Nanopower Springs Into Battery Territory

September 22, 2009

It sounds like magic: teeny tiny little springs made from carbon could store as much energy as lithium ion batteries. New research out of MIT shows it's possible, at least according to the theoretical models.

Carol Livermore, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Institute, led research to show through mathematical modeling and testing that carbon molecules coaxed into tiny spring shapes have the potential to store exponentially more energy for their weight than springs made of steel. The work was published recently in Nanotechnology and the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

The next step will be to work on making an energy storage device by assembling longer, thicker nanotube fibers than the ones created for the tests. If the scientists can achieve that, they'll open the door to a compelling lithium-ion battery competitor. Carbon nanotubes are durable, so the springs could conceivably work in extreme temperatures that batteries can't handle. While this nano-spring power is still years away from a commercial introduction, I think it's worth the effort to develop. After all, good things tend to come in small packages.

Photo: Carole Livermore (left) with graduate student Frances Hill (right) in the MIT lab where all the magic happens. Credit: Patrick Gillooly.

Wide Angle: VillageReach Takes Medicine the Extra Mile

September 01, 2009

Among the 2009 Tech Award winners being announced today is an organization called VillageReach that goes the distance to deliver health care in developing areas.

VillageReach is one of the Nokia Health Award winners, a subcategory of the annual Tech Awards, which recognize 15 innovators using technology to address urgent humanitarian problems. The winners also receive nice fat checks.

Headquartered in Seattle, VillageReach is a nonprofit international organization that strengthens health care systems and health care delivery in developing areas. Looping rural health centers into computerized health management systems is a challenge. VillageReach fills the gap using both paper and mobile technology. Part of their approach in Mozambique involves using USB drives to share supply chain information in order to maintain health center drug supplies.

The organization also works with local entrepreneurs to launch businesses offering transportation, communication, and IT services that support the health system. The overall results are impressive. An independent study this year looked at VillageReach's work in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, and found that combination vaccine coverage among children had risen from 69 percent to 95 percent. Incidents where crucial medical supplies ran out dropped to less than 1% compared with 2004's frightening 80 percent. Plus, 90 percent of the families interviewed had gone to a health center in the past month, despite frequently living over two hours away. Maybe the organization should do a presentation in Congress.

Photo: A health center receives supplies in Mozambique. Credit: VillageReach.

Wide Angle: Paper Illuminates Electronic Medical Record Gaps

August 28, 2009

Paper isn't the main obstacle to electronic medical records adoption, it's more like a symptom. New research shows that where there's paper, there's likely a design problem to be solved.

Human factors engineer Jason Saleem got the idea for his research from the sticky notes on his desk. "I was fully aware that I could do all of these things electronically but I wasn’t," he says. "That got me thinking, if I'm having so much trouble in my office, can you imagine how much trouble a doctor or nurse may have with electronic medical records?" As research investigator at the Regenstrief Institute and the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, Saleem decided to take a closer look at paper workarounds.

His research, which was published in the September issue (abstract) of the International Journal of Medical Informatics, shows that medical personnel still use paper along with electronic records for several reasons. Ironically, paper is frequently used because it's more efficient and faster in some cases. At other times, paper is used as an alert when the computer can't effectively alert doctors. For example, Saleem says, at the VA hospital patients with high blood pressure during a nurse intake exam are given pink sheets of paper for the doctor, who sees instantly what it means.

Saleem is currently in the process or taking his research national, working with VA hospitals across the country to see what else he can learn about workarounds. "If they're using paper, then this is indirect or even direct evidence that the medical record isn't designed well enough for that task," he says. "So how can we design it better?" Identifying design solutions, he hopes, will make EMRs more efficient, saving paper and, more important, improving patient safety.

Photo: Spc. Daren Ruby (left), of Owasso, and Dr. Thomas Essex (right), a Lt. Col., review medical records at the K’ima:w Medical Center in Hoopa, California. Credit: Cpt. Geoff Legler/Oklahoma National Guard.

Who Needs An Air Conditioner Anyway?

