WC Archive

Bioremediation is the process of using living organisms -- typically plants or microbes -- to remove toxic material from the environment. Previous examples we've noted include seaweed cleaning up DDT, bacteria removing uranium from groundwater around weapons production sites, and tumbleweeds removing uranium from the soil. In most cases, the bioremediation takes advantage of a natural process within the selected organism.

Most, but not all: SciDev.net reports on work being done at the Peking University's College of Life in Beijing to bioengineer tobacco to bioremediate heavy metals from the soil, and algae to remove metals from water. This doesn't use a natural feature of the organisms, however. Instead, it uses a rat gene involved in the creation of a protein in rat livers that binds with toxic metals:

Notice of two different sets of scenarios popped up this last week. Royal Dutch Shell, the organization that drove the development of corporate scenario planning, and the UK's Energy Saving Trust, an environmental non-profit, have each produced scenarios of what the early 2020s might hold. The two sets of scenarios are quite different, but make for interesting comparisons.

In Jet Stream, Shell gives three scenarios: Low Trust Globalization emphasizes security and efficiency; Open Doors emphasizes efficiency and social cohesion; and Flags emphasizes security and social cohesion. Open Doors is clearly the most WorldChanging-friendly scenario, and it's heartening to see that Shell seems to like it best, too. The full set of scenarios is only available for purchase, but the executive summary (PDF) gives a good sense of how the scenarios play out.

The Energy Saving Trust, in 2020 Futures: Energy and Waste in an Age of Excess, gives us two different scenarios: Back to Basics is a kind of collapse-lite, with power and water rationing, skyrocketing fuel prices, and the wholesale abandonment of suburbia; the Alternate Sustainable Future depends upon a near-term shift to high-efficiency energy use, and reads like they pulled pages right off of WorldChanging, with distributed power, prefab homes, green roofs, and carbon trading. As of now, only a summary page is available; I've written in requesting a copy of the full scenarios.

(Shell: Thanks, Eric Boyd; EST: Thanks, City Hippy)

Back in December of 2003, Alex posted a brief piece on Ingenieurs san Frontieres/Engineers without Borders, a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to providing technical and technological support for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. We were recently contacted by folks from Engineers without Borders USA, a parallel organization with similar goals -- but without any apparent link. It turns out that Engineers without Borders is (ironically enough) not an international organization, but a name common to a variety of national groups operating in a variety of countries.

Regardless, this is a group well worth talking about again. The description at the EWB-USA site captures the mission common across all of the ISF/EWB groups: Engineers Without Borders - USA partners with developing communities to improve their quality of life through implementation of environmentally, equitable, and economically sustainable engineering projects, while developing internationally responsible engineers and engineering students.

Check the extended entry for a list of EWB organizations around the world, from the EWB Canada website.

Michael Lenczner wrote to me suggesting that I check out a recent post on his weblog about some of the larger issues raised by his work at Ile Sans Fil, a Montreal community wireless project. It's a provocative piece, as he compares the value of free community wifi to that of more traditional centers of community activity (such as neighborhood soccer fields). I'm not sure we're seeing that model in too many places, but I heartily agree with his underlying point: the use of these networked technologies by artists and non-profit organizations can fundamentally reshape the way that citizens experience their built environments.

We are hacking the built city.

This statement is based on the idea that as wireless devices and services proliferate and ubiquitous computing becomes a reality, the physical environment (especially the built city) is rapidly becoming enhanced space or mixed-reality. The supposedly seperate existences of off-line and on-line are intersecting and overlapping - most rapidly in cities. [...]

What do you call a wiki project that isn't online and can't be edited by the users? We're going to find out soon, as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has announced plans to bring Wikipedia to print. His goal is to make the collaboratively-edited encyclopedia more readily available to people in parts of the world without computers or reliable Internet connections, according to CNN:

"I have always liked the idea of going to print because a big part of what we are about is to disseminate knowledge throughout the world and not just to people who have broadband," Wales said by telephone from St. Petersburg, Florida.

Issues like funding, distribution and topics were still being discussed but a first printed work could be ready from mid-2006, he added.

Wales also plans a CD/DVD version for use in places with access to computers and local networks.

(Via TEDblog)

We do love those nanotubes, at least if the volume of posts on WorldChanging about their sundry capabilities is anything to go by. If you love those nanotubes, too, you need to put the Nanotube Site on your list. Operating by David Tomanek at Michigan State University, the Nanotube Site is intended to: ...facilitate the exchange of ideas among researchers by concentrating links to sites dedicated to nanotubes. One of the benefits is to provide an easier (or better structured) electronic access to bibliographical information and preprints. Information about providers of nanotubes is intended to increase the production volume and find new applications for nanotubes.

