WATCH: We can now see exactly how heavy metals pass through aquatic animals
Thanks to radioisotopes we can now map our pollution.
Pretty
much everything humans do on the planet impacts the environment. But
one of the most difficult parts of managing those impacts is
understanding exactly what damage we're really doing. For
example, we know that the heavy metals from industrial processes such as
mining are getting into our waterways, but have a limited understanding
of what this does to aquatic life.
To address this, aquatic
researcher Tom Cresswell from the Australian Nuclear Science and
Technology Organisation (ANSTO)
uses radioisotopes to trace this heavy metal pollution, and follow its
lifecycle inside prawns, yabbies and other marine invertebrates. As he
explains in the video above, this is the first technique that allows us
to study how heavy metals pass through these animals, without having to
kill them.
So how does it work? First you take the metal you want
to study, such as cadmium, which is frequently used to make batteries
and solar panels and as a result, ends up contaminating our rivers and
groundwater.
You then bombard the metal with neutrons to create a radioisotope. This
is a version of the metal that behaves in exactly the same way
chemically and biologically, except that it gives off a unique
radioactive signal that can be detected from within the live animal.
Cresswell,
who works as an isotope ecologist at ANSTO, then puts this radioisotope
into the environment of prawns. In particular, he's looked at prawns
taken from the remote rivers of Papua New Guinea, where mining has
caused isolated areas of elevated heavy metal concentrations. He can
then watch as the metal is absorbed by the prawn and, most importantly,
see how long it takes before the animal gets rid of it completely.
This
research is crucial, as it will help us to understand exactly what's
happening when these heavy metals get into water systems, and also the
best way to manage them in future.
"The future of water resource
management is unknown at the moment, we’re still finding out more and
more about how humans affect the environment. And unfortunately we're
finding that a lot of the things we do have adverse effects and we’re
unbalancing these environmental systems," explains Cresswell. "The more
research we can do to understand our impact, the more we’re able to
regain that balance."
After six months and 22 flights at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center
in Edwards, California, NASA has announced the successful completion of
testing for its morphing airplane wing design. Known as Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge
(ACTE) flight control surfaces, they replace a plane's conventional,
rigid flaps with a flexible composite material. Not only are they
designed to significantly reduce an aircraft's weight (as well as the
noise it generates during flight), these flaps could save the industry millions of dollars annually
in fuel savings. In tests, the wing's curve remained set anywhere from
-2 to 30 degrees but it can be adjusted as needed, even in midflight.
Eventually, flexible wings can make for lighter, more fuel-efficient
planes as well as quieter takeoffs and landings.
"The completion of this flight test campaign at Armstrong is a big
step for NASA's Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project," said ERA
project manager Fay Collier in a statement. "This is the first of eight
large-scale integrated technology demonstrations ERA is finishing up
this year that are designed to reduce the impact of aviation on the
environment." The ACTE results are to be integrated into future design
trade studies conducted by NASA's Langley Research Center.
"How hard can it be? It's not rocket science!" might
be something you've heard, or said, before. While it's a tired old
expression, it still raises a valid point: rocket science is really
freakin' difficult.
Bill Nye is a guy (indeed, a
Science Guy) who knows a thing or two about rocket science. He also
knows plenty about space travel, as CEO of The Planetary Society (the
world's largest non-profit group devoted to space exploration). Nye,
astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice answered
listener questions about rockets, science and rocket science on StarTalk
Radio.
Have any benefits come from the two space shuttle disasters?
NASA's
thirty-year Space Shuttle program came to an end in 2011. While the
program safely completed 133 flights, there were also a pair of tragic
disasters. The shuttle Challenger broke
apart shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986, killing all seven
astronauts on board. Seventeen years later, nearly to the day, the
shuttle Columbia broke up when re-entering Earth's atmosphere. Once again, all seven crew members lost their lives.
Challenger broke up 73 seconds after liftoff in 1986
While it's always difficult to look
past such a loss of life, it's still important to keep in mind that
plenty is learned from every misstep, no matter how tragic. Neil
deGrasse Tyson notes that rocket disasters are "opportunities rich in
learning experiences." For instance, after the Challenger disaster,
the Space Shuttle program suspended all flights for two years while the
investigation was underway. In September of 1988, the Space Shuttle Discovery completed a successful mission, incorporating safety recommendations prompted by Challenger's failure, including redesigned rocket boosters.
Unlike the Challenger disaster, Columbia's
disintegration occurred on re-entry into our atmosphere. A seemingly
minor mishap - a piece of foam insulation breaking off and damaging the
left wing when the shuttle launched - proved deadly on re-entry. The
compromised wing allowed atmospheric gases to penetrate inside the
wing's internal structure, causing the spacecraft to break apart,
killing all seven astronauts on board. Once again, the Space Shuttle
fleet was grounded for two years. And once again, lessons were learned.
Future missions included improved safety precautions, including upgraded
safety harnesses and automated safety mechanisms.
In a more recent rocket disaster, Virgin Galactic's experimental SpaceCraftTwo, the\pacecraft VSS Enterprise broke
up during a 2014 test flight, killing the pilot. Virgin founder Richard
Branson said his team learned valuable information from the tragedy. He
summed up the balance between safety and exploration, saying, "Space is
hard - but worth it."
How do we balance our desire to explore with the need to ensure a safe journey?
Building
off Branson's mantra, Nye says there will always be a level of risk
involved with new endeavors, especially when it comes to space. But
dialing it back a few steps, most of humanity's greatest successes have
come from taking risks, and many of those successes came after failures.
