Environmental Research Advocates

ERAscience is excited to collaborate with the brilliant team at CNSI UCLA in the creation of the first annual Nanovation Competition. The competition is designed to provide young science innovators with the necessary tools to develop and present their nanoscience based projects. Special thanks to UCLA Anderson School of Business for help in developing the program. The finalist teams have been selected and have begun work with mentor scientists. The competition concludes in May when a panel of judges will choose the winning teams.

Prepping continues as finalist team members work with mentors to develop their project presentation skills for the May 1 Nanovation Competition judging.

National Get Up Day is celebrated February 1 in the US "is an opportunity to share inspiring stories of perseverance; it’s a reminder to pick ourselves up when we’ve fallen and give it (whatever it may be) another go!"

Science and academia have felt their freedoms stepped on in recent days. Their response has been to speak out and stand up for the future of research and free flow of thoughtful discovery on the global stage.

The new US administration "have repeatedly cast doubt upon the reality of human-made climate change, questioned the repeatedly proven safety of vaccines. Since the inauguration, the administration has already frozen grants and contracts by the Environmental Protection Agency and gagged researchers at the US Department of Agriculture. Many scientists are asking themselves: What can I do?"

Some scientists are throwing their hat into the political arena to ensure science has a seat at policy tables.
While thousands more have given voice to their concerns by signing a petition against the immigration ban which directly impacts the free flow of ideas.

As of this morning the potion has been signed by:

• Over 18,000 Academic Supporters
• 14,800 U.S. Faculty Members
• 50 Nobel Laureates
• 82 Winners of Fields/Dirac/Clark/Turing/Poincare Medals, Breakthrough Prize, Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur Fellowship
• 443 Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Arts

So what will you do this National Get Up Day?

Climate change is no hoax and no joke. Work wrapped up yesterday in Marrakech, Morocco, where nearly 200 nations participated in the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22) meeting to agree on methods to implement the 2015 Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. “What was once unthinkable has become unstoppable,” the UN secretary-general said, referring to the record time in which more than 111 countries had ratified the Paris agreement for it to come into effect.
Nearly 80 heads of states or representative ministers attended the high-level meet of the latest round of UN climate change talks, which began on November 7 and will continue till November 18. Amid fears that the United States will pull out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement following Donald Trump’s presidential victory, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope that the president-elect will rethink plans to quit the global accord which came into force on November 4. “I hope he will really hear and understand the severity and urgency of addressing climate change…I hope he understands this, listens and evaluates his campaign comments. Ban said, adding that he hoped Trump would change his opinion that man-made climate change was a hoax. “This momentum is irreversible – it is being driven not only by governments, but by science, business and global action of all types at all levels,” adds the Proclamation. “Our task now is to rapidly build on that momentum, together, moving forward purposefully to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to foster adaptation efforts, thereby benefiting and supporting its Sustainable Development Goals" Last December at the previous Conference, known as COP 21 196 Parties to the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement, so-named after the French capital where it was approved. It aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Photo courtesy of the United Nations (un.org).

Great day as ERAscience, CNSI UCLA (California NanoSystems Institute) and Univision, collaborate to bring fun, hands on science experience to 30,000 kids and their parents at Univision's 2016 Feria de Educacion held at Cal State Northridge University Satuday October 15th.

Their goofy handshake may have looked like an homage to the Marx Brothers, but the shared commitment of President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto to see half of the continent’s electricity generated by clean sources by 2025 is serious and far reaching.

The Canadian, U.S. and Mexican leaders have agreed to a trilateral energy and climate plan that sets new goals for emission reductions, and paves the way for joint development of low-carbon technologies and a dramatic increase of electricity exports from Canada.
At the North American leaders’ summit on Wednesday, the leaders committed to a continent-wide goal of having 50 per cent of all electricity come from clean-energy sources by 2025, an increase from the current 37 per cent; a reduction in methane emissions from the oil and gas industry of 40 per cent to 45 per cent; and cuts in two other potent greenhouse gases.