The links vary in specificity -- some are general nanotube-related sites, others focus on particular attributes and applications -- but all are relatively technical. Enjoy.

It's interesting to watch the progress of the "environmental footprint" concept. We've been talking about the idea from early on, and we're hardly alone. The argument that the goal of modern environmentalism should be to reduce one's overall footprint nicely encompasses many of the core elements of new school greens, in particular a focus on systemic thinking and an emphasis on efficiency. The latest appearance of the footprint concept is at 0footprint (zero footprint), a new website combining magazine, information resource, and movement.

Based in Toronto, 0footprint describes itself as "an organization that is creating a marketplace built around a common ground for people worldwide to engage in sustainable commerce," but the market elements are a small part of what they offer. zfp Magazine offers interviews, advice and feature stories; the Zeropages section is a fairly well-developed directory of sustainability, environmental awareness, and green business sites. The least-developed section -- but the one with the greatest potential -- is the Small Ideas project, an attempt to solicit and exhibit concrete, achievable ideas to encourage environmental sustainability:

Galileo is a satellite-based positioning network similar to -- but more accurate than -- the well-known Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS, put into space by the United States, originally limited civilian accuracy but gave the military full access; as noted in the comments by read Jim Studt, since 2000 all GPS users have an accuracy of about 2 meters. Galileo, a European Space Agency system, uses the same overall protocols as GPS (and therefore accessible using the same hardware), but its readings will be accurate to less than a meter. Galileo is set to be operational by 2008. The European Union, in an attempt to encourage innovative uses of Galileo, holds an annual Galileo Masters competition, and this year's winners have a distinctly green aspect.

The top prize went to VU Log, a French company building a satellite-monitored electric car sharing network. As the BBC describes it:

The transport application devised by the Vu Log company in Sophia Antipolis, France, envisages a fleet of "green" vehicles on city roads. Each electrically powered mini-car would be equipped with instant and highly precise positioning equipment. Commuters could use the internet or their mobile phone to find the nearest vehicle, jump in and start it with a smartcard, and then drive it to their destination.

Lots of work happening at WorldChanging central on the book, but that doesn't mean we're not still paying attention to new developments. Here's an update on some recent news in the world of solar power.

DIY Solar Electricity is a UK project to bring low-cost photovoltaic systems to poorer countries and regions. The small panels are intended to replace batteries, but more importantly to provide hands-on experience with photovoltaic systems for people who could adopt solar power technologies for agricultural or telecommunication systems (see below for more on solar telecom support), and to start local businesses.

The organization has projects underway across the developing world, including Peru, Mongolia, Tanzania and Somalia. The group's work in Kenya was featured in a BBC article from last year:

Salon.com, well-established as a progressive political outlet, is increasingly finding its voice in the world of environmental politics, as well. They regularly publish articles by Grist's Amanda Griscom Little, and today their lead story focuses on the people leading global efforts to fight against the effects of global warming -- along with a short essay by Al Gore demonstrating what an environmental "call to arms" looks like. As with all Salon pieces, access to the full articles requires either a paid subscription or viewing of a brief advertisement.

The names and faces populating the "Climate Warriors and Heroes" article cut across disciplines and positions. Readers won't agree with all of their choices -- I certainly don't -- but the spectrum of roles and actions the list encompasses is broader than many might expect. Established names like Gore and Amory Lovins rub shoulders with global figures like director of the China Automotive and Technology Research Center Zhao Hang, University of Iceland hydrogen specialist Dr. Bragi Árnason, and chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference Sheila Watt-Cloutier. The list leans a bit too heavily for my tastes on mainstream politicians (such as John McCain, Tony Blair and Arnold Schwarzenegger), but succeeds in demonstrating that concern about and action against global warming is not isolated to scientists and activists.

Gore's essay also strikes a mainstream chord, repeatedly linking back to Winston Churchill's statements in the era leading up to World War II. The piece is clearly not meant to lay out any new initiatives or draw any new conclusions about the climate; instead, it's meant to rally those who know enough to be concerned about the environment, but don't quite grasp the seriousness of the situation:

The Serious Games Summit took place this last week, and by all reports, it was a worthwhile event (one I'm sorry that I missed!). We talk with some regularity about the use of games for educational and "non-entertainment" purposes, and the Serious Games Summit covered the issue in some depth. (Previous "serious games" we've looked at include A Force More Powerful, climate games, Food Force and -- of course -- SimCity.)

