Quote of the Day: “Your own positive future begins in this moment. All you have is right now. Every goal is possible from here.” – Lao Tzu
Photo: by John Mccann
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Songbirds share the human sense of rhythm, but it is a rare trait in non-human mammals—now, it’s been found, we can add the indri lemur to the short list of animals we know appreciate a sense of beat.
“There is longstanding interest in understanding how human musicality evolved, but musicality is not restricted to humans”, says MPI’s Andrea Ravignani, who led an international research team that set out to look for musical abilities in primates. “Looking for musical features in other species allows us to build an ‘evolutionary tree’ of musical traits, and understand how rhythm capacities originated and evolved in humans.”
To find out whether non-human mammals have a sense of rhythm, the research team decided to study one of the few ‘singing’ primates, the critically endangered lemur Indri indri.
The researchers wanted to know whether indri songs have categorical rhythm, a ‘rhythmic universal’ found across human musical cultures.
Rhythm is categorical when intervals between sounds have exactly the same duration (1:1 rhythm) or doubled duration (1:2 rhythm). This type of rhythm makes a song easily recognizable, even if it is sung at different speeds. Would indri songs show this “uniquely human” rhythm?
Over a period of twelve years, the researchers from Turin in Italy visited the rainforest of Madagascar to collaborate with a local primate study group. The investigators recorded songs from twenty indri groups (39 animals), living in their natural habitat.
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Members of an indri family group tend to sing together, in harmonized duets and choruses.
The team found that indri songs had the classic rhythmic categories (both 1:1 and 1:2), as well as the typical ‘ritardando’ or slowing down found in several musical traditions. Male and female songs had a different tempo but showed the same rhythm.
According to first author Chiara de Gregorio and her colleagues, this is the first evidence of a ‘rhythmic universal’ in a non-human mammal. But why should another primate produce categorical ‘music-like’ rhythms?
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The ability may have evolved independently among ‘singing’ species, as the last common ancestor between humans and indri lived 77.5 million years ago. Rhythm may make it easier to produce and process songs, or even to learn them.
“Categorical rhythms are just one of the six universals that have been identified so far”, explains Ravignani.
“We would like to look for evidence of others, including an underlying ‘repetitive’ beat and a hierarchical organization of beats—in indri and other species.”
The authors encourage other researchers to gather data on indri and other endangered species, to witness their “breath-taking singing displays.”
(LISTEN to the singing lemur below.)
Source: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
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Bakers created this impressive alligator sculpture—crafted entirely out of bread.
Based on a character in the Marvel series Loki, One House Bakery crafted the gator as their entry for a local scarecrow contest, where downtown businesses compete to make the best sculpture.
Dough-ki was made of ‘dead dough’, a mix without yeast.
The base of the alligator is made of chicken wire.
Tinfoil which held the dough into position before it was baked.
After molding and sculpting the dough around the metal base, the alligator was put into into the oven multiple times, each time with an extra layer of dough.
The team from Benicia in California started the project in August, ahead of the competition showcase on October 25th.
36-year-old Hannahlee Pervan, whose parents own the bakery, said, “It took over two months of intricate work to get the alligator ready for the contest.
“You have to sculpt the dough first, and once you bake it, the sculpture will change in the oven.
“You then repeat the process over and over again, adding more and more detail each time.
“The trickiest part of the alligator was probably crafting the scales, but we just took our time and didn’t rush.”
We’d say all the team’s hard work was worth it.
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South Korean scientists are leading a revolution in pee-powered fuel cells that generate “clean” energy and purify wastewater.
A common organic molecule in fertilizer and a principle component of human urine, scientists achieved state-of-the-art performance using urea fuel cells—built with inexpensive electrodes and without precious metals.
Direct urea fuel cells (DUFC) could turn any wastewater treatment plant into a renewable power station thanks to the development from the Korea Maritime and Ocean University.
These flexible energy generators offer novel and unique ways to equip a house, a town, or a parish with renewable electricity that cuts down on the footprint and upkeep of other infrastructures.
