Today's Interesting Engineering

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

BMW is developing new racing wheelchair for the 2016 Paralympics

BMW of North America announced that it is developing a new racing wheelchair for the U.S. Paralympics Track and Field Team. And the model will debut in Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. According to the vehicle manufacturer, this is the fourth project developed for the American team and is part of their six-year partnership.

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[Image: BMW]​

“Over the course of our partnership with Team USA, we have been committed to advancing athletic performance through technology transfer initiatives which help to address their training and equipment needs,” says BMW’s Trudy Hardy in a press release.“This one is special not only because it presents a unique design challenge, but it helps solve a bigger mobility challenge for our Paralympic athletes.”

The BMW recruited designers from Designworks, their creative consultancy located in California, to work along with the US team members to identify what needs to be improved in the current equipment. While not giving many details about the wheelchair they are developing, which appears only in a conceptual design, the brand has already said that the chassis has been redesigned, aerodynamic improvements have been made, and the steering control and the brakes have also been improved.

The new chair model should be delivered to the athletes at the beginning of next year, said BMW.

Source: PR Newswire

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Wildfire Tech

As climate change charges forth in the 21st century, it’s apparent that many places are due to become hotter and drier. Studies show this to be the case in North America, Europe, and Australia, among others. One thing that all those places share is many, many years of rigorous fire protection and prevention practices in forests and wildlands. The problem with this becomes readily apparent when one considers the Fire Triangle, a staple of fire suppression education – That’s Oxygen, Fuel, and an Ignition source – The three things required for fire to thrive; and wildfires are definitely thriving these days – That’s where wildfire tech comes in.


Those decades of stringent fire suppression have brought to light a couple of very serious problems. First, fuel loading has increased radically; this is a measure of fuel volume, recorded as tons per acre when fire suppression plans are being formulated. The higher the fuel loading figure, the hotter a potential fire will burn. In areas where fire has been suppressed long term, fuel loading figures are alarmingly high. Secondly, fuel moisture comes in to play; even heavy fuel loads can be overcome from a suppression standpoint, if fuel moisture is relatively high. With temperatures on the rise and drought conditions ever widening, fuel moistures are in fact, at an all time low in far too many places.



These things spell trouble for the troops on the ground, for they are, in the end run, what’s required to fight most wildland fires. While there are retardant bombers, water dropping helicopters, and heavy equipment tasked to cut fire line, the bulk of suppression work still falls squarely on the shoulders of the men and woman armed with Pulaski, shovel, McLeod, and chain saw. They are the ones who dig the fire lines, mop up hot spots, and assess the status of a fire as it progresses. In the very real sense of the word, their lives depend on effective, coordinated firefighting strategy, and that demands timely, accurate information about what a fire is doing.



Fires born under the conditions outlined above are not like they were in the good old days of wildland Fire suppression; extremely heavy fuel loads and unprecedented low fuel moisture, coupled with hot dry conditions leads to extremes, massive fires that generate their own weather and grow exponentially with incredible violence – wrap your head around 1000 acres, 400 hectares of heavily forested land – Now envision that going up in flames literally as fast as you can light a whole box of matches on fire, and you have some idea of the volatility. Under such conditions, old or erroneous data about fire and weather behavior means the people the ground are at grave risk. Thankfully, this aspect of fire suppression technology is exactly where recent advances have stepped in to offer some timely updates.


In the U.S., the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USFS) is the primary agency involved in wildland fire suppression, planning, and management. Recently, the USFS has partnered with NASA, employing data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite; that data is coupled with cutting-edge computer modeling to provide state of the art fire behavior prediction. Predicting fire and localized weather has been a challenge since organized wildland firefighting came into being. Computer modeling has improved notably, but it’s still a fundamental challenge. UC Berkeley fire behavior researcher Max Moritz explains that “Computationally, it’s a pretty complex and intensive problem. This is basically like fluid dynamics. You have a wind stream going across topography in three dimensions.” Vastly improved modeling, such as that coupled with high resolution Suomi imagery, has allowed quite accurate modeling to a scale never before achieved, as small as several hundred meters on a side.

The U.S. National Interagency Fire Center has also launched the Wildland Fire Decision Support System, an online system that blends real time data with fire behavior models and weather forecasts to provide fire command staff in the field with the information they need to safely and effectively fight fire.

While all of these tools are a great help to a very tough job, the fact remains that the intensity and breadth of wildfire these days is a direct result of decades of over protection. Fire is a natural occurring phenomenon, and in many instances, a necessary part of a given environment. As UC Davis researcher Moritz aptly notes, “We don’t fight earthquakes and floods — we coexist with them. We need to learn to do the same with wildfires.”

