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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Unfortunately, train travel is hardly what it used to be — in the United States, anyway. Travel by plane is now quicker, more convenient and often cheaper. America’s highways have replaced the romanticism of the cross-country train ride with the freedom of the “roadtrip.” Meanwhile, train travel has lost a lot of its former luxurious grandeur. Coach cabins are crammed, the dining cars seem to have misplaced their chefs for microwaves, and travel is slow and full of delays.

In many parts of the world, though, trains have experienced a revival over the last several decades: they’re reasonably priced, comfortable, convenient … and fast. So fast, in fact, that they often rival air travel in expedience and travel time. The technological development of bullet trains has made traveling by train sensible again. And even though the countryside whizzes by at a dizzying pace, it still offers a more intimate travel experience than air travel ever did.

High-speed rail is also much more energy efficient, especially on routes where ridership is high, than travel by motor vehicle or plane. These are just some of the reasons why trains are getting a second look in the U.S., with high-speed rail projects already planned in California and the Midwest.

To get a look at what the U.S. has to look forward to, here are the 9 best high-speed rail rides in the world.

Photo credit: Oxyman/Wikimedia Commons

Eurostar

The Eurostar high-speed railway connects London with Paris, running undersea through a tunnel beneath the English Channel. The Channel Tunnel itself possesses the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world, and has been identified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Eurostar’s Channel Tunnel line has revolutionized passenger travel between England and mainland Europe, which was previously only possible via plane or ship. In fact, today Eurostar carries more cross-channel passengers than all airlines combined. It’s a must-ride for world-traveling train aficionados everywhere.

Photo credit: Hiroshi Ichikawa/Shutterstock

Shinkansen

Japan’s high-speed rail network, Shinkansen, became the world’s first operator of passenger bullet trains when it opened in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics, and it’s still a world leader. In fact, it has transported more passengers than any other high-speed line in the world, totaling about 151 million a year.

The network is also expansive, consisting of nearly 1,500 miles of rail lines, many of which regularly reach speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour. It’s almost always on time, too, coming in at only 12 seconds late on average.

Really, it’s the best way to travel in Japan, with a sterling environmental record. In fact, traveling the Tokyo to Osaka line, the busiest line in the network, produces only 16 percent of the CO2 emissions of an equivalent journey by car.

Photo credit: Sebastian Terfloth/Wikimedia Commons

TGV

TGV is France’s high-speed rail line, renowned for both its speed and comfortable first class accommodations. It was Europe’s first high-speed rail line when it opened in 1981, and has become a model for much of Europe’s renowned high-speed network since.

Today TGV trains operate at the highest speeds in the world for wheeled lines, regularly reaching 320 km/h. By 2010, the TGV service had already transported two billion passengers.

Photo credit: mamahoohooba/Shutterstock

Shanghai Maglev

China is rapidly becoming the world leader in high-speed trains. In fact, they have the largest high-speed rail network in the world, topping 2,000 total miles and continuing to grow. Perhaps China’s most revolutionary train, however, is the Shanghai Maglev.

The Maglev does not run on conventional rails, opting instead for magnetic levitation. Because this technology cuts down on friction, it allows the train to redefine the meaning of “high speed.” In fact, the Maglev is the world’s fastest train in regular commercial service, with a top speed of 431 km/h. Train aficionados with a speed kick will have this train on their must-ride list.

Photo credit: Sebastian Terfloth/Wikimedia Commons

ICE

Aside from having the “coolest” name among high-speed trains, Germany’s ICE line is also chillingly fast, licensed for speeds up to about 320 km/hr. It is one of the most widely used forms of public transportation in Germany, and has nearly a 100 percent brand awareness in the country.

While dangerous activities are not recommended, it’s also noteworthy that the ICE-3 line might be the first high-speed train to ever be successfully train-surfed (Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible” not withstanding). That’s certainly a train ride for the ages!

Photo credit: Encino/Wikimedia Commons

THSR

The THSR stands for “Taiwan High Speed Rail,” and represents the line that runs almost the entire west coast of Taiwan, between Taipei and Kaohsiung. The trains have whittled the travel time along the 214-mile stretch down to just about an hour and a half. The thrilling ride runs on viaducts or through tunnels for most of its length.

Since it first opened service, THSR has carried more than 160 million passengers and has greatly reduced road traffic.

Photo credit: Pedro Salaverría/Shutterstock

AVE

AVE is Spain’s renowned high-speed rail network, with more than 1,600 miles of rail that makes it the second longest rail line in the world (behind China’s), and the largest in Europe. The name, AVE, is a play on the Spanish word for “bird,” apt, because these trains can certainly fly.

The ride between Madrid and Barcelona is the most popular, which is completed in just about two and a half hours. Passengers reduce their carbon emissions by 83 percent on the trip, and the train is also remarkably punctual — a 99 percent on-time rating.

Photo credit: Jpatokal/Wikimedia Commons

KTX

Based on France’s TGV line, the KTX (Korea Train Express) is South Korea’s high-speed railway. The trains are capable of reaching speeds up to 217 mph, which make them the forth line of bullet trains to hit that mark.

After being launched in 2004, KTX has been a remarkable success and plans to greatly expand the network are already well underway. In fact, the line is planned to connect Mokpo with Jeju Island, which will involve the construction of the world’s longest undersea tunnel.

Photo credit: Manuel Paa/Wikimedia Commons

Italo

The Italo is Italy’s newest high-speed rail network, a private enterprise geared at offering an alternative to the country’s state-owned Trenitalia. Apparently, everyone in Italy is calling it the “Ferrari train.”

Not only is it fast, but it’s luxurious. First class includes free wi-fi, leather seats, in-seat smart TVs and hot meals. It’s difficult to imagine a better way to spend time whirling between Rome and Florence. The line just opened in April 2012. It might be the perfect time to travel Italy!

Main photo: Shinkansen train in Tokyo. Credit: Parag.naik/Wikimedia Commons

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So why not kill both birds with one stone?

That’s the idea behind poop power. Yes, get your giggles out now: I said ‘poop power’. The idea is to transform our dirty, smelly excrement, into clean, occasionally-also-smelly (but sustainable) energy.

Though it may elicit laughs, the potential of poop-to-power technology is actually serious business. Not only does the technology have the ability to supplement our energy needs, but by using human waste as an input, it also does away with a major pollutant. Really, it’s the quintessential model of sustainability.

