutions to some of earth’s toughest challenges. Ben Jervey spoke with physicist Robert Socolow on what it would take to rein in greenhouse gas emissions and solve climate change.

What would it take to rein in greenhouse gas emissions and solve climate change?

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is about 40 percent higher today than it was 200 years ago. It’s going up principally because we are burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) and secondarily because we are cutting down forests. Fossil fuel energy represents 85 percent of the energy powering the world economy, and exchanging the current fossil fuel energy system for a low-carbon energy system won’t happen overnight. It could require a century or more if we fail to take climate change seriously. The current fossil energy system is a very strong competitor to any low-carbon energy system we will invent.

With all the talk about peak oil, it’s not surprising that people imagine that the fossil fuel era will come to an end soon, because we run out of fossil fuels. That’s not going to happen. What we will run out of is low-cost oil. But there are a lot of buried hydrocarbons in the form of lower quality reserves (coal, shale gas, shale oil, oil sands and others) that will keep the fossil energy system humming. So we are in a pickle. We will need policies that modify the current competition between high-carbon and low-carbon energy in favor of the latter. We will also need success in research, development, and deployment that lowers the cost of low-carbon energy.

You’ve expressed concerns about the current discussions of long-term climate targets.

The world’s diplomats and environmentalists have nearly universally endorsed a target that is extremely difficult to achieve. A consensus could develop—possibly quite soon—that the very difficult goal will not be attained. It would be desirable to prepare now to discuss some relatively less difficult goal that nonetheless requires, starting immediately, major national commitments and international coordination. We will greatly increase the likely damage from climate change if not achieving the current extremely difficult goal disheartens us and we respond by postponing action for decades.

What is this “extremely difficult” goal?

The extremely difficult global target is known as “preventing 2 degrees.” Let me decode this. To prevent 2 degrees, those alive today and our successors must keep the Earth’s average surface temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), relative to the value of the same temperature before the Industrial Revolution. Achieving the “2 degrees” target requires the termination of the fossil fuel era in just a few decades. Indeed, “2 degrees” is now widely acknowledged to be shorthand for cutting today’s global carbon dioxide emissions rate in half by 2050.

An alternative target is “3 degrees,” which is shorthand for allowing the global emissions rate for greenhouse gases at mid-century to be approximately equal to today’s rate. The fossil fuel system would be greatly constrained relative to where global economic growth is taking it. Large deployment of energy efficiency and low-carbon technology would take place during the decades immediately ahead to facilitate the steady curtailment of fossil fuels. But there would still be substantial coal, oil and natural gas in the global energy system at mid-century.

Not to constrain the global fossil fuel system at all over the next few decades could be called “5 degrees.” It is the only outcome currently contrasted with “2 degrees” in most discussions of climate change policy. “Three degrees” is the middle option, permitting somewhat greater flexibility and caution, but nonetheless requiring immense effort. We should be using the current period to work out the details of the middle option and keep it in play.

Climate scientists such as James Hansen have written that a concentration of 350 parts per million (ppm) carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the “safe upper limit.” There’s a whole organization developed around that number (www.350.org). How do these temperature targets correspond to concentration targets?

Indeed, following the current discussion about targets is a daunting task for the nonspecialist. There is a third way of expressing a climate change target: neither a cap on ultimate surface temperature nor a cap on emissions at mid-century, but a cap on the ultimate concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Out of every million molecules in the atmosphere right now, 390 are carbon dioxide molecules. We say that the concentration is 390 ppm, or 390 parts per million. In Shakespeare’s time, the concentration was 280 ppm. 350.org is advocating a concentration lower than the present one, setting an agenda for the next century or longer. I think any goal that far out takes our eye off the ball. Our focus needs to be on how quickly we shut down the fossil fuel system over the next few decades, a period when the concentration of carbon dioxide is nearly certain to be rising.

You seem concerned that we could implement warming mitigation strategies too quickly.

