Solar panel manufacturing is greener in Europe than China, study says

 

May 29 / 2014

DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

Solar panels made in China have a higher overall carbon footprint and are likely to use substantially more energy during manufacturing than those made in Europe, said a new study. The team performed a type of systematic evaluation called life cycle analysis to come up with these hard data. Life cycle analysis tallies up all the energy used to make a product -- energy to mine raw materials, fuel to transport the materials and products, electricity to power the processing factory, and so forth.

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A new study by Argonne and Northwestern scientists reported that solar panels manufactured in China are likely to use more energy to make and have a larger carbon footprint than those made in Europe.

Solar panels made in China have a higher overall carbon footprint and are likely to use substantially more energy during manufacturing than those made in Europe, said a new study from Northwestern University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. The report compared energy and greenhouse gas emissions that go into the manufacturing process of solar panels in Europe and China.

"We estimated that a solar panel's carbon footprint is about twice as high when made in China and used in Europe, compared to those locally made and used in Europe," said Fengqi You, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern and corresponding author on the paper.

"While it might be an economically attractive option to move solar panel manufacturing from Europe to China, it is actually less sustainable from the life cycle energy and environmental perspective -- especially under the motivation of using solar panels for a more sustainable future," he said.

The team performed a type of systematic evaluation called life cycle analysis to come up with these hard data. Life cycle analysis tallies up all the energy used to make a product -- energy to mine raw materials, fuel to transport the materials and products, electricity to power the processing factory, and so forth. This provides a more accurate picture of the overall energy consumed and produced and the environmental impact of making and using a solar panel.

Assuming that a solar panel is made of silicon -- by far the most common solar panel material -- and is installed in sunny southern Europe, a solar panel made in China would take about 20 to 30 percent longer to produce enough energy to cancel out the energy used to make it. The carbon footprint is about twice as high.

The biggest reason is that China has fewer environmental and efficiency standards for its factories and plants and generates more electricity from coal and other non-renewable sources, the authors said.

"It takes a lot of energy to extract and process solar-grade silicon, and in China, that energy tends to come from dirtier and less efficient energy sources than it does in Europe," said Argonne scientist and co-author Seth Darling. "This gap will likely close over time as China strengthens environmental regulations."

The study did not include the energy cost of transporting a solar panel to its final destination. Transportation would magnify the difference even further if it -- like 60 percent of all solar installations in 2012 -- went up in Germany or Italy, Darling said.

The team also compared the numbers for different types of silicon solar panels. Single-crystal solar panels are better at harvesting energy than other types, but take the longest to "pay back" the energy used to manufacture them because the process is more energy-intensive. Multicrystalline panels came next, followed by ribbon silicon panels, which are easiest to manufacture but least efficient -- however, their payback time was fastest.

To encourage more sustainable production of solar cells, the authors suggest a break-even carbon tariff. "This would be based on the carbon footprint and energy efficiency difference between manufacturing regions, and would be a better market- and science-based solution than a solar panel tariff," said Dajun Yue, a Northwestern graduate student in You's research group and lead author on the paper.

"The break-even carbon tariff we calculated, which is at the range of €105-129 per ton of carbon dioxide, depending on the possible carbon tax to be imposed by these two regions in the near term, is close to the reported CO₂ capture and sequestration cost," You said.

Funding for this research was provided by the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University. The research was performed in part at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a U.S. Department of Energy user facility.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by DOE/Argonne National Laboratory. The original article was written by Louise Lerner. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Dajun Yue, Fengqi You, Seth B. Darling. Domestic and overseas manufacturing scenarios of silicon-based photovoltaics: Life cycle energy and environmental comparative analysis. Solar Energy, 2014; 105: 669 DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2014.04.008

Fiscally Healthy: Eating Your Vegetables Saves You Money

 

by U.S. News May 31st 2014 6:00AM

Bellena/Shutterstock By Lacie Glover

When it comes to health and finances, not everybody gets the connections with vegetables:

• Eating plenty of vegetables is good for your body, and in a way, your body runs like a bank account: Calories are deposited, and calories are spent. Too many calories spent, and you're hungry and overdrawn. Too many calories deposited, and you're bloated and eventually overweight. Of course, we would all rather have an extra bulge in our bank accounts than at our waistlines.
• Eating plenty of vegetables can also be good for your real-life bank account by saving you money in the long run over a diet packed with junk.

Micronutrients
For many habitually healthy eaters, a fast-food hamburger can feel like a brick in their stomachs. When compared to how it feels to eat clean and green and thriving on natural foods, the difference can seem like night and day. Fruits and vegetables have essential dietary fiber that helps your body run optimally and vitamins and minerals that help make you feel great. Sure, you could just buy a bunch of pills and supplements to get most vitamins and minerals, but spending a lot of money on supplements is a great way to go broke. Besides, you'll sell yourself short on more than just fiber.
The term "micronutrients" refers to small nutritional compounds that can't be categorized as carbs, protein or fats. Micronutrients encompass vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, which are compounds such as antioxidants, carotenoids and polyphenols. The protective benefits of phytochemicals are just beginning to be researched, although emerging data strongly suggest that many have preventive powers when it comes to cancer and other diseases. Since almost every disease costs money -– and almost any kind of cancer will cost thousands –- this is one way to protect your health and bank account in the future.
Unlike phytochemicals, which generally aren't available in pill form, vitamins and minerals of almost any kind can be bought in bulk. However, not all delivery systems are created equal. Most vitamins and minerals are absorbed better when eaten in whole food form, according to current research. Plus, synthetic supplement versions of nutrients such as calcium and vitamin E may cause health problems down the road that are both painful and costly.
Weight Regulation
It's no secret that obesity has been linked to a litany of health problems, but lesser known is the cost of those diseases. Costs linked to obesity in the U.S. are estimated at $147 billion annually, according to the federal government. Not only that, but normal-weight individuals also tend to make more money than their overweight and obese counterparts and take fewer days off from work. Also, overweight and obese people have higher premiums for both life and health insurance.
Eating lots of vegetables can help you lose weight. Research has shown that people who weigh less tend to eat more fruits and vegetables on a regular basis than overweight individuals. Maybe it's because you can eat a much higher volume for relatively fewer calories by eating filling, low-calorie vegetables –- or even high-calorie vegetables for that matter -– but vegetables also have staying power that other foods don't. Amelia Eisen, a San Francisco health coach who specializes in healthy eating on a budget, tells her clients to stock up on vegetables. "Since they contain high amounts of nutrients, fiber and water, they will satiate and hydrate you, keeping you fuller longer, so you will inevitably eat [less] and spend less on food if you eat more vegetables."
To save money buying vegetables, try these tips:

• Shop at local farmers markets. When you buy local, costs are always lower because the food doesn't travel as far.
• Find recipes before shopping, and stick to the ingredient amounts so you won't buy more than you need.
• Make big meals and freeze leftovers for later. Most vegetables freeze well.
• Stick to in-season vegetables, which are always cheaper.
• Chop and freeze vegetables, which are cheaper than prechopped, frozen vegetables.
• Grow your own vegetables.

