Top salads with eggs to better absorb vegetables' carotenoids

 

Research led by Wayne Campbell, a Purdue University professor of nutrition science, found that adding eggs to a salad mixed with a variety of raw vegetables is an effective method to improve nutrient absorption. The research is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Credit: Purdue University photo/John Underwood Adding eggs to a salad with a variety of raw vegetables is an effective method to improve the absorption of carotenoids, which are fat-soluble nutrients that help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, according to research from Purdue University. "Eating a salad with a variety of colorful vegetables provides several unique types of carotenoids, including beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin and lycopene," said Wayne Campbell, a professor of nutrition science. "The lipid contained in whole eggs enhances the absorption of all these carotenoids." This research is published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and is funded by the American Egg Board-Egg Nutrition Center, National Institutes of Health and Purdue Ingestive Behavior Research Center. "Most people do not eat enough vegetables in their diets, and at the same time, people are consuming salad dressings that have less fat or are fat-free," said Jung Eun Kim, a postdoctoral researcher in Purdue's Department of Nutrition Science. "Our research findings support that people obtained more of the health-promoting carotenoids from raw vegetables when cooked whole eggs were also consumed. Eggs, a nutrient-rich food containing essential amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids and B vitamins, may be used to increase the nutritive value of vegetables, which are under consumed by the majority of people living in the United States." In the study, 16 participants consumed a raw mixed-vegetable salad with no eggs, a salad with one and a half eggs, and a salad with three eggs at different times. All salads were served with three grams of canola oil. The second salad had 75 grams of scrambled whole eggs and the third 150 grams of scrambled whole eggs. The absorption of carotenoids was 3.8-fold higher when the salad included three eggs compared to no eggs. The study used scrambled eggs to make sure the participants consumed both the yolk and egg whites. "While other egg forms were not tested, we believe the results would be comparable as long as the egg yolk is consumed," said Campbell, whose research also has looked at salads with different amounts of soybean oil, canola oil and butter. "The lipids in salad dressings also increase the absorption of carotenoids but it is easy to overuse salad dressings and consume excess calories. Many salad dressings contain about 140-160 calories per serving, about two tablespoons. One large whole egg is about 70 calories and provides 6 grams of protein. People are at a greater risk of putting too many calories on a salad because they don't always know proper portion sizes for salad dressings, but you do know the portion size of an egg." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Purdue University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: J. E. Kim, S. L. Gordon, M. G. Ferruzzi, W. W. Campbell. Effects of egg consumption on carotenoid absorption from co-consumed, raw vegetables. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2015; DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.115.111062

How 'perfect' materials begin to fail

 

The distribution of strengths observed at different temperatures. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Crystalline materials have atoms that are neatly lined up in a repeating pattern. When they break, that failure tends to start at a defect, or a place where the pattern is disrupted. But how do defect-free materials break? Until recently, the question was purely theoretical; making a defect-free material was impossible. Now that nanotechnological advances have made such materials a reality, however, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have shown how these defects first form on the road to failure. In a new study, published in Nature Materials, they stretched defect-free palladium nanowires, each a thousand times thinner than a human hair, under tightly controlled conditions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they found that the stretching force at which these wires failed was unpredictable, occurring in a range of values that were more strongly influenced by the ambient temperature than was previously believed. This thermal uncertainty in the failure limit suggests that the point where a failure-inducing defect first appears is on the nanowire's surface, where atoms behave in a more liquid-like way. Their increased mobility makes it more likely they will rearrange themselves into the beginnings of a "line defect," which cuts across the nanowire, causing it to break. The study was led by graduate student Lisa Chen and associate professor Daniel Gianola of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Other members of Gianola's lab, postdoctoral researcher Mo-Rigen He and graduate student Jungho Shin, contributed to the study. They collaborated with Gunther Richter of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. "Nanotechnology is not just about making things smaller," Chen said, "it's also about different properties that arise in materials at the nanoscale." "When you make these really small structures," Gianola said, "they're often grown from the bottom up, in an atom-by-atom, layer-by-layer process, and that can give you a much more pristine structure than if you were to take a big block of metal and whittle it down. In addition, the atoms on the surface comprise a much larger proportion of the total and can control the properties of the nanoscale material." The researchers grew palladium nanowires through a vapor deposition method at high temperature, which provided each atom with the time and energy to move around until it found its preferred spot in the metal's crystalline structure. Sprouting from a substrate like blades of grass, the team used a microscopic robotic manipulator to painstakingly pluck the wires and attach them to their testing platform inside an electron microscope. This platform, developed in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratory, functions like an industrial mechanical testing machine at the nanoscale. Welding a nanowire to a grip attached to a series of slanted bars that expand when heated by an electric current, the researchers could then stretch the nanowire in a controlled way. By repeatedly ramping up the voltage to a different maximum and bringing it down at the same rate, the researchers could pinpoint when the first irreversible deformation in the wire occurred. "Just pulling it until it fails doesn't tell you exactly where and how that failure began," Gianola said. "Our goal was to deduce the point where the first of the nanowire's atoms begin to shift out of their original positions and form a mobile defect." Computational studies suggested this point could be revealed by studying the temperature dependence of failure. Absent defect-free nanowires to run physical experiments upon, earlier theories and analyses suggested that the relationship between temperature and strength was deterministic; knowing the temperature would allow one to estimate a nanowire's failure limit. By conducting their stretching experiments at various temperatures, the researchers were able to chart these failure points. Surprisingly, they found the wires' strengths scattered over a range of values, even when stretched at the same temperature. "We've been able to verify," Chen said, "through experiment, and not just theory, that this process is thermally activated, and that there's a large randomness to the process. Normally you can say a bulk material has certain strength at a certain temperature, but you have to take a different approach to specify the strength of the nanowire. Depending on the temperature you're concerned with, even the distribution of strengths can vary drastically." That this distribution occurred over a relatively large range of values meant that the thermal activation barrier, the amount of energy necessary to jump-start the nucleation of the first defect, was relatively low. Comparing the size of this thermal activation barrier to other atomistic mechanisms gave the researchers some insight into what was driving this process. "Diffusion of atoms on a surface," Gianola said, "is the only mechanism that has this low thermal activation barrier. Surface diffusion is atoms hopping around, site to site, somewhat chaotically, almost like a fluid. A palladium atom sitting inside the bulk of the wire has 12 neighbors, and has to break most of those bonds to move around. But one on the surface might have only three or four to break." Understanding the origin of the distribution of strengths in nanostructures will allow for more rational design of devices. "Until recently," Gianola said, "it's been very difficult to make defect-free nanowires. But now that we can, there's a reason to care about how they fail. Their strengths are nearly a thousand times what you would get from the bulk material with defects -- in this experiment, we observed, to our knowledge, the highest strengths ever measured in that crystal structure of metal -- so they're going to be attractive to use in all sorts of devices." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by University of Pennsylvania. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Lisa Y. Chen, Mo-rigen He, Jungho Shin, Gunther Richter, Daniel S. Gianola. Measuring surface dislocation nucleation in defect-scarce nanostructures. Nature Materials, 2015; DOI: 10.1038/nmat4288