The “2 degrees” target emerged from well-meaning but one-sided reasoning. To be sure, the faster emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced, the smaller will be the disruptions from climate change—the less the severity of storms and droughts, the less the increase in sea level, the less the acidification of the oceans, the less the damage to ecosystems. “Two degrees” was the answer to the question: What temperature rise would occur if the fossil energy system were shut down at the fastest conceivable rate? A two-sided analysis would take into account the disruptions that come from closing down the fossil fuel system quickly.

One reason we need two-sided analysis is that climate change is linked to nuclear war. A rapid global expansion of nuclear power is a step toward avoiding climate change, but it also can encourage the development of nuclear weapons.

My generation considered our greatest assignment to be avoiding nuclear war. The horror of nuclear war is less on people’s minds today, but nuclear weapons are still seen as desirable in many countries. The more worried anyone is about climate change, the more he or she should be working to develop the international institutions that can prevent the diversion into nuclear weapons of the uranium and plutonium associated with nuclear power. It would be terrible to exchange climate change for nuclear war anywhere on the planet.

Besides nuclear proliferation, do you have other concerns that keep you from endorsing the quickest possible move away from fossil fuels?

Yes, I do. An uncritical espousal of the fastest possible renunciation of fossil fuels is also irresponsible from the perspective of industrialization in the developing world. Fossil fuels are currently powering this industrialization, and plans for the decades ahead assume that the dominance of fossil fuels will continue. An alternative is low-carbon industrialization in various forms. Yet, very little detailed analysis has been done to understand what would be necessary to make low-carbon industrialization attractive.

To understand why such analysis is critical, note that today roughly half of the world’s emissions come from industrialized countries and half from developing countries. To meet the goal of cutting global emissions in half by midcentury, even if industrialized country emissions were to go nearly to zero, total emissions from developing countries would need to fall relative to today. By contrast, emissions of greenhouse gases from the developing world have roughly doubled in the past 20 years. Low-carbon industrialization for sure will require much innovation.

Do you have specific innovations in mind for the developing world?

Above all, developing countries undergoing rapid industrialization need to make energy efficiency a priority. Neighborhoods containing blocks of apartment buildings for hundreds of millions of people are being built today, equipped with hundreds of millions of household appliances. To service these neighborhoods, new roads and new grids for electricity, natural gas and water are being provided. Unfortunately, most of this development repeats mistakes made earlier by industrialized countries. First costs rather than life-cycle costs drive investments. Measurements of actual usage of power and fuel are rare, even though such measurements would permit energy-savings strategies to be evaluated and made more effective.

Aren’t you violating a taboo when you talk about the responsibilities of developing countries?

As someone from an industrialized country, I do indeed find it awkward to lecture counterparts in developing countries about their patterns of development. In effect, I am saying: “Don’t do what we did.”

I advocate fixing the bad habits in industrialized countries and limiting their adoption in developing countries. “Developed” countries can and should pursue energy efficiency much more aggressively—addressing our own poorly insulated homes, low-mileage vehicles, and inefficient refrigerators, computers, televisions and air conditioners. We can and should establish land use policies that reduce sprawl and long commutes.

To sum up, what would you recommend for an overall climate change strategy?

We will know more about climate change in a decade or two, and we will also know more about the societal stresses incurred by aggressive climate change mitigation. It is all too easy to imagine outcomes of addressing climate change that bring societal disruptions as severe as climate change itself. I am confident that preventing such outcomes is achievable. But right now there is too much willingness to pretend that such outcomes don’t exist.

I recommend, first, the coordinated development of ambitious emissions targets and emission-reduction strategies required to meet these targets. Second, at regular intervals, in accordance with the principle known as iterative risk management, both the targets and the strategies would be revisited and revised in the light of new information and insights.

Published in association with Momentum , a print, online and multimedia magazine for environmental thought leaders produced by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment.

Image courtesy of Princeton University.

Rainforest Plant Combats Multi-Resistant Bacterial Strains

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:36:00 -0500

ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2012) — Aggressive infections in hospitals are an increasing health problem worldwide. The development of bacterial resistance is alarming. Now a young Danish scientist has found a natural substance in a Chilean rainforest plant that effectively supports the effect of traditional treatment with antibiotics.

