Teenager invents flashlight powered by the warmth of your hand

 

A 15-year-old girl has invented a flashlight that produces a usable amount of light just by using the heat from your hand. And if the judges at the Google Science Fair like it, she may be on her way to the grand prize.

Ann Makosinski of Canada entered another Science Fair last year with a flashlight that used kinetic energy to power its LEDs, and this year she wanted to try making one that worked via the thermoelectric effect. That’s when a small amount of electricity can be harvested as electrons flow between the cool and hot sides of a material.

“I’m sure we’ve all had that annoying experience when we desperately need a flashlight, we find one, and the batteries are out,” she said in an email interview with NBC News. “Imagine how much money we would save and the amount of toxins leached into the soil etc reduced if we didn’t use any batteries in flashlights!”

The question was whether enough electricity could actually be made just from holding the flashlight — humans generate a lot of heat (and therefore, potentially electricity), but Ann didn’t have the whole body to work with, just one average palm.

Ann Makosinski / YouTube

Makosinski’s palm-powered flashlight.

First, she measured how much electricity could be generated from the heat of a palm — about 57 milliwatts — and how much she needed to light the LED — about half a milliwatt.

Next, she got the parts together: several Peltier tiles (“I got them surplus off Ebay,” she said), which when warm on one side and cool on the other could generate electricity, and a few other bits necessary to make the current usable by a normal LED.

Finally, she mounted the tiles and circuitry onto a hollow aluminum tube; air inside the tube would cool the Peltier tiles, while the warmth of a hand would heat the other side. And with a little tweaking of voltages and other components, it worked!

The light generated is modest, but enough to find your keys or light the page of a book. It worked for around half an hour in her tests at an ambient temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but would last longer or shorter depending on temperature differences.

“The flashlight I have made is more of a prototype then a final product, but the components in my device are quite strong,” Ann wrote. “Of course, if it was to be used and manufactured, I would try to seal off the electronic components in some sort of casing so that it wouldn’t get heavily exposed to the elements (example water), and therefore last longer.”

She’ll be traveling from Victoria, British Columbia to Mountain View, Calif. to visit Google headquarters in September for the final judging event. There, the 15 finalists will present their projects personally to a panel of leading experts and scientists. The competition is fierce, but the prize, which includes a $50,000 scholarship, tutelage at one of several organizations, and a trip to Galapagos, is definitely worth fighting for.

Ann seems ready. “It’s an absolutely amazing experience, and I’m still shocked that my project made it this far, and I feel very blessed to have this experience. But it’s definitely a big shock for me, and an honor to be representing Canada!”

Related articles

• Google Science Fair winners: Flashlights without batteries, ‘bat signals,’ non-viral viruses (venturebeat.com)
• TIME 30 Under 30: World Changers features young leaders in STEM (adafruit.com)
• Tech industry invites everyone in for a look (timescolonist.com)

Here is a Health Trend: 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do

Thank you http://www.trueactivist.com for this article.

1. They Don’t Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves

Mentally strong people don’t sit around feeling sorry about their circumstances or how others have treated them. Instead, they take responsibility for their role in life and understand that life isn’t always easy or fair.

You may also want to read: 10 Ways Journaling Can Improve Your Life

2. They Don’t Give Away Their Power

They don’t allow others to control them, and they don’t give someone else power over them. They don’t say things like, “My boss makes me feel bad,” because they understand that they are in control over their own emotions and they have a choice in how they respond.

3. They Don’t Shy Away from Change

Mentally strong people don’t try to avoid change. Instead, they welcome positive change and are willing to be flexible. They understand that change is inevitable and believe in their abilities to adapt.

4. They Don’t Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control

You won’t hear a mentally strong person complaining over lost luggage or traffic jams. Instead, they focus on what they can control in their lives. They recognize that sometimes, the only thing they can control is their attitude.

5. They Don’t Worry About Pleasing Everyone

Mentally strong people recognize that they don’t need to please everyone all the time. They’re not afraid to say no or speak up when necessary. They strive to be kind and fair, but can handle other people being upset if they didn’t make them happy.

6. They Don’t Fear Taking Calculated Risks

They don’t take reckless or foolish risks, but don’t mind taking calculated risks. Mentally strong people spend time weighing the risks and benefits before making a big decision, and they’re fully informed of the potential downsides before they take action.

You may be interested in this too: 10 Things Positive People Don’t Do

7. They Don’t Dwell on the Past

Mentally strong people don’t waste time dwelling on the past and wishing things could be different. They acknowledge their past and can say what they’ve learned from it. However, they don’t constantly relive bad experiences or fantasize about the glory days. Instead, they live for the present and plan for the future.

