Tuesday, August 23, 2016








                    Pollution Science 101 


                                                     'Solutions'


                                                    By Michael J. Ross

                                Http://MonsantoInvestigation.com
 

                                           Published: August 23rd, 2016
                                          Last update: September 1st, 2020

                                       



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Chapters:

Chapter 1: Dyeing technology
Chapter 2: Armor technology
Chapter 3: Sustainable materials & fibers 

Chapter 4: Sustainable Paints & coatings
Chapter 5: Plastics & Polymer technology
Chapter 6: Conductivity in polymers and rubbers
Chapter 7: Strongest fibers & materials
Chapter 8: Glass technology
Chapter 9: Light Energy
Chapter 10: Solar & Hydrogen power
Chapter 11: Green computing
Chapter 12: Chips, wires & Wafers
Chapter 13: Nature & energy
Chapter 14: Wind energy
Chapter 15: Air power
Chapter 16: Transportation
Chapter 17: Alternative fuel
Chapter 18: Biofuel
Chapter 19: Sustainable Lubricants
Chapter 20: Displays
Chapter 21: Water harvesting
Chapter 22: Refrigeration
Chapter 23: Vertical & sustainable farming methods
Chapter 24: Clean-up technology
Chapter 25: Toxic clean-up technology



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Intro:


Today, we have an abundance of science and technology. It seems that  for many of the problems that we have as a civilization, such as war, famine, hunger, pollution and disease. That we can solve many of these concerns. In this series, we will dedicate the learning of science and technology, to many of the potential benefits of technology. This includes how these technologies can be misused in our civilization.


We can already see the amount of landfills and pollution being caused by different types of industrial activities, including the use of machinery and technology. This includes many toxic chemicals, being produced daily. Many industrial chemicals, are not often correctly disposed. These chemicals are a hazard to the environment, including in landfills. In this book, we will talk about new and sustainable ways, to replace and phase out, many toxic and industrial chemicals.

With all of the technology that has been invented in our pasts,
we must ask ourselves, is it possible to make our civilization, coexist with this planet.  


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Chapter 1: Dyeing technology


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In this chapter, we will explain the problem with many synthetic dyes out on the market. For many of these toxic dyes that are listed, there is an environmentally friendly alternative.

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Food Dyes Linked to Cancer, ADHD, Allergies

- ”Red 3 and Citrus Red 2 should be banned under the Delaney amendment, because they caused cancer in rats (some uses were banned in 1990), as should Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, which are tainted with cancer-causing contaminants.


http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/07/popular-food-dyes-linked-to-cancer-adhd-and-allergies/#.UmH8shDNkmx

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Food Dyes Linked to Behavioral Problems

Red 40 is used mainly in junk foods. Linked to hyperactivity. Banned in Denmark,
Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Sweden being phased out in the entire EU. Made of petroleum and 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid.


http://www.inspirationgreen.com/food-dyes-linked-to-behavior-problems.html



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50 Jawdroppingly Toxic Food Additives to Avoid


http://mphprogramslist.com/50-jawdroppingly-toxic-food-additives-to-avoid/



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Dangerous Food Additives - AVOID!


http://www.traditionaloven.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/list_of_food_additives.pdf


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POSSIBLE CARCINOGENIC POTENTIAL OF VARIOUS MARKETED DYES

Water pollution due to effluents from textile dyeing industry is a cause of serious concern. The techniques for detection of dyes are cost intensive and futile because the dyes undergo chemical changes under environmental conditions and the transformation products may be more toxic and carcinogenic than the parent molecule. Hence instead of detecting each chemical individually it is advisable to study the toxic effect of the effluents on various living organisms.
Various techniques of toxicity and carcinogenicity measurements are discussed in this review. Remediation using physical, chemical and biological methods has also been critically reviewed.

http://www.ijpcbs.com/files/10-353.pdf

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How Food Companies Fool Consumers with Food Coloring Ingredients Made From Petrochemicals   



You'll notice artificial colors in foods like blueberry muffins or blueberry bagels, too. Read the ingredients on blueberry bagels at your local grocery store next time, and you'll find that there are really no blueberries but plenty of artificial blue and green colors to create the impression of little blueberry bits. They can't even put blueberries in their bagels. They have to trick you with artificial colors.
Do you know what liquid they're using to hold the color? Propylene glycol -- the same chemical you put into your RV when you want to winterize it. It is antifreeze. You're eating antifreeze and petrochemicals -- and that's just the blueberry part. We haven't even gotten to everything else, like refined sugars, chemical preservatives and refined bleached white flour, which has diabetes-causing contaminants. A blueberry bagel is no longer a blueberry bagel. When you really understand what's in the foods, it's mind blowing.


http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11042.cfm


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Pretty Scary: Heavy Metals in Face Paints

What We Found

For this report, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics sent 10 children's face paints to an independent lab to test for heavy metals. Among our findings:
  • 10 out of 10 children's face paints we tested contained low levels of lead, ranging from 0.05 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).
6 out of 10 products contained the potent allergens nickel, chromium and/or cobalt at levels ranging from 1.6 to 120 ppm – far above the safety recommendations of industry studies.

 http://www.safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=584



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Are your child’s clothes TOXIC?


Most likely the clothes you are wearing on you back and the ones you dress your kids in have harmful toxins in them. The effects of these toxins on your children can range from hyperactivity to hormone imbalances. - See more at: http://www.mygutsy.com/are-your-childs-clothes-toxic/#sthash.lp1FtYEF.dpuf
Most likely the clothes you are wearing on you back and the ones you dress your kids in have harmful toxins in them. The effects of these toxins on your children can range from hyperactivity to hormone imbalances...


http://www.mygutsy.com/are-your-childs-clothes-toxic/

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 The 6+ Synthetic Fabrics You Most Want to Avoid, and Why 


Toxins in Your Textiles

Most synthetic fabrics, from towels to dress shirts to bed linens, are treated with chemicals during and after processing. These chemicals not only leach into the environment, leaving an impact on groundwater, wildlife, air and soil, but they also may be absorbed or inhaled directly.

• PFCs in "wrinkle-free" pants, often used for school uniforms, may cause cancer, according to the EPA.

• Acrylic fabrics are polycrylonitriles, which may be carcinogenic.

 • Nylon and polyester are made from petrochemicals, whose production creates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that's 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide.



http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/12/21/the-6-synthetic-fabrics-you-most-want-to-avoid-and-why.htm

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The Clothes that Kill You Slowly but Surely



Today's clothing (a $7 trillion/year industry) is manufactured using an astounding 8,000 synthetic chemicals. Nowadays, clothes also contain toxins like formaldehyde, brominated flame retardants, and perfluorinated chemicals (Teflon) to provide "non-iron" and "non-wrinkle" qualities. 

For half a century, skin and chemicals have been interacting… creating problems like infertility, respiratory diseases, contact dermatitis, and cancer. -


When toxins are absorbed through your skin — your largest organ — they bypass your liver, the organ responsible for removing toxins.

You also may not realize that your skin keeps you healthy by venting toxins… up to a pound per day.



Petrochemical fibers restrict and suffocate your skin — shutting down toxic release. Meanwhile, they contribute to your total toxic burden and may become the "tipping point" for triggering the onset of disease.

Two contributing factors are (1) toxic buildup in your body and (2) multiple chemicals that interact together to create even worse problems than the individual chemicals by themselves.



Skin rashes, nausea, fatigue, burning, itching, headaches, and difficulty breathing are all associated with chemical sensitivity. If you have mysterious health symptoms that you can't seem to get control over, it's worth checking out whether your clothes could be the problem.


http://cancerdefeated.com/newsletters/The-Clothes-that-Kill-You-Slowly-but-Surely.html


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Toxic chemicals in children's clothes, explained


 A report released this week by Greenpeace has detected a range of toxic chemicals in children's clothing, made by various manufacturers around the world. The environmental organization found the chemicals in most of the 82 items of children's apparel that it tested, bought in 25 different countries and produced by 12 major brand names, including from high-end retailers.


http://www.dw.de/toxic-chemicals-in-childrens-clothes-explained/a-17366181

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Synthetic Dyes: A look at Environmental & Human Risks

The CNN report October 2007 which Shana wrote about on Green Cotton, revealed that new testing procedures (chemical burden testing) reveal that young babies and children actually do have increased levels of chemicals in their bloodstream and skin. Because clothing comes into prolonged contact with one’s skin, toxic chemicals are often absorbed into the skin, especially when one’s body is warm and skin pores have opened to allow perspiration. We also know that some individuals have what is known as chemical sensitivity, including when exposed to garments of many types.

 Symptoms in adults for chemical sensitivity range from skin rashes, headaches, trouble concentrating, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, dizziness, difficulty breathing, irregular heart beat, and/or seizures.  Symptoms in children include red cheeks and ears, dark circles under the eyes, hyperactivity, and behavior or learning problems.


http://greencotton.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/synthetic-dyes-a-look-at-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/






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How Leather Is Slowly Killing the People and Places That Make It


 6/03/14

  • Vegetable-tanned leather utilizes tannins found in vegetables, tree bark, and other naturally plant-derived sources. These chemicals produce a soft brown leather that is ideal for leather carving and stamping but is very unstable in water. When bathed in hot water, vegetable-tanned leather will shrink and harden drastically, which is why it was once used as both an early form of plate armor as well as for book binding.
  • Synthetic-tanned leather, on the other hand, uses aromatic polymers like Novolac, Neradol, and Melamine. Invented during WWII, when vegetable tannins were being rationed as part of the war effort, it's easy to spot this kind of leather by its creamy white color.
  • Alum-tanned leather and Rawhide are not generally considered "tanned materials" as they both turn putrid in water. Alum leather is produced using aluminum salts mixed with natural binding agents like flour or egg yolks. Far lighter color shades are possible with Alum than vegetable tannins, though the resulting product will be far less supple. Rawhide is created by simply scraping the skin, soaking it in lime, and stretching it as it dries. The stiff, brittle result is often employed in drum heads, shoelaces, and as doggie chew toys.
  • Aldehyde-tanned leather is the primary alternative to the most popular form of tanning, which uses chromium, instead leveraging glutaraldehyde or oxazolidine. Like synthetic-tanned leathers, Aldehyde leather is white in color. It is also very water absorbent, soft, and can be machine washed, making them perfect for use in chamois.
  • Chromium-tanned leather is the most popular form of producing leather these days, and one of the most noxious. It relies on a toxic slush of chromium salts and tanning liquor to produce a supple and often light blue colored product. The prepared hides are first pickled in a vat of chromium until the material's pH drops to 2.8 - 3.2, then they're transferred to a secondary vat filled with tanning liquor which penetrates the leather. Once the liquor has been thoroughly and evenly absorbed, the pH of the vat is increased to between 3.8 and 4.2. This fixes the tanning material to the leather at a molecular level and helps reduce the amount of shrinkage experienced when the leather is submerged in warm water.

http://gizmodo.com/how-leather-is-slowly-killing-the-people-and-places-tha-1572678618



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Currently,  many dyes on the market, can cause problems to the individual wearing these dyes. For more information about toxins in consumer items, view the following articles.

The DuPont Investigation - http://dupontinvestigation.blogspot.com/


Pollution Science 101 - Cancer Investigated (California) -
http://pollutionscience101cancerinvestigated.blogspot.com/ 

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We need environmentally friendly paints, including dyes used for clothing, pen ink, crayons, paint for vehicles, house paint and food packaging. This includes any type of paint or dye that you can think of.


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Soil as Fabric Dye? Earth Dyeing Hits Pay Dirt

 09/01/11


 http://www.ecouterre.com/soil-as-fabric-dye-earth-dyeing-hits-pay-dirt/
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We can use a list of sustainable dyes, from soil, including plants. 


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Natural dye

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_dye
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Making Natural Dyes from Plants

http://pioneerthinking.com/crafts/natural-dyes


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Information on Natural Dyes

 http://woolery.com/dyeing/natural-dyes/information-on-natural-dyes.html


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Native Plant Dyes


http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/dyes.shtml





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We already have enough organic plants in the world, to have an ecological friendly version of dyeing. The problem is that many petrochemical companies, want to make a profit, off of dyes that are harming the environment.


Often, many times companies have requests to use certain dye colors, such as certain neon colors, or glow in the dark chemicals, that we know have harmful chemicals in them.

With new technology, we can make many colors before, without these harmful chemicals.

We still have not properly tested many of these types of bio-synthetic chemicals, however. 

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Waterless dyeing technology is the future (we hope!)















































Dutch Company, DyeCoo, has launched a revolutionary dyeing machine that uses supercritical carbon dioxide and not a single drop of water. This new technology could not have been invented soon enough, as every two years the textile industry uses the same amount of water that’s in the Mediterranean Sea just to dye clothing. In fact, textile dyeing and treatment are responsible for 17 to 20 percent of industrial water pollution, according to the World Bank. This new dry dye method uses 50% less energy and 50% fewer chemicals, to boot!
 
 
 http://designtoimprovelife.dk/waterless-dyeing-dyecoo/

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Researchers demonstrate 'no-ink' color printing with nanomaterials

June 8th, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-no-ink-nanomaterials.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu


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AirDye's Ecological Dyeing Process Makes the Future of Textiles Bright


Most of the discussion in sustainable textiles has centered around the fibers—manufacturers making a switch to organic cotton, or creating fabrics from natural, easily-renewable materials like bamboo or hemp. But very little attention has been paid to the the dyeing process, which can be a potentially devastating industry when it comes to chemicals, waste, and water usage. AirDye, a new method created by Colorep for dyeing textiles takes water almost out of the equation, using 90% less water, but also reducing the emissions and energy used by 85%, since extreme heat is needed to dry the textiles after they are soaked in dye (and most fabrics then require a post-rinse and yet another dry cycle).
AirDye's process begins with using all synthetic fibers for its material, which can be made from recycled PET bottles. Using dispersed dyes that are applied to a paper carrier, AirDye uses heat to transfer the dyes from the paper to the surface of the textiles, coloring it at the molecular level. All paper used is recycled, and dyes are inert, meaning that they can go back to their original state and be reused.

 http://www.fastcompany.com/1368576/airdyes-ecological-dyeing-process-makes-future-textiles-bright

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 Many times we hear about people trying to reuse and recycle plastic bottles. 

With many concerns and reports about the toxins in current plastic bottles on the market. We must be cautious of trying to continue to produce and recycle toxic plastic. This includes toxic bottles, being recycled in shirts made with plastic materials.

When we recycle plastics that contain harmful plasticizers, including chemicals such as BPA, this is harmful for the environment. What the world needs, is a form of recyclable bioplastic.


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We still need to be cautious, of trying to genetically modify algae and bacteria, for dyes, including other items, such as genetically modified food. Many of these genetically modified chemicals, have not been properly tested. We must be cautious, of how different synthesized chemicals, could interact with other synthetic chemicals, including pesticides and organisms in the wild.



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Microalgae Dyes Make for Clothes That Change Colors as They're Worn

 June 30, 2014

One Berlin-based design studio called Blond & Bieber (no reference to Justin) believes in the pigment power of microalgae. Co-founded by designers Essi Johanna Glomb and Rasa Weber, the studio is at the forefront of using different kinds of algae for fashion.
While the thought of wearing pond scum on your back isn't particularly appealing (if you've even thought of it), Algaemy is using European weeds to develop new types of microalgae prints. Their pigments come in shades of blue, green-brown, and red from microalgae.
While microalgae has been used for nutrition, energy and oil production, and potentially for CO2 sequestration, Glomb and Weber's design lab focuses on the maximizing microalgae’s aesthetic potential. Recently nominated for a German Design Award, they’re launching their first limited-edition shoes with Trippen at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week this July in Berlin.


 http://motherboard.vice.com/read/microalgae-dyes-make-for-clothes-that-change-colors-as-theyre-worn

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 This Clear Solar Dye Can Turn Almost Anything Into A Solar Cell

May 16, 2020

https://www.intelligentliving.co/clear-solar-dye/



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Synthetic dyes made from sustainable chemicals

Yellow, orange, and red hues achieved with plant-derived molecules

October 12, 2019

https://cen.acs.org/environment/sustainability/Synthetic-dyes-made-sustainable-chemicals/97/i40


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New nanomaterials inspired by bird feathers play with light to create color

May 13, 2015




 Inspired by the way iridescent bird feathers play with light, scientists have created thin films of material in a wide range of pure colors—from red to green—with hues determined by physical structure rather than pigments.

 Structural color arises from the interaction of light with materials that have patterns on a minute scale, which bend and reflect light to amplify some wavelengths and dampen others. Melanosomes, tiny packets of melanin found in the feathers, skin and fur of many animals, can produce structural color when packed into solid layers, as they are in the feathers of some birds.

"We synthesized and assembled nanoparticles of a synthetic version of melanin to mimic the natural structures found in bird feathers," said Nathan Gianneschi, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. "We want to understand how nature uses materials like this, then to develop function that goes beyond what is possible in nature." -



- The qualities of the material contribute to its potential application. Pure hue is a valuable trait in colorimetric sensors. And unlike pigment-based paints or dyes, structural color won't fade. Polydopamine, like melanin, absorbs UV light, so coatings made from polydopamine could protect materials as well. Dopamine is also a biological molecule used to transmit information in our brains, for example, and therefore biodegradable.

"What has kept me fascinated for 15 years is the idea that one can generate colors across the rainbow through slight (nanometer scale) changes in structure," said Shawkey whose interests range from the physical mechanisms that produce colors to how the structures grow in living organisms. "This idea of biomimicry can help solve practical problems but also enables us to test the mechanistic and developmental hypotheses we've proposed," he said.

Natural melanosomes found in bird feathers vary in size and particularly shape, forming rods and spheres that can be solid or hollow. The next step is to vary the shapes of nanoparticles of polydopamine to mimic that variety to experimentally test how size and shape influence the particle's interactions with light, and therefore the color of the material. Ultimately, the team hopes to generate a palette of biocompatible, structural color...

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-nanomaterials-bird-feathers.html#jCp


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 We must question if synthetic melanin nanoparticles, are able to biodegrade properly in the wild.


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Within colors of bees and butterflies, an optical engineer's dream is realized

May 15, 2015



Evolution has created in bees, butterflies, and beetles something optical engineers have been struggling to achieve for years—precisely organized biophotonic crystals that can be used to improve solar cells, fiber-optic cables, and even cosmetics and paints, a new Yale-led study has found.


The Yale team used high-intensity X-rays at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago to investigate color-producing nanostructures within hair-like structures that cover some species of butterflies, weevils and beetles, bees, and spiders and tarantulas. They found that the architecture of these nanostructures are identical to chemical polymers engineered by chemists and materials scientists, according to the report published May 14 in the journal Nano Letters.


"These biophotonic nanostructures have the same shapes commonly seen in blends of large, synthetic, Lego-like molecules called block copolymers, developed by chemists," said lead author Vinod Saranathan, former Yale graduate student and now faculty member at Yale-NUS College in Singapore.

These artificial nanostructures need to be an order of magnitude larger—such as that found in the scales of beetles and butterflies—in order to interfere with light and make saturated colors. Engineers, chemists, and physicists currently find it difficult to control the self-assembly of synthetic polymers to achieve the desired shape of molecules over a large area, Saranathan said.




Engineers, however, have had difficulty organizing these polymers in larger structures that would make them commercially feasible.



 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-bees-butterflies-optical.html#jCp

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Squid and zebrafish cells inspire camouflaging smart materials

May 2, 2012

Researchers from the University of Bristol have created artificial muscles that can be transformed at the flick of a switch to mimic the remarkable camouflaging abilities of organisms such as squid and zebrafish.


http://phys.org/news/2012-05-squid-zebrafish-cells-camouflaging-smart.html#nRlv


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Scientists discover nerves control iridescence in squid's remarkable 'electric skin'


August 27, 2012 
 
 http://phys.org/news/2012-08-scientists-nerves-iridescence-squid-remarkable.html#nRlv
Squid's colorful, changeable skin enables the animal—and their close relatives, cuttlefish and octopus—to display extraordinary camouflage, the speed and diversity of which is unmatched in the animal kingdom.

But how squid control their skin's iridescence, or light-reflecting property, which is responsible for the animal's sparkly rainbow of color, has been unknown.

In a new study, MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) researchers Paloma Gonzalez Bellido and Trevor Wardill and their colleagues report that nerves in squid skin control the animal's spectrum of shimmering hues—from red to blue—as well as their speed of change. The work marks the first time neural control of iridescence in an invertebrate species has been demonstrated.


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Nature's unique way of controlling color explains why birds never go gray

December 21, 2015

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-nature-unique-birds-gray.html


 Using X-ray scattering at the ESRF facility in France to examine the blue and white feathers of the Jay, researchers from the University of Sheffield found that birds demonstrate a surprising level of control and sophistication in producing colours.

Instead of simply using dyes and pigments that would fade over time, the birds use well-controlled changes to the nanostructure to create their vividly coloured feathers - which are possibly used for Jays to recognise one another. The Jay is able to pattern these different colours along an individual feather barb - the equivalent of having many different colours along a single human hair.

The Jay's feather, which goes from ultra violet in colour through to blue and into white, is made of a nanostructured spongy keratin material, exactly the same kind of material human hair and fingernails are made from...

 Dr Parnell added: "This discovery means that in the future, we could create long-lasting coloured coatings and materials synthetically. We have discovered it is the way in which it is formed and the control of this evolving nanostructure - by adjusting the size and density of the holes in the spongy like structure - that determines what colour is reflected.

"Current technology cannot make colour with this level of control and precision - we still use dyes and pigments. Now we've learnt how nature accomplishes it, we can start to develop new materials such as clothes or paints using these nanostructuring approaches. It would potentially mean that if we created a red jumper using this method, it would retain its colour and never fade in the wash."


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World's first "aqueous solar flow battery" outperforms traditional lithium-iodine batteries

  August 3, 2015

 The scientists that revealed the "world's first solar battery" last year are now, following some modifications, reporting its first significant performance milestone. The device essentially fits a battery and solar cell into the one package, and has now been tested against traditional lithium-iodine batteries, over which the researchers are claiming energy savings of 20 percent.


It was last October that researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) first detailed their patent-pending design for a dye-sensitized solar cell also capable of storing its own power. With three electrodes rather than the typical four, it featured a lithium plate base, two layers of electrode separated by a thin sheet of porous carbon, and a titanium gauze mesh that played host to a dye-sensitive titanium dioxide photoelectrode.
The reasoning behind the porous nature of the materials was to allow the battery's ions to oxidize into lithium peroxide, which was in turn chemically decomposed into lithium ions and stored as lithium metal. But the team has redesigned the battery so that air no longer needs to pass through it in order to function.


http://www.gizmag.com/aqueous-solar-flow-battery-osu/38748/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget 


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 Researchers show how natural materials can self-assemble into surfaces with stunning optical properties

September 15, 2015



The tulip called Queen of the Night has a fitting name. Its petals are a lush, deep purple that verges on black. An iridescent shimmer dances on top of the nighttime hues, almost like moonlight glittering off regal jewels.



Certain rainforest plants in Malaysian demonstrate an even more striking color feature: Their iridescent blue leaves turn green when dunked in water.

Both the tulip's rainbow sparkle and the Malaysian plants' color change are examples of structural color—an optical effect that is produced by a physical structure, instead of a chemical pigment.

Now researchers have shown how plant cellulose can self-assemble into wrinkled surfaces that give rise to effects like iridescence and color change. Their findings provide a foundation to understand structural color in nature, as well as yield insights that could guide the design of devices like optical humidity sensors. The researchers describe their results in a paper in The Journa lof Chemical Physics.

Starting with Twisting Cellulose


Cellulose is one of the most abundant organic materials on Earth. It forms a key part of the cell wall of green plants, where the cellulose fibers are found in layers. The fibers in a single layer tend to align in a single direction. However, when you move up or down a layer the axis of orientation of the fibers can shift. If you imagined an arrow pointing in the direction of the fiber alignment, it would often spin in a circle as you moved through the layers of cellulose. This twisting pattern is called a cholesteric phase, because it was first observed while studying cholesterol molecules.

Scientists think that cellulose twists mainly to provide strength. "The fibers reinforce in the direction they are oriented," said Alejandro Rey, a chemical engineer at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. "When the orientation rotates you get multi-directional stiffness."



http://phys.org/news/2015-09-natural-materials-self-assemble-surfaces-stunning.html


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Squid Based Material Takes 1 Second To Repair Completely

Aug 8, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28VvEEjkGuI

 

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We see how we can now create a viable means to have environmentally friendly types of  technology, for the use of dyeing fabrics. In the next chapters, we would like to talk about new materials and fibers that are now being invented.


We see the amount of news articles, that explain how certain plastics and synthetic fibers, have toxic chemicals in them.


In the 1990s I remember growing up in elementary school. I remember different teachers, explaining how creating synthetic fabrics were good, and could save the environment. Their reasons were that the use of fossil fuel that was already in the ground, comes up from Earth naturally. Many thought that we could make fossil fuel, to manufacture many products. The thought behind using plastics, is that people thought it could save many trees from being cut down for paper. This includes having to use fertilizer and resources to farm natural fibers such as cotton.

We can see the problem when we use too much oil, including when too much oil gets dispersed around the planet, in large amounts. A good example would be the BP Oil spill disaster. Look at how many animals were harmed in the BP Oil disaster. Yet we use that same exact substance for clothing, plastics, food packaging and a majority of the plastics that have currently been produced.  Not to mention all of the dyes, plasticizers, synthesizers and other chemicals found in clothing. Many of these chemicals, are harmful, toxic or increase the rate for cancer in different individuals. Many people might even become resistant or 'immune' to many of the toxins in these products. However, we cannot say the same for all people, including children.  Many question still, how different chemicals can shorten the lifespan of an individual.


Many people are concerned with the amount of plastic and synthetic fibers found in the environment and the oceans.

We need plastics, silicone including fibers that everyone in the scientific community could agree upon, that are non-toxic and could biodegrade properly in the wilderness.  With hazardous chemicals found in plastic, such as BPA, many are concerned for animals that are eating this type of plastic. There are dozens of other chemicals found in different plastics as well.

The problem I have heard about this 15 years ago. Is that one day the government could just ban many types of synthetic fibers.

This would mean that many chemicals and materials could be banned. This means that certain chemicals could have a clause in the law, to being limited for authorized use, governmental use, research or medical. What this would mean, is that many of these harmful chemicals that I have been discussing in my previous blogs, would be banned.


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Ban on microbeads offers best chance to protect oceans, aquatic species

September 16, 2015 
 
 
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-microbeads-chance-oceans-aquatic-species.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
An outright ban on the common use of plastic "microbeads" from products that enter wastewater is the best way to protect water quality, wildlife, and resources used by people, a group of conservation scientists suggest in a new analysis.



These microbeads are one part of the microplastic problem in oceans, freshwater lakes and rivers, but are a special concern because in many products they are literally designed to be flushed down the drain. And even at conservative estimates, the collective total of microbeads being produced today is enormous.

In an article just published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, scientists from seven institutions say that nontoxic and biodegradable alternatives exist for microbeads, which are used in hundreds of products as abrasive scrubbers, ranging from face washes to toothpaste. Around the size of a grain of sand, they can provide a gritty texture to products where that is needed.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-microbeads-chance-oceans-aquatic-species.html#jCp

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We wanted to make a giant list of harmful chemicals that we thought should be banned, yet we know that some chemicals are not that harmful, and fall in between a fine line, of what we should do with them. This is a very difficult subject, because the environment is at stake, including technology and resources.


We have come a long way, in the development of many synthetic fabrics and fibers.

Many types of synthetic fibers make it possible for lighter framed technology in automobiles, over conventional metal frames. This includes tensile strength in many fibers and alloys.

Even when new carbon fiber material came out on the market, and boasted about being a new strong material. A few months later, a news article came out, explaining how it is still toxic, and how they produce most of the carbon fiber out on the market with fossil fuel.

I have heard of environmentally friendly ways of producing carbon fiber for consumer products. I hear that it might be currently more expensive than the way the current methods of how carbon fiber is produced.


---------------------


----------------
----------------

Chapter 2: Armor technology 


----------------
----------------



---------------------

Nanotechnology in the Military
 

( National Defense )
( Homeland Security )

 Armor as strong as a snail?


  http://ice.chem.wisc.edu/Small%20Science/From_Small_Science_Comes_Big_Decisions/Choices_files/Military.pdf

Sea snails and abalone are guiding scientists in their search for
strong and lightweight armor. Others besides the military, will benefit from these new nanoscience
developments: firefighters, police officers, and other emergency responders. Another method for creating super strong materials uses tungsten, not carbon, for the basic material.


Another new nano
-
Another new armor is called "smart" body armor. It weaves thin pads or cloth from  fibers that can sense the impact of a bullet or shrapnel and automatically stiffen.  This material would be even more resistant to penetration and less cumbersome than the ceramic-plate armor troops wear now.

Concerns about biochemical-warfare have resulted in exploration into nano-size umbrellas that open to seal the cloth's pores, making it impervious to airborne chemicals and pathogens. That would be much easier and
lighter than the current equipment required.



----------------

Smart Material: Spider Silk

 Mar 5, 2011



 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlkJyG1Oik&list=PLQoTHqAEU9OSjWhEvxWS5PIka1lSQrEZ8&index=8

----------------



Spiders sprayed with carbon nanotubes spin superstrong webs


May 06, 2015
 
 
 A team of researchers working in Italy has found that simply spraying a spider with a carbon nanotube solution can cause the spider to spin stronger webs. In their paper they have uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, the team describes their experiments with both graphene and nanotube solutions and what happened when they sprayed it on ordinary spiders.



 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-spiders-carbon-nanotubes-superstrong-webs.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

-------------------


Add Graphene To Spider Silk To Create The Strongest Fiber Yet

Web slingers get a high-tech upgrade

Posted May 7, 2015
 http://www.popsci.com/spiders-add-graphene-silk-creating-strongest-fiber-yet

-----------

 Researchers explore mechanics of silk to design materials with high strength and low density

May 15, 2015



 Scientists at MIT have developed a systematic approach to research the structure of spider silk, blending computational modeling and mechanical analysis to 3D-print synthetic spider webs.


 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-explore-mechanics-silk-materials-high.html#jCp


----------------


Spider signal threads reveal remote sensing design secrets

December 16, 2015

When you look at a spider web in the garden, one thing is often noticeably absent: the spider. This may be because it is lurking away from the web in a 'retreat', where it can monitor web vibrations through a proxy known as a signal thread.

A new Oxford study published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface looks in more detail at the composition and structure of these signal threads, which spiders can use to tell whether they've caught new prey.

Dr Beth Mortimer from the Oxford Silk Group, based in the Department of Zoology, spoke to Science Blog about the research.


http://phys.org/news/2015-12-spider-threads-reveal-remote-secrets.html

-----------




Lithium-ion batteries inspired by snail shells could prove longer-lasting


February 11, 2015



In an ongoing effort to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries, scientists have looked to the techniques that snails use to control the growth of their shells. This biological inspiration, combined with a peptide found to bind very effectively with materials used to make cathodes, has potential for making lighter and longer-lasting batteries.


http://www.gizmag.com/lithium-ion-batteries-snail-shells/36045/

--------------

 

Advanced composites may borrow designs from deep-sea shrimp

July 14, 2015 
 
 
New research is revealing details about how the exoskeleton of a certain type of deep-sea shrimp allows the animal to survive scalding hot waters in hydrothermal vents thousands of feet under water.
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-advanced-composites-deep-sea-shrimp.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu




-------



NASA tests foldable cloth heat shield in Mars entry simulation

  October 6, 2015



 As spacecraft for manned and planetary missions get larger, so do their heat shields – which are becoming very big indeed. To avoid the day when the shield becomes too large for any existing or planned launcher, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California is developing the Adaptive Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT) heat shield, which uses carbon-fiber cloth and can be folded up like an umbrella. The cloth heat shield recently completed tests that simulated entering the Martian atmosphere.

http://www.gizmag.com/nasa-cloth-heat-shield-adept/39729/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------------------

Unique three-layered snail shell could lead to tougher body armor

February 1, 2010



They say life imitates art, but any scientist knows that the best designs imitate life. Researchers from the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) are drawing new biomimicry inspiration for body armor design from a hardy ocean snail that boasts a shell structure unlike anything else seen in nature... or in material research labs.

 http://www.gizmag.com/snail-shell-military-armor-car-panels/13989/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
------


Limpets sink their teeth into world's strongest natural material crown

 February 18, 2015



Spider's silk has long been the strongest natural material known to man, prompting researchers to attempt to uncover its secrets so they can replicate its remarkable properties in man-made materials. But scientists now have a new source of inspiration in the form of limpet teeth, which are made of a material researchers say is potentially stronger than spider silk, is comparable in strength to the strongest commercial carbon fibers, and could one day be copied for use in cars, boats and planes.


http://www.gizmag.com/limpet-teeth-strongest-natural-material/36162/

----------


Tiny diatoms boast enormous strength

February 8, 2016


Diatoms are single-celled algae organisms, around 30 to 100 millionths of a meter in diameter, that are ubiquitous throughout the oceans. These creatures are encased within a hard shell shaped like a wide, flattened cylinder—like a tambourine—that is made of silica. Researchers in the lab of Julia Greer, professor of materials science and mechanics in Caltech's Division of Engineering and Applied Science, have recently found that these shells have the highest specific strength—the strength at which a structure breaks with respect to its density—of any known biological material, including bone, antlers, and teeth.

 http://phys.org/news/2016-02-tiny-diatoms-enormous-strength.html

---------

Researchers look to the boxfish for new body armor materials


 July 29th, 2015



Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are taking inspiration from nature in the search for new materials that could one day be used to create more effective body armor. The study, which was supported by the US Air Force, focuses on the unique structure and strength of the hexagonally-scaled shell of the boxfish.

The idea of looking to nature for inspiration when it comes to next-gen armor isn't anything new. We've seen numerous studies over the last few years that focus on that same idea, including efforts to copy the structure of overlapping fish scales and even the properties of sea sponges to develop strong yet flexible armor.

 http://www.gizmag.com/boxfish-body-armor/38681/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget



----------


Tiny sea creatures could provide inspiration for armor with built-in optical systems

 November 25, 2015



 http://www.gizmag.com/mit-chiton-optical-armor/40590/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

A team of MIT researchers has looked closer than ever before at the unique shells of chitons, using X-rays to discover their secrets. The results reveal a no-compromise setup that provides the tiny sea creatures with both protection and optical visibility. The findings could one day inspire man-made armor with similar abilities.

Turning to nature for ideas for new materials is nothing new. In the past, researchers have looked to fish scales, boxfish shells and even sea sponges for better body armor, and we've even seen species of chiton inspiring higher-performing batteries and solar cells.

For the new MIT study, the researchers worked with a fascinating species of chiton known as Acanthopleura granulata. They have an appearance similar to the rocks amongst which they're usually found, and are small at only a few inches in diameter.

The creatures have developed a ceramic shell system that's not only flexible, being comprised of eight overlapping plates, but also provides high levels of visibility, by incorporating tiny eyes throughout. Unlike the vast majority of other living creatures, the chiton's eyes aren't made from portein, but are instead made up of the mineral aragonite – the same ceramic that makes up the rest of its shell.
---------




Next-generation body armor could be based on ... sponges?

 March 18, 2013

 http://www.gizmag.com/sponge-spicule-armor/26700/

Sponges’ “skeletons” – their internal structural elements – are made up of tiny interlinked needle-like structures known as spicules. These are hard, prickly, flexible and lightweight. As a result, they offer enough strength to provide structural support, while they bend to such an extent that they’re difficult to cut. A team of researchers from Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research set out to develop a material with those same qualities.
The nanoscale spicules they created incorporate a mixture of the mineral calcite, and a protein found in siliceous sponges known as silicatein-α. Each synthetic spicule is composed of a multitude of calcite “nanobricks” stacked together brick chimney-style, with a matrix of the stretchy protein holding them together.

--------------

Next generation armor inspired by animal scales

  February 12, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/next-generation-armor-animal-scales/36050/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

 We've seen scientists examine everything from the structure of sea sponges to the clubbing ability of mantis shrimps in the search for next generation lightweight armor systems. Researchers at Northeastern University’s College of Engineering believe that fish scales could hold the key to creating armor that's both impervious and lightweight. They eventually aim to combine the properties of fish, snake and butterfly scales into a single protective armor system.



---------


Future soldiers may be wearing fish-inspired body armor

 March 16, 2015



 On most fish, their hard, overlapping scales provide considerable protection against pokes and cuts. Because those independently-moving scales are each attached to a flexible underlying skin, however, the fish are still able to easily twist and turn their bodies. Scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and MIT are now attempting to copy that structure, to develop flexible-yet-effective armor for humans.

http://www.gizmag.com/fish-inspired-armor/36563/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------



Fish's piranha-proof scales could lead to tough, flexible body armor

 February 10, 2012



http://www.gizmag.com/arapaima-piranha-proof-scales/21419/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

 The Arapaima's "hard on the outside but pliable underneath" strategy is employed by a number of organisms, that need to be agile while remaining protected. Meyers believes the principle could find use in flexible ceramics, that could in turn be applied not only to soldiers' body armor, but also fuel cells, insulation or aerospace technology.

 Here's a question - if piranhas are so ferocious and will attack anything, why aren't they the only fish in the Amazon? Well, in some cases, it's because other fish possess bite-proof armor. The 300-pound (136-kg) Arapaima is just such a fish. In the dry season, when water levels get low, Arapaima are forced to share relatively small bodies of water with piranhas. Their tough-but-flexible scales, however, allow them to remain unharmed. A scientist from the University of California, San Diego is now taking a closer look at those scales, with an eye towards applying their secrets to human technology such as body armor.

------------


Super-tough glass based on mollusk shells


January 29, 2014



In the future, if you drop a glass on the floor and it doesn't break, thank a mollusk. Inspired by shellfish, scientists at Montreal's McGill University have devised a new process that drastically increases the toughness of glass. When dropped, items made using the technology would be more likely to deform than to shatter.

http://www.gizmag.com/mollusk-nacre-tougher-glass/30654/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-------------


Tough-as-nails ceramic inspired by mother-of-pearl

 March 25, 2014



 http://www.gizmag.com/mother-of-pearl-nacre-ceramic/31367/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

Although you may know it simply as the shiny iridescent stuff on the inside of mollusk shells, mother-of-pearl (or nacre) is a remarkable material. It allows those shells, which otherwise consist almost entirely of brittle calcium carbonate, to stand up to the abuses of life in the sea. Now, a team led by the Laboratoire de Synthèse et Fonctionnalisation des Céramiques (CNRS) in Paris, has copied the structure of nacre to create a ceramic material that's almost 10 times stronger than conventional ceramics.
Natural nacre consists of layers of microscopic tablet-like blocks, that have wavy edges not unlike jig-saw puzzle pieces. This means that when the material is subjected to mechanical stress, any cracks that start to form in the boundary lines between the tablets have to follow a very circuitous route. As a result, all but the largest cracks simply just peter out.
Scientists at Montreal's McGill University recently created super-strong glass, by etching nacre boundary line-like cracks in glass microscope slides. The CNRS team, however, took a different approach with the ceramic.
They started with a ceramic powder, made up of microscopic alumina platelets. That powder was suspended in water, and the resulting solution was then frozen. The ice crystallization process caused the platelets to self-assemble into stacks, the boundaries between which were similar to the wavy boundaries between nacre tablets. A high-temperature process was then used to increase the density of the material, thus removing the water.
In lab tests of the resulting ceramic, it was found that cracks had great difficulty spreading through it – as is the case with real nacre.
Additionally, the scientists state that the process should work with any type of ceramic powder (not just alumina), and it should be easy to scale up to industrial production levels. Besides simply making existing types of ceramic items stronger, the technology could also allow them to stay at the same strength, but be made much smaller.



-------




Study shows how calcium carbonate forms composites to make strong materials such as in shells and pearls

January 8, 2016




Seashells and lobster claws are hard to break, but chalk is soft enough to draw on sidewalks. Though all three are made of calcium carbonate crystals, the hard materials include clumps of soft biological matter that make them much stronger. A study today in Nature Communications reveals how soft clumps get into crystals and endow them with remarkable strength.


http://phys.org/news/2016-01-calcium-carbonate-composites-strong-materials.html#nRlv

------------

Mantis shrimp may hold the secret to lighter, tougher body armors

  June 9, 2012

 

 

 The mantis shrimp is a fascinating creature that has the ability to punch its prey into submission with a club that accelerates underwater at around 10,400 g (102,000 m/s2). By studying the secrets behind this formidable weapon, a Californian researcher hopes to develop an innovative, hi-tech material that is one third the weight and thickness of existing body armor.

http://www.gizmag.com/mantis-shrimp-body-armor/22873/

---------------

MIT breakthrough could lead to paper-thin bullet-proof armor

  November 12, 2012



 Scientists have theorized that paper-thin composite nanomaterials could stop bullets just as effectively as heavy weight body armor, but progress has been hampered by their inability to reliably test such materials against projectile impacts. Researchers at MIT and Rice University have developed a breakthrough stress-test that fires microscopic glass beads at impact-absorbing material. Although the projectiles are much smaller than a bullet, the experimental results could be scaled up to predict how the material would stand up to larger impacts.

 http://www.gizmag.com/mit-breakthrough-paper-thin-bullet-proof-armor/24971/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


--------



Engineers create new nano-fiber tougher than Kevlar

December 7, 2010



A new high performance fiber that is better at absorbing energy without breaking than Kevlar has been created by the U.S Department of Defence. While still under development, the material could be used in bulletproof vests, parachutes, or in composite materials for vehicles, airplanes and satellites in the future. The fiber has been engineered from carbon nanotubes spun into a yarn and held together using a polymer. The resultant material is tough and strong while still remaining flexible.

 http://www.gizmag.com/new-nano-fiber-tougher-than-kevlar/17203/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------


Wood pulp extract stronger than carbon fiber or Kevlar

 September 3, 2012



 http://www.gizmag.com/cellulose-nanocrystals-stronger-carbon-fiber-kevlar/23959/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

The Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service has opened a US$1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) from wood by-products materials such as wood chips and sawdust. Prepared properly, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon fibers, so that putting CNC into composite materials results in high strength, low weight products. In addition, the cost of CNCs is less than ten percent of the cost of Kevlar fiber or carbon fiber. These qualities have attracted the interest of the military for use in lightweight armor and ballistic glass (CNCs are transparent), as well as companies in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, and medical industries.