PhD Jes Gitz Holler from the University of Copenhagen discovered in a research project a compound that targets a particular resistance mechanism in yellow staphylococci. The development of resistance in these specific bacteria is extremely rapid. Bacterial strains that do not respond to treatment have already been found in the USA and Greece.

“I have discovered a natural substance in a Chilean avocado plant that is active in combination treatment with traditional antibiotics. Resistant bacteria have an efflux pump in their bacterial membrane that efficiently pumps out antibiotics as soon as they have gained access. The identified natural substance inhibits the pumping action, so that the bacteria’s defence mechanisms are broken down and the antibiotic treatment allowed to work,” explains Jes Gitz Holler.

Jes Gitz Holler gathered specimens of the plant, which comes from the Persea family, in Chile, where the Mapuche people use the leaves of the avocado plant to heal wounds. The results have been published in Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Synthetic chemistry for sustainable production

The so-called MIC value is the lowest possible concentration of an antibiotic that inhibits the bacterial growth. With his compound from the medicine chest of the Mapuche people, Jes Gitz Holler can lower the MIC value by at least eight times:

“The natural compound has great potential and perhaps in the longer term can be developed into an effective drug to combat resistant staphylococci. At this time there are no products on the market that target this same efflux-inhibitor mechanism. We want to improve the active substance using synthetic chemistry in the laboratory. That will also ensure sustainable production of a potential drug while protecting rainforest plants,” continues Jes Gitz Holler.

Jes Gitz Holler emphasises that a commercial product will benefit the Mapuche people. At present there is a written agreement between the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the representative of the Mapuche people, Alfonso Guzmán, PhD, who helped procure the plant material.

Bacteria are winning the race

Yellow staphylococcus — Staphylococcus aureus — is the most common cause of infection in wounds from an operation. However, the bacteria can be the cause of many diseases, from abscesses and food poisoning to life-threatening infections such as infective endocarditis and sepsis. The bacteria have been a major problem in hospitals worldwide since the 1940s, and up to now the drug industry has managed to develop new antibiotics in step with the increasingly aggressive behaviour of the bacteria. Unfortunately, that development appears to be turning:

“For all intents and purposes, the drug industry is not pursuing research into new antibiotics. It is simply too expensive relative to possible earnings, and there is more money in drugs to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes. Therefore, the bacteria are winning the race — resistance increases and treatment options are scarce. Research will have to find new paths and natural substances are one of them,” emphasises Jes Gitz Holler.

Saving Food From The Fridge: It Will Taste Better, May Even Last Longer And Reduce Your Energy Bills

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:25:00 -0500

© jihyun ryou

Fridges are a recent invention; for thousands of years, people lived without them, but had many low-tech ways of making food last. Today most fridges are filled with stuff that would last just as long and probably would taste a lot better if it was never lost in the back of the fridge. They are expensive air conditioned parking lots for what Shay Salomon called “compost and condiments.”

Some are looking at alternatives to such an expensive and wasteful model. Kris De Decker of No Tech Magazine “refuses to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution,” and shows the work of Korean designer Jihyun Ryou, who says “we hand over the responsibility of taking care of food to the technology, the refrigerator. We don’t observe the food any more and we don’t understand how to treat it.”

She has developed a series of modern designs that rely on traditional techniques, learned from her grandmother and other elderly people in the community, the ” traditional oral knowledge which has been accumulated from experience and transmitted by mouth to mouth.”

© Jihyun Ryou

Here is an interesting and complicated example. Many fruits give off ethylene gas as they ripen; a lot of people put their tomatoes in paper or plastic bags to make them ripen faster. That’s why putting fruit is a fridge is so silly, the ethylene builds up inside the sealed box and the fruit goes rotten faster. But some vegetables react differently to ethylene; with potatoes and onions, itsuppresses the sprouting process. Put a banana in a plastic bag with a potato and the banana will be rotten in no time, but the potato won’t sprout. Jihyun Ryou’s response:

Apples emit a lot of ethylene gas. It has the effect of speeding up the ripening process of fruits and vegetables kept together with apples. When combined with potatoes, apples prevent them from sprouting.

