Material World - 19/11/2009

With little more than two weeks to go before negotiators gather in Copenhagen to debate cuts in greenhouse gases, the scientific pressure is rapidly growing for them to succeed. Quentin Cooper hears the latest from the scientific frontline: news of the continuing rapid growth in greenhouse gas emissions, and the threat to Antarctica from global warming. It would have 'algae tubes', be made largely of glass and have an 'algae photovoltaic bioreactor' at its heart: the Algae House is the award-winning design of a house of the future. A team of postgraduate students at Cambridge University have set out one possible future for the concept 'algaetecture'. They plan to exploit the properties of algae to generate hydrogen to be used in hydrogen fuel cells and to harvest the algae to create biofuels, all in the domestic setting of the home. Quentin Cooper meets the students who think the future's bright - the future's algae green.