-----------------

Graphene could find use in lightweight ballistic body armor

December 1st, 2014




While graphene is already known for being the world's strongest material, most studies have focused on its tensile strength – that's the maximum stress that it can withstand while being pulled or stretched, before failing. According to studies conducted at Houston's Rice University, however, its ability to absorb sudden impacts hadn't previously been thoroughly explored. As it turns out, the material is 10 times better than steel at dissipating kinetic energy. That could make it an excellent choice for lightweight ballistic body armor.

http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-bulletproof-armor/35004/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------------

Carbyne is stronger than any known material

August 20, 2013 
 
 
 A paper on Arxiv presents a detailed look at the properties of carbyne, stronger than graphene and diamond, a true supermaterial. The paper is titled, "Carbyne from first principles: Chain of C atoms, a nanorod or a nanorope?" Authors are Mingjie Liu, Vasilii I. Artyukhov, Hoonkyung Lee, Fangbo Xu, and Boris I. Yakobson, from Rice University, in Houston, from the departments of mechanical engineering and materials science, chemistry, and the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. They have calculated the properties of carbyne. Described as a chain of carbon atoms that are linked by alternate triple and single bonds or by consecutive double bonds, carbyne is of special interest, chemists find, because it is stronger, and stiffer than anything that they have seen before. The discovery of carbyne is not entirely new. Explorations of carbyne have their own history.
 http://phys.org/news/2013-08-carbyne-stronger-material.html
------------------


DARPA seeks high-tech alternatives to armor

August 20, 2014



As a quick visit to any armored division will make obvious, tanks are big ... really big. A Challenger 2 main battle tank, for example, weighs 62.5 tonnes (68.9 tons) and costs about £4.2 million (US$7 million). And as anti-tank weapons get better, tanks can only get bigger. To avoid armies of tomorrow having to pay for land-going battleships, DARPA’s Ground X-Vehicle Technology (GXV-T) program aims at developing lighter, more agile successors to the tank that protect themselves with more than ever-thicker walls of steel.

http://www.gizmag.com/darpa-gxv-t-tank-armor/33404/

----------------



Liquid metal could be used to create morphing electronics

 September 21, 2014 
 
 
 http://www.gizmag.com/liquid-metal-morphing-electronics/33836/
Who could forget the scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day where the shape-shifting T-1000 reassembles itself from thousands of blobs of molten metal? Researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU) have taken the first steps to such science fiction becoming reality by developing a way to control the surface tension of liquid metals with the application of very low voltages. This may offer opportunities in a new field of morphing electronic circuits, self-healing electronics, or – one day – maybe even self-assembling terminator-style robots.

The liquid metal used by the researchers was an alloy of gallium and indium. Gallium is liquid just above room temperature at about 29° C (84° F), while Indium has a much higher melting point at around 156° C (312° F), yet when mixed together, they form an alloy that is liquid at room temperature. In other words, a eutectic alloy – one that is composed of metals with disparate melting points that, when combined, melt as a whole at a specific temperature.

Another important aspect of this eutectic alloy, and one that the researchers sought to exploit in their experiments, is its exceptionally high surface tension of approximately 500 millinewtons per meter (mN/m). The consequence of this is that a blob of this alloy resting on a surface will tend to form an almost spherical ball and hold its shape if undisturbed...



--------------

Squid inspires camouflaging smart materials

June 15, 2015



 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-squid-camouflaging-smart-materials.html

Three prototype artificial cephalopod chromatophores are shown in unactuated states. The chromatophores are made from dielectric elastomer using tape coated with black carbon grease electrodes.

- The researchers have shown the artificial skin, made from electroactive dielectric elastomer, a soft, compliant smart material, can effectively copy the action of biological chromatophores. Chromatophores are small pigmented cells embedded on cephalopods skin which can expand and contract and that work together to change skin colour and texture.

The system achieves the dynamic pattern generation by using simple local rules in the artificial chromatophore cells, so that they can sense their surroundings and manipulate their change. By modelling sets of artificial chromatophores in linear arrays of cells, the researchers explored whether the system was capable of producing a variety of patterns...



----

Bacterial Armor Holds Clues for Self-Assembling Nanostructures

 February 11, 2015



 Imagine thousands of copies of a single protein organizing into a coat of chainmail armor that protects the wearer from harsh and ever-changing environmental conditions. That is the case for many microorganisms. In a new study, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have uncovered key details in this natural process that can be used for the self-assembly of nanomaterials into complex two- and three-dimensional structures.


Caroline Ajo-Franklin, a chemist and synthetic biologist at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, led this study in which high-throughput light scattering measurements were used to investigate the self-assembly of 2D nanosheets from a common bacterial surface layer (S-layer) protein. This protein, called “SbpA,” forms the protective armor for Lysinibacillus sphaericus, a soil bacterium used as a toxin to control mosquitoes. Their investigation revealed that calcium ions play a key role in how this armor assembles. Two key roles actually.
“Calcium ions not only trigger the folding of the protein into the correct shape for nanosheet formation, but also serve to bind the nanosheets together,” Ajo-Franklin says. “By establishing and using light scattering as a proxy for SbpA nanosheet formation, we were able to determine how varying the concentrations of calcium ions and SbpA affects the size and shape of the S-layer armor.”

 http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2015/02/11/bacterial-armor/

--------------


Mesospheres in nano-armor:

Copyright © 2009

 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002197970901090X



-----------------



Lightweight metal foam turns armor-piercing bullets into dust

 April 10, 2016

 http://newatlas.com/metal-foam-bullets/42731/

--------------


Sweden Invents a Revolutionary Anti Bullet Wall, Saab Barracuda Soft Armour


 Oct 23, 2014



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuQOmOBayBA




---------------------



Hypersonic Vibrations of Ag@SiO2 (Cubic Core)−Shell Nanospheres

Copyright © 2010



http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn102581g


--------

Liquid Armor

 2009



 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYIWfn2Jz2g

--------


Liquid Armor


 2012



 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6md1wgyo3Ik


-----

How Liquid Body Armor Works




http://science.howstuffworks.com/liquid-body-armor1.htm

- The fluid used in body armor is made of silica particles suspended in polyethylene glycol. Silica is a component of sand and quartz, and polyethylene glycol is a polymer commonly used in laxatives and lubricants. The silica particles are only a few nanometers in diameter, so many reports describe this fluid as a form of nanotechnology.

To make liquid body armor using shear-thickening fluid, researchers first dilute the fluid in ethanol. They saturate the Kevlar with the diluted fluid and place it in an oven to evaporate the ethanol. The STF then permeates the Kevlar, and the Kevlar strands hold the particle-filled fluid in place. When an object strikes or stabs the Kevlar, the fluid immediately hardens, making the Kevlar stronger.





---------------------




With this new technology. It would be interesting to be able to harness energy from this device. This material could also be added to deflect certain types of lazers, including frequencies that could be blocked out by this technology.




------------


Smart Materials (4 of 5): Magneto Rheological (MR) Fluid

 May 30, 2011



 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBXQ-6uI8GY&list=PLQoTHqAEU9OSjWhEvxWS5PIka1lSQrEZ8&index=4


---------

Smart materials (2 of 5): Battle Jacket, Self-healing protective coating

 May 30, 2011



 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6qHY1H6piE&index=2&list=PLQoTHqAEU9OSjWhEvxWS5PIka1lSQrEZ8

-----------

With new technology, we can even make tanks go invisible to the eye.

-------

Obrum ADVANCED STEALTH Main Battle Tank Marketing video NEW challenger to abrams and merkava tank



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-LupA0YkeU

-------------


Quantum Stealth material designed to make target invisible

December 16, 2012 
 
 
 Scientists are exploring better methods of camouflage, a so-called scientific invisibility cloak, and news has spread fast about a Canadian company with substantial claims on how far they have come with camouflage technology. The company, HyperStealth Biotechnology, has developed Quantum Stealth camouflage material, which renders its wearers invisible by bending light waves around them. Their work has obvious implications for the defense industry. How can the enemy hit targets they cannot see or defend themselves from attackers who are invisible? Theoretically, any soldier could put on the material and get it working with no power source required.
 http://phys.org/news/2012-12-quantum-stealth-material-invisible.html
---------------------

 With new advances in armor technology, we are able to make tanks do many different tasks, that were not possible before. This includes advanced mine sweeping tanks, to the tanks such as the Crusher.

-------

Chobham armour


 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chobham_armour




---


The problem is when you release a synthetic compound in the environment. Is that so many natural elements react with these synthetic compounds differently. It would take years of research to find out many of these different natural compounds would react, when introduced to synthetic fibers. This also includes other synthetic compounds, such as pesticides and genetically modified organisms. This is why I have stated that we need to take a step back for a moment on much of the genetic modification being done in food. This also includes other nano and bio-technology research in all fields of genetic modification.



----------------------


----------------
----------------




Chapter 3: Sustainable materials & fibers

----------------
----------------



---------------------



When we see many of the toxins, in everyday consumer items. Currently, many plastics out on the market, including synthetic fibers, have problems coexisting and biodegrading properly, in the wilderness.

This is why we need sustainable sources, in order to create sustainable materials. Materials that can be used in clothing, shoes, fibers,  plastics, including any material for consumer items. 


We can make organic linen from flax, including hemp for fiber.

We can create tencel fiber, for clothing, from birch trees, including eucalyptus trees. It is debated, the impact that many types of tencel, including plastics made from plant material, could have on the environment. Many question if there is a more environmentally friendly version of tencel.
We are already putting a lot of stress on many of the forests of the world, for harvesting resources. Whenever we harvest too many resources from the environment, it can cause problems.There is a sustainable way, to harvest trees from the forests. However, currently tree harvesting around the world, has been causing problems, with different habitats.

We can even use banana fiber, including coconut fiber, for making clothing.

We can even use grass, as a sustainable source for making baskets. An example would be alaffia grass baskets.

Cork leather, including seaweed leather, could be sustainable materials, for mass-producing materials used for clothing and fibers.

Many endangered animals are often killed, or mistakenly hunted, just to make fur and leather, from endangered or rare animals.

This is why many think we need to limit different animal products, including leather, and replace them with plant fibers such as hemp, including kelp fiber. 


Many say that silk, is also a sustainable fiber. Some groups debate the ethical standards, in some ways that some silk is harvested.

It is debated if we should use animal leather by many. I believe that leather from animals, should be used for limited items. When Natives would harvest a deer, they could make goods out of the leather and bones. It would be considered a waste, if you did not use all of the animal, for survival.

Leather biodegrades and does not harm the environment.
We should stop mass-producing leather so much, by killing too many animals.
 Many people think that it has become an excess, of the amount of animals that are being harvested and being killed, just for their fur or leather. Many people these days want to wear leather, just to avoid synthetic fibers.


Current artificial leather on the market, contains harmful chemicals. This includes PVC leather.

Even if we make an eco-friendly version of leather, such as seaweed leather. We must question the types of chemicals going into these materials, to make these types of human-made materials.

---------------


Dutch Students Make Leather from Fruit Waste

 



They developed a method to produce a new material from the fruit and vegetable left-overs. As the name of the initiative suggests, the new material is called “fruit leather“, and it is created by processing spoiled biological plant waste. This new type of vegan leather can be used to make all sorts of products, from handbags to furniture, and it can potentially have the same quality as its animal ancestor after a few more improvements are made.

The young designers have not yet released their precise method, I am guessing because of a patent or a possibility for commercializing the product, but in general it involves cleaning, mashing, boiling and then drying of the waste.

---------------

As a researcher, I even see the problems in many clothing out on the market.

Even many types of clothing, that's labeled as organic, is not fully organic, or biodegradable. Many shirts labeled as organic cotton, still contain synthetic dyes on the organic cotton, including synthetic poly material used for stitching, including the printed images on the shirt. Kapok is another good natural fiber that can be used for certain applications that cotton can be used for.

This is why when searching for organic clothing. The best quality grades of clothing, is the type of organic fabric that is used. The type of organic dye that is used. This includes the type of organic stitching that is used. Even the grade of metal or material ( coconut buttons, wood buttons, stones, bone, etc ), that is used for making buttons.


 We need to make all clothing non-toxic for humans, including on how this material biodegrades in the environment. No one should have the chance to harm themselves, just from putting on an article of clothing. Everyone has the right to wear non-toxic clothing.


==================================


Making clothes out of gelatin could reduce agricultural waste

June 24, 2015

 

 From gummy bears to silky mousses, gelatin is essential for making some of our favorite sweets. Now scientists are exploring another use for the common food ingredient: spinning it into yarn so it can be made into clothing. And because gelatin comes from livestock by-products, the new technique would provide an additional use for agricultural leftovers. The report appears in the ACS journal Biomacromolecules.

More than a century ago, the textile industry started using protein fibers from animals and vegetables such as casein from milk and zein from corn to make new kinds of fabrics. But synthetic fibers derived from petroleum products boomed and quickly eclipsed those efforts. Now, as consumers search for "greener" products, scientists have revived the idea of making fabrics from animal and plant proteins. Wendelin J. Stark and colleagues decided to try spinning yarn out of gelatin, which comes from collagen, an abundant protein in livestock by-products.

The researchers spun filaments of gelatin, twisted them into a yarn and then treated it with gaseous formaldehyde and lanolin (wool grease) to make it water-resistant. The resulting yarn was about as strong as a strand of merino wool. It was also just as warm when knitted into a glove.



 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-gelatin-agricultural.html#jCp


------------

With genetically modified soybeans in the industry, from companies such as Monsanto. These companies try to use this technology, to create plastics, including bacteria from soy.

Some think that it is not ethical, to use bacteria made from genetically modified soy, to make clothing for people. The main reason, is that the scientific community believes that these versions of GMO soy plants, were not properly tested in the environment.
This also includes using different bacteria, including genetically modified bacteria, for the use in clothing.

--------

MIT group explores bacteria use for comfort wear

October 30, 2015

 Now they are using the bacteria in a new way—it becomes a nanoactuator that expands and shrinks based on atmospheric moisture or the sweat of the skin. As Gizmodo wrote, the team was interested in the possibilities: "if natto's expansion and contraction could be carefully calibrated, perhaps it could act more like a machine than an unpredictable organism. Perhaps it could act more like an actuator."
The team said, "We introduce a specific type of living cells as nanoactuators that react to body temperature and humidity change. The living nanoactuator can be controlled by electrical signal and communicate with the virtual world as well." A digital printing system and design simulation software were developed too.

http://techxplore.com/news/2015-10-mit-group-explores-bacteria-comfort.html

-------------------------------------


I remember growing up. I remember someone mentioning on the radio, how part of the government mentioned, that they wanted to ban many types of plastics, nylons and synthetic chemicals. This would include devices that emit extra carbon. This was mentioned in the 1990s. The person that mentioned this on the radio, sounded somewhat upset about this. They made it sound like, the government was going to shutdown a lot of fun activities.


This would include anything from many types of cars, and vehicles.

If we had vehicles, including underground trains that ran off of hydrogen or sustainable energy, and had organic and biodegradable frames, including bio-polymers, we could have sustainable vehicles. When we see the amount of vehicles in the world, cars, boats planes, we can see that this is a lot of fiberglass and plastic that we have introduced into this world.


-----------

 What do we do about many chemicals used in industrial products.

Many current technologies in consumer items, rely on synthetic materials, for performance.

For example, everything from fiberglass for better performance in cars, boats and motorcycles. This creates a lighter vehicle over stainless steel. However, we know that fiberglass is harmful for the environment, including the people working on manufacturing of the fiberglass. It appears that even handling fiberglass, could cause harm, over extended periods of time.

What we need, is something similar to an organic orgonite compound, for making types of fiberglass.  What we would need to make sure, is that we could make an environmentally friendly epoxy, including bio-based poly materials, for constructing materials similar to fiberglass. There could even be better methods of making materials, than known to the public currently.


------------

A better board: Glassing with a Bio-Based Epoxy Resin

July 19 2012



http://www.surfrider.org/jims-blog/entry/a-better-board-non-toxic-glassing


------------------

How to Make Orgonite

http://www.orgonite.info/how-to-make-orgonite.html

Basic orgonite is simply fiberglass resin, metal shavings and a quartz crystal, cured in any mold you like. There's no one "right" shape or size for orgonite, and its range of effect seems to scale linearly with volume, but there are specific, time-tested, widely-used and repeatedly-confirmed effective designs for both personal and field devices which have grown and continue to grow out of the steadfast work of talented and dedicated gifters from around the world.



---------------


With new technology, we are able to make alloys stronger, and lighter.

--------------

New high-volume joining process expands use of aluminum in autos

 

May 12, 2015
 Researchers have demonstrated a new process for the expanded use of lightweight aluminum in cars and trucks at the speed, scale, quality and consistency required by the auto industry. The process reduces production time and costs while yielding strong and lightweight parts, for example delivering a car door that is 62 percent lighter and 25 percent cheaper than that produced with today's manufacturing methods.


 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-high-volume-aluminum-autos.html#jCp


----------------------

Exceptionally strong and lightweight new metal created
 






December 23, 2015 
 
 A team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has created a super-strong yet light structural metal with extremely high specific strength and modulus, or stiffness-to-weight ratio. The new metal is composed of magnesium infused with a dense and even dispersal of ceramic silicon carbide nanoparticles. It could be used to make lighter airplanes, spacecraft, and cars, helping to improve fuel efficiency, as well as in mobile electronics and biomedical devices.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-exceptionally-strong-lightweight-metal.html#jCp


-------------


 We can also create metals that can float on water.



 -------------



A metal composite that will (literally) float your boat






May 12, 2015 
 
Researchers have demonstrated a new metal matrix composite that is so light that it can float on water. A boat made of such lightweight composites will not sink despite damage to its structure. The new material also promises to improve automotive fuel economy because it combines light weight with heat resistance.


http://phys.org/news/2015-05-metal-composite-literally-boat.html#jCp


--------------

We need to be certain that we do not add more hazardous chemicals, into the environment. 


----------------------

----------------
----------------



Chapter 4: Sustainable Paints & coatings

----------------
----------------



---------------------

 We often look at many paints and powder coatings on the market. The people want a sustainable way, that we can use paints, including coatings for vehicles, tools, machines, medical applications, to everyday uses. When we look at natural coatings, such as crystalline coatings, to patinas. We can see, that we can look at nature, to make better and more sustainable coatings and finishes, for everyday items.





-----------------------

Patina



 Patina  is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of stone; on copper, bronze and similar metals (tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes); on wooden furniture (sheen produced by age, wear, and polishing); or any such acquired change of a surface through age and exposure. Patinas can provide a protective covering to materials that would otherwise be damaged by corrosion or weathering. They may also be aesthetically appealing.

 On metal, patina is a coating of various chemical compounds such as oxides, carbonates, sulfides, or sulfates formed on the surface during exposure to atmospheric elements (oxygen, rain, acid rain, carbon dioxide, sulfur-bearing compounds), a common example of which is rust which forms on iron or steel when exposed to oxygen. Patina also refers to accumulated changes in surface texture and colour that result from normal use of an object such as a coin or a piece of furniture over time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patina

------------



Many firearms with a thin layer of green patina, are often considered highly valuable, if the firearm still is in good condition. The reason for this, is that the firearm can last for a very long time, once a layer of green patina collects on a firearm. This means that the firearm could be preserved for many hundreds of years, with the patina now protecting the metal from accelerated rust. 

Some question if we could improve this type of natural technology, for certain types of natural finishes for paints and powder coatings.



----------------

Copper in architecture




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_in_architecture#Finishes
----------------




Graphene layer could quadruple rate of condensation heat transfer in generating plants

Jun 01, 2015



Most of the world's electricity-producing power plants—whether powered by coal, natural gas, or nuclear fission—make electricity by generating steam that turns a turbine. That steam then is condensed back to water, and the cycle begins again.

But the condensers that collect the steam are quite inefficient, and improving them could make a big difference in overall power plant efficiency.

Now, a team of researchers at MIT has developed a way of coating these condenser surfaces with a layer of graphene, just one atom thick, and found that this can improve the rate of heat transfer by a factor of four—and potentially even more than that, with further work. And unlike polymer coatings, the graphene coatings have proven to be highly durable in laboratory tests.





http://phys.org/news/2015-06-graphene-layer-quadruple-condensation.html#jCp

--------



Graphene used to rust-proof steel

  May 29, 2012



Hexavalent chromium compounds are a key ingredient in coatings used to rust-proof steel. They also happen to be carcinogenic. Researchers, therefore, have been looking for non-toxic alternatives that could be used to keep steel items from corroding. Recently, scientists from the University at Buffalo announced that they have developed such a substance. It’s a varnish that incorporates graphene, the one-atom-thick carbon sheeting material that is the thinnest and strongest substance known to exist.

http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-anti-rust-coating/22731/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


--------


Slick coating keeps steel clean and tough

October 21, 2015

When liquids stick to steel for long enough, the steel corrodes or becomes contaminated. Unfortunately, however, porous surface coatings that repel liquids also tend to make steel weaker … until now, that is. Scientists at Harvard University have recently discovered that their existing SLIPS (Slippery Liquid Porous Surfaces) technology not only causes liquids to roll right off, but it actually makes steel stronger.

Led by Prof. Joanna Aizenberg, the Harvard team utilized electrochemical deposition to apply a a surface coating of rough nanoporous tungsten oxide to small sheets of steel. This coating took the form of an utra-thin film, actually made up of hundreds of thousands of separate microscopic tungsten oxide "islands." The resulting surace roughness keeps liquid from sticking to the steel.
Additionally, because they're not connected to one another, if any of the islands are damaged by abrasion to the film, that damage stays localized instead of affecting the whole coating.


http://www.gizmag.com/slips-steel-coating/39982/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


-----------

Tin-based stanene could conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency

December 1, 2013

A team of theoretical physicists from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University is predicting that stanene, a single layer of tin atoms laid out in a two-dimensional structure, could conduct electricity with one hundred percent efficiency at room temperature. If the findings are confirmed they could pave the way for building computer chips that are faster, consume less power, and won't heat up nearly as much.
Stanene is an example of a topological insulator, a class of materials that conduct electricity only on their outside edges or surfaces. When topological insulators are just one atom thick, their edges conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency, forcing electrons to move in defined lanes, without resistance.

http://www.gizmag.com/stanene-topological-insulator/29976/



-------------

Nano Coatings

http://www.voyle.net/Nano%20Coatings/%20Nano%20Coating1.htm




------------


Many different coatings, are used for different applications. It is still debated, what is the most sustainable type of coating out there. Many people say that we should start using medical grade type coatings, for many industrial applications. It is often very expensive, to produce many types of medical grade, or sustainable type coatings.


----------

Physical vapor deposition








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_vapor_deposition

----------------------

Titanium nitride




 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_nitride

-----------------


Ion plating

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_plating

 ----------------

Ion implantation

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_implantation

 ----------------------

Indium tin oxide



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium_tin_oxide


--------------------

Cathodic arc deposition




 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathodic_arc_deposition

 -----------------------


Plasma-immersion ion implantation



 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma-immersion_ion_implantation

------------------------

Thin film




 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_film


----------------------

Thermal spraying




Several variations of thermal spraying are distinguished:
  • Plasma spraying
  • Detonation spraying
  • Wire arc spraying
  • Flame spraying
  • High velocity oxy-fuel coating spraying (HVOF)
  • Warm spraying
  • Cold spraying



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_spraying


 -----------------


People have used, zinc, to phosphate coatings. Yet, people will always try to find ways, to make different types of sustainable coatings, that last longer, and can even conduct electricity.



--------------

Transparent ceramics

Nanomaterials






It has been shown fairly recently that laser elements (amplifiers, switches, ion hosts, etc.) made from fine-grained ceramic nanomaterials—produced by the low temperature sintering of high purity nanoparticles and powders—can be produced at a relatively low cost. These components are free of internal stress or intrinsic birefringence, and allow relatively large doping levels or optimized custom-designed doping profiles. This highlights the use of ceramic nanomaterials as being particularly important for high-energy laser elements and applications.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_ceramics


--------------



New nanowire structure absorbs light efficiently

Feb 25, 2015



 Researchers at Aalto University have developed a new method to implement different types of nanowires side-by-side into a single array on a single substrate. The new technique makes it possible to use different semiconductor materials for the different types of nanowires.


 'We have succeeded in combining nanowires grown by the VLS (vapor-liquid-solid) and SAE (selective-area epitaxy) techniques onto the same platform. The difference compared with studies conducted previously on the same topic is that in the dual-type array the different materials do not grow in the same nanowire, but rather as separate wires on the same substrate', says Docent Teppo Huhtio.

The research results were published in the Nano Letters journal on 5 February 2015.



The new fabrication process has many phases. First, gold nanoparticles are spread on a substrate. Next, the substrate is coated with silicon oxide, into which small holes are then patterned using electron beam lithography. In the first step of growth, (SAE), nanowires grow from where the holes are located, after which the silicon oxide is removed. In the second phase different types of nanowires are grown with the help of the gold nanoparticles (VLS). The researchers used metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy reactor in which the starting materials decompose at a high temperature, forming semiconductor compounds on the substrate.

'In this way we managed to combine two growth methods into the same process', says doctoral candidate Joona-Pekko Kakko.




'We noticed in optical reflection measurements that light couples better to this kind of combination structure. For instance, a solar cell has less reflection and better absorption of light', Huhtio adds.

In addition to solar cells and LEDs, the researchers also see good applications in thermoelectric generators.  Further processing for component applications has already begun.

Nanowires are being intensely researched, because semiconductor components that are currently in use need to be made smaller and more cost-effective. The nanowires made out of semiconductor materials are typically 1-10 micrometres in length, with diameters of 5-100 nanometres.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-nanowire-absorbs-efficiently.html#jCp



 ------------

 Calculations reveal how mixtures of different elements can control the thermal properties of nanowires

Apr  2015



A mathematical model of heat flow through miniature wires could help develop thermoelectric devices that efficiently convert heat—even their own waste heat—into electricity.



Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-reveal-mixtures-elements-thermal-properties.html#jCp


-------------


Stretchable ceramics made by flame technology

 June 8th, 2015



 Synthesizing nanoscale materials takes place within high-tech laboratories, where scientists in full-body suits keep every grain of dust away from their sensitive innovations. However, scientists at Kiel University proved that this is not always necessary. They have successfully been able to transfer the experience from furnace to laboratory while synthesizing nanoscale materials using simple and highly efficient flame technology. This "baking" of nanostructures has already been a great success using zinc oxide. The recent findings concentrate on tin oxide, which opens up a wide field of possible new applications. The material scientists published their latest research data in today's issue (Friday, 5 June) of the renowned scientific journal Advanced Electronic Materials.

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-stretchable-ceramics-flame-technology.html#jCp



-----------------


New Iron-Based Material Could Be The Best High Temperature Superconductor



 http://www.greenoptimistic.com/new-iron-based-material-could-be-the-best-high-temperature-superconductor-20100120/#.VSFdkeG-2zk

--------------



Team announces breakthrough observation of Mott transition in a superconductor

September 11, 2015


An international team of researchers, including the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Twente in The Netherlands and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, announced today in Science the observation of a dynamic Mott transition in a superconductor.

The discovery experimentally connects the worlds of classical and quantum mechanics and illuminates the mysterious nature of the Mott transition. It also could shed light on non-equilibrium physics, which is poorly understood but governs most of what occurs in our world. The finding may also represent a step towards more efficient electronics based on the Mott transition.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-team-breakthrough-mott-transition-superconductor.html#jCp





-----------------
















































Quantum scientists break aluminium 'monopoly' (Update)

May 25, 2015 
 
 
 A Majorana fermion, or a Majorana particle, is a fermion that is its own antiparticle. Discovering the Majorana was the first step, but utilizing it as a quantum bit (qubit) still remains a major challenge. An important step towards this goal has just been taken by researchers from TU Delft in today's issue of Nature Physics. It is a nearly thirty-year-old scientific problem that has just been resolved: demonstrating the difference between the even and odd occupation of a superconductor in high magnetic fields. Thus far, this was only possible in aluminium, which is incompatible with Majoranas. This result enables the read out and manipulation of quantum states encoded in prospective Majorana qubits.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-monopoly-aluminium-broken.html#ajTabs


------------------


Superconductor breaks high-temperature record

Iron-based crystal regains conducting properties under pressure.


 22 February 2012



http://www.nature.com/news/superconductor-breaks-high-temperature-record-1.10081

-------

 New microfiber emitters boost production of versatile fibers fourfold, cut energy consumption by 92 percent
Jun 05, 2015



 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-microfiber-emitters-boost-production-versatile.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu



----------------------

----------------
----------------



Chapter 5: Plastics & Polymer technology



----------------
----------------



---------------------

We can see the problems with many consumer items not being able to biodegrade properly. We need new type of sustainable bio-cellulose and silicone.


--------------------------


Scientists Discover New Rock Made From Human Plastic Waste and Ocean Debris

06/08/14


Just in time for World Environment Day, Canadian scientists have announced the discovery of a new type of rock made from the scraps of melted plastic waste and ocean debris. According to researchers at the University of Western Ontario, this new material, known as plastiglomerate, is formed when melted plastic waste on beaches mixes with sediment, lava fragments and organic debris. These virtually indestructible plastiglomerates may become part of the Earth’s geologic record forever and could one day act as a sad geological marker for humanity’s impact on the planet.

http://inhabitat.com/scientists-discover-new-rock-made-from-human-plastic-waste-and-ocean-debris/



-------------------


 Some organisations are against the mass-production of any types of plastics, that could be  introduced into the environment.

 ------

Turning poop into plastic at Paris climate talks

December 13, 2015 
 A small piece of dung was on proud display at global climate-saving talks in Paris, just a few steps away from being transformed into a plastic bottle or fuel for a car.

Along with scraps from slaughterhouses and dinner tables, it is the raw material for an innovative process to turn waste into a range of new products.

"This is the third Industrial Revolution. It changes the world from using oil products to using biomass," Regis Nouaille, founder of biotech startup Afyren, told AFP at the UN conference where 195 nations agreed a historic climate rescue pact.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-poop-plastic-paris-climate.html

---------------------------

Eight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year

 February 13, 2015
It's equal to five grocery bags per every foot of coastline around the globe, says new study.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150212-ocean-debris-plastic-garbage-patches-science/

---------------------

Plastic Water Bottles: Harmful to the Ocean, Air, and You


http://www.algalita.org/plastic-water-bottles-harmful-to-the-ocean-air-and-you/

----------------------


Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea


 December 10, 2014

 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913

-----------------------

The Great Plastic Tide

http://coastalcare.org/2009/11/plastic-pollution/



---------------------

This solar water wheel could be the solution to plastic ocean debris


 July 30, 2014

As much as we love highlighting new and interesting technologies, sometimes old technologies prove to be the best. This is definitely the case in Baltimore where a giant water wheel is removing tons of trash every day from the water, keeping it from ending up in the ocean. This centuries-old technology is quickly becoming the best solution yet for keeping plastic out of the oceans.

 http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/solar-water-wheel-could-be-solution-plastic-ocean-debris.html



-----------------------




Japanese Scientists Create World’s First Renewable, Bio-Based Polyester


http://www.ecouterre.com/japanese-scientists-create-worlds-first-renewable-bio-based-polyester/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New developments and investments foreseen in bio-based polymer production by 2020 in Europe

http://www.plastemart.com/Plastic-Technical-Article.asp?LiteratureID=1999&Paper=new-developments-investments-in-bio-based-polymer-production-by-2020-in-europe



 Europe’s current position in producing bio-based polymers is limited to a few polymers. However, new developments and investments are foreseen: the first European industrial-scale PLA plant by 2014, the introduction of PET production facilities by 2015, recent developments in the commercialization of bio-based PBT and further advancements in the field of high-value fine chemicals for PA, PUR and thermosets production. Although Europe shows a strong demand for bio-based polymers, production tends to take place elsewhere-largely the consequence of an unfavourable political framework for the industrial material use of biomass.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Cellulose-Based Bio- and Nanocomposites: A Review

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijps/2011/837875/

Cellulose macro- and nanofibers have gained increasing attention due to the high
strength and stiffness, biodegradability and renewability, and their production and
application in development of composites. Application of cellulose nanofibers for the development of composites is a relatively new research area. Cellulose macro- and nanofibers can be used as reinforcement in composite materials because of enhanced mechanical, thermal, and biodegradation properties of composites. Cellulose fibers are hydrophilic in nature, so it becomes necessary to increase their surface roughness for the development of composites with enhanced properties. In the present paper, we have reviewed the surface modification of cellulose fibers by various methods. Processing methods, properties, and various applications of nanocellulose and cellulosic composites are also discussed in this paper.


---------------------------------------------------------------------


Improvement of plant based natural fibers for toughening green composites

http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/elsevier/improvement-of-plant-based-natural-fibers-for-toughening-green-1WjKrnx3tZ

--------------------------------------------------------------------

ARCHIVED - Lighter, Stronger, "Greener" Plastics



For several years, the NRC-IMI team has been perfecting techniques involving the use of clay nanoparticles to create new nanocomposite plastics. Nanocomposites have been proven to dramatically increase the strength of polymer materials. Just last year, NRC-IMI launched a joint industry partnership group focused on nanocomposites to further explore the use of such materials. It is hoped that nanoclays will add critical strength to already lightweight foamed materials. As well, nanoparticles have been shown to enhance the growth of foam cells, a process known as nucleation. In the past year, a NRC-ICPET research team, in collaboration with University of Ottawa, became the second group in the world to publish results on the fundamental interaction of CO2 with nanocomposites - an emerging area of study.


http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/achievements/highlights/2005/polymer_foams.html




------------------------------------



Cellulose Nanopaper – Strong, Light and Green Alternative to Metals

 

 New paper-like material made of cellulose is much stronger than metal, and could one day replace it.
Alternative eco-friendly materials that can replace metals are of high demand. The reasons behind this are many, including polluting mining processes, expensive manufacturing of products made of metals, and of course, the need of making everything lighter yet still tough and strong.

 http://www.greenoptimistic.com/cellulose-nanopaper/#.Ve-vFJe-2zk

----------------------------

A green and efficient method for preparing acetylated cassava stillage residue and the production of all-plant fibre composites



 Cassava stillage residue (CSR), a kind of agro-industrial plant fibres, was directly acetylated and converted into thermoplastic material by mechanical activation-assisted solid phase reaction (MASPR) in a stirring ball mill without the use of organic solvent and additives. As combining mechanical activation and chemical modification in the same equipment, the destruction of hydrogen bonds and crystalline structure of CSR induced by intense milling improved the reactivity of CSR, leading to the effective acetylation of CSR. After acetylation by MASPR, the modified CSRs possessed thermoplasticity, ascribing to the introduction of acetyl groups and the destruction of high crystallinity structure of cellulose. The self-reinforced all-plant fibre composites (APFC) were successfully produced with the modified CSRs as both matrix and reinforcement by hot pressing technology. The direct acetylation of CSR and successful production of APFC suggested that MASPR was a simple, efficient and environmentally friendly method for chemical modification of agro-industrial lignocellulose biomass.



http://www.researchgate.net/publication/264981183_A_green_and_efficient_method_for_preparing_acetylated_cassava_stillage_residue_and_the_production_of_all-plant_fibre_composites
-------------------------------------



Progress in bio-based plastics and plasticizing modifications



Over the coming few decades bioplastic materials are expected to complement and gradually replace some of the fossil oil based materials. Multidisciplinary research efforts have generated a significant level of technical and commercial success towards these bio-based materials. However, extensive application of these bio-based plastics is still challenged by one or more of their possible inherent limitations, such as poor processability, brittleness, hydrophilicity, poor moisture and gas barrier, inferior compatibility, poor electrical, thermal and physical properties. The incorporation of additives such as plasticizers into the biopolymers is a common practice to improve these inherent limitations. Generally, plasticizers are added to both synthetic and bio-based polymeric materials to impart flexibility, improve toughness, and lower the glass transition temperature. This review introduces the most common bio-based plastics and provides an overview of recent advances in the selection and use of plasticizers, and their effect on the performance of these materials. In addition to plasticizers, we also present a perspective of other emerging techniques of improving the overall performance of bio-based plastics. Although a wide variety of bio-based plastics are under development, this review focuses on plasticizers utilized for the most extensively studied bioplastics including poly(lactic acid), polyhydroxyalkanoates, thermoplastic starch, proteinaceous plastics and cellulose acetates. The ongoing challenge and future potentials of plasticizers for bio-based plastics are also discussed.


 http://www.researchgate.net/publication/264614759_Progress_in_bio-based_plastics_and_plasticizing_modifications

---------------------------------------

Effect of biodegradable plasticizers on thermal and mechanical properties of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)



The effects of biodegradable plasticizers on the thermal and mechanical properties of poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) were studied using thermal and mechanical analyses. Soybean oil (SO), epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and triethyl citrate (TEC) were used as plasticizing additives. PHBV/plasticizer blends were prepared by evaporating solvent from blend solutions. The content of plasticizer in the blends was kept at 20wt%. Compatibility of plasticizer with PHBV was examined with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). DPB and TEC were more effective than soybean oils (SO and ESO) in depression of the glass transition temperatures as well as in increasing the elongation at break and the impact strength of the films. From the thermal and mechanical properties of the plasticized PHBV, it could be concluded that TEC or DBP are better plasticizers than SO and ESO for PHBV.



http://www.researchgate.net/publication/232382906_Effect_of_biodegradable_plasticizers_on_thermal_and_mechanical_properties_of_poly%283-hydroxybutyrate%29

---------------------------------------

IBM discovers first new class of polymers in decades

 May 15, 2014



http://www.gizmag.com/ibm-polymer-discovery-plastic/32088/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

 The IBM polymers consist of two related classes of plastic materials. They’re formed by combining paraformaldehyde and 4,4ʹ-oxydianiline in what’s called a condensation reaction. When heated to 250⁰ C (482⁰ F) the material becomes very strong as covalent bonds form and the solvent is forced out, forming the first of two versions of the polymer. Both versions are highly elastic, resistant to solvents, and are recyclable. One version can even self-heal.

These polymers also show new physical properties. The first version is lightweight, stiff, resistant to cracking, shows more strength than bone, and can also turned into new polymer structures with half again as much strength. However, it is very brittle, like glass. When mixed with carbon nanofibers and heated, it forms an extremely strong, lightweight composite material that is similar to metal, yet has a degree of self-healing when cracked.



---------------


Characteristics of biodegradable polylactide/gelatinized starch films: Effects of starch, plasticizer, and compatibilizer



Polylactide (PLA) blends with 0–40 wt % gelatinized starches (GSs) in the presence of plasticizers and compatibilizer for improving interfacial bonding between two phases were prepared. The effects of compatibilizer, type and amount of starch, including type and concentration of plasticizer on the physical, morphological, thermal, and mechanical properties of these films were investigated. Two types of starch (corn and tapioca) were added as fillers, whereas the glycerol amount was varied from 0 to 35 wt % based on starch content. Polyethylene glycol (PEG400) and propylene glycol (PG) were added as plasticizers at four different amounts (5–20 wt %) based on PLA content, while methylenediphenyl diisocyanate was used as a compatibilizer at 1.25 wt % of GS. The results indicated that the presence of glycerol had no effect on the thermal degradation of GS. For PLA plasticization, the plasticized PLA with PEG400 had better properties than that with PG. Water absorption isotherm of the blend films increased as the amount of starches increased; in contrast, the tensile properties decreased progressively with the addition of the GS content. The blend films with gelatinized corn starch had higher tensile properties than those with gelatinized tapioca starch.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/app.36736/abstract
----------------------------------------------


Porous Biodegradable Starch-Based Polymer: Effects of Plasticizers on the Physical Properties


The effect of the plasticizer content (mixture of water and glycerol) on the cellular structure of the considered material and its influence on the resulting properties, such as mechanical stiffness, are investigated by means of optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry and standard mechanical testing. Adding glycerol leads to larger cell walls and smaller pores but it does not significantly affect the elastic tangent modulus and strength under compression for deformations up to 50%; only a tendency to promote elastic recovery is observed.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/masy.201300134/abstract



-----------------------------------------------


Handbook of Plasticizers

 By George Wypych


This book talks about many different types of plasticizers. This includes the simulation of different plasticizers that could be used, in the colonization of space.

Chapter 10.14 Biodegradation in the presence of plasticizers


Chapter 10.15 Crystallization, structure, and orientation of Macromolecules


Chapter 10.17 Plasticizer effect on contact with other materials


------------------------------------------------



( We should be cautious of certain plasticizers, mentioned in chapter 6, of the following report.)


-------------------------
 The Complete Book on Biodegradable Plastics and Polymers (Recent Developments, Properties, Analysis, Materials & Processes)

 By NIIR Board of Consultants & Engineers



2. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE BIOPOLYMER INDUSTRY

3. RECENT ADVANCES IN SYNTHESIS OF BIOPOLYMERS BY "TRADITIONAL" METHODS

4. POLYMERS, ENVIRONMENTALLY DEGRADABLE


5. SYNTHETIC BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS AS MEDICAL DEVICES

6. BIOBASED PACKAGING MATERIALS FOR THE FOOD INDUSTRY



 https://books.google.com/books?id=BS-hAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=biodegradable+plasticizers&source=bl&ots=bSdeUdExnq&sig=zp4tjgZOQ0lgHLNMvXuQzLtYue8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tUnYVICRPM39yQSKk4KABQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q=biodegradable%20plasticizers&f=false


-------------------------------------------------

 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE APPLICATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL (WHITE) BIOTECHNOLOGY EUROPA BIO's BIOTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION KIT

The soya bean: an important renewable resource

The soya bean has long been used to develop products ranging from foiod and diesel fuels to polymers,fabric softeners, solvents, adhesives, linoleum, rubber substitutes, printing inks, and plastics. Recent advances in recombinant genetic biotechnology have made it possible to alter the lipid composition of soya beans to increase the variety of biohydrocarbons available for industrial applications. Amides, esters and acetates of biohydrocarbons are currently used as plasticisers, blocking/slip agents and mold-release agents for synthetic polymers. Biohydrocarbons linked to amines, alcohols, phosphates and sulfur groups are used as fabric softeners, surfactants, emulsifiers, corrosion inhibitors, anti-static agents, hair conditioners, ink carriers, biodegradable solvents, cosmetic bases and perfumes. In combination with aluminum and magnesium, the soya bean is used to produce greases and marine lubricating materials.

2. Biotechnology in industrial sectors

Various parts of the industry are experimenting with the new tools offered by biotechnology. Of particular interest is the possibility of using biobased resources as feedstocks in the larger volume sectors. While biobased manufacturing will not necessarily always be cleaner, it is certain that wastes from biobased manufacturing will be more compatible with conventional wastewater treatment systems.

Pharmaceuticals

Today, many pharmaceuticals are semi-synthetic molecules, in that part of their structure is synthesised by a living organism and later modified by chemical processing. Thanks to biocatalysis optimised fermentation, and replacement of organic solvents by water, modern biotechnology contributes to cleaner production of such semi-synthetic antibiotics.

