Passengers boarding their train in London today were greeted with a stunning flower display representing the fuchsia of travel.
The cascade of purple and pink hydrangea, wisteria, and fresh sea lavender lined the walls of the carriage and filled the air with the aroma of fresh spring blossom.
More than 3,000 flowers in total were installed on the 43 seat, 23-meter long carriage.
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Heathrow Express commissioned the on-board flower show to celebrate the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which begins today on May 21st.
A spokesperson for Heathrow Express said: “The duration of our transfer service is just 15 minutes, so we wanted to make an instant impression on customers departing from and arriving in the UK.
“The Chelsea Flower Show is one of the biggest events of the year but not everyone gets the chance to experience it, so we wanted to give travelers a little taster – and we’re delighted to say the reaction of customers has been blooming marvelous.”
SWNS
The “flower express” display, which was created by London-based florist Jamie Aston Flowers, featured 1,850 hydrangeas, 220 wisterias and 1,000 stems of fresh sea lavender.
The mix of real and artificial flowers were attached to the ceiling and walls using suction grips and hooks while the plants in the luggage racks were held in place by foam.
It took the 8-person team several months to plan and 4 hours to install.
SWNS
Around 18,000 passengers are expected to use the transfer service today across its 150 journeys.
Train representatives are also handing out free flowers for the passengers to take home.
Jamie Aston said: “We’ve created all manner of flower displays but have never had the chance to create one on board a train.
“We wanted to create something which would bring a smile to passengers’ faces and help them to unwind ahead or following their flight.”
SWNS
For a chance to win two tickets to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on Saturday May 25th, share your snaps of the flower carriage on Twitter or Instagram, tag the @HeathrowExpress account and use the hashtag #FlowerExpress.
The competition closes at midnight on Wednesday May 22nd.
Heathrow Express customers will also have until Wednesday to experience the flower express installation.
(WATCH the video below)
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Quote of the Day: “The average estimate themselves by what they do, the above average by what they are.” – Johann Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) German poet, philosopher, historian, playwright
Photo: by SJKen, CC license via Flickr
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Today is MOTH Monday on Good News Network: In partnership with The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art of storytelling, we bring you the most uplifting speakers from live stages across the world.
Before Alan Gordon became a criminal defense lawyer, he spent years reading mystery novels – primarily the “Encyclopedia Brown” children’s book series.
Even after he became a lawyer, Gordon’s love of mystery compelled him to write mystery novels of his own – but as he took on more and more cases, he was disappointed to realize that his job didn’t involve the same kind of satisfying “eureka!” moments that he read about in his books.
But Gordon finally got to experience his own “Encyclopedia Brown” moment in court when he managed to crack the case of a man who was being charged with throwing a paint can through a window – and even though Gordon says that it was the “least significant case of his career,” he could not contain his delight over his clever discovery.
Listen to his inspiring story below…
The Moth gives people an opportunity to tell a true story in front of a live audience, and sometimes their stories are chosen to air on the radio show, now celebrating its tenth year, and broadcasting on 485+ public radio stations—and on The Moth podcast, which is downloaded over 52 million times a year.
This groundbreaking new project in Germany is testing the use of salt as an ingredient for a fossil fuel-free future.
The Reuter power plant in Berlin recently launched a new system of technology that is using calcium oxide, also known as quicklime, to store heat for long periods of time.
Germany already has the renewable energy capacity to power more than half of the country, but since many green energy sources are dependent on consistent weather conditions, the nation is forced to continue using fossil fuels as backup energy sources.
Quicklime, on the other hand, generates large amounts of heat when it is simply exposed to water.
The salt technology, which was developed by Swedish startup SaltX, works similarly to a battery except that it stores heat instead of electricity. Since more than half of Germany’s energy consumption is used on heating, the salt can be used to generate, store, and convert heat whenever the nation’s renewable energy sources fall short of the grid’s demands.
The technology is also far more efficient at storing heat compared to water storage systems that are notorious for gradually losing their heat over time.
Photo by SaltX
The salt storage system is now being piloted by Vattenfall, the energy company managing the Berlin power plant. According to The Associated Press, the system is currently supplying heat to about 100 households, but if it proves to be successful, SaltX plans on scaling up the technology so that it can be used for thousands more German households – and eventually the world.