Nye brings up a caveman analogy, that of the curious early human who
continually sought out the next hill, the next vista, in the search for
new things. "People who don't take risks get eliminated," says Nye,
"It's deep within us, the drive."
Fire is dangerous, risky and deadly - but where would we be without it?
It's
also worth noting that in all of the tragedies discussed above, the
victims knew the risks involved before they set off on their missions.
We don't all have to take risks, but if we want to keep furthering our
knowledge of the world and the cosmos, someone has to. When Richard
Branson's space tourism industry makes its maiden flight, it will
probably attract plenty of risk takers. But if you're risk-averse? "You
don't have to buy a ticket," notes Nye, "You don't have to go."
How easy is rocketry these days? Do we pretty well have it figured out?
We
know a whole lot more than we used to - but there's still plenty to be
learned with each launch. We've filled Earth's orbit with all manner of
spacecraft over the past sixty years. "We are boldly going where
hundreds have before," says Neil deGrasse Tyson. But even though
hundreds may have gone there before, it's still an incredibly small
sample size. Bill Nye, the engineer who spent his early career working
on jets at Boeing (including the iconic 747), notes that the hundreds of
rockets we've launched are a tiny drop in the bucket compared with the
thousands upon thousands of airplane flights we've made since the Wright
brothers first lifted off at Kitty Hawk.
Barely
a decade after the Wright brothers achieved rickety liftoff,
highly-maneuverable biplanes like the SPAD XIII (seen with American ace
Eddie Rickenbacker) dominated World War I's aerial dogfight
Though
piloting planes safely within our atmosphere and launching spacecraft
into orbit are two very different things, there are parallels to be
drawn. If we had the same sample size for rockets and spacecraft as we
do for aircraft, we'd know a lot more about rocketry. So how do we learn
more about rocketry? The answer is simple, says Nye: "Let's go to low
Earth orbit enough times to make it routine."
The trick is to heat the foil with electricity and it will burn the paper to create a fire
If you are planning a camping or a trek,
there are chances when you would need to create a fire for safety,
cooking and whatever you need it for. But with match boxes and lighters
easy to carry around, it is easy to get one up. But what if you forgot
or ran out of the same? The video below shows you how you can start a
quick fire within seconds with almost any battery you may have. All you
need is a simple chewing gum wrapper or an inside lining of a cigarette
box, which has an aluminium foil sandwiched on paper. The trick is to
heat the foil with electricity and it will burn the paper to create a
fire. Check out the video below to know how.
Depression can physically change your DNA, study suggests
More evidence that the disease is much more than a mood disorder.
Researchers
from the UK have found evidence that depression doesn't just change our
brains, it can also alter our DNA and the way our cells generate
energy.
A team from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics
investigated the genomes of more than 11,500 women, with the hopes of
finding genes that might contribute to the risk of depression. But
instead, they stumbled across a signature of metabolic changes in their
cells that appears to have been triggered by the disease.
The
most notable discovery was that women who had stress-related depression
- depression that's associated with some kind of adversity during
childhood such as sexual abuse - had more mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) than
their peers. Mitochondria are the 'powerhouse organelles' that provide
the energy for the rest of the cell, and an increase in mitochondrial
DNA led the researchers to believe that the energy needs of their cells
had changed in response to stress.
"We were surprised at the
observation that there was a difference in mitochondrial DNA. So
surprised it took us a long time to convince ourselves it was real, and
not an artefact," said geneticist and one of the lead researchers,
Jonathan Flint, in a press release.
After
going back over their results, the researchers also found that the
women with stress-related depression had shorter telomeres than the
healthy women. Telomeres are the caps at the end of our chromosomes that
naturally shorten as we age, and the team began to question whether
this process had been sped up by stress.
But
as we know, correlation doesn't equal causation, so the team decided to
test their hypothesis further in mice. Over four weeks, the mice were
put under stress, and the researchers monitored any genetic and cellular
changes that occured.
Their research, which was published in Current Biology, revealed
that the stressed-out mice not only showed an increase in mtDNA, but
they also had shorter telomeres than the normal lab mice. These changes
seem to be triggered by the stress hormone corticosterone.
According
to Flint, these molecular changes may well reflect the body's way of
naturally coping with major stress. "Depression might in some sense be
considered a metabolic reaction to perceived stress," he said.
The
good news is that the research in mice showed that the effects of
stress are also partly reversible. The team now hopes that the research
will help point out biomarkers of stress and its consequences. It's
still very early days, but in the future, looking at mitochondrial DNA
levels could help to reveal whether someone has recovered from a trauma.
"We have only a snapshot of the relationship between the molecular markers and depression," said Flint.
"We want to know how they change over time - before, during, and after a
depressive illness. That information will tell us much about their
clinical utility."
It's becoming increasingly clear that the
things that affect us emotionally also affect us on a biological level.
Earlier this year, a separate team of researchers showed that childhood
trauma could alter cellular ageing, and in November 2014, scientists
also revealed that meditation and yoga can actually help maintain
telomere length. There's no evidence as yet that these types of changes
are permanent or will be passed on to future generations.
While
there's still a lot to understand, we hope this research will help
reduce the stigma surrounding mental disorders and bring more acceptance
and support for people suffering from them. It's definitely about time.
The Car Company Audi Has Made Diesel From Air And Water
Quartz is reporting that Audi has begun production of a synthetic diesel fuel made
from water, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. Unlike fossil fuels, which
release additional carbon into the atmosphere, Audi’s “e-diesel,” which
is being produced at a plant in Dresden in conjunction with the German
alternative energy company Sunfire, has a net-zero carbon footprint
because it is made with carbon dioxide taken from the air.
