WHO? The SPARKS team, which advertises Panasonic's eco-friendly technology, delivered snow more than 5,000 miles from Japan to children at the Abdul Rahman Kanoo International School in Bahrain. At the request of Amna al-Haddad, who wanted to show her younger brother snow, the Panasonic team started its quest to package the frozen material.
WHAT? The architecture of the snow crate is conceptually simple, yet mind-blowing. A mold of Styrofoam, shaped like a snowman, was placed into a cardboard box and then covered with Panasonic's U-Vacua technology. U-Vacua is only one-fifth of an inch thick, and the plastic-metal wrap's pressure is highly decompressed, preventing heat conduction. This technology does not require compressor refrigeration, and the result is a ready-made snowman in the desert.
THE FUTURE: Eco-friendly experiments are changing the world, connecting one climate to another and inspiring innovation. Perhaps we may one day see tropical fruit growing in Antarctica - and not as a result of global warming.
-compiled by Fiza Hashmi
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