Welcome to Vol. 8 No. 6 of Design Science News, the e-bulletin of the Buckminster Fuller Institute
Design Science News brings you news from around the world related to humanity's option for success and comprehensive design solutions. It also features updates from BFI and periodic special offers for our members.
LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR THE DESIGN SCIENCE LAB!
There are a limited number of spots left in this year's Design Science Lab. We encourage you to submit your application today. The program begins on Friday, June 22nd and runs through Friday, June 30th.
The DSL is a rigorous, hands-on training in the problem solving methodology called Design Science pioneered by Buckminster Fuller and other visionaries. Participants engage in a whole systems and anticipatory approach to develop strategies to solve global and local problems within the frame of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The 2007 DSL will again be facilitated by Medard Gabel of BigPictureSmallWorld.
To learn more about the program or to start an application please visit: www.designsciencelab.org.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
All that is
That isn't me.
And Universe in turn must be
All that isn't me
And me."
- Buckminster Fuller
TRENDS & PERSPECTIVES
'Encyclopedia of Life' to catalogue species
A group of the world's leading scientists announced yesterday that they had joined forces to document the world's 1.8 million named species in a massive new "Encyclopedia of Life."
The unprecedented $12.5 million effort - a collaboration of Chicago's Field Museum, Harvard University, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., the Smithsonian Institution, the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Missouri Botanical Garden -- aims to create separate Web pages on every known species within a decade. (Source: The Washington Post (may require free registration))
Birth of a new wedge
As delegates met in Bangkok this week to debate climate change solutions contained in the IPCC's latest report, one technology not mentioned in the draft report was being closely examined at a conference in Australia in the beach town of Terrigal, just north of Sydney.
The first meeting of the International Agrichar Initiative convened about 100 scientists, policymakers, farmers and investors with the goal of birthing an entire new industry to produce a biofuel that goes beyond carbon neutral and is actually carbon negative. The industry could provide a "wedge" of carbon reduction amounting to a minimum of ten percent of world emissions and possibly much more.
Agrichar is the term not for the biomass fuel, but for what is left over after the energy is removed: a charcoal-based soil amendment. In simple terms, the agrichar process takes dry biomass of any kind and bakes it in a kiln to produce charcoal. The process is called pyrolysis. Various gases and bio-oils are driven off the material and collected to use in heat or power generation. The charcoal is buried in the ground, sequestering the carbon that the growing plants had pulled out of the atmosphere. The end result is increased soil fertility and an energy source with negative carbon emissions. (Source: Truthout)
Scientists look high in the sky for power
Scientists are eyeing the jet stream, an energy source that rages night and day, 365 days a year, just a few miles above our heads. If they can tap into its fierce winds, the world's entire electrical needs could be met, they say.
The trick is figuring out how to harness the energy and get it down to the ground cost-effectively and safely.
Dozens of researchers in California and around the world believe huge kite-like wind-power generators could be the solution. As bizarre as that might seem, respected experts say the idea is sound enough to justify further investigation. (Source: The San Francisco Gate)
Banks to pledge $5 billion in loans to reduce buildings’ carbon emissions
Sixteen cities around the world will begin cutting carbon emissions by renovating city-owned buildings with green technology under a program financed by major global banking institutions and organized by former President Clinton's foundation.
Clinton announced the partnership Wednesday, joined by mayors of several of the cities, as part of an international climate summit he is hosting this week with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It is the second meeting of the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, which was created so mayors and local governments could share strategies for reversing climate change trends. (Source: MSNBC)
RESOURCES
Academy of Sciences to be museum of future
Gregory Farrington, the new executive director of the California Academy of Sciences museum being built in Golden Gate Park, is a man of no small ambition.
As workers readied the museum's "living roof" for the first plantings last week, Farrington, a 60-year-old, Harvard-educated chemist and former president of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, outlined plans to transform the venerable academy in ways that go far beyond architecture. To read the article and view video of the installation, visit: The San Francisco Gate
To Remake the World
Paul Hawken reflects on a lifetime of environmental advocacy and activism and looks to the future of the movement...
I HAVE GIVEN NEARLY ONE THOUSAND TALKS ABOUT the environment in the past fifteen years, and after every speech a smaller crowd gathered to talk, ask questions, and exchange business cards. The people offering their cards were working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. They were from the nonprofit and nongovernmental world, also known as civil society. They looked after rivers and bays, educated consumers about sustainable agriculture, retrofitted houses with solar panels, lobbied state legislatures about pollution, fought against corporate-weighted trade policies, worked to green inner cities, or taught children about the environment. Quite simply, they were trying to safeguard nature and ensure justice.
Orion Magazine
2012: Stories from the near future
Check out this archive of video clips from The New Yorker's annual event.
