Science Simplified!

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 1, 2014 at 7:55am

Green jet fuel:

An EU-funded research project called Solar Jet has produced the world's first 'solar' jet fuel from water and carbon dioxide. Researchers have successfully demonstrated the entire production chain for renewable kerosene using concentrated light as a hightemperature energy source.

The project is still at an experimental stage and just a glassful of jet fuel was produced in lab conditions using simulated sunlight.

The four-year Solar-Jet project was launched in June 2011 and is receiving 2.2 million EU funding from the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

In the next phase of the project, the partners plan to optimize the solar reactor and assess whether the technology will work on a larger scale and at competitive cost. Finding new, sustainable sources of energy will remain a priority under Horizon 2020, the seven-year EU research and innovation programme launched on Jan 1, 2014.

European commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Maire Geoghegan-Quinn said, "This technology means we might one day produce cleaner and plentiful fuel for planes, cars and other forms of transport. This could greatly increase energy security and turn one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for global warming into a useful resource."

Concentrated light— simulating sunlight —was used to convert carbon dioxide and water to synthesis gas (syngas ) in a high-temperature solar reactor containing metaloxide based materials developed at ETH Zurich . The syngas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) was then converted into kerosene by Shell.

Although producing syngas through concentrated solar radiation is still at an early stage of development, the processing of syngas to kerosene is being deployed by companies including Shell on a global scale. Combining the two approaches has the potential to provide secure, sustainable and scalable supplies of aviation fuel as well as diesel and gasoline, or even plastics.

• Solar-Jet project created reactor that uses sunlight to heat metal oxide
• Water and carbon monoxide are then passed into the reactor at 700 °C
• This creates a synthetic gas made of hydrogen and carbon monoxide
• Gas was then compressed and transformed into fuel similar to kerosene
• If proved on a larger scale, the process may provide a sustainable and scalable supply of fuel for planes, cars and other vehicles

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 1, 2014 at 7:50am

Water-testing lab packed into a pill
Want to know if your water supply is contaminated? Drop this pill in a vial of water and if the colour changes, there's your answer ! Scientists have solved the problem of cumbersome, painfully slow water-testing by putting the potentially life-saving technology into a tiny pill.

The team at McMaster University has reduced the sophisticated chemistry required for testing water safety to a simple pill, by adapting technology found in a dissolving breath strip. Instead of shipping water to the lab, they have created a way to take the lab to the water, putting potentially lifesaving technology into the hands of everyday people.

The development has the potential to dramatically boost access to quick and affordable testing around the world. "We got the inspiration from the supermarket," said Carlos Filipe, who worked on the project.

The idea occurred to Sana Jahanshahi-Anbuhi , a PhD student in Chemical Engineering who came across the breath strips while shopping and realized the same material used in the dissolving strips could have broader applications.

The technology is expected to have significant public health applications for testing water in remote areas and in developing countries that lack proper testing infrastructure.

The researchers have now created a way to store precisely measured amounts of enzymes and other active agents in pills made from the same naturally occurring substance used in breath strips, putting lab-quality science within instant and easy reach of people who need quick answers to questions such as whether their water is safe.
-Agencies

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 1, 2014 at 5:18am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2014 at 9:06am

Almost a third of malaria drugs failed quality tests

Around 30 per cent of samples tested since 1946 were falsified or substandard

These put patients’ health at risk and could lead to drug-resistant malaria

Sixty-three malaria-endemic nations lack publicly available drug quality data
http://www.scidev.net/global/malaria/news/almost-a-third-of-malaria...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2014 at 8:35am

Lost your contact lenses? Crushed your glasses? Well you need stare at blurry public transport signs no longer, as simple physics can be exploited to give your vision a small boost using just your hand.
The 'trick' was posted in a video form by the channel Minute Physics and has been stunning bespectacled users in the hours following.
Make a tiny hole with your finger (curling up index finger works best) and look through it.

Whatever you're viewing, be it text, object or vista should appear considerably clearer.

Your eyes' lenses focus spread out light to create a crisp image on your retina (unless they're damaged, causing you to need glasses), with eye muscles squeezing them so we can focus at different distances.

Unlike a lens, a pinhole or other small opening can focus light coming from any distance. Because it's such a small opening, it only allows light to come through in one place, and thus in only one direction from any particular source, so there's no blur, and everything is in focus.

Small holes create crisp images by blocking rather than focusing light though, so the images are much darker, which is one reason why we don't use them for glasses, contact lenses, telescopes etc.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2014 at 7:14am

The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers is an Emmy-nominated web series and site from PBS’s NOVA. This is where you can learn about cutting-edge science and engineering, the amazing people who do that work, and the things they do when their lab coats come off – win beauty pageants, wrestle professionally, become rock stars and magicians, etc. Scroll down to explore the lives of some gifted and inspiring people who are changing our world… and having a great time while they’re doing it.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/secretlife/video-profiles/

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2014 at 6:39am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2014 at 5:41am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2014 at 5:59am

A new study published online in the Journal of Applied Physiology shows additional benefits of consuming a blend of soy and dairy proteins after resistance exercise for building muscle mass. Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch found that using a protein blend of soy, casein and whey post-workout prolongs the delivery of select amino acids to the muscle for an hour longer than using whey alone. It also shows a prolonged increase in amino acid net balance across the leg muscle during early post-exercise recovery, suggesting prolonged muscle building. The study was conducted by researchers from UTMB in collaboration with DuPont Nutrition and Health. "This study sheds new light on how unique combinations of proteins, as opposed to single protein sources, are important for muscle recovery following exercise and help extend amino acid availability, further promoting muscle growth," said Blake B. Rasmussen, chairman of UTMB's Department of Nutrition and Metabolism and lead researcher of the study.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 28, 2014 at 5:36am

Scientists have come up with a way to make whole brains transparent, so they can be labelled with molecular markers and imaged using a light microscope. The technique, called CLARITY, enabled its creators to produce the detailed 3D visualisations you see in this video. It works in mouse brains and human brains; here the team use it to look into the brain of a 7-year-old boy who had autism.

Original research paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12107
Nature News story: http://www.nature.com/news/see-throug...

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