They also agreed to work together on research and development projects aimed at commercializing clean technology, including demonstration projects in areas such as energy storage, and the capture of carbon dioxide for use as an industrial feedstock or for sequestration underground.

Obama, Trudeau and Pena Nieto completed the one-day summit in Ottawa Wednesday, where
climate change at the center of efforts to deepen the North American alliance, pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector, boost the development of clean power and build new cross-border transmission lines.
“For too long, we’ve heard that confronting climate change means destroying our economies,” Obama said in a speech to Canada's Parliament Wednesday after the summit concluded, praising efforts in Canada and the U.S. to cut emissions and drive growth. “This is the only planet we’ve got and this may be the last shot we’ve got to save it. And America and Canada are going to have to lead the way.”
The pledges, in what was was Obama’s final North American Leaders’ Summit, underscore a renewed push to strengthen an alliance that had been soured by the rejection of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone's XL pipeline last year. The improved continental ties were fueled in part by the election of Trudeau’s pro-environment Liberal Party to power last year.
The clean energy push includes the development of cross-border electrical transmission projects to boost capacity for trading of clean energy and for reliability and flexibility of the continent’s energy grid, the leaders said.
North America’s use of clean energy stood at roughly 37 percent in 2015. Reaching the new target, described as a “goal,” would grow U.S. clean energy production to 1,900 billion kWh, the White House said Wednesday. Mexico will also join the U.S. and Canada in reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 percent by 2025, with the three countries pledging a methane reduction strategy in agriculture and waste management.
The Three Amigo's have puts us on a critical reduced emission trajectory, whether they can figure out the handshake or not.
Image may contain: 3 people, people standing, suit and outdoor

Photo courtesy of Chris Wattie / Reuters.

Planes and boats and trains. Solar power hopes to take the renewable energy lead in getting us, and everything we need, where we want to go in emission free style!

Solar's triple threat this week:

Planes.
Solar Impulse 2, the largest solar-powered aircraft in the world, landed early Saturday in New York City On the 13th leg of its 'round the globe journey-
"It was symbolic to fly over the Statue of Liberty being free from fossil fuel," Borschberg and Piccard the Impulse's pilots and visionaries. The 27,000-mile journey is being powered by 17,000 solar cells built into carbon fiber wings that have a 236-foot (72-meter) wingspan. "Our goal with this flight is for a clearer and more efficient world"

Boats: Solar Voyager launched from Gloucester, Massachusetts, at the beginning of the month, and is headed toward Portugal. It is the world’s first autonomous surface vessel to cross the ocean, and the first to do it on solar power alone.
Isaac Penny and Christopher Sam Soon built Solar Voyager from scratch, with only the solar panels and some standard motor parts. The 18-foot boat is the size of an ocean kayak,has an aluminum shell, it's upper surface is given over to solar panels, 280 Watts worth. Below deck are 2.4-kWh batteries to run at night.

Trains: Indian Railways ‘Solar Mission’, to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, has begun coaches fitted with solar panels which will initially power all the electrical appliances inside a train. The goal is to power transit entirely in the next couple years. Every coach has 12 solar panels on the rooftop each producing 300 Watts and will be able to generate 3.6 Kilowatts of electricity.

The future of transportation is sunny!

World Environment Day (WED) is observed every year on June 5 to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet Earth. It is run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). "World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Since it began in 1974, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries."

In a case of everything old is new again, London Taxi Co unveils development of fleet of
all-electric iconic black London cabs!

London 1897-
The most exciting thing that happened in transportation in London of the 1890s is the Bersey Cab that hit the streets in 1897. Bersey Cabs were not only the first "horseless" taxis in the world, they were also the first electric taxis. They could only travel thirty miles on a charge, but a clever system was devised to make changing the battery quick and easy. Sadly, unreliable tires and a failed attempt to generate his own electricity did inventor, Walter Bersey, in financially and he went out of business in 1899. At their peak Bersey had over 75 "horseless" taxis on London roads.

