The majority of bicycles you’ll find on the market today are built from steel, titanium, aluminum or carbon fiber. But bicycle design is constantly evolving, and designers and engineers are always testing out alternative materials. While some of these materials offer little more than an aesthetic appeal, many others offer genuine cutting edge advancements over standard components.

Chances are you’ll find something you like on this list whether you’re a hipster, engineer or environmentalist. Here are some of the top bikes made out of alternative materials:

Photo Credit: Renovo

Wood

Nothing looks quite so vintage as a polished wooden bicycle. Wood is probably most used as a frame material due to its aesthetic appeal, though it also has a number of performance advantages that shouldn’t be ignored.

Take for instance this beautiful wooden-framed bicycle by Renovo (pictured above). According to the folks at Renovo, wood frames are lightweight and offer superior shock absorption. Wood’s fatigue life rivals carbon and is substantially longer than aluminum or steel, and it also won’t dent like metal frames can.

Because wood is renewable, it is more eco-friendly too. And since it is a relatively cheap and abundant resource, it is ideal for bicycle construction in remote communities, such as in East Africa.

For a more diverse look at how wood has been utilized as a material by bicycle designers, check out this thorough roundup at Mother Nature Network.

Photo Credit: Segal

Magnesium Alloy

Segal bikes, a company out of the bike-friendly nation of The Netherlands, specializes in bicycles made from magnesium. Since magnesium has only about 64 percent of the density of aluminum, a chief advantage of this material is that it is ultra-lightweight. (About 35 percent lighter than aluminum and 75 percent lighter than steel).

According to Segal, magnesium bikes are also superior at absorbing energy, making them a more comfortable ride. Eco-conscious cyclists can also rest assured that they are fully recyclable.

You can customize your own magnesium-framed bike at Segal here.

Photo Credit: Boo Bicycles

Bamboo

Bamboo might be the trendiest alternative bike material for the eco-conscious consumer, and for good reason. Because bamboo is a fast-growing grass, it is as abundant as it is renewable.

It also looks great, and performs even better. Bamboo’s durable, hollow shaft seems purposely designed by Mother Nature for bicycle construction. Some of the material’s principle advantages include improved vibration damping and high crash tolerance. It also offers a smooth and comfortable ride even over harsh terrain. The fact that a bamboo bike blends in with its natural surroundings on the trail just adds to its aesthetic appeal.

There are a number of designers specializing in bamboo on the market today, but a notable one is Boo Bicycles. Their bikes are among those which have been raced at the highest level by professional cyclists.

For a nice roundup of some of the other options available for bamboo bikes, check out TreeHugger’s list here.

Photo Credit: EADS UK via bikeradar.com

Nylon

Could a functional bicycle really be made out of nylon? Thanks to some Space Age technology, yes it can. Not only is this bicycle made from nylon, but it is actually as strong and sturdy as steel.

Designed by development engineers Andy Hawkins and Chris Turner of the Aerospace Innovation Centre, the bike is constructed of successive, one-tenth-of-a-millimeter-thick layers of fused nylon powder. The manufacturing method was borrowed from a process also used in the construction of satellites.

Though this prototype’s unusual design is not exactly ideal for the professional cyclist, a more practical version is supposedly in the works. Who knows, this might just be the future of high-performance bicycles.

A video by the BBC featuring more about this bike’s construction can be seen here.

Photo Credit: videonatelinha/Youtube

Plastic

Plastic is unfortunately one of the most ubiquitous materials around today, and since most plastics are not biodegradable, they don’t make for very eco-friendly construction materials. But what about recycling some of that plastic and using it to construct eco-friendly bicycles? That’s making the most out of a bad situation.

One inventor in Brazil is doing exactly that, creating the Muzzicycle. Built entirely from plastic collected in some of Brazil’s largest landfills, Muzzicycles turn trash into transportation. At their website they even keep a running tally of how much plastic they are able to recycle annually. The bikes are also economical and can be bought over the internet for only about $140.

You can view a CNN report about how the bikes are constructed here.

Photo Credit: Giora Kariv/Vimeo

Cardboard

Cardboard is probably the last material you would choose to construct a bicycle with. It might even seem like an impossible feat. But that’s just because you aren’t as inventive as engineer Izhar Gafni, designer of the world’s first completely practical cardboard bicycle.

