Thinking caps and superbrains
By James Gallagher , Health reporter, BBC News
Are we entering the era of the thinking cap – a device to supercharge our brains?
Could there be a time when everyone from schoolchildren to pensioners, and artists to accountants top up their natural abilities with some funky head-gear?
There have already been suggestions that electricity can boost mathematical talent and now researchers in Australia have found a way to boost problem solving.
The team at Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney believe people find it difficult to think “outside of the box” because they become blinded by past experience.
So if someone is used to solving a problem one way, the brain struggles to come up with new solutions.
They used these well-known Roman numeral maths problems:
In the first puzzle you have to change the numbers so that “3 = 9 – 1” becomes “3 = 4 – 1”.
But after repeatedly doing the puzzles in which you have to change the numbers, the brain struggles to answer the other puzzles, in which you have to change the symbols round.
In this study only 20% of people could figure out “6 = 6 + 6” becomes “6 = 6 = 6”.
But the people wearing thinking caps fared much better.
The researchers passed an electric current through the brain to reduce the activity of part of the brain called the left anterior temporal lobe and increase the activity of the right.
As a result, three times as many people could solve the problem.
Professor Allan Synder, director of the Centre for the Mind, said the effect hinged on changing the balance between the two halves of the brain: “The approach we used can temporarily modulate hemispheric balance to our advantage.
“The effects of stimulation last probably an hour, which is exactly what we wanted, a temporary window that allows us to connect the dots in a novel way.”
Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh, from the University of Oxford, has shown that brain stimulation can improve mathematical ability.
He said: “The primary aim is to apply this kind of research to patients with neurodamage or learning difficulties, but then we could look at enhancing abilities.”
He is starting to work with private companies to design a cap that could be used for enhancement.
Professor Synder also believes brain boosting headgear can be developed.
He told the BBC: “The thinking cap of the future is not one that helps us to remember facts as the internet has solved that problem, but one that facilitates learning and unlearning mindsets. It’s all about being original.”
Dr Chris Chambers, neuroscientist from the University of Cardiff, believes there are problems with the Australian study.
He argues that you can prove that stimulation has an effect only in those maths puzzles, not on wider thinking.
The cause is also elusive. The electricity could just be making people more awake and alert, he says.
When it came to thinking caps, Dr Chambers told the BBC: “It’s science fiction, everything we know about the subject suggests this is many many years away if it even happens at all.”
Reference Link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12356184
Courtesy : BBC News
Harnessing the Power of the Pothole
WE already harvest the power of the sun and the wind. Soon we may also harvest the power of potholes. A new type of shock absorber under development by the Levant Power Corporation converts the bumps and jolts of vehicles on rough roads into usable electricity.
Usually, shock absorbers dissipate the energy of bouncing vehicles as heat. But the new shocks can use the kinetic energy of bounces to generate watts, putting the electricity to use running the vehicle’s windshield wipers, fans or dashboard lights, for example.
The devices, called GenShocks, can be installed both in ordinary and hybrid vehicles, lowering fuel consumption by 1 to 6 percent, depending on the vehicle and road conditions, said Shakeel Avadhany, chief executive of the company, which is based in Cambridge, Mass.
The new shocks look like ordinary shock absorbers with an electrical power cord at one end. They plug into a power box that regulates the electricity they produce, putting it out at a voltage required by the truck, car or bus.
GenShocks will cost slightly more than conventional shock absorbers, Mr. Avadhany said, “but you will get those dollars back through improved fuel economy.” He projected that the products would be on the market in the second quarter of 2011.
In May, the National Science Foundation awarded a small-business innovation research grant of $150,000 to Levant to test its shock absorbers with hybrid trucks.
Juan E. Figueroa, a program director at the foundation, said that the economic impact of the new shock absorbers could be immediate if owners of truck fleets installed them. “Driving in the city,” he said, “they could save a tremendous amount of energy and fuel.”
Other designs for electricity-producing shock absorbers are also being developed, Dr. Figueroa said, but many will require redesign or adaptation of vehicles’ suspension systems. He says Levant’s product will be easy to install in existing suspension systems.
GenShocks are among many innovations in a field known not as energy “conservation,” but as energy “harvesting.”
“Harvesting refers specifically to collecting energy that would otherwise be wasted,” said Michael C. McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Princeton who is developing a rubbery, energy-harvesting piezoelectric material that creates voltage when it bends.