August 21, 2009

Even the most efficient air conditioning unit is still going to draw more power than a piddly electric fan. The electric bills this summer better reflect this because I've gone AC-free in New York City.

This little experiment began with an unseasonably cool summer and evolved into laziness about installing the window unit that I take out every fall to prevent heat loss in the cold months. The nice folks at Discovery Earth asked how I was coping so we put together a slide show that includes some tips for fellow AC-freers.

Several people told me they regularly go without AC. I know I'll never be as strong as they are. Are you going without AC? How are you coping? Or, if you recently bought an ultra-efficient and affordable window unit, please share. I might be too wimpy to try this next summer.

Photo: Breeze please! Credit: Alyssa Danigelis.

Earth-Easy Rider Rolls Out

August 13, 2009

Electric motorcycles have been around for a while now so it was clearly time for a tougher, all-American bike. A new plug-in Smart Chopper made its debut in New York City.

Paul Teutul Sr., owner of Orange County Choppers and star of the reality show American Chopper, custom-built the bike for global electrical tech giant Siemens and took it for a spin yesterday. The bike gets 60 miles on a charge, is made with water-based paint, recycled steel, and LED lights. Charging time takes between one and five hours, depending on the outlet type. It can also hit more than 100 miles per hour.

Teutul told NY1 that while he has no plans to mass produce the bike, which will be auctioned later for charity, he might consider it if there's enough demand. There's no traditional engine roar, but it does look remarkably like a futuristic vehicle I spotted in a kickin' new movie trailer. Even if Teutul doesn't put them into production, maybe it will inspire other chopper enthusiasts to build their own EVs. I'll keep my eyes open for eco-biker gangs.

Photo Credit: Jason DeCrow / AP Images via Autopia.

Wide Angle: Satellite Shark Tags Go the Distance

August 06, 2009

If scientists have been tagging sharks for decades, why are we still in the dark about what so many shark species do? Especially since this is crucial information for protecting threatened populations? First, I learned, you have to check the tag.

"Shark tagging has evolved over the years from small conventional tags on sharks to acoustic tags and satellite-based technology," explains Greg Skomal, a marine biologist with Massachusetts Marine Fisheries. He estimates that since the 1960s around 200,000 sharks have been tagged conventionally, allowing scientists to get basic data on population sizes, mortality rates, and some movement patterns when the sharks are recaptured. But holes remain. "If we don't know how they live, we can can't save them," Skomal says. 

This spring Emily Sohn reported on Discovery News that Skomal and his colleagues used satellite tagging to discover that basking sharks, which are threatened, migrated from the East Coast all the way to South America in the winter. Since then, data showed the sharks returning to New England during warmer weather. Skomal tells me that even though satellite tagging technology has existed for around 10 years and is on hundreds of sharks, he envisions the tags themselves getting smaller and more refined. The smaller the technology, the more sensors can go into the tags, including ones that could detect changes in the shark and in the environment around it.

On Twitter I've been promoting #sharkhug as a hashtag during Shark Week. I had no idea that scientists were actually doing this to make the tagging process less stressful for sharks. The process is called "tonic immobility" and involves massaging a point near the nose (video). "[W]ho would have ever thought you could grab a shark, hug it, put it to sleep, and then tag it," marine biologist Andy Dehart recently told CBS News correspondent Daniel Sieberg. Non-scientists should keep shark hugs virtual for now, though.

Photo: A Great White shark with a satellite tag. Credit: Greg Skomal.

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Giving Rechargeable Batteries a Pause

July 24, 2009

Whenever we charge a lithium ion battery, we're burning a quarter of a pound of coal. Ouch. With that stunning fact in mind, a University of Arizona professor and his research team are working on next-generation solar cells.

Current solar cells rely on silicon and other inorganic materials as semiconductors, but they're pricey to make and somewhat unwieldy. The ones coming out of Professor Neal (not Neil) Armstrong's research group at the university's Energy Frontier Research Center are tiny and extremely thin.