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/243514826/Intro-to-the-Applications-of-White-Biotechnology#scribd



------------------------------------------------


Bio-Based PEF Bottles to Hit Market by 2016


http://www.foodproductdesign.com/news/2013/06/bio-based-pef-bottles-to-hit-market-by-2016.aspx


------------------------------------





ITKE Constructs New ArboSkin Pavilion with 388 Recyclable Bioplastic Pyramids

by , 11/11/13

 http://inhabitat.com/itke-constructs-new-arboskin-pavilion-with-388-recyclable-bioplastic-pyramids/


--------------------------------------------------

Good plastics, bioplastics and greenwashing

Plastic is not inert

Conventional plastic contains a large number, and sometimes a large proportion, of chemical additives which can be endocrine disruptors, carcinogenic or provoke other toxic reactions and can, in principle, migrate into the environment, though in small quantities. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as pesticides like DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), can attach themselves from the surrounding water to plastic fragments which can be harmful and enter the food chain via marine fauna.


http://www.zerowasteeurope.eu/2013/06/good-plastics-bioplastics-and-greenwashing/


--------------------------------------------------



Will Bioplastics Contaminate Conventional Plastics Recycling?


http://www.sustainableplastics.org/bioplastics/issues-with-recycling



------------












































Producing plastic from seaweed

August 28th, 2014
 http://phys.org/wire-news/170671262/producing-plastic-from-seaweed.html
----------------


The Bioplastic Concept Car: Seaweed

 April 23, 2014

 http://www.conceptcarseries.com/car-news/the-bioplastic-concept-car-seaweed-by-toyota/
-----------------


New strain of seaweed tastes like bacon

 July 16, 2015

Seaweed is widely considered to be a health food. Bacon, on the other hand ... well, bacon isn't. There may yet be hope for pork belly lovers around the world, however. Scientists at Oregon State University (OSU) have patented a lab-bred strain of dulce seaweed, that they claim has "a strong bacon flavor" when fried.

http://www.gizmag.com/dulce-seaweed-bacon/38503/



------------------


'Mutarium' prototype is the perfect farm for edible plastic-eating fungi

 

 Biodegradable plastics exist because traditional ones take between 20 and 1,000 years to break down in the wild, often blocking waterways and killing animals as that all happens. That's why two industrial designers and a group of microbiologists have designed a way to break down plastic -- and create edible mushrooms in the process.

 http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/15/fungi-mutarium-plastic/

------------------

Can mushrooms replace plastic?




As it turns out, they are equally versatile outside of the food world. They can produce packaging, home insulation, fiberboard for furniture, even a surfboard.


 http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/mushrooms-new-plastic-ecovative

-------

Diaper-grown mushrooms to cut down waste

September 3, 2014

While their contents might be considered an environmental hazard by many, disposable diapers themselves pose a more significant problem for the environment. According to the EPA, the average baby will work their way through 8,000 of them before they end up in landfill where they'll take centuries to break down. In an effort to reduce the problem, scientists at Mexico's Autonomous Metropolitan University, Azcapotzalco (UAM-A), have turned used diapers to the task of growing mushrooms.

http://www.gizmag.com/diaper-grown-mushrooms/33633/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


----------

Tequila waste combined with recycled plastic to form wood substitute

 January 21, 2015



When the sap from plants such as sugar cane is extracted for commercial use, what's left over is a fibrous material known as bagasse. This is commonly used as biofuel, or is compressed into a wood substitute. Now, Mexican startup Plastinova is using agave bagasse from the tequila industry to make a wood-like material of its own, although it's also incorporating recycled plastic.

 http://www.gizmag.com/agave-bagasse-plastic-wood/35710/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget




----------

Learn how PLA Bioplastic can be recycled

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_C4x-jjZBc



------------











































Sensor detects toxins leaching from plastic

December 10, 2015
 Engineers from Massey University have developed a highly sensitive device able to detect synthetic compounds that leach from plastic food packaging into the contained food or beverage. These kind of compounds are a major health concern worldwide as they have been linked to genetic, developmental and fertility defects in humans.


Dr Asif Zia, together with Professor Subhas Mukhopadhyay, both from the School Engineering and Advanced Technology developed an electrochemical sensing system that is able to rapidly quantify a synthetic compound – di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate or DEHP for short.

DEHP is used to induce flexibility in the plastic products but, because of its molecular structure, it does not attach itself covalently to the plastic's lattice structure and may leach into the surrounding environment. It is classed as a teratogenic, or malformation causing, compound as well as an endocrine-disrupter, which interferes with the body's natural hormonal system. The World Health Organization refers concentrations of DEHP greater than six parts per billion as hazardous for human health.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-sensor-toxins-leaching-plastic.html


------------


Self-healing bioplastic – just add water

September 2, 2015

Imagine if things like undersea cables or medical implants could simply heal themselves back together if severed – it would certainly be easier than having to go in and fix them. Well, scientists at Pennsylvania State University are bringing such a possibility closer to reality. They've created a moldable polymer that heals itself when exposed to water – and it's based on squid sucker ring teeth.
Led by Prof. Melik Demirel, the researchers started by studying sucker ring teeth collected from squid in various locations around the world. Although the exact composition of the teeth varied between species, it was found that the same proteins which allow them to self-heal were always present

 http://www.gizmag.com/self-healing-bioplastic-squid/39220/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


---------------

This edible water blob could replace plastic bottles


Mar 27, 2014



 Designers Rodrigo García González, Guillaume Couche and Pierre Paslier call their creation "Ooho," a gelatinous blob that is actually a membrane that encapsulates water like a bladder. When you're thirsty, just puncture the membrane and drink. Or, if you also have an appetite, just pop a bite-sized Ooho in your mouth and chomp down for a burst of hydration. The gooey membrane, made from brown algae and calcium chloride, is edible, hygienic and biodegradable.



http://www.mnn.com/food/beverages/stories/this-edible-water-blob-could-replace-plastic-bottles


---------



Brazilian Lab Turns Fruits, Veggies Into Edible Plastic

 January 14, 2015



BRASILIA, Brazil, January 14, 2015 (ENS) – Imagine putting a pizza in the oven without having to remove the plastic casing that protects the pizza from contamination. The plastic film consists of tomatoes and, when heated, it will become part of the pizza.

This edible plastic has been developed by researchers at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Embrapa Instrumentation, a state-owned company affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture.

In fact, the researchers have made edible plastic films from foods such as spinach, papaya and guava as well as tomatoes.


http://ens-newswire.com/2015/01/14/brazilian-lab-turns-fruits-veggies-into-edible-plastic/



------------


Open for Discussion: Goodbye Plastic, Hello Edible Wrappers—or Nothing at all!



WikiCell Designs produces ultra-thin flavored membranes, called WikiCells, that surround liquids or solids shielding them from oxygen, oils, and moisture to extend their shelf life. Unlike Monosol pouches, WikiCells are washable, so the outer container can act like the skin of a fruit. You just wash and eat them.
A WikiCell is made of two sustainable layers. Eat the inner wrapping, compost the shell; no plastic is involved. The inner edible membrane, like a grape skin, is held together by intermolecular electrostatic forces. Positively charged calcium ions bind with alginate, an anionic (negatively charged) polysaccharide from brown algae (Fig. 1). The outer compostable shell is made of the residue from sugarcane crushing.

http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/past-issues/archive-2012-2013/edible-wrappers.html

--------------


Medical Device Components 2.0: The Trend Towards a Healthier, PVC-Free Alternative


System Health

If you aren’t convinced of PVC’s harmful effects in medical devices up until this point, there remains one last detriment to using this insulation powerhouse. A recent study released by Teknor Apex material science company in October 2013 determined that PVC and plasticizers alongside non-PVC components in devices can migrate when they come into contact with each other, resulting in softening, cracks, and other defects in the system. Their study tested ten different types of plasticizers, including DEHP, and determined it may have adverse effects on non-PVC plastics.

http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/1105-mdb/features/18924

--------------------------------------

The 20-Year-Old With a Plan to Rid the Sea of Plastic

 Sep 24, 2014

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmPHBhYaCR4



---------------

Company unlocks secret to making plastic out of air

 July 30, 2014



"We're not the first people to have the idea of turning greenhouse gas into plastic," Herrera said. "The thing that was missing was that no one had figured out how to do it cost-effectively."

Here's how it works: Carbon emissions are captured from farms, landfills, and energy facilities and are fed into a 50-foot-tall reactor at Newlight's plant. A bundle of enzymes strips out the carbon and oxygen and rearranges them into a substance they call air carbon.

The product is then melted down and cooled inside tubes and sliced into little plastic pellets that can be molded into anything.

Herrema calls it "a disruptive technology that's gonna change the world."

 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/company-unlocks-secret-to-making-plastic-out-of-air/


-------------------------------------

New catalyst paves way for bio-based plastics, chemicals

December 11, 2015

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-catalyst-paves-bio-based-plastics-chemicals.html

 Washington State University researchers have developed a catalyst that easily converts bio-based ethanol to a widely used industrial chemical, paving the way for more environmentally friendly, bio-based plastics and products.

The researchers have published a paper online describing the catalyst in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and have been granted a U.S. patent.

The chemical industry is interested in moving away from fossil fuels to bio-based products to reduce environmental impacts and to meet new regulations for sustainability, said Yong Wang, Voiland Distinguished Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering.

The catalyst works on bio-based ethanol to create isobutene used in plastics and other products.

The industry has traditionally made a widely used chemical called isobutene - used in everything from plastic soda bottles to rubber tires - by superheating crude oil. But in collaboration with the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company, Wang and his colleagues developed a catalyst to convert bio-based ethanol, which is made from corn or other biomass, to isobutene in one easy production step.



-----------------------

It is questionable to many, if we should genetically modify animals, to make plastic out of the materials from their DNA. We still are not for certain, how this type of plastic, will react in the wild, with other natural organisms.

 -------

Cheap, biodegradable, biocompatible "Shrilk" is a potential plastic replacement

 December 14, 2011



 http://www.gizmag.com/shrilk-bioinspired-material/20858/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

Web-slinging arachnids already have researchers toiling away looking to replicate the remarkable properties of spider silk. Now spiders, along with their insect and crustacean arthropod cousins, have provided inspiration for a new material that is cheap to produce, biodegradable, and biocompatible. Its creators say the material, dubbed "Shrilk," has the potential to replace plastics in consumer products and could also be used safely in a variety of medical applications, such as suturing wounds or serving as scaffolding for tissue regeneration.
Arthropods have an outer skeleton made up of a composite material called cuticle that consists of layers of a polysaccharide polymer called chitin and protein organized in a laminar, plywood-like structure. In its unmodified form, which can be seen in the body wall of a caterpillar, chitin is translucent, pliable, resilient and quite tough, but arthropods are able to modify its properties to make it tough and rigid, as seen in the body wall of a beetle, or to make it elastic, as seen in arthropod limb joints. Not only does cuticle protect the arthropod's internal components and provide structure for muscles and wings, it does so without adding weight or bulk.
 http://www.gizmag.com/shrilk-bioinspired-material/20858/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------------------

Plastic Roadways BUSTED!

Feb 14, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj_FZduqblo

------------














Rubber meets the road with new ORNL carbon, battery technologies

August 27, 2014
Recycled tires could see new life in lithium-ion batteries that provide power to plug-in electric vehicles and store energy produced by wind and solar, say researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
By modifying the microstructural characteristics of carbon black, a substance recovered from discarded tires, a team led by Parans Paranthaman and Amit Naskar is developing a better anode for lithium-ion batteries. An anode is a negatively charged electrode used as a host for storing lithium during charging.

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-rubber-road-ornl-carbon-battery.html#nRlv

------------

New production process makes PLA bioplastic cheaper and greener


  July 21, 2015


Polylactic acid (PLA) is a biodegradable bioplastic that is already used to produce a variety of everyday items, such as cups, trays, bowls and vegetable wrapping foil. Unfortunately, the current PLA production process is expensive and produces waste. Researchers at the KU Leuven Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis in Belgium have now developed a new production technique that is cheaper and greener and makes PLA a more attractive alternative to petroleum-based plastics.
PLA boasts a number of advantages over petroleum-based plastic. It is one of the few plastics suitable for use in 3D printers, it is biocompatible, making it suitable for medical use, and it biodegrades in a few years in certain environments, and is industrially compostable and recyclable. But when it comes to cost, PLA can't compete with petroleum-based plastics due to the intermediary steps required to produce it.

As its name suggests, lactic acid is a main building block of PLA. This can be obtained by the fermentation of sugar that can be sourced from renewable resources such as corn starch, tapioca and sugarcane.

http://www.gizmag.com/bioplastic-pla-cheaper-production-process/38498/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------

It is still debated, if we should use natural or synthetic materials, for the use of materials in roads. This includes the use of natural vs synthetic rubber, and the impact that this has on the environment.


---------------------


----------------
----------------



Chapter 6: Conductivity in polymers and rubbers


----------------
----------------



---------------------

Solving mysteries of conductivity in polymers

July 15, 2015


Materials known as conjugated polymers have been seen as very promising candidates for electronics applications, including capacitors, photodiodes, sensors, organic light-emitting diodes, and thermoelectric devices. But they've faced one major obstacle: Nobody has been able to explain just how electrical conduction worked in these materials, or to predict how they would behave when used in such devices.

Now researchers at MIT and Brookhaven National Laboratory have explained how electrical charge carriers move in these compounds, potentially opening up further research on such applications. A paper presenting the new findings is being published in the journal Advanced Materials.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-07-mysteries-polymers.html#jCp


-----------------











































Researchers discover new fundamental quantum mechanical property

January 6, 2016



Nanotechnologists at the University of Twente research institute MESA+ have discovered a new fundamental property of electrical currents in very small metal circuits. They show how electrons can spread out over the circuit like waves and cause interference effects at places where no electrical current is driven. The geometry of the circuit plays a key role in this so called nonlocal effect. The interference is a direct consequence of the quantum mechanical wave character of electrons and the specific geometry of the circuit. For designers of quantum computers it is an effect to take account of. The results are published in the British journal Scientific Reports.

 http://phys.org/news/2016-01-fundamental-quantum-mechanical-property.html#jCp



------------------


 Natural rubber, from the rubber tree, is a sustainable material, if not over-harvested. Many groups have turned to using synthetic rubber. This type of synthetic rubber, can be found in shoes, including tires. Synthetic rubber, is actually a type of plastic. Many people are concerned, with how current synthetic rubber on the market, biodegrades in the wild. This includes the chemicals found in synthetic rubber, that have been known to have harmful chemicals, within the composition of synthetic rubber. Even when someone tries to handle certain chemicals that make certain types of synthetic rubber, that individual is at risk for absorbing those chemicals through their blood system.


---------------


TOXICOLOGY AND EXPOSURE GUIDELINES

  http://ehs.unl.edu/documents/tox_exposure_guidelines.pdf

"All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison.
 The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy."
This early observation concerning the toxicity of chemicals was made by Paracelsus (1493-1541). The classic connotation of toxicology was "the science of poisons." Since that time, the science has expanded to encompass several disciplines. Toxicology is the study of the interaction between chemical agents and biological systems. While the subject of toxicology is quite complex, it is necessary to understand the basic concepts in order to make logical decisions
concerning the protection of personnel from toxic injuries. Toxicity can be defined as the relative ability of a substance to cause adverse effects in living
organisms. This "relative ability is dependent upon several conditions.

 Routes of Exposure

Skin (or eye) absorption: Skin (dermal) contact can cause effects that are relatively innocuous such as redness or mild dermatitis; more severe effects include destruction of skin tissue or other debilitating conditions. Many chemicals can also cross the skin barrier and be absorbed into the blood system. Once absorbed, they may produce systemic damage to internal organs. The eyes are particularly sensitive to chemicals. Even a short exposure can cause severe effects to the eyes or the substance can be absorbed through the eyes and be transported to other parts of the body causing harmful effects.

  Industrial Toxicants

 Carbon disulfide: Solvent in rayon and rubber industries.
Aniline, used in manufacture of rubber accelerators and antioxidants, resins, and
varnishes.

 Chloroprene, used in production of synthetic rubber.

 http://ehs.unl.edu/documents/tox_exposure_guidelines.pdf


---------

Ricoh develops energy-generating rubber


May 22, 2015


 http://www.gizmag.com/ricoh-energy-generating-rubber/37590/


----------------


Road to supercapacitors for scrap tires

Date:
September 25, 2015
Source:
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Summary:
Some of the 300 million tires discarded each year in the United States alone could be used in supercapacitors for vehicles and the electric grid using a technology.

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150925112114.htm

---------------------

Simple Leonardo da Vinci experiments combined with advanced theory reveal new atomic-level insights into rubber

May 15, 2015


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-simple-leonardo-da-vinci-combined.html#jCp


----------------

These Futuristic Car Tires Never Go Flat

 14.07.15



http://www.wired.com/2015/07/futuristic-car-tires-never-go-flat/

-----------------

Researchers discover importance of using right rubber for the job


 May 28th, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-importance-rubber-job.html#jCp

 The types of surface that scientists and engineers make copies of include skin, teeth, superconductor components in particle accelerators, and various tools, including forensic and archaeological investigations. Surfaces are carefully measured to quantify their roughness and texture, but this can be surprisingly tricky.

The importance of a surface's roughness can be seen in car engines, where if the walls of the engine's cylinders are too smooth they will seize, meaning that the surface needs to be just rough enough to carry a film of lubricant to maintain a smooth piston action.

Techniques have now been developed that can make measurements of ridges, bumps and dimples, down to the nanometre scale - less than 1/100 the thickness of a human hair...


----

When we get down to nano sized particles, we can see how to strengthen structures, on a microscopic level. This includes nanocrystals, shown to strengthen concrete.

-------

Natural nanocrystals shown to strengthen concrete

Mar 31, 2015 
 
 
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-natural-nanocrystals-shown-concrete.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

---------------------

----------------
----------------



Chapter 7: Strongest fibers & materials

----------------
----------------



---------------------

In this chapter, we will talk about some of the strongest materials in the world. We can even make some of the strongest materials in the world, from sustainable sources. These structures include carbon fiber and graphene.



-------------------


3D-printed composite is lighter than wood and stiffer than concrete

  June 27, 2014



 Reseachers at Harvard University have developed a way to 3D-print a cellular composite with record lightness and stiffness using an epoxy resin. This marks the first time that epoxy is used for 3D-printing, and the advance could lead to the development of new lightweight architectures for more efficient wind turbines, faster cars, and lighter airplanes...


 http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printed-strong-composite/32738/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-----------------

Engineering The Strongest Foam in the World


 Mar 13, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfAovWHbO88

---------------------------


Superplasticizer



 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superplasticizer


------------



Plasticizer


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticizer

Plasticizers (UK: plasticisers) or dispersants are additives that increase the plasticity or fluidity of a material. The dominant applications are for plastics, especially polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The properties of other materials are also improved when blended with plasticizers including concrete, clays, and related products.


Effect on health

Substantial concerns have been expressed over the safety of some plasticizers, especially because several ortho-phthalates have been classified as potential endocrine disruptors with some developmental toxicity reported.[11]

Appendix: various specific plasticizers

Dicarboxylic/tricarboxylic ester-based plasticizers

Trimellitates

Adipates, sebacates, maleates

Other plasticizers

Bio-based plasticizers

Safer plasticizers with better biodegradability and fewer biochemical effects are being developed. Some such plasticizers are:

Plasticizers for energetic materials




-------------------


How products are made: Rope


 http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Rope.html#ixzz3guBY88YM


 Although the origin of rope is unknown, the Egyptians were the first people to develop special tools to make rope. Egyptian rope dates back to 4000 to 3500 B.C. and was generally made of water reed fibers. Other Egyptian rope was made from the fibers of date palms, flax, grass, papyrus, leather, or camel hair. The use of such ropes pulled by thousands of slaves allowed the Egyptians to move the heavy stones required to build the pyramids. By about 2800 B.C. , rope made of hemp fibers was in use in China.

Raw Materials

Rope may be made either from natural fibers, which have been processed to allow them to be easily formed into yarn, or from synthetic materials, which have been spun into fibers or extruded into long filaments.

Natural fibers include hemp, sisal, cotton, flax, and jute. Another natural material is called manila hemp, but it is actually the fibers from a banana plant. Sisal was used extensively to make twine, but synthetic materials are replacing it. Manila rope is still used by traditionalists, but it can rot from the inside, thus losing its strength without giving any outward indication.

Synthetic fibers include nylon, polyester, polypropylene and aramid. Polypropylene costs the least, floats on water, and does not stretch appreciably. For these reasons it makes a good water ski tow rope. Nylon is moderately expensive, fairly strong, and has quite a bit of stretch. It makes a good mooring and docking line for boats because of its ability to give slightly, yet hold. Aramid is the strongest, but is also very expensive. Nylon and polyester may be spun into fibers about 4-10 inches (10-25 cm) long. Ropes made from spun synthetic fibers feel fuzzy and are not as strong as ropes made from long, continuous filaments. Some ropes use two different synthetic materials to achieve a combination of high strength and low cost or high strength and smooth surface finish.
Wire rope may be made from iron or steel wires. This is commonly referred to as cable and is used in bridges, elevators, and cranes. It is made by a different process than fiber or filament ropes.


----------------

Difference Between Synthetic & Natural Fiber Rope

Environmental Effects

    Synthetic rope is created using plastics with dangerous chemical byproducts, while natural fiber ropes are woven from jute, sisal, and, hemp--all renewable and biodegradable resources with no chemical byproduct.


http://www.ehow.com/facts_5669626_difference-synthetic-natural-fiber-rope.html#ixzz2cL95eMcQ


--------------------

 Scientists are concerned with the use of genetically modified bacteria, that can be used to heal structures such as rope and concrete.


-----------------------


The 'living concrete' that can heal itself

 May 14, 2015

 http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/14/tech/bioconcrete-delft-jonkers/

- The bioconcrete is mixed just like regular concrete, but with an extra ingredient -- the "healing agent." It remains intact during mixing, only dissolving and becoming active if the concrete cracks and water gets in.
Jonkers, a microbiologist, began working on it in 2006, when a concrete technologist asked him if it would be possible to use bacteria to make self-healing concrete.
It took Jonkers three years to crack the problem -- but there were some tricky challenges to overcome.
"You need bacteria that can survive the harsh environment of concrete," says Jonkers. "It's a rock-like, stone-like material, very dry."
Concrete is extremely alkaline and the "healing" bacteria must wait dormant for years before being activated by water.
Jonkers chose bacillus bacteria for the job, because they thrive in alkaline conditions and produce spores that can survive for decades without food or oxygen.
"The next challenge was not only to have the bacteria active in concrete, but also to make them produce repair material for the concrete -- and that is limestone," Jonkers explains.
In order to produce limestone the bacilli need a food source. Sugar was one option, but adding sugar to the mix would create soft, weak, concrete.
In the end, Jonkers chose calcium lactate, setting the bacteria and calcium lactate into capsules made from biodegradable plastic and adding the capsules to the wet concrete mix.

When cracks eventually begin to form in the concrete, water enters and open the capsules.
The bacteria then germinate, multiply and feed on the lactate, and in doing so they combine the calcium with carbonate ions to form calcite, or limestone, which closes up the cracks.
Now Jonkers hopes his concrete could be the start of a new age of biological buildings.
--------------------

Many question if certain chemicals found in self-healing concrete, including self-healing rope, can be made to be sustainable & non-toxic. This includes plasticizers for extra strong glass and polymers.



----------------------


Many people are looking for an environmentally friendly version of rope, with high tensile strength.

------------------------

Ultimate tensile strength


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensile_strength

Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), often shortened to tensile strength (TS) or ultimate strength, is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before failing or breaking. Tensile strength is distinct from compressive strength.

Typical tensile strengths


Ultimate strength (MPa)

Epoxy adhesive - 12 - 30
Human hair
380
Bone (limb)
130
Wood, pine (parallel to grain)
40
Bamboo 350-500
Steel, structural ASTM A36 steel  - 400-550
Steel, Micro-Melt 10 Tough Treated Tool (AISI A11)
5205
First carbon nanotube ropes      3600
Carbon nanotube - 11000-63000
Carbon fiber    1600 for Laminate, 4137 for fiber alone
Boron Nitride Nanotube - 33000
Silicon, monocrystalline (m-Si) - 7000
Basalt fiber   4840
Diamond
2800
Graphene
130000
Boron nitride nanotube
33000

UHMWPE fibers (Dyneema or Spectra)      2300-3500
Aramid (Kevlar or Twaron) - 3757
Polypropylene   19.7-80
Polyester resin (unreinforced) 55
Nylon, type 6/6 - 75




---------------


Study shows how calcium carbonate forms composites to make strong materials such as in shells and pearls

January 8, 2016




Seashells and lobster claws are hard to break, but chalk is soft enough to draw on sidewalks. Though all three are made of calcium carbonate crystals, the hard materials include clumps of soft biological matter that make them much stronger. A study today in Nature Communications reveals how soft clumps get into crystals and endow them with remarkable strength.


http://phys.org/news/2016-01-calcium-carbonate-composites-strong-materials.html#nRlv

-----------------




Carbyne is stronger than any known material

August 20, 2013



A paper on Arxiv presents a detailed look at the properties of carbyne, stronger than graphene and diamond, a true supermaterial. The paper is titled, "Carbyne from first principles: Chain of C atoms, a nanorod or a nanorope?" Authors are Mingjie Liu, Vasilii I. Artyukhov, Hoonkyung Lee, Fangbo Xu, and Boris I. Yakobson, from Rice University, in Houston, from the departments of mechanical engineering and materials science, chemistry, and the Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. They have calculated the properties of carbyne. Described as a chain of carbon atoms that are linked by alternate triple and single bonds or by consecutive double bonds, carbyne is of special interest, chemists find, because it is stronger, and stiffer than anything that they have seen before. The discovery of carbyne is not entirely new. Explorations of carbyne have their own history.

http://phys.org/news/2013-08-carbyne-stronger-material.html



-----------------



7 ‘facts’ you learned in school that are no longer true

  •   17/3/2017

THEN: Diamond is the hardest substance

 NOW: Ultrahard nanotwinned cubic boron nitride is the hardest substance

https://it.businessinsider.com/facts-no-longer-true-2017-3/

---------------

Artificial graphene could outperform the real thing

  February 14, 2014

 http://www.gizmag.com/artificial-graphene/30845/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

 Graphene is truly a 21st-century wonder material, finding use in everything from solar cells to batteries to tiny antennas. Now, however, a group of European research institutes have joined forces to create a graphene knock-off, that could prove to be even more versatile.

Conventional graphene takes the form of a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms, linked together in a honeycomb pattern. Along with being transparent and conductive, it is also both the world's thinnest material, and the strongest.

The artificial graphene has the same honeycomb structure, but is made from nanometer-thick semiconductor crystals instead of carbon atoms. The chemical makeup, size and shape of those crystals can be tweaked, essentially custom-tuning the properties of the material to the desired application.

It could conceivably be used in many of the same places in which graphene is currently utilized, but with even better performance. According to project partner the University of Luxembourg, “'Artificial graphene' should lead to faster, smaller and lighter electronic and optical devices of all kinds, including higher performance photovoltaic cells, lasers or LED lighting."

 http://www.gizmag.com/artificial-graphene/30845/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

----------




MIT has a new method for producing large quantities of graphene


May 21, 2015

(The new technique involves wrapping a substrate around an inner tube and passing gas through an outer tube).

http://www.gizmag.com/mit-graphene-large-quantities/37635/







------------












































For faster, larger graphene add a liquid layer

July 15, 2015 
 
 
Millimetre-sized crystals of high-quality graphene can be made in minutes instead of hours using a new scalable technique, Oxford University researchers have demonstrated.In just 15 minutes the method can produce large graphene crystals around 2-3 millimetres in size that it would take up to 19 hours to produce using current chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques in which carbon in gas reacts with, for example, copper to form graphene.
Graphene promises to be a 'wonder material' for building new technologies because of its combination of strength, flexibility, electrical properties, and chemical resistance. But this promise will only be realised if it can be produced cost-effectively on a commercial scale.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-07-faster-larger-graphene-liquid-layer.html#jCp



 -------------




High-efficiency, semi-transparent perovskite/graphene solar cells created at low cost


September 11, 2015

With the continued rise in the uptake of solar cells, consumers are now looking at less obtrusive ways to incorporate these in buildings and vehicles. Transparent or semi-transparent cells provide greater flexibility and visual appeal than standard, opaque silicon solar cells, however their relatively high-cost and poor efficiencies have meant that their adoption has been slow. To help remedy this, researchers working at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have created semi-transparent, efficient, low-cost perovskite solar cells with graphene electrodes.

http://www.gizmag.com/transparent-perovskite-solar-cells-graphene-electrodes/39349/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

------------

Conductive graphene yarn is lighter and stretchier than copper wire

June 23, 2014

 

The researchers started by chemically exfoliating flakes of graphene from a block of graphite. Those flakes were then mixed with water, and that mixture was concentrated into a slurry using a centrifuge. That slurry was then spread across a plate and allowed to dry, forming into a thin transparent film of graphene oxide.

The film was subsequently peeled off the plate and cut into narrow strips, those strips in turn getting wound together using an automatic fiber scroller.

The resulting yarn can be knotted and stretched without fracturing, and is said to be much stronger than other types of carbon fibers – this quality could be due to the presence of tiny air pockets within it.

Removing oxygen from the material boosts its electrical conductivity, and adding silver nanorods to it in the film-fabricating stage could reportedly boost that conductivity further, to the point of matching that of copper. Its stretchability and lighter weight, however, could make it a better alternative in many applications.

 

http://www.gizmag.com/stretchable-graphene-yarn/32657/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------------




Graphene could find use in lightweight ballistic body armor

December 1st, 2014




While graphene is already known for being the world's strongest material, most studies have focused on its tensile strength – that's the maximum stress that it can withstand while being pulled or stretched, before failing. According to studies conducted at Houston's Rice University, however, its ability to absorb sudden impacts hadn't previously been thoroughly explored. As it turns out, the material is 10 times better than steel at dissipating kinetic energy. That could make it an excellent choice for lightweight ballistic body armor.

http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-bulletproof-armor/35004/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget




-------

Graphene used to rust-proof steel

  May 29, 2012


Hexavalent chromium compounds are a key ingredient in coatings used to rust-proof steel. They also happen to be carcinogenic. Researchers, therefore, have been looking for non-toxic alternatives that could be used to keep steel items from corroding. Recently, scientists from the University at Buffalo announced that they have developed such a substance. It’s a varnish that incorporates graphene, the one-atom-thick carbon sheeting material that is the thinnest and strongest substance known to exist.

http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-anti-rust-coating/22731/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget



-----------












































Graphene shown to safely interact with neurons in the brain

January 29, 2016
 Researchers have successfully demonstrated how it is possible to interface graphene - a two-dimensional form of carbon - with neurons, or nerve cells, while maintaining the integrity of these vital cells. The work may be used to build graphene-based electrodes that can safely be implanted in the brain, offering promise for the restoration of sensory functions for amputee or paralysed patients, or for individuals with motor disorders such as epilepsy or Parkinson's disease.
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-graphene-shown-safely-interact-neurons.html

-------------


A new way to make higher quality bilayer graphene

February 8, 2016


 A team of researchers with members from institutions in the U.S., Korea and China has developed a new way to make bilayer graphene that is higher in quality than that produced through any other known process. In their paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, the team describes the technique they developed and the possible uses for the bilayer graphene that is produced.

Graphene is, of course, a flat material made from just single carbon atoms; it forms in a honeycomb pattern and has been found to have excellent electrical properties—one hindrance to using graphene in many applications has been the lack of a bandgap. That hindrance was partially overcome back in 2009 when a team working in the U.S. found that creating two layers of graphene bonded together and then applying electricity could cause a bandgap to occur. Since that time, researchers have been looking for ways to create such bilayer graphene in a way that could be commercialized. In this latest effort, the researchers report on a new technique they have developed that they claim produces the highest quality bilayer graphene yet.

 http://phys.org/news/2016-02-higher-quality-bilayer-graphene.html


--------------


2D self-assembling semiconductor could beat out graphene


May 2, 2014



Graphene may be talked about as the future wonder material (and for that matter, the present one), but it has one critical deficiency. It lacks a natural bandgap, the physical trait that puts the “semi” in “semiconductor," so it has to be doped to become effective. Enter Ni3(2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotriphenylene)2 ... well, you can refer to it as a metal-organic graphene analogue for now. In addition to having a natural band gap, it’s able to self-assemble and represents a whole family of compounds that’s exciting to researchers for its novel properties.

Nickel (the metal) and HITP (the organic compound) are represented in the diagram at the top of the page, with nickel colored in green, amino groups in purple, and carbon rings in grey. The amino groups in the carbon rings are attracted to the nickel, and because of the symmetry and geometry in HITP, the overall organometallic complex almost has a fractal nature that allows this new semiconductor to self-organize perfectly. A band gap is created in the “hole” where electrons aren’t, a space that's just about 2 nm across.

http://www.gizmag.com/2d-self-assembling-semiconductor-graphene/31879/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------

New alloy claimed to have higher strength-to-weight ratio than any other metal


 December 11, 2014

 When it comes to metal that's being used in the automotive or aerospace industries, the higher its strength-to-weight ratio, the better. With that in mind, researchers from North Carolina State University and Qatar University have developed a new alloy that reportedly has a low density similar to that of aluminum, but that's stronger than titanium.

 http://www.gizmag.com/high-entropy-alloy-strength-to-weight/35170/


--------------



 6 of the lightest and strongest materials on Earth


Mar 18, 2017

https://inhabitat.com/6-of-the-lightest-and-strongest-materials-on-earth/


3D Graphene
Carbyne
Aerographite
Aerographene
Metallic microlattice
Limpet teeth



---------------

World's lightest solid material, known as 'frozen smoke', gets even lighter

January 13, 2011



Researchers have created a new aerogel that boasts amazing strength and an incredibly large surface area. Nicknamed ‘frozen smoke’ due to its translucent appearance, aerogels are manufactured materials derived from a gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with a gas, resulting in a material renowned as the world’s lightest solid material. The new so-called “multiwalled carbon nanotube (MCNT) aerogel” could be used in sensors to detect pollutants and toxic substances, chemical reactors, and electronics components.

Although aerogels have been fabricated from silica, metal oxides, polymers, and carbon-based materials and are already used in thermal insulation in windows and buildings, tennis racquets, sponges to clean up oil spills, and other products, few scientists have succeeded in making aerogels from carbon nanotubes.

The researchers were able to succeed where so many before them had failed using a wet gel of well-dispersed pristine MWCNTs. After removing the liquid component from the MWCNT wet gel, they were able to create the lightest ever free-standing MWCNT aerogel monolith with a density of 4 mg/cm3.

MWCNT aerogels infused with a plastic material are flexible, like a spring that can be stretched thousands of times, and if the nanotubes in a one-ounce cube were unraveled and placed side-to-side and end-to-end, they would carpet three football fields. The MWCNT aerogels are also excellent conductors of electricity, which is what makes them ideal for sensing applications and offers great potential for their use in electronics components.

 http://www.gizmag.com/worlds-lightest-solid-material-gets-even-lighter/17588/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


----------

Aerographite claims title of World's Lightest Solid Material



July 12, 2012



http://www.gizmag.com/aerographite-worlds-lightest-material/23295/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

While they were each once hailed as the lightest solid material ever made, metallic microlattice and aerogel have now been moved back to second and third place (respectively), with aerographite taking the crown. Developed by a team from the Technical University of Hamburg and Germany’s University of Kiel, the material is composed of 99.99 percent air, along with a three-dimensional network of porous carbon nanotubes that were grown into each other.

Aerographite has a density of less than 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter, which allows it be compressed by a factor of 1,000, then subsequently spring back to its original state. Despite its extremely low density, it is black and optically-opaque in appearance. By contrast, the density of metallic microlattice sits at 0.9 mg per cubic centimeter.

The scientists discovered the sponge-like material when they were researching three-dimensionally cross-linked carbon structures. It is reportedly much more robust than the relatively fragile aerogel, being able to withstand at least 35 times as much mechanical force for its density. It is grown in a one-step process using zinc oxide templates, which allow blocks of the material to be created in various shapes, in sizes as large as several cubic centimeters.




-------------


Graphene aerogel takes world’s lightest material crown

 March 24, 2013



Not even a year after it claimed the title of the world’s lightest material, aerographite has been knocked off its crown by a new aerogel made from graphene. Created by a research team from China’s Zhejiang University in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering lab headed by Professor Gao Chao, the ultra-light aerogel has a density lower than that of helium and just twice that of hydrogen.

Although first created in 1931 by American scientist and chemical engineer, Samuel Stephens Kistler, aerogels have recently become a hotly contested area of scientific research. A “multiwalled carbon nanotube (MCNT) aerogel” dubbed “frozen smoke” with a density of 4 mg/cm3 lost its world’s lightest material title in 2011 to a micro-lattice material with a density of 0.9 mg/cm3. Less than a year later, aerographite claimed the crown with its density of 0.18 mg/cm3.

Now a new title-holder has been crowned, with the graphene aerogel created by Gao and his team boasting a density of just 0.16 mg/cm3. To create the record-setting material, Gao and his team turned to the wonder material du jour – graphene. Building on experience in developing macroscopic graphene materials, including one-dimensional graphene fibers and two-dimensional graphene films, the team decided to add another dimension and make a three-dimensional porous material out of graphene in an attempt to claim the record.

Instead of the sol-gel method and template-oriented methods generally used to create aerogels, Gao and his team used a new freeze-drying method that involved freeze-drying solutions of carbon nanotubes and graphene to create a carbon sponge that can be arbitrarily adjusted to any shape.

http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-aerogel-worlds-lightest/26784/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


---------------


Newly developed metallic "micro-lattice" material is world's lightest

November 17, 2011 

 

Researchers have created a new metallic material that they claim is the world's lightest solid material. With a density of just 0.9 mg/cm3 the material is around 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and lighter than the "multiwalled carbon nanotube (MCNT) aerogel" - also dubbed "frozen smoke" - with a density of 4 mg/cm3 that we looked at earlier this year. Despite being 99.99 percent open volume, the new material boasts impressive strength and energy absorption, making it potentially useful for a range of applications.
The 0.01 percent of the material that isn't air consists of a micro-lattice of interconnected hollow nickel-phosphorous tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers - or 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. These tubes are angled to connect at nodes to form repeating, three-dimensional asterisk-like cells.

 

http://www.gizmag.com/ultralight-micro-lattice-material/20537/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


--------------


Microstructured materials as strong as steel yet less dense than water

 April 14, 2014



Researchers in Germany have developed a lightweight, high-strength material inspired by the framework structure of bones and wood and the shell structure of bees' honeycombs. Created using 3D laser polymer printing combined with a ceramic coating, the material is less dense than water but, relative to its size, boasts strength comparable to high-performance steel or aluminum.
Although inspired by nature, the polymer microarchitecture produced by a team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) outperforms its natural counterparts in terms of strength/density ratio. The underlying structure was produced using a process of 3D laser lithography or polymer printing and hardening.
A number of structures were tested, including triangular, hexagonal and honeycomb. These were then coated by gas deposition to provide extra strength, with coatings of a ceramic material and alumina both tested. The polymer structure measured roughly 50 µm long, wide, and high, while various coating thicknesses were tested ranging from 10 nm to 200 nm.
It was found that a honeycomb polymer structure with an alumina coating of 50 nm yielded the highest stability to density ratio. This microarchitecture outperformed the triangular and hexagonal counterparts produced and tested, while no additional strength was achieved after a coating thickness of 50 nm of alumina was exceeded. This optimized honeycomb structure failed at a pressure of 28 kg/mm2, yet only had a density of 810 kg/m3, which the team says exceeds the stability/density ratio of bones, massive steel or aluminum.
"The novel lightweight construction materials resemble the framework structure of a half-timbered house with horizontal, vertical, and diagonal struts,” said study co-author Jens Bauer. "Our beams, however, are only 10 µm in size.”
The team says microstructured materials are often used for insulation or as shock absorbers, and that such open-pore materials can be used as filters in the chemical industry.


 http://www.gizmag.com/microstructured-lightweight-construction-material/31339/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-----------------------

New materials developed that are as light as aerogel, yet 10,000 times stronger

June 22, 2014



http://www.gizmag.com/llnl-ultralight-metamaterial/32589/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

Imagine materials strong enough to use in building airplanes or motor cars, yet are literally lighter than air. Soon, that may not be so hard to do because a team of researchers from MIT and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed new ultra-lightweight materials that are as light as aerogel, but 10,000 times stiffer, and may one day revolutionize aerospace and automotive designs.


Aerogels are incredibly light, so light that the record holder, aerographene, boasts a density of just 0.16 mg/cm3. Currently, aerogels are used for insulation, tennis racquets, as a means of controlling oil spills, and were used on the NASA Stardust mission to collect samples from a comet’s tail. Unfortunately, despite its seemingly ephemeral nature, its very much a solid and will shatter if pressed hard enough, so its use is limited.
The new materials developed by the MIT/LLNL team aren't aerogels, but are metamaterials. That is, artificial materials with properties that aren't found in nature. The idea is to structure it, so that it has the lightness of aerogel, but is much stronger. The strength of the new materials comes from their geometric structure, not their chemical composition.
The new materials were made using projection micro-stereolithography, a form of desktop 3D printing that works on a microscopic level and can create highly complex, three-dimensional microstructures layer by layer very quickly for easy prototyping. It involves projecting a beam of ultraviolet light into a tank of polymers, responsive hydrogels, shape memory polymers, or bio-materials using the digital stereolithography technique in the form of masks, similar to those used to create microchips, to shape the layers.
Projection micro-stereolithography operates on a very small scale that allows the formation of "microlattices," which are much like trusses and girders. Materials can even be switched during fabrication. According to the team, it can be applied to many different materials, including polymers, metals and ceramics, which is exactly what the team did using a variety of constituent materials.
Firstly, the LLNL/MIT team made a polymer template coated with a metal film 200 to 500 nanometers thick, then the polymer base was melted away, leaving behind the metal in the form of thin-film tubes.
The team then used the same technique but replaced the metal with ceramic to create ceramic tubes about 50 nanometers thick, which produced a material with the properties of an extremely stiff aerogel, four orders of magnitude stiffer than conventional aerogel, but with the same density...








--------------



Flexible, high-strength polymer aerogels deliver "super-insulation" properties


September 27, 2012



 Often called "frozen smoke", aerogels are among the amazing materials of our time, with fifteen Guinness Book of World Records entries to their name. However, despite their list of extreme properties, traditional aerogels are brittle, crumbling and fracturing easily enough to keep them out of many practical applications. A new class of mechanically robust polymer aerogels discovered at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio may soon enable engineering applications such as super-insulated clothing, unique filters, refrigerators with thinner walls, and super-insulation for buildings...

http://www.gizmag.com/polymer-aerogel-stronger-flexible-nasa/23955/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------------



New technique leads to creation of elastic high-strength carbon nanotube film

February 4, 2016


http://phys.org/news/2016-02-technique-creation-elastic-high-strength-carbon.html



------------------



New experimental research exposes the strength of beryllium at extreme conditions






August 5, 2015 
 http://phys.org/news/2015-08-experimental-exposes-strength-beryllium-extreme.html#jCp
 Until recently, there were very little experimental data about the behavior of beryllium (Be) at very high pressures and strain rates, with existing material models predicting very different behaviors in these regimes. In a successful example of international research collaboration, a team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Russian Federal Nuclear Center-All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF) changed this field of knowledge.
 The technique involves setting off a piece of high explosives (HE) near the Be. On the side of the Be facing the HE, the team imposed a sinusoidal ripple pattern designed by co-author Jon Belof. When the expanding HE products load up against the target, the target accelerates. Since there is a low density gas pushing against a higher density metal, the interface is Rayleigh-Taylor unstable and the ripples grow in amplitude as the target accelerates.

If the target has no strength, the ripples will grow indefinitely and become turbulent at some point. However, since the Be does have strength, the ripple growth is limited by the strength of the material itself. The main diagnostic for the experiments is an X-ray image from the side of the target showing the height of the ripples at some time after the HE loading has occurred. The other diagnostic is velocimetry of the target showing its acceleration profile.