London 2016-
Cut to today, and the most exciting thing to happen in London transportation in 2016 is the London Taxi Co announcement of development of zero-emission capable vehicles-the "horseless" TX5. ZGH, which owns London Taxi Co has raised $400 million through the sale of green bonds to electrify its taxi fleet of iconic black London cabs!

ZGH expects to launch the new vehicle—a battery-powered hybrid with an aluminum body—in the U.K. at the end of next year and in international markets in 2018. The company is up against a 2018 deadline to get cleaner cabs on London’s roads. That’s when the city’s new “Ultra Low Emission Zone” goes into effect for licensed taxies and private hire vehicles. To travel within that area, all vehicles will need to meet exhaust emissions standards or pay a daily charge.

It took 119 years but Mr Berseys dream of an all electric fleet of London cabs is about to come true—again!

Photo courtesy of The Earthbound Report (https://earthbound.report).

(TOP) Electric Taxi photo courtesy of London Electric Vehicle Company (https://levc.com/)

Do you find waiting for your bus to arrive a drain on your energy? You may feel a little differently now as London and San Fransisco each unveil solar-powered bus shelters that can generate enough electricity to power your home!
The London bus shelter—the first of its kind in the UK—was constructed using transparent photovoltaic glass capable of converting solar energy into electricity. The electricity generated by the shelter will power signage and other elements of the local infrastructure.

“The solar bus shelter provides not just demonstration of the functionality, performance and aesthetics of our PV glass but represents an important application innovation. Using our solar PV glazing across London’s transport sector, in things like bus shelters, EV charging canopies, walkways and bike parks, could have a significant impact on the city’s emissions, without compromising its environment, architecture or budgets.”

The solar-powered shelter is capable of generating 2,000 kilowatt-hours per year. Its minimalist design features a butterfly roof to handle rainwater and runoff, and the transparent photovoltaic glass, which is tinted to reduce glare, is able to generate energy in low and ambient light in addition to bright sunshine

However, if you've left your heart in San Francisco, don't fret your carbon conscious self because San Fran has solar bus shelters as well!

The San Fran bus shelters feature an undulating solar roof that calls to mind both the hills of San Francisco and a seismic wave (this is earthquake territory after all!) The roof is constructed from an innovative 40% post-industrial recycled polycarbonate material embedded with thin-film photovoltaic cells, and the steel structure is composed of 75% recycled material. The shelter also features a pushbutton update system, more room for transit information, and feeds back energy into the city’s electrical grid.
"Gimme (renewable-powered) Shelter" every time!

Photo courtesy of INHABITAT (inhabitat.com)

Photo courtesy of INHABITAT (inhabitat.com)

How did you celebrate Earth Day 2016? Around the world trees were planted, rivers and streams cleaned, and countless events were held with the united goal of ensuring our planet's health and humanity's future.
Impressively, Solar Impulse 2 joined the day of tribute by crossing the Pacific Ocean on the 9th leg of its journey to circumnavigate the globe without one drop of fossil fuel!

During the flight, Solar Impulse 2 visionary and pilot,Bertrand Piccard, addressed the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and 175 heads of states in New York via a cockpit video link as part of the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
"Solar Impulse showcases that today exploration is no longer about conquering new territories, because even the moon has already been conquered, but about exploring new ways to have a better quality of life on Earth," says Piccard. "It is more than an airplane: it is a concentration of clean technologies, a genuine flying laboratory, and illustrates that solutions exist today to meet the major challenges facing our society."

Solar Impulse 2 left Hawaii on April 21, pilot Piccard spent a total 62 hours flying the solar-powered plane which he landed at the Moffett Airfield near San Francisco completing the crossing of the Pacific Ocean with several world records. By attempting the first solar flight around the world, pushing back the boundaries of the possible, going into the unknown, and taking on a project deemed impossible by industry experts, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg want to support concrete actions for sustainability and show that the world can be run on clean technologies. Borschberg will take over for the next leg of the trip, flying the craft from California to New York. The team originally set out from Abu Dhabi last March, 2015, in a bid to raise awareness about solar energy. They're expected to return to Abu Dhabi in August later this year. Taking off from Kalaeloa, Hawaii on 4/21, the one-man, solar-powered airplane reached a maximum altitude of 28,000 ft (8,634 m) and an average speed of 40.4 mph (65.4 km/h) as it covered a distance of 2,810 mi (4,523 km). During the day, power to the electric motors was provided by the solar panels on the upper wing surfaces while special batteries keep SI2 aloft at night.