To save even more, go vegetarian one day a week. You'll save money without missing out on a lot of protein, and you'll be cutting your saturated fat intake.

Caught by a hair: Quick, new identification of hair may help crime fighters

 

May 29, 2014

Queen's University

Crime fighters could have a new tool at their disposal. Researchers have developed a cutting-edge technique to identify human hair. Their test is quicker than DNA analysis techniques currently used by law enforcement. Early sample testing produced a 100 percent success rate. Blood samples are often used to identify gender and ethnicity, but blood can deteriorate quickly and can easily be contaminated. Hair, on the other hand, is very stable. Elements in hair originate from sweat secretions that alter with diet, ethnicity, gender, the environment and working conditions.

 

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Lily Huang crushes up the human hair prior to testing.

Crime fighters could have a new tool at their disposal following promising research by Queen's professor Diane Beauchemin.

Dr. Beauchemin (Chemistry) and student Lily Huang (MSc'15) have developed a cutting-edge technique to identify human hair. Their test is quicker than DNA analysis techniques currently used by law enforcement. Early sample testing at Queen's produced a 100 per cent success rate.

"My first paper and foray into forensic chemistry was developing a method of identifying paint that could help solve hit and run cases," explains Dr. Beauchemin. "Last year, Lily wanted to research hair analysis, so I started working in that area."

Blood samples are often used to identify gender and ethnicity, but blood can deteriorate quickly and can easily be contaminated. Hair, on the other hand, is very stable. Elements in hair originate from sweat secretions that alter with diet, ethnicity, gender, the environment and working conditions.

Dr. Beauchemin's process takes 85 seconds to complete and involves grinding up the hair, burning it and then analyzing the vapour that is produced.

"Our analysis process is very robust and can be used universally," says Ms. Huang. "One of our samples even included dyed hair and the test was 100 per cent accurate. The test was able to distinguish East Asians, Caucasians and South Asians."

Dr. Beauchemin says she has contacted law enforcement agencies about using the new technology. She is also planning to collect more hair samples and continue her research with a goal of pinpointing where exactly in the world the hair sample is from, to look for more ethnicities and determine specific age.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Queen's University. The original article was written by Anne Craig. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Lily Huang, Diane Beauchemin. Ethnic background and gender identification using electrothermal vaporization coupled to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry for forensic analysis of human hair. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 2014; DOI: 10.1039/c4ja00071d

Knowledge or entertainment: Which would you pay for?

 

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From firewalls to metered access, news organisations have invented many ways to make readers pay for their content online. But the vital question of which readers are more willing to pay than others has been largely neglected -- until now.

Over 500 American adults were asked what factors affect their willingness to pay in a study by Manuel Goyanes, from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Before revealing his results in the current issue of Journalism Practice, Goyanes explains just what the paid online news model is up against, stating that "[This] study shows that online users were more likely to pay for those digital products whose main value proposition consists of providing entertainment (music) and solutions (software and apps), but less likely to pay for those providing knowledge (such as an online newspaper)."

Ultimately, Goyanes found that younger and wealthier users were more likely to be willing to pay for online news, as were moderate users of Twitter; heavy Twitter users were more likely to buy into the "culture of free." People who've bought software programmes, online movies, apps or ebooks are also more likely to pay for online news; in other words, users who pay for entertainment on their devices are more likely to pay for information as well.

But for ailing newspapers, identifying and understanding the needs of which users are more likely to pay is only half the problem. What to offer them based on this knowledge is the other, and Goyanes makes a startling recommendation: "It is now time for online news organisations to develop new partnerships or strategic alliances with entertainment companies with the aim of creating and sharing new (complementary) services based on leisure, culture, entertainment, etc." To survive, "online news organisations need to go a step beyond the classical production of information when implementing paid content strategies."

Goyanes' research shows that younger readers should be foremost in these strategies: "Despite the constant decline of young readers in the traditional newspaper industry, the internet presents a great opportunity for media managers to attract and convince them, since it is the market segment that is more likely to pay for information."

This article is essential reading for anyone involved in either online or traditional news media, as it illustrates the on-going effects of the digital revolution on the creation, distribution and consumption of news.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Taylor & Francis. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Manuel Goyanes. An Empirical Study of Factors that Influence the Willingness to Pay for Online News. Journalism Practice, 2014; 1 DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2014.882056

Quantum mechanisms of organic devices for alternative solar panels are revealed

 

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Photos of the simulation of the evolution in the transfer of charge from the polymer to the fullerene in femtoseconds.

Silicon panel-based technology requires a very costly, contaminating manufacturing process, while organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices have been positioned as one of the most attractive alternatives as a source of solar energy.

This research has made a ground-breaking discovery because it is the first time that the quantum mechanisms that trigger the photovoltaic function of these devices have been deciphered. Angel Rubio, Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Faculty of Chemistry of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, director of the Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group, and associate researcher of the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), has participated in the research conducted in this field in collaboration with various centres in Germany, Italy and France.

These organic devices use a photosensitive polymer linked to a carbon nanostructure that functions as a current collector. When light falls on the device, the polymer traps the particles of light and induces the ultrafast transmission of electrons to the nanostructure through an electron impulse in the order of femtoseconds (fs), in other words, 10-15 seconds. Evidence was recently found to confirm this ultrafast transfer, but the research of Rubio and his team has gone a step further because it has succeeded in deciphering the element mechanism that unleashes the electron transfer between the polymer and the nanostructure. The first-principal simulations in a simplified model predicted that the coherent vibrations are the ones that dictate the periodic transfer of charge between the polymer and the fullerene.

The group involved in the experiment confirmed this prediction by studying the optical response of a common material comprising a polymer and a by-product of the fullerene (a conventional nanostructure with a spherical shape) by means of high-resolution temporal spectroscopy.