---------------------



Bamboo inspires new process for making metals tougher

  July 3, 2014


Steel is a common benchmark against which the strength of materials is measured, with "stronger than steel" a familiar catch cry for those touting the properties of some new space-age material. But now researchers at North Carolina State University have created steel that is stronger than steel using a process that increases the toughness of various metals by altering the microstructures within them.
Inspired by the internal structure of bones and bamboo, which both boast impressive strength-to-weight ratios, the researchers were able to increase the strength and toughness of metals by giving them what the researchers refer to as a "gradient structure." This is a structure where the size of the millions of tightly-packed grains that make up the metal are gradually increased further down into the material...


http://www.gizmag.com/gradient-structure-increase-metal-toughness/32819/

-----------------

 Hemp is another good natural fiber, we can make for many materials, such as rope, clothing and industrial materials.

 ------

Comparison of composites made from fungal defibrated hemp with composites of traditional hemp yarn  [2007]


Abstract:
Aligned epoxy-matrix composites were made from hemp fibres defibrated with the fungi Phlebia radiata Cel 26 and Ceriporiopsis subvermispora previously used for biopulping of wood. The fibres produced by cultivation of P. radiata Cel 26 were more cellulose rich (78%, w/w) than water-retted hemp due to more degradation of pectin and lignin. The defibrated hemp fibres had higher fibre stiffness (88-94 GPa) than the hemp yarn (60 GPa), which the fibre twisting in hemp yarn might explain. Even though mild processing was applied, the obtained fibre strength (643 MPa) was similar to the strength of traditionally produced hemp yarn (677 MPa). The fibre strength and stiffness properties are derived from composite data using the rule of mixtures model. The fibre tensile strength increased linearly with cellulose content to 850 MPa for pure cellulose. The fibre stiffness increased also versus the cellulose content and cellulose crystallinity and reached a value of 125 GPa for pure crystalline cellulose.

 http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201300749080

------------------

Hemp and cannabis also have nutritional value, this is why you can buy hemp seeds at the health food store. Hemp and cannaabis can also help treat people with medical conditions, including cancer.

-----------

Cannabis Compound Destroyed Incurable Brain Tumors


 (Modern uses for the hemp plant)


http://www.cureyourowncancer.org/cannabis-compound-destroyed-incurable-brain-tumors.html


------

What is Hemp?

http://azmarijuana.com/marijuana-info/what-is-hemp/


--------------------


Pollution: Petrol vs Hemp

http://www.hempcar.org/petvshemp.shtml

-----------

Hemp can even be made, for insulation and foam materials.


-------

Wood foam may be a new form of green home insulation



Insulating your home may help the environment by lowering your energy usage, but unfortunately the petroleum-based foam that's typically used as insulation isn't all that eco-friendly itself. Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, however, have developed a reportedly greener alternative that they claim works just as well – it's foam made from wood.

To produce the foam, wood particles are first ground so small that they form into a slimy solution. A gas is then added to that slime, causing it to take on a frothy consistency. Once that froth hardens – a process that is "aided by natural substances contained in the wood" – a dry, porous foam is the result. The finished product can take the form of either rigid foam boards, or flexible mats.
The slime can also be converted into foam via induced chemical reactions.

 http://www.gizmag.com/wood-foam-insulation/31133/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------

 Even rice can be used, for many fibers. We also need to stop the use of pesticide buildup, in rice paddies. The use of pesticides in rice, can harm ecosystems, over a period of many years.

------------


Rice husks may find use in cheaper, greener, longer-lasting particleboard


May 27, 2015


 http://www.gizmag.com/rice-husk-particleboard/37730/


------------


We could use a number of natural materials for new rope construction technology. 

We could make more environmentally friendly ropes, with even more tensile strength. 

We could make a better form of carbon fiber. Instead of making carbon fiber from fossil fuel, we could make carbon fiber out of plant based material, diamonds or charcoal. We can use the carbon from ash, to make carbon fiber. Samurai swords were once forged with the method of taking carbon from charcoal, and making a carbon steel blade.

-----

Secrets of the Samurai Sword - Documentary


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoqVhlFe_EU

--------------

STUPID things people say about medieval SWORDS 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--qfjf8SSuU

----------

 MYSTERIOUS Discoveries Science STILL Can't Explain!

{The Ulfberht Swords}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fiXaBm0_k

-----------

 The Secrets of Wootz Damascus Steel

2017

A 50-minute documentary about the legendary Al Pendray, together with two swordsmiths from Jordan, and their quest to produce authentic wootz Damascus steel with ores mined from a historical mine in Jordan - a mine that is known to have produced weapons for Saladin himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP8PCkcBZU4


-------------------

 Traditional Crafts of Finland - Episode 1 - Puukko Knife Making

2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLnqr6IGVgs

-------------------


Tetragrammaton - The Most Sacred Knowledge On Our Planet - Nassim Haremin

Aug 29, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peYrSP8cke8

28:30 - Copper scrolls found near the Dead Sea contained
the purest copper ever found on Earth.

--------------------

 The Mystery Of Tutankhamun's Dagger | What On Earth? 


{A blade made of iron that has not rusted for over 3,000 years}

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98n-DTIwW18

--------------

Impossible Ancient OOPArts Academia Can't Explain

Oct 15, 2019

{The Sword of Goujian}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzQRjn7Z7fQ


---------------

Researchers find new phase of carbon, make diamond at room temperature

November 30, 2015
 Researchers from North Carolina State University have discovered a new phase of solid carbon, called Q-carbon, which is distinct from the known phases of graphite and diamond. They have also developed a technique for using Q-carbon to make diamond-related structures at room temperature and at ambient atmospheric pressure in air.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-11-phase-carbon-diamond-room-temperature.html

-----------------

Diamonds may be the key to future NMR/MRI technologies

December 16, 2015


Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have demonstrated that diamonds may hold the key to the future for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies.


http://phys.org/news/2015-12-diamonds-key-future-nmrmri-technologies.html

-------------------------


Wood pulp extract stronger than carbon fiber or Kevlar

 September 3, 2012



 http://www.gizmag.com/cellulose-nanocrystals-stronger-carbon-fiber-kevlar/23959/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

The Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service has opened a US$1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) from wood by-products materials such as wood chips and sawdust. Prepared properly, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon fibers, so that putting CNC into composite materials results in high strength, low weight products. In addition, the cost of CNCs is less than ten percent of the cost of Kevlar fiber or carbon fiber. These qualities have attracted the interest of the military for use in lightweight armor and ballistic glass (CNCs are transparent), as well as companies in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, and medical industries.


---------------------



Biodegradable fibers as strong as steel made from wood cellulose

  June 9, 2014



 A team of researchers working at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology claim to have developed a way to make cellulose fibers stronger than steel on a strength-to-weight basis. In what is touted as a world first, the team from the institute's Wallenberg Wood Science Center claim that the new fiber could be used as a biodegradable replacement for many filament materials made today from imperishable substances such as fiberglass, plastic, and metal. And all this from a substance that requires only water, wood cellulose, and common table salt to create it.

http://www.gizmag.com/steel-strong-fibers-wood-cellulose/32432/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------------------

 With new technology, we can even fortify carbon, to even make stronger materials, including stronger carbon nanotubes.


----------------

Nanotubes with two walls have singular qualities

 April 15, 2015
 
 Rice University researchers have determined that two walls are better than one when turning carbon nanotubes into materials like strong, conductive fibers or transistors.
 Rice materials scientist Enrique Barrera and his colleagues used atomic-level models of double-walled nanotubes to see how they might be tuned for applications that require particular properties. They knew from others' work that double-walled nanotubes are stronger and stiffer than their single-walled cousins. But they found it may someday be possible to tune double-walled tubes for specific electronic properties by controlling their configuration, chiral angles and the distance between the walls.
 
 http://phys.org/news/2015-04-nanotubes-walls-singular-qualities.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

 --------------




Two-dimensional materials 'as revolutionary as graphene'

July 29, 2016

http://phys.org/news/2016-07-two-dimensional-materials-revolutionary-graphene.html



------------------



Move aside carbon: Boron nitride-reinforced materials are even stronger
 






December 22, 2015 
 
 
 A single infusion of a powerful antibody called VRC01 can suppress the level of HIV in the blood of infected people who are not taking antiretroviral therapy (ART), scientists at the National Institutes of Health report in a paper published today. The researchers also found that giving HIV-infected people VRC01 antibodies by infusing them into a vein or under the skin is safe and well tolerated, and the antibodies remain in the blood for an extended period.
While such carbon nanotube-polymer nanocomposites have attracted enormous interest from the materials research community, a group of scientists now has evidence that a different nanotube—made from boron nitride—could offer even more strength per unit of weight. They publish their results in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-carbon-boron-nitride-reinforced-materials-stronger.html#jCp


----------------


Delicately opening a band gap in graphene enables high-performance transistors

September 21, 2015
Electrons can move through graphene with almost no resistance, a property that gives graphene great potential for replacing silicon in next-generation, highly efficient electronic devices. But currently it's very difficult to control the electrons moving through graphene because graphene has no band gap, which means the electrons don't need to cross any energy barrier in order to conduct electricity. As a result, the electrons are always conducting, all the time, which means that this form of graphene can't be used to build transistors because it has no "off" state. In order to control the electron movement in graphene and enable "off" states in future graphene transistors, graphene needs a non-zero band gap—an energy barrier that can prevent electrons from conducting electricity when desired, making graphene a semiconductor instead of a full conductor.

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-delicately-band-gap-graphene-enables.html#jCp


---------------


Microwave plasma-induced graphene-sheet fibers
from waste coffee grounds

The waste coffee grounds (The remainder of regular coffee powder after being
boiled, UCC) was dried at 100 degrees Celsius  for 6 hours without other treatments. Graphene-sheet fibers (GSFs) were fabricated from dried coffee
grounds loaded in a nickel case using 2.45 GHz microwave plasma system at
the power of 900 W, which was equipped with a rectangular waveguide to couple
the microwave through quartz tube for generating the plasma. In the system, no
additional heater was installed for substrate heating. The substrate temperature was controlled by microwave power and plasma exposure time, and was measured by a thermocouple placed in direct contact with the substrate holder.
After the deposition chamber was pumped down to a base pressure of 1 Torr
by a rotary pump with the pumping gas rate of 300L/s, the hydrogen and argon gases were introduced into the chamber and produced the plasma to irradiate the coffee grounds for 15 min. The maximal temperature was 650 degrees Celsius during the process of microwave plasma irradiation. After deposition, the plasma was shut down and the equipment was naturally cooled to room temperature. The yield of GSFs was found to be 10-20% in all produced nanocarbons.


http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/c5/ta/c5ta03833b/c5ta03833b1.pdf

-------


 Scientists grow high-quality graphene from tea tree extract

August 21, 2015



Graphene has been grown from materials as diverse as plastic, cockroaches, Girl Scout cookies, and dog feces, and can theoretically be grown from any carbon source. However, scientists are still looking for a graphene precursor and growth method that is sustainable, scalable, and economically feasible, since these are all requirements for realizing widespread commercialization of graphene-based devices.

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-scientists-high-quality-graphene-tea-tree.html


-----------

There will always be different combinations of natural and inorganic materials, for the discovery of new hybrid materials and nanostructures. These discoveries, can be used for the creation of new inventions.

---------




Synthesis and characterization of organic-inorganic hybrid materials and nanostructures
 

 Posted: June 24, 2015

 http://www.scientificamerican.com/naturejobs/?method=job&id=533011

The project supported by the Swedish Research Council is aimed at the development of new approaches to building up complex structures of metal oxide nanoparticles to be used as nano reactors and as drug delivery vehicles. The produced particles will be decorated with functional biomolecules, proteins and enzymes, to provide them with ability to act as biocatalysts. It will involve the synthesis of new organic-inorganic hybrid materials, their characterization by a variety of techniques such as electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and NMR, Atomic Force Microscopy etc., and verification of their functional characteristics. The project will be carried out in an inspiring international environment and will involve active participation in international project meetings.

-----------



We need to have a grade of  high-density, bio-degrdable plastic, that we can use for materials. 

 --------------------



 15 Most Dense Materials on Earth | Volumetric Mass Density


May 15, 2019

15. Molybdenum
14. Silver
13. Lead
12. Thorium
11. Rhodium
10. Mercury
9. Tantalum
8. Uranium
7. Tungsten
6. Gold
5. Plutonium
4. Rhenium
3. Platinum
2. Iridium
1. Osmium


https://www.rankred.com/densest-materials-on-earth/



--------------------


National Lab Teams Create Densest Object on Earth


Jan 10, 2020

Applying 30 million atmospheres of pressure lets researchers compress copper into the densest material on the planet, for a brief moment.

Scientists used the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Lab to squeeze a microscopic sample of copper samples under 30 million atmospheres in less than a billionth of a second. This tripled the sample’s density, creating the densest object on the planet for a brief moment in time.


https://www.machinedesign.com/materials/article/21120262/national-lab-teams-create-densest-object-on-earth




---------------------

----------------
----------------




Chapter 8: Glass technology

----------------
----------------



---------------------


 We can see problems with many of the different types of dyes, and chemicals used to make certain types of glass and plastics these days. We often wonder how many new types of industrial chemicals in glass and plastic, will interact and biodegrade in the wild. We need an ecologically friendly way of making glass, while replacing many chemicals, such as the use of lead, and uranium in glass.

Many ancient cultures, such as the Romans, would use lead in glass. Even drinking out of certain glass bottles with harmful chemicals in these ancient cultures, could make that individual ill, from chemical poisoning.


-------------------------


 Carnival Glass 101 


http://carnivalglass101.carnivalheaven.com/id136.ht

 If you look at the recipe that remains from E. A. Dugan's notebook (page 26 of the Dugan/Diamond book by Heacock, Measell & Wiggins), for a turquoise blue opal glass, you have 300 parts sand (silica), 81 parts soda (calcium carbonate), 50 parts lead (most likely lead oxide), 24 parts pearls (potassium phosphate), 54 parts feldspar (most likely potassium aluminum silicate), 50 parts fluorspar (calcium fluoride), 5 parts kryolite (sodium fluoraluminate),-actually used as a stomach insecticide as the crystals punch holes in insect gut cells!), 5 parts arsenic, and 7 oz. of copper scales (for the blue color). As you can tell from this formula, there's a lot more lead and fluoride than arsenic in the batch and the dust during the mixing of the batch would be quite dangerous. However, once fused in the melting process, none of these chemicals would be chemically active. If they were, all of our lead crystal glass would be highly dangerous to use! (That rumor goes around occasionally).

I hear all the time that cobalt (blue), selenium (pink to red) and uranium (yellow) compounds that are used as colorants in glass are highly toxic or are no longer available.



 --------------------------------


Many people sometimes are not aware, that plastics exist in nature. This process is, a buildup of natural oil hitting certain pockets of heat, methane, including other chemicals such as silica, in the ground. When the right type of chemicals combine, it can leave small types of a type of residue of an oily or plastic type of film. Especially around rocks and soil, in underground pockets or streams of natural oil. This natural type of plastic film, may not quite be like the plastic that we use for individual products, yet is a good example of the materials, that nature can produce naturally.

Glass can be made from sand, that has gone through extreme hot temperatures. Different types of smart glass, can contain certain poly resins as well. Many types of glass, can even be considered a fiberglass, or plastic.  Many people want a sustainable way, in order to make extra strong glass, that could biodegrade properly.

 We could even possibly use atomic fractals in metallic glasses, over certain types of fiberglass, currently out on the market.

-----------------------------------------------


 Atomic fractals in metallic glasses

September 21, 2015



Metallic glasses are very strong and elastic materials that appear with the naked eye to be identical to stainless steel. But metallic glasses differ from ordinary metals in that they are amorphous, lacking an orderly, crystalline atomic arrangement. This random distribution of atoms, which is the primary characteristic of all glass materials (such as windowpanes and tableware), gives metallic glasses unique mechanical properties but unpredictable internal structure. Researchers in the Caltech lab of Julia Greer, professor of materials science and mechanics in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, have shown that metallic glasses do have an atomic-level structure—if you zoom in closely enough—although it differs from the periodic lattices that characterize crystalline metals.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-atomic-fractals-metallic-glasses.html#jCp



 -----------------------------------------


Improving bulk metallic glass by maximizing surface

December 22, 2015


 Yale University researchers have figured out a way to refine bulk metallic glasses to improve their electrochemical performance.

 Results of the research, based in the lab of chemical and environmental engineering professor André D. Taylor, are published in the Dec. 21 issue of Advanced Materials.

Bulk metallic glass (BMG), also known as amorphous metal alloy, exhibits superior mechanical properties and great formability under low temperature compared with general alloys. Numerous efforts have been applied to develop these materials for biomedical devices, high efficiency transformers, and for products that require high-strength materials, such as golf clubs.

Working with the lab of Yale professor Jan Schroers, Taylor pioneered the use of BMGs as catalysts in fuel cells. BMGs have the strength of metal, but can be shaped like a plastic, so they can be used to form nanowires and achieve high-surface areas. Increasing surface area leads to an increased performance in current density, because all of the electrochemical reactions are on the surface.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-bulk-metallic-glass-maximizing-surface.html#jCp



-----------------------


Microscopic animals inspire innovative glass research

September 3, 2015


 Prof. Juan de Pablo's 20-year exploration of the unusual properties of glass began, oddly enough, with the microscopic animals known as water bears.

The creatures, which go by the more formal name of tardigrades, have a remarkable ability to withstand extreme environments of hot and cold, and even the vacuum of space. When de Pablo read about what happens when scientists dry out tardigrades, then revive them with water years later, his interest was piqued.

 "When you remove the water, they very quickly coat themselves in large amounts of glassy molecules," says de Pablo, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. "That's how they stay in this state of suspended animation."

His passion to understand how glass forms in such exotic settings helped lead de Pablo and his fellow researchers to the unexpected discovery of a new type of glass.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-microscopic-animals-glass.html#jCp



------------

 

Super-tough glass based on mollusk shells


January 29, 2014

In the future, if you drop a glass on the floor and it doesn't break, thank a mollusk. Inspired by shellfish, scientists at Montreal's McGill University have devised a new process that drastically increases the toughness of glass. When dropped, items made using the technology would be more likely to deform than to shatter.

http://www.gizmag.com/mollusk-nacre-tougher-glass/30654/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget




-----------

Tough-as-nails ceramic inspired by mother-of-pearl

 March 25, 2014

 http://www.gizmag.com/mother-of-pearl-nacre-ceramic/31367/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

Although you may know it simply as the shiny iridescent stuff on the inside of mollusk shells, mother-of-pearl (or nacre) is a remarkable material. It allows those shells, which otherwise consist almost entirely of brittle calcium carbonate, to stand up to the abuses of life in the sea. Now, a team led by the Laboratoire de Synthèse et Fonctionnalisation des Céramiques (CNRS) in Paris, has copied the structure of nacre to create a ceramic material that's almost 10 times stronger than conventional ceramics.
Natural nacre consists of layers of microscopic tablet-like blocks, that have wavy edges not unlike jig-saw puzzle pieces. This means that when the material is subjected to mechanical stress, any cracks that start to form in the boundary lines between the tablets have to follow a very circuitous route. As a result, all but the largest cracks simply just peter out.
Scientists at Montreal's McGill University recently created super-strong glass, by etching nacre boundary line-like cracks in glass microscope slides. The CNRS team, however, took a different approach with the ceramic.
They started with a ceramic powder, made up of microscopic alumina platelets. That powder was suspended in water, and the resulting solution was then frozen. The ice crystallization process caused the platelets to self-assemble into stacks, the boundaries between which were similar to the wavy boundaries between nacre tablets. A high-temperature process was then used to increase the density of the material, thus removing the water.
In lab tests of the resulting ceramic, it was found that cracks had great difficulty spreading through it – as is the case with real nacre.
Additionally, the scientists state that the process should work with any type of ceramic powder (not just alumina), and it should be easy to scale up to industrial production levels. Besides simply making existing types of ceramic items stronger, the technology could also allow them to stay at the same strength, but be made much smaller.



-------------

New kind of smart-glass changes color and produces electricity

April 9, 2015
Many types of smart-glass have been created, some that display a tint when it gets sunny out, others that change to prevent heat from coming in, etc. In this new effort, the researchers sought to add something new—production of electricity. Realizing that many types of glass are subjected to rain and wind, they sought to find a way to coat a window that would take advantage of triboelectrics—capturing the energy in static electricity that occurs when two materials meet.

http://phys.org/news/2015-04-kind-smart-glass-electricity.html



-----------------


Vanadium dioxide 'smart glass' can be activated to block infrared light while remaining transparent to visible light

Nov 29, 2013


 'Smart glass' can switch from transparent to opaque at the flick of a switch and is increasingly used in cars, aircraft and homes to reduce the Sun's glare and filter out infrared light and heat. Masaki Nakano and colleagues from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science have now used vanadium dioxide to make a transparent material that can be activated to block infrared light without affecting its transparency for visible light.


Vanadium dioxide is a well-known thermochromic material that is transparent below about 30 °C and reflects infrared light above 60 °C. This transition is related to a change in crystal structure that also results in a shift from electrically insulating properties at lower temperatures to conductive properties at higher temperatures.



http://phys.org/news/2013-11-vanadium-dioxide-smart-glass-block.html#jCp


------------------



Ultrathin metasurface lenses do things conventional optics can't

 September 8, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/ultrathin-metamaterial-lens-jpl-caltech/39298/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


Once, the only way to manipulate light was with the use of a transparent glass or plastic lens whose shape and makeup determined such things as focus, magnification, and polarity. However, to incorporate all of these properties in the one optical system required a large and complex collection of multiple lenses to achieve. Now researchers working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a flat silicon metamaterial lens that manages all of these thing in a microminiaure device that electromagnetically controls the properties of any light passing it.

Using an arrangement of silicon nanopillars organized into a honeycomb pattern to form a "metasurface" able to control the direction and attributes of light waves, the new device may one day be mass-produced using much the same methods employed to create computer chips today.
As such, the researchers believe that applications for their creation may include cutting-edge microscopes, displays, sensors, and cameras that could all take advantage of the superior characteristics of high-quality lenses at a fraction of the price.

--------------------


Processing technology to improve the electrical properties of glass ceramic circuit boards

July 8, 2015



As you ease your foot off the accelerator, a radar sensor detects how far away you are from the other cars and intelligently adjusts your speed appropriately. Technology like this is already helping to improve road safety and is set to become even more commonplace. From an electrical engineering perspective, manufacturing sensors of this kind is an extremely tricky process: the sensors have to be able to operate at very high frequencies but still need to be precise and efficient. TU Wien has now managed to develop a new processing technology for the high-precision nanostructuring of glass ceramic circuit boards. This means that the material properties can be adjusted, thereby significantly improving the electromagnetic behaviour of the sensor.


http://phys.org/news/2015-07-technology-electrical-properties-glass-ceramic.html#nRlv

---------------


Stretchable, transparent heater made from metallic glass


January 7, 2016


Researchers have fabricated a stretchable and transparent electrode that can be used for applications such as heating parts of the body and defrosting the side view mirrors on cars. It is the first stretchable electronics device made from metallic glass, which is a metal that has an amorphous (disordered) structure like that of a glass, instead of the highly ordered crystalline structure that metals normally have.


 http://phys.org/news/2016-01-stretchable-transparent-heater-metallic-glass.html

----------------

The Glass Age, Part 1: Flexible, Bendable Glass



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12OSBJwogFc

--------------------------------------

Some question the toxicity in some of the glass, mentioned in the following video, "The Glass Age."


------------------

The Glass Age, Part 2: Strong, Durable Glass

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13B5K_lAabw





-----------------------

World's Strongest Materials - New Full History HD Documentary

Nov 12, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwVlOLnqNaQ

--------------------------

 Space-Age Materials, One Atomic Layer at a Time

 08.10.12



 http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/atomic-layer_prt.htm


 A technologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., however, is experimenting with an emerging technology that might provide another, perhaps more effective, technique for defending sensitive spacecraft components from the high-velocity bombardments.

Vivek Dwivedi and his collaborator, chemical engineering professor Raymond Adomaitis from the University of Maryland, College Park, are using atomic layer deposition (ALD) — a rapidly evolving technology for coating plastics, semiconductors, glass, Teflon, and a plethora of other materials — to create a new super-strong, ultra-thin coating made of tiny tubes of boron nitride, similar in appearance to the bristles on a toothbrush.

''Crystalline boron nitride is one of the hardest materials in the world,'' Dwivedi said, making it ideal as a coating to make sensitive spacecraft component less susceptible to damage when struck by space dust, tiny rocks, and high-energy solar particles.

Atomic Layer Deposition

The ALD technique, which the semiconductor industry has adopted in its manufacturing of computer chips, involves placing a substrate material inside a reactor chamber and sequentially pulsing different types of precursor gases to create an ultrathin film whose layers are literally no thicker than a single atom.

ALD differs from other techniques for applying thin films because the process is split into two half reactions, is run in sequence, and is repeated for each layer. As a result, technicians can accurately control the thickness and composition of the deposited films, even deep inside pores and cavities. This gives ALD a unique ability to coat in and around 3-D objects. This advantage — coupled with the fact that technologists can create films at much lower temperatures than with the other techniques — has led many in the optics, electronics, energy, textile, and biomedical-device fields to replace older deposition techniques with ALD.

According to Dwivedi, if technicians use ALD to coat glass with aluminum oxide, for example, they can strengthen glass by more than 80 percent. The resulting thin films act like ''nano putty,'' filling the nanometer-scale defects found in glass — the very same tiny cracks that cause glass to break when struck by an object. ''This ALD application has profound possibilities for the next-generation crew modules,'' Dwivedi said. ''We could decrease the thickness of the glass windows without sacrificing strength.''


----------------------

9-Ton Slab of Glass Found in the Cave of Beit Shearim

Sep 17, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_eDWi46h7o

-----------------

MYSTERY OF THE GREEN GLASS


Dec 26, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLINtOTAoWI

----------------
----------------





Chapter 9: Light Energy


----------------
----------------



---------------------

 We can use light energy, for an abundance of new technology applications.

----------------------


Physicists make first observation of the pushing pressure of light

Jun 02, 2015
 
For more than 100 years, scientists have debated the question: when light travels through a medium such as oil or water, does it pull or push on the medium? While most experiments have found that light exerts a pulling pressure, in a new paper physicists have, for the first time, found evidence that light exerts a pushing pressure.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-physicists-pressure.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu


--------------


New route for switching magnets using light

September 16, 2015

An international team led by Radboud University physicists has discovered that reversing the poles of magnets must be possible without a heating or a magnetic field.. A strong pulse of light can have a direct effect on the strong quantum mechanical 'exchange interaction', therefore changing the magnetism (Nature Communications, 16 September 2015).

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-route-magnets.html#jCp


----------------



Twisting neutrons: Orbital angular momentum of neutron waves can be controlled

September 23, 2015

It's easy to contemplate the wave nature of light in common experience. White light passing through a prism spreads out into constituent colors; it diffracts from atmospheric moisture into a rainbow; light passing across a sharp edge or a diffraction grating creates an interference pattern. It's harder to fathom the wave behavior of things usually thought of as particles, such as electrons and atoms. And yet these matter waves play a role in physics and in technology. For example, electron beams, manifested as waves, provide an important form of microscopy.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-neutrons-orbital-angular-momentum-neutron.html#jCp






-----------------------------


Slow light speeds up the microscopic world

September 17, 2015



A team of researchers from the University of St Andrews and the University of York has slowed down the speed of light in a process which could have major applications in fundamental science and medical diagnosis.

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-microscopic-world.html#jCp



--------------


Physicists stop and store light traveling in an optical fiber
 





May 11, 2015 
  Researchers at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris have managed to store light that propagates in an optical fiber and to release it later on demand. By causing interaction between the traveling light and a few thousand atoms in the vicinity, they demonstrated an all-fibered memory.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-physicists-optical-fiber.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

----------------------

 

Physicists Prove Teleportation of Energy Is Possible

February 4, 2010



 Over five years ago, scientists succeeded in teleporting information. Unfortunately, the advance failed to bring us any closer to the Star Trek future we all dream of. Now, researchers in Japan have used the same principles to prove that energy can be teleported in the same fashion as information. Rather than just hastening the dawn of quantum computing, this development could lead to practical, significant changes in energy distribution.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-02/physicists-prove-teleportation-energy-theoretically-possible

 ----------------

 

 Physicists break distance record for quantum teleportation


September 22, 2015
 

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have "teleported" or transferred quantum information carried in light particles over 100 kilometers (km) of optical fiber, four times farther than the previous record.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-physicists-distance-quantum-teleportation.html#jCp

 

  ----------------



Image captures light as both wave and particle for very first time

 March 2, 2015


In 1905, Albert Einstein provided an explanation of the photoelectric effect – that various metals emit electrons when light is shined on them – by suggesting that a beam of light is not simply a wave of electromagnetic radiation, but is also made up of discrete packets of energy called photons. Though a long accepted tenet in physics, no experiment has ever directly observed this wave/particle duality. Now, however, researchers at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland claim to have captured an image of this phenomenon for the first time ever.

To achieve this, a team of researchers led by Assistant Professor Fabrizio Carbone at EPFL has performed an experiment using electrons to image light.
In essence, the team used extremely short (femtosecond) pulses of laser light directed at a miniscule nanowire made of silver and suspended on graphene film that acted as an electrical isolator (or metal-graphene dielectric). The laser light pumped energy into the system that then directly affected the charged particles in the nanowire, causing them to vibrate and effectively making the nanowire behave as what is known as a quasi-1D plasmonic nanoantenna.

In other words, the nanowire acted as a tiny antenna that generated radiation patterns in sympathy with the received laser excitation. This laser light then oscillated back-and-forth between the two ends of the nanoantenna and, in so doing, set up a standing wave of surface plasmon polaritons (electromagnetic waves that travel along the surface of a metal-dielectric or metal-air interface) in the wire.
Put simply, the light traveled along the wire in two opposite directions and, when these waves bounced back to the middle, they intersected with each other to form a new wave that appeared to be standing in place. This standing wave, radiating around the nanowire, then became the source of light used in the experiment.
Next, the researchers aimed a stream of electrons into the field generated around the nanowire, and used them to image the standing wave of light. When the electrons intermingled with the restrained light contained on the nanowire – that is, where they crashed into individual photons – they either sped up (gained energy) or slowed down (lost energy).

The team then used an imaging filter to select out only those electrons that had gained energy, and focused a UTEM (ultrafast transmission electron microscopy) instrument on these to image where each of the changes in energy state occurred, thereby allowing them to visualize the standing wave and make visible the physical makeup of the wave-nature of the light.

Simultaneously, this also demonstrated the particle nature of the imaged light by demonstrating that the change in speed of the interacting electrons and photons shows as an exchange of energy "packets" (quanta) between the electrons and the photons. This demonstrated that the light on the nanowire was also behaving as particles.

"This experiment demonstrates that, for the first time ever, we can film quantum mechanics – and its paradoxical nature – directly," said Professor Carbone.



 http://www.gizmag.com/first-photograph-light-particle-wave/36361/

---------

Video camera could record indefinitely, powered only by light from the image it captures

 April 16, 2015

 By using the light reflected from the object being recorded, researchers claim to have created a prototype video camera that could potentially record indefinitely under its own power. By incorporating energy-harvesting photodiodes within the pixels of its image-capture array, the new camera produces self-sustaining electrical power while simultaneously capturing video footage.

 http://www.gizmag.com/self-powered-video-camera-photodiode-pixels/37025/

--------------------



Optical metacage blocks light from entering or escaping

December 2, 2015


Physicists have built a nanowire cage that blocks one or more wavelengths of light from either entering or escaping, yet allows liquids and gases to pass through the small gaps between the nanowires. The "optical metacage" takes advantage of the optical properties of nanowire structures, and could have applications including protecting microorganisms from radiation, optically shielding nanophotonics components, and laser-driven drug delivery.


http://phys.org/news/2015-12-optical-metacage-blocks.html

-------------------------

 

Ringing in a new way to measure and modulate trapped light

 







December 22, 2015

 Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a novel way to noninvasively measure and map how and where trapped light vibrates within microscale optical resonators.

The new technique not only makes for more accurate measurements but also allows scientists to fine-tune the trapped light's frequency by subtly altering the shape of the resonator itself.

 

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-modulate.html

 

---------------- 

 

 Tiny gears increase light-to-work conversion efficiency by five orders of magnitude (w/ video)
 

August 17, 2015

 

 

 

 Scientists have demonstrated that pinwheel-shaped microgears floating on a liquid surface can rotate at speeds of up to 300 r.p.m. when illuminated by an ordinary LED. This light-driven motion, which arises because the light creates a tiny temperature difference and, subsequently, a surface tension difference in the surrounding fluid, is about five orders of magnitude more efficient than other mechanisms that convert light into work. As the effect is not size-dependent, the scientists expect that the system could be scaled to both the macroscale and the nanoscale.


http://phys.org/news/2015-08-tiny-gears-light-to-work-conversion-efficiency.html#jCp

 

 

----------------- 

 A molecular light switch?... Just add water


December 16, 2015

 A bit of stray moisture during an experiment tipped off scientists about the strange behavior of a complex oxide material they were studying—shedding light on its potential for improving chemical sensors, computing and information storage. In the presence of a water molecule on its surface, the layered material emits ultraviolet light from its interior. A team of researchers from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California at Berkeley, and Temple University recently published its discovery that it is possible to control UV light production via a chemical reaction that functions like flipping a light switch.

 

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-molecular.html

 

-------------- 

 

One-way light beam can be steered in different directions

January 11, 2016 
 

 Over the past few years, scientists have demonstrated the phenomenon of "one-way light," in which a light beam propagates in one direction only. The materials used to achieve this effect can be thought of as optical diodes, in analogy to the diodes used in electric circuits that allow an electric current to travel in one direction while prohibiting it from traveling in the opposite direction. One-way light could play an important role in integrated photonic circuits, which perform operations using beams of light instead of an electric current.

  http://phys.org/news/2016-01-one-way.html

 

  -----------

 

 Light propagates through the surface of new photonic crystal without being scattered
 

September 18, 2015

 NIMS MANA researchers elucidated a new principle whereby electromagnetic waves including light propagate on the surface of a photonic crystal without being scattered.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-propagates-surface-photonic-crystal.html#nRlv

 

----------------- 

 

"Solid" light reveals new insights about quantum mechanics

  September 18, 2014

 

 

 Researchers at Princeton University have devised a method for giving light the properties of liquids and solids, with huge potential ramifications in the study of quantum mechanics and other areas of physics.

http://www.gizmag.com/solid-light-quantum-mechanics/33865/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-----------

 

Physicists propose method for braiding light

August 22, 2016
 
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-physicists-method-braiding.html

  --------

Groundbreaking experiment aims to create matter from light

  May 18, 2014

 

Researchers at Imperial College London have devised a method of achieving light to matter transformation at power levels orders of magnitude lower than previously thought possible...

 http://www.gizmag.com/experiment-to-turn-light-into-matter/32107/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-------------

 

Light and matter merge in quantum coupling

 






August 22, 2016

  Where light and matter intersect, the world illuminates. Where light and matter interact so strongly that they become one, they illuminate a world of new physics, according to Rice University scientists.

Rice physicists are closing in on a way to create a new condensed matter state in which all the electrons in a material act as one by manipulating them with light and a magnetic field. The effect made possible by a custom-built, finely tuned cavity for terahertz radiation shows one of the strongest light-matter coupling phenomena ever observed.

The work by Rice physicist Junichiro Kono and his colleagues is described in Nature Physics. It could help advance technologies like quantum computers and communications by revealing new phenomena to those who study cavity quantum electrodynamics and condensed matter physics, Kono said.


http://phys.org/news/2016-08-merge-quantum-coupling.html#jCp

 

----------------

For faster battery charging, try a quantum battery?

August 3, 2015

  
Physicists have shown that a quantum battery—basically, a quantum system such as a qubit that stores energy in its quantum states—can theoretically be charged at a faster rate than conventional batteries. This "quantum speedup" arises from quantum entanglement among multiple qubits, which essentially provides a shortcut between the qubits' uncharged and charged states, allowing for faster charging.

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-faster-battery-quantum.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu




--------------------


Stanford breakthrough heralds super-efficient light-based computers

 May 28, 2015

 

 

Light can transmit more data while consuming far less power than electricity, and an engineering feat brings optical data transport closer to replacing wires.

Infrared light enters this silicon structure from the left. The cut-out patterns, determined by an algorithm, route two different frequencies of this light into the pathways on the right. This is a greatly magnified image of a working device that is about the size of a speck of dust.

http://www.opli.net/opli_magazine/eo/2015/stanford-breakthrough-heralds-super-efficient-light-based-computers-may-news/


-----------


Quantum computer that 'computes without running' sets efficiency record

August 31, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-quantum-efficiency.html

Due to quantum effects, it's possible to build a quantum computer that computes without running—or as the scientists explain, "the result of a computation may be learned without actually running the computer." So far, however, the efficiency of this process, which is called counterfactual computation (CFC), has had an upper limit of 50%, limiting its practical applications.


Now in a new paper, scientists have experimentally demonstrated a slightly different version called a "generalized CFC" that has an efficiency of 85% with the potential to reach 100%. This improvement opens the doors to realizing a much greater variety of applications, such as low-light medical X-rays and the imaging of delicate biological cells and proteins—in certain cases, using only a single photon.


--------------




Breakthrough rectenna converts light into DC current


September 30, 2015



Rectifying antennas – "rectennas" – are used as parasitic power capture devices that absorb radio frequency (RF) energy and convert it into usable electrical power. Constructing such devices to absorb and rectify at optical wavelengths has proved impractical in the past, but the advent of carbon nanotubes and advances in microscopic manufacturing technology have allowed engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to create rectennas that capture and convert light to direct electrical current. The researchers believe that their creation may eventually help double the efficiency of solar energy harvesting.


http://www.gizmag.com/carbon-nanotube-rectenna-light-electricity-georgia-tech/39631/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget



----------------



Engineers demo first processor that uses light for ultrafast communications
 






December 23, 2015 
 
 
Engineers have successfully married electrons and photons within a single-chip microprocessor, a landmark development that opens the door to ultrafast, low-power data crunching.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-demo-processor-ultrafast.html#jCp


---------


Internet by light promises to leave Wi-Fi eating dust

February 23, 2016
Connecting your smartphone to the web with just a lamp—that is the promise of Li-Fi, featuring Internet access 100 times faster than Wi-Fi with revolutionary wireless technology.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-internet-wi-fi.html#nRlv


-------------

Are sound waves a better way to move data?


November 6, 2015

Researchers from the University of Leeds and Sheffield University have created a way to move data through magnetic nanowires by using surface acoustic waves as the motivating force. Being developed for use in so-called racetrack solid-state memory, the researchers claim that using sound waves for data transfer should markedly increase computer processing speeds while vastly reducing power consumption. Developed by IBM, racetrack memory (where data runs up and down a track of wires like race cars, hence the name) uses the transition between different magnetic moments (directions) in the domain walls separating each of the magnetic areas found in the nanowires that make up the memory. As each transition between these areas results in an angular displacement (a change of magnetic "direction") of 90 or 180 degrees, the racetrack memory allocates a one or zero to each of these changes to represent binary data along the length of the wire.


 http://www.gizmag.com/sound-waves-racetrack-data-memory/40231/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget



--------------



What element is attracted the most to a magnet?


Jan 31, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COWNJghBs3Y


--------------------



Making ferrofluid from scratch


Jul 5, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L8yUY-doNc

--------------



Material that could revolutionize memory storage is magnetic, but not as we know it


November 2, 2015



Using a type of magnetic insulator material that normally doesn’t conduct electricity, scientists working at Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have shown that electric currents can still be made to flow along the borders of the grains within the material. This latest research not only validates a long-held belief that magnetic insulators could be used to conduct electricity, but offers a more tantalizing possibility of creating highly-efficient magnetic memory devices.

http://www.gizmag.com/magnetic-insulator-memory-storage-slac/40166/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-------------


Magnetic substructure leads way to superfast and precise data storage
 






January 12, 2015 
 
 
With a surprising discovery, an international team of scientists from Radboud University, Switzerland and Japan demonstrates the feasibility of selective magnetization switching inside a microstructure by using laser light. Their findings open opportunities for very-high-density information storage media.


http://phys.org/news/2015-01-magnetic-substructure-superfast-precise-storage.html#nRlv


------------------

Making a new generation of memristors for digital memory and computation

February 3, 2016

Memristors are a new class of electrical circuits—and they could end the silicon era and change electronics forever. Since HP first developed a working prototype with a titanium dioxide film in 2008, engineers have sought to perfect the model.

Now, researchers at Michigan Technological University have made an ideal memristor based on molybdenum disulfide nanosheets. Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Carroll McArthur Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, led the research, which was published in Nano Letters this January.

Beyond Binary Code

Transistors based on silicon, which is the main component of computer chips, work using a flow of electrons. If the flow of electrons is interrupted in a transistor, all information is lost. However, memristors are electrical devices with memory; their resistance is dependent on the dynamic evolution of internal state variables. In other words, memristors can remember the amount of charge that was flowing through the material and retain the data even when the power is turned off.

"Memristors can be used to create super-fast memory chips with more data at less energy consumption" Hu says.

Additionally, a transistor is confined by binary codes—all the ones and zeros that run the internet, Candy Crush games, Fitbits and home computers. In contrast, memristors function in a similar way to a human brain using multiple levels, actually every number between zero and one. Memristors will lead to a revolution for computers and provide a chance to create human-like artificial intelligence.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-memristors-digital-memory.html#nRlv



-------------


Precise molecular fingerprinting on the fly
 






December 22, 2015
 Electro-optic modulators, which can switch light on and off within just picoseconds, are enabling ever faster telecommunication over optical glass fibres, so that large movies can be streamed more smoothly across oceans into our homes. The same tools have now been harnessed for high-speed and accurate molecular sensing, as reported by an international collaboration around Dr. Nathalie Picqué, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, in a letter published in Nature Photonics, 21 December 2015. The collaboration partners are with the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne (France) and the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d'Orsay (France).



 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-precise-molecular-fingerprinting.html


----------------

World's smallest beamsplitter paves way toward computing at the speed of light


May 18, 2015


 Silicon photonics is an emerging technology that incorporates electronic circuits using photons of laser light rather than electrons to transmit, receive, and manipulate information. As such, a silicon photonic CPU could potentially process information at the speed of light – millions of times faster than computers available today. In a step towards this goal, engineers working at the University of Utah have developed an ultra-compact photonic beam-splitter so small that millions of these devices could fit on a single silicon chip.


http://www.gizmag.com/computing-lightspeed-photonics-beamsplitter/37562/


------

We can make applications for light energy even more broken down, with the splitting of electrons.


-----

When an electron splits in two

May 12, 2015

As an elementary particle, the electron cannot be broken down into smaller particles, at least as far as is currently known. However, in a phenomenon called electron fractionalization, in certain materials an electron can be broken down into smaller "charge pulses," each of which carries a fraction of the electron's charge. Although electron fractionalization has many interesting implications, its origins are not well understood. -

 

- Gaining a better understanding of electron fractionalization could have a variety of implications for research in condensed matter physics, such as controlling single-electron currents in one-dimensional wires.

