Wander into Wonder

Glow with the flow

Parnell Pools : Auckland : 2002

Disposal plastic cups get second life in vertical gardening system From eco-minded Turkish design firm Designnobis comes Naturwall, a flat-pack, DIY living wall system that incorporates disposable plastic beverage cups as planters.

What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch? A swirling sea of plastic bags, bottles and other debris is growing in the North Pacific, and now another one has been found in the Atlantic. But how did they get there? And is there anything we can do to clean them up?

Bioinformatics was used to locate a genetic switch (a promoter for Catalase III, katE) in the bacteria, Escherichia coli, genome that regulates oxidative stress response. The switch was physically extracted and combined with a fluorescent expression construct (e.g. BBa_E0840). Implemented in bacteria, fluorescing proteins are expressed during stress producing a yellow-green colour in response to blue light.