The results confirmed that the coupling of the vibrations of the polymer and the fullerene bring about the electron transfer in a coherent and ultrafast way (≈23 fs), without any need to accept incoherent processes that are manifested in slower transfers (100 fs). These studies demonstrate the critical role played by quantum coherence in organic photovoltaic devices.

The research, due to be published this week in the journal Science, offers a vision that is consistent with element quantum processes in organic photovoltaic devices and constitutes a significant step forward in this field. "This research opens up the means for a substantial and controlled improvement in organic devices for photovoltaic applications," pointed out Prof Ángel Rubio.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of the Basque Country. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. S. M. Falke, C. A. Rozzi, D. Brida, M. Maiuri, M. Amato, E. Sommer, A. De Sio, A. Rubio, G. Cerullo, E. Molinari, C. Lienau. Coherent ultrafast charge transfer in an organic photovoltaic blend. Science, 2014; 344 (6187): 1001 DOI: 10.1126/science.1249771

X-ray pulses on demand from electron storage rings

 

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Some contemporary Synchroton Radiation methods need light pulsed x-rays with a specific time structure. HZB-users at BESSY II can use them now on demand. Graphics: Highway at night.

Everything we know nowadays about novel materials and the underlying processes in them we also know thanks to studies at contemporary synchrotron facilities like BESSY II. Here, relativistic electrons in a storage ring are employed to generate very brilliant and partly coherent light pulses from the THz to the X-ray regime in undulators and other devices. However, most of the techniques used at synchrotrons are very "photon hungry" and demand brighter and brighter light pulses to conduct innovative experiments. The general greed for stronger light pulses does, however, not really meet the requirements of one of the most important techniques in material science: photoelectron spectroscopy. Physicists and chemists have been using it for decades to study molecules, gases and surfaces of solids. However, if too many photons hit a surface at the same time, space charge effects deteriorate the results. Owing to these limits, certain material parameters stay hidden in such cases. Thus, a tailored temporal pattern of x-ray pulses is mandatory to move things forward in surface physics at Synchrotrons.

Scientists from HZB's Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research and the Accelerator Department have now jointly solved the gordic knot as they published in the journal Nature Communications. Their novel method is capable of picking single pulses out of a conventional pulse train as usually emitted from Synchrotron facilities. They managed to apply this for the first time to time-of-flight electron spectroscopy based on modern instruments as developed within a joint Lab with Uppsala University, Sweden.

Picking single pulses out of a pulse train

The pulse picking technique is based on a quasi resonant magnetic excitation of transverse oscillations in one specific relativistic electron bunch that -- like all others -- generates a radiation cone within an undulator. The selective excitation leads to an enlargement of the radiation cone. Employing a detour ("bump") in the electron beam path, the regular radiation and the radiation from the excited electrons can be easily separated and only pulses from the latter arrive -- once per revolution -- at the experiment. Thus, the arrival time of the pulses is now perfectly accommodated for modern high resolution time-of-flight spectrometers.

Users will be able to examine band structures with higher precision

"The development of the Pulse Picking by Resonant Excitation (PPRE) was science driven by our user community working with single bunch techniques. They demand more beamtime to improve studies on e.g. graphene, topological insulators and other "hot topics" in material science like the current debates about high Tc-Superconductors, magnetic ordering phenomena and catalytic surface effects for energy storage. Moreover, with pulse picking techniques at hand, we are now well prepared for our future light source with variable pulse lengths: BESSY-VSR, where users will appreciate pulse selection on demand to readily switch from high brightness to ultrashort pulses according to their individual needs" says Karsten Holldack, corresponding author of the paper.

First tests successful

The researchers have proven the workability of their method with ARTOF-time-of-flight spectrometers at different undulators and beamlines as well as in BESSY II's regular user mode. "Here we could certainly benefit from long year experiences with emitc       tance manipulation," says Dr. P. Kuske acting as head of the accelerator part of the team. Thanks to accelerator developments in the past, we are capable of even picking ultrashort pulses out of the bunch trains in low-alpha operation, a special operation mode of BESSY II. At last, the users can, already right now, individually switch -- within minutes -- between high static flux and the single pulse without touching any settings at their instruments and the sample.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. K. Holldack, R. Ovsyannikov, P. Kuske, R. Müller, A. Schälicke, M. Scheer, M. Gorgoi, D. Kühn, T. Leitner, S. Svensson, N. Mårtensson, A. Föhlisch. Single bunch X-ray pulses on demand from a multi-bunch synchrotron radiation source. Nature Communications, 2014; 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5010

Aircraft wings that change their shape in flight can help to protect the environment

 

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Aircraft wings that change their shape in flight can help to protect the environment. Simulation of a flex module.

A top priority for any airline is to conserve as much fuel as possible -- and this helps to protect the environment. The EU project SARISTU aims to reduce kerosene consumption by six percent, and integrating flexible landing devices into aircraft wings is one step towards that target. Researchers will be showcasing this concept alongside other prototypes at the ILA Berlin Air Show from May 20-25.

Airport congestion has reached staggering levels as some 2.2 billion people a year take to the skies for business or pleasure. As their numbers grow and more jets add to pollution in the atmosphere, the drawbacks to the popularity of flying become obvious. This has encouraged airlines, aircraft manufacturers and researchers to pull together to reduce airliners' kerosene consumption and contribute to protecting the environment. One effort in this direction is the EU's SARISTU project, short for Smart Intelligent Aircraft Structures.

Landing flaps that change their shape

While birds are able to position their feathers to suit the airflow, aircraft wing components have so far only been rigid. As the name suggests, landing flaps at the trailing edge of the wing are extended for landing. This flap, too, is rigid, its movement being limited to rotation around an axis. This is set to change in the SARISTU project. "Landing flaps should one day be able to adjust to the air flow and so enhance the aerodynamics of the aircraft," explains Martin Schüller, researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS in Chemnitz. A mechanism that alters the landing flap's shape to dynamically accommodate the airflow has already been developed by the consortium partners. Algorithms to control the required shape modifications in flight were programmed by ENAS, in collaboration with colleagues from the Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA) and the University of Naples.

The mechanism that allows the landing flap to change shape can only function if the skin of the landing flap can be stretched as it moves, a problem tackled by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Bremen. "We've come up with a silicon skin with alternate rigid and soft zones," reveals Andreas Lühring from Fraunhofer IFAM. "There are five hard and three soft zones, enclosed within a silicon skin cover extending over the top."

The mechanism sits underneath the soft zones, the areas that are most distended. While the novel design is noteworthy, it is the material itself that stands out, since the flexible parts are made of elastomeric foam that retain their elasticity even at temperatures ranging from minus 55 to 80 degrees Celsius.

