Show Notes 5 May 2023
Story 1: New Color-Changing Coating Could Both Heat and Cool Buildings
Source: Scientific American Story by Allison Parshall
Link 2: https://www.dezeen.com/2023/02/14/colour-changing-facade-material-university-of-chicago/
Link 3: https://techxplore.com/news/2023-01-temperature-sensing-material-energy.html
- According to some estimates, buildings account for 30 percent of global energy consumption and emit 10 percent of all global greenhouse gas. About half of this energy footprint is attributed to the heating and cooling of interior spaces.
- Although many buildings have walls packed with insulation to maintain an ideal temperature, others—especially old buildings—are shockingly energy inefficient.
- Scientists have been working on higher-tech solutions to this problem for decades. Now materials scientists at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have developed a color-changing film that can switch between heating and cooling modes.
- The film, which is thinner than a credit card, operates on very little electrical energy and could one day envelop [or wrap] even the most wasteful of buildings to help radiate unwanted heat in the summer and trap it in during the winter.
- The new technology takes advantage of a natural phenomenon called radiative cooling, which makes outdoor temperatures drop at night and helps cool Earth as a whole.
- The new coatings can switch between high and low heat emission with a simple zap of electricity.
- The new material starts in cooling mode. Beneath an incredibly thin electrical conductor lies a small reservoir of water with copper ions dissolved inside. In this state, the device naturally radiates heat, cooling the inside of the building.
Side note: an ion is an atom or molecule with a net electric charge due to the loss or gain of one or more electrons.
- Then, when the conductor layer applies a small electric charge, the dissolved copper deposits on its surface, forming a thin layer over the water reservoir. Because copper emits very little of the mid-infrared heat it absorbs, the device now traps heat.
- Optional Side note: Infrared is a form of energy forming part of the electromagnetic spectrum after the color red.
- Infrared is a heat-producing wavelength from 0.78 microns to 1000 microns (or 1 millimeter) and covers a thermal range of several thousand degrees centigrade down to absolute zero.
- There at 3 types: Short Wave, Medium Wave and Long Wave.
- This change between high and low heat emission can be reversed again and again, although repeated uses have diminishing returns: after 1,000 cycles, both cooling and heating modes are less efficient.
- The researchers estimate that if this technology is applied as a film to the outside of a building, it could save 8.4 percent of the energy used for heating and cooling in climates that experience a drastic swing in temperatures throughout the year.
- The building would also change color, from dark white in the summer to metallic copper in the winter, though the film could be covered with a special paint that wouldn’t interfere with mid-infrared radiation.
Story 2: New AI-based tsunami warning software could help save lives
Source: Popular Science Story by Jamie Dickman
Link: https://www.popsci.com/technology/ai-tsunami-detection-system/
- To appreciate why this is significant news, the author opened with an explanation of current tsunami detection technology:
- But first, a quick reminder I’ve inserted: Tsunamis are giant waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions under the sea. Out in the depths of the ocean, tsunami waves do not dramatically increase in height. But as the waves travel inland, they build up to higher and higher heights as the depth of the ocean decreases.
- Current tsunamis warning systems are based, in part, on monitoring seismic waves generated by undersea earthquakes.
- Data from seismographs [which measure and record details of earthquakes, such as force and duration] and hydrophones are transmitted to control centers that can issue a tsunami warning, setting off sirens and other local warnings.
- These existing tsunami monitors also verify an oncoming wave with data from ocean buoys that outline the coasts of continents.
- Earthquakes of 7.5 magnitude or above can generate a tsunami, though not all undersea earthquakes do, causing an occasional false alarm.
- Tsunamis travel at an average speed of 500 miles per hour, the speed of a jet plane, in the open ocean.
- When approaching a coastline, the tsunamis waves slow down to the speed of a car, from 30 to 50 miles per hour.
- After the buoys are triggered, they issue tsunami warnings, leaving little time for evacuation. By the time waves reach buoys, people have a few hours, at the most, to evacuate.
- With all that said, here’s the news: To tackle this problem, researchers at Cardiff University in Wales have developed new software that can analyze real-time data from hydrophones, ocean buoys, and seismographs in seconds.
- The researchers hope that their system can be integrated into existing technology, saying that with it, monitoring centers could issue warnings faster and with more accuracy.
- The new system uses two algorithms in tandem to evaluate tsunamis. An AI model evaluates the earthquake’s magnitude and type, while an analytical model estimates the resulting tsunami’s size and direction.
- Once the software receives the necessary data, it can predict the tsunami’s source, size, and coasts of impact in about 17 seconds.
- The AI software can also differentiate between types of earthquakes and their likelihood of causing tsunamis, a common problem faced by current systems.
- Vertical earthquakes that raise or lower the ocean floor are much more likely to cause tsunamis, whereas those with a horizontal tectonic slip do not—though they can produce similar seismic activity, leading to false alarms.
- The Cardiff University in Wales researchers trained their program with historical data from more than 200 earthquakes, using seismic waves to assess the quake’s epicenter and acoustic-gravity waves to determine the size and scale of tsunamis.
- Acoustic-gravity waves are sound waves that move through the ocean at much faster speeds than the ocean waves themselves, offering a faster method of prediction.
Story 3: Ocean Census research project aims to discover 100,000 previously unknown marine species
Source: CNN Story by Katie Hunt
Link: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/27/world/ocean-census-launch-scn
Source 2: https://oceancensus.org/?utm_source=uniofoxford&utm_medium=partner-comms&utm_campaign=launch
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvWdpWwfGzc
- A huge new research project called Ocean Census aims to identify 100,000 unknown species in the next 10 years, allowing scientists to better understand and protect the deep-sea ecosystem.
- The project, announced at a launch event in London on April 27, which will be the biggest ocean survey to date, is being led by Nekton, a UK-based marine science and conservation institute, and funded by The Nippon Foundation, a nonprofit foundation based in Japan.
- There are huge gaps in our knowledge of the ocean depths. Of the 2.2 million species believed to exist in the Earth’s oceans, only 240,000 have been described by scientists, according to the census.
- The initiative builds on past projects such as the Census of Marine Life, which concluded in 2010 and identified 6,000 potential new ocean species.
- New advances in technology since then include high-resolution underwater imaging, machine learning, and sequencing of DNA contained in seawater.
- All living organisms, including humans, disperse genetic material into the environment, and the project will also make use of new and accessible techniques to sample waterborne DNA to detect and track species.
- Today, new types of technology are making it much easier for sea creatures to be studied in their natural habitat.
- These include tools like underwater laser scanning that can scan gelatinous creatures such as jelly fish that are hard to study on land.
- Ocean Census will also help to identify how marine ecosystems are responding to the climate crisis and assess how marine life could adapt to a warmer climate.
Story 4: A new peptide may hold potential as an Alzheimer’s treatment
Source: MIT News Story buy Anne Trafton
Link: https://tinyurl.com/2p95z7js
- MIT neuroscientists have found a way to reverse neurodegeneration and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease by interfering with an enzyme that is typically overactive in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
- When the researchers treated mice with a new peptide that blocks the hyperactive version of an enzyme called CDK5, they found dramatic reductions in neurodegeneration and DNA damage in the brain.
- Note: Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds.
- These mice treated with the new peptide also showed improvements in their ability to perform tasks such as learning to navigate a water maze.
- With further testing, the researchers hope that the new peptide could eventually be used as a treatment for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia that have CDK5 enzyme overactivation.