ImaginativePRO Blog

GARDEN IN A BOTTLE: SEEDLING SEALED IN ITS OWN ECOSYSTEM AND WATERED JUST ONCE IN 53 YEARS

Still going strong: Pensioner David Latimer from Cranleigh, Surrey, with his bottle garden that was first planted 53 years ago and has not been watered since 1972 - yet continues to thrive in its sealed environment.  (Click Image To Enlarge)

• David Latimer first planted his bottle garden in 1960 and last watered it in 1972 before tightly sealing it shut 'as an experiment'.
• The hardy spiderworts plant inside has grown to fill the 10-gallon container by surviving entirely on recycled air, nutrients and water.
• Gardeners' Question Time expert says it is 'a great example just how pioneering plants can be'.

To look at this flourishing mass of plant life you’d think David Latimer was a green-fingered genius.

 

Truth be told, however, his bottle garden – now almost in its 53rd year – hasn’t taken up much of his time.

 

In fact, on the last occasion he watered it Ted Heath was Prime Minister and Richard Nixon was in the White House.

 

Lush: Just like any other plant, Mr Latimers's bottled specimen has survived and thrived using the cycle of photosynthesis despite being cut off from the outside world. (Click Image To Enlarge)

 

COMMENTARY:   

HOW THE BOTTLE GARDEN GROWS

Bottle gardens work because their sealed space creates an entirely self-sufficient ecosystem in which plants can survive by using photosynthesis to recycle nutrients.

 

The only external input needed to keep the plant going is light, since this provides it with the energy it needs to create its own food and continue to grow.

 

Light shining on the leaves of the plant is absorbed by proteins containing chlorophylls (a green pigment).

 

Some of that light energy is stored in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a molecule that stores energy. The rest is used to remove electrons from the water being absorbed from the soil through the plant's roots.

 

These electrons then become 'free' - and are used in chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates, releasing oxygen.

 

This photosynthesis process is the opposite of the cellular respiration that occurs in other organisms, including humans, where carbohydrates containing energy react with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, water, and release chemical energy.

 

But the eco-system also uses cellular respiration to break down decaying material shed by the plant. In this part of the process, bacteria inside the soil of the bottle garden absorbs the plant's waste oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide which the growing plant can reuse.

 

And, of course, at night, when there is no sunlight to drive photosynthesis, the plant will also use cellular respiration to keep itself alive by breaking down the stored nutrients.

 

Because the bottle garden is a closed environment, that means its water cycle is also a self-contained process.

 

The water in the bottle gets taken up by plants’ roots, is released into the air during transpiration, condenses down into the potting mixture, where the cycle begins again.

 

Courtesy of an article dated February 2, 2014 appearing in Alien UFO Sightings 

FARM 432: A KIT TO GROW AND FARM BUGS AT HOME, TO EAT!

This is Farm 432. It’s sorta like an ant farm. But the bugs aren’t doing the farming. You’re farming the bugs.  (Click Image To Enlarge) 

DON’T THINK OF IT AS EATING BUG BABIES. THINK OF IT AS PROTEIN GARDENING.

As the population grows, so, too, will its hunger for meat. By 2050, meat production will need to surge by 50% to quell demand. The only problem is, producing so much (red) meat is already an environmental nightmare. And we simply might not have the resources to scale.

It’s a house to raise black soldier flies so that you can eat their larvae. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Meanwhile, Katharina Unger is planning to invite her friends over to a barbecue. (Really.) The University of Applied Arts Vienna grad has built a pretty impressive domestic insect-breeding concept called Farm 432. Over the course of 432 hours, with just a few food scraps, she can coax 1 gram of black soldier fly eggs into 2.4 kilograms of larvae protein. And if you listen to Unger long enough, her arguments are pretty convincing as to why we should all be growing fly larvae at home.

 

Unger explains.