“In the next few months, we will collect important data to get answers to the question of whether and how this type of plant can be used in our business,” said Markus Witt, the manager of the new power plant project.
“Some questions are how large amounts of salt can be used, how quickly the storage medium reacts and how the process can be controlled.”
SaltX CEO Harald Bauer said: “We see a shift in the energy sector and an immense need for energy storage worldwide. We are eager to put SaltX Energy Storage solution on the market as soon as possible.”
(WATCH the video below)
Power Up With Positivity By Sharing The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media..
A casual trip to the local landfill has forever changed the life of a Greek man after he stumbled upon an injured dog hiding amongst the trash.
It has been six years since Theoklitos “Takis” Proestakis first felt spurred to visit the nearby garbage dump on the island of Crete.
As he was wandering through the piles of garbage, he found an injured, malnourished stray dog. He knew that he had to help the pup, so he brought it to a local veterinarian for medical attention.
Once the dog was treated, Takis realized that he did not have room for the pup at his own home – so he brought the dog back to the dump and continued to bring it food every day.
During his regular visits to the dump, Takis came upon more and more injured and abandoned dogs. Luckily for them, Takis was more than happy to take the dogs under his wing and provide them with food and veterinary treatment.
After a year of regular visits to the dump, Takis was collectively taking care of about 70 dogs. Despite his fondness for the stray canines, however the locals did not share his affection, and they eventually threatened to poison the dogs if they were not removed from the dump.
Thankfully, Takis convinced them to give him 30 days to find the pups a new home. He then bought a 55-square-meter (592 square feet) patch of land near the dump to house the dogs and named it “Takis Shelter”.
Takis says that after spending 20 years of his life working in the nightclub industry, he has collectively poured over $185,000 of his own money into his new career of saving abandoned dogs.
Since creating a Facebook page for the nonprofit shelter, it has garnered hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic followers. The sanctuary has become so popular on social media, Takis says that it is now almost entirely run on donations from animal enthusiasts around the world.
Six years after his fateful encounter with the injured dog at the dump, Takis told CBS News that he has rescued over 1,000 dogs and he is now caring for 342 dogs – and he hopes to find loving homes for every single one of them.
(WATCH the video below or our international viewers can check out the footage on the CBS website)
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“It can be easy to take trees for granted, but they are absolutely critical to maintaining balance on our planet—supporting clean air and water, healthy food and a livable climate,” Arbor Day Foundation President Dan Lambe said in a press release.
Once completed, the Time for Trees initiative – which is the foundation’s largest tree-planting undertaking yet – would have a multitude of benefits on the planet’s health and sustainability.
Collectively, 100 million trees would annually absorb 8 million tons of carbon – the equivalent of taking 6.2 million cars off the road for one year. The trees would also filter 15,850 tons of microscopic airborne particulate matter out of the air, which is enough to fill nine Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Additionally, the trees could intercept and filter 7.1 billion cubic meters of water runoff and remove 578,000 tons of chemical air pollution from our atmosphere.
The Arbor Day Foundation hopes to plant the trees in a wide range of ecosystems, particularly tropical rainforests, but they will also focus on towns and cities that have lost trees due to extreme weather disasters, diseases, and over-development.
Though 100 million trees is an ambitious goal, the charity is now recruiting new Arbor Day Foundation members to receive 10 free trees to plant in their yards. The foundation hopes that this community-driven branch of the project will help to restore the earth’s forests and inspire people to make meaningful change in the world.
“By restoring tree loss around the world, we’re making a significant investment in our collective future—paving the way for the health and well-being of people in this and future generations,” said Arbor Day Foundation President Dan Lambe. “We cannot wait another day to take action—the time for trees is now.”
Plant Some Positivity By Sharing The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media – Photo by Time for Trees
Almost 400 college seniors were given the surprise of a lifetime during their commencement ceremony earlier this week thanks to a massive donation from their keynote speaker.
Billionaire investor and philanthropist Robert F. Smith was just wrapping up his commencement speech to the graduating class of Morehouse College when he announced that he would be paying off the student debt of all 396 college seniors.
