Up cycling and its Benefits

            The amount of trash in this world continues to be a concern to us. Landfills are exponentially growing because the material in them is not biodegradable. And because we have more waste than space to put it, many types of wildlife, especially marine wildlife, are harmed by the trash. If we don’t start reducing our massive amount, then we could predict a world in which every street and every city would be buried in trash. But recently, scientists have found a way to take waste and make something useful out of it. This is called Upcycling.

            Upcycling kills two birds with one stone because it gets rid of the trash and turns into something beneficial. One of the recently discovered Upcycling processes is through the burning of plastic bags. Every year, Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags. Vilas Pol, a scientist in California, has found a way to make those plastic bags useful. First, he cuts his plastic bags into small pieces and then puts them into a reactor that is about 1000 degrees. If you were to put a plastic bag on a stove, then it would release a lot of carbon dioxide and other dangerous chemicals which can cause cancer. After three hours of being in the reactor, the result product is black powder. But this black powder is actually billions of carbon nanotubes.

            Carbon nanotubes are tiny fragments of pure carbon that are in the form of cylinders. The useful application of these nanotubes is that they can conduct electricity a lot better than silicon. They have already been in use in computers for only a couple of years, but the word about this material is not yet out across the whole world. Vilas Pol has already started putting nanotubes in lithium batteries. These batteries which get stimulated with carbon nanotubes work ten times better and can store three times as much energy. The possibilities for carbon nanotubes are endless and it all comes from something that we tend to use on a daily basis. If we could start burning all the plastic bags in the world, then we would have nearly an unlimited supply of carbon nanotubes.

            Another process of upcylcing is the burning of our everyday trash. Incinerators have been around for a long time, but incinerators give out bad emissions and don’t give out a useful product. But using the incinerator to create energy is something that people are working on. First, all the trash is burned and that excess of heat becomes steam and spins a turbine. As the turbine spins it creates energy and powers homes. A Garbage to energy plant in Wisconsin already powers 18,000 homes using their own trash.

            The initial problem with trash is that we don’t have space for it. But now we can restore that space by getting rid of the trash and using it for Upcycling. If we can start making these processes global processes, then we wouldn’t have to worry about overcrowded landfills which are bad for natural wildlife. 

Bloom Energy

              The main contributor to our energy crisis today is our homes. We receive energy from a “grid” which is connected to a power plant. Even if we don’t need energy, the plant will just keep running, wasting a lot of energy. And by the time that energy travels from the plant to our homes, a lot of it is lost. So the only way to compensate for this lost energy is to find a way to get energy away from the “grid” and closer to our homes. Bloom energy is the plausible energy source for the future because it has no emissions and energy is not lost when it reaches our homes.

            The basis of bloom energy is a small fuel cell, about the thickness of a piece of paper. They are squares made of silicon that use oxygen and natural gas to create energy with no emissions. Each fuel cell supplies about 25W of energy, enough to power a small light bulb. The fuel cells are then stacked into brick-sized towers connected by metal alloy plates. 64 “bricks” of fuel cells would be enough to power a small restaurant or supermarket. Large corporations like Google, FedEx and EBay are already using this technology to supply their energy.

            The advantages of Bloom Energy are endless. First, transportation is not a big issue like it is in the grid. The energy will be released from the fuel cells whenever it is needed, so that it can’t be wasted. There are also smaller chances for power outages to occur across an entire area because Bloom Energy is completely individual. Finally, Bloom Energy is harmless to the environment. Unlike modern day coal plants, the fuel cells do not emit any dangerous chemicals to the atmosphere. Bloom Energy is both clean and efficient and is definitely a possible energy source for our homes and businesses across the world. 

Sharklet: Miracle Material

As humans, we have never come to like sharks because of their aggressive behavior. But we also haven’t been patient enough to examine these creatures up close. Dr. Anthony Brennan, a materials science and engineering professor at the University of Florida was visiting the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor when he noticed a couple of sharks swimming by slowly. He stopped and was surprised that the sharks had no algae or bacteria growing on them. Inspired, he took a sample of the skin and analyzed it. At that point, he noticed the unique diamond structure of the shark’s skin and used those observations to create Sharklet.

When Brennan was observing the skin, he was really observing the dermal denticles of the shark.  Dermal denticles are tough scales that cover the skin of sharks. Even though denticles are similar to scales, they are really modified teeth and are covered with hard enamel.  When he observed the denticles he noticed that they were arranged in a distinct diamond pattern with tiny ribs. This diamond pattern of denticles was the reason that the bacteria could not create colonies and thrive on the shark’s skin. Sharklet is an artificial material that is comprised of millions of tiny diamonds arranged in a distinct pattern that mimics the microbe-resistant properties of shark skin. 

This Sharklet material can be put on basically anything to inhibit the growth of bacteria. Since 2009, a bacterium called MRSA has slowly been spreading across the US.  The antibiotics used to attack MRSA have become useless because the bacteria are just becoming more resistant. Sharklet has been proven to inhibit the growth of harmful diseases like MRSA. If Sharklet were to be used to cover everything that a human touches in their daily lives, then there is no chance for harmful diseases like MRSA to spread. We might really abhor sharks, but because of their skin, we might also owe our lives to them. 