© Jihyun Ryou

The designer writes about the Verticality of Root Vegetables:

Keeping roots in a vertical position allows the organism to save energy and remain fresh for a longer time. This shelf gives a place for them to stand easily, using sand. At the same time, sand helps to keep the proper humidity.

Kris de Decker elaborates:

Keeping vegetables in slightly damp sand has been a storage method for many centuries. While low temperatures are favourable for vegetables like carrots, high humidity is equally important. Keeping them in wet sand can be a good compromise…. Just don’t forget to water them from time to time.

© Jihyun Ryou

An egg has millions of holes in its shell. It absorbs the odour and substance around itself very easily. This creates a bad taste if it’s kept in the fridge with other food ingredients. This shelf provides a place for eggs outside of the fridge. Also the freshness of eggs can be tested in the water. The fresher they are, the further they sink.

Everyone in North America stores their eggs in the fridge, but few people in Europe do, they can last for days on a shelf or in a pantry. In European supermarkets, the eggs are not refrigerated. Integrating the water into the egg storage shelf is really clever; according to about.com, if an egg:

Sinks to the bottom and stays there, it is about three to six days old.

Sinks, but floats at an angle, it’s more than a week old.

Sinks, but then stands on end, it’s about two weeks old.

Floats, it’s too old and should be discarded
.
Eggs act this way in water because of the air sac present in all eggs. As the egg ages, the air sac gets larger because the egg shell is a semi-permeable membrane. The air sac, when large enough, makes the egg float. Eggs are generally good for about three weeks after you buy them.

© Jihyun Ryou

This is probably the most well known idea of the bunch, adding a bit of rice to spices; it absorbs humidity and keeps them dry. My grandma did this.

There are more on the designers website and with more analysis at No Tech Magazine, where Kris concludes:

The more food you can keep out of the fridge, the smaller it needs to be and the less energy it will consume. The designs described above show a refreshing way to do that, although it should be remembered that these are artworks, not consumer products. Using similar methods when storing food in a basement or a specially designed root cellar - the traditional way - will give better results.

Smaller fridges use less energy, of course, take up less space and make good cities. Furthermore, these techniques are not relics from the past, they are templates for the future. In the hands of a talented designer, they can look beautiful, too.

mothernaturenetwork: The creators of the Water-Scraper believe...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:00:05 -0500

mothernaturenetwork:

The creators of the Water-Scraper believe that the effects of climate change mean it’s “only natural that we will populate the seas someday,” so they designed this sustainable structure for humans to occupy. The Water-Scraper uses wave, wind and solar power, and it even generates its own food through farming, aquaculture and hydroponics. A small forest is nestled on the top of the Water-Scraper, along with wind turbines, a garden and livestock. The living areas are located just below sea level.

In Madrid over 50% of public fountains have been decommissioned,...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:22:50 -0500

In Madrid over 50% of public fountains have been decommissioned, dismantled or left for ruins. In January, the group ‘luzinterruptus’ decided to create fountains of light all over the city using over 200 small glass jars equipped with LED lights to raise awareness.

Photography by Gustavo Sanabria.

Waste-powered robots: The future of machines?

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:52:00 -0500

Robots power themselves on microbes, rotten food and dead insects. EcoBot-III was able to both eat and produce waste inside its lab environment.

Today’s robots that fly, jump or roll around must refuel or recharge as does any gadget that runs out of energy. Tomorrow’s new generation of self-sustaining robots might keep going nearly forever by grazing on dead insects, rotting plant matter or even human waste.

The vision of robots capable of plugging themselves into the natural world of living organisms has begun taking shape in several labs around the world, and even NASA has shown renewed interest in powering space robots with microbes. But one British lab has already been building on the work of robotics pioneers to create small “EcoBots” that extract energy from microbial fuel cells since 2002.

“Robots that eat biological fuels could find enough fuel almost anywhere,” said John Greenman, a microbiologist at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, a joint venture between the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol. “There is organic matter anywhere on Earth — leaves and soil in the forest, or even human waste such as urine and feces.”

