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Keep your eyes peeled for this police car in your rear view mirror – the Ford Interceptor, which is a completely badass upgrade from the out-of-date Crown Victoria. Ford debuted its new model last Friday and will soon be rolling these babies off the line and into the hands of police officers all over the country. The Interceptor is based on the Ford Taurus, but designed especially for cops with new safety features and is 25% more fuel efficient.

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Post tags: cop car, cops, eco design, ford, ford interceptor, Fuel Efficient, green transportation, increased fuel efficiency, police, police car, V6, V8

If there were one good thing to come out of the economic recession, you would think it would be a decrease in carbon emissions from industrial slowdowns. Unfortunately, new research shows that’s not the case. Data measured by Norway’s Zeppelin station on the Arctic Svalbard showed that carbon dioxide levels were actually higher this year than during the same period in 2009. The research indicates that despite the recession, carbon emissions continue to rise.

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Post tags: carbon emissions, carbon emissions rise, carbon emissions rise despite recession, COP 16, economic recession, global limits on carbon emissions, International Energy Agency, John Stroem, mexico city, Norwegian Polar Institute, Reuters, Stockholm University, UN climate change convention

David Attenborough could narrate a NASCAR event and I would find it gripping. The guy has probably one of the most recognizable voices in the natural filmmaking genre and his celebrity status in the UK is solid. In a recent poll, the Brits deemed Attenborough a more trusted source on climate change information than either Prince Charles or Al Gore.

So it comes as no surprise that when 83-year-old requested permission to turn a derelict beer garden pub in the UK into a thriving natural space, the go-ahead was given without much resistance. From the article,

In December, he submitted plans to extend his home into the pub and create a wildlife-friendly outdoor space, complete with an orchard, glasshouse and “bog garden” for marsh plants. Although there were four objections to the proposal, most residents seemed in favour of the project, writing to the council with letters of support.

I’d love to know the reasons for objecting to the installation of an orchard, greenhouse, and bog garden over what’s currently just an eyesore. I think it’s great to see Attenborough adding a bit more green to a “beer garden”. I cant think of quite a few in NYC that would benefit from the same treatment.

Scientists recently determined the planet has an unlikely ally in the battle against climate change–undersea volcanoes. A group of Australian and French scientists found that a vast network of underwater volcanoes in the Southern Ocean pump out nutrient-rich water, promoting phytoplankton growth. That phytoplankton plays a crucial role in sucking carbon dioxide out of the air.

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Post tags: carbon sinks, deep sea volcanoes, ocean carbon sinks, phytoplankton blooms, Southern Ocean, undersea volcanoes, underwater volcanoes, underwater volcanoes and climate change

Gadget geeks, prepare to get wired in a whole new way — researchers at Korea University in Seoul recently discovered a way to transmit data directly through the human body at broadband speeds by using the arm as a conduit. The researchers placed two electrodes 12 inches apart on a subject’s skin and were able to clock data transmission rates of 10 megabits per second. The technology may pave the way for ultra-efficient implantable body monitors that cut energy needs by 90%.

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Post tags: broadband data through arm, Design for Health, green design, seoul, south korea university, sustainable design

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is a designer, artist and researcher. I first met her while she was finishing her MA in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art last Summer. The work she was exhibiting at the final show, The Synthetic Kingdom, explored how design could contribute to a field that most of us find a bit intimidating and distant from our daily preoccupations: synthetic biology.

Among Daisy's latest activities are a residency she recently completed at SymbioticA, a collaboration with James King and Cambridge University's iGEM 2009 grand-prizewinning team and then there's Synthetic Aesthetics. This project investigates shared territory between design and synthetic biology, invites exchange of existing skills and approaches, and makes possible the development of new forms of craft and collaboration. Synthetic Aesthetics is now offering 12 residencies as 6 exchanges anywhere in the world, exploring what design and art have to offer to synthetic biology, and the other way round...

And because Daisy and i agree that the residencies shouldn't be left solely in the hands of the usual suspects (i.e. the RCA alumni), i asked her to give us more details about Synthetic Aesthetics.

Pollution-Sensing lung tumor from Daisy Ginsberg's project Synthetic Kingdom

Synthetic biology is a bit of a daunting area of research. It seems to be highly technical and almost too abstract. How much background in Synthetic Biology would the designers and artists who apply for the residency need?

Synthetic biology is the application of engineering principles to biology - living matter has become a new material for engineering, a new technology for design and construction. The promise is that we can simplify the way we engineer life, making it predictable and useful (though biology's complexity still challenges us, for now). The discussions today are creating a framework that could influence biology and nature for generations to come.

