Listening to the donations appeal for MAG (Mines Advisory Group) on radio reminds me of something I’d read at least two decades ago about someone coming up with a creeper (by tweaking its genes) whose leaves will turn colour (purple?) if it detects the presence of a landmine below the surface. This would mean human beings won’t need to be involved to look for and remove landmines. I don’t seem to have heard anymore about that creeper.
Another invention was for clearing up oil slicks at sea. A farmer had come up with the idea of wrapping hay with a fish net, then rolling it up into a tube. Take this long tube out to sea where there’s an oil spillage, then pay out the tube like a trawler boat releasing its net. The hay will absorb the oil, thus mopping up the surface of the water.
The third one is related to water, a favourite environmental subject of mine, having been brought up in Singapore. This was back in the 1980s, I think. Someone out in Mexico had discovered that the roots of water hyacinth will clean water to 98% or 99% purity, even water from sewers. Just grow water hyacinth over sewage ponds. The resulting water can be drunk straight out of the pond, illustrated in that TV report I’d seen. Maybe it’s because water hyacinth doesn’t grow in cold climates (it’s a tropical/sub-tropical plant) that this natural water-purification project hasn’t taken off here.
No comments:
Post a Comment