Four 90-centimeter-long prototypes -- two of which feature skin segments -- are already undergoing testing. Does the mechanism work? Are the forces being transferred correctly? These are questions for upcoming tests in the wind tunnel. Scientists will be showcasing the prototype at the ILA Berlin Air Show from May 20 -- 25.

Maneuverable wingtips

A single improvement won't be enough to cut kerosene consumption by six percent. Since a variety of measures are needed, scientists from Fraunhofer IFAM are participating in a second subproject focusing on the wingtip. Here the SARISTU consortium has developed a tab that forms part of the wing tip and changes shape during flight to keep air resistance as low as possible. Any gap between the flap and the fixed aircraft wing would cancel out any positive effect. "This led us to develop an elastic connecting element, and this work already covers everything from the chemical makeup to the process technology and manufacture of the component," says Lühring. Like the landing tab, this component retains its elasticity at temperatures ranging from minus 55 to 80 degrees Celsius, and it easily copes with the high wind speeds involved. Researchers will be showcasing the prototype at the ILA Berlin Air Show.

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 284562.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Researchers design a new structure that absorbs all sound

 

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V. J. Sánchez-Morcillo with materials.

A new step toward the perfect acoustic absorber. Researchers of the Universitat Politècnica de València at the Campus de Gandia have designed and experimentally evaluated in the laboratory a new structure made of conventional porous materials -- used in the construction industry -- that permit the complete absorption of sound at a wide range of frequencies.

The Technical University of Denmark, the LUNAM Université of Le Mans (France) and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, in Spanish) have also taken part in this project. The results have been released in Scientific Reports, from Nature Publishing.

"Our study tackles one of the most important problems of society today from a new point of view: the design of materials and surfaces able to significantly reduce noise. In view of the results, we believe we have taken an important step toward the perfect absorber. And that has been done just by reconfiguring a known material," says Víctor Sánchez-Morcillo, researcher at the Campus de Gandia of the Universitat Politècnica de València and director of the Master's Degree in Acoustic Engineering, taught at this campus.

In their work, the researchers have demonstrated how the designed structure achieves extraordinary sound absorption using an apparently contradictory strategy: the sound attenuation increases when the quantity of absorbent material is reduced. This way, a totally reflective surface becomes a perfect absorbent despite the fact that, for the most part, there is no material that absorbs sound.

The key to understanding this reaction is the following: the new configuration of the material, in periodically distributed panels, allows sound waves to easily enter the material and increases the interaction between it -the wave- and the structure, thereby increasing the absorption.

As for its possible applications, Víctor Sánchez says that the study's conclusions open a new way to design new noise reduction solutions such as the development of new baffles to reduce noise pollution caused by roads, railways, etc.

All the experimental development of this work has been done at the Campus de Gandia of the Universitat Politècnica de València, a center with a wide research and teaching experience related to acoustics.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Asociación RUVID. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. J. Christensen, V. Romero-García, R. Picó, A. Cebrecos, F. J. García de Abajo, N. A. Mortensen, M. Willatzen, V. J. Sánchez-Morcillo. Extraordinary absorption of sound in porous lamella-crystals. Scientific Reports, 2014; 4 DOI: 10.1038/srep04674

Our Origins

 

Q: How did the universe form?

For thousands of years, humans have looked to the night sky and created myths to explain the origins of the planets and stars. The real answer could soon come from the elegant computer simulations conducted by Tom Abel, an associate professor of physics at Stanford.

Cosmologists face an ironic conundrum. By studying the current universe, we have gained a tremendous understanding of what occurred in the fractions of a second after the Big Bang, and how the first 400,000 years created the ingredients – gases, energy, etc. – that would eventually become the stars, planets and everything else. But we still don’t know what happened after those early years to create what we see in the night sky.

“It’s the perfect problem for a physicist, because we know the initial conditions very well,” says Abel, who is also director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at SLAC. “If you know the laws of physics correctly, you should be able to exactly calculate what will happen next.”

Easier said than done. Abel’s calculations must incorporate the laws of chemistry, atomic physics, gravity, how atoms and molecules radiate, gas and fluid dynamics and interactions, the forces associated with dark matter and so on. Those processes must then be simulated out over the course of hundreds of millions, and eventually billions, of years. Further complicating matters, a single galaxy holds one billion moving stars, and the simulation needs to consider their interactions in order to create an accurate prediction of how the universe came to be.

“Any of the advances we make will come from writing smarter algorithms,” Abel says. “The key point of the new facility is it will allow for rapid turnaround, which will allow us to constantly develop and refine and validate new algorithms. And this will help us understand how the very first things were formed in the universe.” —Bjorn Carey //

Q: How did we evolve?

The human genome is essentially a gigantic data set. Deep within each person’s six billion data points are minute variations that tell the story of human evolution, and provide clues to how scientists can combat modern-day diseases.

To better understand the causes and consequences of these genetic variations, Jonathan Pritchard, a professor of genetics and of biology, writes computer programs that can investigate those links. “Genetic variation affects how cells work, both in healthy variation and in response to disease,” Pritchard says. How that variation displays itself – in appearance or how cells work – and whether natural selection favors those changes within a population drives evolution.

Consider, for example, variation in the gene that codes for lactase, an enzyme that allows mammals to digest milk. Most mammals turn off the lactase gene after they’ve been weaned from their mother’s milk. In populations that have historically revolved around dairy farming, however, Pritchard’s algorithms have helped to elucidate signals of strong selection since the advent of agriculture to enable people to process milk active throughout life. There has been similarly strong selection on skin pigmentation in non-Africans that allow better synthesis of vitamin D in regions where people are exposed to less sunlight.

The algorithms and machine learning methods Pritchard used have the potential to yield powerful medical insights. Studying variations in how genes are regulated within a population could reveal how and where particular proteins bind to DNA, or which genes are turned on in different cell types­ – information that could help design novel therapies. These inquiries can generate hundreds of thousands of data sets and can only be parsed with up to tens of thousands of hours of computer work.

