Inhabitat's Week in Green: sugar-covered lamps, IKEA's solar lamp, and the 30MPH all-wood racing bike

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

Several breakthroughs sent shock waves through the field of renewable energy this week as Inhabitat reported on a new type of "invisibility cloak" that could supercharge solar cells and researchers at MIT harnessed viruses to improve the efficiency of dye-solar cells by a full third. We also cast a keen eye on the royal wedding, which is expected to produce 6,765 tons of CO2, and we explored a new wireless charging technology being developed by Toyota and WiTricity. And if futuristic eco cities float your boat, check out this self-sustaining ecotopia designed to produce energy and food in the North Sea.

We also showcased several novel electric vehicles, including the crazy Uno 3 transforming scooter which is now available for pre-order. Alternative fuels also took off as a Kentucky man unveiled a car that runs on bourbon and a mobile greenhouse powered by renewable energy hit the streets of New York City. And from the realm of pedal-powered transportation we brought you the SplinterBike - a bicycle made entirely from wood that can hit a record-breaking 30 miles per hour.

In other news, energy-efficient lighting advanced by leaps and bounds this week as we flipped the switch on IKEA's new solar-powered Solvinden lamp and we spotted a crystalline "Stardust" LED lamp made from sugar at the Milan Furniture Fair. Finally, we shined a spotlight on Katy Perry's debut on American Idol as a LED-studded Extraterrestrial, and we took an exclusive look inside New York City's first LEED gold skyscraper - the Hearst Tower!

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Google announces new ways to discover apps on Android Market, more tools for developers

Android Market may have a lot going for it, but most would surely agree that it could use some improvement when it comes to discovering apps that you aren't specifically looking for. Thankfully, it seems Google has indeed been aware of those concerns, and it's now announced five new features that should go so some way towards improving things. Those include some newly revamped top app charts that promise to be "fresher" and country specific, a brand new Editors' Choice section that highlights apps chosen by Google, a new Top Developers feature that places a special icon next to the name of developers that make the grade (currently more than 150), improved related apps on individual app pages and, last but not least, a new trending apps section that shows the apps growing fastest in terms of daily installs. What's more, while all of those features are currently exclusive to the web-based version, Google says they're also "coming soon" to the Andr...

Scientist cooks up adjustable strength metals

As you may know, crafting a katana is a delicate process that involves carefully constructing a razor-sharp high-carbon edge around a soft shock-absorbent core. One day though, smiths and forging fires could be replaced by electrode-wielding mad-scientists, with the technology to selectively harden and soften metal at will. At least that's what we envisioned when we read about Jörg Weißmüller's breakthrough research in the field of nanomaterials. The German scientist discovered that by placing precious metals in acid he could create tiny ducts through corrosion. Once those channels are flooded with a conductive liquid, electrical currents can be used to harden the material and, if you change your mind about the brittle results, the effect can easily be reversed to make it soft again. The tech could eventually lead to self-healing vehicle armor or scratch-resistant cellphones -- but, really, we just want to zap our way to a high-quality samurai sword. Physorg

LG adds 'Tweet-TV' enabled Android phone to its list of Mobile DTV prototypes

Whenever mobile digital television broadcasts finally take off LG will be ready and its latest concept design -- following the autostereoscopic 3D screen shown at CES -- is the Tweet-TV pictured above. At the National Association of Broadcasters show this week it's demonstrating the prototype Android phone with a Harris MDTV antenna that also pulls in relevant tweets and displays them over the broadcast being watched. Whether or not a dose of social networking will help MDTV succeed where others have failed remains to be seen but first we'll see if it manages to reach 40% of the US population later this year. The press release and a bigger picture follow after the break. LG ELECTRONICS SHOWS EXPANSIVE CAPABILITIES OF MOBILE DIGITAL TV, DEMONSTRATING 'TWEET-TV' SOCIAL NETWORKING, ELECTRONIC COUPONS, 'GLASSES FREE' 3D Prototype displays, Smartphones highlight flexibility of mobile DTV standard LAS VEGAS -- Apr 08, 2011 / (http://www.myprgenie....

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