The
news report also adds: “Though the prospect of cars being powered by
air and water is exciting, it remains little more than a prospect for
now. The Dresden plant will produce a mere 3,000 liters (794 gallons) of
the carbon-neutral fuel over the next few months—a tiny drop in a huge
ocean.”
The electronic cigarette came onto
the market in 2007 and today the sales have reached over $1 billion a year in
the U.S alone. They have proven to be very popular amongst smokers; however we
still don’t know just how safe the electronic cigarette is. Scientists did
undertake a study internationally and this claimed that the vapour from an
electronic cigarette contains anywhere from 9 to 450 times less toxins.
The various components of an
electronic cigarette are typically assembled by screwing or pushing together.
There is the LED light which glows during usage and it typically simulates the
ember of a normal cigarette when inhaling and exhaling. There is a sensor inside
the electronic cigarette which can detect the flow of air when an inhalation is
made by the user. This tells the battery to turn on and the heating element is
subsequently triggered. Some types of electronic cigarette are turned on and
off by the use of a button, which the user presses and holds when they want to
inhale the vapour.
There is a slim line battery and
this is typically lithium-ion. The average amount of puffs, or inhalations, the
user gets from a battery charge is around 300. The electricity is passed
through a material that is resistant, which is typically made from metal or
ceramic and this is what transfers the heat.
The heating element inside the
electronic cigarette reaches around 150 degrees Fahrenheit which vaporizes
around 0.005 millilitres of nicotine liquid, producing the vapour which is then
inhaled by the user, just as they would when drawing on a cigarette. Each of
these hits gives the user roughly 90% of the nicotine they would get when they
were smoking a cigarette filled with tobacco.
The nicotine in the electronic
cigarette is stored as a viscous fluid; this is generally either vegetable
glycerine or propylene glycol or even a 50/50 mixture of both. This contains
around 1% nicotine along with flavourings. These can either be fruit, menthol
or even tobacco flavour. There are also weird and wonderful flavours to choose
from, including anything from Coca-Cola to pina colada, apple pie and anything
in between.
Finally there is the flexible tip
which is put into the mouth, through which the user inhales the vapour. This is
often made of silicone and in some cases it is designed to look and feel just
like the filter on a real cigarette. Electronic cigarettes come in different
sizes, just as you would get normal or king-size in tobacco cigarettes.
There are many accessories on the
market to go with the electronic cigarettes, these typically include USB
chargers, either cable like or made to look like the box that cigarettes are
packaged in, which keep your electronic cigarettes charged up as the box itself
is charged first. Other accessories include wallets and neck straps to hold the
cigarette and even desktop holders.
Your smartphone can detect earthquakes even without additional apps
New Delhi: In a state of natural
calamities, communication channels are the most impacted and we begin to
wonder if that's just how far technology has been explored. However,
did you know that the ubiquitous smartphone can detect earthquakes? And
no, we don't mean you need to download a certain app for that.
Your smartphone or tablet comes with a basic seismometer that can
detect seismic activity while the phone is placed on a flat table.
A Digital Inspiration blog
notes that for your smart device's seismometer to work, you don't need
additional apps and just the built-in web browser can help you gauge an
earthquake.
Your
smartphone or tablet comes with a basic seismometer that can detect
seismic activity while the phone is placed on a flat table.
All you have to do is launch the phone or tablet's web browser and open http://ctrlq.org/earthquakes/seismograph.html.
You should see a continuously moving waveform, but if you even slightly
shake or tilt your mobile device, simulating seismic activity, the
graph will capture them in real-time much like a seismograph.
The graph will vary depending upon how vigorous the seismic
activity (here, shaking of the phone) is and also change based on the
orientation of the device.
This basic seismograph is written using simple JavaScript.
Modern-day smartphones have built-in accelerometers and gyroscopes and
as you move the physical hardware, the changes in the orientation of the
device and acceleration are detected by the browser, which are then
mapped into the seismograph.
This motion data is then captured by the HTML5 DeviceOrientation
and DeviceMotion events of the browser. You can also test this feature
if you are using Google Chrome on the desktop by turning on the
Accelerator option under Sensors inside Chrome Dev Tools to simulate
motion.
EU project develops air bag ship rescue system to prevent
sinking
In recent years we have seen a
number of tragic disasters where ships lose their stability and flips upside
down. The Costa Concordia disaster in January 2012 saw the
loss of 32 lives after deviating from its planned route and contacting the sea
floor. More recently in April 2014 we saw the sinking of the MV Sewol in South Korea with 293
deaths, mostly secondary school children. And it’s not just human lives at
stake as oil spillages can be devastating to the environment. Now, there may be
hope for future prevention with the SuSy project – Surfacing System for Ship
Recovery.
Costa
Concordia disaster [Wikimedia Commons]
The SuSy project is an EU-funded
investigation into methods of keeping merchant ships upright on the surface in
times of buoy damage or other stability destroying issues. They have looked
into an airbag system that would deploy airbags during times of distress that
would help keep the vessel afloat and what’s more, they have turned the idea
into a proof of concept.
In order for such a system to be
effective, it needs to be large enough to support the ship in times of danger
and also must be able to be deployed rapidly, such that the ship does not
topple to a point of no return. The proof of concept was demonstrated in
2013 on a model bottom of a medium-sized tanker in the port of Chalkida,
in Greece. “Our challenge was to produce enormous amounts of gas from
small cartridges which is quickly released into inflatables,” describes
project partner Reinhard Ahlers, managing director of Balance in
Germany.
