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It may look like a simple piece of plastic, but this robot has the moves! In fact, that’s what it is for -to test out news ways for a robot to move. Developed by researchers at Harvard University, this soft robot was inspired by the movements of squid and worms. Link -via Cosmic Variance
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How many plastic containers does your family go through? Multiply that by millions of families, and you see why they have to be made so fast that this video is slowed down to show us how it’s done. This is from the TV show How It’s Made. -via J-Walk Blog
Photo: Plastic debris found in the gastrointestinal content of a juvenile green turtle captured in Argentina / Victoria González Carman.
Stomach contents of a juvenile sea turtle accidentally captured off the coast of Argentina reveals just how polluted our ocean is with plastic:
About 0.25 percent of all plastic ends up in the ocean. That might not sound like much, but humanity produces about 260 million tons of plastic a year. Tiny fractions add up fast. Oceanic plastic is pulled into the center of rotating currents, or gyres, where it’t degrade, but breaks into smaller and smaller pieces. Some pieces end up in plankton and algae, or drift to the ocean floor. Others are mistaken for food by turtles. [...]
One anecdote in the article, written by biologists Wallace Nichols of the California Academy of Science and the University of British Columbia’s Colette Wabnitz, stands out. “Relief of gastrointestinal obstruction of a green turtle off Melbourne beach, Florida, resulted in the animal defecating 74 foreign objects over a period of a month, including four types of latex balloons, different types of hard plastic, a piece of carpet-like material, and two 2- to 4-mm tar balls, they wrote.
(Image credit: Flickr user racineur)
A previously unacknowledged plant family of significant economic importance plants has been flourishing around us for many years. The fact that this immense and diverse family has been heretofore ignored by most botanists is astonishing—its members are found worldwide in nearly every society. This family is more than a botanical curiosity. It is a scientific conundrum, as the taxa:
In this study, conducted over approximately six years, we elucidate the first full description and review of this fascinating taxon, heretofore named Simulacraceae. The distribution, ecology, taxonomy, ethnobotany and chemistry of this widespread family are herein presented. We have identified more than 80 species, and determined that this cosmopolitan family has a varied ecology. This report delineates seventeen genera (Calciumcarbonatia, Celadonica, Conglomeratium, Dentumadhesivium, Ductusadhesivia, Granitus, Lignus, Metallicus, Papyroidia, Paraffinius, Photophyta, Plasticus, Polystyrin, Prophylactica, Simulacra, Silicus and Textileria).
Figure 1. Performing a species inventory in the
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We used opportunistic sampling as our principal method for the study of the simulacraceae. We first became acutely interested in the simulacraceae during the 2000 Society for Economic Botany (SEB) annual meeting, when we began pondering the identities of ornamental arrangements. At the 2001 SEB meeting in Honolulu, Hawai’i, our interest was piqued by the species diversity evidenced in the culturally important lei (a Hawai’ian traditional garland of flowers, usually worn around the neck). Since then, we have been collecting simulacraceae whenever we stumble upon them. Family, friends and colleagues have contributed to this effort.
Sayaka Kajita Ganz makes sculptures from recycled materials, and here she’s made a dramatic pair of horses from black and white plastic objects. The installation is called Emergence; you can guess which horse is Night and which is Wind.
My working process is reminiscent of my experiences growing up in several different countries, of being disconnected from the place I was born. Then, I began searching for a new community where I truly belong. I find discarded objects from peoples’ houses and give them a second life, a new home. For my sculptures I use plastic utensils, toys and metal pieces among other things. I only select objects that have been used and discarded. The human history behind these objects gives them life in my eyes. My goal is for each object to transcend its origins by being integrated into an animal form that seems alive. This process of reclamation and regeneration is liberating to me as an artist.
Much more fantasticness at her site.
-via Design You Trust | Photo credit:Sayaka Kajita Ganz
At first you think: it’s “free” and “this machine accepts all credit cards”, that’s not right. And then you think “Oh…” This clever recycling idea was submitted to There, I Fixed It. Link -via reddit
Chris Jordan has previously created art pieces utilizing garbage and junk to emphasize the role of consumerism in modern society. For his most recent project he has photographed the carcasses of albatrosses on Midway Island to document the deleterious effects of plastic on wildlife in the Pacific Ocean.
To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.
There are several dozen additional photos at the artist’s website.
I made these plastic milk bottle lights by embedding LEDs in the caps, hanging them from a bent section of pipe and hooking them up to an Arduino microcontroller.
Not happy with an on-off switch, I thought they might look mesmerising with a rotary control knob turning them on in sequence. It works! They make great low lighting to wind down for sleep, and they’re great to hang in the hall for parties too.
There are complete build instructions on Instructables.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Nachimir.
Could flexible organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, be the future of lighting? Don’t worry; I don’t understand that sentence either. Keep reading for a jargon-free explanation.
On General Electric’s research campus in Niskayuna, NY, there is a machine that prints lights. This machine is so good at its job the lights it creates could make traditional lamps and lighting fixtures obsolete. In what sounds to be a relatively simple process, the semitrailer-size machine coats an 8” wide plastic film with chemicals and seals it with a layer of metal foil. When an electric current is applied to the plastic sheet, be prepared to throw on a pair of shades as it emits an ethereal blue glow.
Light from the sheet is produced using compounds known as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). OLEDs are currently used in television and cell-phone displays and have been embraced by large
manufacturers such as Siemens and Philips.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.
I first became truly horrified at America’s addiction to plastic and its already-hugely deleterious effects when I read Best Life’s stunning piece on our Plastic Ocean. One of the most dangerous elements of plastic is that it almost never goes away. Plastic bags are made of polyethylene, which micro-organisms don’t break down like organic material. They can also be poisonous, making for a dangerous combination not only for nature, but also for humanity.
Since then, I’ve tried my best to reduce my usage of plastic in all aspects of my life, whether it be bringing a reusable bag to the supermarket or cutting down on the amount of bottled water I buy. Nonetheless, as shockingly depicted by Chris Jordan, America’s collective usage of plastic continues unabated.
Enter Daniel Burd, a 16-year old boy who isolated the microorganisms that degrade plastic…as part of a science project:
Daniel, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, got the idea for his project from everyday life. “Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have this avalanche of plastic bags falling on top of me,” he said. “One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags.”The answer: not much. So he decided to do something himself.
Could this be the first step to ending our plastic problem? What do you guys think?
Read the Link for details on Daniel’s experiments.
Baby boomers are now embracing ways to leave an imprint on the environment, and it’s about time.
If something is labeled as a plastic #1 or #2, it can be recycled virtually eveywhere. This is great news if you’re trying to reduce your impact and waste. We can all help close the loop by buying and recycling products made from these materials – every little bit helps.
To help out, here is a neat list of items you can recycle.
Source: Gogreencharleston
