Will's blog on STS 302h

Inner City Farms?

Recently there was an article in the Scientific American talking about a possible radical change in how the world does agriculture. As population continues to grow, the world is going to need more food and more farmland. Unfortunately there isn't enough arable land to feed all these people. Cutting down forests for more farm land would be environmental catastrophe as it would eliminate a major source of carbon sequestration that is the worlds forests. Modern farms are also damaging to the environment in a  multitude of ways. Firstly, agriculture and transporting crops could account for 20% of U.S. gasoline and diesel fuel use. Furthermore, chemical farming uses a large percentage of the worlds fresh water and what is not used by the crops is contaminated by things like fertilizer and pesticides. While some may use that as an argument for purely organic farming, remember that there will not be enough land to feed everyone even with high yield chemical farms and organic farming would only increase hunger.

So what's the solution? Many people now argue that it is completely feasible to build large vertical, indoor farms. A large, many story, building up to the size of a city block. These could be in cities to reduce transportation costs, they would need significantly less land, and it is argued that they would reduce the amount of water needed. Food is already being grown indoors in a variety of places around the world. Hydroponics and drip irrigation are both methods of watering crops that provide them with all the nutrients and water they need, while significantly reducing the amount of water needed. Less land could also be used as the multiple stories multiply land space. Crops could also be grown year round to have multiple harvests. We lose 30% of our nations harvest each year to spoiling and infestation that happen while transporting things long distance. The indoor farming in big cities would reduce this as well as prevent loss of crops due to natural disasters like fire and flood.

Obviously this technology cannot be brought about tomorrow, but prototypes can be started. This represents a large paradigm shift in how we view farming and agriculture. The small farms of the past are long gone and the large chemically enhanced farms or modern day may be on the way out. The current model is unsustainable and we need to be looking for solutions to the problem of feeding a growing global population as well as the environmental cost of current farming practices. This should be a major research object today as vertical farms will take many people in agriculture and engineering to develop working models.

 

New Optic Displays in Contacts

Have you ever seen any movies where robots or people have visual displays hovering right in front of their eyes? The display may be data from the surrounding or simply images. This may not be too far from our future. Contacts lenses with simple displays are already being made. They are rudimentary and still being worked on but they are powered wirelessly and have displays using LEDs. I'll leave most of the technical aspects of how it works to the main article which I will link below, but it i an astounding technology. They hope to eventually be able to fit hundreds of LEDs onto a lens so that full color images are able to be displayed. Everything is semi transparent so you would still be able to navigate around easily.

  For those that do not get the significance of this technology, you only need to think about science fiction. This is something straight out a super futuristic movie or novel. These essentially amount to removable cybernetic implants. The contact lenses could be the first in a variety of machines in devices that we wear or implant into our body to increase our abilities. What's next? Robotic replacement limbs? Memory boosters? While these may be a long time in the future the contact makers already have incredible ideas in mind for their product. The captions could even translate the words of someone speaking to you in a different language. Additionally, the surface of your eye has many of the same chemical concentrations of your blood and simple chemical sensors could already be made to check things such as blood pressure and cholesterol in an instant. This is only the tip of the iceberg if these can actually be made. With a link up to the internet, the contacts could put an endless amount of information, literally right in front of your eyes. 

  Original article         

http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/1

Wireless Gadgets Crowding Out Scientific Instruments

Apparently the recent surge in wireless technology may be affecting astronomy and Earth Science devices. The vast amount of wireless devices are taking up a lot of bandwidth in the electromagnetic spectrum and this causes interference with transmissions from scientific equipment on earth and in space. Several groups such as NASA have complained that the radio signals that they receive have become unusable because of interference. Some of the machines that have been having problems are earth sensors that keep track of the Earth's natural systems, government communication devices, and radio astronomy that helps us study things like the origin of the universe.

It's interesting that this problem is occurring when most people consider the proliferation of wireless technology to be a good thing. Wireless phones allow people to communicate more then ever and are essential for many people in the workplace. There's certainly people who'd say that they need it in their social life too. I expect that this was an unforseen consequence of the growing wireless movement as I have never heard of the problem and I'm sure many others haven't heard either. It is a problem that needs to be rectified though so that we can continue to receive important scientific data about our planet and universe. Wireless gadgets will either have to be reigned in or new technology will need to be invented to deal with the interference.

Source Article

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=spectrum-management-policy-2009-11-02

Zapping Cancer Away

Electric fields are now being employed by the company Novocure to help fight cancer cells. In combination with chemo therapy, the companies electric field producing device seems to be having a noticeable effect on the life span of some patients. There is a trial going on with ten people with brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme. This brain cancer is particuarlly deadly and there is a median survival time of under two years. Four years after being diagnosed, seven of the ten patients using this device are still alive and five of them dont seem to have any cancer progression. Obviously a larger trial needs to be conducted, but the early results are very encouraging.

The Novocure device is electrode pairs  wired to a three kilogram battery that the patient wears everywhere. One of the drawbacks of this device is having to carry the battery everywhere but Im sure that many people would think that it's worth it. When a cancer cell divides, there is a period of time that the tow new cells are still connected but are drawing apart in an hourglass shape. The electrical pulses of the device concentrate in the narrow middle of that hour class and disentigrate the cancer cell. Combined with chemotherapy this process seems to work very well because cancer cells not destroyed by the electric device are weakend by it and are destroyed more easily by chemotherapy. The device also doesn't pump any toxic chemicals into the body or require a surgery so it is much better for health. Some have concerns about elctricity in places like the brain but the electricity in this device moves back in forth so fast that muscles and the brain see zero effect as the electricity passes through.

