Inhabitat's Week in Green: gigantic LED cube, synthetic bones and a playground from recycled wind turbines
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
Happy April 1st! In honor of the day, we've rounded up some of Inhabitat's best April Fools stories for your reading pleasure. Our collective jaws dropped this morning when we were sent an anonymous photo from a tipster which hints at intergalactic plans for Apple's new Cupertino campus. Google also surprised us today when it announced a partnership with the city of New York to replace NYC taxis with driverless Google Cabs. In other NYC news, it was revealed today that New York City's ever-popular High Line park is going to bring a train back on the High Line to keep up with the growing crowds, and satellite photos divulged that Dubai appears to be building a series of Dubai-shaped islands off of its coast.
In more serious news, the New York Auto Show is hitting Manhattan next week, and in preparation this week Fisker released the first sketch of its highly anticipated Nina Plug-in Hybrid. Inhabitat will be on-scene at the reveal on Tuesday to bring you the first photos of its unveiling, so stay tuned for Inhabitat's live Fisker Nina coverage on Tuesday! We also brought you a sneak peek at several more innovative eco vehicles that will displayed at this year's New York Auto Show -- including NYC's taxi of tomorrow and Infiniti's new Nissan Leaf-based EV. Meanwhile, Lexus divulged that it is considering producing the sexy LF-LC hybrid sports coupe, and Chevy Volt's sexier European twin the Opel Ampera racked up 7,000 orders, putting it well on its way to meeting sales targets. In two-wheel transportation news, bicycles kicked into high gear as Specialized launched the world's fastest E-bike and Jose Hurtado designed a hubless 'Twist Bike' that can be turned into a tandem in a snap.
On the clean technology front, engineers developed several exciting next-gen renewable energy technologies -- including high-flying wind turbines and 3D solar cells that can produce 20 times more energy than flat photovoltaic panels. Green energy news also made waves around the world as Denmark announced plans to switch to 100% renewable energy by 2050 and Japan shut down its second to last nuclear reactor as radiation levels skyrocketed at its Fukushima plant. Wind power was a popular topic as well -- Obama expedited the approval process for the first Great Lakes wind farms, the first offshore turbine project was approved for Virginia, and Hint.FM created a mesmerizing kinetic map that shows real-time wind speeds across the US.
In design and architecture news, we're thrilled to see the New York underground park proposal affectionately dubbed the "Lowline" inch closer to reality in a new partnership with Arup engineering firm. We also took a peek at a gigantic LED cube under the Brooklyn Bridge and explored a super high-tech green home by E+ that is blanketed in solar panels. We spotted some innovative uses of recycled materials this week as a playground built from recycled wind turbines popped up in the Netherlands and old automobiles were transformed into a Transformers theme park in China. Last but not least, we showcased several mind-blowing projects that use everybody's favorite plastic building brick -- Sean Kenney's amazingly detailed LEGO skyscrapers and a system for growing synthetic bone using LEGOs.