Ian Boqost at Water Cooler Games was one of the presenters at the Serious Games Summit, and blogged both days of the event (Day 1, Day 2). The Washington Post had a detailed story about the event, as well, one that gives a good introduction to the concept of non-entertainment games. The article also tells a story about the utility of games as a training tool:

Freeplay Energy rocks. They're the company that makes hand-crank radios and lights, including the Lifeline hand-charged/solar radio for humanitarian workers. We've mentioned their products a few times, but their new device, the FreeCharge Weza, really stands out.

The FreeCharge is a portable power supply putting out 12V DC through a standard "cigarette lighter" style plug. It puts out enough power to jump-start a car or boat, but can also recharge most portable devices. But what's so cool about it is the way that you charge it:

You step on it.

More precisely, you use the "step treadle," meaning that you step up and down on it for a short while to bring the battery back up to full. If that doesn't sound fun, the Weza is designed to be charged with solar panels and small wind turbines (Freeplay recommends a 30 watt rating). You can even recharge it from a wall outlet, but that's cheating.

Downsides: no direct AC output, so you'll need an inverter of some kind to use typical electric/electronic devices with it; it's not cheap -- few of Freeplay's distributors carry the Weza, and the one that does (C. Crane) lists it for just under US$300; it's also not going to be in stock until March of 2006.

Even with these limits, Freeplay's first non-dedicated charger looks awfully attractive for well-off-the-grid use, and would be a good companion to a small photovoltaic system.

(Via BookofJoe)

British design firm Arup is set to announce that the Chinese government wants them to take their "eco-friendly city" model to up to four more major Chinese cities, the UK Guardian reports.

Up to four more eco-cities will be built, though exact locations have not yet been revealed. [...] The eco-cities are intended to be self-sufficient in energy, water and most food products, with the aim of zero emissions of greenhouse gases in transport systems.

Arup's work with the Shanghai expansion, Dongtan, is underway. The first phase, a 630-hectare development intended to house a 50,000-person community, is set to be completed by 2010.

As enthusiastic as we often are about both the utility of low-cost information tools and the open-source/networking-related efforts of the Lula government in Brazil, it's important to recognize when things aren't working out the way one would wish. Failures can be more important than success when it comes to learning, as long as the same mistakes aren't repeated. A recent article from the online computer magazine C|Net entitled "Brazil's bumpy road to the low-cost PC" is important not because it describes a successful effort, but because it helps to explain why success has been elusive -- and what can be done about it.

Brazil has been trying to make and distribute a low-cost Internet-connected computer system since 1999. Earlier efforts fell prey to poor design (a system without a disk drive, just a small flash memory), political tribulations (the program was abandoned while Lula's predecessor was in office), or the simple economics of a proliferation of duties and taxes -- a PC could cost 50% more in Brazil than its equivalent in the US simply because of extra fees.

The PC Conectado ("connected PC") program started up in 2003, and rolled out its first systems earlier this year. Manufacturers would get a tax break, and users would get a PC that they could pay for over several years. However:

We're accustomed to talk about leapfrogging as a process that happens elsewhere. But nearly every advanced industrialized country has pockets of poverty that are as damaging and as pervasive as you'd find in the developing world. They're also opportunities for leapfrogging -- and Native Wind may have the key.

In the United States, among the locations most in need of transformation are the Native American reservations. Native Wind wants to turn the reservations around by making them centers of wind power development. Most reservation areas in the western and mountain states have some amount of wind power potential. But it turns out that some of the richest areas for wind power can be found on reservation territories in the northern plains states: twenty reservation locations have a combined potential of around 300 gigawatts of wind power.

The Native Wind project is bringing together wind energy experts and tribal leaders to work out ways to build wind farms on tribal lands. Two wind facilities have already been built -- a 750kW turbine at the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation and another at the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota -- and two more should be completed by the end of this year. Fort Berthold alone is believed to have over 17 gigawatts of wind power potential. In 2006, the Rosebud location will be expanded into a 30MW wind farm, and another 80MW of wind farms are in development.

Our future will be built with ink-jet printers. Not only can we print out polymer electronics and solid objects, we can print out biological structures. Last January, I wrote about the University of Manchester's process for building organs to spec with ink-jet technology; in July, I wrote about researchers in the US and Holland using a related process to grow cruelty-free "cultured meat." Now University of Utah College of Pharmacy Glenn Prestwich has created a "bio-paper" that works with a "bio-ink" to build tissue to repair damaged organs. Research sponsored by the US National Science Foundation will look at how well the combination works with organ-printing technology.