Morehouse is an all-men’s, historically black private college in Atlanta, Georgia with the average student debt ranging in the multi-thousand dollar range. A spokesperson for the school told 11Alive News that Smith’s donation would likely pay off about $40 million worth of debt between the graduating students.
While the students and audience members cheered over Smith’s announcement, he expressed his hope that the graduates would find their own way to pay it forward in the future.
“Now, I know my class will make sure they pay this forward,” said Smith. “I want my class to look at these [alumni] – these beautiful Morehouse brothers – and let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity going forward because we are enough to take care of our own community. We are enough to ensure we have all the opportunities of the American dream.”
Smith is the founder of Vista Equity Partners, an international investment firm with over $46 billion in software management. He is also the first and only African-American business leader to sign “The Giving Pledge”, a campaign to recruit the world’s billionaires into giving away half of their fortune to charity.
(WATCH the awe-inspiring announcement below) – Photo by Morehouse College
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Quote of the Day: “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – André Gide
Photo: by Ilya Grigorik, CC license via Wikimedia Commons
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If you didn’t already have enough reason to eat your vegetables, this new study says that broccoli contains an amazing ingredient which could be the “Achilles’ heel” of cancer.
Broccoli is part of the cruciferous vegetable family, which includes cauliflower, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts.
And though many people don’t like their taste—and they may not be good for nursing moms—these vegetables contain a tiny but powerful molecule that deactivates the gene responsible for cancerous tumor growth, known as WWP1.
Study lead author Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, director of the Cancer Centre and Cancer Research Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said the discovery could pave the way for new cancer treatment.
“The study’s really exciting,” Pandolfi told the Harvard Gazette. “I’ve been bombarded by journalists — because of the broccoli connection, let’s be honest. Forget what you think about the science, the fact that [we found] something that your grandma would say [is] good for you, it’s appealing.”
Pandolfi and his team suspected that a gene called PTEN could cause irregularities and defects in WWP1.
Upon testing their theory on cancer-prone mice and human cells, they discovered that WWP1 produces an enzyme that overpowers the tumor-suppressive activity of PTEN – but the scientists also found that there is a molecule found in cruciferous vegetables called indole-3-carbinol (I3C) that can reawaken the cancer-fighting properties of PTEN.
That being said, fellow study author Dr. Yu-Ru Lee emphasized that a person would have to eat nearly 6 pounds (2.7 kilograms) of uncooked Brussel sprouts every day in order to reap their anti-cancer benefits.
Regardless, Pandolfi told the Gazette says the discovery could be the key to unlocking “one of the most important tumor suppressors in the history of cancer genetics.”
“This pathway emerges not only as a regulator for tumor growth control, but also as an Achilles’ heel we can target with therapeutic options,” said Pandolfi. “These findings pave the way toward a long-sought tumor suppressor reactivation approach to cancer treatment.”
The team plans to continue their research to discover a more practical way to provide I3C to cancer patients and trigger tumor-suppressing properties in PTEN.
The study was published in the journal Science.
Serve Up The Fascinating Discovery To Your Friends By Sharing It To Social Media – File photo by Whologwhy, CC
This blog was submitted to GNN by Joe O’Neil. If you have any positive stories of your own that you would like to share with our audience, check out our submission page to learn more.
Some college students studying abroad may prefer to spend their free time out on the town – but Marcus Witherspoon has been spending his evenings teaching children to play American football.
When Witherspoon first arrived in Bologna, Italy, he was connected with Ishan Debnath, a 9-year-old boy who had a hankering to learn English.
Witherspoon, who is a football player at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, then decided to help the youngster with his English by teaching Ishan and his neighborhood friends how to play American football.
“I’m really just there for him as a native English speaker,” said Witherspoon. “It reminds me of growing up and hanging out with my friends. It’s just having a good time with your friends.”
Through their conversations about school, sports and video games, Ishan and Witherspoon have formed a big-brother, little-brother bond – and for Ishan, it’s not only an opportunity to learn English, but to work on translation skills between Witherspoon and other neighborhood children.
“[Marcus] helps me a lot,” said Ishan. “It’s amazing.”