Gafni’s inspiration was the physics of origami. By folding cardboard over itself in the right way, he found that it could actually be made remarkably sturdy. Gadfi admits that his first prototypes “looked like delivery boxes on wheels.” But just take a look at the finished product: it’s not only functional, but pretty stylish too.

They are “strong, durable and cheap,” according to Gafni. He estimates they could sell for as little as $60 each.

Though the bikes aren’t ideal for the high performance cyclist, they are entirely suitable for the eco-conscious, casual commuter. Check out a short documentary about how Gafni constructs the bikes here. You may have to see it to believe it.

Photo Credit: Onyx via bikemoments.com

Hemp

Is there anything that can’t be made out of hemp? The Onyx Hemp Bike by Onyx Composites makes use of cannabis in a way you might not have imagined possible before.

To build the bike frames, hemp fiber is dunked in epoxy resin and wrapped around a styrofoam core. The resultant frame ends up being 60 percent hemp and 15 percent bamboo, with the rest made from carbon and aluminum.

According to Nicolas Meyer, the engineer behind the design, the formula creates a frame that is sturdier than bamboo or carbon fiber alone.

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For the first time in the history of housing, our places of habitation are getting smaller. As an antithesis to the McMansion trend—and a reflection of our current economic downturn—the tiny house movement embraces a whole new set of values: affordability, conservation of resources, downsizing, simplicity and a reevaluation of what the good life looks like. Websites like tinyhouseblog and cabinporn have thousands of fans and are a sure way to spend an afternoon in fantasy land. But for more and more people, this is not just an afternoon daydream, but rather a whole new way of life.

Jeff Shelden’s cabin in Montana’s Judith Mountains, as pictured on page 70 of Tiny Homes.

The energy, creativity, and ambition of this trend are perfectly captured in Lloyd Khan’s new book, Tiny Homes, Simple Shelter: Scaling Back in the 21^st Century. With more than 1,300 photos featuring 150 different tiny homes that range from small houses, to houseboats, campers, straw bale, and round timber, the book is crammed full of ideas and inspiration. The builders of these small spaces vary in experience from novices fulfilling life-long dreams of building their own homes, to architects and entrepreneurs with multiple tiny houses on their resumes. Organized like a family’s photo album, the book provides an intimate look into the spaces of strangers. Yet these tiny houses so perfectly reflect each homeowner’s personality that by the end of the book they will all feel like old friends.

The aesthetic designs, materials and approaches found in Tiny Homes are as diverse as the people who choose to make these spaces their homes. While some look like little more than mud huts, others have the charm of rustic wood hunting cabins from the turn of the century, or resemble a building straight out of a science fiction movie, metallic and paneled in energy harvesting solar cells. Defining shelter as more than just a roof over your head, Tiny Homes explores the oft-forgotten connection with the land and materials upon and with which we built our shelters.

Darren Macca and Ann Holley’s transportable ProtoStoga, as pictured on page 178 of Tiny Homes.

For instance, Mike Basich, a professional snowboarder, bought 40 acres on Donner Summit and built his house from the rock and lumber found on his land. Situated on a stuffing site, he can snowboard out his front door in the winter, and in summer the stone cottage perfectly blends in with the grey rock mountain landscape.

In another example, Linda Smiley Evans built a beautiful and organic looking house from cob and straw bales, with most materials wither from the site, recycled, or pulled out of the commercial waste stream. The roof is layered with a pond liner membrane cover and planted with native ferns and flower bulbs.

On the other end of the spectrum, the weeHouses by Alchemy Architects, are a prefab system with a clean modern aesthetic of wood and glass.

While the tiny house movement may be garnering a lot of new attention, the book’s author Lloyd Kahn is a longtime activist and visionary. His previous book, Shelter, first published in 1973, is a bible of handmade houses and helped give birth to the “Green Building” revolution. Tiny Homes brings Kahn’s vision into the 21st century by introducing us to countless others exploring alternative approaches to housing. The book is not lacking in examples or momentum, and while the low resolution quality of some photos is unfortunate, the sheer quantity of images more than makes up for it. Thoughtful commentary further enhances the pictures by telling the stories behind the houses, which are often as fascinating as the structures themselves.