Utilizing a nickel and selenium anode and nickel microfoam, Professor Kyu-Jung Chae found inexpensive metal components to act as the catalyst in the DUFC, facilitating critical chemical reactions that allow it to work, which up until now had been made only with precious metals like platinum.
Several nickel-based catalysts were tested and selenium was found to have a synergistic effect. Furthermore, when paired together with a cathode made from Prussian Blue, they outperformed precious metals, creating the highest power densities ever found in a DUFC with nickel.
Because urea fuel cells generate electricity while also helping in the treatment of urea-ridden wastewater, providing clean water in the process, they are a versatile option in remote places without access to a stable power grid, such as in rural areas, ships, or even aboard spacecraft.
Across the ocean border, a Japanese university is opting to try and turn “number 2” into the number 1 power source for its buildings.
The invention of a toilet that composts human excrement and turns it into methane biogas for use in the school’s energy system has the students there re-evaluating waste like never before, GNN reported, as the amount of waste they contribute to the electric bills is returned to them in the form of a digital currency.
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On average, a human’s daily excrement can generate around 0.5 kilowatt hours of electricity. Bacteria breaks down the feces of student and faculty alike, and biomethane produced as a byproduct is channeled into a solid-oxide fuel cell which powers several building functions such as the hot water heater.
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When Dr. Joseph Tobias saw how big the bird which had just flown over his head was, he had just assumed it was an eagle. After all, no other bird in Ghana could be so large.
He was wrong. The Imperial College researcher and his colleague were the first to see a Shelley’s eagle owl in the wilds of Ghana since the 1870s—and the first ever to produce a clear photograph of one of the world’s largest owls.
Dr. Tobias said of the special moment, “It perched on a low branch and when we lifted our binoculars our jaws dropped. There is no other owl in Africa’s rainforests that big.”
Dr. Robert Williams, a freelance ecologist, was with Tobias in the moment, and the two took photographs of the bird which remained only for 10-15 seconds.
Fortunately the photos clearly displayed its yellow beak, huge stature, and black eyes—a combination which ruled out all other African forest owls.
Listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, the Shelley’s eagle owl is estimated to exist in numbers of only around 1,500 to 7,000—it’s difficult to get exact figures as it’s notoriously reclusive.
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Dr. Nathaniel Annorbah, University of Environment and Sustainable Development of Ghana, celebrated the sighting. “This is a sensational discovery,” he was quoted as saying. “We’ve been searching for this mysterious bird for years in the western lowlands, so to find it here in ridge top forests of Eastern Region is a huge surprise.”
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Tobias and Williams found the bird in the Atewa Forest Reserve, a biodiverse area that is now receiving calls to be turned into a national park after the sighting.
“We hope this sighting draws attention to Atewa forest and its importance for conserving local biodiversity,” Dr. Williams said in a release. “Hopefully, the discovery of such a rare and magnificent owl will boost these efforts to save one of the last wild forests in Ghana.”
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In the town of Arras in northern France, the country’s first ever appointed official with Down syndrome is leading from the front, changing hearts and minds and bringing a new perspective on mental disability.
In 2020, Éléonore Laloux was appointed municipal councilor of Arras under the mayor Frédéric Leturque, for which she has received continual praise for her colorful nature, her insatiable desire to make people smile, and for promoting the inclusivity of disabled persons in society.
On October 15th, Ms. Laloux was awarded membership of the National Order of Merit, the second highest civilian honor roll in the country.
“Inclusion isn’t something that we just think about; it’s not a generous act. It’s our duty,” Mayor Leturque told the Christian Science Monitor. “Eléonore has helped the entire town progress in terms of how we see disability.”
Along with holding down a part-time job at a hospital, a packed volunteer schedule, and a board position on Down Up, a nonprofit her father launched to support community members with Down syndrome and their families, Laloux has made numerous adjustments to everyday community features in Arras to support disabled people; not exclusively those with Down syndrome, but other forms as well.
