Growing the ultimate tree house
Shaping trees isn’t a new pastime, but bending a living tree root into a fully-fledged house probably sounds a little far fetched. But Gordon Glaze says it's soon going to happen. He is now hunting Australia for a suitable site to prove his concept, with the Israel-developed technology already used to create a host of other useful objects.
Decorative topiary and bonsais plants are a dime a dozen, and shaping trees into objects such as chairs and tables – while certainly not common place – is clearly possible: check out some amazing furniture a Queensland couple has grown from plum trees at www.pooktre.com
The trick with the new technology Glaze is helping to pioneer, however, is it doesn’t rely on training a normal tree branch into position. Instead it takes advantage of the phenomenon of aerial root development, with malleable roots grown in the air, bent to a desired shape, and then taught to harden into a solid structure. Glaze said his inspiration came while looking at curtain figs on Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands. The massive structures, up to seven stories tall, start out as wispy aerial roots that finally harden into solid wood once they reach the ground.
The original research around turning this phenomenon to a commercial application was conducted at the Sarah Racine Root Research Laboratory at Tel Aviv University, the first and largest “aeroponics” lab in the world. Some $250,000 has already been pumped into the concept. Now commercial applications of the research are being developed by Plantware, a company founded in 2002, and CEO Glaze claims he has the technology ready, the funding in place, and all he needs now is a suitable site to prove he can build a house from a living tree – preferably in northern Australia where plant growth is fastest.
So how long would it take to grow a home? Glaze won’t put a figure on the complete time to move in – he wants to ensure a raft of sustainable features go into this first prototype – but he reckons the load bearing structures can be grown in just one year. Claiming his technique can effectively provide seven year’s worth of wood growth in just 12 months, he says the key behind his whole technology is “extreme acceleration of the thickening process”.
While he searches out an Australian house site, back in Israel a new $100,000 facility is being constructed to start mass producing living items like park benches, bus shelters, children’s play equipment and decorative indoor features such as coat racks, toilet roll holders and umbrella stands.
The company will sell a set of malleable tree roots – which are very cheap to produce – along with a frame in the desired product shape. Made from whatever support material is cheapest (probably plastic or fibreglass), the template is removed and returned as soon as the wood hardens enough to support its desired function. The hardening process begins as soon as the roots are planted into soil, with chemical signals sent to the plant instructing it to start solidifying.
If it still all sounds too unbelievable, check out the photo gallery on the Plantware http://www.plantware.org/gallery.htm On display is a mixture of real structures and conceptual drawings. Which are real? Let's just say you might find one of them in an Israeli bathroom, and another marking the entrance to Tel Aviv University.
Story from www.EnvironmentalManagementNews.net
World's fastest computer built from video game chips
By using computer chips designed for a video game console, the US Department of Energy has claimed a new record for the fastest computer in the world.
Built from 13,000 of the Cell processors first used in the PlayStation 3 console, teamed up with nearly 7,000 AMD processors designed for desktop computers, the "RoadRunner" can process information at speeds around twice as fast as the previous fastest computer.
RoadRunner recently managed to run 1000 trillion calculations per second, the US Department of Energy said on Monday, compared to the 500 trillion per second of the best IBM BlueGene supercomputer. BlueGene designs have dominated and topped the TOP500 rankings of the world's fastest computers for years, but now look to have lost the top spot.
A trillion calculations per second is known as a teraflop. RoadRunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US, has become the world's first petaflop computer.
A spokesperson for the lab said that RoadRunner's daily output was equivalent to each of the 6 billion people on earth using a calculator to crunch numbers for 24 hours a day for 46 years.
"Roadrunner will be used by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear
Security Administration to perform calculations that vastly improve the ability to certify that the US nuclear weapons stockpile is reliable without conducting underground nuclear tests," the department said in a statement.
"Roadrunner will also contribute to solving our global energy challenges, and open new windows of knowledge in the basic scientific research fields," it added.
Story provided by Glen Moore of Wollongong Science Centre and Planetarium (http://sciencecentre.uow.edu.au) and sourced from NewScientist.com news service.
Recycling in businesses to become easier?
The National Packaging Covenant (NPC) is tipping a “revolution” in the way SME waste is handled after helping set up a $23 million ‘Harvest’ program by giving government-backed funding to Transpacific Industries to establish the new recycling service for businesses. Transpacific claims less than 20% of Australian businesses recycle, with the material that does avoid landfill generally limited to cardboard and paper only.
Ed Cordner, CEO of the NPC initiative between government and industry to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging, says this low participation rate is because SMEs have “generally not been offered a complete and cost effective recycling service by waste companies”.
Called ‘Harvest - where recycling reaps rewards’ the Transpacific program follows on from a similar program it established in NZ and is worth a combined total of $23 million. The NPC is kicking in performance based funding of $2 million. “Transpacific’s new service offering is the biggest transformational change for recycling since Councils introduced household kerbside recycling bins in a big way in the 1990s,” claims Cordner.
Businesses will be offered three specially marked bins: Landfill, Recycle (for bulk packaging) and Comix (for beverage and food containers).
Cordner says this will allow “a much greater amount of recyclables such as bulk packaging (cardboard, plastic film and expanded polystyrene) and food and beverage containers [to] be captured from the Commercial & Industrial waste stream – one of the largest waste streams in Australia.”
The NPC anticipates 80,000 tonnes of packaging waste will be diverted from landfill over the next 22 months through the new recycling service. Transpacific head Terry Peabody says his company is “committed to working together long term” with the NPC.
“Every person running a business should have the opportunity to recycle in a cost effective way, just as we do so at home. We appreciate the support of the Covenant to help us provide this new service,” he says.
Sourced from www.EnvironmentalManagementNews.net
Engaging with the CSIRO
It can be difficult for small-medium businesses to navigate and access Australia’s science and technology sector. A FREE seminar will explain how to access and engage with CSIRO and its partners to identify “breakthrough” technology solutions and advanced product opportunities for your business.
Hear from a leading Australian company that has benefited from engagement with CSIRO. Come and take a look at CSIRO North Ryde and meet with some of Australia’s leading researchers. If you’re interested, take a short tour of the Life Sciences labs.
The seminar will include the following presentations:
CSIRO & Australian Nano Business Forum: Practical technology engagement opportunities and steps for SMEs
Portland Orthopaedic: Benefits from engaging with CSIRO and its partners
Department of State and Regional Development, Office for Science & Medical Research, AusIndustry and Enterprise Connect: Government grants and programs offering advice and financial support for innovation
City of Ryde: Economic development in the Ryde region
Date: 17 Sep 2008 8.30 AM to 1.30 PM, including light lunch
Venue: CSIRO Riverside Centre, 11 Julius Avenue, North Ryde
Hosted by: CSIRO, Australian Nano Business Forum, Department of State and Regional Development and City of Ryde.
For more details and to register go to: http://www.smallbusinessmonth.nsw.gov.au/Events.aspx?eventid=331
Contact: Ron Mack, CSIRO SME Engagement, Phone: 0412 816 100; Email: ron.mack@csiro.au
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