Journal: Bamboo Bikes for Africa

Here's a fascinating melding of traditional and new technologies--bamboo bicycles.

From: Columbia Spectator

Who would have thought that inside the Zen essence of bamboo lay the potential to help a poverty-stricken continent create bicycles?

David Ho, a research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is currently working with his colleague, John Mutter, on a project to start a bamboo bicycle-making industry in Africa to provide transportation for local residents. Ho first received the idea from Craig Calfee, a bicycle builder in California who 11 years ago built a bicycle with a bamboo frame for publicity.