How to grow fresh air | Kamal Meattle
TED2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2016-2026
511K views · 17 years ago · talk · evergreen
Researcher Kamal Meattle describes how an arrangement of three common houseplants placed in specific spots can measurably clean the air in a home or office. It is a short TED talk based on his work in a plant-filled building.
HN commenters cite it in threads about indoor air quality, CO2 and houseplants as a cheap, low-tech approach.
32:21Turning Photons Into Food
Apogee Instruments Inc.
97K views • 7 years ago
58:53Gabe Brown: Keys To Building a Healthy Soil
Transcend Productions
407K views • 11 years ago
2:31:00Treating the Farm as an Ecosystem with Gabe Brown Part 1, The 5 Tenets of Soil Health
Living Web Farms
2.3M views • 9 years ago
18:186 ways mushrooms can save the world | Paul Stamets | TED
TED
5.3M views • 18 years ago
1:18:57Why Air Quality Matters
David Heinemeier Hansson
40K views • 8 years ago
46:48Why Vertical Farming Won't Save the Planet
Utah State University Extension
244K views • 11 years ago
5:51This Is Your Brain On Stale Air
Tom Scott
4.2M views • 7 years ago
15:29Life in Syntropy
Agenda Gotsch
931K views • 10 years ago
7:44Diatoms: Tiny Factories You Can See From Space
Journey to the Microcosmos
811K views • 7 years ago
18:17Nebraska retiree uses earths's heat to grow oranges in snow
Kirsten Dirksen
3.4M views • 8 years ago
32:44Tom Chi: How to Address our Carbon Debt to Heal the Planet
Foresight Institute
4K views • 7 years ago
4:10Where Do Trees Get Their Mass?
Veritasium
2.5M views • 14 years ago
23:11Eating less Meat won't save the Planet. Here's Why
Joseph Everett - WIL
5.8M views • 5 years ago
1:01:37Freeman Dyson: Heretical Thoughts About Science and Society
Boston University
317K views • 16 years ago
1:36:14The Roots of Your Profits - Dr Elaine Ingham, Soil Microbiologist, Founder of Soil Foodweb Inc
Oxford Real Farming Conference
327K views • 11 years ago
13:37Internet of food: Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland
Kirsten Dirksen
995K views • 14 years ago
29:33Innovating to zero! | Bill Gates
TED
4.7M views • 16 years ago
4:26Civilization starter kit | Marcin Jakubowski | TEDxKC
TEDx Talks
66K views • 15 years ago
15:10Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard? | Jon Jandai | TEDxDoiSuthep
TEDx Talks
16.1M views • 15 years ago
21:35TeamTrees vs REALITY!!
Thunderf00t
524K views • 6 years ago
6 comments from Hacker News
Uh, do you mean house plants? There is also a Ted talk about taking this to an extreme, which does seem to anecdotally work: ▶ this video
I meant high tech gadgets, but sure How to grow fresh air | Kamal Meattle ▶ this video link On a second thought, indoor DIY growbox is probably can be considered as such device.
Here is the list of house/indoor plants which promote cognitive function in order of ease of maintenance: Areca Plam (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens AKA Dypsis lutescens) link Mother-in-law's Tongue / Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) link Money Plant (Epipremnum aureum) link Boston Fern (Nephrolepis Exaltata) link Peace Lilly (Spathiphyllum) link Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii) link Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) link English Ivy (Hedera helix) link Take the list of plants to your local plant nursery to see how many of them they have in stock. Buying them already established is much cheaper/easier than growing them from seed/cuttings. According to Allen et Al 2015 (see link below), having pure/fresh air in your working environment significantly improves cognitive function. i.e. having indoor plants makes you smarter! > Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers: A Controlled Exposure Study of Green and Conventional Office Environments ~ link > Conclusion : Office workers had significantly improved cognitive function scores when working in Green and Green+ environments compared with scores obtained when working in a Conventional environment. > We’ve been researching this for: “home” link Relevant YouTube videos on this topic: ▶ this video link link
From this thread "How Trees Calm Us Down": link Japanese researcher describes (with control group) the interesting affects of walking in a forest. link Indian researcher describes side affects of indoor plants on health esp. air quality. ▶ this video I'm incorporating some of these concepts into my tiny house design e.g. a (truly ingenious design using mirrors!) terrarium and an hinoki ofuro, together with natural daylighting. A poster called mantesso offered up this interesting paper: Here's the original study from NASA, Interior Landscape plants for indoor air pollution abatement : link
When I flew into Heathrow last year, I was amazed by how visible the pollution was- over central London, there were no clouds (there were clouds around the outskirts) but this vague, blue haze was quite noticeable. Although compared to Shanghai, London is really clean, if you live in Shanghai you keep your windows permanently shut and run an air purifier 24/7: link > I'd recommend anyone living in a city to invest in a good air purifier from BlueAir or IQAir (if you can afford it). Another, more environmentally friendly option: ▶ this video Also basil plants are a natural mosquito repellent, might not be an issue in the UK though.
If you want to know more you may be interested in these: Japanese researcher describes (with control group) the interesting affects of walking in a forest. link Indian researcher describes side affects of indoor plants on health esp. air quality. ▶ this video I'm incorporating some of these concepts into my tiny house design e.g. a terrarium and an hinoki ofuro, together with natural daylighting.