[Image
Courtesy of SuSy]
The methodology of the project was a
combination of two technologies. The first is the rescue system used in
submarines that uses liquid or solid fuel to blow water out of the ballast
tanks in a very short time to provide additional buoyancy. The second is the
use of air pressure systems with inflatable Kevlar reinforced balloons.
The project looked into and proved
two setups, the first having the balloons sandwiched between two hulls and the
second having external balloons, however one expert voiced concern at the
project’s double hull approach. “Given the location of balloons in the
double hull, not only will the construction of the ship be much more
difficult and costly. But inspection and maintenance will be almost impossible
– hence these systems will be unreliable,” says Egbert Ypma,
researcher at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands in
Wageningen, in the Netherlands.
The balloons hold potassium
nitrate (used in gunpowder), an epoxy resin and ferric oxidecommonly
known as rust. The gunpowder oxidises the epoxy resin which produces a gas that
consequently inflates the balloons; the rust acts as a catalyst. As the blast
is so rapid a lot of heat is generated and to prevent any damage to the
balloons, either ambient air can be mixed into the balloon using a secondary
cannister or a heat exchanger can be used just before the gases enter the
balloon.
The project says that although a
proof of concept has been made the project is still far from seeing fruition
and there is a lot of work to go to optimise the inflation and location of the
balloons. But with such disasters as mentioned before, we eagerly await an
additional level of marine safety
Interesting Engineering » Design News, Inspiration » EU project develops air bag ship rescue system to prevent sinking
In
recent years we have seen a number of tragic disasters where ships lose
their stability and flips upside down. The Costa Concordia disaster
in January 2012 saw the loss of 32 lives after deviating from its
planned route and contacting the sea floor. More recently in April 2014
we saw the sinking of the MV Sewol in
South Korea with 293 deaths, mostly secondary school children. And it’s
not just human lives at stake as oil spillages can be devastating to
the environment. Now, there may be hope for future prevention with the
SuSy project – Surfacing System for Ship Recovery.
The SuSy project is an EU-funded investigation into methods of
keeping merchant ships upright on the surface in times of buoy damage or
other stability destroying issues. They have looked into an airbag
system that would deploy airbags during times of distress that would
help keep the vessel afloat and what’s more, they have turned the idea
into a proof of concept.
In order for such a system to be effective, it needs to be large
enough to support the ship in times of danger and also must be able to
be deployed rapidly, such that the ship does not topple to a point of no
return. The proof of concept was demonstrated in 2013 on a model bottom
of a medium-sized tanker in the port of Chalkida, in Greece. “Our challenge was to produce enormous amounts of gas from small cartridges which is quickly released into inflatables,” describes project partner Reinhard Ahlers, managing director of Balance in Germany.
[Image Courtesy of SuSy]
The methodology of the project was a combination of two technologies.
The first is the rescue system used in submarines that uses liquid or
solid fuel to blow water out of the ballast tanks in a very short time
to provide additional buoyancy. The second is the use of air pressure
systems with inflatable Kevlar reinforced balloons.
The project looked into and proved two setups, the first having the
balloons sandwiched between two hulls and the second having external
balloons, however one expert voiced concern at the project’s double hull
approach. “Given the location of balloons in the double hull, not
only will the construction of the ship be much more difficult and
costly. But inspection and maintenance will be almost impossible – hence
these systems will be unreliable,” says Egbert Ypma, researcher at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands in Wageningen, in the Netherlands.
The balloons hold potassium nitrate (used in gunpowder), an epoxy resin and ferric oxidecommonly
known as rust. The gunpowder oxidises the epoxy resin which produces a
gas that consequently inflates the balloons; the rust acts as a
catalyst. As the blast is so rapid a lot of heat is generated and to
prevent any damage to the balloons, either ambient air can be mixed into
the balloon using a secondary cannister or a heat exchanger can be used
just before the gases enter the balloon.
The project says that although a proof of concept has been made the
project is still far from seeing fruition and there is a lot of work to
go to optimise the inflation and location of the balloons. But with such
disasters as mentioned before, we eagerly await an additional level of
marine safety
- See more at:
http://interestingengineering.com/eu-project-develops-air-bag-ship-rescue-system-to-prevent-sinking/#sthash.JAB38X8T.dpuf
In
recent years we have seen a number of tragic disasters where ships lose
their stability and flips upside down. The Costa Concordia disaster
in January 2012 saw the loss of 32 lives after deviating from its
planned route and contacting the sea floor. More recently in April 2014
we saw the sinking of the MV Sewol in
South Korea with 293 deaths, mostly secondary school children. And it’s
not just human lives at stake as oil spillages can be devastating to
the environment. Now, there may be hope for future prevention with the
SuSy project – Surfacing System for Ship Recovery.
The SuSy project is an EU-funded investigation into methods of
keeping merchant ships upright on the surface in times of buoy damage or
other stability destroying issues. They have looked into an airbag
system that would deploy airbags during times of distress that would
help keep the vessel afloat and what’s more, they have turned the idea
into a proof of concept.
In order for such a system to be effective, it needs to be large
enough to support the ship in times of danger and also must be able to
be deployed rapidly, such that the ship does not topple to a point of no
return. The proof of concept was demonstrated in 2013 on a model bottom
of a medium-sized tanker in the port of Chalkida, in Greece. “Our challenge was to produce enormous amounts of gas from small cartridges which is quickly released into inflatables,” describes project partner Reinhard Ahlers, managing director of Balance in Germany.
[Image Courtesy of SuSy]
The methodology of the project was a combination of two technologies.