Clean streets: Innovative hybrid-electric powertrain for road sweepers

 

The natural  gas-electric hybrid project vehicle, for which Empa, the ETH Zürich University and the road sweeper manufacturer Bucher Municipal developed a pioneering electric hybrid drive in a joint CTI project. Credit: Image courtesy of Empa Sweepers keep our pavements, paths and roads clean. For this purpose they are equipped with a powertrain for moving the vehicle, a blower for sucking up the dirt and debris and brushes for cleaning the ground. The energy for the operation of all the components is currently provided by a diesel engine; a sophisticated hydraulic distribution system guides the relevant share of the energy to the various components. Such vehicles have long operating times of six to eight hours per day. With a consumption of more than five litres of diesel per hour, the annual consumption per vehicle amounts to around 10,000 litres. This is about ten times more than the typical consumption of a passenger car. A German study has estimated that the contribution of such working vehicles, e.g. road sweepers, municipal vehicles, dustbin lorries, etc., to the energy consumption of all road traffic is as high as 15 percent, despite the actual number of such vehicles being relatively small. Natural gas and electricity instead of diesel and hydraulics Bucher Municipal is based in Niederweningen in Switzerland and is the European market leader in compact sweeping vehicles. Empa and ETH Zürich carry out research on future powertrain technologies. As part of a project supported by CTI, Commission for Technology and Innovation, the partners have developed an innovative powertrain for road sweepers. The project goals were ambitious: the energy consumption compared with today's diesel vehicles was to be reduced by 45 percent and the total costs of the vehicle (purchase, interest, operating costs) were not allowed to exceed the costs of the current technology. To achieve this, the researchers and engineers have replaced today's conventional hydraulic power distribution with more efficient electric drive systems. Instead of a diesel engine with a hydraulic pump, a small gas engine with a power generator now acts as the drive source. In addition, a modern energy management system controls the interaction between the components. The results are now available: compared to a conventional diesel-powered road sweeper, the electric hybrid sweeper driven by natural gas consumes less than half as much energy during the standard cycle for sweeping vehicles. Thanks to the lower carbon content in natural gas, the CO2 emissions have decreased by as much as 60 percent, and with biogas blending this effect is even higher. The significantly lower consumption, in combination with lower fuel prices for natural gas, result in a significant reduction in operating costs, which more than compensates for the higher initial purchasing cost. Implementation project in the pipeline The hybrid drive system has a modular design. This means that a petrol, liquefied petroleum gas or diesel engine could be installed instead of a natural gas engine. If a hydrogen-powered fuel cell or a significantly larger battery is used instead of an internal combustion engine with power generator, purely electrical operation would also be possible. This modular drive concept will allow Bucher Municipal to cater for a wide range of different customer needs in the future. The management of Bucher Municipal is therefore planning to further develop the electric hybrid drive's modular platform and has already launched an internal concept study to this end. In this context, further work on reducing costs, optimising operation and packaging must be carried out in the areas of the power battery, the onboard power generator and the overall vehicle. In parallel to this, the production processes in Niederweningen will be analysed with regard to vehicle electrification. The aim is to bring an innovative sweeping machine onto the market in the foreseeable future. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Empa. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Tin follows zinc: Stretchable ceramics made by flame technology

 

Yogendra Kumar Mishra presents the stretchable ceramic made from tin oxide. Credit: Photo/Copyright: Claudia Eulitz, CAU Synthesizing nanoscale materials takes place within high-tech laboratories, where scientists in full-body suits keep every grain of dust away from their sensitive innovations. However, scientists at Kiel University proved that this is not always necessary. They have successfully been able to transfer the experience from furnace to laboratory while synthesizing nanoscale materials using simple and highly efficient flame technology. This "baking" of nanostructures has already been a great success using zinc oxide. The recent findings concentrate on tin oxide, which opens up a wide field of possible new applications. The material scientists published their latest research data in the scientific journal Advanced Electronic Materials. Metal oxides in bulk form are generally brittle, which limits their desired utilizations. Their one-dimensional (1D) structures, such as belt-like nanostructures, exhibit much more application potential because of their high surface to volume ratio. This ratio induces extraordinary physical and chemical properties, including a high degree of bendability. "However, 1D nanostructures are still difficult to use, because integrating them in real devices is a challenging task. To overcome this issue, we have developed three-dimensional (3D) macroscopic material from 1D tin oxide belt-like nanostructures. The resulting ceramic networks exhibit most of the nanoscale properties, including flexibility. It can therefore be freely utilized for any desired application. We are very pleased that our recently introduced flame transport synthesis method on the basis of zinc oxide now enables the simple synthesis of interconnected 3D networks from tin oxide," says Dr Yogendra Kumar Mishra, group leader of the working group "Functional Nanomaterials" at Kiel University, and main author of the study. "The fascinating part is the structure of the single belt-like nanostructures delivered by this synthesis on the basis of tin oxide crystal structure. In contrast to ceramic produced with zinc oxide, which leads to very short tetrapod structures, tin oxide gives long, flat structures. They are just like fettucine," compares Professor Rainer Adelung, Chairperson of the Functional Nanomaterials group. "And these long flat noodles grow together in a very specific way: In the oven used for the synthesis, temperatures stay just below the melting point of tin oxide. Thus, the noodles find specific interconnection points by kinetics instead of thermodynamics. Each junction is forced into a well-defined angle following strict geometric principles, which are based on so-called twinning defects, as further confirmed by simulation studies," adds Professor Lorenz Kienle, Chairperson of the Synthesis and Real Structure group. The structural design of the tin oxide 3D network, meaning the grown-together noodles, was investigated in detail using transmission electron microscopy. "The 3D networks from tin oxide exhibit interesting features, such as electrically conducting, high temperature stable, very soft and stretchable architecture, and could thus be interesting for several technological applications," says Dr Mishra. For example, a portable electronic sensing device has already been fabricated. And, according to Mishra, it demonstrates significant potential for UV light or gas sensing applications. "Until now, we have tested sensing applications. Further potential applications could also be flexible and stretchable electronic devices, luminescent actuators, batteries, smart cloths or sacrificial templates for the growth of new materials." This work has been performed in co-operation with Professor Ion Tiginyanu and his team members from the Technical University of Moldova, Moldova. The three Kiel scientists know: "Development of such 3D network materials from tin oxide, with geometry determining defects made by flame transport synthesis at Kiel University is a very interesting step forward into the future of nanostructure growth and applications." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Christian-Albrechts-Universitaet zu Kiel. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Ingo Paulowicz, Viktor Hrkac, Sören Kaps, Vasilii Cretu, Oleg Lupan, Tudor Braniste, Viola Duppel, Ion Tiginyanu, Lorenz Kienle, Rainer Adelung, Yogendra Kumar Mishra. Three dimensional SnO2 nanowire networks for multifunctional applications: From high temperature stretchable ceramics to ultraresponsive sensors. Advanced Electronic Materials, June 2015 DOI: 10.1002/ aelm.201500081

