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davieG

Technology, Science and the Environment.

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14 hours ago, The Bear said:

While we're on that, this is old but still pretty cool.

 

 

 

You can fit all the planets between the Earth and Moon:

 

planets.jpg

 

 

 

 

And if you replaced the Moon with Jupiter, it'd look like this from Earth:

 

moon-replaced-jupiter.jpg.860x0_q70_crop

 

 

Imagine the tides from that!

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Couple of interesting ones here:

 

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-class-antibiotics-combat-drug-resistance.html

 

Antibiotic resistance is a future threat that isn't taken seriously enough - glad there's some work being done on it.

 

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-global-aviation-aims-green.html

 

Norway leading the way again, though we'll have to wait and see if electric engines for flight become truly viable.

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More than half your body is not human

By James GallagherPresenter, The Second Genome, BBC Radio 4

10 April 2018

 

 

More than half of your body is not human, say scientists.

Human cells make up only 43% of the body's total cell count. The rest are microscopic colonists.

Understanding this hidden half of ourselves - our microbiome - is rapidly transforming understanding of diseases from allergy to Parkinson's.

The field is even asking questions of what it means to be "human" and is leading to new innovative treatments as a result.

"They are essential to your health," says Prof Ruth Ley, the director of the department of microbiome science at the Max Planck Institute, "your body isn't just you".

No matter how well you wash, nearly every nook and cranny of your body is covered in microscopic creatures.

This includes bacteria, viruses, fungi and archaea (organisms originally misclassified as bacteria). The greatest concentration of this microscopic life is in the dark murky depths of our oxygen-deprived bowels.

Prof Rob Knight, from University of California San Diego, told the BBC: "You're more microbe than you are human."

Originally it was thought our cells were outnumbered 10 to one.

"That's been refined much closer to one-to-one, so the current estimate is you're about 43% human if you're counting up all the cells," he says.

But genetically we're even more outgunned.

The human genome - the full set of genetic instructions for a human being - is made up of 20,000 instructions called genes.

But add all the genes in our microbiome together and the figure comes out between two and 20 million microbial genes.

Prof Sarkis Mazmanian, a microbiologist from Caltech, argues: "We don't have just one genome, the genes of our microbiome present essentially a second genome which augment the activity of our own.

"What makes us human is, in my opinion, the combination of our own DNA, plus the DNA of our gut microbes."

Listen to The Second Genome on BBC Radio 4.

Airs 11:00 BST Tuesday April 10, repeated 21:00 BST Monday April 16 and on the BBC iPlayer

It would be naive to think we carry around so much microbial material without it interacting or having any effect on our bodies at all.

Science is rapidly uncovering the role the microbiome plays in digestion, regulating the immune system, protecting against disease and manufacturing vital vitamins.

Prof Knight said: "We're finding ways that these tiny creatures totally transform our health in ways we never imagined until recently."

It is a new way of thinking about the microbial world. To date, our relationship with microbes has largely been one of warfare.

Microbial battleground

Antibiotics and vaccines have been the weapons unleashed against the likes of smallpox, Mycobacterium tuberculosis or MRSA.

That's been a good thing and has saved large numbers of lives.

But some researchers are concerned that our assault on the bad guys has done untold damage to our "good bacteria".

Prof Ley told me: "We have over the past 50 years done a terrific job of eliminating infectious disease.

"But we have seen an enormous and terrifying increase in autoimmune disease and in allergy.

"Where work on the microbiome comes in is seeing how changes in the microbiome, that happened as a result of the success we've had fighting pathogens, have now contributed to a whole new set of diseases that we have to deal with."

The microbiome is also being linked to diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson's, whether cancer drugs work and even depression and autism.

Obesity is another example. Family history and lifestyle choices clearly play a role, but what about your gut microbes?

This is where it might get confusing.

A diet of burgers and chocolate will affect both your risk of obesity and the type of microbes that grow in your digestive tract.

