A study at Imperial College in London shows that using electricity to stimulate part of the brain may reduce symptoms of motion sickness. Still in its early stages, research shows the new treatment could replace travel pills, which relieve symptoms, but also cause sleepiness.
Motion Sickness
Motion sickness, also referred to as travel sickness, is a condition that results when our brain receives mixed messages coming from the eyes and ears while we are moving. The symptoms are debilitating for some people, and include dizziness, severe nausea, and cold sweats.
Using Electricity To Shock Motion Sicknesses Out of the Brain
The team of scientists at Imperial College investigated the use of electrical treatment on the brain in order to treat motion sickness. Mild currents were applied to the part of the brain responsible for processing motion signals. This application would help the brain reduce the impact of the confusing signals, thus preventing the issue that causes symptoms attributed to motion sickness.
The ‘Chunder Chair’ Study
The study placed volunteers in the “chunder chair,”which was developed by Dr. Qadeer Arshad, the lead researcher. The “chunder chair” is a device that simulates a spinning movement very similar to a whirling carnival ride. Participants wore electrodes on their heads, which emitted electrical currents to alter brain activity. Then they all headed to the chair for a “ride.” The study found that participants were less likely to feel sick and recovered quicker after receiving electrical treatment.
Travel By Plane, Car, or Boat Pill Free and Fully Conscious
“The best comparison is with the best known drug scopolamine,” Dr. Arshad told BBC News about the study’s results. “We showed in essence that it’s equivalent to scopolamine, but that drug knocks you out, it puts you to sleep.”
Dr. Arshad says brain stimulation has no known side effects and is an easy method to develop.
He continued, “Within the next couple of years people will be able to use these devices – it’s not that far away. You can envisage on a cross-Channel ferry, having a small area where if you feel sick this could be applied by a trained person.”
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Who knew that the gas that stank like rotten eggs in the general chemistry lab could act as a superconductor? Scientists have recently unearthed the physics-defying powers of the smelly hydrogen sulfide.
What is a superconductor?
A superconductor is a material that offers zero resistance to the flow of electric current and expels magnetic fields when cooled below a critical temperature. Discovered by the Dutch physicist, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, in 1911, superconductivity has revolutionized the world of electronics ever since. Superconductors show infinite conductivity and magnetic levitation properties when they transition into a different state at cooler temperatures. Any metal conductor shows decreased resistance to the flow of electric current at lower temperatures; this gradual decrease is limited to the impurities and defects in the metal itself. Therefore, even at absolute zero (459 degrees below zero), usual conductors show some resistivity. However, superconductors show a drastic drop in resistivity down to zero upon cooling below a certain temperature. This temperature is called the critical temperature and varies from one conductor to another. Mercury was first discovered to show superconductivity at 4.2 K (450 degrees below zero). These numbers demonstrate one of the greatest problems using a superconductors⎯it takes incredibly low temperatures and high amounts of energy to make them behave as superconductors. Even the materials that have relatively high transition temperatures ⎯such as some ceramic cuprates that were found to superconduct at 164 K (164 degrees below zero)⎯are rare and expensive.
The superconducting properties of hydrogen sulfide
In an attempt to uncover superconductive properties of materials, the researchers of the study chose to focus on hydrogen-dominated materials that could easily be converted into metals under really high pressures. Using high pressures, they wanted to achieve the effect of impractically low temperatures at plausible temperature ranges. After testing many materials, they finally had success with hydrogen sulfide. They subjected minuscule amounts of hydrogen sulfide between diamond cells to a pressure that was million times that of atmospheric pressure. Hydrogen sulfide showed superconductivity at just 203 K (94 degrees below zero), which is roughly the temperature of Antarctica.
Applications of a superconductor
While the immediate applications of this new discovery seem distant, other superconductors are being heavily used in the field of electronics. Superconducting electromagnets are extremely powerful and form components MRI, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometers. Superconductors also form the basis for magnetic levitation devices (maglev trains) and magnetic refrigeration.
A family-owned American dairy farm is generating enough electricity to power 1,000 homes all by using product just laying around the farm: cow poo. With the help of the Environmental Protection Agency’s AgStar unit, the farm was able to turn waste into riches while also saving the environments.
Family Farm in America Changing Cow Poop To Cash Profits
Homestead Dairy is a family farm in Plymouth, Indiana that has been in operation since 1945. But in October 2013, the farmers changed the game when it comes to dairy farming.
The American farm invested in a biogas recovery system to transform cow poo and other waste into electricity, which means profits for the farm and a load off greenhouse gases for the environment.
After installing the biogas recovery system, the farm was able to generate enough electricity to power over 1,000 homes. A local utility company handles the distribution while paying the farmers for all of that hard earned power.
Of course, there are other benefits besides the monetary ones. According to Floyd Houin, a member of the family, one of the main factors for installing the system was to help control the smell for the neighbors. Now if that doesn’t show some good, ol’ American values, we don’t know what will.