Much useful energy could be harvested on roadways, said Ted Bergman, a program director at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Bergman is administering a new program, undertaken jointly with the Department of Energy, to research ways to harvest waste heat in vehicles and thus reduce reliance on foreign sources of oil.
“Seventy-five percent of the energy in vehicles with combustion engines is lost to waste heat,” he said. “Instead of losing that energy, we want to convert some of it into kilowatts of electric power.”
Levant Power, founded in 2008, owes part of its origins to the legendary potholes of Boston, said Edwin L. Thomas, a professor of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former teacher of Mr. Avadhany when he was an undergraduate there.
When you hit a pothole, he explained, your car moves vertically as well as horizontally. That costs more gasoline per mile because energy is wasted when the forward velocity of the car is converted to vertical motion.
“It’s like a sprinter who has to also run hurdles,” Professor Thomas said.
Many research groups have tried using shock absorbers to generate electricity, he said, but in his opinion GenShocks have an advantage over earlier models. “This shock has a clever mechanical design,” he said, one that pushes hydraulic fluid through the piston head in an unusual way.
Mr. Avadhany said Levant Power has had two rounds of financing. The company would not disclose the names of investors, the amounts they have put into the company or the names of auto parts makers currently testing its shock absorbers.
One market that the company is pursuing is military vehicles, said Lt. Gen. John Caldwell, who retired from the Army and now consults for the Spectrum Group in Alexandria, Va. He has assisted Levant in its discussions with the Army and said that some of the energy created by the new shocks could be used to power radios and communications and weapons systems on combat vehicles.
In hybrid vehicles, Mr. Avadhany said, the new shock absorbers could complement regenerative brakes, which can harvest energy otherwise lost in stopping and return it to the battery.
Other researchers are developing different types of energy-producing shock absorbers. Lei Zuo, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y., has built two prototypes that generate electricity with electromagnets, producing potential fuel efficiency gains of 2 to 10 percent, he said. One prototype already matches standard dimensions of shock absorbers, and the second will do so, too, he said.
Several companies, he said, have contacted him about licensing the technology or developing it collaboratively. “I was surprised,” the professor added, “at how much interest there is.”
Reference Link
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/business/06novel.html?th&emc=th
Courtesy
The New York Times Company
Students harness vibrations from wind for electricity
May 26, 2010 By Anne Ju
Zach Gould ’10 adjusts the oscillator array installed on the roof of Rhodes Hall.
(PhysOrg.com) — The Vibro-Wind Research Group is working on an efficient, low-cost method of converting vibrations from wind energy to electricity.
A gusty day makes stop signs quiver and leaves flutter. It’s these vibrations a Cornell research group is harnessing and transforming into electricity for a new kind of energy storage system.
The Vibro-Wind Research Group, led by Frank Moon, the Joseph Ford Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is working on an efficient, low-cost method of converting vibrations from wind energy to electricity. Much the way solar panels now grace many rooftops, the researchers envision buildings outfitted with vibro-wind panels, which would store the energy they convert from even the gentlest of breezes.
Traditional wind energy harvesting requires the use of large, expensive turbines, or windmills. The vibro-wind setup would require a fraction of the space and cost much less.
“The thing with turbines and windmills is that you need wide open space, and you need it to be away from the city, because people don’t like the way they look,” explained Rona Banai ’10, a chemical engineering major and chief student engineer of the Vibro-Wind group.
Looking into the feasibility of vibro-wind panels isn’t just about engineering. The group includes co-principal investigator Kevin Pratt, assistant professor of architecture, and architecture major Jamie Pelletier ’10, who are working on design issues to address integration of panels into buildings.
This past semester, the students — exclusively undergraduates — tested a prototype consisting of a panel mounted with oscillators they made out of pieces of foam. They set up their experiment on top of Rhodes Hall, hoped for windy days and monitored how much energy they captured with each quiver of the oscillators.
The trickiest part — the actual conversion from mechanical to electrical energy — was done using a piezoelectric transducer, which is a device made of a ceramic or polymer that emits electrons when stressed.
Banai in particular has also researched an alternative to the piezoelectric transducer, checking feasibility of using an electromagnetic coil instead. The pros and cons are some of the things she’s now working to put into a report, she said.
Vibration energy harvesting is nothing new, but according to Moon, interest in the subject has grown in the past few years in such areas as defense and civil infrastructure. The soldier of the future, for example, could shed the need for heavy batteries or other equipment, instead creating and storing electrical energy just by walking. Or civil engineers could rig buildings or bridges with sensors to detect fires and other instabilities, and the sensors would be powered by vibrational energy.