(WATCH the sweet video below)
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Pharmaceutical company Gilead has announced that they will be providing their anti-HIV medication to over 200,000 uninsured Americans who are at risk of contracting the infection.
Every year for the next 11 years, the company will be donating over 2.4 million free bottles of Truvada PrEP to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for distribution amongst low-income and disadvantaged communities.
The medication donation, which is being called the “largest ever in the United States” is part of the company’s “national efforts to help prevent HIV and end the epidemic.”
“We are proud to partner with CDC to dramatically expand access to medication that can help prevent new HIV infections,” said Gregg Alton, Chief Patient Officer, Gilead Sciences.
Truvada, which is “generally well tolerated”, is a combination of two drugs that interfere with an enzyme called reverse transcriptase that is used by HIV-infected cells to make new viruses. Since Truvada reduces their activity, it causes HIV-infected cells to slow down or stop producing new viruses.
Beyond the donation, Gilead’s commitment to combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic includes the COMPASS (COMmitment to Partnership in Addressing HIV/AIDS in Southern States) Initiative, which is a 10-year, $100 million commitment to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the South through capacity building, mental health and trauma-informed care, and awareness and anti-stigma education.
Prevent The Spread Of Negativity – Share The Big Pharma GOOD News With Friends – Photo by Jeffrey Beall, CC
Quote of the Day: “The power of meditation is in teaching the brain to let go of the meaning it’s attaching to something.” – Beau Lotto
Photo: by Robert, CC license via Flickr
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An 11-year-old girl named Victoria is determined to do whatever it takes to find a dragon—even it it means bribing the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
According to an amusing Reddit post from Victoria’s older brother, the schoolgirl sent a strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern demanding that the government conduct research on the existence of dragons.
Since Victoria is also a fan of the hit sci-fi Netflix series Stranger Things, the youngster also requested that government researchers teach her how to acquire telekinetic abilities so she could use them to help train a dragon of her own.
The sly 11-year-old even included a $5 bill to sweeten the deal.
Upon receiving several online inquiries about the nature of Victoria’s letter, her brother said: “So it turns out, she wanted the government to make her telekinetic, when they are able, and wanted to find out what they know about dragons—and if they had found any yet, so she could train them.”
“She can’t remember exactly what she said, but from what she told me it was rather strongly implied,” he added.
To the family’s surprise, Ardern responded to Victoria’s letter with a politely-worded note that was printed on her office’s official stationary.
“We were very interested to hear your suggestions about psychics and dragons, but unfortunately we are not currently doing any work in either of these areas!” wrote the prime minister.
“I am therefore returning your bribe money, and I wish you all the very best in your quest for telekinesis, telepathy and dragons.”
Ardern did, however, add a handwritten note saying: “P.S. I’ll still keep an eye out for those dragons. Do they wear suits??”
True to her word, Ardern returned the $5 bribe with the letter, but Victoria’s brother says that the it will now serve as a priceless reminder for his sister to always pursue her dreams, regardless of how realistic or political they may be.
Ambient plant illumination could light the way for greener buildings Collaboration between MIT architect and chemical engineer could be at the center of new sustainable infrastructure for buildings.
Written by Becky Ham MIT News
These beautiful glowing plants may be a new source of lighting for the buildings of the future.
The light-emitting plants, which were first created by MIT researchers in 2017, are not genetically modified to produce light. Instead, they are infused with nanoparticles that turn the plant’s stored energy into light, similar to how fireflies glow.
“The transformation makes virtually any plant a sustainable, potentially revolutionary technology,” says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT.
“It promises lighting independent of an electrical grid, with ‘batteries’ you never need to charge, and power lines that you never need to lay,” he added.
Strano and his colleagues envisioned the plants being designed around an infrastructure of sunlight harvesting, water transport, and soil collecting and composting systems – but the team quickly realized that they needed partners who could expand the concept and understand its challenges and potential as part of a future of sustainable energy. Strano then reached out to Sheila Kennedy, professor of architecture at MIT and principal at Kennedy and Violich Architecture, who is known for her work in clean energy infrastructure.