“Black soldier flies themselves do not eat, they just drink. And they do not transmit any disease to humans.  Unlike normal house flies they usually do not sit on food and they do not sting or bite, either. They also fly very slowly, so in case one should escape it is easy to catch them.”

But the relatively gross idea has been packaged as a convenient consumer product. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Over their eight-day lifecycle, soldier flies need space to fly around, mate, and lay eggs. In response, Farm 432 has a bulbous sphere at the end, connected to the "fly fun park" nozzles. These nozzles were designed after insect-attracting plants like the Rafflesia, and serve several functions. They waft in food waste from another chamber, convincing the flies that this will be a safe place for their offspring to thrive. And they provide a spot to lay eggs. Eventually, when the larvae hatch inside, they’ll fall through a hole to the food source below.

The flies use the bubble area to live. They lay their eggs in the blue funnels. The eggs hatch into larvae, which fall into food scraps. And eventually, the larvae climb their way out… (Click Image To Enlarge)

Unger explains.

“There they feed on biowaste or whatever you feed them on and wriggle around for around 14 days.  They then want to clean themselves and find a dry and secure place to pupate, that’s why they climb up the migration ramp. This is when they fall into the collection bucket for harvest.”

…to end up here.  (Click Image To Enlarge)

From here, it’s bon appetit. The larvae have a nutty, almost meaty flavor, Unger says, and her favorite dish is a tomato larvae risotto. But as tasty as it may be, and as well as Farm 432 may work, Unger admits that the design challenge is only part of making such an idea a success.

She says. 

“With my design I am proposing a new lifestyle.  It’s about a potential new Western culture of insect eating and breeding. It’s about making people aware that there is a great variety of food on our planet that we rarely consider.”

It’s a convenient tray for cooking. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Through the process, 1 gram of black soldier fly eggs becomes 2.4 kilograms of larvae. (Click Image To Enlarge)

It’s an incredible ecological savings compared to beef.  (Click Image To Enlarge)

Read more here.

 

COMMENTARY:   This sure looks yucky to me, but if you are into eating insects for the nutrition, I could easily see where you could buy a dozen of these Farm 432 units and grow different bugs to suit your individual taste buds.  Nothig like bugs as a garnish for your favorite rice dish.  Yuck!!

Courtesy of an article dated July 29, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design

TWO YOUNG GERMANS INVENT THE "PARASITE FARM," A SUSTAINABLE INDOOR GARDENING SYSTEM FOR GROWING YOUR OWN VEGGIES

A PAIR OF GERMAN DESIGNERS INTRODUCE THE PARASITE FARM, AN INDOOR GARDENING SYSTEM THAT FEEDS OFF YOUR WASTE.

Food accounts for about 13 percent of trash in the United States, the third-largest component behind paper and yard trimmings. Although composting may be the natural extension of recycling paper, metal, and plastic, many urbanites don’t have access to outdoor space or the stomach for composting in their kitchen. Two young German designers have turned indoor composting into a viable option, with an ingenious ecosystem for converting vegetable scraps into soil, which is then used to grow--you guessed it--more veggies.

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Charlotte Dieckmann and Nils Ferber’s Parasite Farm (surely not the most appetizing of names) includes a compost bin with a built-in chopping-board lid that can be mounted onto a kitchen table, as well as planters designed to fit into an ordinary bookshelf. Here’s how it works:

• Once you’re done cutting up your vegetables, simply slide the trimmings into the bin, where worms process them into humus. 
• To harvest the soil, simply shake the grate at the bottom and pull out the drawer underneath; residual water is siphoned into a separate translucent tank for use as liquid fertilizer. 
• Load up your bookshelf planters with soil and seeds, install some grow lights above, and you’ve got a mini farm powered by your own waste.

Click Images To Enlarge

The system is an alternative to tricky hydroponic gardening, albeit a slower yielding and messier one (ick, worms!). Ferber tells Co.Design that he’s looking for a partner to produce the concept, which, after several months of testing, is “working well.”