Cancer is a horrible disease that has taken loved ones from countless people, myself included. As such I applaud this new device but also more then that. The originality of the idea is great. Not many would consider to use electricity in delicate areas of the body like that but Novocure found out a  way to do it. Hopefully more innovative companies will try alternate methods  and machines to help fight this disease.

Skype Changes Interview Process

Your next job interview may well be on your home computer. A growing trend among employers is to conduct job interviews over skype. The obvious reasons for this is cost. As the economy declines, more employers and job seekers are reluctant to fork over money for air fair. The cost of flying multiple people across the country and back and maybe even a night in a hotel can add up. Skype is a low cost way to narrow down the list of potential applicants, and is considered vastly more effective then a phone conversation. The video feed allows the interviewer to watch your body language and get a better grasp on who you are and what you're saying.

While a video chat may seem fairly close to a sit-down interview, the process completely changes. The most significant thing is that the job seekers must be versed in computer technology, specifically Skype. This is evidence of a growing trend in employers expecting applicants to understand and utilize certain technologies to even get an interview. Skype is also a different person to person relationship. You can't make a good first impression with a firm handshake and a look in the eyes. The new technological etiquette is new and unformed. You need to learn to look into the camera instead of at the person on the screen, should you wave instead of a handshake? It is all new and many applicants don't really know exactly what they should be doing. One wonders now if companies will send out ads for openings over twitter in a few years. How will our kids be finding jobs?

Source : http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1930838,00.html?cnn=yes  

New Improvements to Solar Cells Hold Promise.

New improvements to solar power could be used to make solar panels both more efficient and cost effective. A company called Innovalight is using standard inkjet printing technology to boost the efficiency of cells. Solar cells can be made more efficient by patterning the silicon to absorb light better. Unfortunately, this patterning is usually very expensive. Innovalight has developed silicon ink that can be applied to silicon wafers in patterns with cheap inkjet printing. This process has created cells with an 18% efficiency rating which is decently better then the 16.5-17% efficiency that such cells would have if they did not use Innovalight's approach. 

1366 Technologies has also been coming up with techniques to improve solar cell efficiency. Two of their innovations are aimed at reducing the shading upon a cells to maximize the energy they absorb. Silver "fingers" on solar panels conduct electrons two or three prominent  silver bands called busbars. These fingers and busbars are prominent on the cell and ultimately shade 9% of the cell from the sunlight. 1366 Tech. has been able to cheaply use electro plating and grooving techniques to reduce this shading to 2%. Lastly they have developed a texturizing technique that will reduce surface area which is good because electrons get stuck at the surface in most cells.

These technologies come at a great time for business. As the world becomes increasingly concerned with the environment and renewable energy, innovation in this area could make a killing. The people who started these companies have to be admired for their decision to take a risk and start a company an alternative energy that is not known for its efficiency or cost effectiveness. With the recent stimulus though, more money then ever is being invested in renewable energy and both Innovalight and 1366 Technologies has the potential to become very successful if they market themselves right. These improvement to solar cells are cost effective and are easily able to be integrated in to current solar panel production. The current political climate and the easy cheap integration of the technology makes it likely that these companies will be helping to make our solar energy in the future.

Information from http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23489/

and http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23459/

Space Junk Poses a Hazard

As humans continue to shoot more and more satellites and rockets into space, we face a growing problem of space junk. An unintended consequence  of putting objects in space has been the creation of a debris field in earths lower orbit. These objects are mostly retired satellites and old rocket boosters that fell off the rocket. Some 15,000 objects are already being tracked by NASA and these objects could eventually become a hazard for any new launches. Some launches already have to plan to avoid objects that would be in their flight path.

 It is clear that the space junk will soon become a major hazard to space flights. The U.S. military is now looking for ideas to help clear away the space junk. They will most likely hire a private contractor to help solve the problem and maybe build a device or vehicle to remove the debris. The same process of hiring a contractor is also used in the construction of most space shuttles like the Apollo ships being built by North American Aviation. Boeing is the only prime contractor that has so far decided to look at the problem. The problem is interesting though as this is another example of unforeseen problems associated with projects. We can create a machine to clear the space junk away but will we simply create another problem down the road?

The original article is here

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=orbital-debris-darpa

New Source of Biofuel Eliminates Waste

About one in five watermelons are not picked and sold because of cosmetic imperfections that make them unlikely to be sold in stores. So for farmers growing watermelons essentially throw out 20% of their crop simply because the fruit doesn't look good. This lead to the farmers looking for a way to increase the efficiency of their farm and the profitability of their crops by finding a use for the discarded fruit. 

Surprisingly, the discarded melons could make excellent ethanol. When most people in the U.S. think of biofuel, they think of corn. Corn is a less efficient form of ethanol though because special enzymes must be added to allow the sugars to break down before fermentation. Watermelons, on the other hand, are naturally made of simple sugars which allows for a more efficient process of turning the fruit into biofuel. While the amount of fuel produced may not be enormous, it is still a sizeable contribution. One acre of reject watermelons could produce 115 gallons of ethanol. If farmers could do this locally they could run their own machinery and maybe the nearby area at very little transportation cost. It has the potential for farmers to make an investment in new technology that could greatly increase their profitability. You can find the original article here.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=will-watermelon-rejects-be-the-next-2009-08-25

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