“The science was so new and emergent that it seemed like an interesting design challenge,” says Kennedy. “The work of this design needed to move to a different register, which went beyond the problem of how the plant nanobionics could be demonstrated in architecture. As a design team, we considered some fundamental questions, such as how to understand and express the idea of plant lighting as a living, biological technology and how to invite the public to imagine this new future with plants.”
“If we treat the development of the plant as we would just another light bulb, that’s the wrong way to go,” Strano adds.
For most of human history, Kennedy explains, natural processes from sunlight to waste composting were part of the essential infrastructure of buildings. But these processes have been excluded in modern thinking or hidden away, preventing people from coming face to face with the environmental costs of energy infrastructure made from toxic materials and powered by fossil fuels.
“People don’t question the impacts of our own mainstream electrical grid today. It’s very vulnerable, it’s very brittle, it’s so very wasteful and it’s also full of toxic material,” she says. “We don’t question this, but we need to.”
“Lighting right now consumes a vast portion of our energy demand, approaching close to 20% of our global energy consumption, generating two gigatons of carbon dioxide per year,” Strano adds. “Consider that the plants replace more than just the lamp on your desk. There’s an enormous energy footprint that could potentially be replaced by the light-emitting plant.”
In 2017, Kennedy and Strano were awarded a research grant which supports unconventional, ahead-of-the-curve, and often interdisciplinary research endeavors that are unlikely to be funded through traditional avenues, yet have the potential to lead to big breakthroughs.
Their first year of the grant-funded research yielded several generations of the light-emitting watercress plants, which shine longer and brighter than the first experimental versions. The team is now evaluating a new component to the nanobiotic plants that they call light capacitor particles.
The capacitor, in the form of infused nanoparticles in the plant, stores spikes in light generation and “bleeds them out over time,” Strano explains. “Normally the light created in the biochemical reaction can be bright but fades quickly over time. Capacitive particles extend the duration of the generated plant light from hours to potentially days and weeks.”
The researchers have added to their original patent on the light-emitting plant concept, filing a new patent on the capacitor and other components as well, Strano says.
As the nanobionic plant technology has advanced, the team is also envisioning how people might interact with the plants as part of everyday life. The architectural possibilities of their light-emitting plant will be on display within a new installation, “Plant Properties, a Future Urban Development,” at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York opening May 10.
Visitors to the installation, part of the 2019 “Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” exhibition, can peek into a scaled architectural model of a New York City tenement building — which also serves as a plant incubator — to see the plants at work. The installation also demonstrates a roadmap for how an existing residential building could be adapted and transformed by design to support the natural growth of plants in a future when available energy could be very limited.
“In ‘Plant Properties’, the nanobionic plant-based infrastructure is designed to use nature’s own resources,” says Kennedy. “The building harvests and transports sunlight, collects and recycles water, and enriches soil with compost.”
The invitation to contribute to the Cooper Hewitt exhibition offered an unexpected way to demonstrate the plants’ possibilities, but designing an exhibit brought about a whole new set of challenges, Kennedy explains. “In the world of design museums, you’re usually asked to show something that’s already been exhibited, but this is new work and a new milestone in this project.”
“We learned a lot about the care of plants,” Strano adds. “It’s one thing to make a laboratory demonstration, but it’s another entirely to make 33 continuous weeks of a public demonstration.”
The researchers had to come up with a way to showcase the plants in a low-light museum environment where dirt and insects attracted by living plants are usually banished. “But rather than seeing this as a sort of insurmountable obstacle,” says Kennedy, “we realized that this kind of situation — how do you enable living plants to thrive in the enclosed setting of a museum — exactly paralleled the architectural problem of how to support significant quantities of plants growing inside buildings.”
In the installation, multiple peepholes into the building model offer glimpses into the ways people in the building are living with the plants. Museum visitors are encouraged to join the experiment and crowdsource information on plant growth and brightness, by uploading their own photos of the plants to Instagram and tagging the MIT Plant Nanobiotics lab.
The team is also collecting data on how the plants respond to the nanoparticles and other potential stresses. “The plants are actually under more stress from being in the museum environment than from the modifications that we introduce, but these effects need to be studied and mitigated if we are to use plants for indoor lighting,” Strano notes.