SunRay Kelley’s “man cave” in Washington state’s forested land, as pictured on page 101 of Tiny Homes.

More than anything else, this book is a roadmap for a journey. It’s an excursion into the potential joy of scaling back, reducing living costs, and escaping high mortgages and rents. The design of these structure embraces the idea of a simpler life, and recognizes that people are happier when they are surrounded with high quality materials and an efficient use of space, rather than the consumer-culture-driven cluttered masses of “stuff” that seem to accumulate exponentially with every passing day. Self-sufficiency is prized and artistic approaches are highlighted, stirring a deep hum within our collective creative roots.

I plan to spend many more hours perusing this curated assortment of spaces, both for inspiration and to rouse a deeper imagination of what home can be.

Check out Lloyd Khan and the trailer for the book:

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Zombie bees are regular bees infected with a parasitic fly that changes its host’s behavior and eventually leads to death. The parasitic fly attacks the bee by using a sharp appendage to pierce the bee and lay an egg inside it. When the egg hatches, the maggot feeds on the bee’s organs. Infected bees are likely to fly after dark, unlike normal bees, which return to their hives when the sun sets. The zombie bees are also drawn to lights, and as the infection progresses, they begin to fly erratically and eventually lurch on the ground.

Earlier this month, a beekeeper discovered that the zombie bees had spread to Washington. The beekeeper collected samples of the insects, and is one of many citizen scientists sharing data with ZomBeeWatch.org, a website run by San Francisco State University biologist John Hafernik. Hafernik hopes to discover more about how the parasite is spreading, and determine if it is contributing to the collapse of bee colonies.

Bee populations have been dropping rapidly since 2006. Researchers have various theories about the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder, including cell phone use and pesticides. The problem is particularly serious because of honeybees’ important role in pollinating crops. Bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in crop value. The parasitic fly is likely worsening colony collapse, though it’s not yet clear if it has a major impact.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, nearly 80 percent of hives are infected with the parasite. Infected bees have also been found in other parts of California, Oregon, and now, in Washington. Anyone who discovers a suspicious bee is encouraged to report it to ZomBeeWatch.

Image credit: Dani Vincek/Shutterstock 

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Since mid-July, the wolves have killed or injured at least 15 cattle in northern Stevens County, Wash. In response, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s wolf policy coordinator, Steve Pozzanghera, stated that the department would be attempting to “remove” the entire eleven members of the pack.  The so-called “removal” effort will involve hiring marksmen and trappers, and possibly aerial hunters.

The challenge the wolves present is not simply that they are feeding on local cattle, but that experts believe they have now become dependent on the cattle.

“Once wolves become habituated to livestock as their primary food source, all of the wolf experts we’ve talked to agree that we have no alternative but to remove the entire pack,” said Fish & Wildlife Director Phil Anderson. “By doing that, we will preserve the opportunity for the recovery of gray wolves in balance with viable livestock operations.”

Surprisingly, at least some conservationists are in agreement with the agency’s findings and with the decision, despite the species’ being listed as endangered throughout the state. Mitch Friedman, executive director of Conservation Northwest, said he understood the solution even if he didn’t like it.

“As difficult as this situation with the Wedge Pack is to accept on a personal level, we understand and agree that pack removal is the right action at this point,” said Friedman. “We have been strong advocates for exhausting all non-lethal means possible to avoid this situation and are extremely disappointed that it has come to this.”

“There has to be a commitment on the part of all sides to allow wolves to occupy the landscape while protecting the rancher’s livelihood and maintain their ability to raise cattle,” Friedman continued.

While state law requires cattlemen to work with the state to find nonlethal measures to mitigate wolf-caused losses, when push comes to shove, a person’s right to protect his property will always prevail over the right of animal to live.