Photo Essay : Stunning Seaside Towns on Italy’s Mediterranean

When I think of the tiny towns nestled along Italy’s Mediterranean coast, I think of the multi-hued sherbet cubes tucked into cliffsides, varying shades of aquamarine water with colorful boats bobbing up and down, gray pebbly beaches with lounge chairs and colorful umbrellas, steep craggy coastlines that abruptly drop into the forcefully churning surf and ports where fishmongers row in their catch of the day. And though many of them possess these same characteristics, each one has its own history, charm, and reasons to visit.  Enjoy this photo essay of some of the best seaside towns along the Mediterranean in Italy. Sanremo Sanremo is one of the westernmost town, so very close to the French border.  It’s home to a casino, palm trees and a luxurious looking Marina! Genoa Genoa is one of the largest cities on the Northern Italy Coast.  It’s a large industrial port city and actually was Italy’s first. Lerici Lerici is in the province of Liguria.  It’s considered part of the Italian Riviera. And in case you can’t tell from the photo…it’s a port town. Manarola Cinque Terre means five towns. It is literally made up of five tiny villages, all connected by ancient paths.  This photo is of Manarola, one of the most recognizable in the Cinque Terre. Portofino Another hugely popular town on the Italian Riviera is Portofino.  The small fishing village was supposedly discovered by Romans and named for dolphins.  The stunning half-moon shape of the harbor is best viewed from above, as in this photo. Livorno Livorno is an ancient tangle of canals and walls.  It’s also known as Leghorn, and there is a breed of chicken named after the city.  Rumor has it that it’s how Foghorn Leghorn got his name. Monterosso al Mare Another tiny town included in the Cinque Terre.  I love how the little beach is anchored on either side by the huge rocks.  And check out the walkway just clinging to that cliff face on the right. Vernazza This unique town of the Cinque Terre wraps completely around the coast, offering spectacular views. The Doria Castle, which was erected to protect against pirates and the church’s octagonal bell tower are two notable sights. Camogli amogli, which means houses close together in Italian, is a tiny fishing village on the coast.  If this picture is any indication, it looks adorable. Riomaggiore The southernmost town in the Cinque Terre group.  It sits on the Gulf of Genoa and is known for its wine and aquariums. Portovenere This tiny fishing village is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Its name is said to come from a temple to the goddess Venus. I know I’d feel like a goddess if I spent any time there. Piombino Piombino is an ancient Etruscan port.  The area attracts snorkelers and divers from all over the world.  There is also a Marine Biology Center and aquarium. Nettuno Nettuno, named for the Roman god Neptune, is located in the Lazio region.  It’s a popular spot for sunbathers since it’s a stop on the local train out of Rome. Gaeta Gaeta has had a turbulent history, but is currently an important seaport for both fishing and oil.  You can also get tiella here, which is a unique combination of a pizza and calzone. I can imagine eating one on that stretch of golden sand. Sorrento Sorrento is a tourist destination in the Campania region, which overlooks the beautiful Bay of Naples.  Other than delicious views and luxury resorts, Sorrento is known for its Limoncello.  How ’bout a chilled sip while drooling over this view? Positano Made famous by the scenes shot here in Under the Tuscan Sun, this gem had been frequented by celebs long before that. Located on the Amalfi coast,  Positano was a medieval port and boasts two separate beaches- both equally beautiful. Atrani Atrani, located a few minutes drive from Amalfi, is one of the most romantic towns of them all.  The location is stunning,even dramatic, and looking at this photo it’s clear why.   Their abundance of fish is evident in the Sagre del Pesce Azzurro, the celebratory fish festival. Praiano Praiano, located between Positano and Amalfi, is home to the famed Grotto Esmerela, or Green Grotto.  Not quite as talked about as the famous Blue Grotto on Capri, but with views like this, how could it not be beautiful? Cetara Once used by pirates as a naval base and later destroyed by Turkish pirates in the 16th century, this tiny gem is known for its anchovy and tuna production.  Oh, and it looks dreamy at dusk, wouldn’t you agree? Tropea Tropea is situated on a reef in the toe of the boot, the Calabria region.  From the photo, we can tell it’s a favorite spot of beach-goers.  The people seem ant-like in relation to the giant sandstone cliffs. Amalfi Located at the mouth of a ravine called Monte Cerrato, Amalfi is certainly one of the most well-known towns.  An entire section of Italy’s southern coast is named after it.  Amalfi is home to a Duomo, campanile (bell tower) and hosts an ancient regatta once every four years. Note : Though many of these little villages are set in more specific areas of Italy’s coastline, such as the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Seas, I have grouped these bodies of water all together as part of the larger Mediterranean Sea for the pupose of this piece. Photo Credits : Mike Flemming / Perrimoon / Alex Scarcella / Rob Inh00d / Extravigator / Conormac / LeeMcarthur / Tylerc083 / RoSSella Rebonato / [MP] / Nick’s Pics /  Raffaelesergi1977 / Sunshinecity / Michaelwm25 / S J Pickney / Robin Locker / Allerina & Glen MacLarty / MHJohnston / Ale Bovini / Simo0082 / Paul and Jill   Traveling to Italy?  Click here to find out how I can help plan your trip!

