By Dafna Levy, the "Eretz"
In the top picture: the "Eden" project. Futuristic technology makes it possible to experience a tornado and smell rare plants
A futuristic robot colony, which will soon open in England, will house dozens of robots that will simulate a natural ecosystem. In another park, British scientists are trying to create a Noah's ark for plants, the "Eden" project. Futuristic technology makes it possible to experience a tornado and smell rare plants. The first residents of a futuristic robot colony, which should open in the UK in a few months, will be "Playburgs" - a group of flying robots, whose behavior mimics bees and insects. The development team of the University of Sheffield in England,
He is currently working on building them, simultaneously developing predatory robots and preyed upon robots - ranging from the size of a button to the size of a flower. These will have to learn to survive, develop and fight for their place in the quasi-ecological system, which is gradually being built in the depths of the earth.
The robot colony will be part of the recently opened Magna Science Park in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. It is designed to demonstrate to the audience not only how ecosystems work, but also the latest innovations in the field of robotics, and especially in the field of building independent robots, which are able to change their behavior in accordance with the information they receive from the environment. The robots will fly in flocks within a special habitat, lap each other to extract "energy" and develop unexpected survival and hunting techniques.
The Magna Center is just one of a series of popular science projects built in Britain towards the beginning of the third millennium. The construction of the park cost 46 million pounds (about 280 million shekels) - a relatively small part of the budget of the government's Millennium Committee, which is 350 million pounds. In addition, a visitor center in Edinburgh and another science park, "Whowhatwherewhenwhy" in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were recently opened - both combine active recreation with a display of scientific innovations.
The Magna center is divided into four main pavilions, dedicated to earth, air, fire and water. The total area of the building, which used to be a steel factory, is three times larger than that of London's Tate Modern gallery, which succeeded the site of a sprawling power station on the banks of the Thames. All the exhibits in the place are interactive, and visitors are invited to touch, operate, click and listen. Every few minutes, for example, a simulation of a real-life tornado is played there. In addition, visitors are invited to blow up rocks and dig in the earth's condensate just as if they were part of a research expedition, or be sucked in by enormous suction power as if they were a grain of dust being sucked from the carpet.
Elsewhere in the park, a large transparent airship floats above the ground - visitors are invited to sail in it and explore various phenomena related to the flow of the winds. Visitors are also asked to examine what strange sounds the air makes when it moves inside their bodies, experience the power of waterfalls and power stations, examine how waves are created, use devices that operate laser beams, see fireballs and lightning up close and harness the power of a stream of water to launch missiles.
In the recently opened "Dynamic Earth" park in the Scottish capital, you can learn about the development of the earth and science. There, too, entertainment and science are combined - visitors are invited on interactive "journeys" to different periods and remote areas, such as the rainforests on the banks of the Amazon or the deserts of Africa. You can also watch a reconstruction of the Big Bang there, climb glaciers and artificial mountains and watch the predictions of scientists who speculate how the place will look like in millions of years. The information at each of the stations in the center is constantly updated according to new research, and the special effects team works hard to build up-to-date facilities.
Another innovative project that opened this month in Cornwall, England, is the "Eden" project - a museum provider, a huge greenhouse, and actually a visitor center designed to demonstrate man's dependence on vegetation. The place looks like a strange beehive of huge plastic domes, built on an array of scaffolding. Its enormous size has already given it a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Within this set of greenhouses, representatives of all types of plants that exist on Earth are supposed to live in the end, under conditions that are exactly the same as their natural conditions.
The "Eden Project" was built on the site of an abandoned quarry, and in order to save on transport costs of soil types from all over the world, the project's scientists developed methods to produce most of the required soil types - they mix different types of soil, minerals and additives using heavy engineering equipment, according to precise recipes.
Innovative seeding techniques were also used in the design of the land route, in which seeds mixed with water jets were shot into the ground to quickly cover large areas of land - which also helps stop erosion and soil migration.
The giant domes were built from a complex material known as ETFE, which protects the plants inside and isolates them from the outside weather, thus enabling the construction of an internal microclimate. However, it transmits 93% of the light inside, saving the need for artificial lighting.
The ETFE sheets are 100 times lighter than glass and after 30 years they can be recycled.
The founders of the project, which cost 74 million pounds, expect one million visitors a year - these will be able to get up close and personal with rare flora from the West African region as well as olive trees or citrus groves from the Middle East. Along with the plants, populations of insects and reptiles will be brought in, which will assist the gardeners in the reproduction and development processes of the vegetation.
Magna Center
