Science Quick Picks » Trends

Top 3 Most Exciting Innovations in Green Technology

Guest Blogger — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:18:25 +0000

With the continuing challenges we face as a result of climate change, the world’s greatest minds are constantly coming up with new ways to reduce carbon emissions as well as make the most of existing energy. If we are to avert climactic disaster, it could be that the solutions are discovered at the ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy) summit. Here are some of the most highly anticipated innovations in green technology from this year’s event.

Solar-Thermal Engine

With an increasing number of cars on the road, and our addiction to fossil fuels showing no signs of abating, it would be a major breakthrough to come up with an engine that can run on alternative energy. The Solar-Thermal Engine on show at ARPA-E runs on sunshine as you’d expect from the name, but it can also operate on synthetic gas derived from rubbish heated to just 260 degrees Celsius. It is the heat produced from these sources that the engine uses to produce steam which then powers the engine.

Artificial Photosynthesis

The secret to harnessing the power of the sun effectively could lie in plants. When sunlight hits a leaf, it splits the water inside it to produce carbohydrates, and this same process can be used to split water into Oxygen and Hydrogen which can be used as a fuel.
The real benefit of artificial photosynthesis is that, unlike other forms of renewable energy such as geothermal or wind power, it could have a real future as a fuel for transportation as it can be produced as and stored in photovoltaic cells as an actual fuel.
The artificial photosynthesis technology demonstrated at ARPA-E could be used to generate energy for the home cheaply.

Airborne Wind Turbines

At very high altitudes the wind never stops, and if utilised correctly could produce a constant stream of energy. On display at ARPA-E was a carbon-fibre “kite” that can circle high in the sky, and transmit that power it harnesses via a tether made of high strength fibres surrounded by conductors.
It works like any other wind turbine, where air rapidly moves across the blades and causes them to rotate, thus generating electricity. However, the AWT has a number of advantages over the traditional wind turbine. Firstly, it can produce power far more cost-effectively, at around half the cost, while it uses a massive 90% less material and is therefore far cheaper to build and install.
One major drawback to wind turbines that will often be cited is that they spoil the natural beauty of the countryside. With an AWT however, this isn’t an issue as they fly hundreds of metres in the air. It’s this altitude that also allows them to access significantly stronger winds.
We are beginning to see the effects of climate change throughout the world, including extended droughts in the planet’s hottest regions, coral reef bleaching and the continued retreat of the ice caps. If we are to avoid these and other problems getting increasingly more damaging, we will need to take significant steps both politically and technologically, and if ARPA-E is any indication, the best minds in green technology are working hard to discover the solutions.

This blog post was written by John Rooney on behalf of SolarTech, experts in delivering renewable energy technology for your home or business in the form of solar panels.

Top 3 Most Exciting Innovations in Green Technology is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Best iPad Science Apps for Kids

Guest Blogger — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:30:09 +0000

The iPad is a great resource if you want to supplement your child’s science education. The best way to learn about science is to explore the topic through experiments and hands-on applications. These applications help to bring science to life. You can use them to build your child’s curiosity in science or as a way for them to delve more deeply into a subject that they already love. You may want to explore the iBooks available for the iPad. They are each only $15.00 and will explore a topic in-depth with related videos.

Bobo Explores Light
This app takes children through a story that explores how light and electricity works. It has a cute main character that really appeals to kids. It explains how light works, and has games that demonstrates the various points that it teachers. The app itself is not very long; it may take about an hour at most to go through the entire thing the first time. However there is good replay value for the children, which allows your children to review the concepts. This is a good secondary source if your child is learning about electricity.

Solar Walk and Star Walk
The Solar Walk app is one of the first apps that was introduced along with the iPad. A similar application is Star Walk. Solar Walk allows you to explore the different planets in the solar system and the sun. You can check the different positions of the planets currently as well as learn more detailed information on each individual planet. Star Walk is another app that explores space. This application focuses more on space outside of the solar system. It can help you find stars in the night sky. It is a great app to have if you are planning on stargazing. These apps make great resources if your child is currently studying astronomy. The hands on interaction may help them to better understand and absorb the information about the planets and space.

Science 360 for the iPad
This app by the National Science Foundation is one of the most highly rated apps with hundreds of five-star reviews. It is updated on a regular basis and provides the latest news stories. It also provides streaming video and photos if you are interested in exploring a topic more in-depth. This is a great resource to have on hand to support all the different science fields. It can be used as a resource for younger and older students as well.

