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Inhabitat's Week in Green: lab-grown meat, eSpyder airplane and terabytes of RAM

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

DNP Inhabitat's Week in Green TKTKTK

Summer is traditionally a time for firing up the grill and cooking up some burgers and dogs, but this week saw a high-profile foray into the realm of lab-grown meat. The world's first £250,000 lab-grown hamburger was taste-tested in London, and those who tried it said it isn't terrible, but it needs more fat. In response, Inhabitat polled readers to see what they would be more inclined to eat: the lab-grown meat, which was financially backed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, or Beyond Meat chicken strips made mostly with soy protein, which are backed by Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams. On the design front, interior furnishing giant IKEA is set to debut a new augmented reality catalog that will allow you to preview what different products would look like in your apartment. And to find out how the company is able to produce cheap products while maintaining a small impact on the planet, Inhabitat interviewed IKEA's Chief Sustainability Officer, Steve Howard.

The race to roll out a flying car continues, as Terrafugia's flying car prototype made its public debut at the EAA AirVenture air show in Wisconsin last week. In other aviation news, GreenWing International's single-seat eSpyder airplane hit the market for just under $40,000. In South Korea, the Korean Advanced Institute of Technology launched the first electric buses that are charged via electromagnetic conduction strips that are embedded in the road. Electric vehicles are continuing to grow in popularity, as EV sales increased an incredible 522 percent last year. And looking forward, BMW is set to unveil its new i8 plug-in hybrid sports car at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month.

In green energy news, WeWi Telecommunications unveiled a new solar-powered laptop with foldout photovoltaic panels that can run for 10 hours on a single charge. The new tech startup Crossbar has developed a new RRAM chip that stores a terabyte of data and could lead to cell phones that stay charged for weeks at a time. Researchers at Caltech University are seeking to perfect artificial photosynthesis in order to produce a zero-carbon liquid fuel for vehicles. A new NREL study finds that just 32 acres of solar panels could power 1,000 homes. And in the continued effort to create wind turbines that can coexist with birds, Energy Norway is launching a trial to paint one of every three blades on a windmill black in hopes to deter birds from colliding with the structures.

In other green design and product news, Michael Oechsle has developed the LivingLight, a pendant lamp that is powered by the soil in a hanging plant. MakerBot announced plans to begin selling its Replicator 2 desktop model in Microsoft retail stores across the US. The Puri is one item that every prepper should have in their go bag -- the amazing new water bottle contains a small pumping system that enables it to filter saltwater. Tasul, a polar bear at the Oregon Zoo, has been tagged with a new piece of high-tech neckwear that will help scientists collect information about how polar bears adapt to climate change. And for the kids out there, California-based company Yonder Biology has produced a dinosaur-shaped "pet" filled with dinoflagellate algae that glows at night.