The Homely Scientist

 Here’s a great example of science and engineering looking to nature for new and innovative ways to solve problems.  Look at that robot!  It’s tiny!  It hops!  It finds pollution!

Umberto Scarfogliero, one of the men behind the University of Lucca project, says that the team focused on fleas and frogs in particular when researching the ‘bot. “Robots like these are far more efficient than larger ones in scouring vast areas of land in a shorter time,” he explained. The little critters are now being equipped with sensors that will allow them to locate sources of mercury poisoning. Source: Leaping Lizards: Robot that Jumps Like a Flea Can Sniff out Pollution - Gizmodo

If there is one thing I’ve learned in my years of looking at the natural world, it’s that nature has some great ideas.  Lots of inspiration to be had.  Like … Velcro from burrs (the plant kind), the chain saw from beetle grubs (this is true).  Just sit, watch, and learn.  You never know what you might come up with.

Share This

 I don’t know if this is a post for here or PimpYourWork, but eh, we’ll do it here (more science than work I guess).  We know that electrical resistance makes heat (this how toasters and electric heaters work, btw) and our computers are packing in so many electro-bits (I made that up) that heat generation is a big problem.  I have no less than three devices handy to help keep my laptop cool.  All involve passive cooling (letting more cool air get to the machine), not what if the processors were made to cool themselves!

US researchers have developed a prototype device that creates a “breeze” made up of charged particles, or ions, to cool computer chips.

The “ionic wind”, the scientists say, will help to manage the heat generated by increasingly powerful, yet ever-shrinking devices.

[snip]

The prototype, which is attached to a mock computer chip, works by shifting charged particles from one end of the device to the other. As a voltage is applied to the ionic engine, positively charged particles (ions) are produced, and are dragged towards a negatively charged wire (a cathode), forcing constant air movement.

The team found the prototype engine boosted cooling

The researchers said that when it was used in conjunction with a conventional fan, air molecules, rather than getting stuck, were dragged across the chip’s surface boosting cooling.

The team said the device increased the cooling rate from a conventional fan by up to 250%.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Tiny wind engines cool computers

Sure, while this is a long way off, if I’m right, the more powerful the processor the stronger the wind so the better the cooling.  This could help computers get pretty dern powerful!

Share This

 Now this is what I’m talkin’ about!

Built on just 3 acres of land, (most single-story storage facilities need ten times that amount) Portland City Storage will be the largest solar facility in the Northwest. Excess power will be sold on to Portland General Electric, and there is a rainwater collection area on the roof. Source: Eco: Portland’s Solar-Powered, 22-Story Storage Facility - Gizmodo

Really what we have to do is build this kind of facility in order to satisfy our energy thirst.  Is it easy?  Of course not, but also fears that something like this has to be ugly…well just look at that picture!

Share This

On my bacteria making hydrocarbons post, Dave commented on what if something hadn’t been discovered or had been discovered by a different person…how would things be different.  Which leads to ethics and science.  Both Einstein and Oppenheimer decried the use of their discoveries.  Yes, Oppenheimer is noted as “the father of the atomic bomb”, but he also didn’t want the world destroyed either.  Nobel invented dynamite, but was so morally devastated by its use that the Nobel Prize was created.

We scientists often discuss how discoveries are ethically “neutral”, it is their use that matters.  Is that entirely true, though?  Are all discoveries neutral?  I would say they aren’t.  Nuclear power, has both good and bad uses.  However regardless of the use, the waste and radioactivity left behind is not good.

Electricity, lots of good there, and bad.  Silly putty … as failed synthetic rubber (I’ve also heard plastic explosive).

But what if Gandhi, and not Einstein, discovered E=mc^2?  Would it have come to the same end?  Would The Bomb have been made?

What if gunpowder had never been discovered?  Or petroleum?  What about something as seemingly innocuous as the colour mauve (the book Mauve is an amazing read, do look it up)?  Mauve was the first human created colour.  The aniline dye, which gave us mauve was invented by Sir William Perkin gave us the whole petrochemical industry…plastics, medicines, everything.  He was a very, very interesting man.

Consider then, what, if undiscovered, would change.  Perhaps, even the smallest change would do that.  Of course that’s where Chaos Theory (and the book Chaos another recommended read) comes in … and that’s a post of a different colour (pun intended).

Books:
 

Share This

I don’t know anyone with a severe allergy to peanuts, but I do know that people who are live in a world where just about any food could make them sick, or worse.

News from North Carolina might give them some hope:

People with life-threatening allergies to peanuts might be able to rest easy at their friendly neighborhood Thai restaurants soon, if research announced this week proves true. A release from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University says researcher Mohamed Ahmedna has developed whole, roasted peanuts in which the allergen is completely inactivated and that serum from people with severe peanut allergies did not react to the processed peanuts at all. The university paper does not explain the process at all. However, it claims the technique inactivates peanut allergens without degrading the taste or quality of treated peanuts. Source:Researcher develops allergy-free peanuts | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

While this is awesome news, I have to caution that I doubt that there would be universal adoption of this new peanut.  Cheap peanuts from around the world might not use the new strain or new process.  I think this new developement might wind up being a double-edged sword.  Lulled into a false sense of security, a person with this allergy could be exposed to the “old” peanut and have a reaction.  Maybe the most realistic thing is that they will be able to enjoy peanutbutter at some time.

Technorati Tags: peanut allergy

Powered by ScribeFire.