A number of companies, cities and countries are already seeing sewage as a power source rather than as a waste problem. Here are 8 major ways that power is being generated from poop:

Photo Credit: Jonutis/Shutterstock

City Sewage

Perhaps the most clearcut way to transform your poop into power is to convert it into biogas via anaerobic digestion. Basically, when sewage is fed to anaerobic bacteria, they eat it up and belch out a waste product of their own: biogas. This can then be funneled directly into the already-existing natural gas distribution system, transformed into electricity, or burned off immediately for energy.

A number of North American cities have already installed biogas digesters into their waste treatment facilities. For example, the Lions Gate Wastewater Treatment plant in Vancouver, British Columbia, has launched a biogas project designed to supplement the city’s natural gas supply.

Another city employing such an approach is Brooklyn, NY, at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The facility recently got an overhaul so fewer smells escape into nearby neighborhoods. Which is a real win for locals, but a major loss for pets who will now bear all the blame for unclaimed flatulence.

Photo Credit: fotoJoost/Shutterstock

Manure Mania

If you think human waste is a problem, just imagine the amount of waste that comes from our farm animals. Poop from the big three– cows, pigs and poultry– represents a monumental waste problem of its own. Manure has long been used as fertilizer, but there is vast untapped energy potential here too. In fact, it has been estimated that transforming cow poop to biogas could meet 3 percent of North America’s energy needs. Projects launched in California and Ontario, Canada are already ahead of the curve, to name just a few.

Pigs are another major source of poo… er, power. China is investing heavily in transforming poop from their estimated 700 million pigs into energy. Even Google is making an investment in pig plops as part of their effort to make the company carbon neutral.

And don’t forget poultry. China is on top of this one too, already with a chicken-manure biogas plant up and running near Beijing.

Photo Credit: TOTO

Toot Engines

Poop isn’t only useful for generating electricity; it can also fuel your vehicle. Who knew that it would one day be your exhaust that was coming out of your car?

In fact, Volkswagen has debuted a version of its iconic Bug that runs on processed sewage. Its converted 2.0-liter, four-cylinder motor can generate speeds up to 114 miles per hour.

The city of Oslo, Norway, is also fueling its buses with flatulence, so to speak. Sewage from about 250,000 Oslo residents is enough to operate 80 buses for around 62,000 miles each.

Perhaps the most bizarre poop-powered vehicle, though, is this motorcycle with a built in toilet (pictured above). Or is it a toilet with a built-in motorcycle? Designed by Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto, the bike ensures that you’ll never have to stop to use the rest room, or a gas station, ever again.

Photo Credit: Kuzmin Andrey/Shutterstock

Diaper Power

Toilets are handy receptacles for capturing and pumping our poop to centralized treatment plants. But what about the waste that doesn’t make it to the toilet? No, I’m not talking about peeing in the shower. I’m talking about when your baby poops (before it was potty trained, that is).

Of course, that’s what diapers are for. But why let all of that waste to go to, ahem, waste? That’s what Canadian company AMEC-PLC was asking. So they built a facility capable of turning billions of poopy diapers into energy.

While collecting all of those diapers is still an arduous and, let’s face it– dirty, task, it certainly beats having the diapers end up in landfills.

Photo Credit: Matt Ragen/Shutterstock

Prisoner Poop

Generating power to cook for around 10,000 inmates isn’t cheap for Cyangugu prison in Rwanda: they used to spend about $44,000 dollars annually just for firewood (that’s a lot of money in Rwanda). It also means a lot of trees being cut down.

That was before a 150 cubic meter biogas digester was donated by the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology’s Center for Innovations and Technology Transfer. Now poop collected from 1,500 of the prison’s inmates is being used to power the kitchens, cutting the energy bill in half.

It certainly gives a whole new meaning to the idea of a ‘gas-powered stove.’

Photo Credit: Mat Hayward/Shutterstock

Pooper-Scoopers

Aside from those of you who have trained your pets to use the toilet, dogs and cats represent another fountainhead of poop that has been under-utilized as a power source. But a methane digester might be coming soon to a dog park near you.

A plan, originally imagined by artist Matthew Mazzotta, to turn dog waste into power for lamps at a dog park in Cambridge, MA, has caught the world by storm. The idea is pretty simple: instead of tossing your pets’ poops in a trashcan, you toss it into an on-site 500-gallon biogas digester. The digester then generates enough power for the park’s lamps.

Dog parks as far away as Gilbert, Arizona and Melbourne, Australia, have already begun employing their own pet-poop power stations too.

Photo Credit: David Gallaher/Shutterstock

Zoo Poo

We’ve covered human sewage, farm animal waste, dog droppings, and even baby poop. What’s left?

Zoos are another place with major poop problems, and I don’t just mean from the patrons. All of those animals generate a lot of waste, and keeping zoo facilities powered up can be expensive. Zoos therefore make perfect places for utilizing poop power.

The Munich Zoo in Germany is the first zoo in the world to take full advantage. They’ve installed three large digesters for generating biogas, which are filled up weekly with the poop from all of the park’s vegetarian animals. (The elephants make the most significant contributions). The energy generated then goes toward heating the enclosures of various warm-weather critters.

Photo Credit: Nanyang Technological University

Toilet Tech

If we’re going to take poop power seriously, then we’ll need to begin thinking differently about toilet technology too. Luckily, researchers are already on it.

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University have invented a new toilet system that not only makes the distribution of our poop more efficient, but it saves a ton on water too.

The system saves on water by working a lot like the vacuum toilets that exist in airplane lavatories. Perhaps most impressive, though, is the way it separates liquid from solid waste. Liquid waste can then be streamlined straight to a facility that specializes in creating fertilizer. Meanwhile, solid waste gets flushed to a biogas plant to be transformed into electricity or fuel.

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Mr. Tesla held various electric engineering jobs throughout Europe before moving to the United States in 1884. Landing in New York City with just a few cents in his pocket, he found employment with Thomas Edison thanks to a recommendation letter that, if truly written, stands as one of the best in history—Charles Batechelor, a contemporary of Edison and a talented engineer and inventor, is supposed to have written to Edison:

“I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young man.”