The first is the rescue system used in submarines that uses liquid or
solid fuel to blow water out of the ballast tanks in a very short time
to provide additional buoyancy. The second is the use of air pressure
systems with inflatable Kevlar reinforced balloons.
The project looked into and proved two setups, the first having the
balloons sandwiched between two hulls and the second having external
balloons, however one expert voiced concern at the project’s double hull
approach. “Given the location of balloons in the double hull, not
only will the construction of the ship be much more difficult and
costly. But inspection and maintenance will be almost impossible – hence
these systems will be unreliable,” says Egbert Ypma, researcher at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands in Wageningen, in the Netherlands.
The balloons hold potassium nitrate (used in gunpowder), an epoxy resin and ferric oxidecommonly
known as rust. The gunpowder oxidises the epoxy resin which produces a
gas that consequently inflates the balloons; the rust acts as a
catalyst. As the blast is so rapid a lot of heat is generated and to
prevent any damage to the balloons, either ambient air can be mixed into
the balloon using a secondary cannister or a heat exchanger can be used
just before the gases enter the balloon.
The project says that although a proof of concept has been made the
project is still far from seeing fruition and there is a lot of work to
go to optimise the inflation and location of the balloons. But with such
disasters as mentioned before, we eagerly await an additional level of
marine safety.
Via: [SuSy]
Also check out the full pdf report [here]
Google+
- See more at:
http://interestingengineering.com/eu-project-develops-air-bag-ship-rescue-system-to-prevent-sinking/#sthash.JAB38X8T.dpuf
In
recent years we have seen a number of tragic disasters where ships lose
their stability and flips upside down. The Costa Concordia disaster
in January 2012 saw the loss of 32 lives after deviating from its
planned route and contacting the sea floor. More recently in April 2014
we saw the sinking of the MV Sewol in
South Korea with 293 deaths, mostly secondary school children. And it’s
not just human lives at stake as oil spillages can be devastating to
the environment. Now, there may be hope for future prevention with the
SuSy project – Surfacing System for Ship Recovery.
The SuSy project is an EU-funded investigation into methods of
keeping merchant ships upright on the surface in times of buoy damage or
other stability destroying issues. They have looked into an airbag
system that would deploy airbags during times of distress that would
help keep the vessel afloat and what’s more, they have turned the idea
into a proof of concept.
In order for such a system to be effective, it needs to be large
enough to support the ship in times of danger and also must be able to
be deployed rapidly, such that the ship does not topple to a point of no
return. The proof of concept was demonstrated in 2013 on a model bottom
of a medium-sized tanker in the port of Chalkida, in Greece. “Our challenge was to produce enormous amounts of gas from small cartridges which is quickly released into inflatables,” describes project partner Reinhard Ahlers, managing director of Balance in Germany.
[Image Courtesy of SuSy]
The methodology of the project was a combination of two technologies.
The first is the rescue system used in submarines that uses liquid or
solid fuel to blow water out of the ballast tanks in a very short time
to provide additional buoyancy. The second is the use of air pressure
systems with inflatable Kevlar reinforced balloons.
The project looked into and proved two setups, the first having the
balloons sandwiched between two hulls and the second having external
balloons, however one expert voiced concern at the project’s double hull
approach. “Given the location of balloons in the double hull, not
only will the construction of the ship be much more difficult and
costly. But inspection and maintenance will be almost impossible – hence
these systems will be unreliable,” says Egbert Ypma, researcher at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands in Wageningen, in the Netherlands.
The balloons hold potassium nitrate (used in gunpowder), an epoxy resin and ferric oxidecommonly
known as rust. The gunpowder oxidises the epoxy resin which produces a
gas that consequently inflates the balloons; the rust acts as a
catalyst. As the blast is so rapid a lot of heat is generated and to
prevent any damage to the balloons, either ambient air can be mixed into
the balloon using a secondary cannister or a heat exchanger can be used
just before the gases enter the balloon.
The project says that although a proof of concept has been made the
project is still far from seeing fruition and there is a lot of work to
go to optimise the inflation and location of the balloons. But with such
disasters as mentioned before, we eagerly await an additional level of
marine safety.
Via: [SuSy]
Also check out the full pdf report [here]
Google+
- See more at:
http://interestingengineering.com/eu-project-develops-air-bag-ship-rescue-system-to-prevent-sinking/#sthash.JAB38X8T.dpuf
In
recent years we have seen a number of tragic disasters where ships lose
their stability and flips upside down. The Costa Concordia disaster
in January 2012 saw the loss of 32 lives after deviating from its
planned route and contacting the sea floor. More recently in April 2014
we saw the sinking of the MV Sewol in
South Korea with 293 deaths, mostly secondary school children. And it’s
not just human lives at stake as oil spillages can be devastating to
the environment. Now, there may be hope for future prevention with the
SuSy project – Surfacing System for Ship Recovery.
The SuSy project is an EU-funded investigation into methods of
keeping merchant ships upright on the surface in times of buoy damage or
other stability destroying issues. They have looked into an airbag
system that would deploy airbags during times of distress that would
help keep the vessel afloat and what’s more, they have turned the idea
into a proof of concept.
In order for such a system to be effective, it needs to be large
enough to support the ship in times of danger and also must be able to
be deployed rapidly, such that the ship does not topple to a point of no
return. The proof of concept was demonstrated in 2013 on a model bottom
of a medium-sized tanker in the port of Chalkida, in Greece. “Our challenge was to produce enormous amounts of gas from small cartridges which is quickly released into inflatables,” describes project partner Reinhard Ahlers, managing director of Balance in Germany.
[Image Courtesy of SuSy]
The methodology of the project was a combination of two technologies.
