Seaweed—Pollution Scavenger Along The Highway

Everyone is definitely no stranger to the colored flowers and trees along the highway， most of which are planted to beautify the environment and reduce the noise. Today， there are more and more cars running on the road， and the air pollution is become increasingly serious， what can we do？ Swiss architects have come up with a coup that they build a "seaweed farm" alongside the highway so that the automobile exhaust becomes the perfect nourishment for seaweed growth while reducing air pollution.

There are two essential factors for seaweed breeding， namely sunshine and carbon dioxide， while the highway can meet the two conditions. Architects from the "Cloud Collective" build a proving ground for seaweed farming composed of pipeline on the wall of highway flyover in Geneva. At the beginning of the design， the architects did not want to design the flyover into a conventional garden， while they expected to make a more practical design based on the characteristics of the flyover. Because it simply requires sunlight and carbon dioxide to breed seaweed， valuable land can be used for other purposes.

Seaweed cultured is also very easy to collect simply by draining out water in the pipes and filtering green sticky substances. And seaweed has a very broad range of applications. It can be used as health products because of its high protein content； it can be used to manufacture cosmetics； and it also can be used as biofuels or other green energy resources because seaweed of unit area can grow biomass five times higher than the terrestrial plant and has high oil content. Similar experiments can be seen in external walls and roofs of buildings and bridges elsewhere. Architects believe that now quality land and green open space are rarer， so we have to try every shift available to make the inconspicuous places， such as bridge to play a part.

12 years

Beagle 2 Mars probe developed by British scientists was Europe's first Mars probe， which landed on Mars on December 25， 2003， but then lost contact with the ground control center. What has happened to Beagle 2 over 12 years remains a mystery. The high-definition images taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finally found the missing Beagle 2 on January 16， 2015. Actually it landed at the predetermined location in good order and condition， but the solar panels failed to completely unfold. Because the communication antenna was located beneath the solar panels， ESA was unable to establish communication with Beagle 2. Because mechanical failure could not be resolved， Beagle 2， one of the pioneers of Mars exploration could simply continue to quietly wait for the arrival of humans on Mars.

Researchers of University of California Berkeley published a paper on January 5， 2015， reporting that they discovered a bird which could predict storm. Living in Americas， the bird named golden-winged warbler will go to Central or South America for the winter， and go back to North America for reproduction when the weather becomes warm.

In April 2014， scientists observed that the bird suddenly left on April 27th after arriving at the habitat in North America. A super storm attacked their habitat on April 28 the day after they left. They returned to the habitat after the passage of the storm. Scientists guessed that the bird had the ability to percept the storm in advance through infrasound， but further research is needed for specific perception mechanism.