While working for Edison, Mr. Tesla made major contributions in engine and electrical generation and transmission technology. He and Edison had a falling out and he started his own company in 1886. He continued plowing through science, technology and engineering, making huge leaps in electricity generation (he was transmitting power wirelessly to street lights in a time when most of the world got around on foot or by horse), radio transmission (he built the world’s first transmitter), and computer science (he invented the AND gate, whose cousin the NAND gate forms the base of all that is possible with computers).

Volumes have been and will be written about the breadth and width of the contributions Nikola Tesla made to our world (a good case is brilliantly put forth here by The Oatmeal), but I’ll focus on a few of my favorites here (read a full list of his ~300 patents here). Here are three amazing things invented by Nikola Tesla.

The electronic logic gate
All digital technology, from the computer or smart phone that you’re using to read this to the microwaves that heat up our leftovers to the pacemakers that help regulate irregular heartbeats is built on a sea of 1s and 0s—the binary building blocks of our modern life. Zoom down far enough onto a circuit board and you find a network of connected “logic gates,” tiny little structures that pass and regulate electric current in different ways. You can imagine each gate having a gate keeper that allows the current through if the conditions are right. An AND gate will allow electricity to flow (which is seen as being “on” or 1) only if all of its inputs are flowing with electricity (no electricity is taken as “off” or 0). An OR gate will allow the electricity to flow if at least one of its inputs is “on.” In addition to AND and OR, there are also NOR, NAND, XOR, XNOR and NOT gates. These handful of logic gates can be assembled to do any kind of computation (in fact you can actually build any other gate using just the NAND gate) possible.

Computer chips can easily have billions of microscopic logic gates, all connected in a way that allows them to do the work we design them to do. Logic gates move the electric signals that we abstract our lives on to. As you are reading this article, an untold number of logic gates are clicking on and off to make it happen. There is a connection of logic gates between your eye and my typing fingers, an almost unimaginable number of OR, AND, and XOR gates channeling electric intention to drive the computer I am writing on, the servers and routers that channel my words around the internet, through to the computer, cell phone, or refrigerator that you’re reading this story on.

Tesla invented the logic gate as part of wirelessly controlled miniature boat that he unveiled in 1898. His invention, which he called a “teleautomaton,” was the first machine built capable of being controlled wirelessly with radio waves. His need to control the signals between the boat and the wirelessly connected driver lead him to devise a part that would toggle an electric signal one way or another depending on a set of prescribed circumstances (if all incoming signals are “on,” toggle “on,” else toggle “off”). Tesla’s logic gate was refined, shrunk and propagated throughout the world, but at the most abstract level it hasn’t changed a bit.

The wireless transfer of electricity and information
As the calendar clicked over from 1899 to 1900, Tesla was busy planning the design and construction of a tower that would, if it worked as he thought it would, revolutionize our world, bringing wireless communication and electricity to anyone on the planet more than a hundred years before the iPhone. Tesla was given 200 acres of land in Long Island by James S. Warden, a rich lawyer, banker and land developer, to use to build laboratories, work space and the Wardenclyffe Tower, his most ambitious project at the time. The Wardenclyffe Tower was designed to transmit both electricity and information through the air, allowing any device equipped with an antennae to operate without being physically plugged into the energy grid and to gain access to a worldwide communications network that sounds eerily similar to our modern day system. In an 1908 interview, Tesla described his proposed system:

As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than all of this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction.

Tesla raised funds for his project from investors like J.P. Morgan and John Jacob Astor, then began construction. The Wardenclyffe Tower was nearly completed in 1904 when most of Tesla’s investors withdrew their financial support. Tesla was unable to raise more money and the facility was abandoned by 1911.

Wardenclyffe has been in the news recently thanks to a campaign lead by the popular internet cartoonist The Oatmeal, who is raising money through the crowdfunding site Indiegogo to purchase the Wardenclyffe grounds. The Oatmeal, responding to the possibility that the land could be commercially developed, rallied the fundraising campaign around the idea of turning it into a museum dedicated to telling Nikola Tesla’s story. As of the time of this article’s publishing, $TK has already been raised toward the $850 thousand goal (there is a matching state grant).

Tesla Oscillator
In 1898, Tesla claimed he had built and deployed a small oscillating device that, when attached to his office and operating, nearly shook down the building and everything around it. His oscillator was a small device weighing just a few pounds that would create countering force on a fune-tunable level (think of a free-standing piston popping back and forth that you could control with a dial). Tesla said that he was able to tune the timing of the oscillator to the natural harmonic frequency of the building in such of way that each small oscillator motion added just a little more energy to the wave of flex in the building. Given enough little pushes, even the largest structure could be shaken apart. Make the pushes big enough and maybe even the ground itself could be shaken apart.

That’s what Tesla said happened—his device produced waves of energy that spread to the buildings around his office, causing people to panic at the unyielding earth quake. Realizing the potential for large scale havoc, Tesla said he took a hammer to the oscillator to disable it, instructing his employees to claim ignorance to the cause of the tremors if asked.

Sadly, Tesla never properly demonstrated his oscillator (he told the story of the shaken building years after it was to have happened) and eventually sank into financial ruin as his health and mental clarity degraded with age.

The TV show “Mythbusters” spent some time exploring the idea of the Tesla Oscillator and were able to build a small, 6-lb. oscillating device that created strong vibrations throughout a large steel bridge. It’s not a hard jump to the idea of a larger device (what happens at 25 lbs., 50 lbs., 100 lbs.?) being able to shake loose the bridge. What would happen with a large, 1,000-lb. oscillator? 10,000 lbs.? A better question might be “how much does the oscillator have to weigh in order to cause a proper earthquake?”

Main image credit: Rex Herbert; logic gate credit: Stefan506; Wardenclyffe remains credit: Americasroof; oscillator credit: FreeInfoSociety.com

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In that spirit, it can be a fascinating exercise to look ahead. What cutting edge technologies being developed today will be commonplace tomorrow? In what ways will these technologies radically alter our world?

Here’s our look at 9 future technologies that may soon make our present reality unrecognizable:

Photo Credit: gornjak/Shutterstock

Atmospheric Energy

Most of the energy we produce today comes from finite resources – namely, fossil fuels. But as those resources become exhausted – and as the environmental consequences of exhausting them become an increasing concern – developing new, renewable sources of energy will be paramount. Of course, industries such as wind, solar, and biofuel are already booming; but those are just the tip of the iceberg.