One prototype is a square sliver of glass coated with transparent indium tin oxide, an organic dye film, and an aluminum electrode. Armstrong envisions a day when you can buy some of these cells at, say, Target, roll them out, and use them to recharge your electronic devices. Similar to work being done at MIT, Armstrong is looking at ways to turn this thin solar cell technology into a kind of paint or ink process.

Armstrong, a chemist and optical scientist, acknowledges that making the cells inexpensive and durable remains a challenge, but thinks that what his group has in development is close to commercialization. Next time I recharge my batteries, I'll be thinking about the sun.

Here's a brief video from the university about the project:

Image: An organic photovoltaic cell on glass. Credit: The University of Arizona.

The One Time You'll Like Car Alarms

July 21, 2009

This is the only time I'll ever endorse the very existence of car alarms. Usually they're a universal pain in the ear, but German mechanical engineers came up with a way to trigger them collectively as an emergency warning.

Here's the problem: In Europe, the old siren system that warned of natural disasters was mostly dismantled at the end of the Cold War. Now, SMS systems can send messages to cell phones but if you happen to have a low battery, you might be toast. Upgrading the old siren system would cost hundreds of millions of euros.

Now a plan years in the making is about to become reality: Starting in September 2010, new European cars will be required to have the "eCall system." Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis INT figured out how the system could allow civil protection agencies to activate receivers in cars, triggering their car alarms. Agencies can send a message to parked cars within a specific area that says "Start beeping!" The system uses existing technology and infrastructure, which I like, and is meant to complement other, more detailed emergency warnings.

A neighborhood full of car alarms going off would certainly get my attention. Plus, I like the freaky idea that parked vehicles could signal impending doom.

Photo: An air raid siren from the 1950s in Sunnyvale, California. Credit: Lenore Edman.

Trash Gets Wired

July 15, 2009

Back in 2007, my colleagues and I tried to figure out where the "recycling" in our building actually went. We hit a dead end with a Jersey-based trash collection service--cue the Sopranos theme song. Now a new trash project could show us what's actually going on.

The Trash Track project out of MIT's Senseable City Lab will be arranging to put thousands of wireless location markers on samples of city trash in New York and Seattle. Triangulation will allow the markers to update servers on their locations in real-time. Starting in September, the public will be able to see the paths in real-time online.

If all goes well, the researchers will succeed in making the removal chain more transparent, identifying bottlenecks in citywide recycling and sanitation. Plus, they'll be reconnecting us with the things we think we're throwing "away."

Trash Track plans to recruit volunteers who will let the researchers follow their refuse. Maybe I've been watching too many episodes of the Wire, but I know just the building in Manhattan to target for volunteers.

Image: Mockup of how the tracking system will look. Credit: E. Roon Kang/SENSEable City Lab.

Sustainable shoutout: From lost ladybugs to the Great Garbage Patch, get the latest on the science behind global warming at Discovery Earth Live.

Wide Angle: Getting the 411 On Flash Floods

July 07, 2009

It makes sense that in the midst of a recession researchers would go, "Let's create a better way to predict floods...with what we've already got." As a result, a team from the University of Tel Aviv is casting a new light on cell phone towers.

Geophysics professor Pinhas Alpert and electrical engineering professor Hagit Messer Yaron recently reported in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics that they successfully used radio wave data from cell phone towers to accurately predict flash floods in Israel.

Moisture in the air affects the way radio waves are transmitted and cell phone towers are hubs of such humidity-related information. Working in cooperation with two cellular companies, the researchers paired data from the towers with data from surface stations to understand what was happening in places where it was previously difficult to gather reliable air moisture information.

"Wireless communication networks are, in effect, built-in environmental monitoring facilities," the researchers reported. Plus, the cost to implement the system is minimal since service providers already gather this information. While high winds and rain did make accurate data collection a challenge, one day we might be able to maximize the existing cell phone tower grid to predict Katrina-like floods--with time to spare.

Photo: A cell phone tower in Richmond, British Columbia. Credit: Richard Smith.

GET MORE OF THE WIDE ANGLE
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