Researchers design the most precise quantum thermometer to date

 

Researchers from the UAB and the University of Nottingham, in an article published in Physical Review Letters, have fixed the limits of thermometry, i.e., they have established the smallest possible fluctuation in temperature which can be measured. The researchers have studied the sensitivity of thermometers created with a handful of atoms, small enough to be capable of showing typical quantum-style behaviours. The researchers characterized these types of probes in detail, devices which could provide an estimation of the temperature with a never before seen precision. To do so, they combined thermodynamic tools with quantum metrology, which deals with ultra-precise measures in quantum systems. The physicists searched to find the maximum precision which could be achieved in a real situation, in which measuring time could be very brief given unavoidable experimental limitations. In the research, they also observed that these thermometers could maintain a constant sensitivity in a wide range of temperatures by sacrificing some of their precision. For the authors of the research, "finding a nanothermometer sensitive enough at this scale is a great step forward in the field of nanotechnology, with applications in biology, chemistry, physics and even in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Luis A. Correa, Mohammad Mehboudi, Gerardo Adesso, et al. Individual quantum probes for optimal thermometry. Physical Review Letters, June 2015 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.220405

Next-generation illumination using silicon quantum dot-based white-blue LED

 

Professor Ken-ichi Saitow, Natural Science Center for Basic Research and Development, Hiroshima University and Graduate student Yunzi Xin, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, have fabricated an Si QD hybrid LED. Credit: Natural Science Center for Basic Research and Development, Hiroshima University A Si quantum dot (QD)-based hybrid inorganic/organic light-emitting diode (LED) that exhibits white-blue electroluminescence has been fabricated by Professor Ken-ichi SAITOW (Natural Science Center for Basic Research and Development, Hiroshima University), Graduate student Yunzi XIN (Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University), and their collaborators. A hybrid LED is expected to be a next-generation illumination device for producing flexible lighting and display, and this is achieved for the Si QD-based white-blue LED. For details, refer to "White-blue electroluminescence from a Si quantum dot hybrid light-emitting diode," in Applied Physics Letters. The Si QD hybrid LED was developed using a simple method; almost all processes were solution-based and conducted at ambient temperature and pressure. Conductive polymer solutions and a colloidal Si QD solution were deposited on the glass substrate. The current and optical power densities of the LED are, respectively, 280 and 350 times greater than those reported previously for such a device at the same voltage (6 V). In addition, the active area of the LED is 4 mm2, which is 40 times larger than that of a typical commercial LED; the thickness of the LED is 0.5 mm. Professor Saitow stated, "QD LED has attracted significant attention as a next-generation LED. Although several breakthroughs will be required for achieving implementation, a QD-based hybrid LED allows us to give so fruitful feature that we cannot imagine." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Hiroshima University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Yunzi Xin, Kazuyuki Nishio, Ken-ichi Saitow. White-blue electroluminescence from a Si quantum dot hybrid light-emitting diode. Applied Physics Letters, 2015; 106 (20): 201102 DOI: 10.1063/1.4921415

Moving sector walls on the nano scale

 

Most magnetic materials have a structure that is somewhat more complicated than a commercially available domestic magnet: they not only have a north and south pole, but a variety of sectors, often only a few nanometres in size, in each of which the magnetic axis points in a different direction. These sectors are referred to as domains. Over the past few years, Manfred Fiebig, Professor for Multifunctional Ferroics at ETH Zurich, has been studying the walls between adjoining domains in certain materials. "The inner workings of a material and its domains are one area of interest," says Fiebig. "However, fascinating things also take place at the boundaries of these domains." In this work, Fiebig has devoted himself to a very special class of materials: oxides -- specifically those with multiferroic properties. These are crystalline materials that are magnetically ordered (i.e. they have a magnetic north and south pole), but at the same time also exhibit an electrical order (that is, the electric charge in the material is distributed so that in addition to the magnetic poles, there are also positive and negative electrical poles). "That fact that magnetic and electrical ordering occur alongside one another in multiferroic materials means that cross couplings are also possible; for example, the magnetic state can be changed using an electrical voltage," explains Fiebig. These properties make the materials interesting for many applications and are the main reason why they are being researched so intensively by the scientific community. Tiny capacitors Together with his fellow researchers, Fiebig has closely studied the domain boundaries in certain multiferroics and recently published two articles on the topic. Here, the scientists showed that the electrical conductivity of the domain walls differs from that of the material as a whole. In one material, strontium manganite, they showed that the domain walls suppress the flow of electric current. "A material with non-conductive walls in a conductive environment could be very useful in the field of electronics," says Fiebig. For example, it may be possible to produce electronic components in which the nanoscale domains act as tiny capacitors that could be electrically charged separately. "This could be used to create a new charge-based storage medium," says Fiebig. It would take only a voltage pulse to alter the charge in a domain, he adds; a current flow would not be necessary. A storage medium of this type would be more energy-efficient than those available today. In addition, as the data storage would not produce any waste heat that would then need to be dissipated, much smaller storage media could be built. The paper was co-authored by scientists from Fiebig's research group together with scientists from the group under ETH professor Nicola Spaldin and from the University of Zaragoza. Spaldin and her colleagues contributed the theoretical explanation of why the domain walls are not conductive in strontium manganite. Fiebig explains that as crystalline materials never have a perfect structure, individual oxygen atoms will be missing at certain points in the oxides' crystal lattice. The scientists have now been able to show that these 'oxygen vacancies' accumulate preferentially at the domain boundaries, where they block the flow of current. Manual change of conductivity In studies of a second multiferroic material, terbium manganite, scientists from Fiebig's group worked with colleagues from Japan to show that the domain boundaries could also be shifted using electrical fields under certain conditions. "This is an advantage over conventional semiconductor materials, which have a mature, fixed structure," says Fiebig. Furthermore, the researchers found conditions under which it was possible to change the magnetisation of the domains and the conductivity of the domain boundaries without changing the position of the boundaries. The prerequisite for these studies is a technique that makes the domains and their boundaries visible. This is currently possible only with a specific optical method known as second harmonic generation, where the material is irradiated with a very intense, pulsed laser beam in a specific colour. In response, the material emits light of a different colour, from which the scientists can obtain information on the magnetic and electrical structure of the material. Over the last few years, Fiebig has been the driving force behind the development of this optical method to study the internal order of materials. New technical possibilities The fact that it is now possible not only to see the domain walls in a multiferroic, but also to selectively shift them or alter their conductance paves the way for new technical possibilities. Although Fiebig makes clear that specific applications are still a long way off, the findings may in future be used not only in data storage, but also in sensors or complex electronic components. "If you can alter the conductance in a material, you have got a switch -- in our case, a switch that you can control without moving anything mechanically and which is therefore not subject to material fatigue," says Fiebig, who is now already thinking about the next step in development. At the moment, the magnetic state can be altered with an electric field. In future, he says, it may be possible to dispense with the electric field and switch the state entirely optically by using the intense light pulses not only to make the internal structure visible but also to simultaneously change it. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by ETH Zurich. The original article was written by Fabio Bergamin. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal References: M. Matsubara, S. Manz, M. Mochizuki, T. Kubacka, A. Iyama, N. Aliouane, T. Kimura, S. L. Johnson, D. Meier, M. Fiebig. Magnetoelectric domain control in multiferroic TbMnO3. Science, 2015; 348 (6239): 1112 DOI: 10.1126/science.1260561 Carsten Becher, Laura Maurel, Ulrich Aschauer, Martin Lilienblum, César Magén, Dennis Meier, Eric Langenberg, Morgan Trassin, Javier Blasco, Ingo P. Krug, Pedro A. Algarabel, Nicola A. Spaldin, José A. Pardo, Manfred Fiebig. Strain-induced coupling of electrical polarization and structural defects in SrMnO3 films. Nature Nanotechnology, 2015; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2015.108