The details are a bit spotty, and I'm still looking for something other than popular media accounts. But for what it's worth:

The NSF study will try first to print blood vessels and cardiovascular networks. Once they prove it can be done, the scientists will look at more complex organs such as livers and kidneys and simpler but more mechanical organs like the esophagus, Prestwich said.

The UK's Department for Transport has announced new rules mandating that 5% of all UK retail fuel come from renewable sources -- that is, biofuels -- by 2010. According to Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, The Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation I am proposing today is predicted to save around 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 - the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road.

The 5% requirement would be a 20-fold jump in the use of biofuels in the UK. Interestingly, the mandate allows fuel companies to sell more than 5% biofuels to generate a transferrable credit. The feasibility study put together by the DFT demonstrating that this plan would actually work can be found here.

(Via Green Car Congress)

One of the more insidious forms that loss of biodiversity can take is the reduction of genetic diversity within a particular species. The species itself may not go extinct -- in fact, it may thrive, at least for awhile -- but the individual members show little genetic difference, putting them all at risk from disease or environmental stresses that, in a more natural environment, would only harm a fraction of the species. The usual cause of this plant cultivation. But a report out today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that small-farm cultivation of the jocote plant in Central America has actually protected the species' genetic diversity.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis report that farmers and families in Central America actually have saved genetic variation in the jocote (ho-CO-tay), (Spondias purpurea), a small tree that bears fruit similar to a tiny mango. And they've done this by taking the plants out of the forest, their wild habitat, and growing them close to home for family and local consumption. [...] The authors say that, through multiple domestications in arenas such as living fences -- fences made of plants like jocotes -- crops, orchards, trees cultivated in backyards and forests, genetic diversity in the jocote has been preserved.

This points to one of the less-often-recognized values of small farms (vs. large-scale industrial agriculture): greater likelihood of preservation of species diversity. And this kind of genetic resilience is exactly what we want in a time of global environmental change.

In the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, one of the ideas we discussed here a bit was the creation of a disaster alert system using SMS, the mobile phone text messaging system. Washington DC and New York City have implemented limited versions; now the idea's popped up in Holland. According to CNN, the Dutch government is testing a system called Cell Broadcast to send out regionally-targeted warnings of disaster to mobile phone users.

"This is a more instantaneous way of informing people about what is going on right now. It's an extra medium to communicate directly with people during a disaster," [Interior ministry spokesman Frank van Beers ] said. "If something happens in the center of The Hague, for example, we can select communication points from telecom companies and everyone who is within a few 100 meters can get the information."

Other scenarios could include terrorist attacks, fires, explosions and leaks of toxic substances.

As Taran Rampersad at KnowProSE points out, the main drawback is that this is a one-way system, keeping people in the role of disaster victims rather than participants in disaster response.

How do you keep a large asteroid from hitting the Earth? If you're in Hollywood, you blast it with a nuke; sadly, in the real world, that really wouldn't work. A more considered approach would be to attach rockets and push it gently, changing its orbit enough to miss us. But it turns out that the best approach of all could be to park beside it and just sit there.

NASA astronauts Edward T. Lu and Stanley G. Love describe this scenario in the latest Nature. In "A Gravitational Tractor for Towing Asteroids," the scientists argue that a sufficiently large mass, about 20 tons or so, kept within close range of a moderate-sized asteroid, could exert sufficient gravitational influence to pull the object off-course. You would have to keep the gravitational tugboat parked by the asteroid for a year or so. And you'd have to do it 20 years in advance.

With the gravity plan, a spacecraft would not have to dock on the asteroid, but instead hover above its surface. The craft's thruster jets would angle outward to avoid blasting the asteroid's surface and pushing it away.

As China goes, so goes the future.

A successful bright green world requires a green China. A China that continues to spew tons of coal smoke into the air, tear up the landscape for dams and minerals, and push the adoption of the automobile as a "pillar industry" is a China that could drive the world past the environmental tipping point, regardless of the efforts of the rest of the planet. A year or two ago, the likelihood of Chinese leaders seeing this disaster unfolding and changing direction in time seemed slim. Now, we may well see a glimmer of hope.

The last month or so brought us a bonanza of reports about the new choices the Chinese leadership is making regarding the environment. Some are doubtlessly motivated by wanting to look good for the 2008 Olympics. But many of the proposals look to be the kinds of steps necessary for China to head off further environmental disaster -- big, risky steps, with the possibility of significant benefit should they succeed.

