'Therapeutic vaccine' for AIDS within four years, Nobel Prize winner predicts

A French scientist awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine for discovering the AIDS virus immediately predicted there would be a "therapeutic vaccine" for the disease within four years.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent

The Nobel recognition comes 25 years after Luc Montagnier and his team at the French Pasteur Institute discovered HIV in his Paris laboratory Photo: AFP/GETTY

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur shared the award with Mr Montagnier for their work in pinpointing the cause of the disease Photo: REUTERS

Harald zur Hausen's research 'went against current dogma' and set forth that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer Photo: AP

Luc Montagnier, director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, shared half the award with Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur for their work in pinpointing the cause of the disease.

The other half was won by Harald zur Hausen of the University of Dusseldorf and a former director of the German Cancer Research Centre, for work on the cause of cervical cancer.

On receiving the honour which comes with an £800,000 cash prize, Montagnier, 76, said a treatment could be possible in the future with a "therapeutic" rather than preventive vaccine for which results might be published in three or four years if financial backing is forthcoming.

A therapeutic vaccine prevents disease from flourishing after it has taken hold.

"I think it will be possible with a therapeutic vaccine rather than preventative vaccinations. We would give it to people who are already infected," he said

The Nobel recognition comes 25 years after Montagnier and his team at the French Pasteur Institute, including Barre-Sinoussi, discovered HIV in his Paris laboratory.

"The discovery was one prerequisite for the current understanding of the biology of the disease and its antiretroviral treatment," the Nobel Assembly of Sweden's Karolinska Institute said in a statement.

The other half of the Nobel prize was awarded for the German scientist's research that "went against current dogma" and set forth that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women.

"His discovery has led to characterization of the natural history of HPV infection, an understanding of mechanisms of HPV-induced carcinogenesis and the development of prophylactic vaccines against HPV acquisition," the Assembly said.

Medicine is traditionally the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year.

The prizes for achievement in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.

The economics prize is a later addition, established by the Swedish Riksbank in 1968.

The Nobel laureate for physics will be announced tomorrow, followed by the chemistry Nobel on Wednesday, literature on Thursday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in Oslo.

Multi-drug 'polypill' finally to tackle heart problems

Tests of a single, cheap tablet combining a range of drugs that protect against heart disease and stroke have begun.

The "polypill" was mooted years ago as a cheap way to slash deaths from the big killer diseases, but pharmaceutical companies were reluctant to take on the project as the inexpensive drugs involved provided no financial incentive.

Now a team funded by the Wellcome Trust in London, UK, and the British Heart Foundation, and led by Anthony Rodgers at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has begun recruiting 700 volunteers in six countries for a pilot trial of a polypill manufactured by Dr Reddy's of Hyderabad, India.

Their Red Heart Pill, which costs just $1 for a month's supply, blends blood-thinning aspirin, a cholesterol-lowering statin, and an ACE inhibitor and a thiazide to lower blood pressure. Trials in thousands of people could start next year.

The polypill is aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke in poor and rich countries alike. However, its use will vary around the world, says Simon Thom of Imperial College London, who is running the UK trials.

In the developing world, he advocates distributing the pill "almost blind" to everyone over 55. But countries where people have better access to doctors and drugs are unlikely to adopt the one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, over-55s could be put on one of several different polypills containing varying doses of the drugs, depending on their health needs.

What does your bar tab say about you?

Have you ever seen a receipt laying on a bar top, and thought to yourself “I bet I know what kind of person this belongs to”? Is it possible to formulate a conclusion based solely on what someone ordered? We’d like to think so.

6) The Wannabe Musician

The wannabe musician considers himself to be an artist. He starts off with micro brews or imports to let everyone know that he is a sophisticated individual, who will not conform to trends. As the night wears on, he begins to wonder why he hasn’t booked a gig in 2 years, and starts to order something with higher alcohol content. After gulping down his Long Island Iced Tea, he begins to realize that his music sucks. From here on out he orders shots of Jose until he runs out of cash. After leaving a $1.32 tip, he heads back to his ride.