So how do you know if it is a bad mix of bacteria metabolising your food in such a way, that contributes to obesity?

Prof Knight has performed experiments on mice that were born in the most sanitised world imaginable.

Their entire existence is completely free of microbes.

He says: "We were able to show that if you take lean and obese humans and take their faeces and transplant the bacteria into mice you can make the mouse thinner or fatter depending on whose microbiome it got."

Topping up obese with lean bacteria also helped the mice lose weight.

"This is pretty amazing right, but the question now is will this be translatable to humans"

This is the big hope for the field, that microbes could be a new form of medicine. It is known as using "bugs as drugs".

Goldmine of information

I met Dr Trevor Lawley at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, where he is trying to grow the whole microbiome from healthy patients and those who are ill.

"In a diseased state there could be bugs missing, for example, the concept is to reintroduce those."

Dr Lawley says there's growing evidence that repairing someone's microbiome "can actually lead to remission" in diseases such as ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease.

And he added: "I think for a lot of diseases we study it's going to be defined mixtures of bugs, maybe 10 or 15 that are going into a patient."

Microbial medicine is in its early stages, but some researchers think that monitoring our microbiome will soon become a daily event that provides a brown goldmine of information about our health.

Prof Knight said: "It's incredible to think each teaspoon of your stool contains more data in the DNA of those microbes than it would take literally a tonne of DVDs to store.

"At the moment every time you're taking one of those data dumps as it were, you're just flushing that information away.

"Part of our vision is, in the not too distant future, where as soon as you flush it'll do some kind of instant read-out and tells you are you going in a good direction or a bad direction.

"That I think is going to be really transformative."

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11 hours ago, leicsmac said:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43713719

 

Imagine, if you will, London, Paris, New York and all associated other territories becoming twinned with Siberia.

 

Of course it's not going to happen overnight (or even over the course of weeks or months) but it might be something that has to be prepared for.

Weren't scientists telling us that temperatures in the UK would be rising to mediterranean levels only last year?

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43732035

 

Rolls-Royce and Boeing invest in UK space engine

By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent

12 April 2018

 

 

Image copyrightREL

Image captionSabre would work like a jet engine in the lower atmosphere and like a rocket motor in the high atmosphere

Reaction Engines Limited (REL), the UK company developing a revolutionary aerospace engine, has announced investments from both Boeing and Rolls-Royce.

REL, based at Culham in Oxfordshire, is working on a propulsion system that is part jet engine, part rocket engine.

The company believes it will transform the space launch market and usher in hypersonic travel around the Earth.

The new investments amount to £26.5m.

Included in this sum are contributions from Baillie Gifford Asset Management and Woodford Investment Management.

It lifts the total capital raised in the past three years to about £100m. The British government has already put in £60m. BAE Systems initially injected £20m in 2015 and has invested new funds in this latest financial round.

"Rolls-Royce and Boeing - these are really big names, and it's fantastic to be in this position," said REL CEO Mark Thomas.

"Rolls are super-positive about the technology. They want us to be independent and innovative, and to push our technology as hard as possible. And Boeing - that's amazing. They are the world's biggest aerospace company, have decades of expertise and future plans that, for us I'm sure, will be really exciting," he told BBC News.

Image copyrightREL

Image captionPre-cooler development was subject to an independent technical audit from the European Space Agency

REL is developing what it calls the Sabre engine. This power plant is designed to push a vehicle from a standing start all the way to orbit in a single step.

It would work like a conventional jet engine up to about Mach 5.5 (5.5 times the speed of sound) before then transitioning to a rocket mode for the rest of the ascent.

Key technologies include a compact pre-cooler heat-exchanger that can take an incoming airstream of over 1,000C and cool it to -150C in less than 1/100th of a second. This would permit Sabre to use oxygen direct from the atmosphere for combustion instead of carrying it in a tank with the weight penalty that implies.