The first EcoBot (created in 2003) was powered by E. coli bacteria feeding on refined sugar. Then “EcoBot-II” (2005) harnessed sludge microbes to break down dead flies, prawn shells and rotten apples. Finally, “EcoBot-III” (2010) showed how a “digesting” robot could also dump its leftover waste, so that its microbes wouldn’t be poisoned by their own filth and could keep powering the robot.

“EcoBot-III is a robot that collects its own food and water from the environment,” said Ioannis Ieropoulos, a roboticist at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL). “It performs the task we design it to do, and at the end of the day, it gets rid of its own waste. It literally craps into its own ‘litter’ tray.”

Ieropoulos, Greenman and BRL Director Chris Melhuish, give credit to other researchers for first showing how robots could use bacteria, and for pioneering the development of microbial fuel cells powered by sludge. But they have pushed the field forward by making robots capable of performing tasks — such as maintaining a circulatory system and wirelessly reporting on their environment while moving toward food, water or light — when solely powered by microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to digest organic matter and dump any waste.

“We know MFCs will last as long as they’re fed; there’s nothing mechanical to go wrong with them,” Greenman told InnovationNewsDaily. “They could go 20 or 30 years. As long as the microbes grow, they can keep going.”

The EcoBot team’s work with such technology has not gone unnoticed. They received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in late 2011 so that they could push the limits of stacking microbial fuel cells that help tackle sanitation and energy needs by turning human urine or waste into useful electricity for radios or other gadgets.

Human waste might also someday help power space robots that accompany astronauts on long-distance space missions or to planetary colonies, Ieropoulos said. On Earth, the robots might crawl through the debris of growing cities, or survive on their own for years in the great outdoors.

For now, the robots remain limited by the power available in microbial fuel cells so that they must sit still and charge their batteries before doing activities in short bursts. But the EcoBot team hopes that each new robot can both shrink in size and have more available power based on boosting the stacks of microbial fuel cells — a goal for EcoBot-IV.

Is Graphene the Perfect Water Filter of the Future?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:07:00 -0500

Graphene - a thin sheet of carbon atoms - along with its cousin, the carbon nanotube, is one of the most promising materials discovered in a long time. It has superlative properties when it comes to strength, thinness, conductivity, optics, etc. We know a lot about, but scientists and engineers are still finding new ways to use it. The latest discovery has to do with a property of graphene that makes it superpermeable with respect to water.

When a metal container was sealed with such a film, even the most sensitive equipment was unable to detect air or any other gas, including helium, to leak through.

It came as a complete surprise that, when the researchers tried the same with ordinary water, they found that it evaporates without noticing the graphene seal. Water molecules diffused through the graphene-oxide membranes with such a great speed that the evaporation rate was the same independently whether the container was sealed or completely open.

Dr Rahul Nair, who was leading the experimental work, offers the following explanation: “Graphene oxide sheets arrange in such a way that between them there is room for exactly one layer of water molecules. They arrange themselves in one molecule thick sheets of ice which slide along the graphene surface with practically no friction.

“If another atom or molecule tries the same trick, it finds that graphene capillaries either shrink in low humidity or get clogged with water molecules.” (source)

This should allow graphene to be used to purify water, removing everythingelse from it and thus making it drinkable.

There might be other technical or economic reasons why graphene won’t be used in water filtration any time soon, but economies of scale should make it cheaper to produce every year, and this superpermeability could make it useful for at least some water filtration tasks (ie. when you need to remove extremely toxic molecules from water and you need to be sure that you caught every last one of them).

Awesome House Raises 20 Ft. to Interact with Trees in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:22:00 -0500

Located in the beach resort Sao Sebastiao (north of the state of Sao Paulo), Brazil, Casa nas arvores is architect George Mills’ dream summer house.

Completely integrated with the surrounding nature of the Atlantic Forest in which it sits, the house raises 20 feet high to interact with trees.

The open surface that was left below allows plants to grow and animals to circulate freely, and the architect tells UOL that birds of all kinds are frequent visits on top, through, and below the house.