5) The Construction Worker

After working 12 hours in the sweltering heat, The Construction Worker hits his favorite bar. He knows everyone by their first name and usually keeps himself in well mannered. Around beer #9 he begins to refer to the bartender as “sugar tits” instead of “Kimmie” (all in good fun). After completing beer #12, he hops in his F-150, drives home to his wife, and doesn’t swerve once.

4) The Aspiring Actress

The Aspiring Actress enters a popular night club and only orders club soda. She has $20 to her name and this is the cheapest drink on the menu. Thankfully, some sap in a suit rolls up on her after club soda #2, and offers to buy her some real drinks. After telling her that she is talented and beautiful, he pays for the rest of the tab, and takes her back to his place. Dignity is small price to pay when you just got 5 free cosmos and a compliment.

3) The Broken Hearted Frat Boy

Having just been dumped, the emotional frat boy enters his favorite sports bar. After telling most of the patrons his sob story, he decides that his pain will go away with shots of Jack. Sadly this Frat boy didn’t bring enough money to cover his tab, so the bar holds on to his ID and credit card until he can make payment. An unfortunate ending to the shit storm of a day hes already been through.

2) The Sorority Girl

The Sorority Girl and her sisters know how to game the system. They are the only ones who leave a bar with more money than they entered with. The Sorority Girl targets bars that are saturated with sausage, thus allowing her to pull in all sorts of free drinks (just to help even out the 10:1 ratio of dudes per chick). Once she has depleted all of the resources in one bar, she will move on to the next ‘brodeo’, where she will once again be the center of attention.

1) The Typical Douchebag

The Typical Douchebag enters clubs believing that he is gods gift to women. Sucking down 1 Jager Bomb per beer, he is determined to do two things. Get completely hammered, and score some tail. Sadly this douchebag usually ends up going home alone; heres why.

There are 80 milligrams of caffeine in a Red Bull. A Jager Bomb has about 1/2 of a Red Bull in it (40 MG).

40 mg Caffeine x 6 = 240 milligrams of caffeine.

With 240 milligrams of caffeine + alcohol pumpng through his veins, the douchebag is more annoying at the end of the night then when it started.

The Typical Douchebag - Watch more free videos

Weezer sets Guiness World Records with TROUBLEMAKER video

WEEZER SETS GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® WITH TROUBLEMAKER VIDEO;

VIDEO IS THE FOLLOW UP TO THE HUGELY SUCCESSFUL PORK AND BEANS VIDEO

Culver City, CA October 6, 2008 -- Even before its release, Weezer's "Troublemaker" video is a record breaker: Weezer and friends gathered to play the song together and break Guinness World Records during the shooting of the video. Guinness World Records official, Stuart Claxton, was in attendance to monitor and certify these record attempts during the day long shoot in Los Angeles, where new records were set for Largest Game of Dodgeball, Most People in a Custard Pie Fight, Most People Riding on a Skateboard, Largest Air Guitar Ensemble, and Longest Guitar Hero World Tour Marathon. (See below for more details on these records.) The band's Pat Wilson is also shown in the video playing the World's Smallest Drum Kit in a Video...a record the band is petitioning to get in the book as an official record. No word yet at press time. The video's exclusive 24-hour online premiere will be available on Yahoo!Music beginning at 9:00PM PDT Monday, October 6, 2008.

The "Troublemaker" video is for a song that's been steadily rising up the Modern Rock charts, currently at #2 and looks to follow its predecessor, "Pork And Beans" to the very top of that chart. "Pork And Beans" spent a record eleven weeks on the top of the chart and its accompanying video has been played over fifteen million times.

Both "Pork and Beans" and "Troublemaker" are from the band's latest Top 5 album Weezer (referred to as The Red Album). The album is the band's boldest and most fearless to date, with the band experimenting with their sound as they never have in the past.