The first is the rescue system used in submarines that uses liquid or
solid fuel to blow water out of the ballast tanks in a very short time
to provide additional buoyancy. The second is the use of air pressure
systems with inflatable Kevlar reinforced balloons.
The project looked into and proved two setups, the first having the
balloons sandwiched between two hulls and the second having external
balloons, however one expert voiced concern at the project’s double hull
approach. “Given the location of balloons in the double hull, not
only will the construction of the ship be much more difficult and
costly. But inspection and maintenance will be almost impossible – hence
these systems will be unreliable,” says Egbert Ypma, researcher at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands in Wageningen, in the Netherlands.
The balloons hold potassium nitrate (used in gunpowder), an epoxy resin and ferric oxidecommonly
known as rust. The gunpowder oxidises the epoxy resin which produces a
gas that consequently inflates the balloons; the rust acts as a
catalyst. As the blast is so rapid a lot of heat is generated and to
prevent any damage to the balloons, either ambient air can be mixed into
the balloon using a secondary cannister or a heat exchanger can be used
just before the gases enter the balloon.
The project says that although a proof of concept has been made the
project is still far from seeing fruition and there is a lot of work to
go to optimise the inflation and location of the balloons. But with such
disasters as mentioned before, we eagerly await an additional level of
marine safety.
Via: [SuSy]
Also check out the full pdf report [here]
Google+
- See more at:
http://interestingengineering.com/eu-project-develops-air-bag-ship-rescue-system-to-prevent-sinking/#sthash.JAB38X8T.dpuf
In
recent years we have seen a number of tragic disasters where ships lose
their stability and flips upside down. The Costa Concordia disaster
in January 2012 saw the loss of 32 lives after deviating from its
planned route and contacting the sea floor. More recently in April 2014
we saw the sinking of the MV Sewol in
South Korea with 293 deaths, mostly secondary school children. And it’s
not just human lives at stake as oil spillages can be devastating to
the environment. Now, there may be hope for future prevention with the
SuSy project – Surfacing System for Ship Recovery.
The SuSy project is an EU-funded investigation into methods of
keeping merchant ships upright on the surface in times of buoy damage or
other stability destroying issues. They have looked into an airbag
system that would deploy airbags during times of distress that would
help keep the vessel afloat and what’s more, they have turned the idea
into a proof of concept.
In order for such a system to be effective, it needs to be large
enough to support the ship in times of danger and also must be able to
be deployed rapidly, such that the ship does not topple to a point of no
return. The proof of concept was demonstrated in 2013 on a model bottom
of a medium-sized tanker in the port of Chalkida, in Greece. “Our challenge was to produce enormous amounts of gas from small cartridges which is quickly released into inflatables,” describes project partner Reinhard Ahlers, managing director of Balance in Germany.
[Image Courtesy of SuSy]
The methodology of the project was a combination of two technologies.
The first is the rescue system used in submarines that uses liquid or
solid fuel to blow water out of the ballast tanks in a very short time
to provide additional buoyancy. The second is the use of air pressure
systems with inflatable Kevlar reinforced balloons.
The project looked into and proved two setups, the first having the
balloons sandwiched between two hulls and the second having external
balloons, however one expert voiced concern at the project’s double hull
approach. “Given the location of balloons in the double hull, not
only will the construction of the ship be much more difficult and
costly. But inspection and maintenance will be almost impossible – hence
these systems will be unreliable,” says Egbert Ypma, researcher at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands in Wageningen, in the Netherlands.
The balloons hold potassium nitrate (used in gunpowder), an epoxy resin and ferric oxidecommonly
known as rust. The gunpowder oxidises the epoxy resin which produces a
gas that consequently inflates the balloons; the rust acts as a
catalyst. As the blast is so rapid a lot of heat is generated and to
prevent any damage to the balloons, either ambient air can be mixed into
the balloon using a secondary cannister or a heat exchanger can be used
just before the gases enter the balloon.
The project says that although a proof of concept has been made the
project is still far from seeing fruition and there is a lot of work to
go to optimise the inflation and location of the balloons. But with such
disasters as mentioned before, we eagerly await an additional level of
marine safety.
Via: [SuSy]
Also check out the full pdf report [here]
Google+
- See more at:
http://interestingengineering.com/eu-project-develops-air-bag-ship-rescue-system-to-prevent-sinking/#sthash.JAB38X8T.dpuf
Around the globe there are many
feats of engineering that make people stand back in awe. From the Palm Islands
in Dubai, built of islands that had to be constructed from rock and sandstone,
to stepping out onto an oval glass ring above the Grand Canyon. These are just
a couple of amazing constructions found around the world and here are some of
the greatest feats of engineering that we think are worth a mention.
The Palm Islands, Dubai.
The Palm Islands in Dubai
finished construction September 24 2008 and are made up of around 100 million
cubic meters of sand and rock. Before building a total of 210 million cubic
meters of limestone, rock and sand was dredged and reclaimed so that the
islands could be constructed. The outer ring of Palm Islands took 10 million
cubic meters on its own. Rocks that were used in construction of the islands
had to be brought from United Arab Emirates quarries, with a total of 16
quarries being used. In total the amount of material that was used in the
construction of the Palm Islands would be enough to make a small wall that
would go around the globe three times over.
[Image Courtesy of the Palm Jumeirah]
The Burj Khalifa, Dubai.
The Burj Khalifa
was completed January 4 2010 and it is not only the world’s tallest building,
standing at 828 meters, it is also the tallest free-standing structure. There
were many obstacles to overcome when designing and building the structure, one
of which were high winds. Due to issues with strong winds the structure
underwent more than 40 wind tunnel tests. These were undertaken not only on the
building itself but also on the cranes that were being used in the
construction.
