Lawrence Siulagi

Hold the smartphone, Oregon blueberries have gone wireless.

Oregon Berry Packing, a family-owned business based in Hillsboro, is one of many growers using new wireless sensor technology to monitor crop conditions in real time.

Technological advances in crop management from companies like Onset Computer Corporation have given rise to the use of wireless sensors, or data loggers, which can provide valuable feedback to the grower, like temperature and soil conditions.

The grower could modify their irrigation based on the data or alerted to extreme conditions of nature like frost.

Bones, computers and art: Neri Oxman, MIT researcher, artist and medical scholar, has created yet another prolific project of genius in the form of… a chaise lounge?

Yep.

Looking a little bit like a bio-mechanoid piece from H.R. Giger – the artist behind the Alien movies – the chair’s design, she says, “drew inspiration from the internal structure of bones and other biological forms,” according to MIT’s Tech Talk.

Her work aims to use computational tools to produce “performance-based design,” she says, in which, as occurs in nature, “the organization of the structure is directly linked to the forces that are applied to that structure.” To achieve that, she studies natural materials like the cellular structure of a bone, or microscopic images of a butterfly wing, and translates those principles into construction that takes advantage of the flexibility of modern materials and processes. “It’s about process, not product,” she says.

For more of Oxman’s work, you can follow her blog: Materialecology.

This could be a label in the future of battery-powered gadgets. Okay, maybe not. Even so, the geniuses at M.I.T. have developed a genetically-engineered virus which infests a harmless bacteria to create a smaller, longer-lasting battery which

…could hold the promise of relatively inexpensive, nonpolluting, lightweight powerful batteries—a holy grail for an energy revolution.

But, how does it work? Glad you asked. According to Scientific American, all bacteria consist of

…a single cell, although they’re rarely found in isolation. They have a habit of exhibiting unique behaviors when there are enough of them together in once place, such as the formation of protective biofilms.

Still with me? A battery has two essential parts: anode and cathode (picture the “+” and “-” on your typical battery). A few years back, the scientists simulated the anode part by infecting a bacteria with a virus which produced a coating of cobalt oxide and gold.

This month, researchers announced they reproduced the cathode part (by making iron phosphates grab onto carbon nanotubes).

While this new technology may induce visions of viruses and bacteria spreading to humans, did I mention the bacteria is harmless to humans? If it’s any comfort, the batteries you put in your remote control now are purely chemical reactions.

Welcome to the future of energy.