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

EPA Causes Animas River Spill

Rivers have been the cradle of civilization since humans first began to congregate. They quickly became centers of industry as well, and remain so to this day. Be it the Rhine, Mississippi, Tigris, or Indus, rivers have been the highways and the dumping grounds of human society for centuries. While cleaning up our past transgressions has become more of a focus in the last few decades, industrial spills and discharges are still far too common. In many incidents of river pollution incidents, the culprit has, more often than not, been mining operations. Waste materials, from coal ash to copper, arsenic, zinc, and cadmium have been dumped into our rivers, and this is especially true in the western United States. Naturally, the responsible parties are usually the mining companies themselves, but the circumstances that lead to a spill into the Animas River last week differs in one very fundamental way; this one was caused by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – The governmental body responsible for catching polluters and repairing damage.
The Gold King Mine, located near Silverston, Colorado, opened in the 1880’s, and ran, with several temporary closures, right into the late 20th Century. $150,000,000 in gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc were removed from the mine complex over the years. Most of the precious and salable industrial metals mined here came from relatively low yield ore, which prompted the use of cyanidation as the primary extraction method; that process is an industry standard for removing gold, silver, copper, and zinc from bearing ore.


Ore is ground fine, then water is added to create a slurry. Sodium, potassium, or calcium cyanide is added, followed by lime or soda, used to discourage the formation of hydrogen cyanide. Further processing steps are then employed to remove the desired metals from the cyanide slurry. The waste water left behind by the process is highly toxic. In many places in the world, no remediation is undertaken to reduce that hazard, and even if it is, the waste water remains toxic to fish and humans. In addition to cyanide, the waste ponds from the Gold King held a million gallons of waste, laced with high concentrations of lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and aluminum. That made the Gold King a SuperFund site, hence the EPA’s presence: Superfund is the EPA program established in the 1970’s to address severe environmental hazards at abandoned sites.


On August 5th, an EPA crew was investigating the spilling of various pollutants into a creek from those Gold King holding ponds. That creek feeds into the Animas River, which in turn flows into the San Juan River, and eventually into the Colorado itself. The holding ponds held roughly one million gallons of highly polluted waste water and sludge. The EPA crew was reportedly using heavy equipment to search for the leak when they “hit a spot” on the primary containment dam, which then catastrophically failed, dumping the contents of the holding ponds into the nearby creek and then the Animas River. The River immediately turned a sickly orange color, one that reflects that of cyanide waste water and leach fields.


The full scope of the danger to people and the environment remains unknown at this point. The EPA says they are testing the river and local wells for contamination, but they have yet to report exactly what those pollutants are, let alone the concentrations thereof. So far, all they’ve revealed is “elevated levels of dissolved metals” in the Animas, which is hardly revealing. Regional EPA Administrator Shaun McGrath noted, “I can assure you we are moving the lab analysis as quickly as we can.”

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of this incident is the apparent cluelessness of the agency responsible. At a public meeting held to discuss and explain the spill, McGrath was asked, simply, what had happened. His response was as follows; “In doing our work up there, we hit a spot where water started coming out that we hadn’t expected. We come to find out there was quite a bit more mine waste water up there than we had expected, for sure. In fact the dam that had been holding that water back was just soils and loose materials instead of solid rocks.”

Frankly, that kind of ignorance of the facts, that lack of attention to the details when dealing with a Superfund site is more than alarming. To have brought in heavy equipment and started poking around to a degree sufficient to have caused this accident is almost unimaginable, except that it happened; that is, in fact, damn near criminal.

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Punt Gun Met Large Demand For Birds In 1800’s

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[Image courtesy of Rare Historical Pics]​

Due to changes in refrigeration and the increase in population of the industrial boom, there was a need to provide more food to the greater population it could reach. With a high demand for food and the use of feathers in expensive women’s clothing, hunters looked for alternative methods for hunting wild fowl. This led to the creation of the Punt Gun.

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[Image courtesy of Wonderful Engineering]​

The gun was a large shotgun that had the ability to shoot over one pound of shot at a time. Most punt guns also came with a bore of 2 inches. This would vary with each gun being a custom make. This also made the guns expensive. The punt gun had the ability to shoot a large amount of waterfowl at once and the record for once shot was as many as 90 birds. On average the gun could shoot over 50 waterfowl on the surface of different water beds. While impressive, the gun came with a price. The recoil on the gun left it only usable on an attached punt boat. This would result in the naming of the large gun after the boat it was attached to while in use. The gun would move the boat backwards several inches after a shot due to the amount fired. By the 1860’s most states had banned the gun with the amount of water fowl killed. The Lacey Act of 1900 also prohibited the transport of wild game across state lines and the practice of market hunting was outlawed by a series of federal laws by 1918.



Sources:

1: Rare Historical Pics – A Punt Gun, used for duck hunting but were banned because they depleted stocks of wild fowl

2: Wild Fowling – Introduction to Punt Gunning

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Walk or ‘Walk Car’?