BrainPop Featured Movie
This app offers a new topic every day with a video that explains the topic and then at least four more resources that allows your child to explore the topic more in-depth. You can subscribe for $1.99 a month, which gives you access to the featured topic for the day. Another subscription rate of $6.99 a month allows you to access all of the topics each day. It is a good option if you want to encourage your children to learn. The topics expand beyond just science topics into other educational areas as well.

Heather Green is a freelance writer for several regional magazines in North Carolina as well as a resident blogger for onlinenursingdegrees.org. Her writing experience includes fashion, business, health, agriculture and a wide range of other topics. Heather has just completed research on healthcare administration degree and online physical therapy assistant classes.

Best iPad Science Apps for Kids is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Is Bioprinting the Pathway to Human Cloning?

Guest Blogger — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:05:45 +0000

image credits: Patrick J. Lynch

Bioprinting uses a 3D printing device with biological material to create objects; such as replacement human organs. Scientists have already succeeded in printing skin and vertebral tissues, these two experiments have been tested on animals; like the ear growing out of the rats back scenario. However they are still yet to completely master replicating organs… turns out getting the internal vascular systems are a tad tricky!

So with the ever-changing world around us, I don’t think anybody would have predicted the possibility of actually being able to ‘make’ humans. Of course there has been a way found to create functional organs; therefore a scientists ‘logical’ second step is creating a fully functioning human! According to Vladimir Mironov, it is a “logical extension’’!

The idea is to learn how to produce individual limbs and body parts; subsequently building a whole body. The prospect of printing humans is that they can be created at specific ages using the various stems cells, erasing any need for puberty. Mironov believes that the hurdle will present itself when it comes to tackling the human brain as we will probably never understand it’s functions 100%.The idea behind this evolution is that human beings can be made and printed on demand, whether this defies the natural way life is a personal and separate debate; but we cannot deny that it is ultimately brilliant.

So is this a good idea!? It is clear that Bioprinting can and probably will lead to human cloning but is it really ethical!? The humans will be clones and not actually real people, therefore the strange and quite disturbing aspect (especially for those who knew the original human) is that they will look the same, but won’t be the same. And that is what I ponder on… how will the personalities differ? Will it have a personality!? There I just said the word myself… ‘It’.

The cloning of Dolly the Lamb was, yes a brilliant experiment. However Dolly died early… whether this is a result of cloning it was never proven, however this factor must be taken into consideration. Another issue is that Dolly was the only successful embryo to be created out of 300; a very low ratio causing a great loss of money through experiments… this will ultimately cost so much more for human experimentation.

So this phenomena really would alter the natural way of life, without producing life the ‘proper way’, what are we really here for!? The aspect of the grieving wishing to bring back loved ones, creating an empty shell of a body that simply resembles your loved one? Bizarre.

This article was written by London printing company, PrintExpress.co.uk; for business cards, magazines, brochures and other bespoke printing services.

Is Bioprinting the Pathway to Human Cloning? is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Proton Therapy

Guest Blogger — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:34:29 +0000

For certain types of cancer, standard X-ray radiation therapy may work well; but proton therapy may do the job better, more efficiently and with less potential for collateral damage to surrounding tissue and vital organs.

Also known as particle therapy, proton therapy works to kill certain types of cancerous tissue, especially in places in the body where the growth is isolated. Developed from the workings of scientist Robert R. Wilson, a noted physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, proton therapy was in its mere infancy in the mid-1940s. Since that time, this cutting edge therapy has come to light as an effective way to isolate an abnormal growth, which is ideal for the treatment of many types of cancers that lie adjacent to vital organs, as well as in treating childhood cancers where it is protecting a child’s growing organs is critical.

Though X-ray therapy for cancer patients can be effective in expelling certain cancers, it can also create negative effects that leave the patient with other problems and side effects with which they must contend. Since X-ray radiation therapy affects a wider overall portion area of the body beyond the cancerous growth, this type of therapy is prone to spreading its radiation over a wider scope of a patient’s body during treatment, potentially damaging nearby, healthy tissue. Those administering X-ray radiation therapy are often left with the conflicting choice of whether to use an intense dosage of radiation to eradicate the body of the malignant growth, or to withhold the dosage to try to preserve the body’s healthy tissue.

