Farm in a box

An inventor in Kenya has come up with a farm kit he claims can grow enough plants and livestock to feed a family in a space the size of a small car.

The 'aquaponic' system combines growing beds with a tank for rearing edible fish or shrimps. The two systems work in harmony using minimal amounts of energy and water.

If this sounds like the stuff of science fiction, its creator assures me the idea has been around for centuries and is beguilingly simple. That said, he has little doubt about its potential to revolutionise the way food is produced in the future.

I meet Heino Dahmen in a sprawling garage on the outskirts of the port city of Mombasa. He has run this business and an adjoining shipyard on the Mtwapa Creek for 20 years, but now devotes almost all his time to a bewildering array of engineering projects.

Is Kraftwerk anti-nuclear?

German electro band Kraftwerk have updated the lyrics of their 1975 song Radioactivity to cement its status as an anti-nuclear anthem.

As pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk's whole image was futuristic and utopian. With lyrics like "I programme a home computer, beam myself into the future" and "fun fun fun on the Autobahn" there was usually an underlying suggestion that the future - and especially future technology - would be beneficial to the human race. 

The original lyrics of Radioactivity were minimal and passed no explicit judgement on nuclear energy.

Kraftwerk performing Radioactivity in London in February 2013

But again there was an implication that the technology was helpful:

Radioactivity
Is in the air for you and me 

But come 1991, the song was updated to list the names of famous nuclear disasters: Chernobyl, Fukushima, Harrisburgh… The following lyrics were also added:

Chain reaction and mutation
Contaminated population
Stop radioactivity
Is in the air for you and me