Unlocking nanofibers’ potential

 

Fri, 06/05/2015 - 7:40am Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office A scanning electron micrograph of the new microfiber emitters, showing the arrays of rectangular columns etched into their sides. Courtesy of the researchersNanofibers have a huge range of potential applications, from solar cells to water filtration to fuel cells. But so far, their high cost of manufacture has relegated them to just a few niche industries. In Nanotechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers describe a new technique for producing nanofibers that increases the rate of production fourfold while reducing energy consumption by more than 90%, holding out the prospect of cheap, efficient nanofiber production. “We have demonstrated a systematic way to produce nanofibers through electrospinning that surpasses the state of the art,” says Luis Fernando Velásquez-García, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories, who led the new work. “But the way that it’s done opens a very interesting possibility. Our group and many other groups are working to push 3D printing further, to make it possible to print components that transduce, that actuate, that exchange energy between different domains, like solar to electrical or mechanical. We have something that naturally fits into that picture. We have an array of emitters that can be thought of as a dot-matrix printer, where you would be able to individually control each emitter to print deposits of nanofibers.” Tangled tale Nanofibers are useful for any application that benefits from a high ratio of surface area to volume—solar cells, for instance, which try to maximize exposure to sunlight, or fuel cell electrodes, which catalyze reactions at their surfaces. Nanofibers can also yield materials that are permeable only at very small scales, like water filters, or that are remarkably tough for their weight, like body armor. The standard technique for manufacturing nanofibers is called electrospinning, and it comes in two varieties. In the first, a polymer solution is pumped through a small nozzle, and then a strong electric field stretches it out.  The process is slow, however, and the number of nozzles per unit area is limited by the size of the pump hydraulics. The other approach is to apply a voltage between a rotating drum covered by metal cones and a collector electrode. The cones are dipped in a polymer solution, and the electric field causes the solution to travel to the top of the cones, where it’s emitted toward the electrode as a fiber. That approach is erratic, however, and produces fibers of uneven lengths; it also requires voltages as high as 100,000 V. Thinking small Velásquez-García and his co-authors—Philip Ponce de Leon, a former master’s student in mechanical engineering; Frances Hill, a former postdoc in Velásquez-García’s group who’s now at KLA-Tencor; and Eric Heubel, a current postdoc—adapt the second approach, but on a much smaller scale, using techniques common in the manufacture of microelectromechanical systems to produce dense arrays of tiny emitters. The emitters’ small size reduces the voltage necessary to drive them and allows more of them to be packed together, increasing production rate. At the same time, a nubbly texture etched into the emitters’ sides regulates the rate at which fluid flows toward their tips, yielding uniform fibers even at high manufacturing rates. “We did all kinds of experiments, and all of them show that the emission is uniform,” Velásquez-García says. To build their emitters, Velásquez-García and his colleagues use a technique called deep reactive-ion etching. On either face of a silicon wafer, they etch dense arrays of tiny rectangular columns—tens of micrometers across—which will regulate the flow of fluid up the sides of the emitters. Then they cut sawtooth patterns out of the wafer. The sawteeth are mounted vertically, and their bases are immersed in a solution of deionized water, ethanol, and a dissolved polymer. When an electrode is mounted opposite the sawteeth and a voltage applied between them, the water-ethanol mixture streams upward, dragging chains of polymer with it. The water and ethanol quickly dissolve, leaving a tangle of polymer filaments opposite each emitter, on the electrode. The researchers were able to pack 225 emitters, several millimeters long, on a square chip about 35 mm on a side. At the relatively low voltage of 8,000 V, that device yielded four times as much fiber per unit area as the best commercial electrospinning devices. Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

32 Legitimate Ways to Make Money at Home

 

