Your house plants are withering. You have two options: put them out in the sun or build a gigantic robotic arm that takes up half of your living space. Lively plants at the cost of sleeping in the bathtub doesn’t sound too bad either.

The Bartlett School of Architecture showcased their “Experiments in Time” exhibit, which included this steel monstrosity strapped with an Arduino Lilypad controller to tilt a disc into sunlight.  Seriously, all you have to do is pick your house plants up, walk outside and place them down on the ground. You’ll be set, they’ll be healthy and you get to spend the night in your bed without sharing rent with a robotic arm.

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Editor’s Note: SEATTLE!!

Sunlight is a commodity only now being fully realized for its gigantic magnitude of energy resources. In fact, The Cold Light fiberoptics don’t even the sun as a power source. The light gets transfered to an indoor-friendly fluorescent glow. On display at the Haus der Forschung in Vienna, a headlining institute in research science, the Cold Light system, called “0-24 Licht”, dangles in cords from the display, showing a dazzling bright light.

The “0-24 Licht” works with a number of situated mirrors, which capture sunlight and projects the light into a series of optical condensers set up at the entrance. From here, state of the art optical fibers transfer the light indoors, without any heat energy needed. “0-24 Licht” marks the first working prototype of a direct sunlight to fluorescent lighting system and can one day have a wide effect on architecture and electric costs, as well as the environment. — Andrew Dobrow

Cold light [Domusweb, via Inhabitant]

The number of skin cancer occurrences increases with every year, as does the fear of global warming. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of meter around to let us know exactly when the suns rays are crisping us at an unhealthy level? Ta-da! The UV Hawk Ultraviolet Sunlight Meter does exactly that. It’s a portable meter you can tote around with you to always be aware at what level the suns harmful rays are burning you.

Of course, there hasn’t been a conclusive study done on whether or not global warming is actually occurring, but the evidence is pretty clear. Too many “coincidences” can only add up to form a fact, and those coincidences are adding up pretty quick. When will the time come when we really NEED these sort or meters, rather then want them for precautionary measures? Don’t get us wrong. We like oil guzzling tank cars just as much as the next guy, but this is scary, scary stuff. Note: Not to be used in conjunction with the UV Disinfectant Wand. — Andrew Dobrow

Product Page [UV Hawk]