The experiment reveals that, when a single electron fractionalizes into two pulses, the final state cannot be described as a single-particle state, but rather as a collective state composed of several excitations. For this reason, the fractionalization process destroys the original electron particle. Electron destruction can be measured by the decoherence of the electron's wave packet.


http://phys.org/news/2015-05-electron.html#jCp


--------



Researchers first to create a single-molecule diode

 






May 25, 2015 
 
 
 Under the direction of Latha Venkataraman, associate professor of applied physics at Columbia Engineering, researchers have designed a new technique to create a single-molecule diode, and, in doing so, they have developed molecular diodes that perform 50 times better than all prior designs. Venkataraman's group is the first to develop a single-molecule diode that may have real-world technological applications for nanoscale devices. Their paper, "Single-Molecule Diodes with High On-Off Ratios through Environmental Control," is published May 25 in Nature Nanotechnology. "Our new approach created a single-molecule diode that has a high (>250) rectification and a high "on" current (~ 0.1 micro Amps)," says Venkataraman. "Constructing a device where the active elements are only a single molecule has long been a tantalizing dream in nanoscience. This goal, which has been the 'holy grail' of molecular electronics ever since its inception with Aviram and Ratner's 1974 seminal paper, represents the ultimate in functional miniaturization that can be achieved for an electronic device."



 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-single-molecule-diode.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu


---------------------------


Webinar: One-dimensional quantum wire: physics and applications at ultra low temperatures

  
A webinar discussing quantum devices which have potential for the development of a quantum memory, based on encoding a bit on a polarised line of electrons.



 http://connect.physicsworld.com/nanotechnology/one-dimensional-quantum-wire-physics-and-applications/2002285.article#webinar

------------



Electronic contacts with a single molecule


 23 October 2013


 http://connect.physicsworld.com/nanotechnology/electronic-contacts-with-a-single-molecule/2001245.article



-----------------

Supercomputer study shows Lambda baryon a type of quark molecule

 

Apr 06, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-04-supercomputer-lambda-baryon-quark-molecule.html


  --------

  It is known that photons in light, carry physical resistances. For many years, scientists and researchers, have been trying to figure out how we can harness this type of physical energy from light.


-------------------


 If a flashlight was on and free floating in space would it accelerate?


 http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2p6fku/if_a_flashlight_was_on_and_free_floating_in_space/
Q: Would the emission of photos push the flashlight at all?
Short answer: Yes. Photons carry momentum, which would cause the flashlight to experience a force against the direction it was shining.



----


In quantum physics, some scientists claim that if you were able to pinpoint physical particles in a beam of light or a lazer, then connect or stretch those particles back to the source where the light originated. That it could be possible to send physical particles, from one location, to another. This could be achieved, at close to the speed of light, or even faster. Some even claim that plasma, or portals, may be the way of the future, for space travel.

----


Scientists At NASA Announce That Space Portals Actually Do Exist

 5th May 2015

 http://www.neonnettle.com/news/1432-scientists-at-nasa-announce-that-space-portals-actually-do-exist


----------


Experiment confirms quantum theory weirdness

May 27, 2015


 The bizarre nature of reality as laid out by quantum theory has survived another test, with scientists performing a famous experiment and proving that reality does not exist until it is measured.


 Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have conducted John Wheeler's delayed-choice thought experiment, which involves a moving object that is given the choice to act like a particle or a wave. Wheeler's experiment then asks - at which point does the object decide?

 Common sense says the object is either wave-like or particle-like, independent of how we measure it. But quantum physics predicts that whether you observe wave like behavior (interference) or particle behavior (no interference) depends only on how it is actually measured at the end of its journey. This is exactly what the ANU team found.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-quantum-theory-weirdness.html#jCp


---------------


Best of Last Week – A way to measure variations in the speed of light, a slower universe and plucking hair


Apr 13, 2015



(Phys.org)—It was a big week for physics. First, a trio of researchers proposed a method to measure variations in the speed of light—in alternative theories of cosmology where it has been theorized that time and space can vary. Also, another team showed that the "quantum freezing phenomenon" is universal—this describes conditions in which quantum correlations can be "frozen" in a constant state and remain that way in the presence of noise. Meanwhile another team suggested that "unparticles" may provide a new path to superconductivity—the hypothetical form of matter, the researchers suggest, could play a key role in mediating superconductivity.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-week-variations-slower-universe-plucking.html#jCp

-------

Traveling without moving: Quantum communication scheme transfers quantum states without transmitting physical particles

Mar 10, 2015

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-quantum-scheme-states-transmitting-physical.html#jCp


-------


 Light-based memory chip is the first ever to store data permanently

September 22, 2015

The world's first entirely light-based memory chip to store data permanently has been developed by material scientists at Oxford University and University of Münster in collaboration with scientists at Karlsruhe and Exeter. The device, which makes use of materials used in CDs and DVDs, could help dramatically improve the speed of modern computing
Today's computers are held back by the relatively slow transmission of electronic data between the processor and the memory. "There's no point using faster processors if the limiting factor is the shuttling of information to-and-from the memory—the so-called von-Neumann bottleneck," explains Professor Harish Bhaskaran, the Oxford engineer who led the research along with Professor Wolfram Pernice from the University of Münster. "But we think using light can significantly speed this up."

Simply bridging the processor-memory gap with photons isn't efficient, though, because of the need to convert them back into electronic signals at each end. Instead, memory and processing capabilities would need be light-based too. Researchers have tried to create this kind of photonic memory before, but the results have always been volatile, requiring power in order to store data. For many applications—such as computer disk drives—it's essential to be able to store data indefinitely, with or without power.



 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-light-based-memory-chip-permanently.html#jCp





----------

Unparticles may provide a new path to superconductivity

 

Apr 07, 2015
 
 (Phys.org)—Physicists have proposed that a hypothetical form of matter called "unparticles" may play a key role in mediating superconductivity—the ability of certain materials to conduct electricity with zero resistance.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-unparticles-path-superconductivity.html#jCp



---------

We can use energy from the sun, including materials that can bend and fluctuate, to create and store energy. This type of energy, is mentioned in our next book, in the chapter titled "Piezoelectric energy."

---------

Energy-Harvesting "Piezo-tree" to Produce Renewable Energy

 







----------



Chemistry student makes sun harvest breakthrough





May 06, 2015
- The group is working with molecules known as the dihydroazulene-vinylheptafulvene system. Put very simply, this stores energy by changing shape, but every time the Brøndsted group managed to design improved molecules, the molecules lost some of their ability to hold their energy storage configuration, says professor Brøndsted."Regardless of what we did to prevent it, the molecules would change their shape back and release the stored energy after just an hour or two. Anders' achievement was that he managed to double the energy density in a molecule that can hold its shape for a hundred years. Our only problem now is how we get it to release the energy again. The molecule does not seem to want to change its shape back again," says Mogens Brøndsted...
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-chemistry-student-sun-harvest-breakthrough.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu


---------


Magnetic Effect of Light Could Lead to New Solar Panels Technology







http://www.greenoptimistic.com/magnetic-effect-light-solar-energy-20110419/


-----------------


 Chemists find new way to do light-driven reactions in solar energy quest

August 6, 2015




Chemists have found a new, more efficient method to perform light-driven reactions, opening up another possible pathway to harness sunlight for energy. The journal Science is publishing the new method, which is based on plasmon - a special motion of electrons involved in the optical properties of metals.

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-chemists-light-driven-reactions-solar-energy.html#jCp



-----


 Most precise test of Lorentz symmetry for the photon finds that the speed of light is indeed constant

September 15, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-precise-lorentz-symmetry-photon-constant.html#jCp


-------------

 For more information on light energy, and how we can entangle giant objects, such as asteroids, with light and mirrors, view the chapter in our next book, titled Pollution Science 101 - 'Energy Science 101." Sound waves, can be used for a number of scientific applications, as well.


--------------------


----------------
----------------





Chapter 10: Solar & Hydrogen power


----------------
----------------



---------------------


 It is possible to make silicone for Solar panels, out of plant based materials. Many think this is a more sustainable way of making portable solar panels, instead of the current methods on how most solar panels are produced.

-------------


New shortcut to solar cells: Discovery employs electrodes as catalysts to make black silicon

May 13, 2015



An electron microscope image shows fine, light-absorbing pores and spikes created in minutes on the surface of a silicon wafer for solar cells. Gold electrodes do double duty in the black silicon process developed by scientists at Rice University by serving as a catalyst to etch the surface in minutes.



 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-shortcut-solar-cells-discovery-electrodes.html#jCp



-------------------












































Researchers create solar cells with record energy performance

Jun 05, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-solar-cells-energy.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu


---------------



Reshaping the solar spectrum to turn light to electricity
 





July 28, 2015 
 
 
- "The infrared region of the solar spectrum passes right through the photovoltaic materials that make up today's solar cells," explained Christopher Bardeen, a professor of chemistry. The research was a collaborative effort between him and Ming Lee Tang, an assistant professor of chemistry. "This is energy lost, no matter how good your solar cell. The hybrid material we have come up with first captures two infrared photons that would normally pass right through a solar cell without being converted to electricity, then adds their energies together to make one higher energy photon. This upconverted photon is readily absorbed by photovoltaic cells, generating electricity from light that normally would be wasted."Bardeen added that these materials are essentially "reshaping the solar spectrum" so that it better matches the photovoltaic materials used today in solar cells. The ability to utilize the infrared portion of the solar spectrum could boost solar photovoltaic efficiencies by 30 percent or more.

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-reshaping-solar-spectrum-electricity.html#jCp


---------------


New way to store solar energy could lead to more common solar cell usage

September 15, 2015
 Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have developed a relatively inexpensive and simple way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through a new electrodeposition method. The method produces highly efficient solar cells that can gather solar energy for use as fuel.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-solar-energy-common-cell-usage.html#jCp



-----------------



Green storage for green energy

Rechargeable battery to power a home from rooftop solar panels

Date:
September 24, 2015
 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150924151401.htm

Harvard researchers wanted to improve on their 2014 flow battery. Their goal was to replace the conventional bromine-bearing electrolyte with something nontoxic. In a paper released today, the team's findings "deliver the first high-performance, nonflammable, nontoxic, noncorrosive, and low-cost chemicals for flow batteries." A prototype of the battery is pictured.
Credit: Eliza Grinnell/Harvard Paulson School
A team of Harvard scientists and engineers has demonstrated a rechargeable battery that could make storage of electricity from intermittent energy sources like solar and wind safe and cost-effective for both residential and commercial use. The new research builds on earlier work by members of the same team that could enable cheaper and more reliable electricity storage at the grid level.

----------------------------

Watch A Spray-On Solar Cell Getting Made


December 9, 2014

 http://www.popsci.com/watch-spray-solar-cell-getting-made


--------------


Solar cells that can face almost any direction and keep themselves clean
 





December 16, 2015
In recent years, a complicated discussion over which direction solar cells should face—south or west—has likely left customers uncertain about the best way to orient their panels. Now researchers are attempting to resolve this issue by developing solar cells that can harvest light from almost any angle, and the panels self-clean to boot. Their report appears in the journal ACS Nano.



http://phys.org/news/2015-12-solar-cells.html

----------------

This Solar-Powered Engine Can Be Made With A 3D Printer

 April, 2015

 http://www.popsci.com/solar-powered-engine-can-be-made-3d-printer


--------------------------


DIY 3D Solar Panel Powers Electric Motor From 2 LED Flashlights


http://www.greenoptimistic.com/ryszard-dzikowski-3d-solar-panel-20100121/#.VSHSU-G-2zk

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  Solar Power Towers Are 'Vaporizing' Birds

February 20, 2015



The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada is set to come online in March. Once completed, it will use thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight on a tower, melting millions of pounds of salt contained inside. The molten salt will heat water into steam, which then turns turbines and generates electricity without any carbon byproducts. There’s just one little problem: During a test run on January 14, the intense heat from the mirrors reportedly incinerated and/or vaporized more than 100 birds.



Rewire reports that during the test, operators fired up a third of the 110-megawatt facility’s mirrors, concentrating sunlight on a spot 1,200 feet off the ground. Over a six-hour period, biologists counted 130 "streamers," or trails of smoke and water left behind as birds ignited and plummeted to their deaths. Rewire’s anonymous source said that at least one of the birds "turned white hot and vaporized completely."




http://www.popsci.com/solar-power-towers-are-vaporizing-birds

------------

Some people are concerned with the use of genetically modified algae, that could be used in the harvesting of energy.  This would also have to deal with the types of chemicals, that this type of algae could put into the atmosphere and natural waterways.

-------

Marine Algae Found to Harness Power of Quantum Mechanics


 February 3, 2010



Scientists still struggle to understand and harness the spooky physics of quantum mechanics, but nature may have a head start on us humans. Tiny marine algae apparently use the mysterious phenomenon called superposition -- where a particle can be in two places at the same time -- to move around solar energy they harvest through the process of photosynthesis.
This astounding find suggests that biological creatures may have adapted quantum mechanics for survival billions of years ago. It also demonstrates that quantum mechanics can prevail over classical physics even at normal temperatures, given that the algae can send energy flowing through several alternate biological paths simultaneously.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/marine-algae-harness-power-quantum-mechanics


----------------------



Algae could both provide biofuel and clean up wastewater

 April 6, 2015

Algae may indeed be a potential source of biofuel, but it can also find use in things like nutritional supplements and cosmetics. When it's grown commercially, its growth is usually aided with chemical fertilizers. The cost of those chemicals cuts into the profits, however, plus the fertilizers are also needed for more traditional crops. That's why scientists from Houston's Rice University are looking into growing algae in municipal wastewater – the water would already contain its own free fertilizer, plus the algae would help clean it up.

 http://www.gizmag.com/algae-wastewater/36875/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


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Energy transfer between carotenoids and bacteriochlorophylls in light-harvesting
complex II of purple bacteria



In photosynthetic light-harvesting systems carotenoids and chlorophylls jointly absorb light and transform its energy within about a picosecond into electronic singlet excitations of the chlorophylls only. This paper investigates this process for the light-harvesting complex II of the purple bacterium Rhodospirillum molis-chianum, for which a structure and, hence, the exact arrangement of the participating bacteriochlorophylls and carotenoids have recently become known. Based on this structure and on CI expansions of the electronic states of individual chromophores~bacteriochlorophylls and carotenoids as well as on an exciton description of a circular aggregate of bacteriochlorophylls, the excitation transfer between carotenoids and bacteriochlorophylls is described by means of Fermi’s golden rule...

http://www-s.ks.uiuc.edu/Publications/Papers/PDF/DAMJ99/DAMJ99.pdf

---------------------


We question the uses of genetically modified bacteria, for use in energy harvesting. This includes BPV types of technologies, which is able tap into the power of the use of photosynthesis of living organisms and plants. Many inventors want to use biotechnology, in order to create energy from living organisms. Many people think that this could solve the energy crisis, while others question how ethical many of these experiments are. This includes how far certain scientists are willing to go, to experiment with genetically modified organisms, as a source of energy.



----------------

"Living furniture" could power laptops and desk lamps

May 3, 2012

The BPV technology is able to generate electricity by tapping into the photosynthesis of living organisms such as cyanobacteria, moss, algae and vascular plants. As the name suggests, the Moss Table incorporates an array of BPV devices which generate electricity from a cluster of moss plants. While the present amount of energy generated by the table is not enough to power the featured table-lamp, it is the envisioned goal of the project. However, the research group was able to illustrate how the same BPV technology is able to power small devices like a digital clock, by applying some of the units that operate inside the Moss Table.

http://www.gizmag.com/living-furniture-moss-table/22397/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

------------------
New method for converting solar energy into electrical power using photo-bioelectrochemical cells

January 19, 2016

A new paradigm for the development of photo-bioelectrochemical cells has been reported in the journal Nature Energy by researchers from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Israel, and the University of Bochum, in Germany.

The design of photo-bioelectrochemical cells based on native photosynthetic reaction is attracting substantial recent interest as a means for the conversion of solar light energy into electrical power.

In the natural photosynthetic apparatus, photosynthetic reaction is coupled to biocatalytic transformations leading to CO2 fixation and O2 evolution. Although significant progress has been achieved in the integration of native photosystems with electrodes for light-to-electrical energy conversion, the conjugation of the photosystems to enzymes to yield photo-bioelectrocatalytic solar cells remains a challenge.

Now, researchers report on the construction of photo-bioelectrochemical cells using the native photosynthetic reaction and the enzymes glucose oxidase or glucose dehydrogenase. The system consists of modified integrated electrodes that include the natural photosynthetic reaction center, known as photosystem I, conjugated to the enzymes glucose oxidase or glucose dehydrogenase. The native proteins are electrically wired by means of chemical electron transfer mediators. Photoirradiation of the electrodes leads to the generation of electrical power, while oxidizing the glucose substrate acting as a fuel.

The system provides a model to harness the native photosynthetic apparatus for the conversion of solar light energy into electrical power, using biomass substrates as fuels. In contrast to numerous bioelectrochemical systems using electrical power to oxidize glucose, the present study introduces the implementation of the native photosystem to produce electrical power using light as the energy source.

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-method-solar-energy-electrical-power.html

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Brave North Carolina town fights back against sun-sucking solar panels

December 14, 2015

Congratulations to the town of Woodland, North Carolina! They are turning back the tide of insidious solar. They have voted for a complete moratorium on solar farms, after hearing from a retired science teacher, Jane Mann. According to the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald:
She is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would keep the plants from growing. She said she has observed areas near solar panels where the plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight. She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer.

http://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/brave-north-carolina-town-fights-back-against-sun-sucking-solar-panels.html

-----------------



Magnetic Effect of Light Could Lead to New Solar Panels Technology




http://www.greenoptimistic.com/magnetic-effect-light-solar-energy-20110419/

---------------

Sun-Powered Whirlwinds Spin The Solar Vortex, Results Cheaper Energy






Whirlwinds are being used to create electricity in Atlanta, at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Mark Simpson and Ari Glezer have built a device that harnesses the temperature difference between a hot metal sheet on the ground and the cooler air a meter above.


http://www.greenoptimistic.com/whirlwinds-solar-vortex-energy-20130307/

----------------


Producing electrical power with cardboard, tape, and a pencil

January 26, 2016

A small device made from everyday materials can generate enough energy to power several diodes. This clever discovery by an EPFL postdoctoral student was presented yesterday at a global conference on micro- and nano- systems in Shanghai.



http://phys.org/news/2016-01-electrical-power-cardboard-tape-pencil.html






--------------------











































New efficiency record for solar hydrogen production is 14 percent

September 15, 2015
 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-efficiency-solar-hydrogen-production-percent.html

 An international team has succeeded in considerably increasing the efficiency for direct solar water splitting with a tandem solar cell whose surfaces have been selectively modified. The new record value is 14 percent and thus tops the previous record of 12.4 percent, broken now for the first time in 17 years. Researchers from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, TU Ilmenau, Fraunhofer ISE and California Institute of Technology participated in the collaboration. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Solar energy is abundantly available globally, but unfortunately not constantly and not everywhere. One especially interesting solution for storing this energy is artificial photosynthesis. This is what every leaf can do, namely converting sunlight to chemical energy. That can take place with artificial systems based on semiconductors as well. These use the electrical power that sunlight creates in individual semiconductor components to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen possesses very high energy density, can be employed in many ways and could replace fossil fuels. In addition, no carbon dioxide harmful to the climate is released from hydrogen during combustion, instead only water. Until now, manufacturing of solar hydrogen at the industrial level has failed due to the costs, however. This is because the efficiency of artificial photosynthesis, i.e. the energy content of the hydrogen compared to that of sunlight, has simply been too low to produce hydrogen from the sun.


 -----------











































Study advances hydrogen production efforts

December 22, 2015
 NREL's scientists took a different approach to the PEC process, which uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The process requires special semiconductors, the PEC materials and catalysts to split the water. Previous work used precious metals such as platinum, ruthenium and iridium as catalysts attached to the semiconductors. A large-scale commercial effort using those precious metals wouldn't be cost-effective, however.

The use of cheaper molecular catalysts instead of precious metals has been proposed, but these have encountered issues with stability, and were found to have a lifespan shorter than the metal-based catalysts.

Instead, the NREL researchers decided to examine molecular catalysts outside of the liquid solution they are normally studied in to see if they could attach the catalyst directly onto the surface of the semiconductor. They were able to put a layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) on the surface of the semiconductor and bond the molecular catalyst to the TiO2.

Their work showed molecular catalysts can be as highly active as the precious metal-based catalysts.

Their research, "Water Reduction by a p-GaInP2 Photoelectrode Stabilized by an Amorphous TiO2 Coating and a Molecular Cobalt Catalyst," has been published in Nature Materials. Jing Gu and Yong Yan are lead authors of the paper. Contributors James Young, Nathan Neale and John Turner are all with NREL's Chemistry and Nanoscience Center. Contributor K. Xerxes Steirer is with NREL's Materials Science Center.


 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-advances-hydrogen-production-efforts.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

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Solar-powered hydrogen generation using two of the most abundant elements on Earth

June 23, 2015

 One potential clean energy future requires an economical, efficient, and relatively simple way to generate copious amounts of hydrogen for use in fuel-cells and hydrogen-powered vehicles. Often achieved by using electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, the ideal method would be to mine hydrogen from water using electricity generated directly from sunlight without the addition of any external power source. Hematite – the mineral form of iron – used in conjunction with silicon has shown some promise in this area, but low conversion efficiencies have slowed research. Now scientists have discovered a way to make great improvements, giving hope to using two of the most abundant elements on earth to efficiently produce hydrogen.

 http://www.gizmag.com/hydrogen-hematite-silicon-solar/38121/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


--------------


Record efficiency for converting solar energy to hydrogen without rare metals

December 8, 2014



Using solar energy to split water into its component parts, thereby allowing the solar energy to be stored as hydrogen fuel, generally involves one of two methods: using photoelectrochemical cells to directly split the water, or using solar cells to produce electricity to power an electrolyzer that separates the water molecules. One problem associated with the latter method is that it currently relies on rare metals. But now scientists from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have managed to do so using common materials, and have achieved a record solar energy to hydrogen conversion efficiency in the process.

 http://www.gizmag.com/record-efficiency-solar-water-splitting/35044/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

------------


Scientists create water splitter that runs on a single AAA battery

August 25, 2014


A new emissions-free device created by scientists at Stanford University uses an ordinary 1.5-volt battery to split water into hydrogen and oxygen at room temperature, potentially providing a low-cost method to power fuel cells in zero-emissions vehicles and buildings.

http://www.gizmag.com/water-splitter-aaa-battery-hydrogen-fuel-cell/33497/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------

SafeFlame torch turns water into fire

  November 5, 2013




http://www.gizmag.com/safeflame-water-flame-torch/29673/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

The pressurized acetylene and propane gas used in brazing and related tasks is highly flammable, and thus very dangerous. You know what isn't flammable, though? Water. Bearing that in mind, the European Union-funded SafeFlame consortium has developed a torch system that generates a flame using nothing but H2O and electricity.
SafeFlame utilizes an electrical current to electrolyze ordinary water, separating it into hydrogen and oxygen gas. Those gases are then mixed and ignited as they exit the torch's nozzle. By fine-tuning the proportions of the two gases, different types of flames can be produced for different applications.
Additionally, the length and heat of the flame can be adjusted by varying the amount of power delivered to the electrolyzer.


-------------

Inexpensive catalyst for producing hydrogen under real-world conditions found

 January 11, 2013



 Hydrogen has been hailed as the fuel of the future, but producing it cleanly using platinum as a catalyst is simply too costly to service the world's energy needs. On the flipside, producing hydrogen with fossil fuels not only releases CO2 as a byproduct, but is unsustainable, negating hydrogen's green potential. However, hydrogen may yet make good on its promise thanks to a group of scientists at the University of Cambridge.

http://www.gizmag.com/cambridge-hydrogen-cobalt-catalyst/25723/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


-------------


Can hydrogen bring the next great improvement to lithium batteries?

November 8, 2015

 New research from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has found that hydrogen can greatly improve both the capacity and conductivity of lithium-ion batteries. The research could also pave the way for better storage mediums for several energy options, including hydrogen itself.

 http://www.gizmag.com/hydrogen-treated-electrodes-lithium-ion-battery-performance-llnl/40278/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

 ---------------



 It is still debated if solar hydrogen, silicone or perovskite, would make the best sustainable option, for solar energy. Silicone can be made from sand, including plant material, which is sustainable.

-----

Perovskite

Perovskite (pronunciation: /pəˈrɒvskt/) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate, with the chemical formula CaTiO. The mineral was discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite


---------------

New solar panels are cheaper, more environmentally sustainable

 22 July 2015


 http://www.theoptimist.com/new-solar-panels-cheaper-environmentally-sustainable/

Scientists from Northwestern University have created a new type of solar panel that is less expensive to produce, better for the environment, and could eventually be more efficient at capturing the suns rays and turning them into energy.
Perovskite solar panels, solar cells with a crystal structure similar to that of calcium titanium oxide, have been around since 2008– but only in laboratories. A key component of perovskite cells (until now) is lead, which is used to absorb light into the solar cell.
A downside of using lead is its toxicity, which can poison the environment, and waterways if introduced to nature. Humans and animals exposed to large amounts of lead can contract lead poisoning.

----------------

New technique could produce the ideal light-absorbing material for solar cells

 February 3, 2015

 http://www.gizmag.com/transition-metal-oxides-solar-cells/35895/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

Solar cell efficiency has made significant strides in recent times, but cells are still far from their maximum theoretical efficiency, and part of the reason is that the semiconductors we use to build them don’t have ideal electrical properties. Researchers at Northwestern University have now found a way to tweak an important electrical feature of transition metal oxides, compounds commonly used as semiconductors, to build the optimal light-absorbing material for solar cells, lasers and photoelectrochemical cells.
In electronics, the band gap is a crucial feature of a semiconductor, measuring the amount of energy that an electron needs to be fed before it can start conducting electricity. Its size is measured in electronvolts (eV) and dictates whether a material will behave as a conductor (~0 eV), a semiconductor (~1–9 eV) or an insulator (~9 or more eV).
Being able to tweak the band gap at will would be incredibly useful. Solar cells, for instance, produce electricity whenever a photon travels to a silicon atom and "hits" it, giving one of silicon’s electrons enough energy to jump the band gap and become conductive. Tuning the band gap would mean being able to design the ideal semiconductor that can maximize the amount of energy harvested throughout the visible spectrum. However, current methods can only change the band gap by about one eV and can only do so by modifying the material’s chemical composition, which is not ideal.


-------------

Can This Mineral Power The Planet?

August 25, 2014



In only five years, the sunlight-to-energy efficiency of solar cells made from lab-grown perovskites has almost quintupled, from 3.8 to nearly 20 percent. Compare that to sluggish gains made with silicon technology, which took three decades to reach the same threshold. Today, commercial silicon panels top out at 18 percent. Perovskite cells may best that rate, and have the added advantage of being cheap and easy to manufacture. They could reduce the cost-per-watt of solar by more than half. Plus, some prototype cells are partially translucent, so researchers like Oxford University’s Henry Snaith see potential applications as windowpanes. But for all of perovskites’s promise, scientists still need to address three big challenges.

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/can-mineral-power-planet



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Quantum dots and perovskite combined to create new hyper-efficient light-emitting crystal

  July 16, 2015



http://www.gizmag.com/quantum-perovskite-light-emitting-crystal/38505/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

 Two optoelectronic materials getting a lot of press these days are perovskite and quantum dots. Both have been individually utilized by researchers to boost sunlight conversion to electrical current in solar cells, and to increase the efficacy of electrically-generated light. Now engineers at the University of Toronto (U of T) have combined both of these materials to create an ultra-efficient, super-luminescent hybrid crystal that they say will enable new records in power-to-light conversion efficiencies.


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Graphene-based solar cell hits record 15.6 percent efficiency

January 14, 2014



In 2012, researchers from the University of Florida reported a record efficiency of 8.6 percent for a prototype solar cell consisting of a wafer of silicon coated with a layer of graphene doped with trifluoromethanesulfonyl-amide (TFSA). Now another team is claiming a new record efficiency of 15.6 percent for a graphene-based solar cell by ditching the silicon all together.


http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-solar-cell-record-efficiency/30466/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

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Simplifying solar cells with a new mix of materials

January 27, 2016

 The new study, though, demonstrated a dopant-free silicon cell, referred to as a DASH cell (dopant free asymmetric heterocontact), with an average efficiency above 19 percent. This increased efficiency is a product of the new materials and a simple coating process for layers on the top and bottom of the device. Researchers showed it's possible to create their solar cell in just seven steps.

In this study, the research team used a crystalline silicon core (or wafer) and applied layers of dopant-free type of silicon called amorphous silicon.

Then, they applied ultrathin coatings of a material called molybdenum oxide, also known as moly oxide, at the sun-facing side of the solar cell, and lithium fluoride at the bottom surface. The two layers, having thicknesses of tens of nanometers, act as dopant-free contacts for holes and electrons, respectively.

 http://phys.org/news/2016-01-solar-cells-materials.html


---------------------



Who Killed the WATER Car?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CAzlW14k-w



----------------------


Miniature car runs only on the power of evaporating water

June 17, 2015 


http://www.gizmag.com/tiny-car-evaporating-water/38061/

--------------


Hydroelectric Generator: How to Build a Small One

http://www.greenoptimistic.com/hydroelectric-generator/#.VSFkS-G-2zk



----------------


HydroBee wants to be your personal hydroelectric generator

  November 19, 2013

There are already plenty of gadgets that allow people to charge their mobile devices while off the grid. Most of those products utilize solar power, while a few have gone the thermoelectric route. The HydroBee, however, generates electricity using the power of flowing water – think of it as a portable hydroelectric station.

http://www.gizmag.com/hydrobee-portable-hydroelectric-generator/29839/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------


World's First NUCLEAR SALT REACTOR - Documentary Films



Jan 25, 2015



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIDytUCRtTA




--------------


"Water-in-salt" battery bodes well for greener, safer grid storage

  December 6, 2015

Scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Army Research Laboratory have used high concentrations of salt in water to create safe, green batteries that could find use in anything from large-scale grid storage to spaceships and pacemakers.

 http://www.gizmag.com/water-in-salt-battery/40514/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

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Hydrogen fuel cells may turn corner in commercial drone use

December 16, 2015
 http://techxplore.com/news/2015-12-hydrogen-fuel-cells-corner-commercial.html

----------------


U.S. Navy Wants to Fuel Ships Using Seawater


 April 8, 2014


 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/04/08/u-s-navy-can-convert-seawater-fuel/#.VTnA5JO-2zk


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Scientists achieve perfect efficiency for water-splitting half-reaction

February 26, 2016
Splitting water is a two-step process, and in a new study, researchers have performed one of these steps (reduction) with 100% efficiency. The results shatter the previous record of 60% for hydrogen production with visible light, and emphasize that future research should focus on the other step (oxidation) in order to realize practical overall water splitting. The main application of splitting water into its components of oxygen and hydrogen is that the hydrogen can then be used to deliver energy to fuel cells for powering vehicles and electronic devices.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-scientists-efficiency-water-splitting-half-reaction.html#nRlv


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----------------
----------------






Chapter 11: Green computing

----------------
----------------



---------------------

We often hear about electronic waste that has many toxic chemicals. Electronic waste even has to be disposed of, in a different way, than average waste. One of our goals, is to make electronics biodegrade, and close to being as non-toxic to the environment, as possible. 


--------------

Self-Powered Solar Circuit Could Help Computing Become Greener and Faster





http://www.greenoptimistic.com/self-powered-solar-circuit-could-help-computing-become-greener-and-faster-20100205/#.VSHOEOG-2zk

-------------


How New Self-Healing Circuit Restores Electricity in 20 Seconds

 






----------

Maze-solving automatons can repair broken circuits (w/ video)

Apr 07, 2015
 
 
(Phys.org)—Modern electronic circuits may provide unprecedented flexibility and robustness, but even the best-made circuits are subject to open circuit faults—breaks caused by thermal, mechanical and electrical stress. In a new study, scientists have developed an intelligent self-healing mechanism that can locate open circuit faults—even when not in the line of sight—and then repair them by building bridges of tiny conductive particles to close the gap. The real-time repair mechanism could be especially useful for space technology, allowing open faults on satellites to be repaired without the need for expensive operations.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-maze-solving-automatons-broken-circuits-video.html#jCp
------------------------- 
 

Electrical circuit made of gel can repair itself

August 25, 2015
 
 Scientists have fabricated a flexible electrical circuit that, when cut into two pieces, can repair itself and fully restore its original conductivity. The circuit is made of a new gel that possesses a combination of properties that are not typically seen together: high conductivity, flexibility, and room-temperature self-healing. The gel could potentially offer self-healing for a variety of applications, including flexible electronics, soft robotics, artificial skins, biomimetic prostheses, and energy storage devices.
 
 http://phys.org/news/2015-08-electrical-circuit-gel.html#jCp
--------------------- 
 
 
 

Liquid metal could be used to create morphing electronics

 September 21, 2014
 http://www.gizmag.com/liquid-metal-morphing-electronics/33836/
Who could forget the scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day where the shape-shifting T-1000 reassembles itself from thousands of blobs of molten metal? Researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU) have taken the first steps to such science fiction becoming reality by developing a way to control the surface tension of liquid metals with the application of very low voltages. This may offer opportunities in a new field of morphing electronic circuits, self-healing electronics, or – one day – maybe even self-assembling terminator-style robots.

The liquid metal used by the researchers was an alloy of gallium and indium. Gallium is liquid just above room temperature at about 29° C (84° F), while Indium has a much higher melting point at around 156° C (312° F), yet when mixed together, they form an alloy that is liquid at room temperature. In other words, a eutectic alloy – one that is composed of metals with disparate melting points that, when combined, melt as a whole at a specific temperature.

Another important aspect of this eutectic alloy, and one that the researchers sought to exploit in their experiments, is its exceptionally high surface tension of approximately 500 millinewtons per meter (mN/m). The consequence of this is that a blob of this alloy resting on a surface will tend to form an almost spherical ball and hold its shape if undisturbed...
---------------------- 
 

Silicon-based metamaterials could bring photonic circuits

January 29, 2016
 
 New transparent metamaterials under development could make possible computer chips and interconnecting circuits that use light instead of electrons to process and transmit data, representing a potential leap in performance.
 http://phys.org/news/2016-01-silicon-based-metamaterials-photonic-circuits.html
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Fine-tuning organic circuits: Monolayer terminal groups and molecular junctions

Apr 03, 2015
 (Phys.org)—Self-assembled monolayers are organic molecules that spontaneously coordinate to a metal surface. If this metal surface is an electrode, then a current can pass through the organic monolayer and interact with a second electrode on the terminal side of the molecule. This current can be controlled by changing the characteristics of the organic molecule, such as making it longer or adding polar substituents or other functional groups. This tailoring of organic circuits is part of a bigger project of creating organic-based electronics.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-fine-tuning-circuits-monolayer-terminal-groups.html#jCp

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Random nanowire configurations increase conductivity over heavily ordered configurations

May 15, 2015



http://phys.org/news/2015-05-random-nanowire-configurations-heavily.html#nRlv


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----------------
----------------





Chapter 12: Chips, wires & Wafers

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----------------



---------------------




IBM to demonstrate first on-package silicon photonics

 March 13, 2015 

 One of the most tantalizing next-generation technologies that could dramatically reduce system power consumption and improve bandwidth is silicon photonics. This method of chip-to-chip communication uses silicon as an optical medium, and transmits data incredibly quickly with far better power consumption and thermals than traditional copper wires. Now, IBM is claiming to have advanced the technology a significant step by integrating a silicon photonic chip on the same package as a CPU.

 http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/201163-ibm-to-demonstrate-first-on-package-silicon-photonics

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Blue-fluorescent molecular nanocapsules created by simple mixing 'green-environmentally friendly' metal ions and bent organic blocks

 

 July 12, 2012

 New fluorescent molecular nanocapsules have potential applications as sensors, displays, and drug delivery systems (DDS).

 Michito Yoshizawa, Zhiou Li, and collaborators at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) synthesized ~1 nanometer-sized molecular capsules with an isolated cavity using green and inexpensive zinc and copper ions. In sharp contrast to previous molecular capsules and cages composed of precious metal ions such as palladium and platinum, these nanocapsules emit blue fluorescence with 80% efficiency.

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120712111634.htm



-------------

Certain groups are trying to use tiles in spacecraft, that do not require certain chemicals for waterproofing.

-------------

You could even implement a 3D-printer in space travel, to make items for space travel in space, from organic chemicals found in space.

-------------------------------

Growing Computers in Space? Novel Organic and Polymeric Materials for Optical Devices



http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1996/msad4sep96_1/



------------

We're One Step Closer to Blazingly Fast Computer Chips Made of Silicene

2/03/15
 http://gizmodo.com/were-one-step-closer-to-blazingly-fast-computer-chips-o-1683541326
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Researchers develop technique for integrating 'III-V' materials onto silicon wafers

 June 8th, 2015
 
  A team of IBM researchers in Zurich, Switzerland with support from colleagues in Yorktown Heights, New York has developed a relatively simple, robust and versatile process for growing crystals made from compound semiconductor materials that will allow them be integrated onto silicon wafers—an important step toward making future computer chips that will allow integrated circuits to continue shrinking in size and cost even as they increase in performance.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-technique-iii-v-materials-silicon-wafers.html#jCp


--------------

The First Plastic Computer Processor



Two recent developments—a plastic processor and printed memory—show that computing doesn’t have to rely on inflexible silicon.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/423410/the-first-plastic-computer-processor/



-------


Quantum computing breakthrough: Qubits made from standard silicon transistors


 October 6, 2015

In what is likely a major breakthrough for quantum computing, researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia have managed for the first time to build the fundamental blocks of a quantum computer in silicon. The device was created using standard manufacturing techniques, by modifying current-generation silicon transistors, and the technology could scale up to include thousands, even millions of entangled quantum bits on a single chip. Gizmag spoke to the lead researchers to find out more.

http://www.gizmag.com/silicon-quantum-computer/39711/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------





High-temperature superconductivity


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_superconductivity



----------------


Two spin liquids square off in an iron-based superconductor







August 5, 2015
 Despite a quarter-century of research since the discovery of the first high-temperature superconductors, scientists still don't have a clear picture of how these materials are able to conduct electricity with no energy loss. Studies to date have focused on finding long-range electronic and magnetic order in the materials, such as patterns of electron spins, based on the belief that this order underlies superconductivity. But a new study published online the week of August 3, 2015, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is challenging this notion.



http://phys.org/news/2015-08-liquids-square-iron-based-superconductor.html#jCp


---------------

 Superconducting secrets solved after 30 years

 15 Jun 2014

 See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/superconducting-secrets-solved-after-30-years#sthash.urBkHuLs.dpuf


Researchers from the University of Cambridge have found that ripples of electrons, known as charge density waves or charge order, create twisted ‘pockets’ of electrons in these materials, from which superconductivity emerges. The results are published in the June 15th issue of the journal Nature.

Low-temperature, or conventional, superconductors were first identified in the early 20th century, but they need to be cooled close to absolute zero (zero degrees on the Kelvin scale, or -273 degrees Celsius) before they start to display superconductivity. So-called high-temperature superconductors however, can display the same properties at temperatures up to 138 Kelvin (-135 degrees Celsius), making them much more suitable for practical applications.

Since they were first identified in the mid-1980s, the process of discovering new high-temperature superconductors could be best described as random. While researchers have identified the ingredients that make for a good low-temperature superconductor, high-temperature superconductors have been more reluctant to give up their secrets.

In a superconductor, as in any electronic device, current is carried via the charge on an electron. What is different about superconductors is that the electrons travel in tightly bound pairs. When traveling on their own, electrons tend to bump into each other, resulting in a loss of energy. But when paired up, the electrons move smoothly through a superconductor’s structure, which is why superconductors can carry current with no resistance. As long as the temperature is kept sufficiently low, the electron pairs will keep moving through the superconductor indefinitely.

Key to conventional superconductors are the interactions of electrons with the lattice structure of the material. These interactions generate a type of ‘glue’ which holds the electrons together. The strength of the glue is directly related to the strength of the superconductor, and when the superconductor is exposed to an increase in temperature or magnetic field strength, the glue is weakened, the electron pairs break apart and superconductivity is lost.  -


- Working with extremely strong magnetic fields, the researchers were able to kill the superconducting effect in cuprates - thin sheets of copper and oxygen separated by more complex types of atoms.

Previous attempts to determine the origins of superconductivity by determining the normal state have used temperature instead of magnetic field to break the electron pairs apart, which has led to inconclusive results.

As cuprates are such good superconductors, it took the strongest magnetic fields in the world – 100 Tesla, or roughly one million times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field – in order to suppress their superconducting properties.

These experiments were finally able to solve the mystery surrounding the origin of pockets of electrons in the normal state that pair to create superconductivity. It was previously widely held that electron pockets were located in the region of strongest superconductivity. Instead, the present experiments using strong magnetic fields revealed a peculiar undulating twisted pocket geometry -similar to Jenga bricks where each layer goes in a different direction to the one above or beneath it.

These results pinpointed the pocket locations to be where superconductivity is weakest, and their origin to be ripples of electrons known as charge density waves, or charge order. It is this normal state that is overridden to yield superconductivity in the family of cuprate superconductors studied.


---------


Physicists discover new properties of superconductivity






February 4, 2016 
 
 
 New findings from an international collaboration led by Canadian scientists may eventually lead to a theory of how superconductivity initiates at the atomic level, a key step in understanding how to harness the potential of materials that could provide lossless energy storage, levitating trains and ultra-fast supercomputers.



 http://phys.org/news/2016-02-physicists-properties-superconductivity.html


---------


New invention revolutionizes heat transport






February 1, 2016
 Scientists at Aalto University, Finland, have made a breakthrough in physics. They succeeded in transporting heat maximally effectively ten thousand times further than ever before. The discovery may lead to a giant leap in the development of quantum computers.
 http://phys.org/news/2016-02-revolutionizes.html



----------


Heavy fermions get nuclear boost on way to superconductivity






 

January 28, 2016


 In a surprising find, physicists from the United States, Germany and China have discovered that nuclear effects help bring about superconductivity in ytterbium dirhodium disilicide (YRS), one of the most-studied materials in a class of quantum critical compounds known as "heavy fermions."

The discovery, which is described in this week's issue of Science, marks the first time that superconductivity has been observed in YRS, a composite material that physicists have studied for more than a decade in an effort to probe the quantum effects believed to underlie high-temperature superconductivity.

Rice University physicist and study co-author Qimiao Si said the research provides further evidence that unconventional superconductivity arises from "quantum criticality."

 http://phys.org/news/2016-01-heavy-fermions-nuclear-boost-superconductivity.html



----------

Quantum Faraday and Kerr rotations in graphene

Published
Graphene, a monolayer sheet of carbon atoms, exhibits intriguing electronic properties that arise from its massless Dirac dispersion of electrons. A striking example is the half-integer quantum Hall effect, which endorses the presence of Dirac cones or, equivalently, a non-zero (π) Berry’s (topological) phase. It is curious how these anomalous features of Dirac electrons would affect optical properties. Here we observe the quantum magneto-optical Faraday and Kerr effects in graphene in the terahertz frequency range. Our results detect the quantum plateaus in the Faraday and Kerr rotations at precisely the quantum Hall steps that hallmark the Dirac electrons, with the rotation angle defined by the fine-structure constant. The robust quantum Hall plateaus in the optical regime, besides being conceptually interesting, may open avenues for new graphene-based optoelectronic applications.

