Just a little rain transforms the desert floor into an entirely different atmosphere. Branchiopod cysts that mingle with the fine desert sand, survive inconspicuously for up to 200 years. Not only that, but these tiny eggs are unaffected by temperatures ranging from below freezing to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.  A curious scientist even went so far as to glue the eggs of brine shrimp (a species of branchiopod) to a space shuttle in a 1980 launch where they survived the tremendous roundtrip completely unscathed to produce healthy animals!

It seems like these prehistoric organisms, capable of enduring ridiculous varieties in temperature and even the vacuum of space, found the secret to survival millions of centuries ago.  Branchiopods include tiny crustaceans such as fairy shrimp, clam shrimp, and tadpole shrimp that have learned to live in the most extreme environments.

This practice of Anhydrobiosis-survival without water-occurs in areas with unpredictable rainfall. Anhydrobiotic desert potholes that collect water from chance rains are the perfect area to find algae, nematodes and prehistoric looking tadpole shrimp (a.k.a dinosaur shrimp) that hatch out of tiny eggs. A spot that may have been bone dry only 2 days ago can bubble with life after the accumulation of a few draindrops.

Branchiopods evolved in waters before insects or fish even existed. These crustaceans survived once other animals appeared by migrating to environments where fish and insects wouldn’t follow-evaporating water sources-and have changed little since then. 

These little shrimp have adapted to cover all risks. Not every egg will hatch as soon as it rains, for example. This is an important adaptation, since the batch would go to waste if the rain didn’t last long enough for the eggs to hatch and the shrimp to mature into adulthood (around 10 days total). The eggs require very specific conditions to hatch; not only that, but one individual’s eggs will have different hatching cues than others: One tadpole shrimp may produce eggs that hatch as soon as they are exposed to water, while another’s eggs won’t hatch until they have dried out and frozen multiple times. With this much variety, at least some of the offspring will make it.

Branchiopoda are just another example of awesome life on earth, delivered in the smallest of packages.

Air power is becoming a more common investment. Huge turbines line coasts and hills where constant winds whip through to spin the massive blades.   Wind farms comprised of these towering blades are constantly expanding. But why focus on building turbines on such a massive scale, rather than focusing on the alternative; less intrusive smaller turbines on a mini-scale? International award winning designer and exhibitor, Augustin Otegui, asked just that question before coming up with nanoventskin.

In Otegui’s patented design, tiny turbines spin and make the most out of wind energy by being symmetrically designed: If the wind’s direction changes, the turbines adapt by rotating in the other direction ensuring that energy isn’t lost.  To make the most out of this system, photovoltaic cells will play a role in the energy capturing process as well.

The design process is covered in Otegui’s nanoventskin blog:

 “The outer skin of the structure absorbs sunlight through an organic photovoltaic skin and transfers it to the nano-fibers inside the nano-wires which then is sent to storage units at the end of each panel.

Each turbine on the panel generates energy by chemical reactions on each end where it makes contact with the structure. Polarized organisms are responsible for this process on every turbine’s turn.

The inner skin of each turbine works as a filter absorbing CO2 from the environment as wind passes through it.”

Ensuring that every section of the skin functions properly can be a tedious process. Thousands of turbines make up a small portion of any wall and if any debris causes issues or a malfunction occurs, a round supply unit monitoring the turbines makes it clear that maintenance is necessary in that area.  Not only that, but the unit will relay how much energy is produced.

Nanoventskin is still in the conceptual stages, but Otegui hopes to incorporate the design into existing buildings, allowing for efficient energy transfer on any structure.  He even suggests adding nanoventskin onto wind turbines by placing the ‘skin’ onto the huge supportive trunk. That way, every single part of the turbine converts wind to energy.

Keep an eye on Otegui’s blog to hear about more recent developments.

Getting fruits and vegetables onto the kitchen table is a stressful affair. Farmers constantly deal with pests, weather changes, pesticides, droughts, increased costs of running equipment and crop diseases. For example, the moth, Helicoverpa armigera, causes crop damage in excess of 5 billion dollars worldwide per year, while the 2008 floods in the U.S Midwest have already soaked through thousands of acres of farmland.

Losing a crop is extremely frustrating; especially to farmers who excitedly bought land and then purchased the popular $110,000 180-PTO horsepower diesel tractor to maintain the now demolished harvest. Architects and agriculturalists believe that many of these issues can be solved with indoor agriculture. Not only that, but by incorporating farming into high rise buildings protected from outside variables, the volume of produce harvested increases dramatically. In fact, one indoor acre may yield up to 6 times as much of a crop as a traditional outdoor farm.

The Living Tower, a theoretical 30 floor high rise farming community designed by Paris based SOA architects, would house;
130 apartments on the first 15 floors, 9000 square meters of office space on the remaining 15 floors, a 7000 square meter shopping center, a library and even a nursery in addition to the gardens distributed throughout the building. Link to the Press Release for more information.