Although Sabre is usually talked about in the context of an orbiting spaceplane, it could also be fitted to a vehicle that flies at very high speed from point to point on the Earth's surface.

This is an application that clearly interests Boeing, whose investment arm, HorizonX Ventures, is driving the tie-up in what is its first investment in a UK-based company.

"As Reaction Engines unlocks advanced propulsion that could change the future of air and space travel, we expect to leverage their revolutionary technology to support Boeing's pursuit of hypersonic flight," said HorizonX vice president, Steve Nordlund.

Image captionREL should get the keys to its future test facility at Westcott in the summer

Those who have followed the REL story over the years will be aware that Rolls-Royce is not really a newcomer to the project. The aero-engine giant was involved in Sabre's precursor years - a spaceplane concept back in the 1980s known as Hotol.

When that hit technical difficulties, Rolls-Royce let its interest go, as did British Aerospace. Both are now back, the latter in its current guise as BAE Systems.

"We are delighted to become a strategic investor in Reaction Engines Limited, an innovative UK company that is helping push the boundaries of aviation technology," Rolls' CTO Paul Stein said in a statement.

"We look forward to working with REL and assisting with the development of their technology, and we plan to incorporate this technology into our own future products."

REL is approaching important demonstration milestones.

In Colorado this summer, it will begin further testing of the pre-cooler technology, confronting it with conditions that simulate the very hot airstreams encountered when vehicles move at hypersonic speeds.

This will be done under contract with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Image copyrightREL

Image captionSabre engines could be fitted to reusable flight vehicles in the next decade

Also this summer, REL should take control of its new test facility in the UK at Westcott in Buckinghamshire. It is here that the company will mount a demonstration in 2020 of the full Sabre cycle.

Assuming this goes well, REL would then look to put the technology on some kind of flight vehicle.

The company is expanding fast with more than 160 staff at its Culham HQ. The new investments will allow it to continue the recruitment.

"The team here is outstanding. We have some of the most talented engineers I've ever worked with, a high percentage of whom are women engineers; and we have a great apprenticeship programme. It feels like we're a good-news story and I want to keep it that way," said Mark Thomas.

 

 

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5 hours ago, FIF said:

Weren't scientists telling us that temperatures in the UK would be rising to mediterranean levels only last year?

They might well do in the short term.

 

However, the North Atlantic Current is a huge part of the current temperate climate and what will likely happen should it be disrupted in a terminal fashion has been studied and talked about for quite some time - it's reasonably easy to plot.

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3 hours ago, davieG said:
 

Good to see Reaction Engines back in the news. Sabre has been trying to get off the ground (both metaphorically and literally) for some time now, so more support can only help with that.

 

Also:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43701375

 

Check this out, and then get going to Europa and/or Enceladus. Please.

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Man isn't all bad. Here's an example I was speaking of a while ago where man is developing enzyme which will break down PET:

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-accidentally-engineered-mutant-enzyme-eats-through-plastic-pet-petase-pollution

 

And who can resist an Elon Musk story? He helps us dream:

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/elon-musk-is-raising-over-500-million-for-spacex-projects-like-these-three

 

Whilst I'm at it I thought I'd post this octopus fight:

 

 

What a picture considering that is 5,900 feet below the surface on the gulf - looks like it's in an aquarium.

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UK powers on without coal for three days

 

 

The UK has not generated electricity from coal for more than three days - the longest streak since the 1880s.

The new record comes just days after the last record of 55 hours was set, National Grid said.

The coal-free period began on Saturday at 1000 BST and has continued into Tuesday afternoon.

Power generated from wind and gas dominated the mix of energy for users in England, Scotland and Wales.

Just last week the UK grid recorded its first two-day period without using any power from the fossil fuel, which the government has pledged to phase out by 2025.

UK's greenest year yet

Coal plants to close by 2025

 

In April, 2017 the UK went its first full day without coal since the 19th century.