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n5/full/ncomms2866.html


--------------------



Nano-Sized Gold Electricity Generators Moving a Step Ahead





http://www.greenoptimistic.com/nano-gold-electricity-generator-20090529/#.VSF32OG-2zk

 ----------------------------


Handbook of Renewable Energy Technology

https://books.google.com/books?id=jWtYPbnJQVcC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=harvesting+energy+from+the+earth%27s+rotation&source=bl&ots=Xs7SYcg6Vk&sig=7u5DQVq5V9T25dQL_sRkuai7oYc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=i98hVfPHE871oASxq4H4DA&ved=0CEUQ6AEwCDgU#v=onepage&q=harvesting%20energy%20from%20the%20earth%27s%20rotation&f=false



----------------------

Calcium-Aluminum High Voltage Power Cables Could be Lighter and More Durable






--------------------


 This Computer Is About to Change The World


Jul 22, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZP9CU-RPpw



--------------------


 PLANET-SIZED Computers - Technological Endpoints of Civilization


Apr 29, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmb1tNEGwmo


--------------------




----------------
----------------





Chapter 13: Nature & energy


----------------
----------------



---------------------

Pictures: Nature Yields New Ideas for Energy and Efficiency

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/04/pictures/120419-biomimicry-for-energy/

-------------

Pictures: Immense, Elusive Energy in the Forces of Nature

 Lightning
Volcanoes
Earthquakes
Hurricanes
Tsunami
Ocean waves
Wildfire

 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/03/pictures/120308-energy-in-forces-of-nature/

----------

Oyster – World's Largest Hydro-Electric Wave Energy Device Goes Online







--------------

Scotland to deploy largest hydro-electric wave energy farm to date (w/ video)

May 23, 2013
 http://phys.org/news/2013-05-scotland-deploy-largest-hydro-electric-energy.html

----------------


First osmosis power plant goes on stream in Norway

 November 2009

 http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18204-first-osmosis-power-plant-goes-on-stream-in-norway.html#.VSIRJuG-2zk

--------------

Statkraft osmotic power prototype in Hurum


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statkraft_osmotic_power_prototype_in_Hurum

---------------

Osmotic power


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_power
-----------

Tidal power

(Environmental concerns)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

-------------

Are tidal power plants slowing down Earth's rotation?


 http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/6400/are-tidal-power-plants-slowing-down-earths-rotation

---------------------


 Some people are concerned that mass-produced tidal energy harvesting technology, could be a concern for the environment. We must take into consideration, how the currents of the ocean water, even including the currents of the wind, that could be redirected by this technology.


----------------
----------------





 Chapter 14: Wind energy


----------------
----------------



---------------------



 ------------------

Some people question, if it would be sustainable, or a possible hazard, to able to harness energy from ions near the surface of the ocean. This includes different wind currents, around the globe, as being used as a source of energy. That is why many, question if wind energy, is really the best source of energy, for the planet.

 -------------

Ocean waves may hold secret to efficient renewable energy

September 8, 2015
 UC's Thomas Beck explains that every time a wave breaks, droplets of water containing ions go up in the air, but how those ions arrange near the surface of the droplets can affect the chemistry of what happens in the atmosphere around them.

 As the demand for renewable wind and solar energy steadily increases, the need to reduce the cost and extend the life of renewable energy storage batteries becomes even greater.

 By getting back to the basics, a University of Cincinnati quantum chemistry researcher looks at how and other molecules align and influence ionic distribution on the surface where air and the liquid meet. These findings have received respect from top physicists around the globe and show promise for enhancing the efficiency of renewable energy devices.


http://phys.org/news/2015-09-ocean-secret-efficient-renewable-energy.html#jCp


 ---------------

Oceanic Temperature Difference to Power 120 Hawaiian Homes in 2015



 A small power plant that can convert the temperature difference between deep ocean and surface ocean waters into electricity was unveiled in Hawaii last week, the first of its kind to be connected to the grid.


 http://www.greenoptimistic.com/oceanic-temperature-difference-power-hawaii/#.Ve-2o5e-2zk

-------------


Evaporation as New Source of Renewable Energy





 Evaporation is now becoming a source of renewable energy with the help of bacteria and the two new devices, Evaporation engine, and Moisture mill, invented by the Columbia University scientists.
While solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal, bio-energies are widely known, there are also other sources which are, now, less reliable as both research and technology in those fields are still in their initial stages. Evaporation is one such source and scientists are saying that it could become the world’s largest renewable energy source.
Though it is theoretically a known fact that during every energy transformation, it is possible to capture and store energy, in practical, with our today’s technology, we succeeded with only a few sources. Now, evaporation has also lost the game.

 http://www.greenoptimistic.com/evaporation-bacteria-energy/#.Ve-vFJe-2zk



-----------------

Giant kites to tap power of the high wind

 Aug, 2008

Experiments show that the power generated could provide electricity for 100,000 homes

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/aug/03/renewableenergy.energy
-------------------

Airborne wind turbine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_wind_turbine

-----

Directory:High Altitude Wind Power

Airborne Wind Solutions

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:High_Altitude_Wind_Power





------------------

Engineers study the benefits of adding a second, smaller rotor to wind turbines

Mar 10, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-benefits-adding-smaller-rotor-turbines.html#ajTabs

---------------

Invelox wind turbine claims 600% advantage in energy output


May 10, 2013

SheerWind, a wind power company from Minnesota, USA, has announced the results of tests it has carried out with its new Invelox wind power generation technology. The company says that during tests its turbine could generate six times more energy than the amount produced by traditional turbines mounted on towers. Besides, the costs of producing wind energy with Invelox are lower, delivering electricity with prices that can compete with natural gas and hydropower.

Invelox takes a novel approach to wind power generation as it doesn’t rely on high wind speeds. Instead, it captures wind at any speed, even a breeze, from a portal located above ground. The wind captured is then funneled through a duct where it will pick up speed. The resulting kinetic energy will drive the generator on the ground level. By bringing the airflow from the top of the tower, it’s possible to generate more power with smaller turbine blades, SheerWind says.

As to the sixfold output claim, as with many new technologies promising a performance breakthrough, it needs to be viewed with caution. SheerWind makes the claim based on its own comparative tests, the precise methodology of which is not entirely clear.


http://www.gizmag.com/invelox-wind-generator/27377/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget




--------------



Solar Wind Energy's Downdraft Tower generates its own wind all year round

 June 18, 2014

 When we think of wind power, we generally think of huge wind turbines sitting high atop towers where they can take advantage of the higher wind speeds. But Maryland-based Solar Wind Energy, Inc. is looking to turn wind power on its head with the Solar Wind Downdraft Tower, which places turbines at the base of a tower and generates its own wind to turn them.

 http://www.gizmag.com/solar-wind-energy-downdraft-tower/32607/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-------------------



Atmospheric Vortex Engine creates tornadoes to generate electricity

  December 20, 2012



 Tornadoes generally evoke the destructive force of nature at its most awesome. However, what if all that power could be harnessed to produce cheaper and more efficient electricity? This is just what Canadian engineer Louis Michaud proposes to achieve, with an invention dubbed the “Atmospheric Vortex Engine” (or AVE).

AVE works by introducing warm air into a circular station, whereupon the difference in temperature between this heated air and the atmosphere above creates a vortex – or controlled tornado, which in turn drives multiple wind turbines in order to create electricity. The vortex could be shut down by simply turning off the source of warm air.

http://www.gizmag.com/vortex-engine-tornadoes-electricity/25508/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-------------------

Smart wind turbines can predict the wind

Date:
January 5, 2010

Researchers in Denmark have recently completed the world's first successful test on a wind turbine with a laser-based anemometer built into the spinner in order to increase electricity generation. The results show that this system can predict wind direction, gusts of wind and turbulence.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100104092454.htm


--------


DualWingGenerator mimics flapping wings to harvest energy


April 2, 2014

Back in 2011, Festo created a natural-flight mimicking bionic seagull with flapping wings dubbed SmartBird. The company is now looking to apply similar principles in order to convert wind power into electricity with its DualWingGenerator system.

http://www.gizmag.com/festo-dualwinggenerator-turbine-energy-wind/31478/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-----------

Probing the limits of wind power generation

September 2, 2015

 Wind turbines remove kinetic energy from the atmospheric flow, which reduces wind speeds and limits generation rates of large wind farms. These interactions can be approximated using a vertical kinetic energy (VKE) flux method, which predicts that the maximum power generation potential is 26% of the instantaneous downward transport of kinetic energy using the preturbine climatology. We compare the energy flux method to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional atmospheric model equipped with a wind turbine parameterization over a 105 km2 region in the central United States. The WRF simulations yield a maximum generation of 1.1 We⋅m−2, whereas the VKE method predicts the time series while underestimating the maximum generation rate by about 50%. Because VKE derives the generation limit from the preturbine climatology, potential changes in the vertical kinetic energy flux from the free atmosphere are not considered. Such changes are important at night when WRF estimates are about twice the VKE value because wind turbines interact with the decoupled nocturnal low-level jet in this region. Daytime estimates agree better to 20% because the wind turbines induce comparatively small changes to the downward kinetic energy flux. This combination of downward transport limits and wind speed reductions explains why large-scale wind power generation in windy regions is limited to about 1 We⋅m−2, with VKE capturing this combination in a comparatively simple way.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-probing-limits-power.html#jCp

-----------------


Will Newer Wind Turbines Mean Fewer Bird Deaths?

 April 28, 2014

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/04/140427-altamont-pass-will-newer-wind-turbines-mean-fewer-bird-deaths/

------------------

 Recognizing health concerns in wind energy development a key recommendation in new study

January 26, 2016

As wind energy development blossoms in Canada and around the world, opposition at the community level is challenging the viability of the industry. A new study with research from the University of Waterloo, published in Nature Energy, identifies four major factors leading to disputes over wind farms, and offers recommendations on avoiding disagreements.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-01-health-energy-key.html#jCp
 As wind energy development blossoms in Canada and around the world, opposition at the community level is challenging the viability of the industry. A new study with research from the University of Waterloo, published in Nature Energy, identifies four major factors leading to disputes over wind farms, and offers recommendations on avoiding disagreements.




 http://phys.org/news/2016-01-health-energy-key.html

------------------------

EWICON bladeless wind turbine generates electricity using charged water droplets

April 3, 2013

Wind energy may be one of the more sustainable sources of power available, but the spinning blades of conventional wind turbines require regular maintenance and have attracted criticism from bird lovers. That might explain why we've seen wind turbine prototypes that enclose the blades in a chamber or replace them entirely with a disc-like system. But researchers in the Netherlands set out to eliminate the need for a mechanical component entirely and created the EWICON, a bladeless wind turbine with no moving parts that produces electricity using charged water droplets.

 http://www.gizmag.com/ewicon-bladeless-wind-turbine/26907/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
---------------

This giant straw is actually a vertical bladeless wind turbine

May 6, 2015

The Vortex wind generator represents a fairly radical break with conventional wind turbine design, in that it has no spinning blades (or any moving parts to wear out at all), and looks like nothing more than a giant straw that oscillates in the wind. It works not by spinning in the wind, but by taking advantage of a phenomenon called vorticity, or the Kármán vortex street, which is a "repeating pattern of swirling vortices."

http://www.treehugger.com/wind-technology/vortex-vertical-bladeless-wind-turbine.html


--------------------

----------------
----------------




Chapter 15: Air power

----------------
----------------



---------------------



Top five air powered vehicles

 http://inhabitat.com/top-five-air-powered-vehicles-coming-soon-to-the-us/aircar/

----------------------


Air Force scientists are working on hypersonic air vehicle

Jun 07, 2015

 Engineers said the US Air Force is getting closer to testing a hypersonic weapon. They are developing a hypersonic weapon based on an experimental scramjet program. What is a scramjet? NASA said in a "scramjet," or Supersonic Combustion Ramjet, the oxygen needed by the engine to combust is taken from the atmosphere passing through the vehicle rather than from an onboard tank. "Researchers predict scramjet speeds could reach 15 times the speed of sound. An 18-hour trip to Tokyo from New York City becomes a 2-hour flight," said NASA.

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-air-scientists-hypersonic-vehicle.html#jCp


-------------------


Non-rocket spacelaunch

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rocket_spacelaunch



--------------


Jet pack


 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack




--------------------

----------------
----------------





Chapter 16: Transportation



----------------
----------------



---------------------


If we could make a sustainable type of plastic, from materials such as kelp, including silicone, we could also make many plastic parts for appliances and vehicles.

----------------











































Plastic parts for internal combustion engines

Apr 2015
 http://phys.org/news/2015-04-plastic-internal-combustion.html#nRlv

-------------------------------

GE fires up fully 3D-printed jet engine


May 13, 2015


http://www.gizmag.com/ge-fires-up-all-3d-printed-jet-einge/37448/


------



18 of the coolest, weirdest, and most important electric cars of all time


http://www.networkworld.com/article/2912371/software/18-of-the-coolest-weirdest-and-most-important-electric-cars-of-all-time.html#slide1

------------------


Who killed The Electric Car




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75lqbA0uMM

----

Imagine the applications of being able to make 3d printed engines and motors. We even have exoskeletons to make paralyzed people, walk once again. This technology can even replace many wheelchairs eventually, for many people.

 --------

Completely paralyzed man steps out in robotic exoskeleton

September 2, 2015

 http://www.gizmag.com/ucla-robotic-exoskeleton-non-invasive-spinal-cord-stimulation/39216/

-------



Quadriplegic successfully uses mind-controlled robotic arm

 December 18, 2014


http://www.gizmag.com/quadriplegic-mind-controlled-robotic-arm/35275/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

----------


Pulley mechanism implant to better restore hand function


  • September 26, 2014
http://www.gizmag.com/pulley-implant-hand-function/33992/

---------------

Paralyzed man uses own brainwaves to walk again – no exoskeleton required

  September 23, 2015



 http://www.gizmag.com/paralyzed-man-brainswaves-walk/39550/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


----------

Spinal implant could one day let paralyzed people walk again

  January 9, 2015

Three years ago, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) reported success in getting rats with severed spinal cords to walk again. They did so by suspending the animals in a harness, then using implants to electrically stimulate neurons in their lower spinal cord. Although this ultimately resulted in the rats being able to run on their previously-paralyzed hind legs, the technology still wasn't practical for long-term use in humans. Thanks to new research conducted at EPFL, however, that may no longer be the case.

  http://www.gizmag.com/epfl-e-dura-spinal-cord-implant/35545/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------

Future Transportation Technology Will Blow Your Mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYOmZlTjsQ0
---------------


Radical railways: Top 10 transportation systems of the future



 http://www.gizmag.com/future-transport/22959/



-------------

Elon Musk's high-speed Hyperloop train makes more sense for Mars than California

July 13, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-elon-musk-high-speed-hyperloop-mars.html

Ever wanted to ride to work in a screaming roller-coaster gun? If your answer was yes: good news!

Elon Musk – of SpaceX and Tesla Motors fame – recently proposed the "Hyperloop," a high-speed floating train that's accelerated by magnets and coasts between destinations. Hailed as the train of the future, the concept is indeed pretty fancy. Described by Musk himself as "the fifth mode of transport," it's intended to provide fast and safe transit, largely self-powered with electricity generated by its own solar panels.


How would Hyperloop work?

The Hyperloop train concept is based on the idea of a "vactrain." That's a high-speed train run in a tube that has had all the air removed, making it a vacuum – hence the name. Having no air in the tube means (almost) no drag, the aerodynamic force that pushes in the opposite direction from which a train is traveling. So a vactrain could potentially travel really fast – think thousands of miles an hour.

---------


The future of rail travel, and why it doesn't look like Hyperloop

August 5, 2015
 http://phys.org/news/2015-08-future-rail-doesnt-hyperloop.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

--------------

Japan's maglev train breaks world speed record with 600km/h test run

Seven-car ‘magnetic levitation’ train hits top speed of 603km/h less than a week after breaking the 2003 record of 581km/h

 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/21/japans-maglev-train-notches-up-new-world-speed-record-in-test-run

-----------------




Fastest Car in the World: Worlds Top 5



 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXCYu_ROyhk


- ----------------------


Bloodhound SSC


Bloodhound SSC is a supersonic land vehicle currently in development. Its goal is to match or exceed 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h) achieving a new world land speed record. The pencil-shaped car, powered by a jet engine and a rocket engine is designed to reach 1,050 miles per hour (1,690 km/h). It is being developed and built with the intention of breaking the land speed record by 33%, the largest ever margin.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodhound_SSC

---------------------------


ThrustSSC


ThrustSSC, Thrust SSC, or Thrust supersonic car, is a British jet-propelled car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers and Jeremy Bliss.
Thrust SSC holds the World Land Speed Record, set on 15 October 1997, when it achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph) and became the first car to officially break the sound barrier.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThrustSSC
----------------------------

Unstoppable! Airless tire will never go flat

http://www.zdnet.com/article/unstoppable-airless-tire-will-never-go-flat/
-----------

Students design the tire of the future


December 29, 2014

 http://www.gizmag.com/hankook-tyre-design-challenge-2014/35380/


----------------------------

New nanogenerator harvests power from rolling tires

June 29, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-nanogenerator-harvests-power.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

-------------


The Magnetic Air Car: a Step Towards Free Energy Devices?








-------------------




Meet the electric motorcycle that's now the fastest production bike in the world

 

 The Lightning LS-218 boasts a model number that actually means something. Back in 2012, a prototype of the electric bike clocked in a wholly unnecessary (yet much appreciated) 218mph, helping it to win at Pikes Peak and setting it up to become the world's fastest production motorcycle. The finished version is now ready to make good on that promise, having just been revealed at the Quail Motorsport Gathering in California, prior to a scheduled launch in the summer -- at which point it'll likely cost upwards of $38,000.

 http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/20/lightning-ls-218-electric-motorbike-revealed/

---------------------


----------------
----------------




 Chapter 17: Alternative fuel



----------------
----------------



---------------------

Researchers produce new fuel from coal dust and algae

December 22, 2015

 Researchers at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in South Africa have developed a new fuel, known as Coalgae. Made from a combination of algae and coal dust, the latter of which is a waste product, the fuel could have a significant positive impact on the environment.

http://www.gizmag.com/nmmu-new-fuel-coalgae/41030/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

----------------

Audi just created diesel fuel from air and water


April 26, 2015

 Audi is making a new fuel for internal combustion engines that has the potential to make a big dent when it comes to climate change – that's because the synthetic diesel is made from just water and carbon dioxide.

 http://www.gizmag.com/audi-creates-e-diesel-from-co2/37130/

------------

Genetically modified soybeans produced by Monsanto, is now a giant problem around the world. Many people think that trying to genetically modify a soybean for biofuel may not be the best source of energy. Many think we should have more time to research, these types of experiments, before trying to mass-produce these types of genetically modified chemicals.

---------

Researchers Found An Enzyme That Could Get Gasoline From Thin Air

 

 Scientists at the University of California found a new way to get gasoline from thin air. According to them, an enzyme (located in the roots of soybeans) that normally produces ammonia from nitrogen gas, is able to convert carbon monoxide into propane (a common industrial byproduct used in kitchens across America). This could be the key to vehicles that run on air.

“This organism is a very common soil bacteria that is very well understood and has been studied for a long time. But while we were studying it, we realized that the enzyme has some unusual behavior”, said Markus Ribbe, a scientist at the University of California.

The research group has also isolated one particular enzyme to convert nitrogen into ammonia. Without nitrogen oxygen, the enzyme began to turn the carbon monoxide (CO) into short chains of carbon two and three atoms long generating propane. They hope to modify the enzyme so it can produce gasoline.



http://www.greenoptimistic.com/enzyme-gasoline-thin-air-20100808/#.VSX0nZO-2zk


----------





Catalyst that converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide in water

Jun 03, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-catalyst-carbon-dioxide-monoxide.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu


---------------



New process produces hydrogen from methane, without emitting CO2

  November 30, 2015

Natural gas accounts for over 28 percent of US energy consumption. Its main component, methane, is a widely-used fossil fuel but also a major contributor to rising CO2 levels, and thus climate change. To address this issue, researchers from the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a process that extracts the energy content of methane, in the form hydrogen, without producing carbon dioxide...

http://www.gizmag.com/hydrogen-production-methane-without-co2/40502/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------------

Simpler, cheaper way to make liquid methanol fuel using CO2 and sunlight


April 7, 2013


http://www.gizmag.com/photochemical-photosynthesis-uta-co2-methanol/26766/


----------------------


Carbon dioxide from the air converted into methanol

  • February 6, 2016
http://www.gizmag.com/air-co2-methanol-conversion-usc/41669/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-------------










































Scientists develop diesel that emits far less CO2

December 10, 2015
Researchers from KU Leuven and Utrecht University have discovered a new approach to the production of fuels. Their new method can be used to produce much cleaner diesel. It can quickly be scaled up for industrial use. In 5 to 10 years, we may see the first cars driven by this new clean diesel.
The production of fuel involves the use of catalysts. These substances trigger the chemical reactions that convert raw material into fuel. In the case of diesel, small catalyst granules are added to the raw material to sufficiently change the molecules of the raw material to produce useable fuel.


http://phys.org/news/2015-12-scientists-diesel-emits-co2.html

-------------










































New family of chemical structures can effectively remove CO2 from gas mixtures

July 16, 2015
A newly discovered family of chemical structures, published in Nature today, could increase the value of biogas and natural gas that contains carbon dioxide.


The new chemical structures, known as zeolites, have been created by an international team of researchers including Professor Xiaodong Zou and co-workers from the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Stockholm University.

The zeolites—crystalline aluminosilicates with frameworks that contain windows and cavities the size of small molecules—can separate out carbon dioxide more effectively from fuel gases than those previously known.

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-family-chemical-effectively-co2-gas.html#jCp
-------------



Solar cell sucks up CO2 and spits burnable fuel out the other side

 July 29, 2016


http://newatlas.com/solar-cell-co2-burnable-fuel/44645/


-------------

Posted: Mar 05, 2015

Breakthrough in energy harvesting could power 'life on Mars' 

 

 http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/space/newsid=39285.php












(Nanowerk News) Martian colonists could use an innovative new technique to harvest energy from carbon dioxide thanks to research pioneered at Northumbria University, Newcastle.
The technique, which has been proven for the first time by researchers at Northumbria, has been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications ("A sublimation heat engine").
The research proposes a new kind of engine for producing energy based on the Leidenfrost effect – a phenomenon which happens when a liquid comes into near contact with a surface much hotter than its boiling point. This effect is commonly seen in the way water appears to skitter across the surface of a hot pan, but it also applies to solid carbon dioxide, commonly known as dry ice. Blocks of dry ice are able to levitate above hot surfaces protected by a barrier of evaporated gas vapour. Northumbria’s research proposes using the vapour created by this effect to power an engine. This is the first time the Leidenfrost effect has been adapted as a way of harvesting energy.


The technique has exciting implications for working in extreme and alien environments, such as outer space, where it could be used to make long-term exploration and colonisation sustainable by using naturally occurring solid carbon dioxide as a resource rather than a waste product. If this could be realised, then future missions to Mars, such as those in the news recently, may not need to be ‘one-way’ after all.
Dry ice may not be abundant on Earth, but increasing evidence from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) suggests it may be a naturally occurring resource on Mars as suggested by the seasonal appearance of gullies on the surface of the red planet. If utilised in a Leidenfrost-based engine dry-ice deposits could provide the means to create future power stations on the surface of Mars.





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----------------
----------------




Chapter 18: Biofuel



----------------
----------------



---------------------




We have already seen the problems with genetically modified corn and soy. Many question if genetically modified tobacco plants, have been tested thoroughly. Different groups think that we still need better options for energy, other than biofuel. Many question the excess amount of chemicals, that are being burned in the air, from burning biofuel.  Some think that hydrogen energy, magnetic energy or electrical energy, may be cleaner, than certain types of biofuel. We have still not explored all of the possibilities yet, in the sustainable production of different types of biofuel. Biofuel can be made from many different plants, such as coffee grounds, sugarcane, hemp, corn  used cooking oil, and many other types of plants. With news laws, such as H.R. 1599, many are concerned that the government now has the authority, to genetically modify any plant, and approve it for human consumption. This includes the approval of genetically modified crops, to be burned for the use of biofuel. 

What implications and impacts on the atmosphere, could these types of experiments in genetically modified biofuel, have on the planet?

-----------


H.R.1599 - Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015


 This bill amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the developer of a bioengineered organism intended as food to submit a premarket biotechnology notification to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A “bioengineered organism” (commonly called a “genetically modified organism” or “GMO”) is a plant or part of a plant that has been modified through recombinant DNA techniques in a way that could not be obtained using conventional breeding techniques.


A food can be labeled as non-GMO even if it is produced with a GMO processing aid or enzyme or derived from animals fed GMO feed or given GMO drugs. The FDA must allow, but not require, GMO food to be labeled as GMO...



The FDA must allow, but not require, GMO food to be labeled as GMO...


https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1599



-----------------------

Scientists Hack Tobacco Plants to Grow Synthetic Photovoltaic Cells




---------------


Genetically Modified Tobacco Leaves Make Biofuel Efficiently

 
 http://www.greenoptimistic.com/tobacco-leaves-biofuel/#.VX__cEa-2zk
--------------


There have been many concerns, over the current production of genetically modified organisms, algae and bacteria to produce energy.

---------












































'Nano-raspberries' could bear fruit in fuel cells

Jun 09, 2015 
 
 
 Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a fast, simple process for making platinum 'nano-raspberries'—microscopic clusters of nanoscale particles of the precious metal. The berry-like shape is significant because it has a high surface area, which is helpful in the design of catalysts. Even better news for industrial chemists: the researchers figured out when and why the berry clusters clump into larger bunches of 'nano-grapes.' The research could help make fuel cells more practical.

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-nano-raspberries-fruit-fuel-cells.html#jCp



--------------


Researchers develop fermentation process to produce biofuels from waste biomass

  December 25, 2015

 Imagine a world where vehicles run on beer. Some might think of this as a devastating waste of good hops, but a University of Maryland (UMD) team sees a lot of promise for the idea. The team has been awarded a patent for a process that uses natural microorganisms to ferment biomass or gases into hydrocarbons. In short, they've figured out how to brew gasoline naturally...

 http://www.gizmag.com/umd-ferment-gasoline/41066/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-------------


New technique uses most abundant gas on Earth to help create bioethanol

 February 3, 2015

 http://www.gizmag.com/bacterium-nitrogen-gas-bioethanol/35883/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

Zymomonas mobilis bacterium might be tricky to say, but this bioethanol-producing microbe could become a household name if Indiana University (IU) biologists have their way. The biologists claim to have found a quicker, cheaper, cleaner way to increase bioethanol production in this microorganism by using the most abundant element in the Earth’s atmosphere: nitrogen gas (N2). By replacing chemical fertilizers with N2, production costs could be slashed and cellulose ethanol derived from wood pulp made much more economically viable – so much so that the researchers believe it may compete with corn ethanol and gasoline on price.

Cellulose found in woody plants such as trees, grasses, and other inedible plant substances – like olive stones – is generally low in nitrogen, which makes cellulose all that much more difficult to convert given that nitrogen is a staple requirement for feeding ethanol-producing microbes. As a result, cellulosic ethanol makers spend many millions of dollars a year on nitrogen-rich fertilizers such as diammonium phosphate or corn-steep liquor.


----------------






New Membrane by Chinese Scientist Can Make Fuel Cells Cheaper

 

 Fuel cells are said to be the next big thing in the auto industry. In fact, they already are the next big thing. Fuel cells take advantage of the joining force between the oxygen and the hydrogen, and create electricity, used to drive anything (a car, more commonly). Price is a prohibitive variable in fuel cells market, and that’s what’s keeping them from becoming mainstream. Current versions of fuel cells use platinum as a catalyst for their operation, and, as most of the people know, platinum is an expensive metal.
Lin Zhuang, from the Wuhan University in Hubei, China, has studied and designed a new fuel cell membrane that can make the usage of platinum in fuel cells history. It is much more cheap and can also become more efficient than the membranes that require the use of the expensive metal. His newly developed membrane is alkaline, not acidic, and makes it possible to use nickel instead of platinum.
The new membrane can also be mixed with the catalyst itself (nickel), making the whole assembly more efficient, because the contact surface between them is increased.

 http://www.greenoptimistic.com/lin-zhuang-fuel-cell-membrane-20081217/

---------------


Researchers discover a royal flush in powering fuel cells with wastewater
 





February 23, 2016 
 
 https://phys.org/news/2016-02-royal-flush-powering-fuel-cells.html
 
 As renewable energy sources goes, solar rays have historically hogged the limelight.
But two Virginia Tech researchers have stolen the spotlight from the sun by discovering a way to maximize the amount of electricity that can be generated from the wastewater we flush down the toilet.

An article recently published in Scientific Reports detailing their findings speaks to a growing sustainability movement to capture energy from existing waste to potentially make treatment facilities more energy-efficient.

Xueyang Feng and Jason He traced bacteria, which led them to discover that the working relationship between two specific substrates produced more energy than either did separately. This work will help take the mystery out of how electrochemically-active bacteria create energy. It could help in the development of new treatment system called a microbial fuel cell.


------------------


Added DNA could be used to authenticate premium olive oil 

April 25, 2014


When most people think of counterfeit goods, they probably picture things like handbags or watches. In fact, there's also a huge market for knock-off high-end food products, such as extra-virgin olive oil. Scientists from Switzerland's ETH Zurich research group, however, have come up with a possible method of thwarting the makers of that bogus oil – just add synthetic DNA particles to the real thing. And yes, consumers would proceed to swallow those particles.
Because DNA can be damaged by exposure to chemicals, light, and fluctuations in temperature when outside of a living organism, the particles are first encased in a protective silica coating. Iron oxide nanoparticles are also added, which come into the picture later.
The DNA particles can then be added to olive oil, with quite a small amount of them being sufficient for the task at hand – according to ETH, "Just a few grams of the new substance are enough to tag the entire olive oil production of Italy."
When stores subsequently wanted to verify the authenticity of tagged oil, they could use a magnet to retrieve some of the DNA particles from a sample of the liquid. This is where the attached iron oxide comes in, as it's drawn to magnets.
The DNA is then freed from its silica shell using a fluoride-based solution, and analyzed via an inexpensive process known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). If the code of the sampled DNA matched the code that was recorded when the DNA was added by the manufacturer, then the oil would be the genuine article.
Although it would be extremely difficult for counterfeiters to create DNA with that same code, they might be tempted to instead just add a bit of the authentic tagged oil to their own product, thereby mixing in some of its DNA. That wouldn't work, either, however, as it's also possible to measure the concentration of DNA particles in a sample – again, that amount would have to match the value that was recorded by the original manufacturer.
The particles reportedly don't alter the appearance or taste of the oil, and are said to be harmless to ingest. Silica and iron oxide are essentially sand and rust, and are already present in some commonly-consumed foods. As for DNA, we eat it every time we eat plant or animal products. That said, lead scientist Robert Grass thinks that the technology might go over better with consumers if the synthetic DNA were replaced with natural DNA, such as that of fruits or vegetables.
Application of the DNA particles would reportedly cost about 0.02 cents per liter of oil. The tagging system could also be used on a wide variety of other liquids, and has already been successfully tested on Bergamot essential oil, which is used in perfumes. Scientists at Portugal's University of Aveiro are working on a similar system, in which DNA "barcodes" can be added to both liquids and dry goods.

http://www.gizmag.com/olive-oil-dna-counterfeiting/31798/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-----------------

Even companies such as Boeing, are now trying to take advantage of the new biofuel market. 

-----------------------

Boeing opens cooking-oil-to-biofuel plant in China

October 23, 2014 

 

http://www.gizmag.com/boeing-comac-cooking-oil-biofuel-plant/34388/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

----------------

Boeing may convert forestry waste into biofuel

December 3, 2015 

 

 http://www.gizmag.com/boeing-forestry-waste-biofuel/40711/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


----------

22 Jan 2015:

Wood Pellets: Green Energy or
New Source of CO2 Emissions?


 http://e360.yale.edu/feature/wood_pellets_green_energy_or_new_source_of_co2_emissions/2840/

-------------


Are Biofuel Crops Actually Increasing Carbon Emissions?

 


- Graduate student Tyler Lark took a look at what happens when biofuel crops replace former wetlands or grasslands, and their findings were quite shocking. The issue arises when you consider that undisturbed forest, wetlands, and grasslands are already doing a fine job of carbon sequestration, all on their own.

Replacing those areas to biofuel crops actually results in a net increase in carbon emissions, according to the UW-Madison study. For example, between 2008 and 2012, the study determined that some seven million acres, about 11,000 square miles, of former grasslands and wetlands. About half of that, or an area the size of the state of Connecticut, was converted land for planting biofuel crops, such as soybeans and corn.

According to their calculations, the destruction of these natural carbon sequestering zones could possibly be responsible for as much carbon dioxide emissions as adding another 28 million cars to the road. In other terms, the UW-Madison study says that this is about as much carbon emissions as putting another 34 coal power plants in service.

Aside from other environmental impacts, such as natural habitat destruction, increased erosion, and increased irrigation, do we need to take another look at land use with regards to net carbon dioxide emissions related to biofuel crops?

http://www.greenoptimistic.com/biofuel-crops-carbon-emissions/#.VX_8cka-2zk


--------------


06 Apr 2015: Millions of Acres of Grasslands
Cleared For Biofuel Crops, Study Finds

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/millions_of_acres_of_grasslands_cleared_for_biofuel_crops_study_finds/4404/

---------------

List of forests cleared for biofuel -

https://www.google.com/search?q=10mm+motivational+poster&biw=1600&bih=799&source=lnms&sa=X&sqi=2&pjf=1&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAGoVChMIyuj-0IXwxgIVx6SICh2IegMN&dpr=1#q=list+of+forests+cleared+for+biofuel


---------------


Burning a little biofuel, may not that bad. Compared to all of the geothermal activity going on, in the Earth. The problem is when we burn, or consume too much of one resource. This includes using or extracting too many resources, from forests, to grow plants for biofuel.  People could also eat crops grown for food, instead of crops being grown to make biofuel. A better alternative would be to create cold fusion energy, or other sources of energy.





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Metal makes for a promising alternative to fossil fuels


  • December 12, 2015
Clean fuels come in many forms, but burning iron or aluminum seems to be stretching the definition – unless you ask a team of scientists led by McGill University, who see a low-carbon future that runs on metal. The team is studying the combustion characteristics of metal powders to determine whether such powders could provide a cleaner, more viable alternative to fossil fuels than hydrogen, biofuels, or electric batteries.

http://www.gizmag.com/mcgill-metal-powder-fuel/40869/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widg

 --------------------

New process recycles rare earth elements from wastewater

  October 31, 2013



Rare earth elements are an integral part of many of today's electronic devices, serving as magnets, catalysts and superconductors. Unfortunately, these minerals are also ... well, rare, and thus very pricey. Recently, however, scientists discovered that some of them can be reclaimed from industrial wastewater, instead of being mined from the earth.
The researchers, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, already knew that a nanomaterial known as nano-magnesium hydroxide (nano-Mg(OH)2) could remove some metals and dyes from wastewater. It was also known that the rare earth elements in wastewater tend to be very diluted, and thus quite difficult to remove in a practical, inexpensive fashion.

http://www.gizmag.com/rare-earth-element-wastewater/29630/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

 --------------

Gold and other valuable metals may be harvested from sewage

 March 24, 2015



Mining operations tend not be very good for the environment, nor does the disposal of treated solid waste that still contains potentially-toxic metals. Now, however, scientists are looking into taking that waste and harvesting its trace amounts of metals such as gold, silver and platinum. Doing so could ultimately reduce the need for mining and decrease the amount of metals entering the environment, while also turning sewage into a source of revenue.

http://www.gizmag.com/metals-from-biosolids/36695/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


-----------



Rare earths in bacteria: Methane-decomposing bacteria from hot springs need the valuable metals to produce energy

Date:
October 30, 2013
Source:
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Summary:
Rare earths are among the most precious raw materials of all. These metals are used in mobile telephones, display screens and computers. And they are apparently indispensable for some organisms as well. Scientists have discovered a bacterium which needs rare earths to grow -- in a hot spring.



 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131030125433.htm



---------


Engines of change: Scientists recover rare earths from electric and hybrid vehicle motors

Date:
September 30, 2015
Source:
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Summary:
In an effort to help develop a domestic supply of rare earth elements, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have developed a novel method of chemically separating these materials -- specifically neodymium, dysprosium, and praseodymium -- from the drive units and motors of discarded electric and hybrid cars. The goal is to recycle rare earths that would otherwise be lost in a sustainable and efficient manner.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150930140345.htm






------------------


 Team creates the world's first formic acid-based fuel cell


March 20, 2018

https://phys.org/news/2018-03-team-world-formic-acid-based-fuel.html


------------------


 Top Strongest Acids Ever


Aug 27, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7-MzBAF4gY


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----------------
----------------




Chapter 19: Sustainable Lubricants

 
----------------
----------------



---------------------

LiquiGlide poised to market superhydrophobic coating for wide range of products

Mar 25, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-liquiglide-poised-superhydrophobic-coating-wide.html

 -------
Some question if there could be a way, to make hydrophobic chemicals, to be able to biodegrade naturally in the wild. This includes if these superhydrophobic chemicals, have been properly tested, with the impact that it would have, in the environment.

-------

 Bacteria used to create superfluids
 

July 13, 2015



 A team of researchers with Université Paris-Sud and Université P.M. Curie/Université Paris-Diderot, both in France, has discovered that putting certain types of bacteria into an ordinary fluid, can cause it to become a superfluid. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the team describes how they modified an old rheometer to conduct the tests, their readings and their ideas on why the bacteria caused a change in viscosity.


A fluid's viscosity is its state of thickness as can be demonstrated when it is poured out—water will run out much faster than oil, for example. Viscosity comes about due to friction among the ingredients that make up the fluid. Scientists have suspected for a number of years that bacteria in a fluid can cause a change in its viscosity, but until now, it has not been proven. To do so, the researchers pulled out a rheometer (a device used to measure viscosity) that was built several decades ago—they modified it to allow for connecting to a computer.


 http://phys.org/news/2015-07-bacteria-superfluids.html

--------- 

 Many tests still need to be done, to see how certain types of synthesized bacteria to create superfluids, will react and biodegrade, in the wild.

Many people also want self lubricating devices, that are non-toxic. Such as the properties of the wood called lignum vitae.

-------------------


Lignum vitae


 https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Lignum_vitae

The wood is obtained chiefly from Guaiacum officinale and Guaiacum sanctum, both small, slow growing trees. All species of the genus Guaiacum are now listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as potentially endangered species. Demand for the wood has been reduced by modern materials science, which has led to polymer, alloys and composite materials that can take lignum vitae's place...


- "Lignum vitae" is Latin for "wood of life", and derives its name from its medicinal uses; lignum vitae resin has been used to treat a variety of medical conditions from coughs to arthritis, and chips of the wood can also be used to brew a tea.

Master clockmaker John Harrison used lignum vitae in the bearings and gears of his pendulum clocks and his first three marine chronometers (all of which were large clocks rather than watches), since the wood is self-lubricating. The use of lignum vitae eliminates the need for horological lubricating oil; 18th-century horological oil would get gummy and reduce the accuracy of a timepiece under unfavourable conditions (including those that prevail at sea).
For the same reason it was widely used in water-lubricated shaft bearings for ships and hydro-electric power plants, and in the stern-tube bearings of ship propellers until the 1960s saw the introduction of sealed white metal bearings. According to the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association website, the shaft bearings on the WWII submarine USS Pampanito (SS-383) were made of this wood. The aft main shaft strut bearings for USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, were composed of this wood. Also, the bearings in the original 1920s turbines of the Conowingo hydroelectric plant on the lower Susquehanna River were made from lignum vitae. The shaft bearings on the horizontal turbines at the Pointe du Bois generating station in Manitoba are made from lignum vitae. Other hydroelectric plant turbine bearings, many of them still in service, were fabricated with lignum vitae and are too numerous to list here.

------------------------


Greaseless ball bearings: A revolutionary spin on a design that's been around for ages


May 26, 2015


http://www.gizmag.com/greaseless-ball-bearings-coo-space-adb/37689/


-----------------------


Controlling Surface Topography with Particle-Enhanced Soft Composites

June 11, 2015



An MIT team has developed a way of making soft materials, using a 3-D printer, with surface textures that can then be modified at will to be perfectly smooth, or ridged or bumpy, or even to have complex patterns that could be used to guide fluids.

http://scitechdaily.com/controlling-surface-topography-with-particle-enhanced-soft-composites/

-----------------------


Graphene and diamonds prove a slippery combination

May 25, 2015



 Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have found a way to use tiny diamonds and graphene to give friction the slip, creating a new material combination that demonstrates the rare phenomenon of "superlubricity."


 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-graphene-diamonds-slippery-combination.html#ajTabs




----------

Silicone grease is even being used for lubrication on firearms. Even greases that contain a little lithium, have been used as greases. Many times lithium greases do not work as well on firearms. Often, they have synthetic versions, of this type of grease. They even have different types of non-toxic lubricants, for use on food grade machines as well.

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Electrons and liquid helium advance understanding of zero-resistance

February 2, 2016
The end of Moore's Law, the prediction that transistor density would double every two years, was one of the hottest topics in electronics-related discussions in 2015. Silicon-based technologies have nearly reached the physical limits of the number and size of transistors that can be crammed into one chip, but alternative technologies are still far from mass implementation. The amount of heat generated during operation and the sizes of atoms and molecules in materials used in transistor manufacturing are some of problems that need to be solved for Moore's Law to persist.

Atomic and molecular sizes cannot be changed, but the heat problem is not unsolvable. Recent research has shown that in two-dimensional systems, including semiconductors, electrical resistance decreases and can reach almost zero when they are subjected to magnetic and microwave influence. Electrical resistance produces a loss of energy in the form of heat; therefore, a decrease in resistance reduces heat generation. There are several different models and explanations for the zero-resistance phenomenon in these systems. however, the scientific community has not reached an agreement on this matter because semiconductors used in electronics are complex and processes in them are difficult to model mathematically.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-electrons-liquid-helium-advance-zero-resistance.html#nRlv

------------

Researchers demonstrate method that reduces friction between two surfaces to almost zero at macroscopic scale

May 15, 2015



As most people are aware, friction causes energy loss and wear and tear on mechanical parts—lubricants such as oil are used to help reduce friction and to dissipate heat, but scientists would really like to find a way to prevent it from happening in the first place. In this new effort, the researchers were studying friction properties at the nanoscale, where it is more about the attractive forces between atoms, than microscopic imperfections that are present at the macroscopic scale. They were testing an idea they had, that if one flat material was coated with graphene and another with a diamond-carbon mixture, there likely would be little friction when one was slid over the other.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-method-friction-surfaces-macroscopic-scale.html#jCp


---------------------------------------------------------------


Researchers create fatigue-free, stretchable conductor

September 21, 2015



Researchers have discovered a new stretchable, transparent conductor that can be folded or stretched and released, resulting in a large curvature or a significant strain, at least 10,000 times without showing signs of fatigue.

