Greenhouse

US researchers claim to have created an efficient way to take carbon dioxide directly from the air and convert it into methanol - a process which could help the atmosphere and provide clean burning fuel at the same time.

UK architecture firm BAT Studio recently built a 29 sq m (312 sq ft) greenhouse that sits on hydraulic legs. It serves as a safe place for the owners to keep their belongings during floods.

In hot, dry areas of the world, collecting enough rainwater to grow crops can be difficult. Another potential source of water for collection, however, can be dew. Roots Up has designed a greenhouse to collect dew in Gondar, Ethiopia, as part of a scheme to help local farmers with low-tech solutions.

NASA will this year launch five new airborne field campaigns with the goal of shedding more light on a number of Earth system processes whose effect on our climate is incompletely understood.

Developed by a team of Finnish entrepreneurs, the Plantui Plantation is aimed at giving urban green thumbs the capability to raise almost any kind of plant indoors, up two meters (6.6 ft) in height.

Italian design office Studiomobile has teamed up with the University of Florence's professor Stefano Mancuso, the director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, to produce a prototype floating greenhouse which it hopes could improve food security in areas with a lack of arable land.

Between potting parsley and tending to tomatoes, a vegetable patch requires a fair bit of work and even more know how. The MEG Open Source Greenhouse is designed to tap into the collective knowledge of green-thumbs around the world, with an internet-connected indoor microclimate.

Once thought of as an urban fad, the concept of growing produce in the inner-city has started to gain acceptance. But for Infarm of Germany, the idea of grow-your-own comes in the form of a translucent origami-like greenhouse, specially designed to grow those tiny baby greens known as microgreens.

Those of us living in Northern Hemisphere are mourning the end of summer, but the Invisible Garden House, by Danish designer Simon Hjermind Jensen, may offer an opportunity to receive a regular dose of Vitamin D well into the colder seasons.

Whole Foods' next New York outlet looks set to become a supermarket with a difference. The supermarket chain will partner Gotham Greens to open a supermarket with a rooftop greenhouse growing produce to be sold on the premises.

Dr Craig Hollabaugh has created a system that keeps the roots of his plants warm and cozy during the coldest months, using electric heat cables running under sand on which the pots are placed.

The Urban Cultivator is a computer-controlled hydroponic growing system for herbs and vegetables.