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COMMENTARY:  There are obviously some limitations to what the Parasite Farm can do, so in my opinion, you would much larger growing bins those shown here for certain vegetables.  Anything growing on a tree you can pretty much forget, but for herbs, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, carrots, peppers, etc., the Parasite Farm could be quite practical.  I like the overall design, but I would keep my "farm" in a separate room.  An unused garage would be great for this.  A basement preferable over an attic.   From the comments posted on Charlotte Dieckmann's website, there appears to be a lot of interest. Now let's sell some. 

Courtesy of an article dated January 25, 2012 appearing in Fast Company

THE WORLD WILDLIFE FUND SHOWS IN SOME VERY REVEALING VIDEOS HOW MUCH OF THE EARTH WE WILL EAT BY 2050

Mother Earth as seen from outer space by the International Space Station crew.

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Om nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom. *Gulp.

A funny thing has happened in the way well-meaning greenies talk about the earth. Call it the Al Gore effect: Faced with so many climate skeptics who deny the reality that 99% of scientists back global warming, the greenies typically resort to more and more wonkish sorts of communication. As if proving the climate skeptics wrong were simply about showing more and more data.

The result, of course, is that the well-meaning message becomes harder and harder to comprehend. It seems to me that there’s no convincing people who’ve already made up their minds. Instead, you need to reach people who simply haven’t paid attention.

Something like this is going on in a rather nice little series of videos by the World Wildlife Fund. The first urges you to think about the connection between your plate, and the resources required to grow all that food:

 

How do we balance the needs of a growing population with a finite planet? By the year 2050, our planet will be home to another 2 billion people. How will we feed them all? Not only will there be more people, but everyone will have more money to spend on food. Where, on an increasingly crowded planet, will we grow all of it? Picture what would happen if we could freeze the footprint of food by doubling the productivity of farming.

We already use 1/3 of the earth’s surface to grow food. By 2050, we’ll need twice as much food.

And here’s another video, urging us to rethink our gadgets:

 

Do you know what goes into making your laptop? Raw materials for electronic goods are mined from tropical rainforests, but as resources dry up, recycling aluminum is key. If a laptop manufacturer only used recycled aluminum, it would take 90% less energy to make the same machine. Imagine what our world would like if more products recycled or reused existing materials.

COMMENTARY:  After viewing the above videos, it becomes obvioius that we must create a sustainable planet.  We should strive to recycle everything.   We should strive to give back as much as we take from Mother Earth.  

We obviouslhy need to grow food crops more efficiently with a whole lot less water.   In a blog post dated  November 12, 2011, I told you about Dyson Award winner "Airdrop" irrigation system, an ingenious device that draws water from the air.  

In a blog post dated August 3, 2011, I told you about Pod Ponics, a small startup, uses hydroponic "growing pods" to produce fresh, locally-grown vegetables year-round.  As fuel prices go up, the cost of shipping produce thousands of miles away rises accordingly. In the past few years, a number of companies have attempted to capitalize on the increasing hunger for locally produced food--we've seen rooftop farming startup BrightFarms and Brooklyn hydroponic farming startup Gotham Greens, just to a name a couple.

In a blog post dated June 10, 2011 I told you the history of U.S. oil imports, prices, production, consumption, world oil reserves and events affecting oil prices.  In June 24, 2011, I told you where the world's oil is produced, how much of that oil the U.S. imports, and why America goes begging for oil.   February 5, 2011, I warned you that the oil consuming world is at peak oil levels, a level of oil consumption where we are using more oil than is being pumped out of the ground by the world's oil producing countries.  

In a blog post dated September 30, 2011, I commented on how for the first time in a quarter century, The Obama administration had successfully raised CAFE standards for light-duty vehicles, from 27.5 mpg in 2010 to 39 mpg in 2016. By 2025, cars will have to get 54.5 miles per gallon. Hybrids currently only make up about three percent of light-duty stock on the road, but sales of hybrids are growing.  Consumers could save $1.7 trillion over the life of new CAFE standards by driving more fuel efficient vehicles, hybrid and all-electric automobiles.