Weezer recently began its first tour in three years starting a five-week sojourn of North America starting September 23 in Boston and played a show in New York's Madison Square Garden on the 24th. The tour continues for a few more weeks and includes a stop at Los Angeles' Forum on October 14.


The shows have incorporated a "Hootenanny" where 30 radio station winners perform two songs on stage with the band during the show. It gives those lucky musicians the legitimate right to say to their friends sentences like "Yep, I rocked Madison Square Garden with my pals Weezer."

Reviews for the show have been universally great. The Boston Globe in a review of the tour's first show, ""Even a little rusty, we're still the coolest band in the world," Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo crowed from the Tsongas Arena stage Tuesday night. After the power-pop quartet's undeniably zesty 100-minute set, kicking off a North American tour, it was hard to argue the point."


The Guinness World Records:

Largest Air Guitar Ensemble
The largest air guitar ensemble consisted of 233 participants and took place during during the filming of the music video "Troublemaker" by the band Weezer in Los Angeles, California, USA on 21 August 2008.

Largest Game of Dodgeball
The largest game of dodgeball consisted of two teams of 50 people (100 total) who played against each other during the filming of the music video "Troublemaker" by the band Weezer in Los Angeles, California, USA, on 21 August 2008.

Longest Guitar Hero World Tour Marathon
The longest Guitar Hero World Tour Marathon lasted for 10 hr 12 min 54 sec during the filming of the music video "Troublemaker" by the band Weezer in Los Angeles, California,USA, on 21 August 2008.

Most People in a Custard Pie Fight
The most people in a custard pie fight was 120 during the filming of the music video "Troublemaker" by the band Weezer in Los Angeles, California, USA, on 21 August 2008.

Most People Riding on a Skateboard
The most people riding on a skateboard is 22 during the filming of the music video "Troublemaker" by the band Weezer in Los Angeles, California, USA, on 21 August 2008.

Better Solar for Big Buildings

Tubular solar: Cylindrical solar cells, which can be arranged in rows to make solar panels, are particularly suited for generating power atop commercial buildings. Credit: Solyndra

Solyndra, a startup based in Fremont, CA, has developed a novel type of solar panel that's cheaper to install and produces more power than conventional panels.

Unlike conventional solar panels, which are made of flat solar cells, the new panels comprise rows of cylindrical solar cells made of a thin film of semiconductor material. The material is made of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium. To make the cells, the company deposits the semiconductor material on a glass tube. That's then encapsulated within another glass tube with electrical connections that resemble those on fluorescent lightbulbs. The new shape allows the system to absorb more light over the course of a day than conventional solar panels do, and therefore generate more power. What's more, arrays of these tubes offer less wind resistance than conventional flat solar panels, which makes them easier and cheaper to mount on roofs, the company says.

Chris Gronet, Solyndra's CEO, says that these advantages ultimately reduce the cost of generating solar power, although he won't say by how much. The company has raised $600 million in venture funding and has orders for $1.2 billion worth of solar panels, which it sells through installers exclusively for commercial rooftops. It started shipping its products earlier this year and is now ramping up production at its factory, which will eventually produce enough solar panels every year to generate 110 megawatts of electricity. The company soon plans to start construction on a 420-megawatt-capacity factory.

Solyndra is one of several companies that have recently received hundreds of millions of dollars to develop thin-film solar cells. Miguel Contreras, a senior scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in Golden, CO, which developed the semiconductor deposition method used by Solyndra, notes that several other companies have developed solar cells based on thin films using the same combination of semiconductors; these thin films are making possible a range of new forms for solar cells, including flexible solar cells and solar roofing materials. "There's a lot more flexibility with thin films than there is with [conventional silicon] wafer technologies," Contreras says.

The cylindrical solar-cell design has a number of advantages for generating solar power on the flat rooftops of big-box stores, warehouses, and other commercial buildings. Ordinary flat solar panels can catch the wind, so they must be bolted or weighed down with ballast. Solyndra's panels consist of rows of cylindrical tubes with spaces between them that allow the wind to pass through, decreasing wind loads and making it unnecessary to bolt or weigh down the panels, even with winds up to 130 miles per hour, the company says.

