According to Drive.com.au, two new flower species have been developed by Toyota with the aim of reducing harmful emissions at its Toyota City, Japan factory where it assembles the popular Prius hybrid. Derived from the cherry sage, one of the new species absorbs harmful nitrogen oxides from the air. The other, based on the gardenia, releases water vapor into the air that lowers the surface temperature around the assembly plant, reducing the facility’s cooling needs. These exciting new plants were developed as part of an ongoing program to reduce the environmental impact of Prius production that has already seen emissions at the plant cut by 55%. They will join other green technologies already in place at the factory such as solar power, photocatalytic paint that removes harmful gasses from the air, and especially slow growing grass that only has to be cut once a year as Toyota strives to make the Prius one of the most environmentally friendly cars on the market.

Car maker develops its own flower species [via Gizmodo]

A MiniREG used GCP network to monitor
for signs of a global consiousness.

This is exactly the question that scientists with Princeton’s Global Consciousness Project are trying to answer. Their research is an extension of a study done at the now defunct Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab that showed that through directed concentration, the human mind can have a small but noticeable effect on noise based random event generators (REGs). While the PEAR experiments focused on collecting data from a single generator, the Global Consciousness Project uses a network of 60-65 generators spread around the world to monitor for fluctuations in the random data that may indicate a global consciousness that reflects the emotions and attentions of every person on the planet.

Such fluctuations have already been seen during catastrophic events such as the September 11th attacks and worldwide celebrations like New Years Eve. Interestingly, the projects data shows that human generated events, such as a terror attack, generate stronger fluctuations than a natural disaster. This has led some researchers to speculate that the world as a whole accepts some disasters as a normal part of the natural order where others, like a bombing, disrupt that order causing a deeper psychological effect.

While the project is very much in it’s infancy and right now it is often very hard to separate fluctuations from the natural randomness in the data (something the project’s detractors are quick to point out), as the technology and research mature, we may be able to get a clearer picture of how the world feels and possibly how we are all connected to each other.

Global Consciousness Project