Main photo credit: Nagel Photography/Shutterstock

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Alexandre Guertin-Pasquier of the University of Montreal presented his research in Toronto this weekend at the Canadian Paleontology Conference. Guertine-Pasquier states the fossilized forest on Bylot Island is similar to current forests in southern Alaska. He points to similar plant diversity between the two environments, including willow, pine and spruce trees. Pollen found in the site also suggests the ancient forest flourished in a climate with an average temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, significantly warmer than Bylot Island’s current average temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

The scientists were able to estimate the forest was at its peak between 2.6 million and 3 million years ago, a range determined through examination of the forest’s ancient sediment, particularly the soil’s magnetic particles. The Earth’s magnetic field affects movement of magnetic sediment in rocks, making them turn to the magnetic poles like a compass, so scientists were able to date the site’s sediment using the well-known history of the poles’ movement.

While forecasts predict that the climate on the Canadian Arctic’s Bylot Island won’t support a forest until the year 2100, there is a separate obstacle: Seeds must be brought to the area before any trees can grow. Migration is much easier for animals than plants, which must rely on creatures, wind and water to move a seed from place to place. For trees, it all depends on whether seeds are dispersed and taken to their new environment.

“Although it would of course take time for a whole forest to regrow, the findings show that our grandchildren should be able to plant a tree and watch it grow,” said Guertin-Pasquier.

Bylot Island is not the only place where warming temperatures could breathe new life into ancient forests. Drilling in the seabed off Antarctica revealed a 52-million-year-old rainforest that may also see revival. Scientists concluded that “without drastic changes,” the planet could be headed back to the temperatures that made possible.

Photo: View from the study site in June 2010. Credit: Alexandre Guertin-Pasquier

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According to the Smithsonian, the migration is a yearly event for these soldier crabs, which gather in places called “soldier washes” to do what’s vital to the species’s survival: they head to the sea to mate and lay eggs. Unlike “true crabs,” hermit crabs produce no shell of their own, but instead pick up shells of other species, usually from deceased snails. While they change shells when growing (getting progressively larger mobile homes), in the mass migration on St. John, the hermit crabs also abandon their shells upon entering the water; there, the hermit crabs spawn, crawl back onto dry land, and pick up a shell–any nearby abandoned shell will do–to snuggle once again within armor that’ll protect their soft abdomens.

Because it hasn’t received much scientific attention, there’s relatively little known about reproduction in land hermit crabs, but mass migrations like these certainly make a spectacle out of their mating habits. The late-summer timing isn’t the only aspect of the event that’s predictable, either–the hermit crabs are known to take the same path every year. After the procreation party on the beach is over, the hermit crabs quickly turn around to return to their inland homes.

Whether you’ve heard about this phenomenon before or it’s totally new to you, it’s an intense sight to see.

 Featured image credit: from Steve Simonsen’s video

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Believe it or not, these ethereal sky lights actually originate with the sun. Occasionally, solar activity triggers a release of gas, something scientists call a coronal mass ejection (CME). It takes two or three days for these emissions to reach the Earth’s magnetic field, where it generates currents of charged particles upon impact. According to Sten Odenwald, author of The 23rd Cycle: Learning to Live with a Stormy Star, these particles are boosted in energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere, and when they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms, they produce dazzling auroral light.

Normally, the Northern Lights are a special treat reserved only for those in higher altitudes, like Canada, Alaska and the Arctic. During a couple of very specific times of year, however, they become easier to see from lower elevations. One peak season for spotting the aurora borealis is in the weeks before and after the vernal equinox, which marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and the other starts right around the autumnal equinox (now!) and lasts through the end of October.

According to Janet Green, a physicist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the times around the equinoxes are when geomagnetic storms — disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field — are strongest.

Unfortunately, spotting the Northern Lights isn’t like an eclipse or shooting star. There’s no precise way to predict when or where the auroral light will be visible. The best advice we found comes from Joe Rao at Space.com:

“If your newspaper, radio or TV reports that shortwave radio communications have been disturbed or interrupted, and especially if they say this had to do with something happening on the sun, or if you’re a trucker and notice unusual skip conditions on your CB radio, then, that night, the next night and even the next, get out away from city lights and look up toward the north.”

Good luck and happy autumn!

Main photo credit: Magdanatka/Shutterstock

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Female orcas go through menopause in their 30s or 40s, though live through to their 90s. Biologically speaking, it doesn’t make much sense for an animal to stop reproducing so early in life unless there is some other benefit, so Emma Foster and her team of researchers decided to look for that benefit.