Solar rods: A close-up view of Solyndra's cylindrical solar cells. Credit: Solyndra

The cylindrical design also allows the solar panels to absorb more light. Solar panels work best when light hits them directly, such as when the sun is directly overhead. To get more power from solar panels, they're often mounted on tracking systems that keep each panel pointed at the sun all day. But these tracking systems don't work in high winds, add cost, and take up space that could be occupied by other solar panels. The cylindrical solar cells provide another way to increase the power from a solar panel. At any point in the day, some part of the curved surface is facing the sun more or less directly, and therefore absorbing a large share of that light.

The trade-off, of course, is that the other side of the cylinder is shaded. With highly reflective white roofs, however, this is less of a problem. Light passes through the same spaces between the cylinders that allow wind to flow through. It reflects off the roof and is absorbed by the shaded side of the solar cells. Also, the other surfaces of the solar cell absorb some diffuse light from the sky.

This adds up to greater energy production over the course of a year than a conventional system, the company says. Combined with low installation costs, this significantly lowers the cost of solar power. Gronet says that within a few years, the company plans to produce solar systems that generate electricity competitive with the average cost of electricity in the United States (about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour) by optimizing manufacturing and increasing production volumes.

The company, however, does not plan to expand out of the commercial rooftop business, where its specialized design has an edge. Other solar-panel technologies may prove more affordable for other applications, such as residential installations and large-scale projects for utilities.

Diesel on a Diet

An engine squeezes more power­—and less pollution—from a slimmer design

Posted 10.06.2008 at 1:20 pm 1 Comment

Five Steps to a More Efficient Engine: (Blow it up!) Steve Karp

To make its Duramax 4.5 diesel cleaner and leaner, GM turned traditional engine design inside out and dumped 70 parts.

The biggest change was flipping around the exhaust system to direct hot gases through short pipes toward a central turbocharger and catalytic converter inside the “V” of the engine. This compact design harnesses more exhaust heat and requires fewer components than conventional V8s, which send exhaust through long manifold pipes that protrude from each side of the engine, taking up more space and losing heat before they reach the turbo.

GM also eliminated the intake manifold pipes that deliver air to the engine. Instead, air flows through the overhead camshaft covers, down to the combustion chambers.
The Duramax 4.5 engine debuts in the 2010 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks

The Science Vote

Ed Letter: As the election nears, the candidates finally reveal where they stand on some crucial scientific issues

By Mark Jannot Posted 10.06.2008 at 5:54 pm 0 Comments

Late last year, as the presidential primary campaigns heated up, a grass-roots group of scientists and citizens addressed the candidates: “Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues.” Before long, Science Debate 2008, as the group called itself, had become the most powerful voice advocating for science in the race, backed by nearly 40,000 scientists, business leaders, educators, journalists (myself included) and politicians.

The response from the candidates? Silence. Before April’s Pennsylvania primary, the organization invited the contenders to share their positions at a Philadelphia event. Only one candidate even bothered to send regrets.

Related Articles

The Record Behind the Words: Unpacking ScienceDebate2008

Tags

PoliSci, SciTech, 2008 election, Mark Jannot, November 2008, politics

It’s sad to see the people vying to lead the free world run from the chance to talk about stem cells, climate change and the other issues that will transform our lives during their terms. It’s especially sad considering that a Harris poll found that 85 percent of Americans wanted such a debate.
Fortunately, Science Debate 2008 didn’t give up. In late June, it sent both nominees a list of 14 questions on topics ranging from innovation to ocean health. And this time, the candidates wrote back, submitting impressively detailed responses. I strongly encourage you to read it all at sciencedebate2008
.com. (Our own dive into the essential scientific issues facing the next president begins at popsci.com/election.)