Cash Aside, the Biogas Recovery System Helps Save the Environment
While making some extra cash is a bonus, another important deciding factor for the family of farmers was properly taking care of the land and water at the farm.
Other than the stench, livestock farms also produce an effluent usually collected in open lagoons that have a major impact on the environments thanks to the emissions of methane and carbon dioxide. These lagoons can also leak or overflow into the groundwater during heavy storms.
But luckily, the farm family at Homestead Dairy were able to negate these less-than-pleasant effects of owning a livestock farm by setting up an anaerobic digester. This giant digester is basically a shed that traps both the smell and the greenhouse gases, using the heat to speed up the process of decomposition.
It’s with these anaerobic digesters that cash can be made and the environment can be saved.
A Better Source of Electricity Lays in The Hands of Farmers Across the U.S.
Thanks to Homestead’s environmental friendly nature, they and the other farms equipped with biogas recovery systems have eliminated a whopping three million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in just one year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
With over 8,000 dairy and swine farms in the U.S., the EPA estimates that the amount of electricity generated by the farms could power over a million homes. In essence, this would be the same impact as taking four million automobiles off the road.
However, with a solution there’s always another problem and with biogas recovery, that new problem comes in the form of financing. With such a monumental upfront cost (around $6 million if you’re wanting numbers), a load of continuous maintenance for upkeep, and stingy utility companies unwilling to pay out, the biogas recovery systems may not seem like a sound investment for a bank loan.
Though not for lack of problems, when the systems are up and operational, they do in fact pay off as seen in the shining example of Homestead Dairy.
The Benefits of Digesters and Why Other Farms Should Consider Them
Homestead’s list of good things the digester has churned up for them isn’t limited to cash, a working relationship with the electricity company, decreased odors and less greenhouse gases. The digester also provides the family with a better yield of corn from the 4,500 acres of fields on the farm.
In addition to the environmental savings, the farmers save on the cost of manure as the digester turns the manure into nutrient-rich fertilizer.
While the Homestead farm may seem to have had some luck with a grant that helped sponsor the cost and a local power company interested in expanding energy supplies, they also had to put in hard work to keep their business profitable. This includes hours of maintenance on the digester and creative solutions, such as offering food processing plants lower rates to dump their waste (more fuel for their digester!) rather than at landfills that charge more.
The family says it will took about five years to pay off the investment, but they strongly believe in the powers of the facility. In fact, they see such power and value they are planning on building a second facility.
Though the technology does seem costly at first, the amount a farm can save (and generate in extra income) is perhaps a fact to consider when a farmer can turn cow poo into profits for both the farm and the environment.
Lose the can of dancing beans. Seriously, it’s not worth your money, because robotics at Harvard University have just produced a 3-D printed, soft-skinned, jumping robot that is capable of autonomous navigation by combining speed and the looks of classic, clunky robots of the eighties’ rigid dreams.
SOFT SKIN, HARD JUMP
Science magazine described the jumping robot as “[a] 3D printed functionally graded soft robot powered by combustion,” in an issue dated for the 10th of July. The Harvard Gazette explains that the true engineering marvel in all of this is the capability to integrate soft and rigid materials. One such engineer named Robert J. Wood said that the idea of soft robotics is to create a line of robots that is totally soft to the touch. However, due to practical reasons, even soft robots will have to have certain specifically rigid components, e.g., electronics and batteries.
SOFT SKIN IMPROVES DURABILITY, VERSATILITY
So far, the soft jumping robot has shown a method of integrating its rigid components with a soft body via gradients of material properties softening the transition from hard to soft. If such material fails, it’s often the case for the quickened, unmediated transition from hard to soft causes damage, causing the robot to cease functioning, and fail.
The little guy–powered by combustion–comes in two pieces: the body is a plunger with three legs, and the core module, which contains mechanical components and power. A soft shield envelops this module, one created with a 3D printer. In order to move, the robot’s pneumatic legs inflate in order to shift its weight. However, the oxygen and butane in its core module are then mixed and ignited, blowing the robot up into the air.
EXPLODING ONESELF INTO THE AIR IS NOT A useless TRICK
According to robot pros at the University of Harvard, this little bot can achieve a net body weight six times that of its normal (that is, when it leaps vertically), and half of its body weight during lateral jumps. If the technology is employed in any sort of military field, the robot using the tech will prove a useful means of navigating through dangerous or obscure obstacles.
This jumping robot can also take quite a beating
Nicholas Bartlett, the first author of the paper on the robot, actually said that the robot is wonderful because of the way it lends itself so nicely to abuse. No, really. The gradient of stiffness the robot has available to it allows it to internalize the impact of many different kinds of dangerous landings, and can survive the explosions from combustion better than you would any sprite from a first-person-shooter.
The goal of this project is to explore the benefits of soft robotics in cybernetic design.
While the MUSIO robot may not jump, it’s definitely a lot cuter and more intelligent