2012
EVENTS
Design for the Other 90% at the Cooper-Hewiitt National Design Museum
On exhibit May 4th - September 23rd, 2007
On view in the Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden, this exhibition highlights the growing trend among designers to create affordable and socially responsible objects for the vast majority of the world's population (90 percent) not traditionally serviced by professional designers. Organized by exhibition curator Cynthia E. Smith, along with an eight-member advisory council, the exhibition is divided into sections focusing on water, shelter, health and sanitation, education, energy and transportation and highlights objects developed to empower global populations surviving under the poverty level or recovering from a natural disaster. For more information, visit Design for the Other 90%
Fifth Annual SNEC Workshop on Quantum Building
Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC) presents its Fifth Annual Workshop on Quantum Building in Oswego, NY, 22, 23, & 24 June 2007
Description: The Synergetics Collaborative's Fifth Annual Summer Workshop in Oswego will focus on "Quantum Building: The First 28 Most-Efficient-Minimum Geometrical Systems". The main workshop will be led by Thomas Miller who writes:
"The workshop is about learning to clone the four basic cloning grids that make the volume quanta (Fuller's term) the 'a' module, a-b module, mite and 't' module. We will concentrate on the first three. The grids become self-organizing which needs four abilities: self-stabilization, self-correction, self-regeneration and self-innovation. The overall idea is that these modules have a modular building system inside them and we will explore that system."
In addition, there will be artifact exhibit space for participants and a session for participants to discuss their work.
When: Friday Reception 22 June 2006, 7 - 10PM ($15; pre-register to get directions)
Saturday 23 June 2006, 8AM - 10PM (Registration: 8 AM)
Sunday 24 June 2006, 8AM - 6PM
Registration: Pre-registration is required! Please fill out the following form:
Housing: Contact John Belt to make housing arrangements. On-campus housing is limited, and first come, first served. Reservations must be made by June 14th!!!
Where: SUNY Oswego Department of Technology, Design Studio Wilber Hall, Design Studio, Room 350 Oswego, NY
Event web page
Have you come across interesting Design Science news articles, resources, or events?
We invite you to forward them so we can consider them for inclusion in future e-bulletins. Send them to: designsciencenews (at) bfi.org
If we use your suggestion for future e-bulletins and you would like to be credited by name, please indicate it in your e-mail.
Thank You!
If you prefer to receive a text-only version of the ebulletin, please send an email to designsciencenews (at) bfi.org with the subject heading "text-only"
To subscribe to this free e-bulletin, go to BFI.ORG and subscribe from the box on the home-page
PRIVACY STATEMENT: BFI respects your privacy, so we will never share any personal information without your consent.
2012: Stories from the near future
Check out this archive of video clips from The New Yorker's annual event.
2012
EVENTS
Design for the Other 90% at the Cooper-Hewiitt National Design Museum
On exhibit May 4th - September 23rd, 2007
On view in the Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden, this exhibition highlights the growing trend among designers to create affordable and socially responsible objects for the vast majority of the world's population (90 percent) not traditionally serviced by professional designers. Organized by exhibition curator Cynthia E. Smith, along with an eight-member advisory council, the exhibition is divided into sections focusing on water, shelter, health and sanitation, education, energy and transportation and highlights objects developed to empower global populations surviving under the poverty level or recovering from a natural disaster. For more information, visit Design for the Other 90%
Fifth Annual SNEC Workshop on Quantum Building
Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC) presents its Fifth Annual Workshop on Quantum Building in Oswego, NY, 22, 23, & 24 June 2007
Description: The Synergetics Collaborative's Fifth Annual Summer Workshop in Oswego will focus on "Quantum Building: The First 28 Most-Efficient-Minimum Geometrical Systems". The main workshop will be led by Thomas Miller who writes:
"The workshop is about learning to clone the four basic cloning grids that make the volume quanta (Fuller's term) the 'a' module, a-b module, mite and 't' module. We will concentrate on the first three. The grids become self-organizing which needs four abilities: self-stabilization, self-correction, self-regeneration and self-innovation. The overall idea is that these modules have a modular building system inside them and we will explore that system."
In addition, there will be artifact exhibit space for participants and a session for participants to discuss their work.
When: Friday Reception 22 June 2006, 7 - 10PM ($15; pre-register to get directions)
Saturday 23 June 2006, 8AM - 10PM (Registration: 8 AM)
Sunday 24 June 2006, 8AM - 6PM
Registration: Pre-registration is required! Please fill out the following form:
Housing: Contact John Belt
Where: SUNY Oswego Department of Technology, Design Studio Wilber Hall, Design Studio, Room 350 Oswego, NY
Event web page
Have you come across interesting Design Science news articles, resources, or events?
We invite you to forward them so we can consider them for inclusion in future e-bulletins. Send them to: designsciencenews (at) bfi.org
If we use your suggestion for future e-bulletins and you would like to be credited by name, please indicate it in your e-mail.
Thank You!
If you prefer to receive a text-only version of the ebulletin, please send an email to designsciencenews (at) bfi.org with the subject heading "text-only"
To subscribe to this free e-bulletin, go to BFI.ORG and subscribe from the box on the home-page
PRIVACY STATEMENT: BFI respects your privacy, so we will never share any personal information without your consent.