However, experts warned that power generated by coal was largely being replaced by gas, another fossil fuel rather than renewable sources.

Andrew Crossland, of the Durham Energy Institute, said gas generated 40% of the UK's electricity and fuelled nearly all domestic heating: "As a country we consume nearly eight times more gas than coal."

That reliance on gas made the UK vulnerable to the whims of international markets and was "nowhere near clean enough" to meet the UK's legal targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

He called for more investment in renewable technologies, such as solar panels and batteries, to store power for homes and businesses, along with better energy efficiency to reduce power use.

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  • 2 weeks later...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-43975519/making-the-desert-sand-bloom

 

The innovation turning desert sand into farmland

By Aamir Rafiq PeerzadaBBC News, Al Ain

8 hours ago

 

Image captionFaisal Al Shimmari hopes the innovation will help him create "a human Garden of Eden" in the desert

Faisal Mohammed Al Shimmari farms in some of the most extreme conditions in the world, at Al Ain, an oasis in the United Arab Emirates desert, where temperatures can reach 50C.

"It's expensive as we have to buy water regularly to irrigate these plants," he says.

Farmers have to use tankers to bring in water, and in the desert farms use almost three times as much water as those in temperate climates. This makes farming in the desert impractical so the UAE imports about 80% of its food.

Yet for many, this might be the future of farming. Increased drought, deforestation and intensive farming methods are turning an area half the size of Britain into desert each year.

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Climate Change, by 2045, 135 million people could lose their homes and livelihoods to desertification.

That raises the challenge of how to grow food in increasingly hostile conditions, but one scientist has come up with an innovation that could turn those deserts green again.

Liquid clay

Norwegian scientist Kristian Morten Olesen has patented a process to mix nano-particles of clay with water and bind them to sand particles to condition desert soil - he has been working on Liquid Nanoclay (LNC) since 2005.

Image captionLiquid Nanoclay halved the amount of water used to grow these okra plants in desert soil

"The treatment gives sand particles a clay coating which completely changes their physical properties and allows them to bind with water," he says.

"This process doesn't involve any chemical agents. We can change any poor-quality sandy soils into high-yield agricultural land in just seven hours."

Kristian's son Ole Morten Olesen, who is also the chief operating officer of the company they founded, Desert Control, says: "We just mix natural clay in water that is inserted into the sand which creates half a metre layer into the soil that turns the sand into good fertile soil."

Normal sand particles are very loose, which means that they have a very low water retention capacity.

But when you add Liquid Nanoclay to the sand it binds those sand particles together, says Kristian, which means it can hold water for longer, "increasing the possibility of agricultural yield".

UAE trial

Back in the UAE, Faisal agreed to host a trial of Liquid Nanoclay last December, and two areas were planted with a selection of crops: tomatoes, aubergines and okra.

One was treated with LNC while a second control area was left untreated.

Image captionKristian Morten Olesen says liquid clay "could be a game changer" for farming in arid conditions

"I am amazed to see the success of LNC," says Faisal. "It just saved consumption of water by more than 50%, it means now I can double the green cover with the same water."

He says that the untreated area used almost 137 cubic metres of water for irrigation and the one treated with LNC used just 81 cubic metres.

"I can double the farming area using the same amount of water I was using before," says Faisal.

The cost of treatment per hectare (2.4 acres) of desert varies from $1,800-$9,500 (£1,300-£6,900) depending upon the size of the project - which currently makes it too expensive for most farmers.

The soil requires a 15%-20% retreatment after four or five years if the land is tilled and if untilled then the treatment lasts for longer.

Desert Control says initially it will target municipal governments and commercial growers, but eventually would like to make the cost accessible to all growers.

"This is a great game changer" for farmers in arid areas, says Kristian.

Part of our series Taking the Temperature, which focuses on the battle against climate change and the people and ideas making a difference.