Arras’ famous town center, town hall, and belfry are a UNESCO Heritage Site, and for those who can’t ascend to the top, Laloux organized and commissioned the creation of a virtual tour.
Down below, crosswalk lights now sound off verbal instructions for those who can’t hear or see. She has also scheduled an “incluthon” for next summer, an event to inspire disabled people and the community at large through sports and culture.
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“I’m a very committed and dynamic person, and I like to be out working with people,” said Ms. Laloux, who in 2014 wrote a book which roughly translates to Down Syndrome, So What?!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this upbeat attitude has made her a very popular figure in town and country, and she has made numerous television and other public appearances, including alongside many national politicians and cabinet members. But her appointment is by no means a gimmick to gain support from sensitive constituents; she’s made some brilliant changes in civil life.
One such accomplishment is opening Arras to a Dutch method of civil society called “the Nudge” a sort of “c’mon then,” to the community to get them to treat it better. Nothing could better represent this than putting small imitation basketball hoops over public trash bins.
She’s continued her activism on behalf of those with Down syndrome, with her “Friends of Eléonore,” foundation, even during public life, and argues vociferously against those with a limited understanding of the capabilities of disabled persons.
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Quote of the Day: “A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.” – John Cleese (turns 82 today)
Photo: by Nathan Anderson
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
It was a dream scenario for a man in Canada, after he forgot what he had stuffed in the back of his wallet.
Jerry Knott bought a LOTTO MAX ticket in Lac du Bonnet in August, and tucked it in among his bank cards. The Manitoba man promptly forgot all about it until this month—when he remembered to scan his ticket while visiting a gas station.
“The store retailer looked at me with wide-eyes and said, ‘This is the missing ticket!’”
“I saw a two and a bunch of zeroes and thought, ‘Cool! I won $20,000!'” he said.
“I didn’t know what she was talking about until she scanned it again and I saw there were a few more zeroes than I had originally thought,” he said.
“That’s 20 and six zeroes—$20 million!”
After the initial shock, Knott began to think about what to do with his new millions, and decided to dedicate his winnings to uplifting his community.
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“A while ago my father set up some reserve status land on Big Stone Lake,” he said. “My brother and I decided to build some cottages on the lake to be used as a treatment center or a wilderness experience.”
“I’m looking forward to building another five cottages to expand our dream,” he said. “It’s nice to know we will be able to put money into something that will better our community.”
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As the fall chill settles in across the U.S., people are getting out their cozy sweaters and electric blankets, or stocking up on handheld heat packets for extra warmth. But sweaters and blankets are bulky, and heat packs only work for a little while.
Now, researchers have demonstrated a conductive, durable yarn for lightweight wearable heaters that are re-usable and provide constant, portable warmth.
Lightweight wearable heaters with heating elements embedded within the fabric could help keep people warm, but previous attempts have resulted in hot stiff wires or threads that cannot be safely washed.
Recently, researchers have treated fabric and yarn with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and poly(4-styrenesulfonate).
This flexible coating warmed up the materials and stayed in place after washing.
However, the polymers were not conductive enough for personal heating, and some compounds added to make them more conductive could irritate the skin.
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So, Rawat Jaisutti and colleagues wanted to improve upon the two-polymer coating applied to yarn so that it could distribute heat at a safe operating voltage when sewn into fabric.
As a first step, the researchers dipped the polymer-coated cotton yarn into ethylene glycol, which is not irritating to human skin.
When they applied voltage to the material, it warmed up, requiring lower voltages to reach high temperatures than some previously reported flexible heaters.
Then the team washed treated yarn either repeatedly with water or once with detergent. They found that although in both instances there was a slight loss of conductivity, this loss was significantly less than a version without the ethylene glycol.
Finally, as reported in the journal ACS Publications, the researchers sewed multiple pieces of the yarn into a “TU” pattern on a bit of fabric with an additional fabric backing.