Hit the extended entry for links and discussion.

You've examined the crime maps, scouted out environmental disasters, sought out a good coffee, compared bus routes to real-time traffic, and checked the weather. What else is there to do with Google Maps? How about a game of Risk?

GMRisk is the classic wargame, but uses Google Maps as the playing board. It's more of a "hey, look what we can do!" than a really usable game, at least for now (no AI, opaque interface), but it is suggestive of the varied ways in which online mapping systems like Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps can be used.

As we continue to play with the idea of building a good global environment sim/game, the idea of using online maps as the base of play is definitely something we'll keep in mind.

Neal Gershenfeld, founder of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms and the creator of the Fab Lab project, was the guest on yesterday's Science Friday edition of NPR's Talk of the Nation.

The audio is now online -- check it out!

(Thanks for the heads-up, Judy Galli!)

Here's another indication that the ink-jet future is upon us (and it's likely to be a more palatable example than the last one): Cambridge Display Technologies is now able to produce 14" laptop displays by printing the organic polymer LED material using ink-jet tech. Already appearing in small form on cell phones and other handheld devices, organic LEDs have some real advantages over the LCD technology in your laptop or flat-panel screen:

OLED is viewed as a potential successor to liquid crystal displays, used in many flat-panel TVs and computer monitors. Materials in an OLED display emit light when an electrical current is applied. The displays can function without a backlight, which cuts down on power consumption, screen thickness and cost. OLED displays also offer higher resolution than LCDs.

The screens, potentially, also cost less to produce. Cambridge sprays its pixels on with multi-nozzle inkjet printers. The printers can sport 128 nozzles and come from a company called Litrex, which is half owned by Cambridge.

Another big advantage of organic polymer electronics in general is that they have a much lower environmental footprint in terms of energy required to produce them and toxic material content, in comparison to LCDs and traditional (read: obsolete) CRT technologies.

Once we go to Mars, we'll probably stay. Setting up a permanent scientific station, as we've done in Antarctica, might not cost much more than a short visit, since getting there is arguably the biggest expense. An outpost would surely give us enormous scientific benefits, and would point us towards the day that human civilization isn't limited to a single, fragile world. But just how hard would it be to get a Mars habitat up and running -- and keep it alive?

One way to find out is Scott Davis' Mars Simulation Project, an effort to simulate management of human settlements on Mars, from tiny outposts to sprawling communities. Begun in 1998 and still under active development (the most recent version, 2.78, came out in late October of this year), the Mars Simulation Project is a dynamic and complex application, with a wealth of details including statistics on the health and condition of every single colonist -- sort of The Sims Go To Mars -- and myriad station components, exploration tools, and even disasters. The graphics aren't very pretty, more spreadsheet than 3D game, but it's hard to imagine a richer simulation.

Built in Java, the Mars Simulation Project runs on nearly every operating system, and the configuration files are easy to modify. Best of all: it's open source, so if you want to add your own ideas to the model, you can. We may mourn the loss of the Maxis SimMars game and NASA's "Mars: The Journey Begins," but the Mars Simulation Project looks to be a more than worthy alternative.

Everybody's talking about wind power right now, and it's easy to see why -- a combination of new developments, high energy prices and (in the northern hemisphere) the return of brisk fall breezes put us all in the wind turbine frame of mind.

While we've all been busy getting WorldChanging: The Book completed (can WorldChanging: The Motion Picture be far behind?), a number of wind-related stories have piled up on my desktop. Rather than let them go to waste, I thought I'd give you an old-fashioned bullet point rundown of the developments.

Mobile phones are an engine of leapfrog development, and it looks like another developing nation is moving quickly towards cellular dominance. The number of mobile phone subscribers in Egypt now exceeds the number of land-line users, according to the Egypt Mobile Communications 2005 Report. At the end of September of this year, Egypt had 12 million mobile phone users and 10.3 million land line users. Analysts believe the difference will be more than 3 million by the end of the year; this will represent about 18 percent of the Egyptian population. The Report projects mobile phone growth to reach 21.1 million users by the end of 2008.

By and large, people working to improve conditions in the poorer parts of the world consider microcredit -- the practice of offering very small loans to individuals starting small businesses -- to be a successful tool. But microcredit isn't as well-suited for people starting up riskier ventures; the funds needed are often substantially higher, and the more significant risk involved in the startup would inevitably lead to a greater default rate. MIT's Neal Gershenfeld, of Fab Lab fame, described in his book Fab the need for "micro-venture" services in the developing world to support the greater risk and greater upside of local innovation. It turns out that he wasn't alone in seeing that need.

Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund started operation in May, 2002, with the goal of promoting development in rural and semi-urban India through funding and operational support. In principle, this differs little from any venture capital company in Silicon Valley or London; the main difference is the size of the required funding: Aavishkaar provides equity ranging from "Rs. 10 lacs to Rs. 50 lacs, approximately USD $20 thousand to USD $100 thousand." They've been careful with the funding -- of the Rs. 5 crore (a bit more than a million US dollars ) raised, Rs. 3.5 crore is yet to be invested.

According to Aavishkaar, their focus is on "sustainable financing" (PDF):

Curt Rosengren, author of the Alternative Energy ~ Renewable Energy blog, has started up a new site that looks to be just as good: The Sustainable Future weblog.

I have a blog devoted to alternative energy sources, and I find myself constantly wanting to address sustainability issues beyond its energy focus. So I finally took the hint from my brain and thought, "Hey, why don't I create a sustainability blog?!"

And so I have. Just like that.

RSS feed can be found here. Good luck, Curt!

This is a short entry, but it's notable enough to warrant a main column position.

With the recent increase in natural gas prices, services using gas as a fuel have correspondingly become more costly. This is most visibly reflected in the cost of home-heating (customers in California have been warned that winter heating costs could double), but it affects electricity as well, used in many regions as fuel for power generation. Combine this with improvements in wind power technologies in recent years, and we get this somewhat startling (but very good to see) entry at the Green Power Markets page at the US Department of Energy:

November 2005 - Utility customers participating in green pricing programs that offer some form of protection from fossil-fuel price changes are finding that their green power premiums are shrinking or even turning negative. For example, as of November 1, Colorado customers participating in Xcel Energy's Windsource program are paying 0.66¢/kWh less for wind energy than for "regular" electricity because of an increase in the utility's energy cost adjustment (ECA). Since the ECA announcement, Xcel has sold out of its remaining available wind energy supply and has established a waiting list for new program signups.

In Oklahoma, OG&E Electric Services customers purchasing the OG&E Wind Power product now pay 0.13¢/kWh less for wind energy than for traditional electricity and customers of Edmond Electric's pure&simple wind power program now pay 0.33¢/kWh less.

In a growing number of regions across the US, wind power is now officially cheaper than the baseline electricity rate. The state-by-state ranking of green power programs still shows the October data; it's the page to keep an eye on to see how the "negative premium" scenario spreads.

(Thank you for the tip, Joseph Willemssen, who notes that Xcel Energy spokesmodels still reflexively claim that wind is more expensive.)

I've put in a request for a copy of the article, but just on the basis of the press release, I think we have a new bit of buzzworthy jargon coming down the road. Georgia Tech researcher Kenneth Sandhage and his team have come up with a method to apply biological processes to the manufacture of non-biological microdevices. The release then says:

This study's newly invented approaches for the low-cost mass production of micro-devices could yield unprecedented breakthroughs in genetically engineered microdevices (GEMs) for biomedical, computing, environmental cleanup, defense and numerous other applications.

Genetically engineered microdevices -- you know we're going to be hearing more about these.

Stanford researchers have designed the first microscope sensitive enough to watch a protein molecule function in real time -- and in doing so, they may have both solved some of the deepest questions about how DNA replicates and kicked off an entirely new field of study.

Dr. Steven Block and his team designed and built an "optical trap" microscope that uses the minute pressure of infrared light to hold a molecule in place for measurement without interfering in how the molecule works; the system has an accuracy of one angstrom, equal to one-tenth of a nanometer -- roughly the diameter of a single hydrogen atom. This allowed them to watch genes being copied in real time. And this, in turn, let them resolve a question at the heart of what biologists call the "central dogma."

It's not uncommon for technically-inclined folks to build their own PCs out of basic parts; although it's not necessarily cheaper to do so, one can build exactly the setup one wants, with exactly the components and function. In addition, we shouldn't discount the satisfaction of having put together a useful device with one's own hands. But are cellular phones significantly harder to build than PCs? What would it take to make a homebrew phone that would still work on standard networks? A handful of hackers want to find out.

Surj Patel and Deva Seetharam, in the UK, and Casey Halverson, in Seattle, Washington, are all trying to build GSM-network mobile phones out of readily-available parts, to meet their own particular needs. In both projects, however, the core of the phone will be a tiny Linux computer. This isn't all that surprising; aside from issues of even getting access to proprietary phone operating systems, only Linux would offer the enterprising phone hacker the flexibility needed to get the phone to do something new.

