This tree is called Jabuticaba, also known as the Grape Tree. As you can see, it’s trunk is almost completely covered with tiny fruits. It can be found in South America.

Scientists believe that this way of placement of fruits directly on the trunk of the tree is most useful for tree itself because other animals can reach fruits easily and eventually spread it’s seeds far away from tree and that is what will gain the chance of survival of this plant.

Images source

That’s right, those trees are so regularly irregular so you would be scared when you see such thing. They are all curved in knots and strange loops so the forest got name Dancing Forest. If you want to visit this forest you can find it on the Curonian Spit near Kaliningrad.

Here you can see the photos of ‘living bridges’ that were grown in Cherraphunji, Meghalaya, India. Ficus elastica is the plant that produces secondary roots and those bridges are formed by them naturaly. Some local tribes use them like real bridges during the rainy season when floods are often.

Image source

Now a new study paints a more complicated picture of antibiotic resistance. Bacteria don’t just develop resistance to one drug at a time, but to many — and at accelerated rates. That’s because antibiotics boost bacterial production of free-radical oxygen molecules that damage bacterial DNA. Repairs to the DNA cause widespread mutations, giving bacteria more chances to randomly acquire drug-resistant traits.

“You have a wide range of mutations being introduced across the genome. Some afford resistance to that antibiotic. Some afford resistance to other antibiotics,” said James Collins, a Boston University biomedical engineer who described the mechanism in a paper published Feb. 11 in Molecular Cell. “It would happen anyways, but this process is accelerating it.”

Drug resistance is a serious public health concern. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 percent of 1.7 million infections acquired in hospitals every year are resistant to at least one drug. Those infections annually kill 99,000 Americans — more than double the number that die in car crashes.

Drugs that once destroyed almost any bacteria now kill only a few, or don’t work at all. In the case of some drugs, like Cipro, the decline is dramatic: Where in 1999 it worked against 95 percent of E. coli, it treated only 60 percent by 2006. Against lung infection-causing Acinobacter, its effectiveness fell by 70 percent in just four years.

Though drug resistance is ultimately inevitable, conventional wisdom holds that antibiotics consumed at suboptimum doses hasten the process. Bugs that would have succumbed to a larger dose live to multiply, pushing the strain as a whole closer to resistance. That happens when a prescription goes unfinished, or when antibiotics used on farms enter food and water at low levels.

The conventional wisdom isn’t wrong, but the new findings suggest that drugs push bacteria towards resistance even more rapidly, and in more ways, than was thought.

“It’s a really important paper. It underscores that we don’t fully know how antibiotic resistance is engendered,” said Harvard University molecular biologist Deborah Hung. “If you treat with low concentrations of antibiotic, the bugs respond by increasing their mutation rates.”

In earlier research, Collins’ team showed that antibiotics don’t only kill bacteria as expected – by corroding cell walls, messing with DNA and blocking proteins — but by triggering the release of free-radical oxygen molecules. Thanks to an extra electron, the free radicals bind easily and corrosively with other molecules, and prove as lethal as the drugs themselves.

For the latest study, the researchers tested whether free radicals might also affect drug resistance by using sublethal doses of five common antibiotics on Staphylococcus aureus, the annual cause of 500,000 infections in the United States, and two strains of E. coli, including one taken from a patient.

The free radicals caused DNA damage that didn’t kill all the bacteria. The bacteria’s self-repair processes then introduced mutations to genes that provided resistance to many drugs, not just those being administered.

Drugs might be found that could alter bacterial DNA repair systems, but that prospect is extremely speculative, said Collins.

Hung said more research is needed to show how different bacteria respond. Mutation rates might vary between strains. It’s also possible that free-radical damage also accelerates horizontal gene transfer, in which bacteria swap genes without reproducing. If so, resistance could develop faster and spread more rapidly.

“The clinical significance is not clear yet, but it certainly should make us pause and think about the way we use antibiotics,” said Hung.

In recent years, public health experts have recommended that doctors use antibiotics only when necessary, and that patients complete every prescription. They’ve also called for dramatic cuts in the agricultural use of antibiotics.