Listen – we all know the internet is full of “make money at home” scams, so we’ve scoured through thousands of different ideas to find you 32 legitimate ones. These are all ideas that we’ve done before, so we know that they’re real and that you’ll get paid. Plus, I guarantee there are some in here that you’ve never heard of… 1. Change Search Engines If you spend a lot of time searching online, you might want to think about leaving Google/Yahoo and make Bing your default search engine. Why? Bing wants to pay you for your searches! You can earn credits through Bing Rewards every time you make a search — credits you can cash in for gift cards to a variety of stores like Amazon, Toys ‘r Us, and Starbucks. I usually only make an extra $5-$10/month, but it all adds up, right? 2. Watch YouTube-Like Videos The folks over at InboxDollars will actually pay you to watch videos! Now, most of them aren’t as entertaining as the Grumpy Cat series, but you’re getting paid – so who cares? This works because the videos are sponsored by brands who need to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Every time you watch one of their ads, they’ll credit your account with a little bit of cash. Here’s a link to signup. Melinda Seckington under Creative Commons 3. Rate Your Local Pizza Place Awww…yeah! Who wouldn’t want $5 and a free large pizza? One of the companies that pays me to conduct liquor audits is currently looking for folks to conduct a quick review of their local pizza shop. As part of the assignment you’ve got to time their delivery service and quality of pizza. It’s pretty easy to do and you can do it several times a year. Just fill out an application with Trendsource here and an Independent Contractor Agreement to get started. 4. Sell Your Junk Mail I don’t know about you, but I get a lot of junk mail. My email inbox and my mailbox are both full of crap from different cable providers, credit card offers, car insurance, etc. If you’ve ever wondered what you could do with all of that junk mail besides recycling it or sending it to your email’s trash folder, SBK Center has the answer. This market research company will happily accept your junk mail and email and, in return, give you Visa prepaid cards, which work just like debit cards. (The SBK website states that they pay you in gift cards, but I contacted SBK directly and they confirmed that they have switched to Visa prepaid cards. It’s a great move because it means you can spend your hard-earned cash anywhere that accepts debit cards.) Here’s more information on them. 5. Take an Online Survey or Two Most of you know that I practically despise survey companies because of their low payouts. But, I make an exception to my “no survey” rule when I’m watching TV. My calculus on this is that I’m not really doing anything anyway, so I might as well make a few extra bucks. I usually pocket an extra $50-$100/month with this method. Here are my favorites… Ipsos Panel SendEarnings (this one gives you $5 just to sign up) MySurvey Springboard Panel *I usually recommend you join at least two survey sites, so that you have more options to choose from. That way you’ll also be on their list when the high-paying surveys ($10+) come around. 6. Download These Apps There are a number of companies, including Google, that will pay you to install their app on your cell phone. And they’ll pay you for every month you keep them installed. The apps collect data from your cell phone and help companies better understand web and mobile usage better — such as what times of day people browse, how long they stay on websites and use apps, and what types of sites and apps are popular (or not). Here are my favorites (install all of them and earn $400/year or more): – Smart Panel – This can be downloaded for free on any smartphone. Once you’ve qualified and downloaded the app, they will give you $5. If you keep it installed for at least two weeks, you’ll earn another $10. And then for every month that you keep the Smart App installed, you’ll get another $5. - Nielsen Mobile Panel for iPhones – If you have an iPhone, the Nielsen company will pay you $50/year to download and keep their app on your cell phone. – Google Screenwise Panel – Google will give you $8 seven days after you sign up and you’ll get an additional $2 every week after that. The “cash” rewards come in the form of a gift card (you can pick between Walmart, Papa Johns, Barnes & Noble, and a bunch of others…) – MobileExpressions – this one can only be downloaded on Androids. After you’ve installed it for 1 week, you get to play an instant rewards game for a prize (everyone wins something). I won a $25 gift card to Amazon, but some of the other prizes include iPads & Samsung TVs. 7. Rent/Sell Your Clothes Online For some reason my closet is still holding on to the suit I wore to prom nearly 10 years ago. It’s never going to fit again, but some combination of laziness and sentiment has thus far kept it from landing on a Goodwill rack. If you’re like me and have a closet full of stuff you don’t wear, what would you think about renting or selling your clothes out to strangers? There are a few sites that make this possible including Tradesy, SnapGoods.com, Loanables.com, and RentNotBuy.com. Rubbermaid Products under Creative Commons 8. Open a Bank Account The folks over at Nationwide will give you $200 just to open a checking account. You don’t have to get rid of your current account either; consider this one a useful place to save money for your emergency fund, vacation, new car, etc. And the Nationwide checking account is pretty awesome. Their interest rate is 3x higher than what most banks will give you, plus you can use any ATM in the world for free (6x a month). Here’s the promo link. You’ll need to deposit $50 to get started and use the offer code 03110470 (you can withdraw your fifty bucks later) To get the $200 bonus, you’ll need to set up an automatic monthly direct deposit of at least $200 into your E-Checking account. Your monthly direct deposit of $200 must be received within 60 days of opening the account. The account must remain open for at least 90 days to receive the $200 bonus. The $200 bonus will be deposited into your new account within 2 weeks following the 90 day minimum requirement! 9. Fix Google’s Search Results I’ll make about $700 this month for cleaning up Google’s search engine. And Yahoo’s search engine. And Bing’s. And the best part? Most of it is done while sitting at home in my pajamas. What am I doing? Let me explain… Search engines use complicated algorithms to determine the results you see. For example, if you type “Steve Gillman” into a Google search box a half-million possibly-relevant web pages will be narrowed down using various criteria until a second later you see my smiling face. You’ll also see links to my personal website, my blog on the Huffington Post, and LinkedIn profiles for a bunch of guys who share my name. But the search engines don’t always get it right… They are full of errors, so they need real humans to look at the results and judge them for quality, relevancy, and usefulness. If you’re interested in this type of work, head over to this article to get more info on how to apply. 10. Become a Test Knitter The knitting scene has changed since the late 90s. It’s no longer a hobby dominated by grandmothers churning out Christmas sweaters for the whole family; knitting is cool again and many young people are picking up the needles. Lee Meredith of Leethalknits says that she finds most of her test knitters in her group on Ravelry, a site for connecting with fellow knitters and crocheters. Knitters can sign up for her master list of testers and be contacted when she has a new project. She gives her knitters the exact project requirements: the pattern, the size of knitting needles, yarn weight and amount, and any embellishments. As the testers knit, they leave her feedback in a shared Google document. Knitters who complete the project by the deadline and provide feedback and corrections on the pattern instructions get a finished copy of the pattern plus around $20 credit to her virtual store. Large or complex projects, or those with unusually tight deadlines, earn the knitter additional credit. Mackenzie under Creative Commons 11. Turn Your Grocery Receipts in For Rebates You don’t have to cut back at the grocery store if you know the right tricks. Have you heard of rebate apps? My favorite is the Ibotta app which works by giving you a cash rebate on