We've followed the Solar Impulse2 history making journey since it's start in 2015. The cockpit is unpressurized, temperatures are cold and the pilots use oxygen. Their undaunted determination is inspiring. Follow their quest at solarimpulse.com

Photo courtesy of Solar Impulse Foundation (https://aroundtheworld.solarimpulse.com/adventure)

(TOP) Plane photo courtesy of Solar Impulse Foundation (https://aroundtheworld.solarimpulse.com/adventure)

It's the size of a desk and can power 10,000 homes! Looks like there's a new renewable energy super hero in town…the 10 kilowatt watt supercritical carbon dioxide turbine!

As far back as 2012 there were rumors of a carbon dioxide run turbine on the horizon and this month engineers from GE Global Research unveiled a turbine that could provide power for 10,000 homes now with the remarkable potential to solve the world’s energy needs.
Turbines usually weigh tons and use steam to run—this one, as you can see, is no bigger than the size of your desk, weighs around 68 kg (150 pounds), and runs on carbon dioxide. “This compact machine will allow us to do amazing things,” states Doug Holfer, lead engineer on the project, “the world is seeking cleaner and more efficient ways to generate power. The concepts we are exploring with this machine are helping us address both.”
The current design of the turbine can produce 10,000 kilowatts of energy to be produced; and researchers are hoping to scale up the technology to generate up to 33 megawatts, enough to power a huge area!

The way it works is the carbon dioxide is kept under high heat and extreme pressure. The carbon dioxide then goes into a physical state somewhere in the middle of gas and liquid. The turbine then harnesses the energy, transferring half of the heat to become electricity.The turbines allows for easy operation and can be powered up and turned off easily making it more efficient for grid storage, a major issue for other renewable energy sources.
The power cycle is a "closed loop" process, that means that the carbon dioxide circulates continuously, ensuring that there are no waste products. To break this down a bit more, the unit is driven by “supercritical carbon dioxide,” which is in a state that at very high pressure and up to 700 °C (1290 °F). And once the carbon dioxide passes through the turbine, it's cooled and then repressurized before returning for another pass. The turbine takes only a minute or two to heat up compared to the 30 minutes it takes a steam system.
Here's to hot, fast supercritical carbon dioxide turbine and game changing innovation!

Photo courtesy of GE Global Research.

Dude, where's my plane? Canadian company Hempearth creates the world's first airplane made from and fueled by hemp!

Different parts of the hemp plant have been used for centuries to create many different types of products including consumer textiles, medicine, building materials, bio-fuel, paper, food, and more recently even batteries. “Hemp is a sustainable crop that needs no pesticides or herbicides to grow, so the plane would have a carbon footprint significantly smaller than that of standard planes.” So, when Canadian Derek Kesek's imagination took things a step further to a desire to create a hemp plane it wasn't such a "far out" idea. He founded Hempearth in 2014 and embarked on a plan to build an airplane that consisted of as much hemp as possible. 75% or better of the aircraft being built is made from hemp. "At first, people laughed at the concept and even joked around saying things like ha-ha you can smoke at too."

Today the world’s first ever hemp plane is an elegant and sleek four-seater single engine design aircraft that has cruising speeds ranging at a little over 250 miles per hour. It had a has a wing span of 36 feet. Many of the interior parts such as the seats, pillows, and outer shell are also made of hemp.

"By removing as much of the non-sustainable materials and toxic fiberglass materials as possible and replacing them with hemp, we’re helping to create an aircraft that is not only stronger than traditional aircraft but will also leave a footprint on the environment that is virtually zero in comparison to current forms of aviation manufacturing."