When the heater was connected to a three-volt power supply and attached to a person’s wrist, the heat distribution in the thermal wristband was steady as it was bent back and forth.
The researchers say the wristband can also be powered by a battery via an external circuit for more portability. That’s warming news indeed.
Source: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
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A designer and entrepreneur has created a device for channeling the power of wind to power your home, and it lies inside a wall-sized kinetic sculpture.
Looking like a contemporary version of a line of Buddhist prayer wheels, dozens of beige spinning blades are lined up in a grid of 25 axes, spinning and generating power as they catch a wind.
The exact dimensions of the blades aren’t settled, and their creator Joe Doucet believes the wind wall could be scaled to any size—whether to the side of a house or a warehouse. He has a prototype that’s 8-feet tall and 25-feet long which he tested and found to be enough to provide a fair amount of the annual electricity needs of an average American house.
Wind power currently comes from massive poles and fan blades mounted in windy areas like lowlands, hilltops, or off in the ocean. This doesn’t mean however, that the winds can’t blow with electricity-generating force inside a city (Chicago, for example, isn’t called the Windy City for nothing), or consequently that wind turbines couldn’t be installed next to traffic lights or in urban parks.
Wind walls could do the trick, and the benefit would be that as the blades spin, they produce a trippy optical illusion, especially if one looks on it from an angle. The shifting shadows and light in patterns makes it hard to understand exactly what’s happening—which many would certainly find nicer aesthetically than a wind turbine tower.
Additionally, what a wonderful canvas for creativity the wind walls present for visual artists to paint on, or it could be a font of spirituality for Buddhists—who could inscribe mantras on the blades themselves as they do at a temple.
Anywhere there’s a free wall, essentially, there could be the makings of wind power. Doucet gives the examples of retaining walls on the highways.
“Instead of the typical retaining walls along roads and freeways, you’d have an array of these,” said Doucet. “With the added wind boost from trucks, our highways could take care of all our energy needs.”
Speaking with Fast Company, Doucet admitted that while the concept isn’t in production, he is currently speaking with manufacturers with hopes to do just that. There are some discrepancies about the weight of a wind wall should it scale big enough, but Doucet believes that if the frame were made of aluminum, there would essentially be no reasonable size limitation.
(WATCH the turbine in action below.)
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Remember when cell phones needed 2-4 hours to fully charge? If you thought that was a pain in the rear, try waiting 60 years.
Fortunately, with the advances of solar electricity, communities in Sierra Leone who have been beyond the reach of the state’s power supply for decades finally have power to call their own.
Financed as part of the UK’s Rural Renewable Energy Project (RREP) in the wake of the Ebola outbreak, the 32 solar microgrids totaling 1.7 megawatts by the name of the Movamba Project will provide power to communities totaling 80,000 people—including 23 health centers.
One such grid has already gone online—in the commune of Foredugu, which has been without regular power for 60 years.
“Light is right and every Sierra Leonean should have access to electricity,” said Hon. Alhaji Kanja Sesay, Minister of Energy for the country back in February at the commissioning of the microgrid, who added that the provision of electricity at Foredugu and other sites is strategic—as light is bringing economic development and improves the livelihood of people living in rural areas.
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Regarding the Minister’s claim, the Movamba Project is already seeing remarkable advances in rural progress. Currently, 21 of the solar microgrids financed by the RREP have either been started or finished, totaling 630 kilowatt hours for 30,000 people.
“These people include Kadiatu Maseray, who with affordable and reliable electricity has increased the profits of her cold drinks business by 300% and the Conakry Dee Junior School, which has seen a 25% increase in attendance and a 235% increase in students passing since being connected to its local mini-grid,” said Nicole Poindexter, CEO and Founder of Energicity Corporation, the West Africa-based renewables firm in charge of the project.
RELATED: Tens of Millions Now Have Power Thanks to Off-Grid Solar Systems –Many of Them Recycled
The RREP money received was just £1.25 million ($1.72 million), or what amounts a rounding error in the books of big governments like the UK, and shows just how much impact grants like this can have when handled correctly.