One burgeoning renewable source that has the power to revolutionize the production of electricity is atmospheric energy. There is always free electricity in the air and clouds all around us. This is most evident in a thunderstorm or during the polar auroras, such as the Northern Lights. Capturing and controlling this electricity can be a challenge, but if we could tap directly into the Earth’s own electrical field – to quite literally pluck electricity from the air – the potential for the technology to contribute to our energy mix is great.

One company working to make the development of atmospheric energy viable is SEFE, Inc.. They already have 4 patents approved, 3 pending, and 19 more on the way. You can view a corporate video showcasing SEFE’s mission here.

(Editor’s Note: SEFE, Inc. is a major sponsor of Revmodo.com) 

Photo Credit: Paul Fleet/Shutterstock

Nanotechnology

Sometimes its the smallest things that make the biggest impacts. That’s certainly the case with nanotechnology, which is essentially the manipulation of materials on the atomic and molecular levels.

The many applications of nanotech are almost too many to count. Nanoelectronics have the potential to revolutionize computing, not only by making computing speeds faster, but by making electronic devices smaller. Machines the size of cells may one day navigate through our bodies like artificial immune systems. Nano devices may one day be able to manipulate our genetic code– or perhaps even merge with it. Nanotechnology will allow us to invent new materials with a vast range of applications– everything from better-flying golf balls to more effective sunscreens.

As of 2008, over 800 nanotech products had already been made publicly available, and new products were hitting the market at a pace of 3-4 a week.

Photo Credit: Max Braun/Flickr

Augmented Reality

A lot of hubbub was made over the recent release of Google Glasses, but even if the invention might seem silly now, the technology behind it– augmented reality–has the potential to radically alter our world and how we interact with it.

You’ve heard of virtual reality, which is a computer simulated environment. Augmented reality, on the other hand, is a fusion of computer-generated sensory input with the real world. Rather than create a simulated world, augmented reality has the power to actually enhance our perception of the real world.

The technology also has the potential to make it possible to control information in the world, and in real time, much like you can currently control information using a touchscreen device. Basically, augmented reality brings us one step closer to fusing our technology with reality, such that technology and reality may one day be pragmatically indistinguishable.

Check out this eerie sci-fi short film showcasing what this technology may soon become.

Photo Credit: Chris Harvey/Shutterstock

Solar Fuel

As said already, the development of renewable energy will be paramount as we move into the future. Technologies like wind, solar and hydro already present excellent ways of producing renewable electricity, but what about producing fuel? Biofuels have been useful for this purpose, but many biofuels also have the negative impact of competing for agricultural space with our food supply.

But what if we could somehow convert solar energy directly into a liquid fuel? That’s the idea behind the development of solar fuel– a fuel that can be produced with technology that mimics how plants produce energy through photosynthesis. A solar fuel would also revolutionize how renewable energy is stored. Essentially, it would allow us to keep the sun’s energy in liquid form.

One company working to make this vision possible is Joule. Their technology is capable of creating a fuel using only sunlight, carbon dioxide and non-potable water as inputs. They also believe they will soon be able to produce this fuel at a price competitive with gasoline.

Photo Credit: Andrea Danti/Shutterstock

Engineered Stem Cells

Few technologies have the power to transform medicine more than the engineering of stem cells. Not only have stem cells been genetically programmed to attack diseases like HIV or cancer, but stem cells are now being used to generate living tissue.

The ultimate goal of such a technology would be for regrowing replacement organs. Once perfected, it may be possible to extend human life indefinitely. Imagine if each of your organs could simply be replaced, like a car part, any time it began to malfunction.

Photo Credit: Fotovika/Shutterstock

Wireless Energy Transfer

Wireless devices are pretty ubiquitous today; Is anything connected by a wire anymore? Well, technically: while we can beam information around wirelessly, our electrical devices must still, by and large, receive their power from hardwired connections. But imagine being able to beam energy from a power source directly into a device without the need for a wire, much like how your laptop can pick up a wireless internet connection.

The technology for wireless energy transfer already exists, but it has yet to be perfected. There still exists a problem of efficiency; too much energy is lost when it is beamed.

As the technology develops, however, we might imagine a world where nothing needs to be plugged in anymore. Perhaps even more incredible, the technology could revolutionize space exploration. Not only could power be beamed to satellites, space stations, and space ships from Earth, but power collected in space could be sent back to Earth too.

Photo Credit: NASA

Space-Based Solar Energy

The vast majority of the energy contained on Earth originates from the Sun. Our ability to harness that power depends on how efficiently we can harvest it. Solar technology is becoming ever-better at capturing the Sun’s energy, but all Earth-based solar collectors are limited because the atmosphere deflects a great deal of the Sun’s energy.

But what if we could assemble vast arrays of solar panels in space? Not only could we arrange them to always be pointing at the Sun, but there would be no atmosphere to get in the way of all that energy. Also, it wouldn’t require covering any of the Earth’s surface with solar panels. That’s the idea behind space-based solar.

Of course, the technology is limited by our ability to assemble and maintain such vast arrays in space. There is also the problem of energy transfer, which is pending the development of wireless energy transfer (mentioned on this list already). Nevertheless, it’s possible that such technology could one day meet all of our energy needs.

Photo Credit: lightpoet/Shutterstock

Quantum Teleportation

Teleportation isn’t just the stuff of science fiction. It’s real, and it’s already here. Or at least, quantum teleportation is here: which is the instantaneous transfer of a quantum state from one location to another.

The bizarre phenomenon that makes this possible is called entanglement, a mysterious link known to exist between certain particles even though they are separated by space.

The key to the technology is controlling this phenomenon. It’s no easy task, but Chinese researchers recently teleported a photon’s state nearly 100 kilometers. Once perfected, the technology will revolutionize computing and communication speeds. Obviously, there’s nothing faster than instant communication. It’s almost anti-intuitive to imagine.

Photo Credit: Ociacia/Shutterstock

Artificial Intelligence

The first image you probably conjure up when you think of artificial intelligence is the Terminator, or maybe HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s true that the development of artificial intelligence raises some big philosophical and ethical questions, but there’s little doubt that the technology is inevitable.