This "something new" could be integration of phone addresses with social networking software to create active phonebooks:

The Grameen Foundation employs some of the most innovative poverty-reduction and economic development tools around: microfinance; biomass-based village micropower; and "Village Phones," which enable rural communities to maintain access to regional and national markets, information and -- most important of all -- family members. Grameen Phone has been wildly successful in Bangladesh, where it started (and now serves as the nation's top phone company), as well as in Uganda and Rwanda.

Yesterday, the Grameen Foundation and Nokia announced a partnership to expand the Village Phone network in Africa:

With tiny loans, financial services and mobile technology, Village Phone provides affordable access in a sustainable manner.

The collaboration between Nokia and GFUSA is designed to accelerate efforts to make universal access, particularly in rural areas of Africa a reality. As part of this effort, Nokia and GFUSA have jointly developed a solution based on Nokia's most affordable phones and an external antenna to serve rural communities in Uganda and Rwanda, the two countries where GFUSA's Village Phone currently operates.

As far as I can tell, this is more of an expansion and acceleration of the Village Phone project than a new venture, but so far, there's little more information available than in the press release (which is identical on both the Grameen and Nokia sites).

The final part of the press release promises that Nokia and Grameen will work together on a large-scale study of the socioeconomic impact of mobile phones on global development, as well as on the sustainability of microfinance -- a good sign that both organizations are starting to think through the longer-term implications of their decisions.

(Via On Safari with El Jorgito)

Kofi Annan and Nicholas Negroponte were scheduled to unveil the prototype design of the "$100 Laptop" (also known as the One Laptop Per Child project) today at the World Summit on the Information Society meeting in Tunis. (WorldChanging has previously discussed this project here -- Ethan gets a preview, here -- I get an update, and here -- my original post on the subject.) I haven't seen any reports yet from the scene, but while we wait, here are some updated links:

The One Laptop Per Child website at MIT has new pictures up of the latest version of the design. The crank (which currently does not actually work) has a definitely "toy" look to it, which is intentional (see below), and the unit itself is actually fairly small. The ability to flip the system into "e-book" and "laptop theater" mode is striking, however -- it's something most laptops costing ten or twenty times as much can't do.

Lower-power microprocessors can reduce computer energy use, but the solutions don't have to all be in hardware. PowerEscape, a programming tools company, has unveiled a utility called "Insight" that lets programmers improve the efficiency of their software with an eye towards reducing overall power consumption, according to LinuxDevices.com. The more the data has to be shuffled around, the more power is needed.

In the olden days of slow, limited hardware, programmers had to work to maximize both processor efficiency and memory use; those habits have largely fallen away in the era of desktop supercomputers. It's just possible that the growing need to improve energy efficiency will trigger a return to programming parsimony, a desire to get the maximum possible result out of minimum possible effort.

PowerEscape's utilities are available for Linux, MacOS X, and Windows XP.

(Via Make)

Ethan Zuckerman is in Tunis for the World Summit on the Information Society conference, where's both an observer and a participant. He's blogging his observations over at his home site, ...My Heart's in Accra. Ethan, along with Global Voices partner Rebecca MacKinnon, are running a workshop entitled "Expression Under Repression" -- and they got a taste of it at the summit.

Yesterday, we were warned that our session could be cancelled by the Tunisian authorities. We also discovered that the session wasn’t listed in the official program guide. Today, we came to the room where the session was to be held and there was a sign on the door stating that the workshop was cancelled. Friends who passed by the UNDP booth on the WSIS floor earlier today heard gossip that the security forces would appear at our session and anyone who attended would be arrested. [...] This low-grade harrasment did nothing to dampen our turnout for the session. The room is literally standing room only and people are listening in through the doorway.

The details are slim, but the UK's Inquirer reports that Japanese researcher Satoshi Kamiyama of the Meijo University has figured out how to increase the efficiency of white LEDs quite dramatically. The new technique produces white LEDs capable of 130 lumens per watt. Normal incandescent light bulbs produce 15-20 lumens per watt; modern fluorescent bulbs produce between 60-110 lumens per watt; and current LED methods allow for a maximum of 60-70 lumens per watt. In short, if this is real, it's a big breakthrough.

Dr. Satoshi is said to be starting up a company to sell the new LEDs by next year.

We're all familiar with the ways in which the chemicals in food can change our behavior, sometimes dramatically (as anyone who has been around me when I'm having a mid-day low blood sugar crash can tell you). But it turns out that ingested chemicals in the bloodstream can do more than change transient behavior -- they can change the way our DNA is expressed.