Kennedy and Strano say the plants could be at the center of a new — but also “pre-eclectic” — idea in architecture.
The team is continuing to work on new ways to infuse the nanoparticles in the plants, so that they work over the lifetime of the plant, as well as experimenting on larger plants such as trees. But for the plants to thrive, architects will have to develop building infrastructure that integrates the plants into a new internal ecosystem of sunlight, water and waste disposal, Kennedy says.
“If plants are to provide people with light, we need to keep plants healthy to benefit from everything they provide for us,” she says. “We think this is going to trigger a much more caring or nurturing relationship of people and their plants, or plants and the people that they illuminate.”
Hundreds of homeless people across Los Angeles have access to clean laundry thanks to a new initiative that is celebrating the power of a fresh start.
The Laundry Truck LA, a free mobile laundry service for individuals experiencing homelessness, received a $30,000 grant, along with cleaning products, from Clorox. The nonprofit was created in 2017 by DOLAN Clothing founder Jodie Dolan, but only operated for six hours every Thursday at Huntington Park.
Now with the help of the grant money, the Laundry Truck has launched Saturday Wash Day services in last month.
The truck is outfitted with multiple washer and dryer sets and will eventually be parked at various locations 3 to 5 days per week, with the capacity to wash and dry more than 5,000 loads of clothing annually. And, as you see in the heartwarming video, volunteers will actually wash the clothes for you.
Clorox issued the grant as a part of their “What Comes Next” campaign, which supports individuals and organizations that are giving back to their communities through the power of cleanliness. The company has provided a combination of grant funding, product donations, and volunteers for 10 grassroots organizations—including two run by teenagers.
A high school freshman from Florida started The Laundry Project to bring well-being and self-esteem to low income folks in Charlottesville, Virginia. Cutter Huston has washed $3,000 worth of laundry to date—and with a $15,000 grant, will be blessing even more people. $17,000 went to an eighth grader, Jayera Griffin, who launched Community Laundry Days after seeing her classmates come to school in dirty clothes in Riverdale, Illinois.
(WATCH the heartwarming video below)
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Stevie may only be 18 months old, but he’s already gearing up for playing arenas, thanks his doting dad.
His father, Steven Bentham, uploaded an adorable video of himself helping his son to “play the drums” earlier this week.
Bentham says that the toddler has been addicted to rocking out since he received a miniature Fisher Price drum set for his birthday.
Even though little Stevie still needs his dad’s helping hands to keep a rhythm, it seems safe to say that he is already well on his way to being the next Neil Peart.
(WATCH the cute video below)
Drum Up Some Smiles Among Your Friends By Sharing This To Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “I am going to keep having fun every day I have left… You just have to decide whether you are a Tigger or an Eeyore.” – Randy Pausch
Photo: by KIM_7271, CC license via Flickr
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Social media users are praising a young delivery worker for coming to the rescue of an elderly man struggling to cross a busy street this week.
The senior had slowly been making his way through a busy intersection in Singapore when the traffic light turned green.
Thankfully, a nearby DHL driver saw that the man had only made it halfway across the road, and he immediately pulled his van over to the side of the road and rushed to the old man’s side.
At first, the driver can be seen trying to help the man use his walker – but when they failed to make much progress, the driver simply gave the older man a piggyback ride to the other side of the street.
The sweet moment was captured on video by Hambali Leonardi as he was watching the event unfold from his car.
In addition to the DHL driver being hailed as a “hero” and “employee of the year”, social media viewers are also offering to give him money as a reward for his good deed.
(WATCH the video below)
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Scientists have successfully managed to create a smart skin patch that can cool down or warm up the wearer – and it could save people thousands of dollars in utility bills.
The two-inch square device works like a personalized thermostat that can be utilized at home, work, or on the go.
Powered by a flexible, stretchable battery pack, the patch can send hot and cold pulses of electricity to any part of the body, mimicking the relief of warming hands by a fire in winter or splashing water on one’s face in the summer.
The researchers from the University of California, San Diego believe it will help people save money and energy on air conditioning and heating.
