Solar-Powered Glowing Bicycle Path In Netherlands Inspired By Van Gogh’s Starry Night

Dutch artist and designer Daan Roosegaarde has created a beautiful and innovative glowing bike path that, when illuminated at night by glowing pebbles and LEDs, looks like Van Gogh’s famous Starry Night painting.

The kilometer-long bike path, which was created using both glow-in-the-dark technology and solar-powered LEDs, is located in Brabant, the Dutch county where Van Gogh was born and raised. The swirling, glowing forms on the path’s surface will help bicyclists stay on track when they ride at night.

We’ve seen similar glowing paths before in the U.K. We can only hope that more artists and innovators join forces to create such beautiful and environmentally friendly paths!

ORIGINAL: Bored Panda

 by Dovas

Plants Grown With LED PAR Light Are Healthier?

ORIGINAL: Exposing The Truth
by Asura 

March 18, 2013

Grow Lights are an amazing addition to indoor growing that may sometimes be expensive and rack up one large electric bill! Though there are many different types of grow lights recommended by long time growers, we’ll go through some scientific research that will initially be controversial to many within industries using them. After learning about Aquaponics our team began to ask questions about what lights are best for growing plants, we were surprised with what we had found.

It turns out that the best type of light for plant growth is the tiny, efficient, cool running Light Emitting Diode! (LED for short) Why and how is this even possible? To answer this question one must learn what plants require to grow, specifically. Plants only feed on very few and very specific light spectrums, the most surprising part of this is that plants DO NOT take in any visible light spectrums whatsoever! Every grow light company which puts their stock into creating a bulb with a “more full visible spectrum than competitors” is utterly useless for growing plants and require far more electricity to power.

Other mistakes most commonly made when using grow lights is that more lumens, UV and heat will bring the outcome of better plants. More lumens, UV rays and heat coming from light sources are all counterproductive to plant growth, this causes plants to burn, dry up, require more water and use far more energy to remain alive rather than using energy for growth. Plant leaves and stalks do not need to be beamed upon with intense heat energy and radiation, more importantly it is the roots that must remain at a special temperature. During hours of light leaves collect radiation from spectrums that are invisible to the human eye while during hours of darkness they open stomata, best comparable to pores in human skin, to breathe, take note that only the roots of plants drink water and send it through the stems similar to a highway.

As illustrated in the pictures above and below, the two types of chlorophyll will ONLY absorb certain light spectrums known as Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR). Having a more full spectrum for plant growth is completely unnecessary, one chlorophyll type absorbs red light between the 630nm and 760nm light spectrum while the other absorbs blue light between 280nm and 460nm. The use of LED lights solves the problem of electricity being wasted on light spectrums that plants can not take in by allowing for each LED to beam very specific ranges of light. Many have recommended using 

• 2/5ths of a red spectrum,  
• 2/5ths of a blue spectrum and 
• 1/5th UV spectrum 

to keep accepted light spectrums well balanced. Each type of plant may require more blue types or red types of light spectrum, it never hurts to perform more research on each specific plant’s requirements.

LED lights run at cool temperatures and don’t create anywhere near enough heat to be significant to plants or animals, yet for plant care it turns out that heat should be highly regulated and does not have to come from lights. As long as the temperature in a room is regulated then no heat is needed from lighting.

The Effects of Temperature On Plant Growth


The efficiency of LED lights in both specific spectrum abilities and low electricity requirements are certainly proving to be an innovative and sustainable solution to plant growth. The Growblu website contains a lot of informational PDFs to quickly and easily justify using LED lights rather than outdated bulb types.

How Light Spectrums Affect Plants

Pretty large forum of invaluable information
ICMag

Energy Bucket

ORIGINAL: Stefano Merlo

via Inhabitat

Nowadays, saving energy is one of the most pressing problems. This is already possible with the actual technology, such as low consumption led lights and solar panels; but actual products seem to be too far from people’s uses and overall they require not so much interaction to aware people about the problem. Energy Bucket is an innovative product that comes from the habit of the past to collect potable water at the well using buckets. In fact, “Energy Bucket” requires to be exposed by the user under the solar light to recharge itself (thanks to the solar panels on top), so that it can be carried anywhere and illuminate once night (it works with Wide Beam Super bright LEDs). A honest exchange between man and nature: I do something to have something back, clean light!

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:
2008

• shown at IMM Furniture Fair Cologne, Germany
• eatured on Icon Magazine (UK), Vanity Fair (GER), Architektura murator (PL), Absolute Magazine (RSA), Lightning magazine (ITA), Dobre Wnetrze Design Magazine (PL), Man Magazine (SPA), Extérieurs Design (FRA), Espaces contemporains (CH), Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung (GER), on the TV show “Good Morning San Diego“ (USA)

2007

• world premiere at the Gwangju Design Biennale, South Korea
• shortlisted at “Bright Led” competition, DesignBoom 

LEDs ultra eficientes emiten más energía que la que se les suministra

ORIGINAL: Wired

Físicos del MIT han logrado construir un diodo emisor de luz que tiene una eficiencia eléctrica de más de 100 por ciento. Usted se puede preguntar, "¿Eso no significa que se rompe la primera ley de la termodinámica?" La respuesta, afortunadamente, es no.

El LED produce 69 picovatios de luz con 30 picovatios de energía, dándole una eficacia del 230 por ciento. Eso significa que opera por encima de la "eficiencia unitaria" - poniéndolo en una categoría normalmente ocupada por máquinas de movimiento perpetuo.

Sin embargo, mientras que el diodo del MIT emite más de el doble de energía en forma de fotones, ya que se alimenta de electrones, no viola la conservación de la energía, ya que parece extraer energía de calor del su entorno a cambio . Cuando llega a más del 100 por ciento de eficiencia eléctrica, comienza a enfriarse, "robando" la energía de su entorno para convertirla en más fotones.

En poco más de detalle, los investigadores eligieron un LED con un pequeño separación de banda energética, y poder aplicar voltajes cada vez más pequeños. Cada vez que el voltaje se reduce a la mitad, la energía eléctrica se reduce en un factor de cuatro, pero la potencia de la luz emitida sólo se redujo en un factor de dos. La energía extra vino en lugar de vibraciones de la estructura cristalina.

No se pierda: "Que sea led": El futuro de la bombilla

Los científicos implicados han detallado el descubrimiento en un artículo publicado en Physical Review Letters, diciendo: "Los experimentos confirman directamente por primera vez que este comportamiento continúa más allá del límite convencional de la unidad de la eficiencia de conversión de energía eléctrica-a-óptico"

69 picovatios de la luz, por supuesto, es una cantidad muy pequeña - por lo que no es probable que sea capaz de leer en la cama con uno de estos LED. Sin embargo, podría tener aplicaciones en electrónica de baja potencia, que actúa como un motor térmico termodinámico pero con control eléctrico muy veloz.

Crédito de la imagen: Shutterstock