Photo: Michael Hodge /Creative Commons Hate spiders? You’re not alone: These leggy arachnids are some of the most feared creatures on Earth, despite their relatively tiny size. But even these creepy crawlies play a big part in nature’s order — often in weird and intriguing ways. The 10 spiders highlighted here include species that change colors, walk on water, are patterned with eye-catching neon stripes, and have made a miraculous comeback from extinction.
Continue reading …Edith Widder on Mimicking the Glow of Deep Sea Fish to Discover New Species
January 18, 2011 No Comment
The common deep-sea jellyfish Atolla wyvillei as it appears under white light. Photos courtesy of Edith Widder Ever since her fascinating TED Talk during the Mission Blue Voyage , we’ve been in awe of scientist Edith Widder’s work. She’s come up with bright new ways (quite literally) to study life in the deep sea using bioluminescence. By creating a tool that mimics the glowing light from animals like jellies and angler fish, she’s helped marine scientists understand more about these strange creatur… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …A Community-Run Seed Library – Shouldn’t Every Library Loan Seeds? (Video)
January 18, 2011 No Comment
Image credit: BASIL (Bay Area Seed Interchange Library) We already know that saving seeds is critical to fighting climate change , yet seed libraries can prove tough to maintain . But what exactly is a seed library, and how can you use one? Here’s a great primer on one such project in Berkeley. Could our public libraries get in on the act too? … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Whether it is cutting yourself some slack when it comes to your eco-failures , dealing with eco-anxiety or guilt , or just trying to earn a fair wage in a sustainable economy , TreeHugger has devoted many column inches to the idea that to look after the planet, we have to look after ourselves too. Rob Hopkins has a great take on this as part of his effort to crowd-source the writing of the next edition of the Transition Handboo… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image credit: The Naked Garden Whether I am talking about making compost as a form of animal husbandry , or musing on the analogy of compost as a yogurt for the soil , I am known for being more than a little bit geeky about the life in my rotted biomass. But I have nothing on the dude in this video, who can wax lyrical on every single facet of the microbiology that exists in our compost and in… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Friends of Stony Stratford Library via Facebook Mohandas ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi was a famous proponent of nonviolent civil disobedience, seeing it as “a weapon of the strong.” That’s not to suggest that he advocated inaction. On the contrary, he said, “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” Which brings us to the Friends of Stony Stratford Library (UK) who organised their ‘Wot No Books’ campaign and harnessed the power of social networking to get the wo… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Wooden Food Crates Wall In Mexico Shows Cool, Original Use For This Material
January 18, 2011 No Comment
Photos: Talco . Discarded food crates, whether wooden or plastic, are an amazing material we’ve seen repurposed in pavillions , furniture , and mobile spaces . In a fresh approach, Mexican design and architecture studio
Continue reading …Incredible Sahara Forest Project Moves From Concept To Reality With Major Development Deal
January 18, 2011 No Comment
Images via Exploration Architecture – original visualisation of Sahara Forest Project There’s great news for sustainable design innovation this week as the Sahara Forest Project gets backing from a development deal between Norway and Jordan. We wrote about this incredible proposal to create carbon neutral energy, fresh water, food and fuel crops through symbiotic technologies back in 2008. Now, after years of hard work and persistence from the collaborative Sahara Forest Project team, this large scale concept is going to b… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Guardian–the new look The news story in the UK of the undercover cop who was posing as an environmentalist for seven years just keeps on going. This one has legs, as they say. Mark “Stone”, really Kennedy, was the perfect environmentalist who was found out and has now turned against the police, dishing dirt which they say is dangerous to other agents still undercover. Environmentalists say that prior court decisions are now prej… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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