Sustainable Cities in China

China has started a pilot project for sustainable cities in Liaoning Province named the Cradle to Cradle Village.roof top garden

“The design of the village aspires to draw power from the sun, to maintain materials in closed-loop systems of technical and biological nutrition, and to create an intergenerational community of people productively engaged in restorative commerce. Its goal is to provide a higher quality of life for the villagers and to exemplify a more hopeful future for the children.”

For more information the BBC has a good article looking into sustainability in cities.

Fake Blood no Longer for -?

I just posted on fake meat and now I bring to your attention to fake blood.

Students from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom have developed a synthetic blood that can be used for transfusions. The synthetic blood can be used with all blood types and be stored at room temperature for extended time periods. The key to the success of the synthetic blood is that it carries more oxygen than real blood.

Fake Meat no Longer for Vegetarians

NASA has been looking into making meat in a lab. A recently published academic paper proves thatchicken nuggets no longer need to be attached to those clucking chickens.cows In addition to the obvious life-saving benefits, manufactured meat would allow the manufacture to control how much nutrients are in each slice. For example omega 3, which is a good thing, can replace omega 6, which is not as good for you.

One reason some people are vegetarian is because of the environmental effects of raising livestock for human consumption; lab meat will make environmentally unfriendly farming obsolete.

Sure some vegetarians may have to reexamine if they should/can eat lab-made-meat, but the fact that sentient beings may no longer be killed for human consumption is good.

The Healing Power of Crocodiles

Australian scientists are collecting crocodile blood samples with the hopes of developing a new antimicrobial drug for humans. In recent studies they have found that the reptile’s have incredibly strong immune systems which essentially attach to bacteria, tear them apart and then cause them to explode. In the wild Crocs often fight savagely, sometimes even loosing limbs, so their strong healing potential enables them to recover from many of these injuries quickly without ever develping an infection.

The antibodies in crocodile blood have been found to kill such pennicillin resistant bacteria as Staphylococcus aureus. Other studies have shown that when introduced to HIV the reptiles antibodies have a greater effect than that of human antibodies and can effectively kill HIV!

The development of a drug for use by humans will of course take some time, but the scientists are hopeful that their new found discoveries will greatly benefit potential treatments for HIV and other diseases.