The processing power of computers continues to grow at an astounding rate. As a result, we’re able to analyze data using increasingly complex computer models, and solve problems in ever-more ingenious ways.

So far, we’ve yet to create a machine with artificial consciousness, or self-awareness. But this, too, is likely inevitable. At least one engineer believes that artificial consciousness will emerge by 2045.

It’s unlikely that artificial consciousness will emerge from a computer console, or a disembodied app. Rather, true machine consciousness will likely come out of the field of robotics. Of course, this could mean there will finally be a robot maid for every household in America. Or it’ll mean the invention of the Terminator. I guess we’ll just have to find out.

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And yet, as terrible a thing that war, and the military institutions that support it, has been for humanity and the world-at-large, it remains a truth that many important discoveries have been made in pursuit of a better way to kill the guy on the other side of the battlefield. A lot of medical innovations arose from the carnage of the American Civil War as doctors searched for ways to fight infection and successfully treat scores of horrific wounds. World War 2 provided a huge boost to our understanding of physics as some of the world’s richest nations poured rivers of money into splitting the atom. That same war provided a similar boost to research into computers as many of the field’s top minds threw themselves into projects like cracking the German’s secret Enigma code.

Here are four good things that we can thank war for.

Microwave popcorn
The microwave oven was invented just after World War 2 when engineer Percy Spencer noticed that a chocolate bar had melted in his pocket after he stood in front of a magnetron, a piece of equipment used in radar. Modern day radar can be traced back to American Robert M. Page, who was working for the Navy when he first demonstrated a working model in 1934. Radar was further fined throughout the war to the point when Spencer made his discovery. One of the first foods that Spencer tried heating by microwave was popcorn. It took a couple of decades for the microwave oven to find its way into middle class homes, but by the time it did, microwave popcorn was right there alongside.

Second Law of Thermodynamics
The laws of thermodynamics (there are four of them) are fundamental ideas that describe how temperature, energy, and entropy behave under different conditions. They are form the base of much of our understanding of How Things Work while operating quietly all around us.

The second law of thermodynamics states that temperature, pressure, and chemical potential tend to equalize towards entropy in systems not in thermal equilibrium—put a hot block of wood next to a warm block of wood and the heat will “move” from the hot block to the warm as the system trends towards entropic equilibrium, or when both blocks are the same temperature.

This fundamental law was developed by Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, a French military engineer who has been called the “father of thermodynamics” for his contributions. He noticed that, in a thermodynamic system, like an engine, heat is always created (and lost) in the process. That heat represents the energy that transitioned from a higher state of order (when it was trapped as fuel) to a lower state (the heat). He found the process to be irreversible and formalized it into writings that lead to our more refined understanding of the second law of thermodynamics today.

GPS
The Global Positioning System, better known as GPS, is made up of a network of satellites sitting in geosynchronous orbit around the earth and allows users to accurately pinpoint their location using compatible devices. GPS has become an indispensable cog in the complex system that is our modern world. Airlines rely on it to orchestrate their routes, shipping companies use it to track and manage their cargo, and I used it last week to find my way to a friend’s wedding.

GPS was built by the U.S. military upon a technological backbone that included systems they developed during World War 2. The military was experimenting and using satellites for navigation since the 60s. In 1994, the 24th satellite of the first GPS system available to civilians was launched and we’ve been using it to find our way around the world ever since.

Synthetic Rubber
The world’s cars ride on a sea of synthetic rubber. Every tire in the world is made using one form of synthetic rubber or another, a technology that developed by Allied scientists during World War 2. By 1944, twice as much synthetic rubber was being made in U.S. factories as all of the world’s pre-war production of natural rubber (made by processing sap from the rubber tree). By the end of the war, synthetic rubber was the go-to material for tires.

The use of synthetic rubber permeates our lives today and can be seen in the nose pads of eye glasses and in the and hinges of medical equipment. We use it to make wet suits and spatulas, playgrounds and sporting equipment.

Main photo credit: Steven Depolo/Flickr; popcorn photo credit: Howard Cheng; thermodynamics graphic credit: アリオト; GPS photo credit: Guyver8400; rubber photo credit: The Car Spy

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Things started to perk up a bit around Europe after a few chaotic centuries. The High Middle Ages, which began around 1000 AD, was a time marked by population growth and advances made in the worlds of art, science, business and technology. Stone castles sprung up across the land and engineers were hired to build clever machines of war for wealthy lords and leaders. The nobility expanded their financial support of scholarly and artistic work while the growing commercial sector helped drive many technological jumps in their pursuit of a better bottom line.

It’s easy to forget the debt we owe to early society for the work they did in advancing human knowledge. We wouldn’t have computers if we hadn’t figured out how to measure the passage of time. We couldn’t have sent a man to the moon if we never invented glasses. Take a little time now and read over six really important inventions of the Middle Ages.

The Heavy Plough
The plough was a major breakthrough in the history of humankind and allowed people to greatly expand their fields and grow crops in soils too hard for hand digging. Early ploughs were, more or less, a pointy stick dragged behind a draft animal, cutting lightly through the soil. A farmer would walk along with the plough and lift the plough blade so that it didn’t get caught on rocks or roots. These ploughs were fine for lighter soils but had trouble in harder soils.

Enter the heavy plough, which uses wheels to support a heavier blade. The exact place and time of the first use of the heavy plough are not known, but it’s safe to peg its introduction to somewhere in Asia around 200 AD. The Romans were rocking the heavy plough not too long after that, and by roughly 600 AD, the rest of Europe was on board. Farmers were able to open up extensive new fields thanks to the heavy plough, boosting crop yields and population numbers (aka all of our distant relatives).

Water Mills
Water mills use a turning wheel spoked with water-catching paddles to generate power for operating machines like grinders and saws. These mills were developed by the Greeks before being used throughout the Roman empire. Though they were invented hundreds of years before the Middle Ages, their numbers exploded during this time. By around 1000 AD there were tens of thousands of mills harnessing river and tidal power throughout England, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The technology invented by the Greeks was further refined during the Middle Ages and was used to power tanneries, blast furnaces, forge mills and paper mills which evolved into the machinery used in today’s factories and facilities.