Pritchard is bracing for an even bigger explosion of data; as genome sequencing technologies become less expensive, he expects the number of individually sequenced genomes to jump by as much as a hundredfold in the next few years. “Storing and analyzing vast amounts of data is a fundamental challenge that all genomics groups are dealing with,” says Pritchard, who is a member of Stanford Bio-X. “Having access to SRCC will make our inquiries go easier and more quickly, and we can move on faster to making the next discovery.” —Bjorn Carey //

Mode of transportation affects how we feel, study finds

 

May 29, 2014

Clemson University

People are in the best mood while they are bicycling compared to any other mode of transportation, a new study has found. Researchers investigated how emotions like happiness, pain, stress, sadness and fatigue vary during travel and by travel mode. After bicyclists, the next happiest are car passengers and then car drivers. Bus and train riders experience the most negative emotions, though a small part of this can be attributed to the fact that mass transit is disproportionately used for commuting to and from work, according to the researchers.

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What mode of transportation makes you happiest?

Clemson researchers investigated how emotions like happiness, pain, stress, sadness and fatigue vary during travel and by travel mode in a new study published in the journal Transportation.

Utilizing data from the American Time Use Survey, collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the researchers were able to determine the average mood felt by people during different types of travel.

"We found that people are in the best mood while they are bicycling compared to any other mode of transportation," said Eric Morris, lead author on the study and assistant professor in Clemson's planning, development and preservation department.

Morris said that bicyclists tend to be a self-selected group who are very enthusiastic about their mode of transportation.

"Bicyclists are generally younger and physically healthy, which are traits that happier people usually possess," he said.

Next happiest are car passengers and then car drivers. Bus and train riders experience the most negative emotions, though a small part of this can be attributed to the fact that mass transit is disproportionately used for commuting to and from work, according to the researchers.

Their findings suggest that bicycle use may have benefits beyond the typically cited health and transportation ones, and that improving transit riders' emotional experience may be as important as improving traditional service features, such as headways and travel speeds.

"Understanding the relationship between how we travel and how we feel offers insight into ways of improving existing transportation services, prioritizing investments and theorizing and modeling the costs and benefits of travel," said Morris.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Clemson University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Eric A. Morris, Erick Guerra. Mood and mode: does how we travel affect how we feel? Transportation, 2014; DOI: 10.1007/s11116-014-9521-x

New technologies making it easier to protect threatened species

 

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Human actions have pushed extinction rates to 1,000 times faster than the natural rate, but a new Duke University-led study finds that emerging technologies could give scientists and policymakers a more efficient way to identify the species at greatest risk and take steps to protect them before it's too late.

"Online databases, smartphone apps, crowd-sourcing and new hardware devices are making it easier to collect data on species," said Stuart L. Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke. "When combined with data on land-use change and the species observations of millions of amateur citizen scientists, technology is increasingly allowing scientists and policymakers to more closely monitor the planet's biodiversity and threats to it."

"For our success to continue, however, we need to support the expansion of these technologies and the development of even more powerful technologies to come," he said.

In a paper published today in the journal Science, Pimm and an international team of scientists review recent advances in conservation science made possible by new technologies, as well as challenges that remain unmet. Despite recent progress, the scientists note, many uncertainties remain as to how many species there are, where they are, and their rates of extinction.

"Most species remain unknown to science, and they likely face greater threats than the ones we do know," Pimm said. Without urgent action, further rises in extinction rates are likely, heralding what many believe could become the sixth mass extinction in Earth's history.

"The great depth of our current assessment is only possible thanks to the extraordinary efforts of all those who contribute to the databases of the Red List of Threatened Species and of Protected Planet," noted Tom Brooks of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "We need to stimulate the investment essential to maintain these knowledge products, and to support the expansion of the Red List from its current coverage of 70,000 species to 160,000 species."

The Red List, now in its 50th year, is at www.iucnredlist.org. The Protected Planet database is at www.protectedplanet.net.

The value of such databases, Pimm said, is that they help scientists spot trends and patterns that might otherwise be missed.

"For instance, we now know that most land-based species have small geographical ranges -- smaller than the U.S. state of Delaware -- and are geographically concentrated. The same pattern seems to hold for marine life, according to new data we are reviewing. Species with small ranges are disproportionately likely to go extinct," Pimm said. "This knowledge offers the hope that we can concentrate our conservation efforts on critical places around the planet."

Pimm added that another vital tool for identifying these critical places are new maps created by Clinton Jenkins of the Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas in Brazil and co-lead author of the new study. Jenkins' maps show where the most vulnerable species live. He manages a website, http://www.biodiversitymapping.org, that makes the constantly updated maps available to the public. He and Pimm also direct the nonprofit organization SavingSpecies, www.savingspecies.org, that uses detailed maps of where endangered species live to set conservation priorities and support local conservation actions to prevent extinctions.

Technologies such as these databases and maps are now allowing scientists to expand their focus and identify important patterns and trends among aquatic and marine species, as well as land-based ones. Freshwater species are likely more threatened than ones on land, the new study shows, and the potential for species extinctions in the oceans has been severely underestimated and their protection neglected. While nearly 13 percent of Earth's land area is now protected, only 2 percent of its ocean is. Traditional conservation measures, such as nature reserves, may fall short of conferring protection, especially for freshwater species.

"Most species live outside protected areas, so understanding how their environments are changing is a vital task," Pimm said. "One of the most exciting opportunities made possible by new technology is that we can now combine existing databases such as the Red List with constantly updated maps of where species live, maps of areas that are protected, maps of land-use change and human impacts, and the species observations of amateurs. Rather than relying primarily on local snapshots of biodiversity, we can fashion a more detailed global perspective of Earth's biodiversity, the threats to it and how to manage them."

"The gap between what we know and don't know about Earth's biodiversity is still tremendous -- but technology is going to play a major role in closing it and helping us conserve biodiversity more intelligently and efficiently," said Lucas N. Joppa, a conservation scientist at Microsoft's Computational Science Laboratory in Cambridge, U.K. "These new approaches will also be vital in evaluating progress toward international conservation goals such as the recently established Aichi targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Duke University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. S. L. Pimm, C. N. Jenkins, R. Abell, T. M. Brooks, J. L. Gittleman, L. N. Joppa, P. H. Raven, C. M. Roberts, J. O. Sexton. The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection. Science, 2014; 344 (6187): 1246752 DOI: 10.1126/science.1246752

Nido – a hut in the woods

 

· Aug 02 / 2013

Located in the beautiful Finnish archipelago of Sipoo, lies ‘Nido’, a small cabin built by twenty-two year old Robin Falck. Robin Falck had planned on building ‘Nido’, which means ‘birds nest’ in Italian, without a permit, so it only measures about nine square meters. By only leaving the essentials and stripping away anything unnecessary to living in the woods, the young industrial design student, managed to maximize the living space. With the help of a local carpenter Falck built the whole hut with his own hands and created a small two-story hut with a small lounge/living room at the bottom and bed as well as a small storage place on the top floor in only two and a half weeks time. The result is a cabin made of local wood and material that fuses with its environment perfectly.