In the future, he might build a second story which would be located at about 10 feet from the ground.

Casa nas arvores was built with concrete for cost and logistics reasons: all materials had to be brought through a bridge with low capacity, which made it impossible for a crane to arrive to mount an iron structure, and the architect couldn’t find good certified wood.

Mills says concrete is good for its low maintenance and because it absorbs heat and moisture more slowly.

Inside the home, which has of course tons of natural ventilation and lightning, some repurposed wood from demolition sites was used in floors, windows and furniture.

The sewage and water piping runs inside of the columns that hold the house, as well as the electric installations.

Around 60% of the Brazilian population lives in urban areas located in the so-called Atlantic Forest, which this project sought to respect. “This little work functions as a call to the possibility of approaching the immense and exuberant biodiversity, which is absent in large metropolis today,” says the architect.

Artist Carves Vintage Books Into Astoundingly Intricate 3D Sculptures

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:38:00 -0500

With the increasing popularity of electronic readers and e-books, the future use of hard-bound books also comes under question. While designers have responded with the likes of lighting, accessories and even fashion made entirely out of old books, French Canadian artist Guy Laramée tackles it from a decidedly philosophical — and creative — perspective, carving intricate, three-dimensional landscapes that look amazingly real up close.

Based out of Montréal, Laramée is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, director, composer and anthropologist. Biblio and The Great Wall are his series of sculpted vintage books, which range from ridged landscapes and Zen gardens to actual archaeological landmarks like the Temple of Petra.

While on one level Laramée is finding a good use for obsolete books, there’s also a deeper commentary underlying his practice. For the past three decades, his works have focused on the nature of human consciousness and knowing, and also what he calls the “erosion of cultures,” including that surrounding the book:

Cultures arise, become obsolete, and are replaced by new ones. With the vanishing of cultures, some people are displaced and destroyed. We are currently told that the paper book is bound to die. The library, as a place, is finished. One might say: so what? Do we really believe that “new technologies” will change anything concerning our existential dilemma, our human condition? And even if we could change the content of all the books on earth, would this change anything in relation to the domination of analytical knowledge over intuitive knowledge?

In a way, Laramée’s work with carving out these tomes alludes to an excavation of our over-reliance on analytical knowledge, symbolized by the book. As Laramée points out, our existence — our birth, life and death and who we truly are — is an unknowable mystery, and that “ultimate knowledge could very well be an erosion instead of an accumulation”:

So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are.

Laramée’s website is an interesting read and visual delight. Montrealers take note: Laramée’s next exhibition is coming up at the Galerie d’Art d’Outremontfrom April 5 to 29, 2012.

Environmental Disaster Looms Over Wrecked Cruise Ship

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:09:00 -0500

© ciocci

When the cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground on the coast of Italy over the weekend, resulting in the deaths of at least six passengers, it marked one of the worst incidents involving a luxury vessel in recent memory — but the full extent of the damage may be yet to come. The ship is said to be loaded with some 2,380 tons of oil which, as the situation progresses, could very likely be spilled into the pristine, ecologically rich waters near the site of the wreck.

“This is an ecological timebomb,” says Sergio Ortelli, mayor of the small Tuscan island of Giglio, along the rocky shores of which Costa Concordia became lodged. “This is the second worry, after human lives. I hope that the fuel can be taken off the ship soon and maybe the ship can be removed too because it is hampering navigation. We are monitoring constantly but there has been no spill so far.”

News 24 reports that Italian officials have already begun laying down oil booms around the wreck in the event that oil does leak. Still, the situation surrounding the wrecked cruise ship is hardly under control as its precarious positioning and pounding of waves could result in it sinking entirely, making oil containment much more difficult.

Environment Minister Corrado Clini meanwhile said that the environmental risk has been “our nightmare”.

“The vessel has reservoirs full of fuel, it is a heavy diesel which could sink down to the seabed, that would be a disaster,” he said.

In a worst-case scenario, the fuel could “leak into the sea, contaminating an exceptional coastline and affecting marine and bird life,” he warned.