This is a crucial step in creating a new generation of foldable electronics - think a flat-screen television that can be rolled up for easy portability - and implantable medical devices. The work, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pairs gold nanomesh with a stretchable substrate made with polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-fatigue-free-stretchable-conductor.html#jCp


----------------------


Flexible foam made from algae

 August 25, 2015

Algae is proving to be pretty darn useful – in recent years, it’s been used to produce oxygen, purify wastewater, provide light and serve as a source of biofuel. Now, bioplastics firm Algix and clean tech company Effekt are making flexible foam out of the stuff, too.

 http://www.gizmag.com/flexible-foam-made-from-algae/39102/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

------------------

Researchers develop a library of elastin-like proteins to help in creating synthetic designs

September 23, 2015


A pair of researchers at Duke University has built a library of protein data that outlines the specific amino acid sequences that control changes of many elastin proteins. In their paper published in the journal Nature Materials, Felipe García Quiroz and Ashutosh Chilkoti describe their research, the making of their library, and their belief that what they have created will help in the development of new synthetic designs for possible use in medical applications.


Proteins are organic compounds essential to all living organisms, they are especially prevalent in components that have structure, such as muscle, skin, hair, etc. They provide structure by self-forming into different shapes under different conditions, two of which are solubility and temperature. Proteins are made of sequences of amino acids—the order and type of which drive the shape of the protein when certain conditions are met. Scientists still do not quite understand how proteins self assemble into the specific 3D shapes they take, nor which amino acids lead to which shapes, or indeed, how the order in which they exist contributes to those shapes.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-library-elastin-like-proteins-synthetic.html#jCp


---------------------------------------------------




New technology could mean better chemical analysis on earth and in space

September 24, 2015

A new lightweight, energy-efficient tool for analyzing a material's chemical makeup could improve the detection abilities of various technologies, ranging from bomb-detecting drones to space rovers searching for signs of life, says a Texas A&M University biomedical engineer who is part of the team developing the instrument.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-technology-chemical-analysis-earth-space.html#jCp

 ----------------------------


Scientists turn table salt into forbidden compounds that violate textbook rules

 January 20, 2014



 http://www.gizmag.com/scientists-create-forbidden-compounds-table-salt/30520/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

In the field of exotic new materials, we've examined one of the strongest ones and another declared to be impossible; scientists now report creating "forbidden" materials out of ordinary table salt that violate classical rules of chemistry. Not only does the development challenge the theoretical foundation of chemistry, but it is also expected to lead to the discovery of new exotic chemical compounds with practical uses and shed light on the deep interiors of planets.
The international team of researchers led by Artem R. Oganov, a Professor of Crystallography at Stony Brook University, predicted that taking table salt and subjecting it to high pressure in the presence of an excess of one of its constituents (either chlorine or sodium) would lead to the formation of totally unexpected compounds. In spite of salt being one of the most thoroughly studied chemical compounds out there, the researchers predicted the formation of compounds forbidden by classical chemistry, such as Na3Cl and NaCl3. Their predictions were proven by subsequent experiments.
"Sodium has one electron in its outermost shell, and chlorine has seven," Weiwei Zhang, the lead author, a Professor of Physics at China Agricultural University and visiting scholar at Oganov's lab, tells Gizmag. "When sodium meets chlorine, sodium would like to give away an electron and chlorine wants to take one according to the Octet rule. Since one Na can supply only one electron to one Cl, the only possible combination of these atoms in a compound is 1:1, rocksalt NaCl. Take NaCl3 as an example, when you try to satisfy three Cl by one Na, there is no way to distribute electrons according to this rule. So NaCl3 is forbidden in the classical frame of chemistry..."


----------------------------


Carnivorous plant inspires new super-slippery material

September 23, 2011

Who doesn't like carnivorous plants? They eat pesky bugs, they look like something out of Flash Gordon, and now it turns out that one of them has inspired a new type of liquid-repellent surface. The inspirational flora is the pitcher plant, which is shaped like - well, like a water pitcher, or perhaps a wide-end-up trumpet. When insects step onto its slippery inner surface, they lose their footing and fall down into a pool of collected rainwater in its base, where they are digested. Scientists from Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have copied the structure of that inner surface and come up with a material that resists not only most liquids, but also ice and bacteria, and it does so under a wide range of conditions.

 http://www.gizmag.com/pitcher-plant-slippery-surface/19935/

------------------



Materials scientists create highly water repellant ceramics (w/ video)

January 21, 2013

Researchers at MIT have created several new types of ceramics that all demonstrate a high degree of liquid repellency. All are based, they write in their paper published in the journal Nature Materials, on the oxides of the lanthanides, and unlike most ceramics are extremely hydrophobic.

 http://phys.org/news/2013-01-materials-scientists-highly-repellant-ceramics.html#nRlv

---------------

New material is super water-resistant, cheap and safe

December 16, 2015



Scientists at Rice University, the University of Swansea, the University of Bristol and the University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis have developed a new class of hydrocarbon-based material that they say could be "greener" substitute for fluorocarbon-based materials currently used to repel water.
Rice chemist Andrew Barron led the research. He says the team took inspiration from the lotus leaf – one of the most hydrophobic (water-repelling) surfaces known – which is actually made up of a hierarchy of double structures on the microscopic and nano scales.

"In the lotus leaf, these [structures] are due to papillae within the epidermis and epicuticular waxes on top," he said. "In our material, there is a microstructure created by the agglomeration of alumina nanoparticles mimicking the papillae and the hyperbranched organic moieties simulating the effect of the epicuticular waxes."

http://www.gizmag.com/cheap-nontoxic-super-hydrophobic-coating-rice/40923/


 -------------------


Hydrophobic Coating Inspired by Water Ferns Could Make Ships Consume 10 Percent Less

 


http://www.greenoptimistic.com/water-fern-fuel-efficient-ships-20100505/#.VSX0jpO-2zk


---------------


Tear-inspired material can be tuned to repel or attract water

  April 12, 2013

 http://www.gizmag.com/hydrophobic-hydrophilic-material/27051/

Last year, a group of Harvard University scientists led by Dr. Joanna Aizenberg announced the development of a highly-hydrophobic (water-repellant) material known as SLIPS, or Slippery Liquid Porous Surfaces. The material is remarkable, in that it repels virtually any liquid. Now, Aizenberg and colleagues have created a new material inspired by human tears, the repellency of which can be fine-tuned for different applications.
Like SLIPS, the new material consists of a substrate infused with a continuous liquid film – just like the human eye is covered with a film of tears. Whereas SLIPS has a rigid substrate, however, the substrate of the new material is elastic.


---------------------


 


Magnetic microhair material can change transparency, and make water flow uphill

  August 8, 2014

 

 

What if your house's windows could automatically reduce the amount of hot sunlight passing through them, or your car's windshield could cause rain droplets to bead off to its edges? These things and more could soon be possible, thanks to a new animal hair-inspired material developed at MIT.
The material consists of a base layer of transparent flexible silicone, studded with a dense array of tiny nickel microhairs (or "micropillars"). At around 70 microns in height and 25 microns in width, each one is approximately a quarter the diameter of a human hair.
When an external magnetic field is applied at one side of the array, all of the hairs simultaneously bend towards it. The degree to which they bend can be controlled by varying the intensity of the field.

http://www.gizmag.com/magnetic-microhair-material/33291/



------------------------




------------------------



----------------
----------------





Chapter 20: Displays



----------------
----------------



---------------------

Graphene champions the next generation 3D display technology

Apr 23, 2015

Moving holograms like those used in 3D science fiction movies such as Avatar and Elysium have to date only been seen in their full glory by viewers wearing special glasses.

Now researchers at Swinburne University of Technology have shown the capacity of a technique using graphene oxide and complex laser physics to create a pop-up floating display without the need for 3D glasses.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-graphene-champions-3d-technology.html#jCp






--------------------------------------------



Multicolor meta-hologram produces light across entire visible spectrum

May 04, 2015
 There are many different ways to generate a hologram, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Trying to maximize the advantages, researchers in a new study have designed a hologram made of a metamaterial consisting of aluminum nanorods that can produce light across the entire visible spectrum, and do so in a way that yields brighter images than other methods.



 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-multicolor-meta-hologram-entire-visible-spectrum.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu




--------------------------------------------




Tiny motions bring digital doubles to life (w/ Video)

December 7, 2014




Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems unveil new technology for motion and shape capture (MoSh) that helps animators jump the "Uncanny Valley" by turning a few moving dots into detailed body shapes that jiggle and deform like real humans.

http://phys.org/news/2014-12-tiny-motions-digital-life.html

---------------------------------










































Researchers develop molecular backbone of super-slim, bendable digital displays

Mar 30, 2015 
From smartphones and tablets to computer monitors and interactive TV screens, electronic displays are everywhere. As the demand for instant, constant communication grows, so too does the urgency for more convenient portable devices—especially devices, like computer displays, that can be easily rolled up and put away, rather than requiring a flat surface for storage and transportation.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-molecular-backbone-super-slim-bendable-digital.html#jCp
 From smartphones and tablets to computer monitors and interactive TV screens, electronic displays are everywhere. As the demand for instant, constant communication grows, so too does the urgency for more convenient portable devices—especially devices, like computer displays, that can be easily rolled up and put away, rather than requiring a flat surface for storage and transportation.
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-molecular-backbone-super-slim-bendable-digital.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
--------------

Graphene used to create world's thinnest light bulb


June 15, 2015

 http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-thinnest-incandescent-lightbulb/38024/

--------------------------


 Ultrathin lens could revolutionise next-gen devices

September 23, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-ultrathin-lens-revolutionise-next-gen-devices.html



-----------------


New electronic paper could make inexpensive electronic displays

Apr 21, 2015

http://phys.org/news/2015-04-electronic-paper-inexpensive.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu


------------------



New 3D printing technology creates stronger ceramics


January 4, 2016

http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printing-stronger-ceramics-hrl/41142/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

Researchers at HRL Laboratories have developed a 3D printing technology designed to overcome the limitations of working with traditional ceramic processing. The process includes a resin formulation that once printed can be fired and converted into a ceramic that is harder, stronger and more compatible with ultra-high temperatures.



--------------



Eggshells could find use in ceramics production

  February 27, 2014



According to the US Department of Agriculture, every year approximately 455,000 tons (412,769 tonnes) of discarded eggshells must be transported and disposed of in the US alone. Now, however, scientists at the University of Aveiro in Portugal have developed a method of using such eggshell waste in the production of ceramic goods.

Although the specifics of the technology are still under wraps, it involves incorporating crushed eggshells into a ceramic slurry which is subsequently processed "according to a specific protocol that includes a 3-cycle cooking phase." Samples of porous pavement made from the slurry exhibit desirable qualities such as porosity and water absorption, and are overall considered to be of sufficient quality to meet industry standards...

 http://www.gizmag.com/eggshell-waste-ceramics/31003/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
------------------


Eggshells could be used to fight global warming

October 29, 2010

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a hot area of research in the effort to fight global warming through the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and ferreting it away within carbon soaking materials, a team from the University of Calcutta has found an unexpected (or should that be uneggspected) material that could trap carbon from the atmosphere in the form of eggshells. The team has demonstrated that the membrane that lines an eggshell can absorb almost seven times its own weight of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, allowing the gas to be stored until environmentally friendly methods of disposing, or even using it, can be found.

http://www.gizmag.com/eggshells-to-fight-global-warming/16771/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget



----------

 Startup announces development of flexiramics—ceramics with paper-like properties

February 3, 2016

 Dutch startup Eurekite has announced on their web page that they have developed a new kind of ceramic, one that is both flexible and easily made at varying degrees of thickness. The company (affiliated with the University of Twente in the Netherlands) is initially marketing the new product as a replacement for traditional printed circuit board materials.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-startup-flexiramicsceramics-paper-like-properties.html#jCp

----------------

Making ceramics that bend without breaking

September 26, 2013
Ceramics are not known for their flexibility: they tend to crack under stress. But researchers from MIT and Singapore have just found a way around that problem—for very tiny objects, at least.

The team has developed a way of making minuscule ceramic objects that are not only flexible, but also have a "memory" for shape: When bent and then heated, they return to their original shapes. The surprising discovery is reported this week in the journal Science, in a paper by MIT graduate student Alan Lai, professor Christopher Schuh, and two collaborators in Singapore.

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-ceramics.html#nRlv

---------

Graphene optical lens a billionth of a meter thick breaks the diffraction limit

  • January 31, 2016

With the development of photonic chips and nano-optics, the old ground glass lenses can't keep up in the race toward miniaturization. In the search for a suitable replacement, a team from the Swinburne University of Technology has developed a graphene microlens one billionth of a meter thick that can take sharper images of objects the size of a single bacterium and opens the door to improved mobile phones, nanosatellites, and computers.

http://www.gizmag.com/optical-lens-one-billionth-meter-thick/41588/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------

Flexible graphene-based LED clears the way for flexible displays

  February 2, 2015

Researchers from the University of Manchester and University of Sheffield have developed a new prototype semi-transparent, graphene-based LED device that could form the basis of flexible screens for use in the next-generation of mobile phones, tablets and televisions. The incredibly thin display was created using sandwiched "heterostructures", is only 10-40 atoms thick and emits a sheet of light across its entire surface.

 http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-led-display-flexible-electronics/35884/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

-----------------


































New flexible material can make any window 'smart'

August 22, 2016
 http://phys.org/news/2016-08-flexible-material-window-smart.html

--------------

Limpet's shell could inspire next-gen transparent displays

 February 27, 2015



The humble limpet has been receiving a lot of press lately, as scientists recently determined that the material from which its teeth are made is officially the world's strongest natural material. Now, an MIT/Harvard study suggests that a specific type of limpet's shell may hold the key to transparent displays that require no internal light source.

http://www.gizmag.com/limpet-shell-transparent-displays/36321/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------------



Limpets sink their teeth into world's strongest natural material crown

 February 18, 2015



Spider's silk has long been the strongest natural material known to man, prompting researchers to attempt to uncover its secrets so they can replicate its remarkable properties in man-made materials. But scientists now have a new source of inspiration in the form of limpet teeth, which are made of a material researchers say is potentially stronger than spider silk, is comparable in strength to the strongest commercial carbon fibers, and could one day be copied for use in cars, boats and planes.


http://www.gizmag.com/limpet-teeth-strongest-natural-material/36162/


-------------------




New research points the way to biodegradable displays

October 21, 2015

Electronic waste is a huge environmental problem, causing harm to the planet and human health because of the toxic materials used. While this situation is unlikely to change in the near future, there has been research on using materials that biodegrade. More recently, scientists have demonstrated a new route to creating biodegradable electronics by using organic components in screen displays.

http://www.gizmag.com/biodegradable-displays-electronic-waste-reduction/39895/



-------------------


----------------
----------------






Chapter 21: Water Harvesting


----------------
----------------



---------------------



Atmospheric water generator




An atmospheric water generator (AWG), is a device that extracts water from humid ambient air. Water vapor in the air is condensed by cooling the air below its dew point, exposing the air to desiccants, or pressurizing the air. Unlike a dehumidifier, an AWG is designed to render the water potable. AWGs are useful where pure drinking water is difficult or impossible to obtain, because there is almost always a small amount of water in the air that can be extracted. The two primary techniques in use are cooling and desiccants.

The extraction of atmospheric water may not be completely free of cost, because significant input of energy is required to drive some AWG processes. Certain traditional AWG methods are completely passive, relying on natural temperature differences, and requiring no external energy source. Research has also developed AWG technologies to produce useful yields of water at a reduced (but non-zero) energy cost.

See also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_water_generator

 ----------









































New desalination technology could answer state drought woes

Feb 18, 2015
Could desalination be the answer to California's drought? As parts of the state become drier, scientists are looking at ways to turn seawater into drinkable water.
Desalination has made headlines in recent months as a possible solution to the state's water shortage. But in addition to being expensive, its byproduct—salty brine—can harm marine life once it's reintroduced into the ocean.

A team of researchers from Humboldt State University and the University of Southern California is hoping to address those concerns with a new process called Reverse Osmosis-Pressure Retarded Osmosis (RO-PRO)...

http://phys.org/news/2015-02-desalination-technology-state-drought-woes.html#jCp


-----------

New desalination technique pushes salt to one side with shockwaves

  November 13, 2015

 http://www.gizmag.com/shock-electrodialysis-desalination/40384/

 As access to clean water continues to be an issue throughout the developing world, there's an increased demand for easier ways to turn contaminated and salty water into something you can drink. Researchers at MIT may have found a solution using a method they are calling shock electrodialysis. It uses electric shock waves to separate contaminated or salty water into two separate streams, with a natural barrier between each one.

--------

This self-filling water bottle is the ultimate in vaporware

January 28, 2016

Austrian startup Fontus is developing a novel water bottle that is vaporware in just about every sense of the phrase. Not only does it not yet exist in the marketplace, but it is claimed to literally pull water vapor out of the air to fill itself.

 http://www.gizmag.com/fontus-airo-ryde-self-filling-water-bottle/41545/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------

Sponge creates steam using ambient sunlight

August 22, 2016

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-bubble-wrapped-sponge-steam-sunlight.html

------------
































Tiny device grabs more solar energy to disinfect water faster

August 15, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-tiny-device-solar-energy-disinfect.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

-------------

Sodium battery contains solution to water desalination


  • February 4, 2016

 Much scientific effort goes into shoring up both our energy and water supplies for the future, but what if both problems could be addressed by the same technology? Researchers at the University of Illinois have come up with a new battery design that not only relies on salt water to store and release electricity, but removes the salt ions from the water in the process.

 http://www.gizmag.com/sodium-battery-water-desalination/41683/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
---------------



Agenda 21 could restrict water resources, in several different ways.

The government would like to be able to tax rainwater.

Some governments would even try to ban the harvesting of rainwater, for personal use.

Different governments would even try to ban or tax, collecting water from atmospheric water generators.

Some people question the environmental impact, that collecting moisture from the air, with millions of machines at a time collecting water, near the high desert would have. We know that there is already very little moisture in the high-desert.  Some machines can even make their own moisture, from the cold and condensation that is created by the energy from the machine. This is simply done, by using electric power, to power on the machine, to produce condensation.

We also can have many options for sustainable groundwater. Recent droughts in different areas, have caused a problem, with trying to use water as a natural resource. A good example, is the amount of people in Southern California, including the amount of water that is being used, in a desert type area. The world has so much fresh water, that it would seem that it would be very difficult to ever run out of it. 


Some claim that we should terraform the planet, and create more rain forests, and promote water in regions such as the rain forests. People have even talked about introducing additional water and moisture in places like the rain forests, to save these forests from "drying up." This gets into the debate, including what would happen when the Poles of the Earth start to shift. Many question if we should manage our atmosphere, including forests and oceans. Many people think that we should not terraform the planet. They believe that if we change too many natural courses on this planet, that it could create other problems or catastrophes on the planet, that we may not be able to control. An example would be, is that if we have the technology to stop a volcano from erupting, should we do it? Some think that if we stop a volcano from erupting, that this could cause an even greater build-up, inside of the Earth. This could cause an eruption several times greater, than if the volcano were to be left alone, and erupted without interference. The same question is asked, if we should regulate the levels of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere. If the atmosphere were to change, and kill off most of the species of animals on this planet, should we save our planet Earth, from this type of destruction. Some would claim that this natural cycle happens so often on the planet. Even though it may take thousands of years for the atmosphere to re-balance, after a giant catastrophe in the weather. Some people think that we should let nature take its course. However, many scientists think that humans should have complete control over trying to modify and control the atmosphere content of the planet.

 Others believe that maybe it is our job to protect the planet, including the regulation of the atmosphere. It could be possible to avoid a catastrophic event, by balancing out the atmosphere on our planet. However, we can see news articles, including conferences, about people modifying the weather with lazers. Many people think that companies and governments, could also abuse this type of technology as well.

-----------

Device that harvests water from thin air wins the James Dyson Award


November 11, 2011

 http://www.gizmag.com/airdrop-wins-james-dyson-award/20471/


---------------

Researchers create tiny pump that provides continuous and spontaneous antigravity water delivery

 June 15, 2015

 To build their pump, the researchers created a superhydrophobic material by exposing a copper mesh to an alkali solution—the microscopic sized pockets it created caused water to slide with almost no friction. They then affixed the mesh to the bottom of a plastic tube that sat vertically. They next attached another tube to the first creating a right angle at the top and then attached a very short third tube to the second at its other end, this one pointing straight down. That was all it took. To use the pump, a bit of liquid was introduced into the pump, priming it, then a drop was introduced from beneath the pump, through the wire mesh. The liquid in the pump rose, because it was repelled from below, into the second tube and then into the third where it was expelled.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-tiny-spontaneous-antigravity-delivery.html#jCp

---------------------

----------------
----------------


  Chapter 22: Refrigeration

----------------
----------------



---------------------


We have the technology to create sustainable refrigeration with new technology that can replace antifreeze.


------------------

Triton: advances in dilution refrigerator technology for quantum info processing

In this webinar Prof. Charles Marcus presents an overview of his work using the Triton dilution refrigerator at the Niels Bohr Institute’s Center for Quantum Devices, University of Copenhagen. He reviews the latest advances in dilution refrigerator technology for QIP, specifically focusing on the integration of high-density RF interconnects.
The scaling of single- or few-electron spin-qubit devices to multi-qubit architectures presents a challenge to cryogenic technology. Particularly demanding is the integration of large numbers of RF interconnects to samples operating at millikelvin temperatures in high magnetic fields within physical space, heat load and electrical noise limits. With its advanced sample loading, integrated magnet solutions and quantum information processing (QIP)-specific wiring options, the Triton dilution refrigerator has been adopted as the system of choice for studies in this exciting area of emerging technology.


http://connect.physicsworld.com/triton-advances-in-dilution-refrigerator-technology-for-quantum-info-processing/2001160.article


-----------










































The quantum fridge

February 1, 2016
 When cold milk is poured into a hot cup of tea, a temperature equilibrium is reached very quickly. The milk droplets and the tea particles interact, and after a few moments they all have the same average energy. This process is called thermalization. It plays a crucial role in cooling down gases to ultra-low temperatures. But surprisingly, even gases for which this effect is suppressed can be cooled. Scientists at TU Wien (Vienna) took a closer look at this phenomenon and found a special quantum-mechanical kind of cooling at work.
 http://phys.org/news/2016-02-quantum-fridge.html

-------------

Solar Cooling System Preserves Food Without Electricity

 April 3, 2015

 http://www.greenoptimistic.com/solar-cooling-system-preserve-food/#.VSFm8uG-2zk

 An eco-friendly and cheap cooling system developed by a Mexican researcher uses solar energy to maintain temperature of food and water at nine degrees Celsius for three months.
Refrigerating systems have been under the spot light ever since they were found guilty of polluting the atmosphere with the Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), causing a depletion in the ozone layer. As of the 1970s, the negative effect of these compounds has globally acknowledged and heavily regulated. Nevertheless, their use in refrigerating systems continues to be apparent, and it will remain so until year 2020 (2030 for developing countries), when all CFCs should be faced out, as agreed during a United Nations-sponsored Montreal summit .
It is somewhat needless to say that any technology that can accelerate the process of complete elimination of these chemicals by providing an eco-friendly and affordable alternative, is more than welcome. One such development comes from the Institute of Science of the Meritorious University of Puebla (BUAP), in Mexico, by researcher Susana Elvia Toledo Flores. A solar-powered, eco-friendly, cooling system.


-----------------

Laser Refrigeration is Fastest, Coolest Chilling Tech Yet

September 3, 2009


http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-09/laser-refrigeration-fastest-coolest-chilling-tech-yet



---------------



Shape memory alloys the basis for more efficient refrigerant-free cooling

  February 4, 2016

Shape memory materials, also known as "metal muscles" or "artificial muscles," have the ability to snap back into their original shape after being stretched, squashed, bent, or otherwise deformed. If the material is a metal alloy, such as nickel-titanium, the deformation changes the material's crystal lattice structure in what's known as phase transition, which causes the material to become hotter. Allowing the material to relax and return to its original form cools it by about 20° C (36° F) below the ambient temperature.

"In our systems, shape memory alloys (SMAs) are used to remove heat," says Stefan Seelecke, Professor for Intelligent Material Systems at Saarland University. "Shape memory means that wires or sheets made from a nickel-titanium alloy have a certain ability to remember their original shape: If they undergo deformation, they will return to their earlier shape, so they are able to tense and flex like muscles. The fact that they absorb and release heat when they do so is something we exploit to achieve cooling."

 http://www.gizmag.com/shape-memory-refrigerant-free/41652/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
------------

3D-printed bricks can cool a room with water

 February 18, 2015

We've previously seen designers use the presence of swimming pools or take advantage of prevailing winds to help passively cool homes. But what if every brick used to build a house could cool it down? Design studio Emerging Objects has come out with 3D-printed porous bricks called Cool Bricks that can be filled with water to bring down temperatures.

 http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printed-cool-bricks/36144/

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New breakthrough in thermoelectric materials

Apr 02, 2015
 http://phys.org/news/2015-04-breakthrough-thermoelectric-materials.html#ajTabs
A joint South Korean and American research group has developed a scalable production method for a state of the art alloy for the use in solid state thermoelectric devices. This new alloy is nearly twice as efficient as existing materials and may lead to a new host of applications. Uses include refrigeration, consumer electronics, transportation as well as novel devices which have not been produced yet do to the inefficiencies of existing materials.



French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier discovered a key concept necessary for thermoelectric (TE) temperature control in 1834. His findings were so significant, TE devices are now commonly referred to Peltier devices. Since his work, there have been steady advancements in materials and design. Despite the technological sophistication Peltier devices, they are still less energy efficient than traditional compressor/evaporation cooling.

In the 1960's, Peltier devices were primarily made from Bismuth-Telluride (Bi2Te3) or Antimony-Telluride (Sb2Te3) alloys and had a peak efficiency (zT) of 1.1, meaning the electricity going in was only slightly less than the heat coming out. Since the 1960's there have been incremental advancements in alloy technology used in Peltier devices.

In 2014, researchers in South Korea at IBS Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics along with Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the Department of Nano Applied Engineering at Kangwon National University, the Department of Energy Science at Sungkyunkwan University, and Materials Science department at California Institute of Technology California, USA have formulated a new method for creating a novel and much more efficient TE alloy.

TE alloys are special because the metals have an incredibly high melting point. Instead of melting the metals to fuse them, they are combined through a process called sintering which uses heat and/or pressure to join the small, metallic granules. The joint team, including IBS researchers, used a process called liquid-flow assisted sintering which combined all three antimony, bismuth and telluride granules into one alloy (Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3). Additional melted tellurium was used as the liquid between the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 granules to help fuse them into a solid alloy, and excess Te is expelled in the process.

By creating the alloy this way, the joints between the fused grains, also known as the grain boundaries, took on a special property. Traditionally sintered Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 have thick, coarse joints which have led to a decrease in both thermal and electrical conductivity. The new liquid-phase sintering creates grain boundaries which are organized and aligned in seams called dislocation arrays. These dislocation arrays greatly reduce their thermal conduction, leading to an enhancement of their thermoelectric conversion efficiency.


--------------------

----------------
----------------




Chapter 23: Vertical & sustainable farming methods




----------------
----------------



---------------------

We could have billions of people living on other planets, including in the oceans of our planet and other planets. The carbon could even be made, to be converted to energy or other minerals, that could biodegrade properly. Imagine the amount of ideas, cultures, technology and life that we could create in other parts of the Universe. We need human minds to produce ideas, for advancement in technology.



------------------------------------------


We need an environmentally friendly standard of farming. Food is not getting to the right places.  Too much food is being wasted, while many people go starving.


---------------------------------

Vertical farming designs & concepts.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVk2B-9WQ0w&list=PLDCE2FF0D4101CC66&index=1

--------------

We could make a majority of fibers, from kelp. Seaweed is even a good source for harvesting food. Some people claim that we can harvest the carbon from underwater cities, while using the carbon as a source of energy.


------------------

Underwater Cities in The Future | Full Documentary 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs0a6Im9Alk



---------------------


Some people claim that we should conserve our land, and grow food vertically.



--------------

How 1 MILLION Pounds Of Organic Food Can Be Produced On 3 Acres


 http://wakeup-world.com/2011/07/14/how-1-million-pounds-of-organic-food-can-be-produced-on-3-acres/

 ---------------------------------------

Up to 90 percent of Americans could be fed entirely by local agriculture

Jun 02, 2015
 New farmland-mapping research published today (June 1) shows that up to 90 percent of Americans could be fed entirely by food grown or raised within 100 miles of their homes.


 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-percent-americans-fed-local-agriculture.html#jCp

------------

We can see the problems, with too many added pesticides, fungicides and synthetic fertilizers, in current farming methods.

 --------------------

 Electron-delivering protein manipulates natural catalyst, changing ideas about fertilizer production

 June 8th, 2015

 Results: In industry, synthesizing ammonia for fertilizers uses massive amounts of hydrogen, typically generated from fossil fuels, but in nature, the nitrogenase enzyme produces ammonia without added hydrogen. In studying the enzyme, scientists came up against a protein, called the Fe protein. This little protein delivers electrons to the larger nitrogenase MoFe enzyme. The smaller protein's actions limit the enzyme's speed. Recently, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and three universities found that the smaller protein and larger enzyme roll across each other, likely pushing at the MoFe surface to deliver electrons.

Why It Matters: Producing ammonia for the world's crop fertilizers consumes 1 to 2 percent of all the energy produced by humankind. Part of that energy is used to generate hydrogen gas, which is combined with nitrogen gas in the Haber-Bosch process. This research sheds new light on how an enzyme catalyzes a reaction without added hydrogen; instead, the enzyme uses protons and electrons.

Methods: The little Fe protein that delivers the electrons comes under scrutiny, as it is the dissociation of this protein from the MoFe protein or enzyme that is the slowest step in the process. And, the dissociation step must happen 8 times for each molecule of ammonia that is produced. Expediting or removing this rate-limiting step would provide fundamental insights into the nature of the enzyme, insights that could be applied to synthetic catalysts.

Substitution of three amino acids buried deep in the MoFe protein allows electrons to be delivered from small molecule electron carriers to support the transformation, or reduction, of several substrates, including azide to ammonia, hydrazine to ammonia and protons to molecular hydrogen, or H2...

 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-electron-delivering-protein-natural-catalyst-ideas.html#jCp


--------------

Different groups, claim that we should use a system of aquaponics, to grow food for the world. This in fact, is a good idea. However, I do not think that 100% of our food, should be grown using aquaponics. Many types of berries grow wild, this includes other types of bushes and trees that give off fruit and other types of harvests. We should use a system of organic gardening, this includes forest gardens, vertical farming and aquaponics.

----------


Hydroponics   -   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics

Aquaponics   -   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

Aeroponics   -   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroponics

Organic farming   -   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming



------------

Deep Sea Fish Farming in Geodesic Domes: Upgrade


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpPZUGIJ2M0


----


 Farming and raising livestock on the same land, for hundreds of years, is an art within itself.

There are ways to work with the land, to co-exist. However, the way many farms mass-produce many crops and livestock, with synthetic chemicals and runoff from agriculture and livestock production, is not sustainable.




 The question is, the amount of people that the land can sustain, without having to risk an ecosystem collapse.


In certain areas in South America, some cultures would only plant crops, every few years.  This would be considered an extremely organic way of farming and coexisting with nature.

Eventually, certain civilizations started to farm every year, and tear up more trees to farm. This eventually over a short period of time, caused the land being farmed on, to degrade the quality of soil for farming. It even can become more difficult to continue to farm in the same location, without knowing how to work and till the soil properly.  Some claim that different villages, had to move, to find new and better land for farming, in order to grow food. This is because certain soil was burnt out.

These days, many farmers import tons of soil, used for production of farming. Eventually they even discard this soil when their harvest is over, then import new soil in by trucks, to plant a new harvest. Many claim that this would be a good example, of how farmers can burn out their soil. It becomes very difficult for any type of plant to grow naturally, when soil is burnt out from the use of over-farming.  This is why many farmers try to get thousands of acres. So that they can shift around the areas where they grow crops on their land.

With good organic farming and crop rotation, farmers can co-exist with the land. However, we see some farmers these days, have lost touch with many of these practices, of traditional organic farming.


The big debate now, is if we should use a system of monoculture, polyculture or both.


 --------------

Monoculture

 Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop or plant species in a field at a time. Polyculture, where more than one crop is grown in the same space at the same time, is the alternative to monoculture.  Monoculture is widely used in modern industrial agriculture and its implementation has allowed for increased efficiencies in planting and harvest.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoculture


----------------

Polyculture


 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyculture
 Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture. It includes multi-cropping, intercropping, companion planting, beneficial weeds, and alley cropping. It is the raising at the same time and place of more than one species of plant or animal.




-----------------------

Fertilizer Runoff Overwhelms Streams and Rivers--Creating Vast "Dead Zones"

The nation's waterways are brimming with excess nitrogen from fertilizer--and plans to boost biofuel production threaten to aggravate an already serious situation
March 14, 2008

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fertilizer-runoff-overwhelms-streams/
-------------



All Natural, Mushroom-Based Pesticide Could Revolutionize Agriculture

May 14, 2015

Could an insecticide made from mushrooms compete with commercial pesticides applied to crops the world over?
Fungus expert Paul Stamets thinks so, with a product he calls SMART pesticides. They are made from natural fungi, which kill insects and protect crops without creating toxic residue and runoff. If adopted, the mushroom pesticides would be a breath of fresh air in our increasingly toxic environment.
Pesticides can be necessary for large-scale food production, but they also have harmful effects on the natural world as well as on human health. Many of the chemicals used in commercial pesticides, like  ammonia, arsenic, benzene, chlorine, dioxins, formaldehyde and glyphosate are dangerous to people even in small doses, and they show up in human bodies after consumption of conventionally-grown food.
Widespread pesticide use is also one possible culprit for the massive decline in bee populations over the last decade, as well as a persistent cause of ground and fresh water pollution.

 http://reset.me/story/all-natural-mushroom-based-pesticide-could-revolutionize-agriculture/


------------------


 What are the greenhouse gases ?


 http://www.manicore.com/anglais/documentation_a/greenhouse/greenhouse_gas.html

-----------------

Some have mentioned using bacterium, for fungicides, pesticides and plant food. 



---------------------

Some people think that the world is currently overpopulated, and that we are currently not living as environmentally friendly as we could be, with many of these harmful chemicals going around.
We could have trillions of people living off the planet, and living on other planets, moons and different areas in the Universe. We could harvest ideas from trillions of people, while creating new types of areas for humans and animals to live in.

---------------
---------------




 Chapter 24: Clean-up technology



----------------
----------------



---------------------

The following chapter is dedicated to the preservation of the Earth, including how to fix contaminated sources of water, soil and atmospheric pollution.


---------

The problem is that many landfills, have toxic and radioactive chemicals in them. In this chapter, we will go into detail, on what we can do as a civilization, to fix many of these problems. 

----------

Superfund


Superfund or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) is a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances as well as broadly defined "pollutants or contaminants". Superfund also gives authority to federal natural resource agencies, states and Native American tribes to recover natural resource damages caused by releases of hazardous substances, and it created the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). CERCLA's broad authority to clean up releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or welfare or the (natural) environment was given primarily to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to states (though most states now have and most often use their own versions of CERCLA).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund



----------------------


List of Superfund sites in the United States


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_the_United_States
------------

Brownfield land

 Brownfield is a term used in urban planning to describe land previously used for industrial purposes or some commercial uses. Such land may have been contaminated with hazardous waste or pollution or is feared to be so. Once cleaned up, such an area can become host to a business development such as a retail park. Land that is more severely contaminated and has high concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution, such as a Superfund site, does not fall under the brownfield classification. Mothballed brownfields are properties that the owners are not willing to transfer or put to productive reuse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownfield_land


--------------



If we stopped the burning of fossil fuel, and switched over to hydrogen and solar, we could reduce a good portion of air pollution. Air pollution also comes from the manufacturing of industrial products. This includes air pollution from agriculture production. Even driving on a farm road, that has been sprayed down with pesticides, fungicides and chemicals, causes extra air pollution in the environment. 

----------------



Big polluters: one massive container ship equals 50 million cars


 April 23, 2009

 April 23, 2009 The Guardian has reported on new research showing that in one year, a single large container ship can emit cancer and asthma-causing pollutants equivalent to that of 50 million cars. The low grade bunker fuel used by the worlds 90,000 cargo ships contains up to 2,000 times the amount of sulfur compared to diesel fuel used in automobiles. The recent boom in the global trade of manufactured goods has also resulted in a new breed of super sized container ship which consume fuel not by the gallons, but by tons per hour, and shipping now accounts for 90% of global trade by volume.

 http://www.gizmag.com/shipping-pollution/11526/





-------------------------------------------------------------------

India River Pollution: 80 Percent of Indian Sewage Flows Untreated Into Country's Rivers 

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/05/india-river-pollution-sewage_n_2810213.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


World’s highest drug levels entering India stream

PATANCHERU, India (AP) When researchers analyzed vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.
And it wasn’t just ciprofloxacin being detected. The supposedly cleaned water was a floating medicine cabinet a soup of 21 different active pharmaceutical ingredients, used in generics for treatment of hypertension, heart disease, chronic liver ailments, depression, gonorrhea, ulcers and other ailments. Half of the drugs measured at the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in the environment, researchers say.
Those Indian factories produce drugs for much of the world, including many Americans. The result: Some of India’s poor are unwittingly consuming an array of chemicals that may be harmful, and could lead to the proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

250 Million Pounds of Drugs Flushed Down the Toilet by Hospitals

 http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/250-million-pounds-of-drugs-flushed-down-the-toilet-by-hospitals.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

NASA Satellites Track Vanishing Groundwater

   Feb 24, 2010


Data from NASA's GRACE satellites helps gauge groundwater fluctuations in northwestern India

 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100217-groundwater-crisis-nasa-satellites-india-environment/

 

----------------------------------

Urge Pharmaceutical Companies to Manage Safe Drug Disposal

 

http://forcechange.com/45898/urge-pharmaceutical-companies-to-manage-safe-drug-disposal/



--------

Many people think that herbal medicine, including new forms of medicine, can replace many harmful pharmaceuticals. We can see how the chemical CBD from cannabis, can be used as a form of medicine, to help with cancer. Others think that even similar medicinal types of medicine, could be extracted from plants that have been known to numb pain. Many plants on this planet, have a purpose for different things. This is why it is important to preserve our forests. Even some plants, trees and herbs in the past few thousand years, have gone extinct. There is no telling what types of benefits that many of these extinct plants could have had. Many of these plants could have been utilized for medical research. Some even question if we can use fossils, to bring back certain plants and animals, which is currently being debated around the globe. Trying to genetically modify extinct species of plants and animals, could also have negative consequences.



-----














































Researchers discover how opium poppies synthesize morphine

July 13, 2015
 Many people who live in developing countries do not have access to the pain relief that comes from morphine or other analgesics. That's because opiates are primarily derived from the opium poppy plant (Papaver somniferum) and are dependent on the plant health and supply around the world.


After years of leading research on the opium poppy, University of Calgary scientists, Peter Facchini, his PhD student, Scott Farrow, and research associate Jill Hagel, have characterized a novel gene that encodes the gateway enzyme in the formation of morphine -which is to say, they've begun to understand how poppies synthesize the pain killing enzymes. The discovery opens the door to alternative production systems, aside from the plant itself.

Farrow, who is building on the insights Facchini and his team have been gathering over more than 23 years of research into opium poppies, is the lead author of a new paper that describes one of many significant discoveries arising from Facchini's research program.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-07-opium-poppies-morphine.html#jCp



"The gene we've isolated actually consists of a natural fusion between two ancestral genes, which encodes the gateway enzyme in the formation of morphine," says Farrow. "It's really interesting to see these fused genes in a metabolic pathway. It provides us with a new tool to search for something missing in other plants as well."

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-opium-poppies-morphine.html#jCp

-------

Many people want a solution to the problems concerning ground contamination, including air and water pollution. We must be cautious of introducing certain types of cleaning agents and industrial chemicals into the environment, this includes dispersants and surfactants.


------------------------

Dispersant

A dispersant or a dispersing agent or a plasticizer or a superplasticizer is either a non-surface active polymer or a surface-active substance added to a suspension, usually a colloid, to improve the separation of particles and to prevent settling or clumping. Dispersants consist normally of one or more surfactants, but may also be gases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispersant



---------------------------------

Surfactant

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant

Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension (or interfacial tension) between two liquids or between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents, and dispersants.


Health and environmental controversy

Surfactants are routinely deposited in numerous ways on land and into water systems, whether as part of an intended process or as industrial and household waste. Some of them are known to be toxic to animals, ecosystems, and humans, and can increase the diffusion of other environmental contaminants. As a result, there are proposed or voluntary restrictions on the use of some surfactants. For example, PFOS is a persistent organic pollutant as judged by the Stockholm Convention. Additionally, PFOA has been subject to a voluntary agreement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and eight chemical companies to reduce and eliminate emissions of the chemical and its precursors.
The two major surfactants used in the year 2000 were linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) and the alkyl phenol ethoxylates (APE). They break down in the aerobic conditions found in sewage treatment plants and in soil to the metabolite nonylphenol, which is thought to be an endocrine disruptor


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant
-----

We should be cautious of adding more harmful chemicals in the ground, to try and clean up existing harmful chemicals in the soil and water.
------

 There exists many natural remedies, to clean and purify water and soil.

 We can use simple materials from mushrooms, including plants, to clean up pollution from the ground.

-------

Mushrooms – Nature’s Recyclers and Pollution-Zappers


 



For ages, man has eaten mushrooms as a gustatory delight, some even to the point of intoxication like medicine men and other people out for a good time.   But there is more to these wonderful plants than meet the eye.

For one thing, they’re Mother Nature’s recyclers.  After animals and plants die, they decompose them back to dust so that they can be used again to bring about new life.  The stuff they decompose isn’t limited to plants and animals, though. They can also feed on plastic, just like the Pestalotiopsis microspora, a fungus discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon that has an appetite for polyurethane.
And the Pestalotiopsis microspora is not alone in its earth saving abilities.

Researchers have discovered fungi that absorb toxic heavy metals without suffering side effects, effectively removing these from the environment.  There are even some mushrooms that will eat up radioactive waste and may be used to help remediate Fukushima.


-------------------------------

Orange Peel Can Help Clean Up Dirty Water

October 27, 2008

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081020093500.htm

 -----------------


How to Clean Out Polluted Soil



 http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-clean-out-polluted-soil


---------------


Using plants to clean contaminated soil


 


http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-08-11/using-plants-to-clean-contaminated-soil

-------------

MURUNGA - THE ULTIMATE ANSWER TO POLLUTED WATER


http://infolanka.com/org/diary/13.html


---------------


Removing chromium from polluted water using hyacinth

2017-09-07

The new method uses water hyacinth, a weed known for its ability to spread rapidly over water bodies. It is used for cleansing polluted water bodies owing to its remarkable capacity of absorbing pollutants.