your grocery store purchases if you take a picture of your receipt with your smartphone. Many of the rebates are for things like steak, ground beef, bread and eggs. Plus, you can shop at your normal grocery store. There’s no need to run clear across town to save money. Another good one is Checkout51. Download them both and sometimes you can get two rebates on the same item. 12. Get Paid to Lose Weight Let’s face – every year we all make the same New Year’s resolution to get in better shape. Well, this year you’ll have a little extra motivation if you’re getting paid for it. We’re fans of both HealthyWage and DietBet, two sites that will allow you to place a wager and earn cash when you successfully lose weight. And if you’re already in great shape, another great idea is to start a boot camp at your local park a couple of nights week. Start with just a few friends – these camps tend to grow pretty organically once people see a group of people working out. Most boot camps trainers can earn $100/hour or more. 13. Sell Your Old Books We’ve all got way too much extra junk just sitting around. Get rid of some of it and use the extra money for your Christmas shopping. You could of course have a garage sale or sell some stuff on Craigslist, but one of my favorite ways to get rid of stuff is to use the Bookscouter app. You scan your book’s barcode with your smartphone and Bookscouter will let you compare the payout of 20+ different buyback companies. Cool, right? Once you’ve found the buyback company offering the most cash, you just fill out a little information about where you want your payment sent and prepare the books to be shipped. Most of the buyback companies offer prepaid shipping labels too, so there aren’t any costs associated with this. 14. Earn Up to $25/Hour as a Transcriptionist Looking for a flexible job that allows you to work from home, requires little to no prior experience, and doesn’t involve making sales calls? Yes, this kind of work exists: You could become a transcriptionist. This job gives you the freedom to set your own hours and, in many cases, work as much or as little as you want each week. Here are a few companies that will hire you. But, fair warning: the work is quite repetitive. You will have to listen to the same audio over and over again in order to be sure you have transcribed it perfectly. If repetition drives you insane, transcription might not be the line of work for you. 15. Test Websites Like most of us, you’ve probably commented on how some websites are confusing and others excellent. Rather than complaining to your spouse or friend, how would you like to make those comments to the owners of the sites and get paid for playing critic? I do just that, and you can, too. In fact, you can make $30 per hour as a website tester. The company is called User Testing. Here’s what the process looks like: you’ll download some software and then when tasks are available, look over a website while your mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, and spoken comments are all recorded as a video. Afterward there might be a few questions to answer, but the whole process often takes 15 minutes or less. Cool, right? 16. Join an Online Focus Group Ever wonder how the products you see on grocery-store shelves wound up there? Or who thought those TV commercials were a good idea? Somewhere between the concept and the final edits, it’s likely that a focus group was involved. Focus groups vary in size and type, but most of them provide some sort of compensation — a check in the mail, a PayPal deposit or even a gift card. “The more formal the focus group, the more I expect to be paid,” says Sarah K., who’s participated in focus groups about bridal registries and sports nutrition products in the Los Angeles Area. For a longer session, she expects to make $100 to $200. “I’ll happily participate in a longer focus group if it pays well, is nearby and doesn’t conflict with any of my appointments,” she says. One of my favorites is ProOpinion which is a focus group for professionals. Click here to visit their site and fill out the short sign up form to get started. Here’s another great list of legitimate focus group companies. 17. Watch More Television Alright, just hear me out on this one. It’s definitely possible to get paid to watch TV… There’s a new company called “RewardTV” that pays you to answer trivia questions about last night’s TV shows. Do you know who they killed off on Game of Thrones last week? Tell them about it and they’ll pay you. Did you know which contestant got kicked off “The Voice” this week? They’ll pay you. You’re not going to get rich doing this, but it’s a fun way to make an extra $15-$20/month. Pretty cool, right? 18. Make an Extra $50/Week Working for Amazon Have you heard of Amazon Mechanical Turk? Unlike other online sites that look for contract help, the Amazon Mechanical Turk service offers easy to accomplish tasks that can be completed by almost anyone with a computer. From the articles and advice I’ve read from others completing tasks, the key seems to be just to jump in and quickly accept the next task you are qualified for. Don’t spend time hunting for the perfect task, just do them next, next, next, etc. While basic tasks may only pay $0.10 they are easy and quick to complete. It does not take long to complete a task in less than a minute so in an hour, with little experience, you can make $6 to $10 depending on how fast you are. Amazon Mechanical Turk is not a get rich quick scam or one of those make massive income in your spare time ripoffs. But, realistically you can make an extra $50 or so each month. 19. Tell This Company What’s in Your Fridge You’ve head of Nielsen, right? Yep, the same company that tracks TV ratings. They’ve got a new app that will pay you to scan the groceries in your fridge. Once you sign up to be on the Nielsen Consumer Panel, the company will send you a free scanner or you can use your smartphone. Every time you go shopping, you simply scan the barcodes on the back of each product and send your data off to NCP. If you want to give it a try, you can fill out the application here: Nielsen Consumer Panel Application As an active participant, you earn gift points which you can redeem for different types of merchandise. You can choose electronics, jewelry, household items, and even toys for the kids. The longer you stay on the panel, the more opportunity you have to earn points towards prizes. You also receive entries for the panel’s many sweepstakes. Prizes include money, vacations, and brand new vehicles. 20. Get Paid $50+ to Write an Article for These Sites If you like to write, we found a few blogs that will pay you to share your thoughts. And there’s no limit to the number of articles you can submit, so this really is a nice side gig… TheKrazyCouponLady.com – $50 This site accepts articles on a broad range of topics including style/fashion, couponing, family/parenting, and personal finance. The ladies guarantee that you’ll hear back from them within 7 days and will receive $50 via Paypal if they choose to publish your article. You can read all the details here Listverse.com – $100 Listverse publishes nothing but lists. Their posts are all long lists (usually beyond 1,500 words long) containing at least 10 items, with an explanation of why each item deserves its place on the list. Read more details here. ThePennyHoarder.com – $75 Got a crazy way to make/save extra money? We also pay our readers to submit articles and would love to have you contribute. Read all of our guidelines here. Photo by LaMenta3 21. Sell Your SmartPhone Photos If you have a smartphone and a photographic eye, making money may have just gotten a lot easier. Oh yeah – you’ll also need access to marketable scenery. There’s a new app called Foap that allows you to turn your smartphone photos into cash. Here’s how it works. You download the free app. You sign up for an account. You take a quality photo. You upload photo to Foap’s marketplace. Someone buys the license to your photo for $10. You make $5. If your photo sells twenty times, you make $5 each time and end up with $100 in your pocket, all for about 5 minutes of work. Pretty cool, right? 