The deeper I get, the more fascinating and complex it becomes and the faster the field is evolving. For the last two years I have been engaging with the construction of this potential future and the ethical implications it presents. My RCA projects, The Synthetic Kingdom - a proposal for a new branch of the Tree of Life - and Growth Assembly, with Sascha Pohflepp, investigate this (both currently on show in the Wellcome Trust's windows).

Dunne and Raby, WHAT IF..., window display, 2010. Image Wellcome

The principles behind synthetic biology are straightforward: standardization, abstraction and modularity. Synthetic Aesthetics is not looking for designers or artists necessarily expert in genetics, rather, how might design and art work in dialogue with the evolving science? We're interested in the overlaps between synthetic biology and design, the ways that we can explore and interrogate science, opening up new thought areas and processes. We're asking: how would you design nature?

Synthetic biology is multi-disciplinary, from computer scientists to mechanical engineers. As design advisor with James King to the 2009 Cambridge University iGEM competition team (International Genetically Engineered Machines), we joined undergraduates in Maths, Physics, Engineering and other subjects in a two-week synbio crash course last July.

After this introduction, the team began designing using synthetic biology. After ten weeks, they had made E.coli that secrete many different colours visible to the naked eye, which we named E.chromi. We experimented with ways design can help science innovate, using design methods of narrative and design workshops to help the team engage with the bigger picture - the social, cultural and ethical consequences of their research. Cambridge went on to win iGEM out of 120 teams and 1500 students!

What are these "embedded residencies" going to be like? Artists and designers will be invited to spend time in labs and scientists in art workshops? What would the outcome of the residency be? A tangible product/project such as "E. chromi: The Scatalog" that you designed with James King?

We want to introduce molecular scientists and engineers to creative design processes, while inducting artists, designers and others to the ideas of rapid prototyping of biology, lab craft, and tools for designing living systems. We're used to artists going into labs, but not the other way round.

We hope tangible projects come out of the six exchanges; collaborations that extend beyond the four weeks the twelve participants spend in each other's workspaces. The outcome may be an object, writing, an installation, a protocol, a new kind bacteria or something entirely different that we don't have a precedent for yet. We hope to exhibit these.

Scatalog: system diagram (image courtesy Daisy Ginsberg)

Scatalog: inside of the display case (image courtesy Daisy Ginsberg)

The work James and I did with the Cambridge iGEM team hints as to where this might go. Questioning what biological computing might actually look like, we designed the Scatalog, a proposal for cheap, personalized disease monitoring based on the team's work. In 2049, E.chromi is drunk like Yakult. Though technologically long possible, it is finally culturally acceptable to ingest engineered bacteria. E.chromi live in the gut, quietly monitoring for disease. When they detect something alarming, they secrete a pigment, easily monitored in poo. We took a suitcase - the Scatalog - filled with stool samples to iGEM, asking the people designing these promised technologies to think about what they might actually look like.

(image courtesy Daisy Ginsberg)

I'm very interested in the Synthetic Biology protocol you designed for SymbioticA. Can you tell us something about the outcome of your residency there?

The first resident at SymbioticA to work with synthetic biology, I was faced with a challenge. Synthetic biology hasn't quite hit the University of Western Australia, instead I found myself promoting it to scientists and triggering beginnings. Suddenly, I was a proponent rather than an observer, which was ethically challenging for me. I found a group in Plant Energy Biology doing related research and worked with geneticist Sandra Tanz, learning and assisting with her protocols. While I would describe her work as synbio, she doesn't as yet. Synthetic biology is the current buzzword, once the hype dies down, hopefully the research will continue.

At SymbioticA, I tried to learn as much molecular biology as possible. After three months in an institutional lab setting - free of the challenges that face DIYbio-ers - could I progress to work on my own scientific research? Could it ever be useful? Can designing wet systems provide greater insight into the issues that synthetic biology presents us? The Cambridge iGEM team made a significant foundational offering in just ten weeks, no longer novices; they are certainly synthetic biologists. As a non-scientist with limited expertise, at what point in the design process can you describe yourself as such?

What is different between this kind of design practice and bio art? Using the term 'designer' rather than 'artist' brings different responsibility. While it should be possible for me to design a simple system at SymbioticA (and I intend to) I want to better understand its repercussions.

Synthetic Kingdom, The New Tree of Life (image courtesy Daisy Ginsberg)

Apart from helping scientists communicate their work, what can design and art do for synthetic biology?

