bees breeze.

With all the interest in swarming and termites, what happened to the bees ingenuity from the populous spectrum? In Syria, one of the traditional Middle Eastern construction keeps cool with out electric hungry HVAC systems. These "beehive" homes are located along the Aleppo and Euphrates Rivers. How they work in keeping the inhabitants cool is through their thick mud brick walls that trap in the cool and keep out the sun. Due to the mass they are similar to Trombe Walls for passive solar heating and cooling. They also let little light in but do have some openings for ventilation. The high dome structures move the hot air away from residents sleeping on the bottom.
The walls and exterior skin is used as a translator of energy. (passive) Imagine if the the dirt and bricks were embedded with photovoltaic chips as well or chloroplast-like cells that could not only keep the building cool and warm but transfer the energy to light and power for the inhabitants. This existing "dead" system could have a new life of its own.

Chloroplasts, the organelle that turns light into energy through photosynthesis, have been the long time inspiration for the solar panels as we know them. To this point they are still large and not nearly as integrated as their original inspiration. But let's get a bit smaller. Material scientists at the Nano/Bio Interface Center of the University of Pennsylvania have taken it there. They have demonstrated the transduction of optical radiation to electrical current in a molecular circuit. The system, consisting of an array of nano-sized molecules of gold, respond to electromagnetic waves by creating surface plasmons that induce and project electrical current across molecules, similar to that of photovoltaic solar cells.

Dawn Bonnell, a professor of materials science and the director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center at Penn, and colleagues fabricated an array of light sensitive, gold nanoparticles, linking them on a glass substrate. By minimizing the space between the nanoparticles to an optimal distance, researchers used optical radiation to excite conductive electrons, the plasmons, to ride the surface of the gold nanoparticles and focus light to the junction where the molecules are connected. This plasmon effect increases the efficiency of electrical current production in the molecule by a factor of 400 to 2000 percent, which can then be transported through the network to the outside world. Pretty amazing. These new cells could be infused into even clothing. Just think about it.

getting down to business.

Juan Enriquez is one of my favorite speakers and perhaps one day one of my favorite people. He should be more popular than Paris Hilton that's for sure. Juan Enriquez is a lot of things other than a hero. He is (taken from his bio) a "bestselling author, businessman, and academic, is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on the economic and political impacts of life sciences." He's alot. He is also the Chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy LLC, a life sciences research and investment firm. He is future based with a great sense of wit. The future is coming on us fast, no sorry, it's soon to be growing all over us. Please watch his lecture above.

Not only do the experiments and experimenters need to step up and take a more active role in day to day life, it is important for us as a society/civilization/terrestrials to educate our youth and future business men that real estate is not a reason to wear a suite. Sustainability is not for tree huggers. It's about every one involved in the system. The system is as simple as a transfer of energy from one element/person/thing to the next.

Some of the clients that Biotechonomy has are also amazing. Xcellerex is working on revolutionizing the way biomolecules are developed, manufactured and commercialized. ( Biomolecules are any organicmolecule that is produced by a living organism, including large polymericproteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids as well as small molecules such as primary metabolites, secondary metabolites, and natural products. - wikipedia) Another client is Synthetic Genomics. Here's a quote from the founder and genius Craig Venter:

Work in creating a synthetic chromosome/genome will give us a better understanding of basic cellular processes. Genome composition, regulatory circuits, signaling pathways and numerous other aspects of organism gene and protein function will be better understood through construction of a synthetic genome. Not only will this basic research lead to better understanding of these pathways and components in the particular organisms, but also better understanding of human biology. The ability to construct synthetic genomes may lead to extraordinary advances in our ability to engineer microorganisms for many vital energy and environmental purposes."
- J. Craig Venter, 2003

We are living in very exciting times!

I still have to respond about open source urbanism.

Seeds of Production

To reach the Inhabitable Organism, or InhabOrg, we must map out the scale and the players in making the "monster" a reality. As this blog develops, new documents and maps of where and who these people are will become available. The range of scale goes from DNA and computational biology to nanotech material research on the micro end to the full range of architecture and urban context.