[Image Courtesy of the Burj Khalifa]
The Skywalk, Grand Canyon.
The Skywalk is
a horseshoe walk that was completed March 28 2007 and was the idea of David
Jin, a business man from Las Vegas, who discussed the project with the Hualapai
tribe. He dreamed up a walkway of glass that stretched out over the Grand
Canyon in a half circuit. The Skywalk can hold a total weight of 71 million
pounds, which would equate to around 71 fully loaded 747 aircrafts. The walkway
is 1,219 meters above the Colorado River and extends 21m from the cliff edge.
83,000 pounds of glass was used in the construction along with one million
pounds of steel. The whole thing was constructed on site and drilling for the
project took over a year from start to finish.
[Image Courtesy of the Grand Canyon]
The Millau Viaduct, France
The Millau
Viaduct was completed on 16 December 2004 and is the highest road
bridge deck in the whole of Europe. The viaduct is located 270 meters above the
Tarn River at the highest point of the viaduct and it is the tallest bridge in
the world; as the viaduct is 342 metres it comes in higher than the Eiffel
Tower. The viaduct offers passage between Paris and Spain and helps to ease the
congestion. It has a lifespan of around 120 years and cost a total of 320
million Euros to build.
[Image Courtesy of the French Tourism Board]
The Kansai Airport, Osaka, Japan
The
Kansai Airport in Osaka, Japan was completed in 1994 at a cost of
$20 billion and was the first ever airport to be built on an island that was
created artificially. Being one of the most crowded cities in Japan, a new
airport was needed in Osaka, so engineers found a solution by making an island
measuring 4 kilometres by 2.5 kilometres. It took them three years to build and
involved more than 10,000 workers along with 80 ships to excavate the 21
million cubic metres of landfill. It has been one of the most expensive civil
engineering projects in the world.
Scientists
have for the first time captured live images of the process of taste
sensation on the tongue. The international team imaged single cells on
the tongue of a mouse with a specially designed microscope system.
“We’ve
watched live taste cells capture and process molecules with different
tastes,” says biomedical engineer Steve Lee from Australian National
University (ANU).
There
are more than 2,000 taste buds on the human tongue which can
distinguish at least five tastes: salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami.
However, the relationship between the many taste cells within a taste
bud and our perception of taste has long been a mystery.
The new imaging tool shows that each taste bud contains cells for different tastes.
The
team imaged the tongue by shining a bright infrared laser on to the
mouse’s tongue which caused different parts of the tongue and the
flavour molecules to fluoresce. The team now hopes to monitor the brain
while imaging the tongue to track the full process of taste sensation.
“Until
we can simultaneously capture both the neurological and physiological
events, we can’t fully unravel the logic behind taste,” says Dr Lee.
Scientists are turning salt water into drinking water using solar power
The world needs this.
By
inexpensively turning salt water into drinking water using sustainable
solar power, a team from MIT in the US has not only come up with a
portable desalination system for use anywhere in the world that needs
it, but it’s just won the 2015 Desal Prize - a competition run by USAID
to encourage better solutions to water shortages in developing
countries.
In
order to win the $140,000 prize, entries had to demonstrate how their
invention not only works well, but is cost-effective, environmentally
sustainable, and energy efficient. And the MIT researchers teamed up
with US-based manufacturing company, Jain Irrigation Systems, to do just
that.
The
team’s invention works by using solar panels to charge a cache of
batteries that power an electrodialysis machine that removes salt from
the water and makes it perfectly drinkable. David L. Chandler explains for MIT News: "Electrodialysis
works by passing a stream of water between two electrodes with opposite
charges. Because the salt dissolved in water consists of positive and
negative ions, the electrodes pull the ions out of the water, Winter
says, leaving fresher water at the centre of the flow. A series of
membranes separate the freshwater stream from increasingly salty ones."
Solar-powered
desalination plants are nothing new, and officials are investigating
potential in water-poor areas such as Chile and California right now,
but the technology has so far been extremely expensive to both piece
together and run. And this obviously makes it difficult for developing
countries to adopt. The key to the MIT plant is the electrodialysis
process, says Chandler, talking to one of the team, mechanical engineer Amos Winter: "Both
electrodialysis and reverse osmosis require the use of membranes, but
those in an electrodialysis system are exposed to lower pressures and
can be cleared of salt buildup simply by reversing the electrical
polarity. That means the expensive membranes should last much longer and
require less maintenance, Winter says."
Chandler reports
that the MIT system can turn 90 percent of the salt water that's fed
into it into drinking water, which is huge, compared to the 40 to 60
percent from reverse-osmosis systems.
The team has been testing
their system out in several villages across India since 2014, and have
been using the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research
Facility in the US to run 24-hour tests to analyse its efficiency and
cost of maintenance. According to Mary Beth Griggs at Popular Science, in just 24 hours, their system can remove the salt from 2,100 gallons (7,950 litres).
They’re
now hoping to expand their field tests to rural communities in
developing countries, in the hopes that they can set them up as
irrigation systems in small farms. "A solution with the potential to
double recoverable water in an environment where water is becoming more
precious by the day could have a huge impact," environmental and civil
engineer Susan Amrose from the University of California at Berkeley, who
was not involved in the research, told MIT News.
NASA
is building the biggest telescope the world has ever seen, and it will
give scientists the opportunity to 'see' cosmic events that occurred
13.5 billion years ago - just 220 million years following the Big Bang.