The Bush administration has been notable for its inclination to ignore, distort, or suppress the findings of leading scientists. The willingness of these candidates to engage the issues, along with their explicit assurances on a question labeled “Scientific Integrity,” give me hope that we’ll soon see a reversal of that approach to science, regardless of who wins the election next month.

From the Operating Room to the Tackle Box

Bioline: Bioline

Even the fishermen are going green. Any angler worth his bait has lost a few lines to the bottom of the fishing pond. And, chances are the line he lost is still lying there with those of his ancestors, damaging coral and killing fish. Traditional nylon lines can take up to 600 years to disappear, but with Bioline, a new "biofilament" line developed by alumni of the med-tech industry, that time can be cut to just five years. That's fishing technology even the fish will embrace.

The lines come sealed in packages with a five-year shelf life. Once on the pole, the line lasts 10-12 months without any reduction in strength. The product is available in 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12-pound tests in 210-yard spools ($16) with larger sizes in the works. It looks, feels, and performs like a standard line. Along with the environmental benefits, Bioline claims excellent knot strength and abrasion resistance. Unlike standard monofilaments, Bioline doesn't absorb water, ensuring that its properties remain the same during a long day of fishing.

The technology behind Bioline was first applied to absorbable sutures more than twenty years ago. With costs of technology dropping over time, a biodegradable fishing line has finally become financially viable. Developed over four years, Bioline was launched earlier this year, the first of its kind. Next up: the hook?

Iceland Struggles to Shore Up its Currency

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland nationalized its second-largest bank on Tuesday and said it was negotiating a €4 billion ($5.4 billion) loan from Russia to shore up the nation's finances amid a full-blown financial crisis.

In an effort to stabilize the nation's freefalling currency, which lost a quarter of its value against the euro Monday, Iceland's central bank also on Tuesday intervened in to support the krona at a level of 131 to the euro.

Reuters

A branch of Landsbanki Bank in Reykjavik.

Just a day after Iceland's government rushed through emergency legislation giving it sweeping powers to deal with the financial meltdown, the island nation's Financial Supervisory Authority took control of Landsbanki Island hf and put it into receivership to protect it from creditors.

Within hours of the government move, the Samson holding company, which held a 41 percent stake in Landsbanki, went to the district court seeking temporary protection from its creditors.

Iceland's largest bank, Kaupthing Bank hf, said it hadn't been approached by the FSA, but that the central bank had loaned it €500 million to facilitate operations. The FSA also banned short selling of stocks in shares of Landsbanki, Kaupthing, and the third largest bank, Glitnir Bank hf, as well as investment companies Straumur-Burdaras Fjarfestingarbanki hf. and Exista hf, and savings bank Spron hf.

Iceland's central bank said in a statement it had been informed by the Russian ambassador, Victor I. Tatarintsev, that Iceland would be given a loan of €4 billion, and that this had been confirmed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

However, the Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin as saying no decision had been made. Prime Minister Haarde said his country has been talking about a currency loan with Russia, which has "taken a friendly position on this." He said discussions would take place in Moscow Wednesday or Thursday and the loan would be used to add to foreign currency reserves.

A loan would support the government's efforts to gain control of an increasingly dire financial situation, which saw the government coming to rescue of Glitnir only last week. On Tuesday, Stand & Poors lowered Glitnir's long term counterparty credit rating to CCC, from BBB.

Iceland is paying the price for an economic boom of recent years that saw its newly affluent companies go on an acquisition spree across Europe and its banking sector grow to dwarf the rest of the economy. Bank assets are nine times annual gross domestic product of €14 billion.

In a speech Monday night, Mr. Haarde warned that the heavy exposure of the tiny country's banking sector to the global financial turmoil raised the spectre of "national bankruptcy." (See related article.)

Investors are now punishing the whole country for the banking sector's heavy exposure to the global credit squeeze -- its currency has gone through the floor, imports have fallen and inflation is soaring.

The government also on Monday put 100% guarantees on savers' deposits, following in the footsteps of Ireland, Germany, Austria, Greece and Denmark.