8. They Don’t Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over

Mentally strong people accept responsibility for their behavior and learn from their past mistakes. As a result, they don’t keep repeating those mistakes over and over. Instead, they move on and make better decisions in the future.

9. They Don’t Resent Other People’s Success

Mentally strong people can appreciate and celebrate other people’s success in life. They don’t grow jealous or feel cheated when others surpass them. Instead, they recognize that success comes with hard work, and they are willing to work hard for their own chance at success.

10. They Don’t Give Up After the First Failure

Mentally strong people don’t view failure as a reason to give up. Instead, they use failure as an opportunity to grow and improve. They are willing to keep trying until they get it right.

11. They Don’t Fear Alone Time

Mentally strong people can tolerate being alone and they don’t fear silence. They aren’t afraid to be alone with their thoughts and they can use downtime to be productive. They enjoy their own company and aren’t dependent on others for companionship and entertainment all the time but instead can be happy alone.

12. They Don’t Feel the World Owes Them Anything

Mentally strong people don’t feel entitled to things in life. They weren’t born with a mentality that others would take care of them or that the world must give them something. Instead, they look for opportunities based on their own merits.

13. They Don’t Expect Immediate Results

Whether they are working on improving their health or getting a new business off the ground, mentally strong people don’t expect immediate results. Instead, they apply their skills and time to the best of their ability and understand that real change takes time.
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/13-things-mentally-strong-people-dont.html

Next Generation of Housing: Earthships

Earthships are 100% sustainable homes that are both cheap to build and awesome to live in. They offer amenities like no other sustainable building style you have come across. For the reasons that follow, I believe Earthships can actually change the world. See for yourself!

Here are the Top 10 awesome reasons to build your very own Earthship

1) Sustainable does not mean primitive

When people hear about sustainable, off-the-grid living, they usually picture primitive homes divorced from the comforts of the 21st century. And rightfully so, as most sustainable solutions proposed until now have fit that description. Earthships, however, offer all of the comforts of modern homes and more. I’ll let these pictures do the talking…

2) Free Food

Each Earthship is outfitted with one or two greenhouses that grow crops year-round, no matter the climate. This means you can feed yourself with only the plants growing inside of your house. You can also choose to build a fish pond and/or chicken coop into your Earthship for a constant source of meat and eggs.

3) Brilliant Water Recycling

Even the most arid of climates can provide enough water for daily use through only a rain-harvesting system. The entire roof of the Earthship funnels rain water to a cistern, which then pumps it to sinks and showers when required. That used ‘grey water’ is then pumped into the greenhouse to water the plants. After being cleaned by the plants, the water is pumped up into the bathrooms for use in the toilets. After being flushed, the now ‘black water’ is pumped to the exterior garden to give nutrients to non-edible plants.

4) Warmth & Shelter

The most brilliant piece of engineering in the Earthship is their ability to sustain comfortable temperatures year round. Even in freezing cold or blistering hot climates, Earthships constantly hover around 70° Fahrenheight (22° Celsius).

This phenomenon results from the solar heat being absorbed and stored by ‘thermal mass’ — or tires filled with dirt, which make up the structure of the Earthship. The thermal mass acts as a heat sink, releasing or absorbing heat it when the interior cools and heats up, respectively.

The large greenhouse windows at the front of the house always face south to allow the sun to heat up the thermal mass throughout the daytime.

5) Energy

Solar panels on the roof and optional wind turbines provide the Earthship with all of the power it needs. As long as you’re not greedily chewing through electricity like a typical first-world human, you’ll never be short of power.

6) Freedom

With all of your basic needs provided for and NO bills each month, you’re free! You don’t have to work a job you hate just to survive. So you can focus your time on doing what you love, and bettering the world around you.

Imagine if the entire world was able to focus on doing extraordinary things instead of just making enough to get by. Imagine if even 10% of the world could do this. What would change?

7) Easy to build

At a recent Earthship conference in Toronto, Canada, a married couple in their forties shared about how they built a 3-story Earthship by themselves in 3 months. They had never built anything before in their lives and were able to build an Earthship with only the printed plans. They did not hire any help, nor did they use expensive equipment to make the job easier.

If one man and one woman can do this in 3 months, anyone can do it.

8) Cheap

Earthships are exorbitantly cheaper than conventional houses. The most basic Earthships cost as little as $7000 (The Simple Survival model) with the most glamorous models costing $70,000 and up, depending on how flashy you want to be with your decorating.

With these cost options, Earthships can fit the needs of everyone — from the least privileged to the most worldly.

9) Made of recycled materials

Much of the materials used to build Earthships are recycled. For starters, the structure is built with used tires filled with dirt:

If there’s one thing we’re not short of on Earth, it’s used tires! There are tire dumps like the one pictured here in every country in the world. There are even places that will pay you by the tire to take them away.