IMAGE COURTESY OF COCOA MOTORS


Just as the segways were making a mark into ones daily life. a Japanese firm named Cocoa motors injects a sweet and sleek stand and ride device which they call the ‘Walk car’. The ‘Walk car’ is a lithium battery-powered transporter which is a laptop-sized personal vehicle that weighs less than seven pounds and can be carried around anywhere easily and thus is described as a ‘car in a bag’.


This feat was achieved by 26-year-old Japanese engineer Kuniako Saito and his team at Cocoa motors. Saito said his studies in electric car motor control systems sparked the idea for the new kind of ride. “I thought, ‘what if we could just carry our transportation in our bags, wouldn’t that mean we’d always have our transportation with us to ride on?’ and my friend asked me to make one, since I was doing my masters in engineering specifically on electric car motor control systems,” is what Saito said to the Reuters.


COURTESY OF COCOA MOTORS


The slender ‘Walk Car’ is made from aluminum and is rated to take loads up to 120 kilograms easily. It is being sold in two customizations, the first one being the indoor which weighs about two kilograms or 4.4 pounds and the rugged outdoor edition which is a kilogram heavier than its sibling weighting about 6.6 pounds. Speaking about the performance, it reaches top speeds of 10 km/h (6.2 miles per hour), for distances of up to 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) after three hours of charging.

The developer also said that the gizmo is really simple and easy to use. Once the rider stands on it the Walk Car starts automatically, while simply stepping off stops the vehicle. The direction can be easily changed by shifting the body weight on the board. And the best of all pros is that this thing doesn’t require a parking space since it can be carried in a bag effortlessly almost everywhere.

Saito says customers will be able to reserve their own WalkCars from autumn 2015 on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. The futuristic skateboard will have a price-tag of around 100,000 Japanese Yen (about US$800) and shipping is expected to begin by spring 2016.

Saito claims that he is pretty much confident that WalkCar goes beyond bulkier devices such as the Segway or Toyota’s Winglet. Though this not-so-car-like-looking so called ‘car’ is only meant for shorter distance commuting on decent terrains and speeds that could soon tire your legs, Saito might have just given birth to a new style of personal transport system. Would you be the one to add this to your cart?

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Esbee Cables – Thunderclap & Kickstarter


We reviewed the start up of Esbee Cables, what can arguably be called the first Super Cable, recently here on I.E., The Go Live for Esbee’s Kickstarter Campaign begins on August 11th, and you can find that right here. In order to make that effort all it can be, Esbee is turning to Thunderclap to help get the message out.


If you’re not familiar with Thundeclap, check it out – Not only can you help Esbee, (And yourself – More on that in a moment), you may find Thunderclap a cable tool as well. Thunderclap is “the first crowd-speaking platform that helps people be heard by saying something together.” In essence, it’s a kickstart for any kind of a campaign wherein getting the word out is key to success, (and what campaign isn’t, these days?). Thunderclap harnesses and magnifies the power of social media to generate an overall larger impact. Users, Esbee in this instance, sets a goal of so many supporters that they expect to harness, each of whom will spread the Esbee word via social media – Facebook, Twitter, Tumbr – and by so doing, reach for more folks with the message than Esbee would alone. If Esbee reaches their goal, Thunderclap doubles their efforts by “blasting out a timed Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr post from all your supporters, creating a wave of attention.”

The Esbee Thunderclap campaign is, of course, designed to alert and drive folks to their Kickstarter campaign; that goal is 250 supporters, and they’re already more than halfway there. That said, there’s still room for more, and to sweeten the pot, Esbee has a little something for fifty lucky folks – As Esbee C.E.O. Moazzam Khan notes, “to get more people to our Thunderclap page, we are promising 50 free Esbee Cables as an initiative for people to pledge support.” And there you have it – Help spread the word about the last data/charging cable you may ever need to buy, and you’ve got a great shot at snagging a free Esbee cable. At the time of this article, you’ve got something less than 24 hours to get onboard, so time truly is of the essence.


If you missed our original piece on the Esbee Super Cable, here’s a review of the basics:

• Four cores of wires. Two for current and two for data.
• Tin plated copper wires – 10 times more durable than regular copper.
• 18 braided meshes as opposed to the standard 8 braids.
• Five layers of insulation. Normally cables come with 2-3 layers.
• Environmental friendly Halogen Free TPE. Regular cables are made from PVC.
• Classic natural hide leather or vibrant suede leather carefully hand-stitched around the cable – giving the cable extreme durability and soft stylish look.
• Brass buckle for neat closure and portability.

Again, the Esbee Cables Kickstarter campaign launches on Tuesday, August 11th. A $25 pledge to that campaign will also snag you one of these beauties, too, so head over there and get on board!