Check all my blog posts on Renewable energy and green technology.  Renewable energy and green technology from the sun, wind and oceans needs to be harnessed and we should strive to to get off our addiction to oil by gradually switching from fossil fuel driven automobiles to hybrids and all-electric vehicles.  

The more advanced human kind becomes, as we develope better and more efficient technologies, from laptops to smartphones to tablets to apps, we seem to forget that there is a huge cost, to our environment and Mother Earth's resources.  The aluminum in our laptops is a great example.  We take too much for granted without taking account the consequences.       

Courtesy of an article dated November 17, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design

7 INGENIUS DO-IT-YOURSELF DESIGNS YOU CAN MAKE IN JUST A FEW MINUTES WITHOUT A LOT OF FUSS OR SPENDING A BUNDLE

Samuel Bernier’s Project RE_ is a playful enigma. On the one hand, there is a clear aesthetic thread that runs through each project’s final form--it’s not hard to imagine spending far too much to buy these things at a high-end boutique. On the other hand, they are all made from household objects and the steps to making them are freely available online.

A broken shovel like the one below, when combined with Ikea light kit, light bulb, 1 small steel plate and high temperature paint is transformed into...

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The Shovel Lamp!!

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Combining a basketball, a strap, a zipper, a cutter, two key rings and some rubber glue is transformed into...

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The Basketball Bag!!

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Combining 6 forks, 6 soup spoons, some polystyrene sheet, a clock mechanism and Super glue is transformed into...

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The Cutlery Clock!!

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It seems that Bernier is at home in this enigma. Project RE_ is an academic work, part of Bernier’s graduation project at the University of Montreal. In keeping with the principles of open source design, step-by-step instructions are available online at Instructables and the 3D printing files and laser cutting data is available at Thingiverse.

Combining the head of a broom and some pens is transformed into...A Broom-Head Pencil Holder!!

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Some empty plastic soda bottles, a round piece of wood and some glue is transformed into...A Plastic Bottle Bouy!! 

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Combining a pair of stereo speakers, speaker wires, 8 screws 2 jerrycans (or similar objects), polyester fill and amplifier is transformed into...

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The Jerrycan Speaker!!

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This is, in a funny way, big business. In August, software giant Autodesk bought Instructables, making a bet on the future of DIY object design as a business. This is perhaps unsurprising. In the same way that GUIs and laser printers democratized graphic design and paved the way for companies like Adobe to thrive, it seems likely that there will be a growing opportunity for products and services that appeal to the industrial designer hobbyist. DIY design organizations like Adafruit or Quirky are growing into empires of their own, perhaps giving us a glimpse of that future.

Drill a few holes into a cutting board and add some pencil stubs its transformed into...

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The Pencil Dish Rack!!

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In the meantime, page through our gallery of Bernier’s designs and see if you can guess what the final result will be, by looking only at the ingredients.

COMMENTARY:   That's what I call quite ingenious DIY inventions that won't set you back an arm and a leg.

Courtesy of an article dated January 10, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

REINVENTING THE CHAIN SAW: WORX JACKSAW, THE WORLD'S FIRST MACHO CHAINSAW

The JawSaw has a user experience that bespeaks, ahem, of manly movements. You know what we're talking about, don't you?

When it comes down to it, the chain saw is one of the most crude, dangerous, and effective weapons in our war on trees. (An estimated 36,000 people are treated in emergency rooms every year for chain-saw-related injuries.) And since 1929, when Andreas Stihl patented the first gasoline-powered "tree-felling machine," the basic design hasn’t changed. But most of us don’t need an Ax Men-level chain saw for pruning trees or cleaning up storm debris; and we don’t want to end up looking foolish.