Share This

Replacement limbs have generally been somewhat useful objects.  Sure, there are hooks, and some bio-mechanical hands, and much better legs now, but true bionics have eluded us, until now:

Touch Bionics announced Tuesday what it calls the world’s first commercially available bionic hand, a prosthetic hand that moves more naturally than traditional prostheses and can hold awkward or delicate objects. While most prostheses today can open and close, allowing people to grasp some items, they lack the detailed movements of a natural hand. The i-Limb Hand gets one step closer to that natural movement, with motors in each finger that make it possible to move individual fingers and form several different grips. Source: Photos: Bionic hand gets thumbs-up | CNET News.com

This is more photo essay than science article, but do read it all.  It’s inspiring really.  The ability of have light tough, strong grip, multiple digit positions.  Very, very cool stuff.  Touch Bionics is even making ones that don’t look like Terminator hands, but real hands.  Very hard to tell the difference in the pictures!

Just awesome.

Share This

 In the Andes, the Incas and modern-day descendents have been gathering water from the fog for centuries.  The process there is simple, the fog hits some kind of cloth or sheeting and the water condenses on it.   Then the water collects and rolls down into a container.  These work amazingly well, but they are also huge and need pretty heavy fog to work well.  Max Whisson has taken the idea that there is always (pretty much) water in the air and uses condensation to make a water gathering machine:

There’s a lot of water floating around in the air everywhere, and inventor Max Whisson has figured out a way to extract it using Max Water, a wind-powered contraption he named after himself. Max Water uses the concept of condensation, where lower temperature allows less water to hang around in the air, and Whisson says that will amount to 10,000 liters per day dripping from this single rooftop device. Man, that’s a lot of water. Source: Green Invention: Max Water Cranks Moisture Out of the Air, Seems Miraculous - Gizmodo

This looks like another great way to gather supplemental water for things like gardens, etc in the city.  Of course it can serve as drinking water if it is purified.  Only hitch is that right now they will set you back about $44 grand.  Maybe with larger production the price can come down.

Share This

This caught my eye on Read/Write Web:

A new project from the University of Oxford (UK), the University of Portsmouth (UK) and Johns Hopkins University (US) aims to harness the power of the human brain to identify and classify galaxies and stars. On the Galaxy Zoo website, users are asked to identify the objects in photographs as spiral or elliptical galaxies, the direction of rotation, or if the photo depicts a star or merger of galaxies. The site launched yesterday and says they have already had an “amazing response.”

“The human brain is actually better than a computer at pattern recognition tasks like this. Whether you spend five minutes, fifteen minutes or five hours using the site your contribution will be invaluable,” said Kevin Schawinski of Oxford University of the project. Source: Outsource Your Brain for Science

I went over to Galaxy Zoo to sign up.  After you register they walk you through what different kinds of galaxies and non-galaxies look like.  I thought I pretty much got it down pat, but when I did the test to see if I could look at real pictures, I flunked.  More practice for me.

The entrance exam is a great idea.  I was wondering how they would deal with the mass number of people looking at pictures and maybe not getting the ID right.  With a requirement to pass an entrance exam, and some double checking I’m sure, this makes the data more useful.  When I was learning how to identify fossil pollen, I spent hours looking at reference slides and drawing the types.  Then a test.  Even then you always keep a reference set and picture keys handy.

Even though I flunked, don’t let that stop you…go give it a shot!

Share This

Making artificial limbs work like the original has been a lofty goal for years.  Hooks, pulleys, servos, all sorts of gadgets to make fingers and wrists move and respond.  Until now, that’s been the limit, but now inspired by the elephant’s trunk, a breakthrough has been made:

It’s not often you see a piece of tech touted by its developer as being inspired by something “long, gray, and soft,” but that’s exactly how the researchers at Germany’s prolific Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute are describing their ISELLA robotic arms. Inspired by the finesse and power of an elephant’s trunk, the team developed a unique redundant motorized “muscle” called DOHELIX, consisting of dual drive shafts intertwined around each other in a double helix, resulting in a system that can be scaled from micrometer-scale muscles to cranes in container seaports. Source: Elephant trunks inspire ISELLA robotic arm - Engadget

Coupled with the new nerve sensing technologies replacement limbs that work like the real thing, might be just around the corner.

Share This

How would you like to have a device that generates electricity just from the vibrations that are all around us?  How about if this device were smaller enough to be used in lots of small devices?  Making things like wireless transmitters small, cheap, and self-powered?  It’s a reality now:

The trick with this generator is efficiency: Its vibrating magnets are 10 times better at generating current than other machines of this sort. The obvious use for this is in wireless sensors, that currently use batteries that need to be replaced, and therefore must be located in accessible spots. With a vibration generator like this, you can stash a sensor wherever you like. Wherever you like.

The generator may also one day be used to power a pacemaker, which would indeed be a funny twist: It would derive its power from the beating of the heart that its job is to keep on track. How’s that for existentialism? Source: Free Energy Isn’t Free: Here’s One Magnetic Free Energy Machine That Actually Works - Gizmodo

Just to recap how this actually works, when you spin magnets around a copper coil you generate current.  Basic stuff … it’s what powers all those wind up radios and flashlights.  Through the same principle and physics these two vibrating magnets do the same thing.  If you want to know more about the physics behind this Wikipedia’s article on electrical generators is very cool.

Share This