HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

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) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dypsis_lutescens

Mother-in-law's Tongue/Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansevieria_trifasciata

Money Plant (Epipremnum aureum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epipremnum_aureum

Boston Fern (Nephrolepis Exaltata) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrolepis_exaltata

Peace Lilly (Spathiphyllum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spathiphyllum

Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerbera_jamesonii

Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophytum_comosum

English Ivy (Hedera helix) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera_helix

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 ~ https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27662232/4892924...

> 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” https://github.com/dwyl/home/issues/8

Relevant YouTube videos on this topic:

https://youtu.be/gmn7tjSNyAA

https://youtu.be/lPNYdSZRSdg

https://youtu.be/9dG9K8IQo7s

⬐ None

None

⬐ noio

A version controlled repo for a physical habitat. You're building the B&B from Cory Doctorow's Walkaway :)

⬐ nelsonic

@noio yes, indeed there are similarities with Walkaway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkaway_(Doctorow_novel)

We will avoid the war. ;-)

Not sure if sarcasm, but that is a perk in some places: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA&feature=youtu.be

From this thread "How Trees Calm Us Down": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12053272

Japanese researcher describes (with control group) the interesting affects of walking in a forest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jPNll1Ccn0

Indian researcher describes side affects of indoor plants on health esp. air quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA

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 :

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/1993007...

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: http://aqicn.org/city/shanghai/

> 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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA

Also basil plants are a natural mosquito repellent, might not be an issue in the UK though.

⬐ leonroy

Good info. I have a Peace Lily in pretty much every room except the kids which has an Areca Palm (non-toxic).

They do sod all for my pollen allergies - only an air purifier has brought it under control (anti-histamine free now).

One thing which did dismay me is just how baffled IQAir/BlueAir were when I asked if I can recycle the filter media or if they are biodegradeable.

If you are in China checkout SmartAir, clever startup which is blowing up the air purifier market (in a good way): http://smartairfilters.com/en/

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jPNll1Ccn0

Indian researcher describes side affects of indoor plants on health esp. air quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA

I'm incorporating some of these concepts into my tiny house design e.g. a terrarium and an hinoki ofuro, together with natural daylighting.

⬐ mantesso

Very interesting. Here's the original study from NASA, Interior Landscape plants for indoor air pollution abatement : http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/1993007...

⬐ internaut

That's a great paper. Several assumptions I had are confirmed after looking through it such as the importance of countering off-gassing. I don't think people are generally aware of this, they just sort of assume it's a solved problem or a diminutive one. Even natural materials like wood will release formaldehyde.

For a small space having good air quality is very important, I plan to install a selection of plants and rig them up as dual purpose air purifiers as shown in the study, with emphasis on the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

+1 oxygenation +2 reduced ambient toxicity levels +3 attractive decoration

It's not expensive and it'll pay for itself many times over with better health! Programmers take note! It is easier for your brain to work if it has a nice supply of oxygen. Rocket science I know. NASA science at any rate.

In general society (opinion incoming) has not paid much attention to closed loop systems in the way we ought to (see no evidence the Slingshot scales up). Especially as a way to introduce antifragility. A house in a truly futuristic suburb would recycle heat from water and reliably convert all black/grey water back into distilled water for household use while using the biomass to power the operation. Throw in autonomous air vehicles and ubiquitous net reach from Google blimps and I'd really feel like I'm living in the future. What is more, with houses spread out (side affect of self driving things on land prices), not laying cables/water/sewer lines and not maintaining roads anymore it would appear that it could be a much more economical future. Without cracking closed loop systems it is out of reach. Google Net Blimps, renewable energy, even autonomous vehicles seem like much more tractable problems in comparison despite water filtration seeming simpler.