Check out the Esbee Cables webpage, Twitter feed, and the Esbee Facebook page for more updates.



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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

The Scrubba travel daypack is also a washing machine!

Travelers, especially backpackers, must always be careful in choosing which clothes will be essential during their journey, considering the space in their packs are usually quite limited and that they need to laundry often. But this laundry issue may be close to an end with the Scrubba backpack, claiming to be “the lightest and most compact ‘washing machine’ in the world,” allowing you to easily wash your clothes wherever you are.


The invention was created by the Australian Ashley Newland, who was packing for a climbing trip to Kilimanjaro and was faced with the dilemma between the quantity of clothes he would take and the weight of his backpack. It was then that he began to develop the idea of a bag that, besides carrying all his clothes, would wash them without the need of electricity and minimal water use.

The first version of Scrubba was created in 2012, it has undergone many improvements since then and is now on sale for $55. The clothes washing process is quite simple, simply remove the air from the bag, add water and detergent and scrub the clothes inside the backpack or stir for a few minutes. Finally, replace the dirty, soapy water with clean water to rinse the clothes.

A new upgrade in the old model is planned for the end of the year and promises to be more functional, with different pockets for clean clothes, dirty clothes, credit cards and cell phone. The backpack can also be folded into the size of a soda can and be easily carried inside your luggage.​

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Source: Scrubba and Indiegogo

Images source: Scrubba



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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

International Space Station Can Now Grow Eatable Vegetables

[Image Courtesy of Hindustan Times]​

Since the successful Apollo missions to the moon, NASA has been interested in going to the next frontier, Mars. One of the needs for any mission to space with personnel is food, and with Mars being so far away, the amount of food would be much greater. NASA is closer to a mission to Mars or any other far away destination with the confirmation of food grown in space to be eaten.​

Food has been grown on the International Space Station (ISS), since the early 2000’s but has not been cleared to be eaten until recently. This is because of the unusual environment the food is grown in. A few concerns for the food include the quality of the air the plants are exposed to and the high levels of radiation in space that may cause mutations in the plants themselves.

NASA says this will also influence agricultural work on earth. Places that could be affected include Dubai which has a harsh environment and a larger demand for food is leading to the possibility of growing plants either in buildings or underground. Other technologies to be used with this include grow lights which use incandescent lamps, florescent lamps, high pressure sodium bulbs or metal halide bulbs. All of these grow lights supply the high energy electro-magnetic waves similar to sun rays and make photosynthesis possible.

The first plant eaten was red romaine lettuce. Astronauts Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui first sanitized the leaves before topping with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Kelly noted that the lettuce tasted “kind of like arugula.” Lindgen was very impressed with the results exclaiming “That’s awesome,” after taking the first bite of the leaf. NASA is exploring the possibilities of growing other menu options in space and also plans to study how pollen travels in zero gravity.




Sources: NPR, CNN

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Social Media Tops List Of Best Companies To Work For

[Image Courtesy of entrepreneur.com]​

In order to determine America’s best employers, 24/7 Wall St. independently reviewed employee ratings from Glassdoor.com. With more than 200 companies reviewed, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 54 businesses that received the highest overall scores. Employee satisfaction is measured by Glassdoor.com on a scale of 1.0 through 5.0, where 1.0 is very dissatisfied and 5.0 is very satisfied. To be considered, a company had to have at least 1,000 reviews, with an average of 3.6 or higher.

Even though the moral may be positive at these companies, this seems to be independent of the revenues. Many of the 54 best companies to work for reported revenue declines. T-Mobile, (Ranked 21) recorded a net loss of $7.3 billion in its fiscal 2012, and made less than $250 million in profits in the two years before.

Not surprisingly, satisfied employees also tend to approve of their CEOs. Among the 54 best companies to work for, 34 have CEOs with an approval rating of 90% or higher. In fact, only three CEOs have an approval rating below 80%. For comparison, the average CEO approval rating on Glassdoor.com was 68%.

Here are the top ten companies to work for in America ranked by 24/7 Wall Street:

10 – Chick-fil-A

– Glassdoor rating: 3.9

– Number of reviews: 1,300

– CEO approval rating: 94% (Dan T. Cathy)

– Employees: > 1,000

– Industry: Fast food

– Revenue: $5.8 billion

9 – Nike

– Glassdoor rating: 4.0

– Number of reviews: 1,300

– CEO approval rating: 96% (Mark G. Parker)

– Employees: 62,600

– Industry: Apparel footwear & accessories

– Revenue: $30.6 billion

8 – Apple

– Glassdoor rating: 4.0

– Number of reviews: 5,400

– CEO approval rating: 95% (Tim Cook)