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/removing-chromium-polluted-water-using-hyacinth

------------


Removing fluoride with nanoparticles

 2017-08-29

 A low-cost method to remove fluoride from drinking water with specially made teabag-like pouches has been developed by a team of Indian researchers.
This method uses pouches covered with nanoparticles synthesised from organically-grown jojoba seeds to remove fluoride from water. Jojoba is easily available and nanoparticles used (iron and aluminum) are synthesised from waste byproducts of the oil extraction process from jojoba seeds.
After synthesis, nanoparticles are soaked onto a foam material—polyurethane foam—wherein they get stuck to the surface of the foam. Infusion pouches or bags are then made from the nanoparticle-coated foam sheet. The nanoparticles on the pouches attract fluoride in the water and they too get stuck to the surface of the pouch. This process is a commonly used water purification method called adsorption. 

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/removing-fluoride-nanoparticles


----------


Copper and cadmium removal from synthetic industrial wastewater using chitosan and nylon 6.

 2011

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22359148

-----

Got Milk? Lactate Helps Clean Polluted Soil

http://cleantechnica.com/2009/12/17/got-milk-lactate-helps-clean-polluted-soil/


----------



Students invent natural way to purify polluted water

Nov 15, 2002 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/students-invent-natural-way-to-purify-polluted-water-1.324915

------------


Method for treating oil slicks


http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4623468.html



-----------------



Newly Invented Bioglass Nanofibers Could Make Better CO2 Catcher





http://www.greenoptimistic.com/newly-invented-bioglass-nanofibers-could-make-better-co2-catchers-20091218/#.VSX1tZO-2zk

---------------------------







Pumpkins Pull Pollutants out of Contaminated Soil

 October 25, 2004

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pumpkins-pull-pollutants/
----------------------

IN SITU REMEDIATION OF SOILS AND GROUND WATER CONTAINING ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2014/0255099.html
-----------------------

Remediation apparatus and method for organic contamination in soil and groundwater


http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5525008.html
-----------

Hydrogen Peroxide and Horticulture

http://www.quickgrow.com/gardening_articles/hydrogen_peroxide_horticulture.html

------------

Peanut Husks Could Be Used Clean Up Waste Water

November 8, 2007


 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071108080114.htm

----------

 

TAML catalysts safely and effectively remove estrogenic compounds from wastewater

June 12, 2015

 Catalysts created by Carnegie Mellon University chemist Terrence J. Collins effectively and safely remove a potent and dangerous endocrine disruptor from wastewater.
 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-taml-catalysts-safely-effectively-estrogenic.html#nRlv


------------

 

Soils could keep contaminants in wastewater from reaching groundwater, streams

January 22, 2015

 http://phys.org/news/2015-01-soils-contaminants-wastewater-groundwater-streams.html#nRlv


 With endocrine-disrupting compounds affecting fish populations in rivers as close as Pennsylvania's Susquehanna and as far away as Israel's Jordan, a new research study shows that soils can filter out and break down at least some of these emerging contaminants. The results suggest that water pollution can be diminished by spraying treated wastewater on land rather than discharging it directly into streams, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Using Penn State's 600-acre "Living Filter"—a wastewater reuse system less than a mile from the University Park campus—as a laboratory, researchers tested soil samples for the presence and accumulation of three estrogens. For almost three decades, more than 500 million gallons of treated wastewater from the campus has been sprayed annually from irrigation pipes onto this site, which is composed of cropland, grassland and forest.

To understand how endocrine-disrupting compounds behave in the soil, researchers extracted samples and analyzed for two natural estrogens, 17-beta-estradiol and estrone—hormones naturally produced by humans and animals, such as dairy cattle—and one synthetic estrogen, 17-alpha-ethynylestradiol—a compound in birth-control pills.


---------------


CRIQ and INRS awarded a patent for a system that removes micropollutants from wastewater

January 12, 2016


In preliminary studies the patented membrane bioreactor system eliminated 99% of bisphenol-A (BPA) and other compounds in heavily contaminated wastewater. BPA, which is used in the manufacture of plastics, is a micropollutant thought to disrupt various physiological mechanisms. The system is designed for installation at factory outlets to treat wastewater at the source and can also be incorporated into wastewater treatment plants.


http://phys.org/news/2016-01-criq-inrs-awarded-patent-micropollutants.html#jCp



----------------

Non-toxic corn starch could replace cyanide in gold mines


  • May 14, 2013
 In the gold-mining process, the precious metal is often extracted from low-grade ore in a technique known as gold cyanidation. As its name suggests, the process utilizes highly-poisonous cyanide, some of which ends up entering the environment in the mines’ tailings. That’s not so good. Scientists at Illinois’ Northwestern University, however, recently announced their discovery of a new gold recovery process that’s based on a non-toxic component of corn starch.

 http://www.gizmag.com/corn-starch-gold-sequestration/27504/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

------------

 Companies such as Monsanto, and DuPont, have investments in plastic parts for reverse osmosis machines. 

 ------

Four dollars for a gallon of water? The dream of Monsanto and other corporations wanting to privatize water

April 18, 2012

 http://www.naturalnews.com/035603_water_monopoly_privatization.html

 --------
Companies such as BP, including Procter & Gamble, have financial gain and incentive, for chemicals that clean-up and purify water.


-------------

Corexit

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corexit

 Corexit (often styled COREXIT) is a product line of oil dispersants used during oil spill response operations. It is produced by Nalco Company, associated with BP and Exxon and an indirect subsidiary of Ecolab. Corexit was originally developed by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. Corexit is typically applied by aerial spraying or spraying from ships directly onto an oil slick. On contact with the dispersant, oil that would otherwise float on the surface of the water is emulsified into tiny droplets and sinks or (in the unusual case of sub-surface application) remains suspended in the water. In theory this allows the oil to be more rapidly degraded by bacteria (bioremediation) and prevents it from accumulating on beaches and in marshes.

 

Criticism

EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman gave an interview to Democracy Now during the height of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill news coverage and explained his views on the use of Corexit, saying "EPA now is taking the position that they really don’t know how dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how dangerous it is. And, for example, in the Exxon Valdez case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now. The average death age is around fifty. It’s very dangerous, and it’s an economic — it’s an economic protector of BP, not an environmental protector of the public."

Marine toxicologist Riki Ott blamed BP for poisoning locals with Corexit, which she alleges they used to hide their responsibility. In August 2010 she wrote an open letter to the Environmental Protection Agency alleging that dispersants were still being used in secret and demanding that the agency take action.[102] The letter was published in the Huffington Post. Ott told Al Jazeera, "The dispersants used in BP's draconian experiment contain solvents, such as petroleum distillates and 2-butoxyethanol. Solvents dissolve oil, grease, and rubber. It should be no surprise that solvents are also notoriously toxic to people, something the medical community has long known."



----------


Safer Water Worldwide

CINCINNATI (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- In the United States, with just the turn of a knob, clean, drinkable water is right at our fingertips. That's not the case in many parts of the world. But new technology is making it possible for people worldwide to have drinkable water ... With a stir of a powerful powder.
You wouldn't drink dirty water straight out of a river. But in developing nations, tap water is not a choice.

"People have to share their drinking water sources with their animals. People many times drink from open ponds or streams," Greg Allgood, Ph.D., of P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program based in Cincinnati, tells Ivanhoe.
...And that leads to deadly water-borne illnesses. Dr. Allgood, an industrial toxicologist, is director of P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program, a non-profit venture for the consumer-products giant.

http://www.ivanhoe.com/science/story/2006/12/222a.html

---------

Plugging up leaky graphene: New technique may enable faster, more durable water filters

May 07, 2015


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-leaky-graphene-technique-enable-faster.html#jCp

Plugging up leaky graphene: New technique may enable faster, more durable water filters

May 07, 2015


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-leaky-graphene-technique-enable-faster.html#jCp

Plugging up leaky graphene: New technique may enable faster, more durable water filters

May 07, 2015


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-leaky-graphene-technique-enable-faster.html#jCp



-----------------

We could make steam from ocean water, in order to solve the problems with drought, in certain areas. This includes atmospheric water generators. It is still debated the impact of some of these devices that would take moisture out of areas that would need moisture, such as a high desert. This would also include a tax on rainwater. Many people, include many native American groups, claim that it is their right to have free water, without being taxed. It seems that we should be able to make an abundance of fresh water, from the ocean. We even have new technology, for environmentally friendly ways to desalinate fresh water from the ocean. Some  people even dig out pools, called condensation pools, to collect moisture from the sky, and turn it into water. For more information on how we can collect and save water, view the article titled " Pollution Science 101 - Cancer Investigated (California) - http://pollutionscience101cancerinvestigated.blogspot.com/ ."


----------------

Solar Sponge Efficiently Makes Steam

It could be great for desalinating water and other applications.
 
July 25, 2014


http://www.popsci.com/article/science/solar-sponge-efficiently-makes-steam

--------------

Featured Story: Stormwater Runoff

Here’s how you can prevent chemicals, garbage and other debris from winding up on the local beach

 

 http://www.epa.gov/region9/water/npdes/stormwater-feature.html

 Stormwater systems were originally intended to route rainwater quickly off the streets during a heavy storm. Unfortunately, these systems can carry pollutants such as pesticides, bacteria and chemicals through city streets and straight to our waters. Stormwater pollution can include chemicals, fast food wrappers, cigarette butts, Styrofoam cups, sewage overflow, cooking oil, bacteria from pet waste, used motor oil, fertilizers, paint and construction debris.

Used oil from a single oil change can pollute up to one million gallons of freshwater. Improper disposal of used oil, which includes oil leaking from cars, contributes significantly to stormwater pollution. The EPA estimates that American households improperly dump about 193 million gallons of used oil every year, or roughly the equivalent of 17 Exxon Valdez oil spills.
And household cleaners can hurt the environment as well, if not disposed of properly. One ounce of household bleach requires 312,000 ounces of water to be safe for fish. Even biodegradable soaps can pose problems for aquatic life — in order for one ounce of biodegradable detergent to be safe for fish, it needs to be diluted by almost 20,000 ounces of water.




----------------


Combat Chemical Engineers Call On Nanoparticles to Polluted Groundwater.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Chemical+Engineers+Call+On+Nanoparticles+to+Combat+Polluted...-a0228229418


--------------

Bio-Remediation or Bio-Hazard? Dispersants, Bacteria and Illness in the Gulf

 09/17/2010

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riki-ott/bio-remediation-or-bio-ha_b_720461.html


-----------------

The Magnetic Wand That Cleans Oil Spills: Upgrade

 Dec 12, 2014

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYM324yDH-Q


 ----------


Environmentally Correct Oil Spill Cleanup Solution with Hay & Straw

 May 13, 2010

In this video posted by the Walton County (FL) Sheriff's Department, Darryl Carpenter, Vice President of Florida-based CW Roberts Contracting and sub-contractor Otis Goodson, shows how hay, hay grass and straw can be used as a very effective environmentally correct oil spill cleanup solution.

In a scene reminiscent of a primetime cooking show, the Carpenter and Goodson video shows how Coastal Bermuda and Bahia hay could be scattered over the surface of the ocean with hay blowers to absorb the oil. To start, the two men pour oil into two large pans of water, stir in the hay, add a little "wave action," then skim off the oil-soaked hay...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7JkFW5nwMQ

----------------

Sponges made from wood waste may soak up oil spills

May 6, 2014

As the Deepwater Horizon incident showed us, oil spills can be huge environmental disasters. That said, there are also considerable challenges in dealing with the waste products generated by the forestry and agriculture industries. Now, scientists from Switzerland's Empa research group have come up with a method of addressing the one problem with the other – they've developed sponges made from cellulose waste, that can soak up 50 times their own weight in oil.

http://www.gizmag.com/nanocellulose-oil-spill-sponges/31939/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

---------------

Pollution-absorbing bikini "cleans the water" while its wearer swims


October 13, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/swimsuit-absorbs-water-pollution/39832/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

 We've previously heard about air-purifying clothing, so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise to find out that scientists have now developed the aquatic equivalent – a bikini top that filters pollutants out of the water around the wearer. And yes, the technology could have other uses...

Sponge is derived from heated sucrose, and is at once highly hydrophobic (it repels water) while also being very good at absorbing harmful contaminants. This means that it can fill up just on pollutants – up to 25 times its own weight worth of them – without also becoming saturated with water.

The contaminants are stored in pores within the material, so they shouldn't come into contact with the wearer. In fact, the only way of releasing them is to heat the Sponge to at least 1,000 ºC (1,832 ºF). This can be done up to 20 times before the inserts start losing their absorbency...


----------

New technique may clean contaminated soil quickly

October 5, 2009 

 http://health.gaeatimes.com/2009/10/05/new-technique-may-clean-contaminated-soil-quickly-13028/

-------------------


Articles about Contaminated Soil


( Removing lead from contaminated soil shows mixed results Levels of toxins in children's blood go down but not as much as had been expected. )

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/keyword/contaminated-soil

 
-------------

Clemson Research Cleans Up With Edible Oil


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060913185820.htm


-----------------------

 How Mussel Farming Could Help to Clean Fouled Waters

http://www.aquaknow.net/es/node/18205
--------------

Designing Wetlands to Remove
Drugs and Chemical Pollutants

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/designing_wetlands_to_remove_drugs_and_chemical_pollutants/2856/


------------

Water Pollution: Sun-Powered Cleanup Crews

- Todd learned that species in different ecosystems—such as those in streams, ponds, marshes, and tide pools—have remarkable capacities to self-clean and self-repair. He found that plants such as rushes filter out suspended materials in the water. Others absorb toxic metals such as mercury and lead, and still others produce antibodies that kill organisms capable of causing disease...

 Thus, John Todd and his colleagues at the New Alchemy Institute invented Living Machines to do the same job as nature. Using a collection of tanks that hold different aquatic ecosystems, Living Machines (also known as Eco-Machines) take black water, or sewage, and return it to its natural state, unpolluted by human waste.

http://www.planetseed.com/relatedarticle/water-pollution-sun-powered-cleanup-crews


------------


Ocean Cleanup project to test its first trash-catching barriers in Dutch waters

 December 30, 2015

 Scooping up all the plastic waste in the world's oceans would be a massive undertaking given that scientists estimate there's around 5 trillion pieces of it currently bobbing about in the water. But the Ocean Cleanup project believes it is up to the challenge and has today announced plans for the first real-world test of its rubbish collection barriers off the coast of The Netherlands.

http://www.gizmag.com/ocean-cleanup-project-dutch-waters/41104/
----------


Ocean-friendly Seabin sucks up surrounding sea trash

  December 21, 2015

The mounting plastic waste in the world's oceans has been the subject of of some pretty bold environmental undertakings, perhaps none more so than the Ocean Cleanup Project aiming to eradicate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Seabin Project represents a smaller-scale approach, but it is noble in its aspirations all the same. Installation in ports and marinas sees this ocean-friendly trash can suck up the surrounding debris and even remove oil from the water.

http://www.gizmag.com/seabin-ocean-trash/41023/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

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Sensor detects toxins leaching from plastic

December 10, 2015
In much the same way PAC-MAN gobbles through an intense maze of dots eating and destroying its aggressors, researchers from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University have revealed for the first time how a similar mechanism in the eye lens does exactly the same thing. They have discovered that cells in close proximity to each other can sense when a cell is dying due to environmental stressors like UV light, smoke and other pollutants, and eat the cell before it becomes toxic.In a study just published in the Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, these researchers not only demonstrate that this happens with lens cells, but they uncover the molecules that are required to do it. They also reveal that the molecules needed for the cells to eat each other are degraded by UV light. And when that happens, the cells lose the ability to eat each other. Since these systems are not confined to the eye lens and diseases of the eye such as cataracts, uncovering the mechanisms and functions will provide important information in more complex tissues and disease states.

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-sensor-toxins-leaching-plastic.html



-----------------

How To Decontaminate Soil



 http://www.howtodothings.com/home-and-garden/a3187-how-to-decontaminate-soil.html

---------------

Soil decontamination method


http://patents.com/us-5275507.html

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Polymer breakthrough could revolutionize water purification

December 22, 2015
 
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-polymer-breakthrough-revolutionize-purification.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

We've all seen the Febreze air fresheners, which employ a derivative of corn starch to trap invisible air pollutants in the home and remove unwanted odors.

A team of Cornell researchers has used the same material found in Febreze, cyclodextrin, to develop a technique that could revolutionize the water-purification industry.

The team is led by Will Dichtel, associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology and a 2015 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship winner. His group invented a porous form of cyclodextrin that has displayed uptake of pollutants through adsorption at rates vastly superior to traditional activated carbon – 200 times greater in some cases.

Activated carbons have the advantage of larger surface area than previous polymers made from cyclodextrin – "more sites for pollutants to stick to," Dichtel said – but they don't bind pollutants as strongly as cyclodextrin.

"What we did is make the first high-surface-area material made of cyclodextrin," Dichtel said, "combining some of the advantages of the activated carbon with the inherent advantages of the cyclodextrin. When you combine the best features of those two materials, you get a material that's even better than either class.


----------

Scientists make "Impossible Material" ... by accident

July 30, 2013



In an effort to create a more viable material for drug delivery, a team of researchers has accidentally created an entirely new material thought for more than 100 years to be impossible to make. Upsalite is a new form of non-toxic magnesium carbonate with an extremely porous surface area which allows it to absorb more moisture at low humidities than any other known material. "The total area of the pore walls of one gram of material would cover 800 square meters (8611 sq ft) if you would 'roll them out'", Maria Strømme, Professor of Nanotechnology at the Uppsala University, Sweden tells Gizmag. That's roughly equal to the sail area of a megayacht. Aside from using substantially less energy to create drier environments for producing electronics, batteries and pharmaceuticals, Upsalite could also be used to clean up oil spills, toxic waste and residues.


http://www.gizmag.com/upsalite-impossible-material/28393/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


-------------




'Dry water' could be used to store carbon dioxide

August 25, 2010 

 

http://www.gizmag.com/dry-water-stores-carbon-dioxide/16138/

You know, I’m pretty sure I remember a Far Side cartoon or something, where someone was selling powdered water – “Just add water!” Well, dry water isn’t quite the same thing. It’s 95 percent liquid water, but that water takes the form of tiny droplets each encased in a tiny globe of silica. The resultant substance is dry and granular. It first came to light in 1968, and was used in cosmetics. More recently, a University of Liverpool research team has been looking into other potential uses for the substance. They have found several, but most interesting is its ability to store gases such as carbon dioxide.
In laboratory experiments, study leader Professor Andrew Cooper and his team found that dry water absorbed over three times as much CO2 as uncombined water and silica in the same amount of time. The gas combined with the water molecules to form a storable hydrate, which Cooper believes makes it ideal for reducing global warming.
The Liverpool team also found that dry water could be used to store methane gas. As methane is a component of natural gas, they believe this discovery could make natural gas a more environmentally-viable energy source. They suggest that dry water could be used to absorb and transport the methane from stranded deposits of natural gas, or as a storage medium for methane fuel for cars.


-----------------

Sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere to create carbon nanofibers

August 20, 2015



Carbon nanofibers hold tremendous potential. They may one day be put to use in tougher bulletproof vests, artificial muscles or rebuilding damaged hearts, just to name a few possibilities. But could the greatest gift these little wonders offer humanity be not what they bring into the world but what they take out of it? Scientists have developed a technique that could pull the mounting carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and transform it into carbon nanofibers, resulting in raw materials for use in anything from sports gear to commercial airliners.

http://www.gizmag.com/c02-atmosphere-carbon-nanofibers/39015/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

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New material promises more efficient carbon capture

 March 12, 2015

We've already seen a number of technologies developed for capturing carbon dioxide emissions from smokestacks or other sources, but many of them have a limitation – in order to reclaim the captured CO2 for disposal, a considerable amount of energy is needed. Now, however, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a new carbon-capture material that requires far less energy in order to give up its payload.
The material is a type of metal-organic framework (MOF), which are composites made from metal and organic compounds. In this case, the metal is either magnesium or manganese (depending on the application) and the organic compounds are nitrogen-based diamines.
Like other MOFs, it has a porous structure featuring microscopic parallel channels.
When the correct temperature and pressure are maintained, CO2 molecules in air passing through those channels bind with the material. The process gets more effective as the filtration process continues, as subsequent molecules bind with those that are already trapped in the MOF.
The temperature at which it works can range from room temperature to over 100 ºF (38 ºC) depending on how the diamines are synthesized, while the required pressure varies with the type of metal used. Once the material is saturated, it can be made to release the CO2 molecules simply by heating it to a temperature that's a total of 50 ºC (90 ºF) warmer than the temperature at which they were captured.
By contrast, many power plants currently utilize a carbon-capture technique in which flue gases are filtered by being bubbled through water containing amines (of which diamines are one type), the CO2 molecules binding with them. In order to subsequently release the captured CO2 from the amines, however, the water has to be heated to a temperature of 120 to 150 ºC (250 to 300 ºF). According to the university, the whole process can sometimes consume up to 30 percent of the power generated at the plant.
Plans now call for the material to be tested in a pilot study at a power plant. Lead scientist Prof. Jeffrey Long also hopes that it could be used to purify the air in submarines, or even aboard the International Space Station.

http://www.gizmag.com/carbon-capture-mof/36525/




--------

Liquid laundry additive turns clothes into air purifiers


October 1, 2012

A laundry additive created by researchers from the University of Sheffield and the London College of Fashion turns clothing into a photocatalytic material that can help remove nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the air. One of the most prominent air pollutants, nitrogen oxides are emitted from the exhausts of ICE-powered vehicles and aggravate asthma and other respiratory diseases. The researchers claim one person getting around town in clothing treated with the additive for a day would be able to remove roughly the same amount of nitrogen oxides produced by the average family car each day.

http://www.gizmag.com/catclo-laundry-additive-air-purifying-clothing/24371/


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Coffee grounds recycled as carbon capture material



September 8, 2015

Coffee grounds are not exactly noxious despoilers of the environment, but many millions of tons of them are generated every year and simply disposed of with other vegetable matter and food waste. Now, researchers have devised a way to utilize this innocuous waste product to get rid of a much more dangerous one. By modifying used coffee grounds into a carbon capture material, the new product may provide a simple, inexpensive way to remove a prolific and harmful greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

http://www.gizmag.com/coffee-carbon-capture-methane/39299/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget


-----------------



Study shows using oat hulls for power has considerable benefits to the environment and human health

September 25, 2015

Biomass burning sometimes gets a bad rap. That's because many associate the burning of living and dead vegetation with human-caused fires and clearing of land that release unhealthy particles and gases that spur global warming.


But what if you burned biomass in a controlled environment, such as in a power plant, that at least partially replaces using a fossil fuel? Would there be demonstrable environmental and health benefits?

In a new study, researchers at the University of Iowa report that burning oat hulls had considerable benefits to the environment as well as to human health. The study examined the practices at the UI Power Plant, where technicians have burned a mix of oat hulls and coal for more than a decade. The researchers found a 50-50 oat hulls-coal mix, when compared to burning only coal, reduced fossil carbon-dioxide emissions by 40 percent and significantly reduced the release of particulate matter, hazardous substances, and heavy metals.


 http://phys.org/news/2015-09-oat-hulls-power-considerable-benefits.html#jCp




-------------------------

Banana fibre can fix marine oil spills, says study

http://www.scidev.net/global/farming/news/banana-fibre-can-fix-marine-oil-spills-says-study.html

--------------------------------

Banana peel can purify water, say scientists

http://www.scidev.net/global/pollution/news/banana-peel-can-purify-water-say-scientists.html


-------------------------------

Banana compost could boost crop yields, a study finds


http://www.scidev.net/global/biotechnology/news/banana-compost-could-boost-crop-yields-a-study-finds-1.html

----------------------------------


We must have regulations put in place, so that companies do not release unregulated genetically modified  plants, into the wilderness. This has already happened with unregulated genetically modified wheat, being released in Oregon. Many question how we can stop the damage that has been done, from bad genetic experiments that harm the planet.

We must question if it is worth the risk, to continue research in genetically modified plants and animals, especially in certain areas of research. Such as what Monsanto is doing to corn, soy and other plants. 

What if it were possible to genetically modify a plant, that could balance out the atmosphere. Many also question that if we try to tamper with natural disasters, such as how a volcano could change the chemical composition of our atmosphere. That this could interfere with the natural balance of this planet, and that it could have consequences later on. With new types of technology, it could be possible to save our civilization, including a lot of the wildlife, such as trees and animals, from natural disasters and extinction.

 ---------------

Pollution-Busting Plants

Transgenic trees and plants may break down the pollutants left behind at sites ranging from former factories to firing ranges
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetically-modified-plants-suck-up-pollution/


------


Uptake of BTEX Compounds by Hybrid Poplar Trees in Hazardous Waste Remediation


http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/5312

-------------


Enzymatic micromotor-driven CO2 sequestration in water

September 17, 2015



Rapid decontamination of an aqueous solution by a freely moving microscrubber: this scenario has been realized by American scientists for the sequestration of CO2 from water. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, they introduce their concept of enzymatic conversion of CO2 into solid calcium carbonate, which is greatly facilitated by the use of self-propelled micromotors that act as a movable enzyme support.

The on-site mineralization of the gaseous CO2 into solid and durable carbonate salts is one of the options that scientists consider feasible for tackling the issue of the ongoing and massive man-made release of carbon dioxide by the combustion of fossil fuels. Calcium carbonate is one of the preferred storage forms for CO2, and marine organisms have piled up layers of calcium carbonate as thick as mountains by bioconversion of carbon dioxide over millions of years, However, the uncatalyzed formation of carbonates from carbon dioxide in aqueous environments is too slow to be practically applicable for large-scale CO2 sequestration by man. Joseph Wang and his group at the University of California, San Diego, have now greatly speeded up this conversion by a cunning chemical-nanoengineering approach. "Our approach combines the biocatalytic activity of carbonic anhydrase [a zinc metalloenzyme that catalyzes the hydration of CO2 to form bicarbonate] with the self-propulsion of chemically powered micromotors through CO2-saturated samples to act as highly efficient mobile biocatalytic microscrubbers," they write. The main advantage of this method is the automatic self-mixing and scrubbing of the reaction solution just by adding environmentally friendly hydrogen peroxide, the "fuel" of the micromotors.



http://phys.org/news/2015-09-enzymatic-micromotor-driven-co2-sequestration.html
-------------------


By ‘Editing’ Plant Genes, Companies Avoid Regulation


 

Its first attempt to develop genetically engineered grass ended disastrously for the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. The grass escaped into the wild from test plots in Oregon in 2003, dooming the chances that the government would approve the product for commercial use.
Yet Scotts is once again developing genetically modified grass that would need less mowing, be a deeper green and be resistant to damage from the popular weedkiller Roundup. But this time the grass will not need federal approval before it can be field-tested and marketed.
Scotts and several other companies are developing genetically modified crops using techniques that either are outside the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Department or use new methods — like “genome editing” — that were not envisioned when the regulations were created.
The department has said, for example, that it has no authority over a new herbicide-resistant canola, a corn that would create less pollution from livestock waste, switch grass tailored for biofuel production, and even an ornamental plant that glows in the dark.


The trend alarms critics of biotech crops, who say genetic modification can have unintended effects, regardless of the process.
“They are using a technical loophole so that what are clearly genetically engineered crops and organisms are escaping regulation,” said Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumers Union. He said the grass “can have all sorts of ecological impact and no one is required to look at it.”
Even some people who say the crops are safe and the regulations overly burdensome have expressed concern that because some crops can be left unregulated, the whole oversight process is confusing and illogical, in some cases doing more harm than good.
In November’s Nature Biotechnology, plant researchers at the University of California, Davis, wrote that the regulatory framework had become “obsolete and an obstacle to the development of new agricultural products.”
But companies using the new techniques say that if the methods were not labeled genetic engineering, novel crops could be marketed or grown in Europe and other countries that do not readily accept genetically modified crops.
Freedom from oversight could also open opportunities for smaller companies and university breeders and for the modification of less common crops. Until now, in part because of the costs associated with regulation, crop biotechnology has been dominated by Monsanto and a handful of other big companies working mainly on widely grown crops like corn and soybeans.


“It enables small companies to develop products, and even university start-ups,” said Luc Mathis, chief executive of Cellectis Plant Sciences, which recently received a regulatory exemption for a potato it says will make French fries less unhealthy.
An industry-sponsored study said that the large companies spend an average of $136 million on the development of a genetically engineered crop, including $35 million in regulatory costs. The Agriculture Department once took two to five years to review applications, though it is trying to reduce that to 13 to 16 months.
Genetically engineered crops, popularly called genetically modified organisms or G.M.O.s, typically have genes from other organisms inserted into their DNA. The most popular ones, like Roundup-resistant soybeans and insect-resistant corn, use genes from bacteria...




------------

Q&A: Geoengineering Is ‘A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come

03.23.10

 http://www.wired.com/2010/03/hacktheplanet-qa/

----------------------------

We can see many of the bad problems with geoengineering in food. We have seen many of the good prospects, from geoengineering in certain medical fields. However, some think that we should not tamper with geoengineering, and let nature take its course. This is simply because companies such as Monsanto and DuPont, have already endangered the planet, with genetically modified plants and chemicals. However, advancements in recent biotechnology, have made many people wonder, if geoengineering is a good or bad idea. This includes the possibility of new experiments, on genetically modified organisms, including genetically modified bacteria and viruses.

--------------------

----------------
----------------





Chapter 25: Toxic clean-up technology


----------------
----------------



---------------------


When we look at the BP Oil spill. We can see the problem that oil can cause to the environment, and living beings, over a short and extended period of time. People have been making plastics out of oil, for many years. There are natural types of sheets and rocks, made of natural oil-made plastics, made from fossil fuel, under the Earth.

Using a little oil is not that big of a problem, honestly. However, the way that we consume, burn and drill for oil these days, is questionably causing problems to living beings, including the environment.

Many people see the amount of fossil fuel being drilled for many plastics and synthetic fibers. Then when plastic and products made from fossil fuel enter the environment, in excess. This can cause problems to the wildlife in the area.

If the oils to make this plastic, were from plant based oils, these plastics might not pose as serious of a threat to the environment.

------------


There are many synthetic chemicals used in scientific experiments. There are constantly new inventions, with these synthetic chemicals and fibers. We must question, to what excess, are many of these scientific experiments, with these chemicals, doing to our environment. We still do not know, the long term effects of these experiments, with harmful chemicals. This includes genetically modified chemicals as well. Many question if we can design a way, in order to remove a lot of the toxic waste, that we see in landfills. We have several ways of trying to remove waste, it can be a problem many times, with microscopic particles, including air pollution. It is debated, when we try to destroy materials and matter, the exact amount of materials that stay intact and exist on a microscopic level. Many microscopic materials, cannot even be detected with the naked eye. 

--------------------


High-Powered Plasma Turns Garbage Into Gas

http://www.wired.com/2012/01/ff_trashblaster/

----------------

Plasma arc recycling

 Last updated: November 24, 2014.



 http://www.explainthatstuff.com/plasma-arc-recycling.html
----------------


Some people think that a more environmentally friendly way of cremation by fire, would be to use solar power from the Sun. This could be better than  cutting down trees, than having to burn wood or coals for fire.


-------------------

Melting steel with solar power

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tt7RG3UR4c


---------------



Giant Magnifier Reaches 5,000 Degrees Using Only Sunlight

It was created to research our most powerful weapons, but it's also used to try to protect Earth from cataclysmic destruction. 

 

 http://discovermagazine.com/2010/sep/solar-concentrator-reaches-5000-degrees



-------

 The following article, explains the impact and chemicals, given off by cremations. This includes cremation by fire, or using liquid nitrogen to freeze and shatter the cremains.

-----------

METALS IN MEDICINE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Cremation Waste and Toxins


http://faculty.virginia.edu/metals/cases/huffman1.html

-----------------

 


Our biggest concern, is trying to get rid of highly toxic waste, such as uranium and other harmful chemicals.

---------------------


 Improving the selective extraction of spent uranium in nuclear waste clean-up

June 16, 2015

Driven by the need to find ways of separating, recycling and reducing nuclear waste, chemists at The University of Nottingham are developing our understanding of how uranium interacts with elements from around the periodic table to potentially help improve the selective extraction of spent uranium in nuclear waste clean-up.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-06-spent-uranium-nuclear-clean-up.html#jCp


----------

Recycling nuclear waste via advanced reactor design

May 28th, 2015


 An advanced nuclear reactor under development by Hitachi could help solve the nuclear waste problem, and University of Michigan researchers were involved in verifying its safe performance through computer simulations.


The U-M team worked with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. After more safety analysis, Hitachi plans to move forward with a prototype of the "resource-renewable boiling water reactor" in the next few years.

One of the major technological hurdles for nuclear energy is developing systems to dispose of the waste produced by typical reactors. It must be sealed away for hundreds of millennia while the radioactivity naturally decreases.

Hitachi's new design would burn off the longest-lived radioactive materials, called transuranics, shortening that isolation period to a few centuries. This would recycle the nuclear waste to produce yet more energy and reduce the amount that must be stowed away.


http://phys.org/news/2015-05-recycling-nuclear-advanced-reactor.html



----------------



Encouraging minerals to capture troubling radionuclides
 







May 08, 2015
 http://phys.org/news/2015-05-minerals-capture-radionuclides.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu

-------------------


Graphene, the finest filter

 

January 5, 2016



 http://phys.org/news/2016-01-graphene-finest-filter.html#nRlv

 Graphene can simplify production of heavy water and help clean nuclear waste by filtering different isotopes of hydrogen, University of Manchester research indicates.

Writing in Science, a team led by Sir Andre Geim demonstrated that using membranes made from graphene can act as a sieve, separating protons – nuclei of hydrogen – from heavier nuclei of hydrogen isotope deuterium.

The process could mean producing heavy water for nuclear power plants could be ten times less energy intensive, simpler and cheaper using graphene.

One of the hydrogen isotopes, deuterium, is widely used in analytical and chemical tracing technologies and, also, as heavy water required in thousands of tons for operation of nuclear power stations.

The heaviest isotope, tritium, is radioactive and needs to be safely removed as a byproduct of electricity generation at nuclear fission plants. Future nuclear technology is based on fusion of the two heavy isotopes.

The current separation technologies for production of heavy water are extremely energy intensive, and have presented a major scientific and industrial problem. Now graphene promises do so efficiently.

Researchers tested whether deuterons – nuclei of deuterium – can pass through graphene and its sister material boron nitride. They fully expected deuterons to easily pass through, as existing theory did not predict any difference in permeation for both isotopes.


The researchers were surprised to find that deuterons were not only effectively sieved out by their one atom thick membranes, but were sieved with a high separation efficiency.

The discovery makes monolayers of graphene and boron nitride attractive as separation membranes to enrich mixtures of deuterium and tritium.

Furthermore, the researchers showed that the separation is fully scalable. Using chemical-vapor-deposited (CVD) graphene, they built centimetre-sized devices to effectively pump out hydrogen from a mixture of deuterium and hydrogen.

Dr Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo, University of Manchester postdoctoral researcher and first author of the paper, said: "This is really the first membrane shown to distinguish between subatomic particles, all at room temperature.

"Now that we showed that it is a fully scalable technology, we hope it will quickly find its way to real applications."

Professor Irina Grigorieva, who co-authored the research, said: "We were stunned to see that a membrane can be used to separate subatomic particles.

"It is a really simple set up. We hope to see applications of these filters not only in analytical and chemical tracing technologies but also in helping to clean nuclear waste from radioactive tritium."


----------------

Many have even mentioned about using genetically modified archaea (bacteria), that could eat and digest uranium, including other toxic waste. The bacteria could turn the toxic waste, into a different chemical structure, that may not be as toxic, or could biodegrade properly. However, some question if this type of bacteria, could pose a threat to the environment.


------------------------------------

For uranium cleanup ... bacteria?



http://news.stanford.edu/news/2006/may24/criddle-052406.html

Bacteria are back
Bioremediation was used in the 1980s to clean up toxic organics, mainly spills of fuels and solvents. Bacteria basically ate the fuels—chomping down long-chain hydrocarbons—or they "breathed" the solvents and created nontoxic forms.
"Microorganisms also 'breathe' metals like uranium, converting it into a form that is immobile because it does not appreciably dissolve in water," said Nyman, a doctoral student whose laboratory studies helped to guide operations in the field. After microbes convert the uranium, it's "just sitting there, like a rock," Criddle said. "In future studies, we hope to see how stable we can make that 'rock.' Ideally, it will remain in that form for thousands of years."

---------------------------------








































Scientists develop material to remove radioactive contaminants from drinking water

April 13, 2011
A combination of forest byproducts and crustacean shells may be the key to removing radioactive materials from drinking water, researchers from North Carolina State University have found.
"As we're currently seeing in Japan, one of the major health risks posed by nuclear accidents is radioactive iodide that dissolves into drinking water. Because it is chemically identical to non-radioactive iodide, the human body cannot distinguish it – which is what allows it to accumulate in the thyroid and eventually lead to cancer," says Dr. Joel Pawlak, associate professor of forest biomaterials. "The material that we've developed binds iodide in water and traps it, which can then be properly disposed of without risk to humans or the environment."

http://phys.org/news/2011-04-scientists-material-radioactive-contaminants.html#nRlv

---------------------------

Technique could set new course for extracting uranium from seawater

December 17, 2015
 An ultra-high-resolution technique used for the first time to study polymer fibers that trap uranium in seawater may cause researchers to rethink the best methods to harvest this potential fuel for nuclear reactors.

 http://phys.org/news/2015-12-technique-uranium-seawater.html

-------------------------

Some people think that this technology could be useful, to cleanup excess uranium from ocean water. Many people still believe that there are still better sources of energy, than using uranium for energy.


--------------

We even have the medical technology, to treat radiation sickness. This  technology could also become beneficial for cancer patients.

-----------

FDA ticks off first drug to treat radiation sickness after nuclear disasters


May 25, 2015

http://www.gizmag.com/fda-drug-radiation-nuclear/37671/




----------------------

Metal foams could provide lightweight radiation shielding

  • July 22, 2015



 Radiation generally comes under the heading of "things you want to stay away from," so it's no surprise that radiation shielding is a high priority in many industries. However, current shielding is bulky and heavy, so a North Carolina State University team is developing a new lightweight shielding based on foam metals that can block X-rays, gamma rays, and neutron radiation, as well as withstanding high-energy impact collisions.

http://www.gizmag.com/metal-foam-lightweight-radiation-shielding/38515/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

--------------

 

 New Material Selenomelanin Offers Extreme Radiation Shielding

Aug 17, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I50EEKzrOd4

 

--------------


Researchers awarded patent for tokamak device, would turn nuclear waste into fuel

September 13, 2012

 University of Texas at Austin physicists have been awarded a U.S. patent for an invention that could someday be used to turn nuclear waste into fuel, thus removing the most dangerous forms of waste from the fuel cycle.

The researchers—Mike Kotschenreuther, Prashant Valanju and Swadesh Mahajan of the College of Natural Sciences—have patented the concept for a novel fusion-fission hybrid nuclear reactor that would use nuclear fusion and fission together to incinerate nuclear waste. Fusion produces energy by fusing atomic nuclei, and fission produces energy by splitting atomic nuclei.

The process of burning the waste would also produce energy. The researchers' goal is to eliminate 99 percent of the most toxic transuranic waste from nuclear fission reactors.

"The potential for this kind of technology is enormous," said Mahajan, professor of physics. "Now that we have the patent, we hope this will open up opportunities to engage with the research and development community to further this potentially world-changing technology."

The researchers' patent covers a tokamak device, which uses magnetic fields to produce fusion reactions. The patented tokamak is surrounded by an area that would house a nuclear waste fuel source and waste by-products of the nuclear fuel cycle. The device is driven by a transformational technology called the Super X Divertor.

The Super X Divertor is a crucial technology that has the capacity to safely divert the enormous amounts of heat out of the reactor core to keep the reactor producing energy.

Toxic nuclear waste is stored at sites around the U.S., and the need to store nuclear waste is widely considered to be a major disadvantage associated with nuclear energy.

The physicists' invention could someday drastically decrease the need for any additional or expanded geological repositories, making nuclear power cleaner and more viable.

The patented hybrid reactor is currently in a conceptual phase.

The Super X Divertor, however, is being installed as the centerpiece of a $40 million upgrade of the MAST tokamak in the United Kingdom. This installation is a critical step forward in testing the Super X Divertor experimentally. It is not covered by the U.S. patent but is the technology invented by the University of Texas at Austin physicists.

 http://phys.org/news/2012-09-awarded-patent-tokamak-device-nuclear.html#nRlv




--------------------


Nuclear ‘Power Balls’ May Make Meltdowns a Thing of the Past


06.30.2020

Triso particles are an alien-looking fuel with built-in safety features that will power a new generation of high-temperature reactors.

https://www.wired.com/story/nuclear-power-balls-triso-fuel/?utm_source=pocket-newtab


--------------------



 The new, safer nuclear reactors that might help stop climate change

Feb 27. 2019

From sodium-cooled fission to advanced fusion, a fresh generation of projects hopes to rekindle trust in nuclear energy.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612940/the-new-safer-nuclear-reactors-that-might-help-stop-climate-change/


---------------------------------


Have Physicists Found the Key to Safer Nuclear Power?

Aug 2017

Unlike the uranium commonly used to power nuclear reactors, thorium salts are protected against meltdowns and can’t be weaponized.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/have-physicists-found-key-safer-nuclear-power-ncna796616

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Should Iran be allowed to have nuclear energy, including uranium? Should other counties still be allowed to use uranium for fuel? The answer is that we need to stop using uranium, and switch over to other alternative sources of energy. We can also see the problems with research in making and experimenting with uranium weapons. This is why so many people are concerned about projects, such as using uranium, in experiments being done with CERN. We will go into detail about CERN in our next book " Energy Science 101 - http://energyscience101.blogspot.com/. "



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We have the technology to use good biopolymers and bioplastics.
We have the technology to make organic computing crystals for computers.
We can make non-toxic fibers, alloys, paints, dyes and lubricants.
We can make and grow our food to be non-toxic, and sustainable as well.
We could make all parts of a vehicle, including the energy used in a vehicle,  to be sustainable for the environment.


Some people question many of the practices used in current mining techniques, for mining metals and alloys. This is why some people think that plant based materials, or different materials such as silicone, could be more environmentally friendly for fibers. This may be more sustainable, than mass-producing and mining for certain types of metals, including rare metals. We need to properly recycle and reuse, the metals and alloys, that have already been produced on this planet. However, there will always be a need for new scientific experiments with rare metals and minerals.


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Some have even mentioned the use of genetically modified plants and bacteria, that could act as solar energy harvesters. We have already seen many unsafe experiments, with genetically modified organisms.This includes the use of genetically modified organisms, that can survive in outer space.

To continue this discussion, view our book titled " 'Energy Science 101 - ( Pollution Science 101 )."  -  http://EnergyScience101.blogspot.com/   ."

Here is a preview of the following subjects and chapters of the new book " 'Energy Science 101 - ( Pollution Science 101 )."  -  http://EnergyScience101.blogspot.com/   ."


Chapter 1: Tesla
Chapter 2: CERN
Chapter 3: Antimatter
Chapter 4: Plasma energy 
Chapter 5: Cold Fusion
Chapter 6: Dark Energy   
Chapter 7: Batteries & energy storage
Chapter 8: Magnetic energy
Chapter 9: Piezoelectric & mechanical energy
Chapter 10: Lazers


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