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When the Brazilian state of Amazonas put the responsibility of protecting one of the world’s largest freshwater fish in the hands of the indigenous inhabitants, it saved the beast from an inevitable extinction.
The giant arapaima, a piranha-proof river monster capable of growing to 10-feet in length and weighing 440 pounds, was almost wiped out by illegal fishing in the 1990s, but two decades of conservation means the ‘Terminator of the River’ is back.
As well as being the biggest fish on the block, the arapaima is a prolific hunter, and is known to prey on reptiles, birds, and mammals—crushing them against the roof of its mouth with a tongue covered in rough bone.
Renowned Discovery Channel fisherman, Jeremy Wade from River Monsters, describes one striking him in the chest and causing a bruise he could still feel a month-and-a-half later, and which his doctor said he had seen before in car-crash victims.
Regardless of their danger, they are also known by the name ‘Cod of the Amazon’, and disregarding a ban on arapaima fishing, their numbers have been plummeting due to the demand for the firm white meat with few bones.
The arapaima disappeared from much of its historic range, and at the dawn of the new millennium, fewer than 3,000 were estimated to exist.
Taking a different model to most conservation methods in the Amazon, João Campos-Silva, an ecologist at the Institutio Juruá, decided to work with local communities to preserve arapaima fishing, and to help people realize the kind of money they could make by protecting the environment.
“Conservation should mean a better life for locals,” Campos-Silva told CNN. “So in this case conservation started to make sense. Now local people say ‘we need to protect the environment, we need to protect nature, because more biodiversity means a better life.'”
Arapaima spend the wet season in flooded forests where they breed, following the receding waters out into lakes and major rivers where they feed and grow into mammoth sizes.
Focusing on the Juruá River, the Institutio Juruá began an annual population census to determine a sustainable harvest quota for fisherman. Arapaima would be allowed to be caught only in areas managed by local communities, like the Xibauazinho, who guard the entrances to the lakes day and night to ward off poachers.
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After 11 years of management, the once never-seen fish now numbers at 4,000 in the lakes under the Xibauazinho’s jurisdiction.
Discerning diners in Brazil’s major cities can have their fish and eat it too, and poachers have to compete with legal commercial activities. Furthermore, risk of corruption goes down with this management, as the government authority (the locals) directly uses the fish as a resource, meaning it’s in their interest to ensure the sustainable harvest quotas set are maintained and not broken.
According to Campos-Silva, there are now 330,000 arapaima living in 1,358 lakes in 35 managed areas, with over 400 communities involved in managing them. The income generated from fishing rights is pouring into those communities, who are using it to fund medical infrastructure, schools, and more.
“Our job has been recognized nationally and internationally, increasing our pride and respect from other communities and organizations,” said Francisco das Chagas Melo de Araújo, also known as Seu Preto, the leader of the Xibauazinho. “Now we have the opportunity to help other communities to empower themselves.”
(WATCH the Jeremy Wade video mentioned above.)
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Quote of the Day: “The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead.” – Marjorie Pay Hinckley
Photo: by Jason Dent
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Michael J. Fox became globally famous after starring as Marty McFly in Back to the Future in 1985. Six years later, aged 29, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Since then, Fox—who is now 60 years old—has helped raise over $1.5 billion to help find a cure for the progressive nervous system disorder.
As the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson’s disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition—which affects an estimated seven to ten million people worldwide.
The Canadian actor told Variety that these therapies have already helped huge numbers of people, including himself. He said, “I enjoy life more. I’m more comfortable in my skin than I was 20 years ago. I can sit down and be calm. I couldn’t do that 25 years ago. That’s the medications, the drug cocktails and therapies that we’ve been a part of.”