The plane is powered entirely by hemp bio-fuel which releases zero emissions into the atmosphere. No high flying carbon footprint from a hemp plane flight!

Photo courtesy of HEMPEARTH (https://hempearth.ca).

(TOP) Plane photo courtesy of HEMPEARTH (https://hempearth.ca).

The race for viable tobacco based jet fuel is now smoking hot! In fact Boeing's Project Solaris, and Virginia company Tyton Bioenergy are each so close to lift off with their fuel products that we may be flying leafy green tobacco powered flights within months.

Boeing launched their Project Solaris in December 2014. The tobacco used has no nicotine and is grown for its seeds which are rich in oil used to make the bio jet fuel. It's a hybrid tobacco that currently grows on 50 hectares of land in Limpopo province, in the northeast of South Africa. Some two to three tonnes of crude oil can be pressed from its seeds per hectare per year. Solaris has been bred to have leaves much smaller than the flappy ones of a normal tobacco plant, and to have oily seeds. The scientists believe it can overcome the notorious troubles that arose around first-generation biofuels such as sugar cane and maize, accused of competing with food production. Good news is it's not toxic so it can be rotated with food crops! Over the lifecycle of the fuel, it will lead to a cut of 75 % in carbon emissions compared with its fossil fuel counterparts.

While Boeing's project has focused on South African tobacco, Danville, Virginia's Tyton Bioenergy has been working with 15 foot high plants local to Virgnia. According to Tyton “This proprietary energy tobacco can produce up to three times the amount of ethanol per acre as corn and three times the oil per acre as soy.” They have a patent for a method extracting the oil quickly with no waste. The non fossil jet fuel era has begun!

Guess this is one way to still get tobacco on a non smoking flight.

Photo courtesy of Tyton Bioenergy.

Photo by Bob Adams from Amanzimtoti, South Africa, CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

It may sound coney, but Australian researchers have developed nanocones, a nanostructure material that increases solar efficiency by 15%!

The team of scientists at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology announced the development of the nanocone, which is a type of nanomaterial that boosts the efficiency of photovoltaics by increasing their light absorbing abilities.

The cone like material works due to it's ultrahigh refractive index—the inside of each cones is an insulator and outside is a conductor—under a microscope the material looks like a mass of bullets stood up on end atop a flat base. Each cone has a metal shell coating and a core that is based on a dielectric (poor conductor of electricity) so a material made with them would be able to provide superior light absorption properties, making it perfect not just for solar cells, but also for a wide variety of photovoltaic applications from optical fibers to waveguides and even lenses. The researchers say that if such a material were used as part of a traditional thin-film solar cell, it would increase light absorption up to 15 percent in both the visible and ultraviolet range.
This is the first time that such a nanocone structure has been created and just as importantly, creating them would not require any new fabrication techniques! Nanocones could be key to making inexpensive solar cells thus taking us another step closer to a lower carbon, clean air life.

Image courtesy of RMIT UNIVERSITY (https://www.rmit.edu.au/).

Image courtesy of PHYS.ORG.

What does man's carbon footprint into the atmosphere and the cement/concrete sidewalk beneath your feet have in common? A lot it seems, and a team of Researchers at UCLA have a plan to capture carbon from power plant smokestacks and use it to create a new building material — CO2NCRETE — that would be fabricated using 3D printers!

The production of ostensibly innocent cement, when mixed with water forms the binding agent in concrete, is also one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions!? In fact, about 5 percent of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions comes from concrete.

An even larger source of carbon dioxide emissions is flue gas emitted from smokestacks at power plants around the world. Carbon emissions from those plants are the largest source of harmful global greenhouse gas in the world.

The UCLA team has been working on the unique CO2NCRETE solution and may help eliminate these sources of greenhouse gases. Their plan is to create a closed-loop process which captures the carbon from cement and power plants and then fabricate the new building material using 3D printers.