No such conflict exists in proton therapy, which has a proven track record of effectively killing cancerous tissue. Patients suffering from brain cancers like meningioma, eye cancers like retinoblastoma and ocular melanoma, and spine tumors like chondrosarcoma, and prostate cancer have benefited from proton therapy. All of these cancers are in critical locations with delicate tissue surrounding the cancerous growth or vital organs lie nearby.

With over 200,000 men in the United States diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, the development and growing availability of proton therapy has made great strides to allay the anxiety that comes with such a diagnosis for men.

Though this type of cancer treatment can be costly – it’s expensive to build the necessary particle accelerator to speed up the protons – and there is a limited number facilities that provide such cancer eradicating therapy, the value of peace of mind for those who suffer from prostate cancer, as well as other cancers, it is well worth the effort, and is covered by insurance carriers. One facility that provides such treatment is IU Health Proton Therapy, a center in the Midwest.

The treatment sessions are relatively easy for the patient and cause few to no lingering side effects since proton therapy does not damage healthy tissue. This outpatient treatment takes place for a few minutes each day of treatment and goes on for approximately six to seven weeks. I may seem odd that a cancer treatment could be that quick, but it also gives hope to those looking for alternative cancer treatments.

Matt Herndon writes for Dose of My Own, a blog that discusses what’s happening in the medical field.

Proton Therapy is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Infographic: The Digital Classroom

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:00:58 +0000

Courtesy of Accredited Online Universities Guide

Infographic: The Digital Classroom is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Scientific Ideas That Seemed Crazy at the Time

Guest Blogger — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:55:54 +0000

By its very nature, science seeks to challenge. It asks brave questions, and comes up with answers that may seem ridiculous. Sometimes, those answers are not ridiculous, but become part of common knowledge, accepted by all. Here are just some of those ideas:

1) The Earth being round
The ancient Greeks were the first to realise that the earth is not flat, but round. Evidence included observations of the horizon, and early astronomy (it is a misconception that people believed in a flat earth into the Middle Ages: by then, most people knew it was round). At the time of discovery, the idea of a flat earth would have seemed counter-intuitive to many.

2) The Earth orbiting the sun
It was also the ancient Greeks who established at the earth orbited the sun, and not the other way around. The earth, they realised, was not the centre of the universe, but merely a part of it. This theory – heliocentrism – was espoused by Galileo in the seventeenth century, who challenged the Catholic church’s view that it was against the scripture, who accepted the idea relatively quickly.

3) Evolution
Darwin’s theory of evolution ran contrary to the creationist views which were mainstream in his time. However, overwhelming evidence led to its acceptance even by many religious people, although many still hold counter-evolutionary views, especially in the US.

4) Mendhelian inheritance
This is the theory, developed by Gregor Mendel in the 1860s, is the theory of how characteristics are passed down from one generation to another, through genes. His ideas were initially ignored: it was only in the twentieth century that they were taken up by other scientists, and went on to form the basis of modern genetics.

5) Global warming
The first theory that man’s activity could affect the world’s climate emerged in the late nineteenth century, but were disbelieved by most. It was not until the 1930s that scientists began to realise that they were likely true, and extensive research has taken place since. Nevertheless, the idea remains a controversial one, and is still refuted by some.

Other scientific theories are emerging all the time, and many seem utterly implausible. There is still so much that we do not know about our planet, and beyond it. Quantum physicists deal in ‘dark matter’ – so-called because they have limited understanding of what it is, though it is thought to be the basis of ‘black holes’. Other theories which seem impossible, but may yet be proven, are constantly studied. For example, it is thought that teleportation will be possible, perhaps within decades, and embryonic teleportation involving single atoms has already taken place: called ‘quantum entanglement’.

Another unlikely sounding theory is the ‘Copenhagen entanglement’. This holds that it is possible for something to be in two places at once: demonstrated by the ability of a particle to pass through two slits at the same time. There are many possible bizarre manifestations of these theories, and others. Who knows, they may yet come to shape our world.

Rachel is a freelance blogger with a background working on science parks and an interest in making science more accessible.

Scientific Ideas That Seemed Crazy at the Time is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Best International Universities

Guest Blogger — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:23:20 +0000

This a guest post by Diane Johnson. Diane graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing, particularly about travel and online classes.