At Saturday night’s fundraising gala on October 23, hosted by Denis Leary at New York City’s Jazz at the Lincoln Center, Fox performed alongside Sting. And there were many more famous faces—from actress Julianne Moore to director Spike Lee—in attendance at the A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson’s gala.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation pursues its goals through a highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson’s patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors, and volunteers.
Funding over $1.5 billion in research so far, the non-profit has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure.
Fox recently told Variety of his hope that biomarkers will be the next big stop towards treating and perhaps even preventing the disease.
“If we can find ways to identify the condition before it’s evident, if we could take a piece of hair and find it, then we could treat it prophylactically and then maybe you don’t get it,” he explained.
One thing Fox is sure of: He says he won’t stop fighting until there’s a cure.
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Johns Hopkins Medicine has been awarded a federal grant to explore the potential impacts of psilocybin on tobacco addiction—making it the first time in fifty years such funding has been given towards researching the therapeutic effects of a classic psychedelic.
The grant, totaling nearly $4 million, is funded by National Institute of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Johns Hopkins Medicine will lead the multisite, three-year study in collaboration with University of Alabama at Birmingham and New York University. The study will be conducted simultaneously at the three institutions to diversify the pool of participants and increase confidence that results apply to a wide range of people who smoke.
“The historical importance of this grant is monumental,” says principal investigator Matthew Johnson, Ph.D., Susan Hill Ward Professor in Psychedelics and Consciousness in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
“We knew it was only a matter of time before the NIH would fund this work because the data are so compelling, and because this work has demonstrated to be safe. Psilocybin does have very real risks, but these risks are squarely mitigated in controlled settings through screening, preparation, monitoring, and follow-up care.”
Over the last 20 years, there has been a growing renaissance of research with classic psychedelics, which are the pharmacological class of compounds that includes psilocybin and LSD.
These studies have been largely funded by philanthropy, resulting in impressive clinical findings for cancer-related existential distress, major depressive disorder, and substance use disorders.
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Johnson initiated this line of research testing psilocybin for tobacco smoking cessation 13 years ago. A pilot study published in 2014 showed very high abstinence rates, much larger than those seen with traditional smoking cessation medications and therapies.
The current double-blind randomized trial involves psilocybin sessions as well as cognitive behavioral therapy—a type of talk therapy (psychotherapy) focused on pinpointing negative patterns of thought that can lead to behavioral and mental health problems.
The researchers suggest psilocybin might help break the addictive pattern of thoughts and behaviors that has become ingrained after years of smoking, thus helping people to quit the habit.
RELATED: People Who’ve Tried Psychedelics Have Lower Risk of Heart Disease and Diabetes
Psilocybin, a compound found in so-called magic mushrooms, produces visual and auditory illusions and profound changes in consciousness. Combined with preparation and structured support, psilocybin has shown promise for treating a range of addictions and mental health disorders.
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
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If it could, where do you think a pet dog would take itself on a walk? Perhaps it’d make a beeline for the local butcher’s shop for a special treat, or maybe it’d head straight over to the park to chase squirrels.
Well, for one pup in Winnipeg who made her great escape from the family home—she went right to the local pet spa.
Before the pandemic, 5-year-old border-cross Gem used to visit Happy Tails Pet Resort & Spa three or four times a week. Then lockdown hit Manitoba, and her visits went down to four times a month.
So she seemingly decided to take matters into her own hands, left her fenced-in backyard before 6:30am on a Saturday morning, and went on over to the popular parlor.
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Once Gem’s human family got the call from the spa to say she was thankfully safe and sound, they knew just what to do—they let her spend the day at her very favorite place.
(WATCH the fun video for this story from CTV below.)
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Nuclear fusion promises unlimited renewable energy, but technological and physical challenges have not allowed humans to harness the power of the sun just yet.
Now using super-powerful lasers, there’s a chance fusion reactors could power our cities without many of the Marvel Universe-style science requirements—such as heating plasma to above 100 million Kelvin, or building multi-billion dollar facilities—that currently characterize many of the attempts to create the final innovation in energy.
