Best bio cell images of 2010

Promiscuous membrane drug transporter by Graham Johnson

Magazine The Scientist has published a photo and video contest by American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) to look for "The best cell bio images in 2010" and here are the results: cool images of what´s purely happening in nature:
Best cell bio images of 2010 - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences

Permaculture and organic gardening

Example of permaculture in the desert of Jordan!
"They laughed and said it couldn't be done..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk

Living Walls: Vertical Gardening

Marché des Halles in Avignon

After Guerilla Gardening now Vertical Gardening. What is that?
Both the term and the subject were invented by french landscape architect Patrick Blanc, who has developed a special module to which plants can be attached quite easily.
The advantage of vertical gardens, or green walls, how they are also called more general, is not only their esthetic quality, but also their benefit for the house to which it is attached and the environment. The plants perform as natural regulators and catalysts for humidity and filtration, while the environment takes huge advantage in better air quality (don´t want to start with Co2 + plants > O2, you know this...)
Vertical gardens will be essentially important for our future planet, as space on the ground is getting rare and precious, so space needs to be used as efficient as possible, which means: vertically.
So therefore, that is a really good starting point for the development of further vertical garden modules and systems.
http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/

Guerilla Gardening: fantastic green spaces in the city!

(by inhabitat.com)

Most people don´t expect any wild green spaces in the city. But there are more and more people that seem to like the idea of having many single green spots where normally, there is only a grey stony house desert.
I think I´ve heard of this method about one year ago and was immediately hooked. Imagine, your new hobby is strolling around the town and putting seeds and smalls plants everywhere, isn´t that too sweet?
But the idea is actually much older: it became popular in New York in the 70s, when the city raised taxes on the rents, and several houses were at risk to be left without hirers. So people became active and thought about what they could do to rescue these houses. They began grassing the houses and the surrounding areas, so people were attracted again who then moved into the once deserted appartments.
Today, guerilla gardening is a sign of political activism, but people do it also out of a desire for more green in general. Or out of a will for a more sustainable planet. To show, how important plants are, and this not only in the countryside, but were everyone can see it. There are more and more green activists, who do guerilla gardening as their personal act of justice towards the environment.

...or doughnut-shaped?!

from Nature magazine

According to a 2008´s Nature article, the universe could also be doughnut shaped. The researchers cannot yet agree on a definite shape, as in fact, several shapes are thinkable. 
The football shape is still in the race though: 
"Jean-Pierre Luminet at the Paris Observatory in France, who proposed the football-shaped universe in 2003, likes Steiner's work. He agrees that the analysis shows that the doughnut is still a likely candidate, but adds that other shapes are also possible. “One must remember that the (football universe) is still alive and well,” says Luminet."
This will hopefully be my last article on this subject!
Read the article here: 
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080523/full/news.2008.854.html

Universe could be football-shaped

This is not a joke. I have found this article on Nature magazine.
The idea that the universe could really have such a perfectly symmetrical structure comes from observations of NASA´s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite.
It was looking back to the universe when it was 380,000 years old, and it calculated radiation data that assumes this conclusion by analyzing the microwave background in the cosmos.
The explanation of the method used here is compared to a bathtub: neither do you have any waves in your bathtub, nor could the satellite see any waves appearing in the universe. Therefore the universe needs to be finite. The best explanation for the non-existence of waves is that the universe is formed like a Poincaré dodecahedral space. Why? Because 12 curved pentagons produce exactly these patterns. 
But, after all, it would be a surprise if the universe was so small. And "it's going to be a surprise if the Universe has chosen such a beautiful platonic form", says cosmologist Janna Levin of the University of Cambridge, UK. 
If the theory is true, then the most distanct objects looked at at the same time, would appear in opposite of each other. In 60 billion light years on a journey across the universe, you would come back to where you´ve started. 
A method how you could also prove this theory would be recognizing repetitive patterns. They appear when background radiation has travelled far enough in space to meet itself again and creates circular patterns. 
Read more: http://www.nature.com/news/2003/031009/full/news031006-8.html 

The Waterpod: a floating structure for the future

This design was made for rising tides for a floating community. Its primary sources, according to the artists, will be solar power and power that´s been generated by a wind turbine. I´m not sure if this is meant to be serious, as the developpers are artists, and they´ve also put a focus on art on the house itself (there are rotating art installations).
According to the organizers, it will ”… showcase the critical importance of the environment and art, serving as a model for new living, d.i.y. technologies, art, and dialogue. It illustrates positive interactions between communities: private and corporate; artistic and social; aquatic and terrestrial while exploring the cultural richness of New York’s five boroughs and beyond.”
Read more: The Waterpod: a Floating Eco-Habitat | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World