Last year we reported on Heriot-Watt University’s Coralbot project, which aims to deploy swarms of intelligent robots to help rebuild coral reefs around the world. Now the Coralbots’ makers have turned to crowdfunding in an effort to complete their robots and send them down into the Scottish seas.

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Post tags: Climate Change, coral, coral damage, coral reefs, coralbots, global warming, Heriot-Watt University, kickstarter, Ocean Cleanup Array, reef, reef repair

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Post tags: aquadome, art installation, artificial reef, Charest-Weinberg Gallery, coral, diving, eclipse, ecological disaster, florida, Fort Lauderdale, green design, hannes bend, marine conservation, natural reef, ocean conservation, onajide shabaka, osborne reef, public art, Reclaimed Materials, reclaimed tires, Recycled Materials, Sustainability, tires

The Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill are now confirmed to be responsible for deep sea coral deaths in the Gulf of New Mexico. Scientists say that almost two years after the BP Macondo well oil spill, coral communities as far as 4,000 feet beneath the sea’s surface show that oil from the blowout site bear the well’s chemical “fingerprints.” What had once been full of vibrant colors, researchers say, is now an area sullied with brown, dull and dying coral.

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Post tags: BP, coral, coral damage, deepwater horizon, gulf of mexico, Gulf oil spill, gulf spill, macondo well, national academy of sciences, oil spill, oil spill disaster

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a novel way to create a new form of carbon neutral cement by studying the formation of coral reefs and applying the principles at work. Coral takes in minerals and CO2 and then secretes calcium carbonate to build its hard exoskeleton. Inspired by this construction process, Stanford scientist Brent Constanz has developed a way to capture CO2 and dissolve it in seawater to form calcium carbonate, which has properties suitable for use in construction and could replace Portland cement (which is responsible for more than a ton of CO2 for every ton of product created). This new technology could reduce the environmental impact of construction in a big way by capturing and sequestering CO2 emissions while creating a durable building material.

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Post tags: biomimicry, brent constanz, calera, cement, cement manufacturing, cement production, cement replacement, co2 capture, co2 sequestration, construction technology, coral, coral reefs, eco design, Green Building, green building technology, green design, green technology, stanford