“This type of device can improve your personal thermal comfort whether you are commuting on a hot day or feeling too cold in your office,” said study leader Professor Renkun Chen, a mechanical engineer at the university.
The patch described in Science Advances is made of thermoelectric alloys, materials that use electricity to moderate temperature. These alloys are soldered to thin copper electrode strips sandwiched between elastomer sheets that are specially engineered to conduct heat while still being soft and stretchy.
The team developed the sheets by mixing aluminum nitride powder, a chemical with high thermal conductivity, and a type of rubber called Ecoflex.
The patch then uses an electric current to move heat from one elastomer sheet to the other – causing one side of the patch to warm and the other to cool.
First author Sahngki Hong, who worked on the project as a PhD student in prof Chen’s lab, said: “You could place [this device] on spots that tend to warm up or cool down faster than the rest of the body, such as the back, neck, feet or arms, in order to stay comfortable when it gets too hot or cold.”
People using the device could then keep a building’s set temperature 12 degrees higher during the summer, for example, which would cut cooling costs by about 70%, said Chen.
“If wearing this device can make you feel comfortable within a wider temperature range, you won’t need to turn down the thermostat as much in the summer or crank up the heat as much in the winter,” he said.
There are a variety of personal cooling and heating devices on the market, such as fans and hot water bottles, but they are not the most convenient to wear or carry around.
That’s why Chen and colleagues designed the patch to be comfortable, flexible, lightweight, easily integrated into clothing, and convenient to wear.
As a means of testing the design, the researchers embedded a prototype of the patch into a mesh armband and tested it on a male subject in a temperature-controlled environment. In two minutes, it cooled his skin to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit – keeping it there as the ambient temperature was varied between 71.6 and 96.8.
“To do cooling, we have the current pump heat from the skin side to the layer facing outside. To do heating, we just reverse the current so heat pumps in the other direction,” said Chen.
One patch uses up to 0.2 watts worth of power. Chen’s team estimates it would take 144 patches to create a cooling vest. This would use about 26 watts total to keep an individual cool on an average hot day.
During extreme heat, this would climb up to 80 watts, which is about how much a laptop uses. By comparison, a conventional air conditioning system uses tens of kilowatts to cool down an entire office, which is why it is more energy-efficient to cool down an individual person than a large room, said the researchers.
“If there are just a handful of occupants in that room, you are essentially consuming thousands of watts per person for cooling. A device like the patch could drastically cut down on cooling bills,” says Chen.
The team is now working on patches that could be built into a prototype cooling and heating vest. They hope to commercialize the technology within the next few years.
“We have solved the fundamental problems. Now we are tackling the big engineering issues – the electronics, hardware, and developing a mobile app to control the temperature,” said Chen.
Be Sure And Share The Cool News With Your Friends On Social Media – Photo by David Baillot / UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
This teen’s journey towards a healthier lifestyle is a prime example of how anyone can make a change if they set their mind to it.
When Michael Watson was in his sophomore year at McKinley High School in Canton, Ohio, he was bullied for being overweight. The teen stood at 6-foot-4-inches, he weighed 335 pounds, and he says he had zero self-confidence.
After realizing that he had had enough, Michael resolved to make a change.
As a means of getting healthier, Michael started walking the 20-minute distance to and from his school every day, rain or shine. Even if it was pouring rain, the youngster would refuse to hitch a ride.
Additionally, Michael made a point to eat healthier, which he says was difficult since he worked at a fast food restaurant after school.
It has been a little over two years since Michael started walking to school – and he is now almost totally unrecognizable.
Michael is now 18 years old, 115 pounds lighter, and brimming with confidence.
Michael’s high school counselors and administrators are so proud of the youngster’s transformation, they launched a senior spotlight segment on their Facebook page in order to highlight the achievements of their students.
“It’s an example of courageous personal development that’s rare for a high school student,” school graduation coach Terrance Jones told CNN. “Mike’s decision … to live a healthier lifestyle and to stay consistent with it will always stay with me.”
As for Michael, he is preparing to graduate next month and pursue his dreams of being an actor. He also hopes that his story will inspire other people to take control of their own lives.
“Every day is a new day,” he told CNN. “Anybody can do it if they put their mind to it.”
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