All images © Robin Falck | Via: treehugger

New laser sensing technology for self-driving cars, smartphones and 3-D video games

 

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This is a conceptual vision for an integrated 3D camera with multiple pixels using the FMCW laser source.

A new twist on 3-D imaging technology could one day enable your self-driving car to spot a child in the street half a block away, let you answer your Smartphone from across the room with a wave of your hand, or play "virtual tennis" on your driveway.

The new system, developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, can remotely sense objects across distances as long as 30 feet, 10 times farther than what could be done with comparable current low-power laser systems. With further development, the technology could be used to make smaller, cheaper 3-D imaging systems that offer exceptional range for potential use in self-driving cars, smartphones and interactive video games like Microsoft's Kinect, all without the need for big, bulky boxes of electronics or optics.

"While meter-level operating distance is adequate for many traditional metrology instruments, the sweet spot for emerging consumer and robotics applications is around 10 meters" or just over 30 feet, says UC Berkeley's Behnam Behroozpour, who will present the team's work at CLEO: 2014, being held June 8-13 in San Jose, California, USA. "This range covers the size of typical living spaces while avoiding excessive power dissipation and possible eye safety concerns."

The new system relies on LIDAR ("light radar"), a 3-D imaging technology that uses light to provide feedback about the world around it. LIDAR systems of this type emit laser light that hits an object, and then can tell how far away that object is by measuring changes in the light frequency that is reflected back. It can be used to help self-driving cars avoid obstacles halfway down the street, or to help video games tell when you are jumping, pumping your fists or swinging a "racket" at an imaginary tennis ball across an imaginary court.

In contrast, current lasers used in high-resolution LIDAR imaging can be large, power-hungry and expensive. Gaming systems require big, bulky boxes of equipment, and you have to stand within a few feet of the system for them to work properly, Behroozpour says. Bulkiness is also a problem for driverless cars such as Google's, which must carry a large 3-D camera on its roof.

The researchers sought to shrink the size and power consumption of the LIDAR systems without compromising their performance in terms of distance.

In their new system, the team used a type of LIDAR called frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LIDAR, which they felt would ensure their imager had good resolution with lower power consumption, Behroozpour says. This type of system emits "frequency-chirped" laser light (that is, whose frequency is either increasing or decreasing) on an object and then measures changes in the light frequency that is reflected back.

To avoid the drawbacks of size, power and cost, the Berkeley team exploited a class of lasers called MEMS tunable VCSELs. MEMS (micro-electrical-mechanical system) parts are tiny micro-scale machines that, in this case, can help to change the frequency of the laser light for the chirping, while VCSELs (vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers) are a type of inexpensive integrable semiconductor lasers with low power consumption. By using the MEMS device at its resonance -- the natural frequency at which the material vibrates -- the researchers were able to amplify the system's signal without a great expense of power.

"Generally, increasing the signal amplitude results in increased power dissipation," Behroozpour says. "Our solution avoids this tradeoff, thereby retaining the low power advantage of VCSELs for this application."

The team's next plans include integrating the VCSEL, photonics and electronics into a chip-scale package. Consolidating these parts should open up possibilities for "a host of new applications that have not even been invented yet," Behroozpour says -- including the ability to use your hand, Kinect-like, to silence your ringtone from 30 feet away.

Presentation AW3H.2, titled "Method for Increasing the Operating Distance of MEMS LIDAR beyond Brownian Noise Limitation," will take place June 11.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by The Optical Society. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Bizarre Facts About the World Wide Web, 2014

 

Strange Things You Probably Didn't Know

By Paul Gil

May, 2014

Since its inception in the 1960's, the Internet has grown from a military experiment into a gigantic living organism filled with oddities and subcultures.  Since the World Wide Web launched 24 years ago, the Net has seen truly explosive growth in tech, business, and culture.

Here are some of the bizarre factoids that describe the Internet and the World Wide Web. Grab yourself a mug of root beer and join us for some truly incredible trivia below!

Related: what is the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web?

1. The Internet Requires Approximately 50 Million Horsepower in Electricity

Yes. With an estimated 8.7 billion electronic devices connected to the Internet, the electricity required to run the system for even one day is very substantial.  According to Russell Seitz and the calculation of Michael Stevens, 50 million brake horsepower worth of electrical power is required to keep the Internet running in its current state.

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2. It Takes 2 Billion Electrons to Produce a Single Email Message.

According to Michael Stevens and Vsauce calculations, a 50 kilobyte email message uses the footprint of 8 billion electrons.  The number sounds ginormous, yes, but with electrons weighing next to nothing, 8 billion of them weigh less than a quadrillionth of an ounce.

3. Of the 7 Billion People on Planet Earth, Over 2.4 Billion Use the Internet

While most of these calculations cannot be precisely confirmed, there is high confidence amongst most internet statistics that more than 2 billion people use the internet and the Web as a matter of weekly habit.

4. The Internet Weighs As Much As One Strawberry

Russel Seitz is a physicist who has crunched some very precise numbers.  With some atomic physics assumptions, the billions upon billions of 'data-in-motion' moving electrons on the Internet add up to approximately 50 grams.  That is 2 ounces, the weight of one strawberry.

5. Over 8.7 Billion Machines Are Currently Connected to the Internet.

Smartphones, tablets, desktops, servers, wireless routers and hotspots, car GPS units, wristwatches, refrigerators and even soda pop machines: the Internet is comprised of billions of gadgets.  Expect this to grow to 15 billion gadgets by 2015, and to 40 billion gadgets by 2020.

6. Every 60 Seconds, 72 Hours of YouTube Video Is Uploaded

...and of those 72 hours, most of the videos are about cats, Harlem Shake dance moves, and inane things that no one is interested in.   Like it or not, people love to share their amateur videos in the hopes that it will go viral and achieve a small bit of celebritydom.

7. Electrons Only Move a Few Dozen Meters Before Stopping on the Net.

Yes, an electron doesn't travel very far through the wires and transistors of our computers; they move perhaps a dozen meters or so between machines, and then their energy and signal is consumed by the next device on the network. Each device, in turn, transfers the signal to the adjacent set of electrons and the cycle repeats again down the chain. All of this happens within fractions of seconds.

