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Light | A mini UFO on your hand

At first glance, it looks like a mini UFO that has landed on your hand—a see-through acrylic body, delicate lights lining its inner surface. A closer look reveals three tiny strategically placed LEDs. One on the lower axial and the other two opposite each other, these light up in a host of combinations: blue-blue, white-blue, red-red and white-red. Each light is powered by three rechargeable NiMH batteries. This (in the picture) is upoGallegio from light manufacturer Viabizzuno. The palm-sized upoGallegio is specially designed to glimmer when afloat in pools and hot tubs. It can behave as a colour-changing ambient light or even as a reading light in the pool.

Plan | Plant forests, trap carbon

An August report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK has suggested that a forest of 100,000 artificial “trees” be “planted” near depleted oil and gas reserves to trap carbon and bury it underground. Researchers say that once these “trees” are fully developed, they could anchor thousands of times the carbon real trees can.

Evaluating hundreds of geo-engineering projects, the researchers have suggested three feasible and quickly-action-able ways to reduce the impact of emissions leading to climate change. The second way: growing algae in tubes along the sides of buildings. The algae, which trap carbon during photosynthesis, could be collected and transformed into charcoal, to be buried underground. The third idea, of painting roofs white to reflect sunlight, would mitigate the heat island effect in urban areas.

Recycle | Cutlery made out of Coke cans

The next time you gulp a can of Coke, don’t trash it. Instead, try eating with it. Spanish designer Oscar Diaz recently created a cutlery set by chopping up plastic bottles and coating them with metal. Christened ‘Found’, the range is made by plating the plastic first in copper and then tin. ‘Found’ was on display as part of ‘Airmail’, an exhibition at the Idea Generation Gallery during the London Design Festival (19-27 September).

Text by Anusha Babbar (courtesy Green Grower, India)

Photographs by Dylan Luis

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