After high school graduation many students decide to go to college, while some travel the world, and others start their careers. And within those main decisions there are other choices such as whether to go to a local college or move and attend a university in another state or country. Fortunately, US News and World Report ranks schools and puts out the “World’s Best Universities” list so students will know what their options are. So now students can earn a degree from a top rated university and still live abroad. This allows individuals to travel and experience something new but also increase their knowledge and skills. And these top rated international universities are located in many countries throughout the world.

England

1. University of Cambridge

4. University College – London

6. University of Oxford

7. Imperial College London

21. Kings College London

30. University of Bristol

Australia

20. Australian National University

37. University of Sydney

38. University of Melbourne

43. University of Queensland

46. University of New South Wales

Canada

18. McGill University

29. University of Toronto

44. University of British Columbia

Japan

24. University of Tokyo

25. Kyoto University

49. Osaka University

China

23. University of Hong Kong

40. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

42. The Chinese University of Hong Kong

47. Peking University

Other Top Rated Universities

19. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

22. University of Edinburgh

32. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

33. École Normale Supérieure de Paris (ENS Paris)

36. École Polytechnique, ParisTech

45. University of Copenhagen

51. Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

52. Trinity College Dublin

56. University of Amsterdam

62. Uppsala University

If students are debating between going to college and traveling the world, they should know there is a third option. There are great universities everywhere and these universities made it into the top 100 of U.S. News & World Report’s World’s Best Universities: Top 400.

Best International Universities is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Science Online London 2010: How is the Web Changing Science?

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:28:07 +0000

Nature, Mendeley, and the British Library present Science Online London 2010, September 3-4, 2010 — British Library. How is the web changing the way we conduct, communicate, share, and evaluate research? How can we employ these trends for the greater good? This September, a brilliant group of scientists, bloggers, web entrepreneurs, and publishers will be meeting for two days to address these very questions.

In addition to a number of keynotes and talks, Science Online London is about community, and is an experience that you can shape. Exchange ideas with others like you. Propose and take part in un-conference sessions, ignite talks, two tours through the Royal Society, a Fringe-Frivolous Rooftop Debate with free drinks and discussions (limited to 50 attendees), or a trip to the Diamond Light Source Synchrotron.

See also the Science Online London Blog for more information and use the Wiki to give your suggestions.

Science Online London 2010: How is the Web Changing Science? is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Another Stunning Graphene Experimental Surprise

Jorge Goncalves — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:53:53 +0000

Graphene, the extraordinary form of carbon that consists of a single layer of carbon atoms, has produced another in a long list of experimental surprises. In the current issue of the journal Science, a multi-institutional team of researchers headed by Michael Crommie, a faculty senior scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, reports the creation of pseudo-magnetic fields far stronger than the strongest magnetic fields ever sustained in a laboratory – just by putting the right kind of strain onto a patch of graphene.

“We have shown experimentally that when graphene is stretched to form nanobubbles on a platinum substrate, electrons behave as if they were subject to magnetic fields in excess of 300 tesla, even though no magnetic field has actually been applied,” says Crommie. “This is a completely new physical effect that has no counterpart in any other condensed matter system.”

Crommie notes that “for over 100 years people have been sticking materials into magnetic fields to see how the electrons behave, but it’s impossible to sustain tremendously strong magnetic fields in a laboratory setting.” The current record is 85 tesla for a field that lasts only thousandths of a second. When stronger fields are created, the magnets blow themselves apart. The ability to make electrons behave as if they were in magnetic fields of 300 tesla or more – just by stretching graphene – offers a new window on a source of important applications and fundamental scientific discoveries going back over a century. This is made possible by graphene’s electronic behavior, which is unlike any other material’s.

A carbon atom has four valence electrons; in graphene (and in graphite, a stack of graphene layers), three electrons bond in a plane with their neighbors to form a strong hexagonal pattern, like chicken-wire. The fourth electron sticks up out of the plane and is free to hop from one atom to the next. The latter pi-bond electrons act as if they have no mass at all, like photons. They can move at almost one percent of the speed of light. The idea that a deformation of graphene might lead to the appearance of a pseudo-magnetic field first arose even before graphene sheets had been isolated, in the context of carbon nanotubes (which are simply rolled-up graphene). In early 2010, theorist Francisco Guinea of the Institute of Materials Science of Madrid and his colleagues developed these ideas and predicted that if graphene could be stretched along its three main crystallographic directions, it would effectively act as though it were placed in a uniform magnetic field. This is because strain changes the bond lengths between atoms and affects the way electrons move between them. The pseudo-magnetic field would reveal itself through its effects on electron orbits.