8. The Internet's 5 Million Terabytes Weighs Less Than a Grain of Sand

Weighing even less that all the moving electricity, the weight of the internet's static data storage ('data-at-rest') is freakishly small.  Once you take away the mass of the hard drives and transistors, it boggles the mind that 5 million TB of data comprises less mass than a grain of sand.

9. Over 78% of North Americans Use the Internet

The USA and the English language were the original influences that spawned the Internet and the World Wide Web.  It makes sense that the great majority of Americans rely on the Web as a daily part of life.

10. 1.7 Billion of the Internet's Users Are in Asia

That's right: over half of the regular population of the Web resides in some part of Asia:  Japan, South Korea, India, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore are just some of the countries with this high adoption rate.  There are a growing number of web pages published in these asian languages, but the predominant web language continues to be English.

Samsung unveils wristband that can measure health, fitness

 

(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd moved deeper into the wearable technology market on Wednesday as it unveiled a wristband that it claims can give a range of real-time health and fitness information.

At a press event in San Francisco, the world's biggest handset maker announced Simband, a new "investigational" device that can be used to measure body temperature, blood oxygen levels, motion and other metrics on a continuous basis.

The prototype "smart" band is not intended to be sold as is but serve as a "foundation" for third party developers to build a device that incorporates "optical, acoustic and electronic sensors," Samsung's vice president of digital health Ram Fish said.

"We want to bring in talent from the outside," said Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer for Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions.

Samsung unveiled the Simband at a time when Apple Inc is said to be developing its own wrist device to compete in the wearable technology sector.

Executives for the Korean company said Simband features a shuttle battery, which charges when the wearer is inactive, and is equipped with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

The device was developed in concert with researchers from Belgium-based IMEC and the University of California San Francisco.

This new platform goes hand-in-hand with Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interactions ("SAMI"), a "bank" to store sensitive health data on the Galaxy S devices. The goal for SAMI is to gather data from various health and fitness applications, and offer "insights" to consumers, Samsung said.

"Samsung doesn't own the data, you do," said Fish. "We are a custodian of it."

Samsung plans to market SAMI by hosting a developer challenge and setting aside a $50 million fund for early-stage digital health entrepreneurs. Sohn said the company has already begun investing, recently providing funding to an early-stage entrepreneur building a noninvasive glucose monitoring solution.

The company has struggled to woo developers in recent years, notably with Tizen, its operating system that competes with Google Inc. Samsung may fail to gain much traction with wearable device makers, sources said.

Sohn declined to comment on Apple, which is rumored to be building its own wearable iWatch.

Samsung's announcement could be seen as a preemptive move, with Apple hosting its much-anticipated developer conference in less than a week.

Samsung plans to provide more specific information about both new platforms at its own developer conference, which is expected to take place in November. Sohn said the research and development teams are already exploring "locations" for wearable devices other than the wrist. 

(Reporting By Christina Farr; editing by Andrew Hay)

Intel: new tablets a big step toward reaching aggressive target

 

 

(Reuters) - New Intel-based tablets from major brands will start hitting store shelves in June, and senior executives at the chipmaker hope the offerings will move it closer to an aggressive sales goal.

Far behind rival Qualcomm (QCOM.O) in mobile devices, the upcoming tablets are the result of Intel Corp's (INTC.O) strategy to sell chips this year at a loss in a bid to stake out badly needed market share. Intel is betting that in the future, its customers will keep using Intel chips without the discounts.

Toshiba (6502.T) this week announced six tablets and PCs with detachable screens made with Intel chips, one of which runs the Android operating system and the rest Windows. More Intel-based tablets will start hitting U.S. store shelves in June and July for back-to-school shoppers, Erik Reid, general manager of Intel's Mobile Client Platforms unit, told Reuters in a recent interview.

"It will be a new high-water mark, to be eclipsed by another high-water mark at the holidays," said Reid, who is managing Intel's tablet push.

With the PC industry shrinking, mobile devices and other new markets have become a top priority for Intel. Most tablets are made with chips from Samsung (005930.KS), Qualcomm and other companies that use low-power technology from ARM Holdings (ARM.L).

Earlier in May, CEO Brian Krzanich told Reuters that Intel was well on its way to reaching his goal for the company to increase its sales of tablet chips this year to 40 million units.

After shipping 5 million tablet chips in the first quarter, Intel is on track to meet a target of 7.5 million such chips for the June quarter, Krzanich said.

"We're on schedule to hit that number and we'll see if we can do better than that," he said.

Global tablet shipments from all manufacturers in 2014 will grow 12 percent to 245 million, less than a previous forecast of 261 million devices, because people are keeping their devices longer, market research firm IDC said on Thursday. Intel sold around 10 million tablet chips last year.

Manufacturers have launched a handful of Windows tablets running on Intel's newest Bay Trail chips, but those chips have been slow to appear in devices running the popular Android platform.

On Tuesday, Intel announced a deal with Chinese chipmaker Rockchip to make components for entry-level Android devices aimed at local consumers in China.

Partly reflecting the financial incentives Intel is offering manufacturers to use its tablet chips, the company's mobile and communications group had an operating loss of $929 million in the April quarter on revenue of only $156 million.

As well as big PC brands increasingly making tablets, Intel expects small manufacturers making devices for China's domestic market to play a major part in reaching its 40 million chip goal this year, Reid said.

"We're confident, but this is by no means saying it's in the bank."

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Top 11 Free Email Services

 

By Heinz Tschabitscher

Looking for a free email service? You can be picky.

Your chosen free email service will reward you with plenty of—possibly unlimited—storage, effective spam filtering, a fast and productive web interface, access in desktop as well as mobile email programs, and more.

Find the top free email services reviewed here.

PS: Looking for free email, you may also be interested in

• free POP3 and IMAP email services.