– Employees: 97,000

– Industry: Electronic equipment

– Revenue: $182.8 billion

7 – Adobe Systems

– Glassdoor rating: 4.1

– Number of reviews: 1,400

– CEO approval rating: 90% (Shantanu Narayen)

– Employees: 12,499

– Industry: Application software

– Revenue: $4.1 billion

6 – Expedia

– Glassdoor rating: 4.1

– Number of reviews: 1,300

– CEO approval rating: 97% (Dara Khosrowshahi)

– Employees: 18,210

– Industry: Travel

– Revenue: $5.8 billion

5 – McKinsey and Company

– Glassdoor rating: 4.2

– Number of reviews: 1,300

– CEO approval rating: 97% (Dominic Barton)

– Employees: 17,000

– Industry: Business services & supplies

– Revenue: $8.0 billion

4 – Google

– Glassdoor rating: 4.4

– Number of reviews: 3,800

– CEO approval rating: 96% (Larry Page)

– Employees: 53,600

– Industry: Internet information providers

– Revenue: $66.0 billion

3 – Insight Global

– Glassdoor rating: 4.5

– Number of reviews: 2,600

– CEO approval rating: 95% (Glenn Johnson)

– Employees: 11,561

– Industry: Staffing

– Revenue: $918.4 million

2 – LinkedIn

– Glassdoor rating: 4.5

– Number of reviews: 1,100

– CEO approval rating: 99% (Jeff Weiner)

– Employees: 6,900

– Industry: Internet information providers

– Revenue: $2.2 billion

1 – Facebook

– Glassdoor rating: 4.5

– Number of reviews: 1,100

– CEO approval rating: 94% (Mark Zuckerberg)

– Employees: 10,082

– Industry: Internet information providers

– Revenue: $12.5 billion

Other tech based companies from the list of the top 54 are shown below:

11 – Sales Force

– Glassdoor rating: 3.9

14 – Intel Corporation

– Glassdoor rating: 3.9

17 – Intuit

– Glassdoor rating: 3.8

18 – Microsoft

– Glassdoor rating: 3.8

20 – SAP

– Glassdoor rating: 3.8

21 – T-Mobile

– Glassdoor rating: 3.8

26 – Texas Instruments

– Glassdoor rating: 3.7

32 – EMC

– Glassdoor rating: 3.7

33 – General Electric

– Glassdoor rating: 3.7

37 – Cisco Systems

– Glassdoor rating: 3.7

41 – Seimens

– Glassdoor rating: 3.6

47 – Ericsson Worldwide

– Glassdoor rating: 3.6

51 – Citrix Systems

– Glassdoor rating: 3.6

Other tech companies not represented on the list due to not enough reviews or low ratings are shown below for comparison:

Twitter

– Glassdoor rating: 4.2

ExxonMobile

– Glassdoor rating: 3.7

Dow Chemical

– Glassdoor rating: 3.7

Lockheed Martin

– Glassdoor rating: 3.5

Boeing

– Glassdoor rating: 3.5

United Technologies

– Glassdoor rating: 3.3

Sony Electronics

– Glassdoor rating: 3.3

ASK.com

– Glassdoor rating: 3.3

GameStop

– Glassdoor rating: 3.0

The Babcock & Wilcox Company

– Glassdoor rating: 2.9

Samsung Electronics

– Glassdoor rating: 2.9

Westinghouse

– Glassdoor rating: 2.6

LG Electronics USA

– Glassdoor rating: 2.5

Below is a list of universities for reference :

University of Mount Union

– Glassdoor rating: 4.6

MIT

– Glassdoor rating: 4.2

Princeton University

– Glassdoor rating: 4.2

Vanderbilt University

– Glassdoor rating: 3.9

University of Phoenix

– Glassdoor rating: 3.0

Sources: Huffington Post, 24/7 Wall Street, Glass Door

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Shout Out to Teen-Aged Technology

Here are three brainy teens who used what they learned to make the world a better place.


Angela Zhang

In 2011 then senior of Monte Vista High School in Cupertino California, Angela Zhang won the Siemens Math, Science and Technology competition as well as a $100,000 scholarship! Growing up with a very healthy thirst for knowledge is what steered this teen-aged bookworm head first into cancer research. With study direction offered from a local university professor she set about the task of localizing cancer treatment.