In classical physics, electrons in a magnetic field travel in circles called cyclotron orbits. These were named following Ernest Lawrence’s invention of the cyclotron, because cyclotrons continuously accelerate charged particles (protons, in Lawrence’s case) in a curving path induced by a strong field. Viewed quantum mechanically, however, cyclotron orbits become quantized and exhibit discrete energy levels. Called Landau levels, these correspond to energies where constructive interference occurs in an orbiting electron’s quantum wave function. The number of electrons occupying each Landau level depends on the strength of the field – the stronger the field, the more energy spacing between Landau levels, and the denser the electron states become at each level – which is a key feature of the predicted pseudo-magnetic fields in graphene.

Describing their experimental discovery, Crommie says, “We had the benefit of a remarkable stroke of serendipity.”

Continue reading the press release Graphene Under Strain Creates Gigantic Pseudo-Magnetic Fields at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s News Center.

Another Stunning Graphene Experimental Surprise is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

PlanIT Valley: The First Sustainable City in the World

Jorge Goncalves — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:16:03 +0000

PlanIT Valley promises to be the first sustainable city from an economic, social, technological and environmental point of view. The story begins as many others, on a local level: Miguel Rodrigues, a Portuguese entrepreneur, simply wanted to build an electric car factory in Paredes, near Porto (Portugal). But the idea quickly jumped borders, transformed itself onto a global stage which became the project to build an intelligent city in Paredes and became a Harvard case study. “It is amazing the confluence of paths of Miguel Rodrigues. He met Celso Ferreira, President of Paredes, and introduced him Peter Van Manen, from McLaren Electronics, and Manuel Simas, from Microsoft Automotive, who knew Steve Lewis, from Living PlanIT.”

Living PlanIT, the company that will operate PlanIT Valley, predicts that the new city will occupy an area of 1700 hectares, host 12 thousand companies and create tens of thousands of jobs. Investment might exceed 10 billion euro, involving partners such as Cisco, McLaren and Buro Happold and could be considered a Project of National Interest (PIN).

Companies like IBM, Bosch, Intel and Microsoft have also been reported as potential partners. Planned to be an urban scale living laboratory where new techniques will be used to reduce the impact of infrastructure on the environment, this new city plans to host companies and researchers, retail, hotels, housing, offices, industry and entertainment venues, combining intelligent buildings and advanced mobility, transport and communication solutions.

At the core of Living PlanIT’s approach is an integrated platform for managing city operations. The high-level convergence of information and control systems with the fabric of buildings, infrastructure, places and mobility is critical to being able to respond holistically to the challenges posed by urbanization and associated issues of environmental sustainability. The convergence of manufacturing processes and enabling technologies is delivered through Living PlanIT and Cisco’s ecosystem of partners.

Cisco’s technologies provide the infrastructure for Living PlanIT’s Xtreme Construction (XTC) and Urban Operating System (UOS) platforms. XTC provides the method by which technologies are embedded in the fabrication of buildings and places while the UOS provides the orchestration, sensing and operational framework for urban environments. This process separates and supports city hardware such as renewable energy, water and waste systems from resident and user focused applications

PlanIT Valley – Next Generation Intelligent City: Innovation in a Living Laboratory
In order to demonstrate technological innovation at urban scale Living PlanIT will soon break ground at a 1,700 hectare (4,000 acre) Greenfield site in the municipality of Paredes outside Porto, Portugal. This is the initial phase in the construction of the first of a new generation of intelligent cities – PlanIT Valley.

PlanIT Valley will be the R&D platform for Living PlanIT and its Partners. The assimilation of technologies in PlanIT Valley means that innovations can be deployed at city scale.

PlanIT Valley: The First Sustainable City in the World is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

Science Quick Picks » Trends

Top 3 Most Exciting Innovations in Green Technology

Solar-Thermal Engine

Artificial Photosynthesis

Airborne Wind Turbines

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Best iPad Science Apps for Kids

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