(Updated February 2014)

1. Gmail - Free Email Service

Gmail is the Google approach to email and chat. Practically unlimited free online storage allows you to collect all your messages, and Gmail's simple but very smart interface lets you find them precisely and see them in context without effort. POP and powerful IMAP access bring Gmail to any email program or device.
Gmail puts contextual advertising next to the emails you read.
Gmail Review | Gmail Resources | Top 50 Gmail Tips | All Gmail Tips

2. Zoho Mail - Free Email Service

Zoho Mail is a solid email service with ample storage, POP and IMAP access, some integration with instant messaging and online office suites.
Aimed at professional users, Zoho Mail could be even more helpful organizing mail, identifying key messages and contacts, and sending oft-used replies.
Zoho Mail Review | Zoho Mail Tips

3. AIM Mail - Free Email Service

AIM Mail, AOL's free web-based email service, shines with unlimited online storage, very good spam protection and a rich, easy to use interface.
Unfortunately, AIM Mail lacks a bit in productivity (no labels, smart folders and message threading), but makes up for some of that with very functional IMAP (as well as POP) access.
AIM Mail Review | AIM Mail Tips

4. iCloud Mail - Free Email Service

iCloud Mail is a free email service from Apple with ample storage, IMAP access and an elegantly functional web application.
That interface at icloud.com does not offer labels or other more advanced tools for productivity and for organizing mail, though, and does not support accessing other email accounts. POP access to iCloud Mail is missing, too.
iCloud Mail Review | iCloud Mail Tips

5. Outlook.com - Free Email Service

Outlook.com serves free email with practically unlimited storage accessible on the web with a rich and helpful interface or using POP and Exchange ActiveSync in email programs on desktop and mobile device.
Unfortunately, IMAP access is not part of the mix, and Outlook.com could offer more help with composing in addition to organizing mail.
Outlook.com Review | Outlook.com Tips

6. Yahoo! Mail - Free Email Service

Yahoo! Mail is your ubiquitous email program on the web, Windows 8 and mobile devices with unlimited storage, SMS texting, social networking and instant messaging to boot.
While Yahoo! Mail is generally a joy to use, free-form labeling and smart folders would be nice, and the spam filter could catch junk even more effectively.
Yahoo! Mail Review | Yahoo! Mail Resources | Yahoo! Mail Tips

7. Mail.com and GMX Mail - Free Email Services

Mail.com and GMX Mail are reliable email services filtered well of spam and viruses whose unlimited online storage you can use with a rich web interface and mobile apps. POP and iMAP access are available as a paid add-on.
More and smarter ways to organize mail could be nice.
Mail.com and GMX Mail Review | Mail.com and GMX Mail Tips

8. Shortmail - Free Email Service

Shortmail emphasizes easy, fast and effective communication with an email service limited, essentially, to 500 characters per message.
Longer emails can be forwarded, and Shortmail offers simple but effective tools to organize and find mail. Still, hassling senders the way Shortmail does is not without peril, and you may wish for better productivity tools.
Shortmail Review | Shortmail Tips

9. Inbox.com - Free Email Service

Inbox.com not only gives you 5 GB to store your mail online but also a highly polished, fast and functional way to access it via either the web (including speedy search, free-form labels and reading mail by conversation) or through POP in your email program.
Unfortunately, IMAP access is not supported by Inbox.com, and its tools for organizing mail could be improved with smart or self-teaching folders.
Inbox.com Review | Inbox.com Tips

10. Facebook Messages - Free Email Service

Facebook Messages combines emails with everybody, conversations with Facebook friends and SMS texts in a single, simple place organized by the people with whom you communicate.
Facebook Messages's chasteness works well for a limited amount of personal mail, texts and messages, but to handle all your mail, Facebook Messages could do well with more robust tools for managing emails and contacts.
Facebook Messages Review | Facebook Messages Resources | Facebook Messages Tips

11. My Way Mail - Free Email Service

My Way Mail is a clean, fast and fun (though not particularly advanced) free email service.
It lacks secure messaging and other advanced, non-essential features, though.
My Way Mail Review | My Way Mail Tips

Mountaineering and mountain medicine

 

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Hundreds of millions of people all over the world travel to, work in or live in mountainous regions. The stress caused by high altitudes causes many health problems as their body seems to be incapable of adapting to such conditions. Studies presented at the congress by mountain medicine experts indicate that around 15% of the population living in the South American Andes suffer from chronic altitude sickness with severe effects on their everyday lives.

The Sherpas in Nepal as well as the population of Tibet, on the other hand, are largely resistant to altitude sickness. Genetically they were able to adapt gradually to such conditions over hundreds of generations, and this seems to determine whether people are sensitive to high altitudes or not. "The Tibetans have populated 'The Roof of the World' for many centuries. They have adapted superbly to such altitudes in terms of their genetic development. The inhabitants of the Andes, on the other hand, have not been able to adapt fully to their present habitat since they have not been settled there long enough." This is the conclusion drawn by Hermann Brugger and Giacomo Strapazzon from the Bozen/Bolzano EURAC Institute for Alpine Emergency Medicine, summarising the research findings presented at the congress.

What has not been fully understood by scientists is which factors are primarily responsible for acute altitude sickness. This serious illness, which can lead to a brain or lung oedema, is the most frequent cause of death amongst mountaineers. On the occasion of the World Congress, the scientists presented new studies, demonstrating for the first time how, with the aid of ultrasound, the risk of altitude sickness can be diagnosed early. The studies showed a direct link between an enlarged optic nerve, measured with ultrasonography techniques, and altitude sickness. The results presented at the congress are based on the so-called "Ortler Study" carried out in 2011 by EURAC medical experts Brugger and Strapazzon in collaboration with the glacier scientists located on the Ortler Mountain.

"Compared to other specializations, high altitude and mountain medicine is a fairly recent discipline. At the same time, this particular discipline has to cope with several complicating factors relating to diagnosis and therapy: weather conditions, difficult terrain, psychological problems brought about by the extreme conditions that prevail at high altitudes. The World Congress is the platform where high altitude physicians, emergency doctors, mountain rescuers and mountaineers can interact, giving them the opportunity to learn from one another and to make progress. We expect to have many more decisive insights over the course of the next few days of the congress," affirms Buddha Basnyat, President of the International Society for Mountain Medicine (ISMM), which co-hosts the congress.

Nepal, symbolic for high altitude and at the same time for the problems associated with high altitude, is one of the main themes of this congress. The steady increase in mountaineering tourism from the rich western world collides with the poverty of the local population. "The Mount Everest avalanche disaster on 18 April this year showed how important it is that the Nepalese Sherpas and mountain guides are also fully trained in rescue procedures. Many of them have not even mastered the most important techniques of first aid. We are a group of 20 Nepalese doctors and Sherpas and as we were fortunate enough to complete a medical and rescue-related training course in South Tyrol, we are now in a position to pass on this knowledge to others. We intend to set up a locally organised mountain rescue system in Nepal," explains Pranawa Koirala, Nepalese mountain rescuer and doctor, who, two years ago, trained in mountain rescue in South Tyrol.

The X. World Congress on High Altitude Medicine and Physiology & Mountain Emergency Medicine will discuss latest global research findings and new developments in mountain rescue techniques; topics related to mountain emergency medicine will feature on the programme for the first time in the history of the congress.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.