“We are ready to intervene if there is a spill,” Clini said. “As soon as possible, the fuel will be removed from the vessel. But we have to take into account the precarious state of the ship.”

Costa Crociere head Pier Luigi Foschi said on Monday the company had commissioned several firms to look at the best way to salvage the vessel.

In light of the tragedy, there is a bit of good news. Experts say the fact that the threat of an oil spill is merely looming and not underway was the matter of luck. If the hole in the hull had been four or five metres further along it would have punctured the tanks,” says one salvage company representative.

But as the cost to human lives resulting from the wreck have yet to be fully counted, only time will tell whether one of the worst cruise liner accidents in Italian history will also lead to one of the worst environmental disasters as well

Industrial Piping, Recycled Into One of a Kind Shelving

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:37:00 -0500

We’ve seen pipes reincarnated into lamps and chandeliers, but Dallas-based designer Stella Bleu presents an intriguing re-use idea: recycling old industrial piping into shelving that allows books to be displayed in a whole new way. And yes, these skinny shelves double as lighting too.

Employing iron pipes in a winding form, the shelves are designed to hang off the wall using brackets, creating a modern look that has a bit of a gritty industrial touch to it.

If you don’t have a large flat wall, there are other different configurations available — so if you’ve got a corner that’s in dire need of sprucing up, these pipes might be the ticket.

Of course, Stella Bleu also does the pipe lighting thing — mixed with shelving. Check out these sconce pipes, which double as both illumination and book rack.

Study Finds Warming Arctic Decimating Harp Seal Populations

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:27:00 -0500

Scientists from Duke University and the International Fund for Animal Welfare have conducted a study of the harp seal in northern Canada. Harp seals, the cute and cuddly creatures, have long been hunted for their prized furs. To add to their struggle, the thinning ice is playing havoc with their breeding ground. Female seals depend on stable winter ice to give birth and feed their young in peace. Forced to go to ice closer to land, the baby seals are sitting ducks for arctic predators and human hunters. The seal pups are being forced to fend for themselves before they are ready. As a result, their populations are dropping catastrophically.

The study has highlighted Canada’s need to shut down its commercial seal hunt. Last Thursday, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, an organization of Canadian government scientists, said that Canada should permanently ban seal hunting while compensating hunters and training them for other professions.

“It is time for the Canadian government to face the reality that the commercial sealing is neither viable nor necessary,” said the organization.

Other northern countries have already taken action on the harp seal issue. Russia recently banned the import of harp seal pelts. The European Union only allows seal products from Inuit communities, not Western commercial hunting.

The Duke University study tracked sea ice cover in all four harp seal breeding grounds of the North Atlantic. Since 1979, the ice cover decreased by up 6 percent each decade. In particularly low sea ice years, the scientists estimate that nearly all of the seal pups die. In 2011, up to 80 percent of baby seals were believed to have died, according to the department of fisheries and oceans.

Stable sea ice is required for female harp seals to nurse their young until the pups are able to hunt on their own. During their breeding season in February and March, they seek thicker and older patches of ice.

During this time, thousands return to traditional breeding grounds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Newfoundland, despite the thinning ice. To save themselves, they will need to go to areas with more stable ice such as those off eastern Greenland.

“There’s only so much ice out there, and declines in the quantity and quality of it across the region, coupled with the earlier arrival of spring ice breakup, is literally leaving these populations on thin ice,” Duke University researcher, David Johnston said. “It may take years of good ice and steady population gains to make up for the heavy losses sustained during the recent string of bad ice years in eastern Canada.”

The study has been published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Lexus Debuts LF-LC Sporty 2+2 Hybrid Coupe Concept Car at 2012 Detroit Auto Show

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:02:00 -0500

© Toyota

Pretty, But It Should Be 100% Electric…

Toyota’s luxury division, Lexus, has been pretty good at putting hybrid drivetrains in its cars, giving them better fuel economy and low smog-forming emissions than most competing models. But what would be really nice is if they pushed a bit further and starting making fully electric cars (or even plug-in hybrids). Sadly, the latest concept car by Lexus doesn’t go quite that far and sticks with just a conventional gas-electric hybrid drivetrain. It’s not bad per se, but I’d be a lot more excited if they had come out with a 100% electric sporty model with a 150+ miles range that hinted at competition with Tesla’s Model S.

