You can't smoke a hemp rope

Industrial Hemp has many uses from paper, rope, composites and textiles to fuels, fireproof building materials and even food, but one thing it's NOT good for is getting you high.

The THC content in marijuana (upwards of 20%) is what provides the psychoactive effect, but that is all but non-existent in Industrial Hemp (less than 1%).

Hemp, long a global cash crop for industrial uses, was first criminalized alongside its recreational cousin for numerous reasons in the early mid-20th century. Possibly to allow for greater profits in the powerful timber and chemical industries although public outcry was first raised with anti-psychedelic propaganda.

Canada has boldly allowed the hemp industry to return to North America for the first time in decades, which could pave the way for the U.S. to follow suit once the market potential is RE-realized.

Further Reading:

U.S Department of Agriculture's Market Potential Report from 2000

Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007 proposed to Congress to amend the Controlled Substances Act

North American Industrial Hemp Council

X Marks the Prize

The Progressive Automotive X Prize (the X Prize Foundation in partnership with Progressive Insurance) is a $10 million dollar prize open to any team in the world that can design, build and bring to market a consumer vehicle that can achieve the energy equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.

(The X Prize Foundation is best known for previously awarding $10 million to Scaled Composites in 2004 for private suborbital space flight).

Legendary rocker Neil Young and his team headed by mechanic John Goodwin have been developing a plug-in bio-fuel hybrid 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV convertible with a propulsion system designed by UQM Technologies to enter in the race for the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The film "Linc Volt" tracks their progress.

Solar Cell Rainbow

Normally when a solar cell captures light energy it loses some of it before it can be captured and converted to electricity.

But Scientists at M.I.T. has discovered that by dyeing the surface of the collectors then more light can be retained and a more efficient system can result making solar cells cheaper and more efficient.

The same way fiber optics can send light down filaments, the edges of the dyed glass (or even thin plastic!) can collect light for productive use.

This could mean that instead of bulky and pricey panels on the roof you could use your own windows as solar collectors adding aesthetic value as well as cost and energy efficiency!

[Source: Wired.com, Technewsworld.com, Science Magazine]