Endoscope Camera in a Pill

Through the use of capsule endoscopic technology, it is easy to determine what is happening in the digestive tract of a human being. Ever since its genesis in 2001, many people have taken a crack at making a capsule that will be more efficient, but none have been more successful than RF America and its next generation capsule endoscope, Sayaka. RF America’s goal was to capture the entire gastrointestinal tract and provide a clear and high-quality resolution photo that could be used for diagnosis. That’s why they created Sayaka.

The patient gulps down the capsule and over the next couple of hours, the pill travels down the esophagus and intestines where it will capture up to 870,000 images. Because the pill requires energy to run its camera, lights and computer, the patient wears a vest which continuously transmits power. The thing that Sayaka can do that prior endoscope capsules couldn’t do was take close up pictures because the older ones would always be facing forward. But Sayaka will always spin 360 degrees so that it shoots directly at the tissue walls of the intestine. Because storing the pictures would be a waste of space, Sayaka continually transmits images to an SD Memory card which is in the patient’s vest. The doctor will then take a look at the pictures on the computer and use software to create a flat map of the intestines. If they find a problem they can magnify up to seventy-five times to scrutinize the problem.

Prior to the endoscope camera, doctors had to dissect a human body to identify problems in the digestive tract. But now, swallowing a pill is all it takes to identify these problems. Sayaka will help in the fight against diseases like Cystic Fibrosis, a disease where mucus is continuously built up in the digestive tracts. The camera will be able to monitor how much mucus is being built up at every point in the digestive tract which will give doctors a better understanding of the kind of treatment that their patients need. Digestive diseases are a problem in our world, but with the efficient technology that RF America has developed today, the fight against these diseases will be much easier. 

The Largest Volcano on Earth

Just over a week ago, a team of scientists at the University of Houston discovered the largest volcano ever documented on Earth. It is dubbed Tamu Massiff and is located 1,000 miles off the Eastern Coast of Japan. The volcano covers about 100,000 square miles and is nearly the size of the state of New Mexico. The main problem before with identifying Tamu Massiff was determining whether it was a single volcano or a coalition of multiple smaller volcanoes.

The volcano doesn't just stand out for its massive size, but also for its unique shape. Unlike other known volcanoes, Tamu Massiff has a low altitude. This means that much of the lava that erupted millions of years ago had to travel long distances in order to form into the shape that is today. The image below is a 3D image of the seafloor, depicting the large volcano.

                              

Solar Energy Not Great for All

A recent Time News article titled “Grid Politics” argues that the United States is in the middle of a solar revolution. It points out that solar installations in the US have increased “more than 1000% during President Barack Obama’s first term” and have “contributed nearly half the new power capacity added to the grid in the first quarter of this year.” The reason for this sudden proliferation has been the drastic decrease in the cost of solar panels, almost 80% since 2009, according to the article. Cost of Solar, an online resource for homeowners, predicts that the cost of installing solar panels will only continue to fall in future years as the efficiency of solar panels increases and the size of solar cells decreases. As this movement continues to grow in the foreseeable future, the US will be able to successfully reduce its dependence on deleterious fossil fuels.

But not everybody is happy with this sudden solar energy movement. Public utilities, who provide electricity to customers, are the ones feeling the pernicious effects of the movement. As utilities begin to lose more customers to solar energy, they are losing a significant amount of revenue. On top of that, customers are able to sell their surplus solar energy back to utilities, further decreasing the utilities’ profits. A recent New York Times article titled “On Rooftops, a Rival for Utilities” reports that the state of California, which has seen an unprecedented 160% rise in solar panel installations since 2010, estimates that they will lose almost $1.4 billion dollars this year. If that cost was distributed evenly among the citizens of California, each citizen would have to pay an extra $185 a year for their electricity.

It’s reasonable to surmise that in future years, citizens will see installing their own solar panels as a more economical option than obtaining electricity from utilities. And unless public utilities find new ways to do business, they may end up defunct.

New Nanobiocomposite Material has Huge Potential

An article in the journal ACS Nano outlines some groundbreaking research done by Eijiro Miyako and colleagues. In a simple view, the research team has combined Morpho Butterfly wings and carbon nanotubes to create a new material that is highly conductive. There are 29 different species of Morpho butterflies in the world and they are mostly located in Mexico, Central America and South America.

Miyako explains that Morpho Butterflies have unique wings because they are lightweight, thin, flexible, absorb solar energy, and also self clean. When they are combined with carbon nanotubes, which have unique electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties, the exhibited a higher electric conductivity than the individual materials by themselves.

In the article, the scientists stated that "Our present study highlights the important progress that has been made toward the development of smart nanobiomaterials for various applications such as digital diagnosis, soft wearable electronic devices, photosensors, and photovoltaic cells." This discovery has to be further developed, but it definitely shows promise for the future.