Named the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), it will be 100 times more
powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, and is tipped to be fully
operational within the next three years.
"What the Webb will really be doing is looking at the first galaxies of the Universe," project scientist Mark Clampin told the press at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in the US this week. "We will also
be able, with these capabilities, to look in very dark parts of the
universe where stars are being born."
The
JWST includes a mirror 6.5 metres in diameter, which is three times the
size of Hubble’s mirror, and it will have 70 times its light-gathering
capacity. It will include four cameras and spectrometers,
the latter of which is designed to take in light, break it down into
its spectral components, and digitise the signal as a function of a
wavelength for scientists to interpret.
"We have sensors on
board, equipment on board that will enable us to study the atmosphere of
exoplanets spectroscopically, so we will be able to understand the
composition of those atmospheres,” Matt Greenhouse, a JWST project
scientist, told the press. "We can make big progress in the search for life."
Unlike
Hubble, which has spent the last 25 years orbiting Earth, the James
Webb Space Telescope will go all the way out to one of the Lagrangian points
- a set of five equilibrium points in every Earth-Moon System - 1.5
million kilometres (930,000 miles) away. This will keep it far enough
away from the Sun so it’s not too hot, and will shelter it from
radiation and "prevent it from being blinded by its own infra-red
light," Jean-Louis Santini reports for the AFP.
"It
will follow Earth around the Sun over the course of the year. So it's
in a Sun centre orbit instead of an Earth centre orbit," said Greenhouse. "Just as Hubble rewrote all the textbooks, Webb will rewrite [them] again."
The telescope is expected to launch in October 2018.
Smartphones, they are really smart and having features like Google Now,
were don't have to type just speak. Now these features are common. This
post is about the smartphones released in year 2014 and 2015 beginning.
So this year and previous year has been a world of best line smartphone.
Google has been with it's best NEXUS, LG with it's G Series, Samsung
with it's Galaxy S series, Sony just unveiled it's new Xperia.
World is at tip of new smartphone releasing line. Without wasting time
lets have a look at the TOP 5 Android Smartphones of 2014 and 2015.
1) Samsung Galaxy S6
image credit - GSMarena.com
No need tell about this phone, you all are excited to use this one. This
phone is running the Android v,5.0.x (Lollipop) skinned with Samsung's
TouchWiz UI. S6 has a 5.1 inch screen with 1440 x 2560 pixels (577 ).
This phone has a octa-core 1.5 GHz processor running Exynos 7420 chipset
with 3 GB RAM and GPU - Mali-T760MP8. S6 is available in 3 variants
32/64/128 GB and NO expandable memory.
Samsung has been good at camera level. S6 has 16 MP, optical image
stabilization, autofocus, Dual LED and front facing camera with 5 MP,
auto HDR.
S6 has nice but not good 2550 mAH non-removable battery.
2) Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
image credit - Google Image
Samsung with S6 also announced S6 Edge. The USP of S6 edge is that it
has a curved screen. S6 Edge has same 5.1 inch screen with 1440 x 2560
pixels (577 ppi). This phone is running the Android v,5.0.x (Lollipop)
skinned with Samsung's TouchWiz UI. S6 Edge has 1.5 GHz octa-core
processor running Exynos 7420 chipset with 3 GB RAM and GPU -
Mali-T760MP8. S6 Edge is available in 3 variants 32/64/128 GB and NO
expandable memory.
Samsung has been good at camera level. S6 has 16 MP, optical image
stabilization, autofocus, Dual LED and front facing camera with 5 MP,
auto HDR.
Compared to S6 there is only one upgrade - 2600 mAH non-removable battery.
3) HTC One M9+
image credit - GSMarena.com
HTC One M9+ was a surprise which was launched in China first with HTC One M9.
HTC One M9+ is running on Android's sweetest Launch Lollipop skinned
with popular HTC Sense 7 UI. HTC One M9+ has a 5.2 inch 1440 x 2560
pixel display (534 ppi). It runs on Octa core 2.2 GHz processor with
Mediatek chipset and GPU - PowerVR G6200. HTC One M9+ has a 32 GB with 3
GB RAM which is expandable via microSD up to 128 GB.
It has a dual rear Camera - 20.7 MP + 2.1 MP, autofocus, Dual LED flash
and a front facing camera of 4 MP with HDR. HTC One M9+ is backed up
with Non-removable 2840 mAH battery.
4) LG G3
image credit - Google Image
LG is running with it's G series. LG G3 is running on Android v,4.4.2
when it was launched back in May 2014. G3 has a 5.5 inch, 1440 x 2560
pixels (538 ppi). It runs on Quad-core 2.5 GHz processor with Qualcomm
Snapdragon 501 chipset and GPU - Adreno 330. LG G3 comes in two variants
16 GB with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB with 3 GB RAM which is also expandable
via microSD up to 128 GB.
It has a rear camera of 13 MP, laser autofocus, optical image
stabilization, dual LED flash and front facing camera of 2.1 MP. LG G3
is powered with 3000 mAH battery.
5) Motorola Nexus 6
image credit - Google Image
Google partnered with Motorola to make it's NEXUS names Nexus 6. Nexus 6
is running Android Stock version of 5.1 Lollipop (current when the till
the post is published). It runs on Quad-core 2.7 GHz processor with
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset and GPU - Adreno 420.
Nexus 6 is available in two variants 32/64 GB with 3 GB RAM with no expandable slot.
It has a rear camera of 13 MP, autofocus, optical image
stabilization,dual-LED flash and front facing camera with 2 MP. Nexus 6
is powered with non-removable 3220 mAH battery.
[Image Courtesy of SuSy]