“We are taking research that’s been in progress, and we are trying to extend it into a new type of energy harvesting,” Moon said.
The study is funded by a $100,000 grant from the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future’s Academic Venture Fund. Co-principal investigators are: Ephrahim Garcia, associate professor; Hod Lipson, associate professor; Charles Williamson, professor; and Wolfgang Sachse, professor, all mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Provided by Cornell University (news : web)
Reference Link: http://www.physorg.com/news194111724.html
Courtesy : Science News Daily & PHYSORG
Solar Greenhouse to Produce Food and Electricity
Imagine a greenhouse that is producing solar power and food too. This excellent experiment is being done in Italy. The companies responsible for this project are Renewable energy company Solar ReFeel, CeRSAA and solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. The test site has been constructed at CeRSAA’s Albenga, Italy. The project intends to attain the production of both food and electricity. The research team also wants to validate the crop growth benefits of Solyndra’s technology by taking help of independent testing by a leading agricultural research institution.
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The project region is spread over an area of 400 square meters at the CeRSAA research center. At this unique building, Solyndra’s photovoltaic systems have been incorporated into the greenhouse structures. Solyndra is going for an exclusive cylindrical technology (see video above). This technology helps in capturing direct, diffused, and reflected sunlight across a 360 degree surface and at the same time permitting a uniform transmission of light for the plants underneath.
The study will focus on the production of numerous crops common in the Mediterranean region. They will observe, measure and evaluate these crops which are grown under the greenhouse structures with the integrated solar system. This project will quantify and compare the yield and the expected benefit for crops grown under Solyndra’s new, integrated greenhouse structures with same crops grown in usual greenhouses.
The time span of this project will be 24 months. During this period all the partners will provide their expertise to this project. CeRSAA, special agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Savona, will take care of the design and implementation of agricultural studies as per its specialization. CeRSAA will also be responsible for technical and human resources. Solyndra is the United States based producer of solar systems. It had supplied the greenhouse framework and photovoltaic components. Solyndra has also supervised the construction of the test site. Enerqos Group is a leader in the design and implementation of PV systems in Italy. They are providing installation support and electrical contracting.
Solar ReFeel has specialization in both the ground-mounted and rooftop photovoltaic plants. Solar ReFeel is coordinating the research amongst the involved parties. Solar ReFeel will share the research findings. They also intend to cash in on the successful products.
The goal of the study is to fully understand and take advantage of the extraordinary potential of greenhouse integrated solar power development as a long-term, substantial business model.
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/solar-greenhouse-food-electricity/
Courtesy
AE News Network.
Using Carbon Nanotubes to Produce Electricity
The researchers of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have uncovered a new phenomenon of carbon nanotubes. They found that carbon nanotubes discharge powerful waves of electricity under certain circumstances. MIT team named it as thermopower waves. They are pinning their hope on thermopower waves to produce electricity to be utilized in small electrical appliances or maybe in large-scale applications too. This project was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
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This discharge of electricity from carbon nanotubes is a very rare occurrence. Traditionally we derive electricity from water, sun, wind, coal or heat produced by burning of fossil fuels. The thermopower wave, “opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare,” said Michael Stranowho is MIT’s Charles and Hilda Roddey associate professor of Chemical Engineering. His work was published in scientific journal Nature Materials.
Carbon nanotubes are submicroscopic structures. They are just billionths of a meter in diameter. Carbon nanotubes resemble honeycombs. For the past twenty years scientists are focusing their energies on carbon nanotubes, graphene sheets and buckeyballs. They find these three most promising for clean and green energy research. These three substances can be valuable for the medicine, nanotechnology, geoengineering, biology, and for the electronics industry.
Researchers associated with this project find the whole phenomenon quite unusual. They have observed that as the moving pulses of heat pass through the carbon naotubes, electrons also travel along. This movement of electrons is responsible for generation of electric current. Strano says, “There’s something else happening here. We call it electron entrainment since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.”
Researchers coated carbon nanotubes with a layer of reactive fuel that can generate heat by decomposing. This fuel was then ignited by a laser beam or high voltage spark at the one end of the nanotube. This ignition resulted in fast moving thermal waves. When this thermal wave enters into carbon nanotube its velocity increases thousand times than the fuel itself. When heat waves contact the thermal coating they produce a temperature of 3,000 kelvins. This ring of heat runs to the length of the tube 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of this chemical reaction. The unusual occurrence is that electrons also travel with the heat inside the tube. Strano says that events like this “have been studied mathematically for more than 100 years” but he was the first to envisage that such waves could be guided by a nanotube or nanowire and that this wave of heat could thrust an electrical current all along that wire.