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Zhang’s research uses a nanoparticle that piggybacks a cancer medicine coated in a polymer. These nanoparticles attach to the cancer cells and will show up on an MRI. Then, when the polymer casing gets hit with a laser during treatment it melts releasing the cancer medicine directly onto the cancer cells saving the surrounding healthy cells. It’s not hard to see why she won the 100K!​

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(Source: Dragon’s Den, screenshot)​

UndrTheRadr Ringtones​

Ninth grader at St George’s School in Vancouver BC Canada, Aanikh Kler appeared on the Dragon’s Den television show in season 8 to pitch his UndrTheRadr idea. He invented a sneaky app just for kids and teens who want to stay connected during class without their teachers catching on.​

After a certain age people lose their ability to hear frequencies at the extreme ends of their hearing range so Kler decided to create a ringtone that adults can’t hear. Before shaking hands on a deal for $25,000 plus 20% of the app’s download revenue Arlene Dickenson marveled at the 15 year old’s accomplishment stating, “…I think you’re one of the most impressive people to have ever come in the den.” UndrTheRadr sells for 99 cents online and 20 cents of that goes directly to the Free The Children charity.​

If you would like to watch it here’s Aanikh’s pitch on Dragon’s Den. If you would like to check how old your hearing is then click here.​

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(Source: TedTalk, screenshot)​

Jack Andraka

Using some water, carbon nanotubes, specially selected protein biomarker antibodies and a strip of paper Jack Andraka developed a simple, inexpensive early detection test strip for pancreatic cancer.

To read the full story click here or use the following link to watch his funny and inspiring TedTalk.

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Stratolaunch: The largest aircraft ever built will soon launch rockets into space

In 2016, the Stratolaunch will make its first flight and will then officially become the largest aircraft in the world. The Stratolaunch is being built in the Mojave Air and Space Port in California by the aerospace company Scaled Composites which is in charge of building this gigantic plane with two fuselages, six jet engines, and a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters). “If you were to put the center of this airplane on a football field,” said Scaled Composites president Kevin Mickey, “its wingtips would extend beyond the goalposts by about 15 feet on each side.”



Its dimensions make it 65 feet (20 meters) wider than the legendary Hughes H-4 “Spruce Goose”, 95 feet (29 meters) wider than the Antonov An-225 and 123 feet (37 meters) wider than the Airbus A380, which is the world’s largest passenger airplane. In fact, the Stratolaunch is being built around a pair of retired Boeing 747s.

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Of course, this is not an easy project, and it’s not surprising to find out that the brain behind this project is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. But it wasn’t created to be the largest aircraft in the world, this is merely a consequence. Allen wants to revolutionize space travel by changing the way the satellites are launched into space. The Stratolaunch was designed to carry a rocket equipped with a satellite between its two fuselages. After reaching a determined altitude, the rocket is launched off into space to release the satellite. The combined weight of the Stratolaunch and the rocket is estimated at almost 600 tons.

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Source: ExtremeTech

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

‘Shade balls’ used to conserve water in California

Water has always been an issue for California in general and Los Angeles in particular. As that city grew over the course of the 20th century, finding reliable supplies of water to supply the 4 million occupants grew exponentially in importance. Roughly 30% of L.A.s water comes from underground; the remainder is largely surface water, collected from ten basins east of the city, and as far away as the Colorado River – almost 90% of L.A.s water is imported. That prodigious effort to bring water to the city can be seriously undermined by evaporation when it is stored. It’s estimated that California lost some 63 trillion gallons of water in 2013 and 2014, with a significant chunk of that due to evaporation.
Back in 1906, the city built two reservoirs, and named one after the 1819 Sir Walter Scott novel, Ivanhoe. Located between Dodger stadium and Griffith Park, the Ivanhoe reservoir is capable of holding some 3 million square meters of water at capacity; it currently serves some 600,000 local customers. L.A. Water and Power estimates the water loss to evaporation here at some 30 million gallons annually.


In 2007, testing by the L.A. Department of Water and Power found potentially dangerous levels of bromate in the water of the Ivanhoe. Bromate is a suspected carcinogen, and is not uncommon in municipal water systems. There are several ways bromate can be generated, the most common being the combining of bromide, which occurs naturally in ground water, and ozone. It can also occur when water is treated with chlorine and subsequently exposed to sunlight.

The Ivanhoe reservoir is scheduled to be closed when it is replaced by a massive underground facility, the Headworks reservoir, currently under construction just north of Griffith Park. All that aside, the Ivanhoe is still used for water storage, and in the midst of a prolonged drought, the city simply can’t afford significant loss to evaporation. L.A. enjoys a warm, relatively dry climate in the best of time. With temperatures in the rise and relative humidity taking a nose dive, evaporation becomes even more of a challenge. Combine evaporation with the bromate issue, and you’ve got a real need to innovate, and to do so quickly. That’s where the little black balls come in.


They’re called shade balls in this application, but are also known as bird balls – they’re used by airports to cover standing water located near runways, thereby dissuading birds from congregating and becoming a bird strike – a bird vs. aircraft incident. The 4″ black polyethylene spheres are hermetically sealed and partially filled with potable water so that they won’t blow away in strong wind. Biodegradable and coated with a UV blocking agent, they have a life expectancy of up to 25 years, and they cost about 36¢ each. The concept is simple; the balls completely cover the surface of the reservoir, thereby placing a 4″ insulating layer between the elements and the water. The black color reflects UV light, and breaks up the bromate formation process. It took about 96 million of these guys to cover the Ivanhoe.