This BBC series was produced with funding from the Skoll Foundation

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Water and the irrigation and crop cultivation it allows may well be where the next truly big war would be fought over (climate change doesn't have to do all the damage, after all; just to a point humanity starts getting desperate and then let natural instinct do the rest).

 

Anything that helps stave that off is a good thing.

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I watched a program on super elements last night and Helium impressed me with it's bizarre properties. If you cool it to -270C to a liquid it boils, but then drop it another couple of degrees closer to absolute zero and it suddenly goes still and turns into a super-fluid. Amazing stuff. It can literally flow through solid material like rubber bungs in a test tube because it has zero friction at an atomic level. Blew my mind! 

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A game changer for diesel engines? Dangerous emissions drastically cut by Loughborough University discovery

Life-threatening nitrogen oxide emissions could be all be wiped out thanks to world-leading research

 

By

Tom Pegden

01:00, 16 MAY 2018

NEWS

 

A revolutionary system that drastically cuts dangerous exhaust emissions from diesel engines has been developed by researchers at Loughborough University.

Millions of cars and trucks could one day have the technology, called ACCT, attached to their engines, eliminating almost all nitrogen oxide, or NOx, emissions and other nasty particulates.

 

Graham Hargrave, professor of optical engineering at Loughborough, and research associate Dr Jonathan Wilson have spent years working on the system, which could give a new lease of life to dirty diesels.

Diesel engines have been hit by controversy in recent years, not helped by the scandal Volkswagen caused when it used software to artificially lower NOx emissions in testing to meet strict particulate and air quality criteria.

Although the ACCT technology is still at the test stage, the team has already been inundated with inquiries from car and car parts makers, as well as fleet management companies, keen to use the game-changing technology.

 

All being well, the system could go into production within a couple of years, with it either being built into new vehicle parts or retro fitted to existing vehicles.

And because the university organisation behind the technology is a charity, the researchers hope to share it with as many manufacturers as possible.

Modern diesel engines have catalytic systems in their exhausts that use a liquid called AdBlue to turn harmful NOx emissions into safe nitrogen and water.

However, AdBlue only works well at high temperatures, which many diesels never reach during short, day-to-day journeys.

Using AdBlue at low temperature also leaves deposits that clog up the engines.

Professor Graham Hargrave and Dr Jonathan Wilson have spent years working on the emission reduction system

The Loughborough team has found a way of making AdBlue work effectively at lower temperatures, with tests already showing it can remove 98 per cent of NOx even in the worst possible conditions.

It also helps cut CO2 and particulate matter emissions.

As well as being cleaner, it means diesel engines are more efficient too.

Dr Wilson said: “We hope its going to be a game-changer.

“It’s ready to leave the lab now and going into test vehicles, and then we’ve got to scale it up in terms of production ability and are already talking to a couple of companies.”

Last night, Prof Hargrave and Dr Wilson were jointly rewarded for their work with a 2018 Autocar magazine award for innovation and achievement in the motor industry.

The award was presented during a ceremony at the Silverstone race track, where other winners included Toyota president Akio Toyoda and VW Group chief executive Herbert Diess.

Dr Wilson, who is based at Loughborough's Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, said: “It’s fantastic to receive an award from a motoring magazine that is so in tune with the industry.”

Prof Hargrave said: “It’s amazing to think that they feel we are worthy of this award.”

Diesel vehicles cause the most dangerous pollution, according to health studies

Autocar editor Mark Tisshaw said: “The Autocar Awards night is a special one for the car industry; bringing manufacturers, designers, engineers, car lovers and even university researchers together in appreciation of the astounding progress we’ve made as an industry.

“Every year the car industry is reaching new heights as both manufacturers and car buyers evolve, and the award winners we have here are the driving forces of those positive changes, securing a very bright future for the industry.”

Only last November, ACCT was named technological innovation of the year at the Times Higher Education Awards - dubbed the ‘Oscars’ of the higher education sector.

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