A building under construction in Japan will use natural light to illuminate its rooms, even during the night.

Japanese construction company Shimizu and electronics giant Sharp have jointly developed a transparent building material that absorbs light during the day and uses it to light up rooms when the Sun goes down. The material is being used to construct a new office complex in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, on the south eastern edge of Japan.

Serious Materials has won Popular Science's "Best of What's New" Award in green tech innovation for their eco-friendly drywall called EcoRock.

What makes this drywall so special? EcoRock requires 80 percent less energy to produce and cuts CO2 output by 90 percent compared to traditional gypsum-based drywall. These reductions in energy and CO2 are accomplished by eliminating heaters, dryers, calcining and burning of fossil fuels. The material congeals without heat and no mining is necessary in its production. It uses 85 percent recycled content and is fully recyclable. The company claims it holds up even better than gypsum drywall.

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The Dubai Metro system is the Middle East's first pilotless mass-transit system. Ten of the 29 stations along its 32.4-mile (52.1 km) Red Line were scheduled to open on Sept. 9, 2009. Just four of the 29 stations will be underground. Elsewhere the system will run along elevated viaducts. The Red Line, when fully operational, was to run run from Rashidiya to Jebel Ali, and would serve the American University of Dubai along the way. The 14-mile (22.5 km), 14-station Green Line, scheduled to open in 2010, will run from Al Qusais to Jaddaf, serving 18 stations, including six underground. Dubai Airport and Healthcare City are along the Green Line. The Green and Red lines will cross at two transfer stations--Union Square and the BurJuman Centre.

Houses on stilts, small scale energy generation and recycling our dishwater are just some of the measures that are being proposed to prepare our cities for the effects of global warming.

A three-year project led by Newcastle University for the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research has outlined how our major cities must respond if they are to continue to grow in the face of climate change.

Using the new UK Climate Predictions ’09 data for weather patterns over the next century, the research looks at the impact of predicted rises in temperature - particularly in urban areas - increased flooding in winter and less water availability in summer.