Innovation requires competing ideas, and while governments and firms are unloading billions into “magnetic containment fusion” as described above, another potential method for achieving fusion has been made possible thanks to developments in the field of lasers.
In that case, when a laser beam is fired into the center of a hydrogen molecule, the hydrogen is driven into a tiny fuel pellet containing the stable eleventh isotope of a common metal called boron, known as B11. Tiny explosions looking to expand outward are instead confined inward, by the potency of the laser. The process, known as inertial confinement fusion (ICF), has several major advantages—such as readily available, non-radioactive fuel, and low infrastructure costs and footprint.
This method, called hydrogen-boron 11 fusion, or HB11, was hypothesized during the 1970s, but only became feasible when Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou demonstrated “Chirped Pulse Amplification,” for which they won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018. This allowed lasers to reach 10 petawatts of power, which correlates to 10 quadrillion watts.
All that ICF needs is this kind of energy for 20 quadrillionths of a second, followed by a slightly longer laser pulse of a few nanoseconds, to trigger the total reaction needed to generate electricity, as the-recently discovered power of the “Avalanche Effect,” where reacting atomic nuclei create reactions in nearby atomic nuclei, means the laser needs to create only the first reaction.
14 milligrams of HB11, which is readily available in the byproducts from open pit mining, can produce 300 kWh of energy, or around 10 days worth of an average American home’s power usage.
However, unlike traditional nuclear fusion using magnetic containment, the alpha radiation created from the HB11 can be converted directly into electricity, whereas other methods of fusion use heat to power a steam turbine, requiring extra infrastructure.
Taking the name of the fuel driving this process, HB11 Energy is looking to capitalize on the next decade of developments in laser technology to give a more compact, low-cost nuclear fusion option for the future of energy.
Their board includes a German-Australian theoretical physicist, Professor Heinrich Hora, now in his eighties, who masterminded the first-ever theory of ICF half a century ago. Hora and HB11 believe that the comically-large and expensive ITER project in France, costing tens of billions and involving government scientists from 35 nations, is an example of how not to do nuclear fusion.
GNN has reported on several methods of fusion nearing the commercialization phase, such as the General Fusion demonstration plant in the UK, which uses a plasma injector instead of magnets, and which costs a twentieth of what ITER—which is nowhere near commercial-scale yet—has spent.
The MIT-backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems has proven superconducting magnets are capable of sustaining a plasma—the superheated gas formed when particles overcome their magnetic resistance to each other and fuse—long enough to create more energy than it uses.
Within a decade, some places on Earth will be powered by commercial nuclear fusion, which when perfected represents the last development in energy. The more firms get involved in this effort, the faster the plants will scale up, the cheaper and more efficient methods and materials will become, and the more people will have access to it.
It may seem like science-fiction, as a nuclear fusion reactor is basically a mini-sun, but when it’s finally deployed on electric grids, humanity can leave uranium, coal, oil, and gas in the ground. We won’t need to drill for geothermal energy, or line our hills with unrecyclable wind turbines. It won’t matter if the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, and Fukushima will fade into a historical footnote, rather than stand as an urgent and relevant warning.
(WATCH the video for this story below.)
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One entrepreneur has launched a completely green long-wear makeup line that uses plants instead of fossil fuels.
In June, that entrepreneur received $8.2 million from L’Oréal’s venture capital department, then launched Last—and an initial product line of 12 long-lasting liquid eyeshadows, three waterproof mascaras, and three eyebrow mascaras, before following it up in September with 21 lipsticks.
Long-wear makeup represents a quarter of the cosmetics market and is valued at around $12 billion. Its vital ingredient, isododecane, can be synthesized from plants—albeit at around 100x the cost when compared with crude oils.
Fortunately for Marc Delcourt of Global Bioenergies, a company looking to utilize isododecane for greener jet fuel, L’Oréal—the largest cosmetics manufacturer in the world—also had a need for the chemical for their own efforts to reduce fossil fuel use in the makeup industry.