Living Tower architects have focused on specific crop productions and believe the following estimates will represent respective crop yields:

63000 kg of tomatoes per year
37 333 feet of salads per year
9 324 kg of strawberries per year

The building design keeps efficiency and alternative power in mind as well: two large windmills rotating on the roof will generate 200-600 KWH of electricity per annum and will assist in pumping recovered rainwater throughout the complex. Photovoltaic panels will cover the outer walls while inside the tower, ventilation shafts draw in underground air keeping temperatures comfortable throughout the year.

VerticalFarm.com, a website devoted to vertical farming (VF) architecture, provides a list of benefits associated with the technology:

• No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
• All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers
• VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water
• VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services
• VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface
• VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of Evapo-transpiration
• VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals
• VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.)
• VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers
• VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers
• VF creates new employment opportunities
• VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps
• VF offers the promise of measurable economic improvement for tropical and subtropical
• VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water and land for agriculture

There are few things more satisfying than picking a ripened tomato from your own tree and enjoying the fruit knowing that you don’t have to worry about pesticides, importing problems or other issues involved with the agriculture business. With vertical farming on the rise, it won’t be unheard of to enjoy homegrown strawberries while snow piles up on the busy city streets below.

Companies are looking to landfills to make their products more “green” by using recycled materials that would otherwise end up wasted.  Trucks overflowing with plastics, glass or rubber bring the products to companies instead of dumps. (Ideally these trucks would also run on the biofuel created by the landfill,  but that’s another story.) Recycled glass, for example, is used to create exotic mosaic tiles that can outlast any comparable material. The Mohawk group, a leader in the flooring industry, has chosen to work with plastics and rubber, both of which are incorporated into their carpets, rugs, vinyl and other home products.

Mohawk prides itself on being green and putting a dent in landfills. A nifty calculator placed on their homepage shows viewers how much of a difference Mohawk has made in the few seconds it’s taken to glance at their page. In a little less than a minute the numbers whizzing by denote that:

• 2700 PET bottles have been recycled into carpet yarn
• 31 pounds of tires have been recycled into door mats
• 3100 pounds of waste were diverted from the landfill

Quoted from their site; “Everything we do at Mohawk is green. We’re the largest recycler in the flooring industry, a net purchaser of waste, and leader in green technologies and innovations.”

In Nov, 2007, Mohawk unveiled their greenworks center in Chicago. In a press release they described the unique recycling model:  “GreenWorks Center is the first of its kind to not only process all major types of synthetic carpet fiber — accounting for 90 percent of the nation’s post-consumer carpet waste — but also the only recycling program to recover 90 percent of those materials into useable products…GreenWorks Center will process 100 percent of the carpet it receives, including fiber, backing and latex. It will also manage a variety of thermoplastic non-carpet recyclables, helping to further minimize the amount of carpet that finds its way to the landfills”

Mohawk’s impressive accomplishments since the introduction of greenworks include:

• the design of a carpet tile, free of PVC, that is 100% recyclable
• 3 billion PET bottles and cans recycled into fiber per year
• 30 million pounds of crumb rubber (from tires) diverted from landfills per year

Customers have the opportunity to choose from countless designs and as an additional incentive to buyers, 25 cents is donated to breast cancer research per square yard of carpet bought

Landfill gas is an appealing alternative to increasingly expensive oil-based fuels. This type of biogas is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide that forms a liquefied natural gas (LNG) after being purified, condensed and finally super-cooled.

Linde North America and Waste Management are working together to create the world’s largest waste-to-energy facility in Livermore, California. Biogas will be used to fuel the fleet responsible for transporting the endless supply of garbage to the facility: This will begin the cycle of garbage fueled garbage trucks, where one would not exist without the other.

According to the Linde website “Linde [an international gases and engineering company] is responsible for the engineering of the plant as well as the cleaning and subsequent liquefaction of the landfill gas. Waste Management, North America’s leading recycling and waste management company, is supplying the landfill gas - which comes from the natural decomposition of organic waste.”

Methane gas is emitted when waste decomposes without exposure to oxygen, but methane does occur naturally in the environment as well: The EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program explains that “Methane is emitted from a variety of both human-related (anthropogenic) and natural sources. Human-related activities include fossil fuel production, animal husbandry (enteric fermentation in livestock and manure management), rice cultivation, biomass burning, and waste management. These activities release significant quantities of methane to the atmosphere. It is estimated that 60% of global methane emissions are related to human-related activities. Natural sources of methane include wetlands [accounting for about 80% of emissions], gas hydrates, permafrost, termites, oceans, freshwater bodies, non-wetland soils, and other sources such as wildfires.

Methane gas produced by landfills currently seeps into the environment as wasted energy. Not only that, but methane supposedly causes more damage to the environment than CO2. Landfills are the largest source of human-related methane, accounting for almost 1/3 of emissions. It is only logical to absorb the gas for use as a clean and efficient fuel while eliminating another biproduct of human refuse.

Waste Management claims that “When the facility begins operating in 2009 it is expected to produce up to 13,000 gallons a day of LNG”. (press release)

Time is precious. We’ve all heard that before, and it’s not a happy thought to have when minutes tick away during the day’s unpleasantries: waiting at stop lights, sitting in traffic, cleaning the house,  playing chauffeur to kids, meetings…the list goes on. Much of our time isn’t our own.