The Worx JawSaw, released in early 2011, and in time for Christmas tree cleanup, claims to have reinvented the chain saw. It’s not the first mass market product to cover the chain with an actual blade cover--that would be Black & Decker’s Alligator--but the JawSaw’s real innovation is, ahem, a “plunging motion” that requires the user to push the handle forward in the direction of the jaws to activate the downward motion of the blade. Retract, and then push again. Repeat. Get it? That "masculine" act of ramming was a conscious, clever part of the design meant to appeal to those who’d otherwise be turned off by a rejiggering of the chainsaw, which is, after all, a quintessential symbol of masculinity.

 

The design team, led by Paolo Andriolo, is based out of Vicenza, Italy, 40 miles west of Venice. They spent a little more than a year on the product’s development, beginning in February 2009, before finalizing the concept the following April.  Andriolo tells Co.Design. 

“Our intention was to design a chain saw that offered two levels of advantage.  One is safety, because the blade is enclosed in the jaws. The other was to fit more with the homeowner’s everyday uses like pruning or storm cleanup.”

The vaguely piranha-shaped fascia wasn’t part of the process to make the device look tougher than it is, either. Andriolo says.  

“It wasn’t intentional to look more zoomorphic.  We wanted to balance the perceived safety of the tool but also convey a feeling of power, some aggressiveness.”

He says one reason the Alligator came up short is because the device activates the blade by squeezing the two ends together like pruning shears.  Andriolo says. 

“The scissor action was a little female.  So we made a mechanism that is a more macho action.  It’s hard to argue that working a giant pair of scissors, versus the JawSaw’s ramming action, somehow seems much more … male.

This macho attitude is emphasized in nearly every product demonstration. The late-night infomercial opens in slow-motion with two burly musclebound guys carrying their JawSaws like automatic rifles, next to a tough-looking gal in safety glasses. And even the name, JawSaw, dispenses with any clever cuteness. Andriolo says sales are brisk.

One compromise, however, was power: Plug the tiny five-amp motor into a normal 120 volt socket and it’s only about one-fifth as powerful as a normal four horsepower electric chain saw on the market. So, to alleviate some skepticism from the company’s marketing department--apparently the Alligator wasn’t the game changer that Black & Decker thought it would be--Andriolo came up with the plunging mechanism, a more masculine motion to activate the blade.

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COMMENTARY:   Paolo Andriolo and his Italian product design team did a great job designing or reinventing the chainsaw as we are accustomed.   My first thought is that the Worx JawSaw looks more sinister than macho-looking.   The vast majority of buyers are male, so if the sinister look was intentional, it worked to perfection.    

 I don't watch a lot of television, but managed to see the Worx JawSaw infomercial and that the product had a very interesting design.  I have purchased infomercial products before, and have been disappointed with the quality and performance of some of the products, so I checked the reviews for the Worx JawSaw, and sure enough, just like I though there were pluses and negatives.  

Negatives:  One of the big negatives is that the JawSaw is surprisingly heavy, despite the fact that it is electric and has no gas tank. This is especially true if the extension pole is used.  Because of the location of the motor and weight, the JawSaw is unable to make precise cuts to branches really low to the ground.  Another shortcoming in the design is the need to pull on the shaft and push on the handle to make the saw move/slice through the opening of the jaw opening. You don't really see this in the infomercial.  The JawSaw's tiny five-amp motor into a normal 120 volt socket and it’s only about one-fifth as powerful as a normal four horsepower electric chain saw.  The JawSaw is also limited to logs no larger than 4" in diamter due to the size of the Jaw.  

Pluses:  The JawSaw seems to be well-constructed.  Unlike a standard chain saw which has an exposed blade, the JawSaw protects the user from potential harm by recessing the saw inside the jaws.  The majority of buyers were very satisfied, and found the JawSaw a joy to use.  The JawSaw is available at Sears, Home Depot, Lowes and Amazon.com where it received an overall 4.5 star rating. Not bad. 

The Worx JawSaw suggested retail price is $129.99.  See more production demonstrations HERE. More information on the JawSaw HERE.

Courtesy of an article dated January 6, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design