The researchers looked at census data from the past four decades to determine the impact of older female whales on the rest of their pods. Most of the data was collected from the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Wash., and from the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia, both of which collect data on local resident whales.

The team’s major finding was the significant impact mothers seem to have on the survival rates of their children, particularly male children. On average, a male orca 30 or younger is 3.1 times more likely to die the year after his mother’s death, and chances increase to 8.3 times more likely if he is older than 30, indicating that adult whales are actually helped more by their mothers than younger whales. Though reasons remain unknown, Foster’s team believes the mother whales likely help their adult offspring forage and manage encounters with other orca groups.

The data shows an even stronger impact when focused only on mothers that had gone through menopause. After a post-reproductive mother’s death, sons older than 30 were almost 14 times more likely to die within one year. This difference may suggest postmenopausal mother whales actually assist their offspring more than mothers who are still able to reproduce, though it is unclear why this may be the case.

Increased mortality was also noticeable among older daughters whose mothers had recently died, though to a much lesser extent. The researchers posit the stronger connection between sons and mothers is due to the fact that sons mate outside of the family group, and the grandmother wants to ensure her genes are passed on by keeping her son healthy. The team aims to next focus on learning the exact ways postmenopausal whales assist their sons.

Click here to listen to Emma Foster discuss the research on last week’s Science Podcast.

Main photo credit: Robert Pitman/NOAA

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Yesterday, the government abruptly changed course, determining that it would not formally adopt that goal. The plan had drawn steep opposition from business groups and other communities who depend on local nuclear power plants for jobs and income. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s cabinet stated it would take the 2040 goal “into consideration” but would only offer its formal endorsement for a vague promise to open discussions with local governments and international communities to decide Japan’s energy future.

At a news conference following the announcement, Tadashi Okamura, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the original goal “was not a viable option in the first place.”

While Japan has 54 nuclear reactors across the country, many have been shut down following the meltdowns at Fukushima. Now only two plants remain open.

Yet the government’s decision to essentially abandon its 2040 goal – a goal that many questioned in the first place as not specific enough, not ambitious enough, or too ambitious – has drawn plenty of criticism from skeptics. The promise to end dependence on nuclear energy was originally made in July 2011 by then Prime Minister Naoto Kan, but while Prime Minister Noda has said he wanted to reduce Japan’s nuclear energy capacity, he also made moves to restart the industry.

Many doubt whether the government can adequately regulate nuclear power production. Yukio Edano, minister of economy, trade and industry, said the government will help build “the highest-level regulations and disaster-preparedness plans in the world.”

While the world will have to wait and see if the Japanese government can live up to that high standard, countries everywhere should learn a lesson about the dangers of becoming too dependent on one form of energy – whatever form that is. Allowing nuclear energy to dominate its electricity supply has left the country’s entire economy vulnerable.

Main photo credit: Shutterstock

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“We are now in uncharted territory,” said NSIDC Director Mark Serreze. “While we’ve long known that as the planet warms up, changes would be seen first and be most pronounced in the Arctic, few of us were prepared for how rapidly the changes would actually occur.”

Arctic sea ice grows in the winter when the sun sets, and shrinks in the summertime. In the past, the ice commonly survived for several years, but in recent years it has become more common for large areas of ice to completely melt away in the summertime. This year, following record retreats in June and July, sea ice fell to the lowest extent ever on record on Aug. 26. That record low — of 4.10 million square kilometers — was broken again on Sept. 4, when the extent of ice fell below 4.00 million square kilometers. On Sept. 16, it fell again to 3.41 million square kilometers.

The changes are unprecedented. It’s very unusual for melting to happen this late in the season, and the researchers note that it’s possible the melting could continue. The fact that melting has occurred in late August and September demonstrates how unusually thin the ice is. The researchers had predicted the ice would refreeze much earlier.

The melting of the ice will itself increase global warming, helping to speed more melting. What’s next? It’s possible it won’t be long before the ice is almost gone.

“Twenty years from now from now in August you might be able to take a ship right across the Arctic Ocean,” said Serreze.

Image of arctic sea ice extent on Sept. 16 by NASA.

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