The Hourglass
The exact origins of the hourglass aren’t clear, but it’s generally accepted that it was widely adopted in Europe by the end of the High Middle Ages (~1500 AD). The hourglass was a popular choice for sailors who used it to mark the passage of time which allowed them to determine their longitude (location east to west). The hourglass was preferred over earlier water clocks because their sands were unaffected by the rocking motion of an ocean-bound ship. They were used on shore to measure time for church services, cooking, and work tasks.

Mechanical clocks supplanted the hourglass, though it wasn’t until the 18th century that a suitable marine replacement was found.

Liquor
Distillation describes the separation of different liquids within a mixture, usually through the application of heat. It’s an important technique used in science and industry (oil refineries distill crude oil into a large number of components like gasoline, kerosine, paraffin wax and plastic-base) but has also given the world the gift (or curse, depending on how you look at it) of liquor. Whiskey, brandy, gin, rum and vodka are all produced by distilling mashed grains, potatoes, molasses, wine or fruits.

Distillation was first worked out by the Greeks and Egyptians but wasn’t used to produce distilled spirits until 1200 AD or so with the invention of liquors like Irish whiskey and German brandy. We had a pretty solid handle on distilling liquors by the end of the Middle Ages. Although modern distilleries are obviously more advanced than the ones used in the Middle Ages, the basic techniques haven’t changed much from “heat up the liquid and separate its components when they boil at different temperatures.”

Eyeglasses
As someone born with relatively bad eye sight, I am particularly thankful to 13th century Italians for coming up with the eyeglasses. They were first documented in the early 1300s with early models made to be held up by hand or pinched on the nose. It wasn’t until the 1700s that designs featuring arms that bent around the nose became widely used. Life for billions of people around the world (including the author) would be a dismal, blurry affair if not for the humble eyeglasses.

The Printing Press
Unlike the other items on this list, the origins of the modern printing press can easily be tracked to one man and one place: Johannes Gutenberg from Mainz, Germany. Around 1440 Mr. Gutenberg developed his now famous press which allowed, for the first time, industrial scale printing. It’s hard to emphasize how important the invention of the Gutenberg press was to the development of the modern world. The press meant ideas could be spread through books and pamphlets, newspapers and journals. Science, technology and history all saw great leaps as institutional knowledge began to accrue around the world. Without Gutenberg, there would be no internet. And without the internet you wouldn’t be reading this article right now. Also, no pictures of funny cats and bacon.

Main image credit: Bbadgett; heavy plough credit: Wien/Vienna pd-us; water mill credit: Andreas Trepte; hourglass credit: Brian Jackson/Shutterstock; liquor credit: Ziko; eyeglasses credit: Brenda Gottsabend/Flickr; printing press credit: artnet.com

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Like with most great myths, though, the “protein myth” isn’t completely steeped in falsehood. Its origin can be traced back to an inkling of truth — a remote fact, however inconsequential, that allows it to endure. In this case, the myth likely hails from the oft misunderstood distinction between complete and incomplete proteins.

While nearly all foods contain the nine essential amino acids we need, proportions do vary. Foods with amino acids in the correct proportion for human dietary needs are said to contain complete proteins, whereas foods with proportional deficiencies are said to be incomplete. (Here’s a table that lists the optimal dietary proportions of the essential amino acids).

It just so happens that almost all animal-based foods contain complete proteins, while most plant-based foods are incomplete.

This doesn’t mean that vegans and vegetarians are in any danger of protein deficiency, vis-a-vis the protein myth (even a moderately varied plant diet easily balances out any amino acid deficits). But it’s a fact that may nevertheless be relevant to protein-conscious veggie-dieters interested in maximizing the efficiency of their protein intake.

Luckily, there are a number of plant-based foods that do provide complete proteins. Here are a number of them:

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Quinoa

A grain-like crop originating in the Andean region of South America, quinoa was considered sacred food by the Incas. Due in large part to its nutritional value, its importance was secondary only to the potato in pre-Columbian times. It was even considered more valuable than maize.

Aside from being a complete protein, quinoa is also gluten-free and a good source of calcium, iron and phosphorous. It has even been considered a potential crop for NASA’s Controlled Ecological Life Support System, to offer nutrition for astronauts on sustained spaceflight missions.

It is typically prepared much like rice, boiled and simmered in water, and its consistency and texture is much like a combination of rice and couscous.

Photo Credit: Kurt Stüber/Wikimedia Commons

Amaranth

Amarath is another crop important to pre-Columbian people of Central and South America. The plant is valuable both for its seeds, which can be ground into a nutritional flour, and for its leafy greens, which rival spinach and kale in nutrients.

Its flour makes excellent tasting flatbreads, pastas and cereal. Its leaves make for a protein-rich addition to salad.

Photo Credit: Don O’Brien/Flickr

Soybeans

Perhaps the most common and widespread plant-based complete protein, soybeans were first cultivated in East Asia but have since spread around the world. Tofu, soy milk and a wide variety of meat and dairy substitutes are derived from the soybean.

Besides being a source of complete protein, soybeans have also been shown to reduce cholesterol, help prevent prostate cancer, and even fight osteoporosis.

Soybeans also account for 80 percent of domestic biofuel production in the United States, and are an important resource for cattle feed.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Buckwheat

Despite the name, buckwheat is not actually related to wheat, as it is not a cereal or grass.  First cultivated in Southeast Asia, buckwheat is perhaps most widely eaten in the form of soba noodles, popular in Japanese and Korean cuisine.  In many regions of Europe, such as Russia and France, buckwheat is also transformed into pancakes.

Buckwheat should also not be confused with wheat in that it is gluten-free. In fact, it is a common substitute for other grains when brewing gluten-free beer.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Hempseed

Although probably best known for belonging to the Cannabis genus, hemp is far more valuable as a food source and building/textile material than as a psychoactive crop. Hempseeds are rich in protein and can be eaten raw, ground into a meal, sprouted, or even made into hemp milk.

Hempseeds are also rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, essential fatty acids vital to our metabolism.

The plant is also valuable as a building material and textile, used to make everything from clothing fibers to concrete-like blocks called hempcrete.

Photo Credit: graibeard/Flickr

Chia

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia! Yes, that’s right, the infamous Chia Pet is grown using sprouts from the chia plant (Salvia hispanica). It just so happens that chia seeds also provide a rare plant source for complete protein.

First cultivated by the Aztec of Central America, chia is a flowering plant in the mint family. The seeds may be eaten raw or ground into a flour. They are also often added to water or fruit juices to create a nutritional drink. Chia sprouts can also be consumed much like alfalfa sprouts, to be used in salads or sandwiches.