It is no wonder that the Roomba was such a hit when first introduced to the market. This little vacuuming robot has saved buyers countless hours by diligently rolling around the floor and picking up crumbs, hair and specks that would otherwise have needed attending to.  Following the footsteps of the Roomba comes an independent self-charging, solar powered lawn-mowing machine made by the Swedish firm Husqvarna.

Couples don’t need to argue over whose turn it is to cut the lawn while business-folk can leave their homes for a week and come back to an elegantly cut lawn. Husgvarna’s ‘automower’ is a futuristic looking device-the first of its kind- that functions on solar and electric power.

Having a robot equipped with sharp blades rolling around the garden may sound like a half-hazard idea, but Husgvarna has taken every possible precaution. Just like with any lawn mower, there are chances of getting cuts if feet or hands find their way under the hood.  Typically, the automower will gently bump into an obstacle, whether it be a tree, fence or lethargic pet, and safely turn around continuing on another route.  When it needs charging, it will return to the charge port until it is ready to continue another cycle.

With the ability to tend to almost  a full acre of grass, and able to transverse the same terrain as a traditional lawnmower, autmower is a cool little gadget to have rolling around the yard while you sip your lemonade and read a book in the sun.

Another major benefit of the device, besides an eliminated chore, is that this mower is environmentally friendly; releasing absolutely no emissions. The fine mulch produced also makes excellent fertilizer and is quickly reabsorbed into the ground. Neighbors will also appreciate the silence: At 63 dB this mower is much quieter than traditional mowers that operate at up to 100 dB.

Costing around $2000, it is a large investment that many buyers have already deemed worthwhile. Thanks to an anti-theft device, owners don’t need to worry about their precious lawnmower getting stolen. As an added precaution, autmowers will only function with their individual charging docks and require a PIN number.

For individuals concerned with emissions, but who don’t want to spend more money on their lawnmower than they do on the family can opt for the battery powered lawnmower designed by Neuton. At around $350 you get similar environmental benefits as you would using the automower, but you have to put a little more work into your lawn.

Modern technology is evolving at a frightening speed and ambitious scientists are beginning to realize that anything is possible. Less than a century ago, if you’d told anyone that people will travel to the moon, you would have found yourself heading to the nearest psychiatrist, no matter how calmly you relayed that information. Claims of talking to someone on a miniature phone, driving around in a horseless cart, building skyscrapers or seeing moving pictures in a box will have harbored the same results. With todays technology, however, even the most phenomenal natural process can be replicated and according to some, improved. 

Volcanoes have been responsible for spewing up islands (formed from massive amounts of magma) since the beginning of time.  It is a challenge imagining anything more powerful than an erupting mountain. However, a now infamous United Emirates Development company-Nakheel-had decided to take on the challenge of creating huge man made islands off the Dubai coastline-without any volcanic help.

Cities have been carved out of mountains and forests, it was only a matter of time before we saw islands erected in the ocean. The first of Nakheel’s projects was the Palm Jumeirah, launched in 2001, with more islands currently being added. Palm Jumeirah is already home to 500 families and contains malls, hotels, resorts, schools and parks. Leaving this sanctuary is unnecessary since it provides everything a family would need to live comfortably. According to the Nakheel website: “ When complete, projects such as the Palm Trilogy, the World and Waterfront will add more than 600 miles of beachfront to the Dubai coastline and cover over 2 billion sq ft.”

The idea of building islands is catching on:  Phuket, Thailand is planning to build Zoran, a man made island specifically designed to cater to super yachts. Spain has proposed a Marina development near Gibraltar, while Qatar has already started building “The Pearl” off  its coast. International Listings shows the top 10 man made islands in greater detail. 

With the ability to create something of such proportions comes an environmental responsibility.  Smaller islands have been built in the past, such as Florida’s Venetian Islands built during the 1920s. These islands, built to house more luxurius real estate, connect to the causway that runs from Miami to Miami beach.

Dubai thrives on tourism and as the fastest growing city in the world, is always adding real estate. The addition of 60km per 1km of coastline gives tourists added incentives to visit the country and enjoy the warm waters. Pouring billions of tons of sand onto the ocean floor does not sound like it is doing the ocean ecosystem any favors, even though Nakheel company representatives claim that the corals in the area where mostly dead and with minimal wildlife. This is arguable, especially with the water now murky from the silt, but in Nakheel’s defense, they plan on creating artificial coral habitats, the sand will eventually settle, while the areas between the developed islands have already proven to be ideal habitats for species of sea grasses. Smaller remote islands will be specially created for nesting sea turtles. It is important to note that turtles tend to nest in uninhabited areas making Dubai’s mainland beaches inhospitable to the species. It is in the developers’ best interest to create the ideal habitats for the local wildlife since snorkeling with dolphins, turtles and fish amongst coral reefs and sea grasses adds to the appeal of living on an island.

Looking at the Dubai coast from space, the expansive swirls of land and palm shaped islands seem out of place. It will be interesting to see whether oceanic wildlife will benefit from the expansion, especially with oceanic experts and conservation biologists giving advice to the development team.