BofA Cuts Dividend, Posts Lower Profit

Bank of America Corp., the consumer banking giant whose nationwide base of depositors has helped stabilize it through the current banking crisis, slashed its quarterly dividend and announced plans to raise $10 billion in new capital as it conceded that "recessionary conditions" are sending tremors though the bank.

The troubles hint at a horrific earnings season and show how much the deepening woes of consumers are weighing on the nation's biggest retail bank as it grapples with rising delinquencies in everything from mortgages to credit cards to small business loans.


Getty Images
Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, at a press conference last month in New York to discuss the bank's takeover of Merrill Lynch
As it turns out, even Bank of America's heft and diversity are not enough to get it through the worst financial crisis in at least two decades. The sacrifice of its long-sacrosanct dividend is further evidence that the nation's economic troubles could get worse before they get better.

"It's a damn disaster," Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis told analysts, when asked about lending conditions. "We are making every good loan we can find" but "it's not going to be pretty for awhile."

The Charlotte, N.C., company, in an earlier-than-expected release of third-quarter results on Monday, said it will cut the dividend from $.64 to $.32 to add more than $1.4 billion in capital each quarter. The company also hopes to sell $10 billion in common stock, the goal being to keep the bank's Tier 1 capital ratio near 8% and cover the higher credit losses than are expected. Bank of America said net income in the quarter fell to $1.18 billion, down 68 percent from the same period a year earlier when the bank posed a profit of $3.7 billion.

Breaking from his past optimism about the nation's economics prospects, Mr. Lewis blamed "recessionary conditions" for the moves. "These are the most difficult times for financial institutions that I have experienced in my 39 years in banking," he said in a release.

The nation's largest retail bank reported net income of $1.18 billion, or 15 cents per share, down from $3.70 billion, or 82 cents per share a year earlier. The results were worse than expected. Credit losses on mortgages and credit cards dragged down the results. Its provision for credit losses was $6.45 billion, up from $5.83 billion in the second quarter. Net charge offs were $4.36 billion, as compared to $3.62 billion in the second quarter.

Nonperforming assets were $13.3 billion, or 1.42 percent of total loans, leases and foreclosed properties. The dividend cut at Bank of America, the country's largest bank in terms of deposits, mirrors similar moves by smaller banks across the country as they look for ways to cut costs and raise capital amid the volatility that has driven some of the country's biggest financial institutions out of business.

Anticipating displeasure from investors in response to the cut, Mr. Lewis said: "We cannot pay out what we have not earned."

Bank of America's many recent acquisitions -- the latest being a $44 billion purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. -- have put pressure on its capital base. Bank of America's Tier 1 ratio, a key measure of financial strength, was 7.5% at the end of September. Regulators require the ratio be at least 6%.

"To say the least, these are turbulent times for the banking industry," Mr. Lewis said on a conference call Monday, with changes occurring at a "breathtaking"' speed. But the shake-out is "evolving much as we thought it would a couple years ago," with less than a handful of giant banks at the top, fewer banks in the middle and thousands of small players at the bottom.

Mr. Lewis expects turbulence to continue, with charge offs not peaking until "well" into 2009, he said. But Bank of America, he said, is "positioned to benefit as the economy stabilizes and starts to recover."

Some analysts remain confident in the bank's ability to weather the ongoing turbulence. Already, the bank's massive deposit base has served as a cash cushion to help it stay strong compared with competitors and muscle its way through acquisitions like the Countrywide and Merrill Lynch transactions. As customers continue to flee riskier investments in favor of retail bank accounts, that strength is expected to remain. Excluding deposits gained from its purchase of Countrywide, Bank of America gained $21 billion in retail deposits during the quarter. Due to a special offer, the bank took in $9 billion in 8 days, Mr. Lewis said.

"What you see at the bank is business from a cross section of retail and corporate America," said Nancy Bush, analyst with NAB Research LLC in Annandale, N.J. "So even if it is an ugly time, it's less ugly for them because of very strong core deposits."

