The grass is always greener – except when it doesn’t rain appreciably for three straight months, as was the case this summer where I live in Texas. Here, the grass was golden brown, parched, dessicated and crunchy like a stale sugar cookie or gauze belonging to a dried out ancient Egyptian mummy. As summer wore on, I found myself desperately squinting up at the blazing blue sky, searching in vain for the faintest hint of cloud formation. We were facing the kind of heat that makes standing on black pavement completely unbearable; the asphalt melts rubber shoe soles and causes low level leg hair to spontaneously combust. As I watched the tree leaves bake to brown and tumble end over end to the ground in defeat, I wished more than anything for rain.

Image courtesy http://howlinghooligan.blogspot.com

I imagine that in places like Seattle, or the Netherlands, where Frederik Molenschot and Susanne Happle developed a new water-activated concrete product they call Solid Poetry, people don’t stand around hoping for rain because the odds are good that it’s already falling from the sky. And now that it’s raining again in Texas, I can see many more applications for this innovative, delightful smart material. When dry, Solid Poetry appears dull and chalky – indistinguishable from standard concrete.  But just add water and suddenly hidden decorative floral and leaf patterns appear, lingering only as long as the moisture level at the surface of the concrete remains high.

Images courtesy www.studiomolen.nl

Happle came up with the idea while on a walk, where she observed leaves blow off of wet pavement leaving an inverted shadow image of lighter concrete behind. She writes:

“Whenever the weather changes the landscape transforms; the light becomes different and the whole atmosphere changes. All materials seem to alter. In my project I explore the possibilities for hidden design appearing as the environment changes. I applied techniques to enduring and solid materials as glass and concrete, so that natural processes like differences in temperature causing condense reveal patterns on windows. Rain uncovers decoration on a city square. The possible applications of solid poetry are various: either at home in the bathroom, in the garden, in saunas and dance clubs, where the humidity is high or public spaces like bus stops or pavements. All forms of solid poetry have in common that they change the whole setting; they are surprising and have a life of their own.”

If you’re like me, now that you’ve heard about Solid Poetry you’ll spend more than a few minutes doodling custom patterns for use in a dream bathroom.  But while custom and cast-in place patterns are possible with the system, the prefab repeating modules are what allows Solid Poetry to scale as a mass-produced, store-ready proposition ripe for commercial distribution. To learn more, treat yourself to this short video:

WU XING:

I am filing Solid Poetry under earth because it’s concrete and water because that’s the reason the concrete goes all magic and mystical.

Cited:

“Beautiful Concrete by Solid Poetry” Ronamag. 11/08/11. Accessed 11/29/11. URL.

Image credit wikimedia commons

Leaves are little factories that power the growth of trees and other plants.  But what if we could use leaves to power our homes and devices? Scientist Dr. David Nocera (MIT) has developed a low-cost artificial leaf that mimics the process of photosynthesis.  He presented the miniature solar cell at the recent 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, stating that the goal of his research is to “make individual homes capable of becoming their own self-sufficient power stations” (Zimmer).  The leaves would decentralize power generation and reduce the need for expensive infrastructure.

Artificial leaves would allow remote, isolated settlements to connect to the rest of the wired world.  In addition, in areas where electric infrastructure already exists, the leaves could function as furnaces, reducing the demand for high-cost oil to heat homes in the winter.  To this end, the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E transformational energy program has partially funded the the research and development of the “leaf” (Zimmer).  Not only that, the artificial solar leaves introduce no additional pollen into the air.

Image credit wikimedia commons

WU XING:

I filed this Solar Leaf under FIRE because it produces useful energy from light.

Cited:

Zimmer, Laurie. “MIT Scientists Create Artificial Solar Leaf that can Power Homes.” Inhabitat.com 03/28/11. Accessed 04/03/11. URL.

Image courtesy pakrockerx.com

I was reminded of the story of King Midas when I heard about a new materials development by researchers in Taiwan led by Yen Hsun Su and colleagues at Academia Sinica in Taipei and the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan.  The scientists are working to find a way to increase the efficiency of LED lights; to that end they’ve synthesized gold nanoparticles and implanted them into the leaves of the Bacopa caroliniana plant, “a perennial aquatic or semi-aquatic creeping herb commonly used as an aquarium plant” (Edwards) in order to induce bioluminescence. 

Image courtesy www.oregonaquatics.com

Apparently “the green pigment in leaves, chlorophyll, is bioluminescent when exposed to high wavelength (400 nanometers (nm)) ultra violet excitation, but the wavelength is much shorter for the photoluminescence of gold nanoparticles, and they emit light at 400 nm” (Edwards).  The team developed sea-urchin shaped gold nanoparticles, (dubbed nano-sea-urchins or NSUs), and were able to excite the chlorophyll in the Bacopa leaves to emit red light.  Theoretically, the light produced by the leaves would in turn cause their chloroplasts to conduct photosynthesis, meaning that no additional energy source would be needed to power the process.  In fact, the leaves would actually work overtime, absorbing CO₂ at night when they would otherwise be … not doing that (Quick).  It might be possible to develop street trees for cities that bioluminesce to light roadways.

Image courtesy www.inhabitat.com

Nano Sea Urchin image courtesy www.conf.ncku.edu.tw

According to Assistant Professor Shih-Hui Chang, “‘light emitting diode (LED) has replaced traditional light source in many display panels and street lights on the road. A lot of light emitting diode, especially white light emitting diode, uses phosphor powder to stimulate light of different wavelengths. However, phosphor powder is highly toxic and its price is expensive. As a result, Dr. Yen-Hsun Wu had the idea to discover a method which is less toxic to replace phosphor powder which can harm human bodies and cause environmental pollution. This is a major motivation for him to engage in the research at the first place'” (Quick).

Would I like to walk along a street under bioluminescent trees that are offsetting my carbon footprint while lighting my way?  Yes.  Do I think that there might be some unintended consequences relating to the implantation of gold nanoparticles into the leaves of plants, a la the story of king Midas?  Absolutely.  What do you think?

WU XING:

I am filing gold nanoparticles under metal and fire. 

Cited:

Edwards, Lin.  “Gold Nanoparticles that Make Leaves Glow in the Dark.” Physorg.com 11/11/10.  Accessed 11/12/10.  URL.

Quick, Darren. “Gold Nanoparticles turn Trees into Street Lights.” Gizmag.com 11/11/10.  Accessed 11/12/10.  URL.