Photo Credit: USFWS Pacific Southwest Region/Flickr

Aphanizomenon flos-aquae

Technically, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae is not really a plant; it is a blue-green algae, belonging to a different taxonomic kingdom from plants. Even so, it provides an animal-free source of protein for vegans and vegetarians all the same.

The algae is most commonly used as a food supplement, sold as tablets. Aside from being a source of complete protein, it has also been shown to have benefits for the immune system.

Although it is known to grow in many regions of the world, by far the most abundant source of the cyanobacteria comes from a single lake in southern Oregon: Klamath Lake. Every year, the algae experiences a massive bloom, choking out all other microphytes in the lake.

Since the algae comes in both toxic and non-toxic forms, caution should be advised before harvesting it as a food supplement.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Spirulina

Another microalga that offers an animal-free source of complete protein is spirulina. First used as a food source by pre-Columbian Mesoamericans, today it is cultivated worldwide and primarily used as a dietary supplement.

Spirulina’s value as a nutritious food supplement has been recognized by several member states of the United Nations, who have assembled an organization called the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition. The organization aims to utilize spirulina to combat malnutrition in famine-struck regions.

Top Photo Credit: cyclonebill/Flickr

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But a lot can happen in a thousand years. In a few thousand years entire landscapes can change completely. There was a mile of ice over where I sit now in Maine just 10,000 years ago.

So it’s understandable how easy it is to look at something as huge as a mighty desert and assume that it’s always been there. Some of the world’s largest deserts can stretch for thousands of miles and cover millions of square miles of area. It’s hard to imagine that they have been anything other than vast stretches of dry sands and rocks (or ice in the case of a few deserts). Yet, for every huge desert you show me, I can show you an area that was covered with life sometime in the not-too distant past (again, relative to the age of the planet). It might not be a bad idea, considering the rate that humanity is dumping climate changing greenhouse gases into the environment, for us to take as many lessons as possible from the study of how once verdant areas turned into deserts. If we know exactly how it happens, we stand a better chance of finding a way to slow down or reverse the process.

Here are seven desert that used to be verdant fields and forests.

Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert covers 3.6 million square miles of Northern Africa (that’s bigger than the continental United States) and is the largest hot desert in the world. The Sahara has all of the stereotypical desert features and is covered with towering sand dunes, packed with camels and scorpions, and dotted with the occasional oasis (palm trees and all).

The Sahara is not a forgiving environment—temperatures regularly creep over three digits while strong winds whip up sand storms that darken the sky and choke the lungs of anything caught out unprepared. But it wasn’t always that way. The Sahara was actually a pretty lush place as recently as six thousand or so years ago. If you extend your range of view out into the hundreds of thousands of years (and farther), you see the area cycle through periods of wet and dry, each brought on by larger changes to the climate. Early humans left behind cave art showing crocodiles and large dinosaur fossils suggest an environment lush enough to support 20-foot long animals.

Great Victoria Desert
The Great Victoria Desert is found in the southwest quadrant of Australia and is one of the least populated (by humans) areas on the planet. Aboriginal people called its wind blasted dunes and sand prairies home before westerners sailed in and conquered the continent. In the 50s and 60s the Australian government evicted many of the remaining Aboriginals and used the area for testing nuclear weapons.

Australia has been a relatively dry mass of land for the last hundred thousand years or so, but if you go back a few million years, you’d find it lush and green, covered in rainforests and large animals straight out of an Avatar casting call. Today’s Australian rainforests are the distant relatives of these ancient forests, pushed to the continents outer fringes by deserts like the Great Victorian Desert.

Gobi Desert
The Gobi Desert, covering a little over half a million square miles of China and Mongolia, is a diverse, though generally dry, landscape with high elevation plateaus abutting grassy (at least in the wet season) steppes running into sandy dunes. It is a cold desert where winter temperatures generally run below zero. The bone dry air means there is little snow, though frost is a constant winter companion.

It’s not hard to find places in the Gobi Desert that used to be green space—it is estimated that the desert eats up hundreds of square miles of grassland every year thanks to overgrazing, deforestation, and climate change. Walk to the current border of the desert and look around— a few years ago you would have been looking at grassy fields instead of dry barren expansions of tan sand and rock.

Kalahari Desert
Technically, the Kalahari Desert is a semi-desert, owing to the fact that seasonal rains regularly soak it, waking dormant grasses and other plants. Even still, when it’s dry, the Kalahari is every bit as much a desert as any place listed here. The name “Kalahari” is derived from a local word meaning “a waterless place.” Temperatures can climb above 110°F, driving away any clouds that find strength enough to form in the arid air.

Tens of thousands of years ago the Kalahari was covered in a huge (about as large as South Carolina) body of fresh water called Lake Makgadikgdi. As the centuries rolled by, the lake was slowly drained away after rivers feeding away from it pulled out more water than was being fed in. By roughly 10,000 years ago most of the lake had been bled out and the current-day Kalahari started getting drier and drier.

Arabian Desert
The Arabian Desert, also known as all of Saudi Arabia and part of Egypt, sprawls across almost a million square miles and is home to one of the largest contiguous bodies of sand in the world. It is one of the least biologically diverse places on the planet due to its harsh climate and damages from human activity (hunting, industrial pollution, military action) but was, just a few tens of thousands of years ago, home to a large number of shallow lakes which supported a diverse community of animals as large as hippos and water buffalo.

Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert covers most of southern California and parts of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona and is, at only 47,877 square miles, a small fry compared to the other deserts on our list. The Mojave is both a hot and a cold desert, depending on the time of year, with temperatures running from as a low as 0°F in the winter to as high as 130°F in the summer.

Around 10,000 years ago, as the last ice age faded and melted away, the area that is today known as the Mojave Desert was a much wetter place. It was marked by lakes and streams fed by retreating glaciers and sustained by wetter weather patterns.

Antarctica
It’s sometimes easy to forget that Antarctica is a desert, receiving less than eight inches of precipitation each year. It’s a cold and forbidding desert that is covered in darkness for half of the year, but even it, too, was once a green and biologically dense land. In 1986, researchers from Ohio State University found evidence of a temperate rain forest dating from roughly three million years ago. If you go farther back than that, far enough to notice continental drift, you’d find an Antarctica enjoying the benefits of a more northern location, slowly on a march toward its current home hugging the South Pole, away in cold.