“Cosmetics will lead the environmental transition because it’s the first oil-based sector that will completely get rid of oil,” Delcourt told Bloomberg. “For us, it’s the starting point, for years, people had to choose between products that were of natural origin and products that perform well.”
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The products are 90% plant-based and made with vegetable waxes and olive oil derivatives along with isododecane; they come in recycled plastic and cardboard packaging, and in glass and aluminum cases.
While Delcourt still has dreams of green aviation, he plans to expand his production of plant-based isododecane to several dozen tons per year—with the aim of selling it mostly to cosmetic companies.
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“Today, choosing naturally sourced products is a radical act of support for the environment,” Delcourt stated, during the launch announcement of the lipstick line. “Our process has found its first application in the cosmetics industry, and its contribution to the environmental transition will only grow in future as it impacts entire segments of the materials and fuels industries.”
If you’d like, you can buy from the new Last make-up line here.
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Quote of the Day: “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” – Pablo Picasso (born 140 years ago)
Photo: by Benjamin Davies
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Written by Matthew Bennett and Sally Christine Reynolds at Bournemouth University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. The research was published in Science Bulletin.
Fossilized footprints, and more rarely, hand prints, can be found around the world; left as people went about their daily business, preserved by freak acts of geological preservation.
In new research our international team have discovered ancient hand and footprints high on the Tibetan plateau made by children.
The team argues that these traces represent the earliest example of parietal art. Parietal art is paintings, drawings, and engravings on rock surfaces—the sort of thing you would find in a cave, although the Tibetan traces are not in a cave.
The limestone on which the traces were imprinted dates to between around 169,000 and 226,000 BC. This would make the site the earliest currently known example of this type of art in the world. It would provide the earliest evidence for humans and other members of the Homo genus (hominins) on the high Tibetan plateau.
This discovery also adds to the research that identifies children as some of the earliest artists.
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Hand shapes are commonly found in prehistoric caves. Usually the hand is used as a stencil, with pigment spread around the edge of the hand. The caves at Sulawesi, Indonesia or at El Castillo in Spain have some fine examples and were the oldest known to date.
At Quesang, high on the Tibetan plateau, our team led by David Zhang from Guangzhou University found hand and footprints preserved in travertine from a hot spring. Travertine is freshwater limestone, often used as bathroom tiles, and in this case deposited from hot waters fed by geothermal heat.
The limescale that accumulates in your kettle provides an analogy for this. When soft, the travertine takes an impression, but then hardens to rock.
Five hand prints and five footprints appear to have been carefully placed, probably by two children judging by the size of the traces. The prints were not left during normal walking and appear to have been deliberately placed. The child making the footprints was probably around seven years old and the other, who made the hand prints, slightly older, at 12 years of age. The age estimates are based on the size of the traces with reference to modern growth curves.
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Were the children casually playing in the mud while other members of the group took the waters at the hot spring? We do not know, but the team argues that what they left is a work of art, or prehistoric graffiti if you prefer.
The team dated the travertine using a radiometric method based on the decay of uranium found in the limestone. The age is surprising, with the deposit dating to between around 169,000 and 226,000 years ago. This goes back to the middle Pleistocene (mid-Ice Age) and provides evidence for the earliest humans (or their direct ancestors) occupation on the Tibetan plateau.
This is quite incredible when you think of the high altitude involved; Quesang has an elevation of over 4,200 meters and would have been cold even during an interglacial period. The age also makes this the oldest example of parietal art in the world.
Were the children members of our own species, Homo sapiens, or members of another extinct archaic human species? There is nothing in the tracks to resolve this question. They may have been an enigmatic group of archaic humans referred to as the Denisovans, given other recent skeletal finds of this species on the plateau.
Should we consider this panel of prints as art? Well, that depends on one’s definition, but the marks were deliberately made, and have a clear composition. Whatever these humble traces represent, they clearly evoke images of children at high elevations, enjoying a spot of creative play.
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