Thursday, January 23, 2003

Do you want chips with that? According to UN University research: So what are the environmental impacts of producing and using a 32-megabyte DRAM computer chip that weighs a mere 2 grams? The UNU team found that to make every one of the millions manufactured each year requires 32 kg of water, 1.6 kg of fossil fuels, 700 grams of elemental gases (mainly nitrogen), and 72 grams of chemicals (hundreds are used, including lethal arsine gas and corrosive hydrogen fluoride). To make matters worse, Williams believes his findings are conservative. "We think the real numbers may be twice that." Secondary materials used in production [of microchips] total 630 times the mass of the final product. An automobile requires only about twice its weight in fossil fuels to produce. There could be a better way... [Japan Times] 5:52:50 PM    comment []  trackback []

Janine Benyus on biomimicry A few notes, while multi-tasking, from her interview this morning on KQED/Forum: We _are_ nature. Part of our problem is that we've been thinking otherwise. Looking for a mentor: "We don't necessarily think to look to the organisms that have done something well. All I needed to do was look at the pond, not go on the internet." Is it possible? The existence proof is right outside. Maybe the question isn't: "how do we formulate a better, more environmentally sound paint?" but rather "how do we create color?" A biologist can tell you there's two kinds of color: pigment and structural, like peacocks [which are actually BROWN] and tropical butterflies. Iridigm is working on computer displays based on this. Shallow biomimicry can get us intro more trouble.... Read the book! 10:18:32 AM    comment []  trackback []

Biomimicry on KQED Forum at 10am today Forum host Michael Krasny talks to science writer Janine Benyus about biomimicry, a new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems. Today, 10am, http://www.kqed.org 10:00:56 AM    comment []  trackback []