15 Inspiring Glimpses into the Future of Green Housing

What does a 21st century home look like? We recently gave a rundown of some of the features we can expect in the next wave of amazing, green houses (in 21 Ways To Build A 21st Century Home). But since we're already in the 21st Century, you'd expect to see some of these innovations put into practice already. And you'd be right. Here are 15 amazing futuristic innovations that you can see at work right now:

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Image: Empyrean

Modular Manufacture. Prefab houses come in all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes - but let's get rid of one preconception. Cramped? Tell that to someone living in a Dwell home.

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Image: Earthflow

Green Building Materials. And to think we used the phrase "house of straw" to mean impermanent. I can't see this strawbale-packed house from Earthflow Design Works (complete with pervious concrete driveway) going anywhere in a hurry.

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Image: Loq-Kit

Keeping It Together. We've featured them before, but the Loq-Kit house never gets old.

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Image: Quadlock

Living Walls... or even better, a living roof, as with Tom Ground's Gimingham Eco House by Quadlock building solutions. But why stop with grass? Why not grow trees on the outside of your house?

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Image: Thilo Bein / Discovery

Sonic Cloaking. Not yet! The sonic cloak is still in development, and it'll be years before we see (or hear) it manifesting in our homes. But for now, think on this: noise is vibration, and noise is transmitted into the home via vibrations in windows - so if they're vibrating already (powered sustainably, of course), that would make them soundproof. Clever!

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Images: EcoFuss

"Traditional" Alternative Energy. Solar panels are currently a fairly obtrusive design feature - but with technological breakthroughs (such as this one) solar panels will disappear into designs, leaving them as clean-looking as this eco-house proposed for the outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus. Even though it's solar powered - nary a panel in sight.

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Images: Ibis

Recycled Water. In the Florence Lofts, Sebastopol (California), all gray water from washing, bathing and laundry is fed into landscape irrigation, helped along with freshly-scrubbed rain water. Read the full story at Inhabitat.

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Image: GoodCleanTech

Ground Heat. A good example is the Orchid House in Britain's Cotswolds region - some of this unique looking eco-house's power supply is geothermal energy. Price? $6,000 per square foot. Ouch.

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Images: Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture

Passive Heating. These passive houses from Swedish architects Kjellgren Kaminsky rely on top-quality insulation to keep heating energy requirements down to a minimum. The tree erupting from the central atrium is a nice touch. (via cubeme).

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Images: ZeroHouse

Electronic Regulation. Looking like it's about to lurch into the sky, the Zero House is a model of tailored energy efficiency - all run through a fully customized "house brain" computer-system.

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Electrical Lights. With the advent of LED lighting, we're rediscovering color again. Take the roof of the Evergreen State College, using the Color Kinetics lighting system. Not only is it the green way forward (LEDs are now more efficient than CFLs), it's the fun way forward.

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Image: Parans

Natural Light. Sunpipes are cropping up everywhere, and no wonder - they're a brilliant idea (excuse the pun). But they're just the start. For example, look at what Parans is doing with fiberoptics, feeding natural light all around the home (see more over at Treehugger).

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Image: greenUPGRADER

Rain Harvesting. A rainwater-collection system is compulsory in the next generation of eco-housing - but it's far from a new idea. As greenUPGRADER notes, Japanese rain chains are a traditional and stylish way of diverting rainwater down the side of the house and into a collection tank.

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Image - JLS Design

Ventilation. How do you keep your eco-house cool and aerated? Along with advances in electronically controlled temperature and airflow, why not get higher into the breeze? You're looking at Joel L. Sherman's Steel Tree House - one of many treehouses featured in a series of posts over at Inhabitat.

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Gardens. On one example springs to mind, dominating the landscape in every sense. Not only a symbol but a living, breathing example of sustainable green living, the Eden Project is astonishing. Fretting that you have to come all the way to the UK to see it? Then you'll be happy to learn more about the upcoming US version, Earthpark.

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And it's only the first decade of the 21st Century. Whatever next?