That's the finding of Drs. Moshe Szyf, Michael Meaney and colleagues at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, speaking at this week's Environmental Epigenomics conference. They found that injecting L-methionine, a common amino acid and food supplement, into the brains of lab rats, could turn well-adjusted rats into easily-stressed, shy rats, by causing the same kinds of changes to DNA expression in the brain as result from rats that are not properly groomed and cared for by their mothers:

In my August post about the LEED Home proposal, I noted that what the US Green Building Council really ought to work on next was a LEED for "Neighborhood Development." Little did I know that a comparable plan already existed: the ZEDstandards checklist, from ZEDFactory, the architects behind the low-footprint housing development BedZED.

Like LEED, the ZEDstandards presents a checklist of various sustainability criteria. These criteria are based on the group's experience with the BedZED project, and hit many of the important points about Bright Green cities we've identified here over the past two years, including product-service systems, sustainable transit, and high density development; the only real missing element is a recognition of the value of "smart" environments. The most recent version of the ZEDstandards checklist can be found here (PDF). Details on the process can be found in the 2004 introductory document "Operation Step Change" (PDF), and the "Roadmap to 2050" document (PDF). The rules have less to do with how the homes are built (although that's there, too) than with how the communities are built.

"Impact of Regional Climate Change on Human Health," a new report in the latest edition of Nature, makes for sobering reading. A combined effort from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the World Health Organization, the report reviews the evidence connecting changes to climate conditions and threats to human health. The study looked at both empirical data from past observations and model-based simulations of future interactions. Unusually, the full report is available to non-subscribers; a good summary can be found at SciDev.net.

The nations that have been, and will be, hardest-hit by climate-related health effects are those least able to respond; they're also the least responsible for the global temperature increases both over the past century and (with the arguable exceptions of India and China) likely over the next. This is not a happy article, or a study full of solutions; it does, however, underscore why global warming is so dangerous -- and why the need to respond to environmental risks can't be disconnected from the need to respond to global poverty.

The World Health Organization now estimates that at least 150,000 deaths each year are directly attributable to the effects of climate disruption. Over the next 25 years, that risk will rise substantially:

We may end up getting a boost to the efficiency of LED-based lighting thanks to lepidopterists.

African Swallowtail butterflies signal each other using fluorescent patches on their wings. Scales on the wings function as "2D photonic crystals," focusing and enhancing the signal by trapping light particles and preventing them from spreading in all directions. This is an identical process to a recent breakthrough in high-emission LED design -- but even more efficient.

"Unlike the diodes, the butterfly's system clearly doesn't have semiconductor in it and it doesn't produce its own radiative energy," Dr Vukusic told the BBC News website "That makes it doubly efficient in a way.

Dr Vukusic agreed that studying natural designs such as this could help scientists improve upon manmade devices.

The US Department of Energy trumpeted the result this week: the DOE-funded “Weyburn Project” successfully sequestered five million tons of carbon dioxide into the Weyburn Oilfield in Saskatchewan, Canada, while doubling the field’s oil recovery rate. The press release goes on to say,

“The success of the Weyburn Project could have incredible implications for reducing CO2 emissions and increasing America’s oil production. Just by applying this technique to the oil fields of Western Canada we would see billions of additional barrels of oil and a reduction in CO2 emissions equivalent to pulling more than 200 million cars off the road for a year,” Secretary of Energy Bodman said.

I'm quite certain that you folks have already picked up on the key underlying problem. The additional barrels of oil put out carbon dioxide even while the sequestration buries it. In fact, as I show in the extended entry, the additional oil puts out more CO2 than is buried. The Weyburn sequestration model is a study in the need to pay attention to the trade-offs involved in quick-fix solutions to big problems.

Given the relative success of the recent War of the Worlds movie, based on H. G. Wells' 1897 novel, I wonder if anyone will make a movie version of the book's sequel from the next year, Edison's Conquest of Mars.

You probably haven't heard of Edison's Conquest of Mars,probably because it wasn't actually written by H. G. Wells, but by Garrett P. Serviss, an astronomer and journalist. Hired by newspaper publisher Arthur Brisbane to come up with a serialized sequel to Wells' popular story, Serviss came up with a story that set the tone of science fiction for decades to come. Edison's Conquest of Mars contains the first known literary depiction of a ray gun and of a space battle, and managed to mix depictions of known science (such as the effects of zero gravity) with a reasonable adventure story. More importantly, Edison's Conquest of Mars is one of the earliest examples of a political debate carried out in the pages of speculative fiction.