The balls are the brain child of Sydney Chase, who got the concept brain storm one day and then set out to make it a reality. Chase left a 30 year career in the manufacturing, operations, and business development of plastics and other commodities, and then sold her house to raise the funds needed to start XavierC, the company that makes pretty much nothing but what she calls conservation balls. In addition to the uses already cited, they’re also employed at mining sites to cover waste and processing water ponds. The company’s name stems from Creative Consultant Xavier Castillo, a disabled Veteran Chase met by chance and subsequently hired. Chase has a soft spot for wounded warriors, especially those who’ve had trouble finding steady employment elsewhere. As such, the company she created as a personal labor of love is truly a bastion of good works.



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[hemibee]

The shade balls and california are a strange partnership. California blames the fossil fuel industry on their water issues yet they are turning to the fossil fuel industry to solve their problems.

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Harvard Participates in Telepathy Research



Einstein once referred to quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance” and I’m guessing that if he were here today he would have something similar to say about the results of this study that were published on the PLOS One website in August 2014. Research teams from around the globe participated in the first successful non-invasive brain to brain communication from Kerala State, India to Strasbourg, France. It involved teams from Neuroelectrics, Starlab, and the University of Barcelona in Spain; Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess in the USA; and Axilum Robotics in France.

The teams worked on an experiment where an “emitter” subject sent a message over the internet to a “receiver” subject who relayed the message back. The experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Barcelona and had permission from all test subjects.



First, a binary code was used to correspond with the letters in the alphabet like Morse code. The experiment began by the “emitter” subject (in India) receiving an e-mail containing a portion of the message; in this case a 1 or a 0. The subject used their hands for 1 and their feet for 0 to mentally move an object on the computer screen in front of them. With EEG (electroencephalogram) electrodes attached to their head, they sent the message through the internet to 3 receiver subjects (in France).

The receiver subjects while attached to a TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) machine, were blind-folded and had ear plugs in to ensure that there was no peripheral nervous system cheating going on. Then they waited to receive the message.​

The message arrived in the subjects’ brains in the form of biphasic TMS pulses. If phosphenes were produced in the occipital cortex then the subject saw a flash of light in their head. Seeing a flash corresponded to a 1 in code and not seeing anything corresponded to a 0. Then they used the code to unlock the message. The total test time was approximately 70 minutes and when the message was translated it read “hola” or “ciao”.
If you would like to learn more about brain science click here.​

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Incredible glowing murals turns these rooms into dream worlds

The Hungarian artist Bogi Fabian has always demonstrated a very unique creativity. After working through different styles, from photography to 3D design, she also discovered a great talent in interior design and wall painting.

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Using a unique technique, she is able to create a new universe in each painted wall – but this universe is only visible when the lights go out. This allows the elaboration of amazing environments that show their full potential when the lights are turned off. During the day, the paintings can still be seen with the lights on, but doesn’t quite capture the magical lysergic spaces that show up in the dark.

Fabian’s paintings, which show an incredible sensitivity, can transform any environment into an open space for new experiences. Check out some of her work:

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The post Incredible glowing murals turns these rooms into dream worlds appeared first on Interesting Engineering.

 

[DaveM]

Incredible glowing murals turns these rooms into dream worlds

This would really be COOL for a kids room

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Ear Surgically Attached On Arm By Australian Man

[Image Courtesy of Independent]​

A man from Australia is gaining attention after undergoing a controversial surgery. This is a new kind of body modification and is also one of the strangest for the reasons the man has chosen to undergo the operation.

Since 1996, Stelarc (born: Stelios Arcadiou) has searched for surgeons willing to preform the operation and has not been able to find any until now. The operation shown in the video below, involves growing a synthetic ear to be placed under the skin. Future operations include lifting the back of the ear lobe from the arm and using stem cells to enhance the bottom flap of the ear. Stelarc explains on his web site:

“The ear lobe will most likely be formed by creating a cutaneous ‘bag’ that will be filled with adipo-derived stem cells and mature adipocytes. In other words the ear lobe would be partly grown using my own adult stem cells. Such a procedure is not legal in the US, so it will be done in Europe. It’s still somewhat experimental with no guarantee that the stem cells will grow evenly and smoothly – but it does provide the opportunity of sculpturally growing more parts of the ear – and possibly resulting in a cauliflower ear!”

The goal of the operation is to have a microphone implanted into the modification and be able to connect to Wi-Fi. This will enable people to access the sounds Stelarc encounters in everyday life. Other options include implanting a tracking device to also see where Stelarc is at all times. This would be available on his website and should increase his popularity more than it already has.