"What this technology does is take something that we have viewed as a nuisance — carbon dioxide that's emitted from smokestacks — and turn it into something valuable," said J.R. DeShazo, professor of public policy at the UCLA.

"This project could be a game-changer for climate policy," DeShazo said. "The technology tackles global climate change, which is one of the biggest challenges that society faces now and will face over the next century."

This isn't the first attempt to capture carbon emissions from power plants. It's been done before, but the challenge has been what to do with the carbon dioxide once it's captured.

"We hope to not only capture more gas, but we're going to take that gas and, instead of storing it, which is the current approach, we're going to try to use it to create a new kind of building material that will replace cement."

"The approach we are proposing is you look at carbon dioxide as a resource — a resource you can reutilize. While cement production results in carbon dioxide, just as the production of coal or the production of natural gas does, if we can reutilize CO2 to make a building material which would be a new kind of cement, that's an opportunity."

The researchers are excited about the possibility of reducing greenhouse gas in the U.S., especially in regions where coal-fired power plants are abundant. "But even more so is the promise to reduce the emissions in China and India," DeShazo said. "China is currently the largest greenhouse gas producer in the world, and India will soon be number two, surpassing us."

So far the new construction material has been produced only at a lab scale, using 3-D printers to shape it into tiny cones. "We have proof of concept that we can do this, but we need to increase the volume of material and then pilot it commercially."

"We can demonstrate a process where we take lime and combine it with carbon dioxide to produce a cement-like material. We're not just trying to develop a building material. We're trying to develop a process solution, an integrated technology which goes right from CO2 to a finished product."

The global economic impact of the technology is huge. Power plants that turn the smokestack flue gas into a resource their countries can use, to build up their cities, extend their road systems. "It takes what was a problem and turns it into a benefit in products and services that are going to be very much needed in all countries especially China and India." Game changer sounds like an understatement!

Environmental Research Advocates (ERAscience.org), Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and CNSI (California Nano Systems Institute), launched a revolutionary inner-city teaching program to support science education for underserved children.  Perimeter Institute is considered to be one of the world’s leading research organizations in the field of theoretical physics. The first educational training event of the initiative took place February 28th and 29th at CNSI UCLA. Outstanding teachers representing 13 school districts across greater Los Angeles, with Green Dot Charter Schools, Da Vinci Schools, and non profit Girls Inc also participating in the sessions. The goal is to enable teachers to take new concepts back to their classrooms and teach theoretical physics to Junior High School and High School students in underserved and often dangerous areas.

The sessions provided a unique, hands-on experience that demystifies and simplifies advanced concepts in math and science. The aim is to level the playing field for all underserved students who currently do not have access to these learning tools. 

California NanoSystems Institute, CNSI, established by former California Governor Gray Davis, is our full and dedicated partner and offers similar outreach workshops in the ever changing exciting field of nano science.

“Educating students today for the jobs of tomorrow requires a greater emphasis on STEM subjects.  This program provides educators with the necessary training in the field of science and experience they can bring back to the classroom,” says former First Lady of California Sharon Davis. “None of this would be possible without the vision and support from the Avchens and ERAscience." 

Science most definitely is fun and the potential of sharing it with young students is priceless! 

Remember your mom telling you to make sure you chewed your food throughly? It's seems that mother did know best since it turns out that chewing can do much more then power your metabolism. Drs Aidin Delnavaz and Jeremie Voix, mechanical engineers at the Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Canada have discovered that the energy harnessed from chewing can be used to vastly increase available energy needed for cochlear implants and could power some small devices to boot! Chewing can produce about 580 joules of energy in a day and utilizing that energy brings some exciting possibilities.