Of the 35 million pounds of antibiotics consumed annually in the United States, 80 percent goes to farm animals. Much of it is used to treat diseases spread by industrial husbandry practices, or simply to accelerate growth. As a result, farms have become giant petri dishes for superbugs, especially multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which kills 20,000 Americans every year – more than AIDS.

Alarming cases of farm-based MRSA and other diseases led to a proposed Congressional law restricting the use of agricultural antibiotics. That bill, supported by the American Medical Association and American Public Health Association, is opposed by farm lobbyists and remains stuck in committee.

“We need to look carefully at situations where antibiotics are used in agriculture and water supplies,” said Collins. “The benefits may not outweigh the potential harm we’re doing by creating stronger, more problematic microbes.”

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The fifth place is awarded to this design. This floating settlement contains a modern city square and it is more like floating town. This design also won the peoples’ choice award.

This design won award for best exterior design. This structure is shaped to use maximum of wind and solar energy. It is covered by solar panels. It is completely closed.

From the photo that has been provided, you can see that this settlement is still in construction. No, it is not mistake made by designers, they created a basic design of a sea settlement that it is not actually floating but it is fixed into the ground. Designers wanted to create a design that can be expanded without limitations and this is what they created in that manner.

This settlement reminds me on some of those incredible buildings that are used to be built in Dubai. It rather looks like a giant floating luxury hotel. This design won a best picture award. As you can see, this is completely solution for luxury life on the sea. Design also includes beach-like edges and small botanic gardens.

And this one is the winning design. As you can see, this design is more like a normal little urban settlement and when you’re inside you even wouldn’t notice that you are in a floating settlement. This floating settlement is designed to be just like a normal settlement that can be found on the ground. There are a few buildings, a few of little gardens and little square in the middle. Looks like it is perfect for peaceful life with family.

This cabin was built and designed by Pier Hein Eek who built it for his friend Hans Liberg. Hans Liberg, who is musician, wanted to have some peaceful place so he could play in peace and where he could get more inspiration for his work.

But what really makes this little building awesome is the fact that it actually has a wheels on the bottom and it can be moved to any place. Image source Thomas Mayer Archive.

Traditional understanding of way how we live considers that home is stable building that is built on the ground. This way of thinking often brings a lot of troubles for young people who are trying to establish their own home and to start separate life from their parents.

For building ground-based home first what you need is a ground, a piece of land which is often not so inexpensive.

The Joanna’s Tafoni Floating Home probably shows us a future of human’s settlements. As ground-based homes are becoming more and more expensive the floating homes could eventually become very popular.

Images source

Harmony is a creation of a Chinese designer called Weili Feng. The vehicle is purely recreational and to top all, its eco-friendly. The vehicle would be your best companion over the weekends. This would not only allow having as much fun you want to have but at the same time is quite stylish as well. Harmony can run on land and on water as well, it is propelled by hydrogen.

This also has solar panel to get the solar energy while it’s on the water. The same is used to convert into electricity which is required while Harmony is on a sail. This makes this vehicle a perfect example of being stylish yet eco-friendly.

Green architecture has now becoming widespread to almost every corner of the world. The Sozawe by NL Architects is just another wonder addition to the eco-friendly building we have today. Located in Groningen City, the Sozawe building has office spaces, large interior public space, and 215 parking spaces.The building’s concrete floor cools the building during summer and warms on the winter season, which made the Sozawe a sustainable one as it reduces energy consumption. The façade ofthe building are also in a place that will not hinder the entry of natural light especially during daytime. The building is also provided with green space making the building’s atmosphere fresh and pleasant.

Source: NL Architects via Designboom

]]> http://newglobalwarmingeffects.com/2009/11/21/eco-architecture-sozawe/feed/ 0 http://newglobalwarmingeffects.com/2009/11/18/bugs-that-seriously-look-like-alien-life-forms/ http://newglobalwarmingeffects.com/2009/11/18/bugs-that-seriously-look-like-alien-life-forms/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:49:39 +0000 admin http://newglobalwarmingeffects.com/?p=193

A common mistake when searching for alien life forms is to look up into the sky for something big. But alien life is right here, at our feet, in our backyards. Millions of tiny but frightening aliens, many just a few millimeters long.