22. Fix Apple iPhones from Your Couch Dreaming of working from home during your terrible commute each day? Here’s a cool opportunity to work from home for a company you probably already love: Apple. That’s right: You could be the next Apple At Home Advisor — an official Apple employee who offers virtual support for the company’s popular products, including iPhones, iPads and MacBooks, through the customer service program AppleCare. If you’re looking for more flexibility and the ability to work from home, this could be your chance to make that dream a reality! You don’t need to live in a specific city to be considered for the job, though Apple is advertising through listings on job boards throughout the U.S. Instead, the company is looking for people with technical expertise who can work from home to get the job done to their standards. Interested in applying? Check out the job listing here. Photo by William Hook 23. Sign Up for Free Gift Card Promotions Believe it or not, there are sites that will give you free gift cards just for signing up with them. One of my favorites is Ebates, the cash-back shopping site. They’re giving away $10 gift cards if you sign-up as a new member and earn your first cashback rebate. You can choose either a $10 Target, Walmart, Macy’s, or Kohl’s gift card. You do have to wait 30 days. But, it’s free money so can you really complain? 24. Become a Teacher on Udemy & Google Hangouts When you think about getting paid to teach what you know, what comes to mind? Putting up a poster in a local coffee shop and hoping for the best? Posting an ad on Craigslist? Lucky for us, we’re no longer limited to our local area when it comes to getting paid to teach our skills. Thanks to online learning platforms like Google Helpouts and Udemy, anyone, anywhere, can teach anything. If you think you don’t have any skills to teach, think again. Most of us are experts at something, whether it’s putting on makeup, baking brownies, or even making balloon animals! Drawing a blank on what you could teach or help others with? Here are some ideas: Music lessons Photography lessons Web programming lessons or services Computer repair lessons or services Social media consulting Cooking or baking lessons Fitness instruction Nutrition consultations Academic tutoring Life coaching Style consultations Beauty consultations Gardening help You get to set the rate for your lessons (most go for between $25-$50). And some people have been really successful at this – we just found a guy that’s made $500,000 selling his courses on Udemy. Update 3/24/15: Unfortunately, Google just announced that “Helpouts” will be closing down on April 20, 2015. 25. Sell Your Crafts on Etsy Just because you don’t have a dedicated crafts room like Martha Stewart or Rosie O’Donnell doesn’t mean you can’t become a successful entrepreneur by selling your crafts online. In the past crafters have had to slug it out at craft fairs and farmer’s markets, often meaning long hours and little profit. All of that has changed in the last few years as a number of online marketplaces, like Etsy, have opened that allow amateur crafters a forum to sell their goods. In fact, we recently found a mom that’s earning $70,000/month on Etsy! Click here to read her story. 26. Sell Your Trash Americans throw away approximately 266 million tons of trash every year and it turns out we might as well be throwing away cash!  There’s a reason dumpster diving has become so popular in recent years and that’s because things that you think are worth nothing often have value. Anything from your empty wine bottles to old magazines can be sold online. Here’s a full list of the things in your trash that might be worth cash. 27. Sell Your Skills for $5 on Fiverr Earning five bucks at a time may not sound like much, but those little sales can add up to thousands of dollars. That’s the idea behind Fiverr.com, an online platform where users sell their products and services for $5 each. Fiverr says users create 4,000 new listings, or “gigs,” every day. Gigs range from the standard data entry and research tasks to the truly out-there. For example, as I write this, sellers in the “Fun and Bizarre” section are offering: A piece of rare metal that will melt in your hand A prank phone call to anyone you choose Three balloons released into the sky with your message in them Your name written on two grains of rice A photo of you on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine A video of a woman pretending to be “crazy in love with you” — which has 253 buyers and a 98% positive ratingso far You can seriously sell almost anything on Fiverr. Here are some more ideas. 28. Earn $100 By Helping a Company Name Themselves Professional branders aren’t going anywhere, but for small businesses that can’t afford the million dollar price tag, there is a new trend called crowdsourcing that allows businesses to outsource the creative process to people like you and I through “naming contests.” There are hundreds of naming contests on websites like NamingForce.com and SquadHelp.com. The way it works is that nameless businesses list a little information about their company and a prize amount for the person who can come up with the best name. The rewards are anywhere from $50-$500, with the average amount around $100. For example, one company on SquadHelp lists that they are a company that buys used video games and that they will pay $80 to the person who can come up with the best name. A few of the submissions so far are “Cash 2 Gamers” and “Game Epix.” Think you can do better? Give it a try here. 29. Let Someone Borrow Your House/Apartment for the Night I’ve used Airbnb to both rent out my apartment and stay in many others while traveling, and it’s a fantastic way to put your home to work for you. However, taking a few simple steps can make the difference between a great experience and a less-than-satisfactory one. Whether you’re renting out a single room or your entire home, make the most of your Airbnb rental by following these tips. If you do it well, you could add hundreds or even thousands of dollars to your savings account. Nicholas Wang/Flickr 30. Become an Online Tutor Education is one of the world’s leading industries and by the year 2017 the private tutoring market alone is expected to top $100 billion. Have you ever considered becoming an online tutor to make extra money?  Well, if you haven’t, you most certainly should.  You can make some serious coin by answering student’s questions, explaining your notes, and uploading tutorials.  That’s right, by sharing your knowledge, you can be rewarded handsomely. Try marketing your services on a site like AceYourCollegeClasses.com where some of the top tutors have earned more than $10,000. 31. Become a Dog Masseuse We’ve talked before about ways to get paid to spend time with cats and dogs, but this is a new one: pet massage. That’s right: some people earn money for massaging animals. It might sound a little strange, but apparently many cats and dogs enjoy a good massage as much as humans do. If you like petting your furry friends, why not explore this option? With a bit of training you can make $50 per hour as a pet massage therapist. Here’s how to get started. Jelly Dude under Creative Commons 32. Write Slogans for Major Companies Can you sum up a product in a sentence? Think of something funny — and not another joke about too many candles — to put on a birthday card? Make a point in few concise words? If so, you might be able to make money writing slogans. Companies sometimes need new corporate taglines, advertising slogans and jingles. Bumper sticker and greeting card makers want cute, endearing or funny thoughts to put on their products. When these businesses need help, they sometimes collect submissions from freelance writers or run contests that anyone can enter — including you! Try one or more of these platforms to get started: Slogan Slingers helps companies create slogan contests in which their registered writers compete. It’s free to sign up as a writer, and the company claims you can “make up to $999 per contest (minus our small admin fee).” Get a Slogan is a “crowd-sourcing platform that brings in custom, creative and catchy slogans from a variety of sloganeers.” Companies come to them for help, and writers submit their ideas. It’s free to sign up, but you initially have only “qualifying” status. Once you obtain “qualified” status, you’ll receive $50 for each of your winning slogans. Freelancer.com has a section devoted to slogan-writing projects, which are sometimes run as contests. For example, at the moment a personal injury law firm is offering $150 for the best “unique and memorable tagline/slogan.” Your Turn: Would you try any of these methods to make extra money at home?