That's what we want to learn! Synthetic Aesthetics isn't about public engagement or trying to make synthetic biology acceptable, rather to explore what synthetic biology can be. By adding the human-scale expertise of designers and artists to molecular scale science, can collaborations inform and shape a developing field?

Growth Assembly (image courtesy Daisy Ginsberg)

Growth Assembly, the project that you developed together with Sascha Pohflepp, seems like a far-fetch idea. yet, it is inspired by scientific research. Can you tell us something about the theory and research behind it?

We were thinking about manufacturing post oil crisis and what synthetic biology might offer this future. Jim Haseloff at Cambridge University works with plants, not bacteria, researching morphology - the way plants grow - with the aim of one day controlling it. He suggested that, "one day we may be able to grow products inside plants."

We started to think how softness and diversity may change the way we understand manufacturing and industrial standards. We sent a call out for illustrators to draw a plant from the future, and luckily found Sion Ap Tomas, new to botanical illustrations, whose interpretation inspired us. Many interesting discussions ensued, keeping in mind Jim's comments about gravity, cell differentiation and plant morphology!

While far future, it is interesting to see synthetic biologists using our fiction of an herbicide sprayer grown and assembled from seven plants (intended to protect this new, engineered nature) to illustrate their hopes for the field.

Thanks Daisy!

The deadline to submit your application documents for the Synthetic Aesthetic residencies (6 artists/designers, 6 scientists/engineers) is 31st March 2010.

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(Posted by Regine Debatty in Arts at 1:30 AM)

Home owners can now look forward to fresher and sweet smelling homes thanks to the launch of the Fresh Wave Green Home Kit from OMI Industries. This new kit contains a Fresh Wave Crystal Gel, Home Spray and Soy Candle, all of which blend purified water and natural extracts.

Every product in the Fresh Wave line is non-toxic, non-hazardous, recyclable and non-aerosol. These solutions are as green, natural and safe as they are effective in eliminating any unwanted odor. They are now available for purchase for only $29.99.

(Source) Press

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Fresh Wave Green Home Kit Launched

• Viewsonic Announces Launch of Energy Efficient Widescreen LCD Monitors
• Tracking Toronto's Ecological Footprint
• Toyota and Gas Station TV Bring You The Prius Neighborhood
• The eco friendly MyCar launched
• Steel swimwear to celebrate recycle week
• Piaggio Unveils MP3 Hybrid Scooters
• Naomi Campbell helps tree campaign
• Motorola Launches Wind and Solar Powered Network

Most of the energy monitoring tools on the market right now gather aggregate information about the overall electricity use of a home.  But the new eMonitor from PowerHouse Dynamics could change all this with circuit level monitoring.  The eMonitor solution combines hardware, software, and service elements to provide home electricity use, electricity cost, and carbon footprint information by the minute.  Past and present information is then available online and on the iPhone (starting in about Q2 2010). 

Information gathered by the eMonitor is detailed and thorough and, in the hands of the right homeowner and home, could help save 5-20% or more on energy bills. 

The single-unit solution monitors 24 circuits, or 2 main and 22 additional circuits, in either the 120V or 240V variety.  eMonitor can also be integrated with solar PV, solar thermal, or wind installations. 

eMonitor has a ZigBee antenna to control various add-on devices, such as smart outlets, smart thermostats, etc, but these capabilities may not be available until Q3 2010, or thereafter. 

According to a press release, Energy Circle is selling the system online.  Purchasers should have the eMonitor installed by an electrician, but there's a video on Energy Circle's product page explaining how that works.  The single-unit system is available for pre-order for $799.00 and includes five-years of bundled monitoring service. 

[+] Learn more about the eMonitor from PowerHouse Dynamics.

Photo credits: Energy Circle.

This new initiative by Sony to help promote the use of bikes rather than emission-harmful cars should address worries of recharging. While others have been slowly disseminating solar charging stations, Sanyo aims to do the same but with a larger scope for their Sanyo Eneloop Bikes.

Sanyo has bared plans to unveil a unique solar parking station which will totally run on solar energy. All converted solar energy will be redistributed to elements such as LED lighting and other equipment necessary to run this operation, while feeding the Backup Batteries as well.

(Source) Ubergizmo

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Sanyo Solar Parking Area at Setagaya Ward

• Vectrix Electric Scooter
• Tokidoki Unisex Eco Solar Watch
• The A Bike
• Pedal Power with the Cycle Sol
• Liza Minelli Leads Snowmobikes for Time Square Lighting
• A Choice between a Bike or BioDiesel
• ZipCar: Car Sharing Brings Green Benefits
• YoGen Hand-Powered Portable Gadget Charger