Through their work on auditory technology (powered ear-muffs and cochlear implants) they discovered that the chin strap used to attach experimental earmuffs were actually harvesting energy as their subjects quickly moved their jaws as in chewing motions! "we realized that when you're moving your jaw, the chin is really moving the furthest, and if you are wearing some safety gear the chin strap could harvest a lot of energy."
They decided to try and harvest energy from the chewing chin, using what is called the "piezoelectric effect": when certain materials are pressed or stretched ("piezo" comes from the Greek word for squeeze), they acquire an electrical charge.
By making a strap from commercially available piezoelectric material, then attaching it to earmuffs and fitting it snugly around Dr Delnavaz's chin, they built a prototype. When he chewed gum for 60 seconds, they measured up to 18 microwatts of generated power!
This might not sound like much but "We multiplied the power output by adding more "piezoelectric fibre composite layers to the chin strap," The strap is comfortable. Dr Delnavaz wore the prototype version "for many hours" for testing and never felt chewing or talking were restricted. The vision is mostly for situations where people are already wearing a chin strap, and could plug in a small but essential gadget.
It can greatly benefit military soldiers wearing head protection and communicating using earpieces. Voix says"I cycle to work every day, I wear my helmet… Why not have my bluetooth dongle recharged by that strap?" Pass the Double Bubble!

What does the accompanying image bring to mind? Layers of carved chocolate? How about a block of clay waiting to become a piece of art? Bet you didn't guess it's the future of 24 hour winter warmth thanks to the guys at MIT and a new exciting little molecule that going to change the way we store solar heat!

We all know that the sun is an endless source of energy, but it's only available on sunny days. For Mr. Sun to provide all our needs there must be a better way to save it up for use during nighttime and stormy days.

Up til now efforts have focused on storing solar energy in the form of electricity, but a new finding could provide a revolutionary method for storing the sun’s energy through a chemical reaction and releasing it later (at will) as heat. MIT's Jeffrey Grossman, postdoc David Zhitomirsky, and grad student Eugene Cho, have found the key to enabling long-term, stable storage of solar heat! They have stored it in the form of a chemical change rather than storing the heat itself. Heat always dissipates no matter how good the insulation around it, a chemical storage system can retain the energy indefinitely in a stable molecular configuration, until its release is triggered by a small jolt of heat (or light or electricity).

The key is a molecule that can remain stable in either of TWO different configurations. When exposed to sunlight, the energy of the light kicks the molecules into their “charged” configuration, and they can stay that way for long periods. Then, when triggered by a very specific temperature or stimulus, the molecules snap back to their original shape, giving off a burst of heat!

Such chemically-based storage materials, known as solar thermal fuels (STF), have been around before, but earlier efforts “had limited utility in solid-state application" because they were liquid but now the genius guys at MIT have figured out how to store solar energy in a polymer that can be used in both fabric or glass!

Imagine riding on a ski lift with your fingers and toes numb with cold, ZAP and you send a charge to instantly warm those tootsies. BMW, is excited that use of the polymer in windshields will equal instant de-icing in the harshest winter! Thank you MIT for making us all much "hotter" in winters to come!

Stamping your feet when there's no Wi-Fi access around? Professor Harald Hass wants to show you the light and free you from that Wi-Fi hunt with Li-Fi!

LiFi is the use of the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit information at very high speeds. (100 times faster then Wi-Fi.) While Wi-Fi uses traditional radio frequency (RF) signals to transmit data. Sound good so far?

The term Li-Fi was coined by Professor Haas, who teaches at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, claims to be the inventor of Li-Fi. He is one pioneer using the term Li-Fi and refers to light based communications technology that delivers a high-speed, bidirectional networked, mobile communications in a similar manner manner to our tried, but not always true, Wi-Fi.
Professor Hass has been working on Ali-fi for years and introduced the concept in a Ted Global talk in 2011 before starting PureLife to help promote the technology.
Hass had a little competition though in laying claim to the title of Li-Fi inventor. A group of Chinese scientists at Shanghai's Fudan University also see themselves as inventors of the technology.
The actual general term visible light communication (VLC), dates back to the 1880s, and includes any use of the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit information. The D-Light project at Edinburgh's Institute for Digital Communications was funded from January 2010 to January 2012.

Li-fi is 100 times cheaper then Wi-Fi as well as 100 times cheaper so as far as we're concern regardless of who invented it bring on the light and connect us up!