Inhabitat's Week in Green: Tesla Model S recall, and more!
When a problem comes along, you must fix it. This week Tesla noticed a defective seatbelt in one of its Model S sedans, so the automaker immediately issued a recall for all 90,000 vehicles on the road out of "an abundance of caution." In other transportation news, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin beat out Elon Musk's SpaceX in the race to develop a rocket that can return intact from space. Porsche announced plans to offer a hybrid version of one of the most-loved sports cars of all time. We also spotted several outlandish infrastructural hazards: a three-day traffic jam snared drivers in Kenya and a highway suddenly lifted towards the sky and splintered into pieces in California.
What happens when nature meets technology? In Sweden, scientists have created working electronic circuits inside a living rose -- and the development could lead to electricity-generating plants. In other news, China is set to break ground on the world's largest animal cloning factory next year with the goal of lowering the price of premium beef. Chicago recently unveiled the world's largest rooftop farm, which can sprout 10 million pesticide-free crops every year. And a startup called The Hydrous is using 3D scanning technology to map the world's coral reefs and track their health.
Could the world's tallest building be powered by sunlight? This week Iraq unveiled plans for The Bride, a 1,152-meter solar skyscraper that would dwarf the Burj Khalifa and the Kingdom Tower. Also in energy news, France switched on the largest photovoltaic plant in Europe and Kenya completed an 8.5 megawatt solar array in a single year, making it the "fastest" solar farm in Africa. MIT developed a new desalination technique that uses electricity to shock the salt out of water. And on the wearable front, Roar for Good has developed a tiny device called Athena that could keep women safe from sexual assault.