Strano explains, “There’s something else happening here. We call it electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.” He confirms that the thermal waves are behaving like ocean waves. We have observed that when ocean waves travel they carry the debris on their surface. Strano thinks that this property is responsible for the high power output by the system. Strano suggests the possible use of this discovery. He says that one possible use could be enabling new kinds of ultra-small electronic devices having sensors or treatment devices that would be injected into the body.
Ray Baughman, director of the Nanotech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas, shares his views regarding the whole project that it “started with a seminal initial idea, which some might find crazy, and provided exciting experimental results, the discovery of new phenomena, deep theoretical understanding, and prospects for applications.” Because it revealed a previously unknown phenomenon, he says, it could open up “an exciting new area of investigation.”
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/carbon-nanotubes-produce-electricity/
Courtesy
AENews Network
Power supply brings about sea change in tribal hamlet
fostering development:Newly-erected lamp posts stand amid huts in Velikadu tribal village in Kolli Hills.
NAMAKKAL, India: After a long wait, the tribals of Velikadu hamlet in Kolli Hills in Namakkal district have got electricity supply.
These days, the village wears a bright look after sunset. The electricity connections have also erased the collective feeling of ‘neglect’ among the residents, both by society and the government.
A new road connecting the village has been laid. A motor to pump water into an overhead tank ensures that the tribals get potable water. Twelve streetlights have also been installed.
Turning point
The tribals owe it to Collector U. Sagayam. When he decided to hold a special grievances meeting in the village last month, it raised many eyebrows. Mr. Sagayam trekked 15 km along with his entourage and spent a night in the village.
His visit was a pleasant surprise for the tribals who had never seen a senior officer leave alone a Collector. Even while playing the perfect hosts, they poured out their grievances to him. However, not even in their dreams had they imagined that the Collector’s visit would transform their lives.
The administration, thereafter, moved fast. With special permission from the Tamil Nadu government, especially the Forest Department, the road was laid at a cost of Rs.4 crore under the Prime Minister’s Village Roads Scheme.
Tough terrain
Immediately afterwards a dedicated team from the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board braved the hostile terrain and weather condition to erect 38 electricity posts for a distance of 3 km from the Keeraikadu transformer to ensure 22KV power supply.
A 100 KVA/22KV transformer was commissioned in the village. Soon, free colour TVs supplied to seven families in the hamlet sprang to life, throwing open a new world of entertainment and knowledge to the villagers.
Mr. Sagayam has promised to take steps for disbursing ID cards to all tribes in the hills under the Tribal Welfare Board. The eligible would get old-age pension. He thanked the officials for their efforts.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/09/stories/2010030954540500.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Light bulbs power Venezuela out of electricity crisis
It might sound like the start of a bad joke, but how many Venezuelan soldiers does it take to change a light bulb?
When the country is in the midst of its worst electricity crisis for 50 years, the answer is lots. In fact, an entire army’s worth.
On the Fuerte Tiuana military base in Caracas, there is a warehouse full of light bulbs. Hundreds of boxes of Firefly energy-efficient bulbs are sitting in vast stacks, ready to be loaded onto waiting trucks by the troops.
Meanwhile, the other half of the warehouse is a graveyard for used and spent light bulbs.
Huge amounts of filaments and broken glass have been swept into small mountains before being shipped to Venezuela’s second city, Maracaibo, for safe disposal because of the mercury content.
Outside the warehouse, a platoon of soldiers is standing to attention for their colonel before being dispatched to hand out the light bulbs in one of the capital’s poorest neighbourhoods.
“Today’s mission is vital for the health and development of the nation. And it comes directly on orders from the commander-in-chief,” barks the colonel.
Greedy consumers
There can be little doubt that the measure to swap over the country’s light fittings comes from on high.
It is part of an effort to tackle the fact that Venezuelans are the highest energy consumers per capita in Latin America – by a significant margin.
The recently nationalised state-run electricity company, Corpoelec, says Venezuelans consume more than 1,000 kilowatt hours a year per person than the second biggest users in the region, Chile.
Venezuelans are the highest energy consumers per capita in Latin America
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Unloading the low-energy bulbs into their knapsacks, the troops have been joined by volunteers from the local community council – pro-government teams set up under President Hugo Chavez.