© Toyota

Lexus LF-LC hybrid Concept

So the LF-LC (who picks these names?) is 2+2 sporty coupe. Lexus claims that it’s “showcasing the future design direction for Lexus with an emphasis on a driver-focused vehicle” and “displays the new Lexus design language in its bold interpretation of the signature Lexus spindle grille and rear architecture. Sumptuous curves blend smoothly into dynamic angles, creating an inviting display of lines, shadows and corners.”

Sadly for us, there are not many details about the hybrid drivetrain or fuel economy. All we know is that it’s the “Advanced Lexus Hybrid Drive”, which probably means that it’s the same technology that can be found in other Lexus hybrids. I’m hoping that if it ever becomes a production model, that it will at least have a plug-in option; no so much because I expect tons of them to sell and that it’ll make a big difference to the environment, but because if Toyota/Lexus engineers are working on these technologies, we’ll see them appear more quickly in cheaper and more mainstream models where they can really make a difference (don’t get me wrong: It’s better to walk, bike, or take transit, but as long as there are cars out there, they should be as clean as possible).

There isn’t too much else to say about it, so let’s look at some pretty pictures!

© Toyota

Trash Amp Turns Junk Into “Ridiculously Loud”...

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:52:00 -0500

Trash Amp Turns Junk Into “Ridiculously Loud” Speakers

One of the things I love most about Maker Faire is the wide variety of projects made from what would normally be considered trash. After all, to makers, trash is simply raw materials that other people keep putting into buckets on the street. One such upcycling project is Trash Amp, which is transforming everything from soda cans to Chinese take-out boxes into speakers for your music. Trash Amps are essentially a small electronic insert that you can place into items you might normally place in the recycling bin, to make them in to unique speakers. The Trash Amps insert is not cheap — it goes for $50 on the website. Oddly, you can also buy cans for $3.99 from the website though I’m not sure why you would… it’d be a lot cheaper to go filch a can from someone’s recycling bin.

The iPad-Controlled Biome Terrarium For Green Thumb Geeks

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:32:00 -0500

Computer-controlled garden concepts are surprisingly common. It seems we are always looking for a way to have the lush, green plants without the effort of keeping them alive. But what if we looked at it from a different perspective — with the computer controls helping not just to keep the plants alive, but to help you thrive as well? That’s the thinking behind this design from Samuel Wilkinson.

The Biome terrarium is controlled with an iPhone or iPad app, which as Unpluggd puts it, is run as “a sort of meditative-escapist alternative to the typical entertainment or task oriented app. Instead of trying to deal with angry avian combatants or update a social network, Wilkinson’s concept connects iPad/iPhone with a bio-feedback system for ‘digital downtime’, conceived with plant growth promoting lighting and customizable settings specific to the type of flora placed inside.”

The digital downtime is a way to use our technology for something peaceful, relaxing, and nurturing rather than for gaming, scheduling yet more meetings, or answering texts and emails.

The tabeletop ecosystem that’s nutrient, temperature, lighting, and water levels can all be monitored and adjusted with the iPad app. You have to invest time and thought into monitoring the ecosystem, paying attention to what it needs or what it lacks and making adjustments that will show over time, rather than with an instant update.

“This could either act as an introduction to non-green-fingered people who love gadgets, or just be a small garden for plants that need a very sensitive environment,” the London-based designer told Co.Design. “Over time,” he says, “you get a therapeutic reward for unconnecting for one or two hours a day.”

The design was part of Slow Tech exhibition, a part of the London Design Festival with a mission we love: “As a response to today’s hyper-connectivity and constant communication via digital technology and social networks, Slow Tech explores the importance of stepping away from our shiny monitor screens and taking time off the communication channels.”

This gadget is just a prototype thus far, but we could see it becoming a real product for people who want to garden and connect with nature in a less traditional way.