Main photo credit: Nomadz
Sahara photo credit: Fighting Irish 1977/Flickr
Victoria photo credit: Amanda Slater/Flickr
Gobi photo credit: Sander van der Molen
Kalahari photo credit: Winfried Bruenken
Arabian photo credit: Robin/Flickr
Mojave photo credit: David~O/Flickr
Antarctica photo credit: Michael Studinger/NASA

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Some of the most well known invasive species were deliberate choices made by people hoping to provide a source of food (in the case of the rabbits) while others were established by accident, either by grabbing a ride on a passing ship (Quagga mussels of the Great Lakes) or escaping from human captivity (Asian carp and the burmese python).

It’s likely that most organisms that find themselves transported halfway around the world land in habitats that they are not suited for. Those organisms die a quiet death. The plants and animals we highlight here landed in environments that were perfect for them to grab a foothold in. They did that and more, and have pushed out native species and, in some cases, caused ecological havoc on their new ecosystems. These five invasive species are the ones that have won. They’re not going anywhere anytime soon.

I, for one, welcome our new invasive overlords.

Kudzu Vine
The kudzu vine is a native of Japan and China, where it enjoys a life of ecological balance, hemmed in by the other plant and animal species that it evolved alongside. It plays its biological part, fixing nitrogen out of the air and into the soil and helping to redistribute and diffuse nutrients and energy. The kudzu story would end there if it had stayed within its home range. Instead, the vine has taken on an almost mythological aura as it has spread and smothered a vast range of land in the southern United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The fast growing vine, in the absence of natural predators, blazes across forests, climbing and reaching for every bit of available sunlight. In the process it shades out and kills any native fauna unfortunate enough to be found underneath. The vines are prodigious growers and their advance has yet to be stopped in any meaningful way. There are efforts underway to develop specialized herbicides to combat kudzu and to use it as a source for biofuels, but for now, the vine marches on.

Burmese pythons
The Burmese python evolved in the warm tropical waters of Southern and Southeast Asia, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that they would feel at home in the Florida Everglades. The large predator (they can grow up to 20 feet long) is a popular choice for pet snake enthusiasts and was slowly introduced to Florida by well-meaning but irresponsible owners who let them go free when they were no longer wanted around the house. These released snakes slithered into the Everglades and found it to their liking. While they aren’t completely without predation — they are known to battle alligators — they had enough of a free hand to rip through the natural web of Florida wildlife. Researchers have watched as populations of small mammals have dropped across the board. Some species have seen drops as high as 95 to 100 percent in monitored locations.

There are tens, and possibly hundreds of thousands of Burmese pythons living in the Everglades. Hundreds of thousands of large, scary snakes living in dark, scary swampy water. Who’s ready to wade in there and start taking them out? Anyone? It’s hard to see how this story has a happy ending for anyone but the Burmese pythons.

Rabbits
When you think about rabbits, it’s likely that your mind springs to an image of a cute little fluffy bunny hopping through the forest and occasionally giving young children chocolates and jelly beans. Or maybe you think about a tasty roasted dish of rabbit and root veggies. Or maybe both.

But how about the image of rabbits as hungry invaders, advancing in never-ending waves of colonization? Rabbits, for as far as you can see, covering the proverbial horizon with their adorable twitchy little noses and their huge litters of fast-growing kits. Eating through everything. Eating, and having babies.

That’s the story of the rabbits in Australia. They were introduced by English settlers way back in the late 1700s as a source of food. Enough rabbits escaped captivity to gain a foothold that they haven’t let go of since. Australian newspapers were talking about the spreading scourge of rabbits in the 1800s and time has only allowed their advancement to spread. They are now firmly entrenched and have been blamed for the loss of innumerable native species. People have tried to stop the rabbits using fences, hunters and poisoning, but have not been able to do anything more than make small localized impacts that quickly get swallowed up by the harsh reality of the rabbits’ exponential growth.

Quagga mussels
Quagga mussels are native to waters of the Ukraine’s Dnieper River, which dumps into the Black Sea. Over the years they have been picked up and transported around the world by large cargo ships running between the Black Sea and the Great Lakes, where they have gained a foothold and spread to smothering proportions. There are enormous sections of the lakes bottoms that have been given over entirely to nothing but Quagga mussels.

The Quagga mussels muscle out native species a number of ways. Most obvious is their propensity to cover every available inch of habitat, leaving no space for native species to eat, sleep, reproduce and die. Secondly, they are filter feeders and strip the waters of phytoplankton, depriving any other species a vitally important food source. Their filter feeding also results in abnormally clear waters that are favored by aquatic plants whose spread further impacts and disrupts ecosystems.

By now the Quagga mussel has jumped beyond the Great Lakes and is becoming a threat to lakes and reservoirs all over the United States. They’re winning.

Asian carp
Asian carp is a term that is used to collectively refer to a number of invasive species of carp that are now dominating many lakes, streams and rivers in the United States. As their name implies, the different carp species are all native to Asia, China to be specific. They have been used in aquaculture for more than a thousand years and were originally imported to the United States to help clean waste water generated by farmed catfish. Large floods allowed enough of the carp to escape their containment ponds over the years and they quickly spread along waterways, eating their way through local ecosystems. They have now been found in all but one of the Great Lakes as well as the Mississippi River and countless smaller rivers and streams.

Besides the direct impact they have on local ecosystems, many of the species that fall under the term “Asian carp” are extremely skittish fish. Any loud or sudden noise can spook them into swimming and jumping out of the air (as far as 10 feet up). There are a plethora of videos on YouTube of boaters being hammered by huge schools of leaping carp. On one hand it’s an effortless way to catch a fish for dinner, but on the other hand it’s a brave soul who can stand up to a bombardment of flying fish that can weigh up to 100 pounds each and come at you from any direction at a high rate of speed.

Main photo credit: Lori Oberhofer/National Park Service, kudzu photo credit: Bill Sutton/Flickr, Burmese python photo credit: Mahbob Yusof, rabbit photo credit: Masteruk, Quagga mussel-covered shoe photo credit: Dan Bennett/Flickr, Asian carp photo credit: Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee

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