These small groups of red-clad Chavez supporters and soldiers in green uniforms, referred to as “civic-military partnerships”, are heading into San Augustin, one of the city’s roughest parts.
“I’ve been doing this for a month,” says Miriam Parra de Gonzalez, an activist with the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
“People have reacted well on the doorsteps because it saves them money. The incandescent light bulbs wear out more quickly and these ones use less energy, so they last longer,” she says.
“Plus we’re giving them away for free!”
Changing attitudes
At a scrap yard and car wash tucked away in San Augustin, the manager, a Spanish immigrant called Miguel Alvarez Lopez, ushers us into a small apartment which he is currently renovating.
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 For many years, we have had the huge oil income and, you know, you kind of get spoilt. You get used to an easy life  Javier Alvarado
Corporelec president and vice-minister for electrical energy |
“In the business, I changed around 40 bulbs last week through Mision Sucre [one of the government’s social missions] and now another five today in this apartment.”
Asked whether it is the money or the energy he is most interested in saving, his answer is emphatic: “It’s the money,” he says – a response many in San Augustin would likely echo.
But Mr Alvarez is quick to add that “given the crisis situation we’re experiencing, it’s also necessary to show a little of the consciousness that we should all have in Venezuela”.
The president of Corporelec and vice-minister for electrical energy, Javier Alvarado, is confident that the current crisis is helping change public attitudes.
“For many years, we have had the huge oil income and, you know, you kind of get spoilt. You get used to an easy life,” he says.
Faced with such apathy and indifference among Venezuelans, he says the government has launched a ferocious public education campaign, to be combined with a carrot-and-stick policy for industrial and major domestic energy consumers.
Fines and rewards were applied last weekend.
But many are critical of the government’s response.
“It’s ironic that a country blessed as it is with the energy resources that Venezuela has, in both hydrocarbons and fresh water for hydroelectric power, is in the dire straits that we’re in right now,” says the general manager of the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce, Carlos Tejeda.
The basic problem is that electrical capacity has not kept up pace with demand over the past 10 years, he says.
“The fact that we’re in these circumstances points to a lack of management, a lack of planning. That’s evidently the case.”
Switching off one at a time
The business community is concerned that the government’s energy-saving initiatives, such as forced blackouts and heavy fines for any company which does not cut its electricity consumption by 20%, will cripple Venezuelan productivity.
The hope is that energy use will go down
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“Some companies can reduce by 5%, or maybe 8% tops,” says Mr Tejeda. “But to cut by 20%, you can only do that by lowering production itself.”
Mr Alvarado concedes lessons need to be learnt from the current crisis.
“The fast increase in demand maybe caught us by surprise,” he admits.
“But we are investing extensively in thermo-electrical plants, and after these problems with El Nino, we will come out with a more solid, more robust power system.”
In the meantime, every light bulb helps, he says.
“We are 27 million Venezuelans. If all of us switch off one light, that’s 27 million light bulbs, and that’s what makes the difference. I feel sure that the solution is in the small details like that.”
Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8543469.stm
Courtesy
BBC News
University of Madras plans to tap solar energy
Decision taken to cut down on electricity bill of Rs. 9 lakh
CHENNAI, India: The University of Madras has decided to switch over to solar power within a year in order to cut down its monthly electricity bill.
A one-time investment of Rs.3 crore was being made to purchase the solar equipment and install it in the university campus, said G. Thiruvasagam, Vice-Chancellor.
He said here on Thursday that the university’s monthly electricity bill was Rs.9 lakh. Hence the decision to tap solar energy was taken. Since electricity charge was a major component in the university’s monthly expenditure, to overcome the problem, the university’s Department of Energy had been asked to plan for solar energy.
The estimate for installing solar energy equipment had been obtained and the installation work would start soon. It would take a few months to complete the work and experts told us that the electricity bill would come down by around 75 per cent after opting for solar energy.
The Vice-Chancellor was in the city to participate in a seminar.
Global warming
Dr. Thiruvasagam stressed the need to understand the negative effects of climate change and global warming.
Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy were the pragmatic solutions needed to tackle energy crisis in the future. “Turning sunlight into electricity must be the solution we have to think of. Cutting trees will be a disaster and global warming is one issue that cannot be ignored,” the Vice-Chancellor said.
K. P. Navaneethakrishnan, correspondent, M. Selvanayagam, Director, LIFE-Loyola College, and P. Rengan, Principal, were among those who spoke on the importance of promoting the use of renewable energy sources.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/05/stories/2010030563970300.htm
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