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Month: March 2011

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  • Desktop Farming: 10 Gadgets for Growing a Cubicle Garden

    A bit of foliage can make all the difference to a workplace, bringing a little bit of nature indoors in all its green and air-purifying glory.

    If you’re stuck in a cubicle, or behind a desk, then we’ve got 10 excellent gadgets, gizmos and other solutions that will see you enjoying the pleasures of desktop gardening in no time at all.

    If you like the idea of introducing a bit of the natural world to your workstation, have a look at the gallery below and let us know which options get your green fingers twitching.

    1. Desktop Plant Light

    Desktop Plant Light

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    Is your desk in the deepest, darkest bowels of a building? Then this lamp will replicate sunlight so you can keep a potted plant (and yourself) happy.

    Cost: $49.99

    2. HydroDome DIY Hydroponics Kit

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    This kit will let you create your own hydroponic garden right on your desk. Lettuce seeds are included, but you can grow any plant you like in its nutrient solution.

    Cost: $29.99

    3. USB Greenhouse

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    Another light-giving solution for those in sunshine-free workplaces, this "USB greenhouse" will also remind you when to water your new plant buddy.

    Cost: $43

    4. Andrea Air Purifier

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    This plant will earn its place in your office since it doubles as an air purifier. It absorbs toxic gases thanks to the natural, absorptive properties of the plant.

    Cost: $199

    5. USB Flower Pot

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    If you've not had much success with keeping potted plants alive, this USB flower pot might be the answer. The bundled software will remind you to care for the plant at timely intervals via the LED lights on the pot's base.

    Cost: $20

    6. Uncle Milton Hydro Greenhouse 2

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    Actually aimed at children as an educational toy, we think this mini greenhouse kit is ideal for desktop gardening projects. It comes complete with all you need to start growing, including cute, small-scale tools.

    Cost: $29.99

    7. Grow Your Own Aloe Kit

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    Aloe Vera grows fast and is hard to kill, making it the perfect desktop plant for gardening newbies.

    Cost: $14.99

    8. AeroGarden

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    Ideal for anyone who likes gadgetry, the AeroGarden is a serious bit of indoor gardening kit. This coffee-maker sized device is fully automated and comes with everything you need to start growing. As an added bonus, it's also available in a range of contemporary colors.

    Cost: From $59.95

    9. Plantariums

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    These science-tastic test tube-style containers are filled with a NASA-approved nutritive gel, letting you can see the germination process happening right in front of your eyes. There's a choice of "flavors," so to speak, with basil, busy Lizzie, carnation, sunflower and tomato seeds available.

    Cost: $11 each

    10. Click & Grow

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    The coming-soon Click & Grow plant pots are due to be available in April, 2011. They offer a futuristic, maintenance-free indoor garden, totally automating the plant-care process. Starter kits will include a Busy Lizzy plant and everything else you need to get growing.

    Cost: 59 euros (approx $82)

    More Tech Resources from Mashable:

    - Especially For You: 8 Great Gadgets You Can Personalize
    - 10 Cool and Unusual Laptop Sleeves [PICS]
    - Top 10 Accessories for Typography Nuts [PICS]
    - Build It Yourself: 8 Fun Electronics Kits Under $100
    - 5 Must-Have Geek Collectibles

    More About: eco gadgets, gadgets, gallery, gardening, gardening gadgets, green, green gadgets, List, Lists, office gadgets, tech, trending

    For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:


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  • U.S. scientist suggests life on Earth began in space
    In what’s being called a groundbreaking paper that could ignite more debate over the creation of life, an award-winning NASA scientist is suggesting that we are not alone in the universe — and, in fact, life on Earth may have come from somewhere out of this world.

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  • Art Fuels Design: Eric Fischer's Maps of Cities According to Tourism and Race

    Eric Fischers map of Seattle by photography: blue is for locals, red is for tourists, yellow is for unknown.

    • Eric Fischer's map of Seattle by photography: blue is for locals, red is for tourists, yellow is for unknown.

    Before I fell down a giant hole of seasonal illness that lasted an entire week, I attended James Corner's town-hall meeting about the future of Seattle's waterfront, which played to a packed crowd at Seattle Aquarium.

    It felt like the old days, when big-name architects and designers gave big-picture speeches and presentations before being whisked back to their faraway offices to design museums and concert halls and libraries. Remember that economy, that energy? (While designing Tacoma Art Museum, Southwest-based architect Antoine Predock conducted a breathless love affair with Mount Rainier, which resulted in a hilariously earnest collage that I wish I had an image of now. I remembered it when Corner waxed poetic about the "life of the ferry." This in no way is a sign of a bad design to come: Predock's TAM is pretty great in most ways, once you know how to find it.)

    Seattle's waterfront is more than overdue for a redesign. It has never actually had a comprehensive, implemented urban design, despite several attempts. But the truth is, nobody knows how a revamp will be paid for. And Corner's preliminary presentation didn't reveal much. It was a series of observations by an out-of-towner demonstrating his education process; it was full of information about what is, not what will be.

    One of Corner's slides was a work of art by someone he called a Seattle artist called Eric Fisher. I didn't know who this was, so I did a little digging, and came up with the man in question: Eric Fischer, a San Francisco area digital cartographer who has never actually been to Seattle. (I'm sorry if you already know about him due to the Internet being fast and me being slow.)

    Seattle was one of the cities Fischer included in his 2010 series of maps of where locals versus tourists take pictures in cities around the world.

    In what look like heat maps—created using the geotagging in picture databases—blue marks represent pictures taken by locals (people shooting for less than a month in the city), red represents pictures taken by tourists, and yellow are unknown. Corner's point was that Seattle's waterfront gets love both from tourists and locals alike, and any redevelopment of it should serve residents as much as tourists, he stressed.

    Last fall, Fischer created another set of maps. He used Census data to color-code 100 American cities according to race and ethnicity. New York's the only real rainbow.

    In an email, Fischer says he's now working on understanding traffic patterns in order to help improve transit service. And he'll be mapping 2010 Census data as it's released.

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