Stelarc is a preforming artist and will continue the profession and will always have a trick up his sleeve!


Sources: CNN, Science Alert

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

FoPo wants to end world hunger by turning food into powder

FoPo Food Powder wants to end world hunger. A pretty bold task that they want to tackle by turning near-expiring fruits and vegetables into powder. The process is basically just drying and processing the produce until it becomes an edible powder.

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Created by a group international master students at the Lund University in Sweden, FoPo Food Powder emerged in response to the irrational food consumption and extensive food waste. An estimated 1.76 billion tons of food are wasted each year; that’s equivalent to $750 billion in terms of economic loss, according to the United Nations. The project idea suggests that world hunger would cease to exist if near-expiring produce are turned into powder, retaining up to 80% of their nutrients and prolonging their shelf life by up to two years.

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FoPo has started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and has raised more than $25,000. According to the company, 26 supermarkets have committed to provide them with near-expiring produce and three universities have provided their laboratories for the team to work in.

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The food powder should begin to be developed in the Philippines, with support from the local government and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It will be available in banana, mango, pineapple and raspberry flavors that can be consumed as nutritional supplements and as an ingredient for recipes like cakes, yogurts and ice creams.

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Source: Kickstarter

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Top Ten Tallest Buildings

Image Courtesy of Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat


For as long as human civilization has been around, we’ve been obsessed with the height of our buildings. Theories abound as to why this is so, everything from status and recognition, to simply the ability to make it work. Whatever the psychology driving the process is, it’s alive and well in the 21st century. The current Top Ten Tallest Buildings are all skyscrapers, which, in this day of ever taller competitions, are now further divided as Supertall, (over 300 meters), or Megatall, (over 600 meters). Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, at just under 830 meters, is the sole Megatall entry, though certainly that will change in the not too distant future.

As remarkably tall buildings proliferate, the engineering challenges mount as well. Early on, the primary issue engineers faced was the materials themselves. Stone can only be stacked so high, even if it’s done to amazing effect, as with the Chartre Cathedral in France. The breakthrough came in the late 19th century, at the hands of the American engineer/architect William La Baron Jenney. Born in the U.S., Jenney went to France for his formal engineering and architectural education, graduating from the prestigious l’École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris; he was classmates with Gustave Eiffel, the designer of his namesake tower. Perhaps that association had something to do with the innovation Jenney devised in 1884 when he conceived and built the 10 story Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois – The world’s first skyscraper.


That iconic structure was the first building framed with metal columns and beams, overcoming previous limitations in one elegant stroke, and producing a structure some 65% lighter than an equivalent made of stone or brick. That weight savings was the key to ever taller structures to come, as colleagues grasped the magnitude of Jenney’s revelation and advanced upon his work. He expanded on his work through the end of the century, and passed away in 1907.


The curtain wall, a direct descendant of Jenney’s innovation, is a ubiquitous feature in skyscrapers. Rather than employing load bearing walls as conventional construction does, curtain walls are born by or suspended from the load bearing framework, allowing a wide variety of exterior shapes and surfaces – The glass walled skyscraper is a direct result of such innovation. The load bearing frameworks of the tallest buildings are all derivations of a tubular core, allowing the building not only its height, but the ability to resist lateral loads from wind and seismic forces.


While common key elements of design and construction allow soaring towers to proliferate, each project presents myriad complex issues that are simple considerations in lesser structures. Everything from HVAC to moving people between floors require highly detailed modeling prior to hard design and construction. High powered computers and software have clearly become must-have tools of the trade.

Here is the list of the current Top Ten Tallest Buildings:

Burj Khalifa, Dubai – 828 meters



Shangai Tower,Shangai – 632 meters

Makkah Royal Clock Tower, Saudi Arabia – 601 meters



One World Trade Center, New York City – 541 meters


Taipei 101, Taiwan – 508 meters


Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai – 492 meters



International Commerce Centre – 484 meters

Petronas Twins Towers, Malaysia – 452 meters


Zifeng Tower, China – 450 meters


Willis Tower, Chicago – 442 meters


Kingkey 100, China – 442 meters



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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Make an emergency candle out of butter!

Are you well prepared for emergencies? Or are you probably gonna sit in the dark during the next power outage because you ran out of candles and the flashlight batteries are dead? Well, The King of Random shows you an easy way to make an emergency candle out of a stick of butter and toilet paper, which are things you sure have at home at any given moment.

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You will need a stick of butter, a toothpick, and a piece of toilet paper. The paper becomes a wick which turns the butter into a candle. When lit, the paper will heat up and liquefy the butter, which then vaporizes to fuel the fire. This emergency candle can burn for up to four hours! So watch the video and make sure you learn this little life hack which might help you out on the next power outage.


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