The walls (above the tires) are created by placing plastic and glass bottles in concrete. When the Earthship team was in Haiti after the earthquake, they employed local kids to both clean up the streets and provide all of the bottles required for building their Earthship. Plus, they look pretty sexy.

10) Think Different

The most powerful thing Earthships do is force people to think differently about how we live. If housing can be this awesome, and be beneficial to the environment, then what else can we change? What else can become more simple, cheaper and better at the same time?

It’s time for us to re-think much of what we consider normal.

——————–

Think Earthships are cool? Me too. That’s why I’ve joined up with some people to create a community of Earthships and to make sustainable communities go mainstream! It’s something we call the Valhalla Movement.

Want to know more? Read more about it on ValhallaMovement.com, and like us on Facebook

http://www.highexistence.com/10-reasons-why-earthships-are-fing-awesome

The near end of Global Warming, come time for a new cycle Global Cooling.

And now it’s global COOLING! Record return of Arctic ice cap as it grows by 60% in a year

• Almost a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than in 2012
• BBC reported in 2007 global warming would leave Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013
• Publication of UN climate change report suggesting global warming caused by humans pushed back to later this month

Source: DailyMail

A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year – an increase of 60 per cent.

The rebound from 2012’s record low comes six years after the BBC reported that global warming would leave the Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013.

Instead, days before the annual autumn re-freeze is due to begin, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia’s northern shores.

The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year. More than 20 yachts that had planned to sail it have been left ice-bound and a cruise ship attempting the route was forced to turn back.

Some eminent scientists now believe the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century – a process that would expose computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming as dangerously misleading.

The disclosure comes 11 months after The Mail on Sunday triggered intense political and scientific debate by revealing that global warming has ‘paused’ since the beginning of 1997 – an event that the computer models used by climate experts failed to predict.

In March, this newspaper further revealed that temperatures are about to drop below the level that the models forecast with ‘90 per cent certainty’.

The pause – which has now been accepted as real by every major climate research centre – is important, because the models’ predictions of ever-increasing global temperatures have made many of the world’s economies divert billions of pounds into ‘green’ measures to counter  climate change.

Those predictions now appear gravely flawed.

THERE WON’T BE ANY ICE AT ALL! HOW THE BBC PREDICTED CHAOS IN 2007

Only six years ago, the BBC reported that the Arctic would be ice-free in summer by 2013, citing a scientist in the US who claimed this was a ‘conservative’ forecast. Perhaps it was their confidence that led more than 20 yachts to try to sail the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to  the Pacific this summer. As of last week, all these vessels were stuck in the ice, some at the eastern end of the passage in Prince Regent Inlet, others further west at Cape Bathurst.

Shipping experts said the only way these vessels were likely to be freed was by the icebreakers of the Canadian coastguard. According to the official Canadian government website, the Northwest Passage has remained ice-bound and impassable  all summer.

The BBC’s 2007 report quoted scientist  Professor Wieslaw Maslowski, who based his views on super-computer models and the fact that ‘we use a high-resolution regional model for the Arctic Ocean and sea ice’.

He was confident his results were ‘much more realistic’ than other projections, which ‘underestimate the amount of heat delivered to the sea ice’. Also quoted was Cambridge University expert

Professor Peter Wadhams. He backed Professor Maslowski, saying his model was ‘more efficient’ than others because it ‘takes account of processes that happen internally in the ice’.

He added: ‘This is not a cycle; not just a fluctuation. In the end, it will all just melt away quite suddenly.’

The continuing furore caused by The Mail on Sunday’s revelations – which will now be amplified by the return of the Arctic ice sheet – has forced the UN’s climate change body to hold a crisis meeting.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was due in October to start publishing its Fifth Assessment Report – a huge three-volume study issued every six or seven years. It will now hold a pre-summit in Stockholm later this month.

Leaked documents show that governments which support and finance the IPCC are demanding more than 1,500 changes to the report’s ‘summary for policymakers’. They say its current draft does not properly explain the pause.

At the heart of the row lie two questions: the extent to which temperatures will rise with carbon dioxide levels, as well as how much of the warming over the past 150 years – so far, just 0.8C – is down to human greenhouse gas emissions and how much is due to natural variability.

In its draft report, the IPCC says it is ‘95 per cent confident’ that global warming has been caused by humans – up from 90 per cent in 2007.

This claim is already hotly disputed. US climate expert Professor Judith Curry said last night: ‘In fact, the uncertainty is getting bigger. It’s now clear the models are way too sensitive to carbon dioxide. I cannot see any basis for the IPCC increasing its confidence level.’

She pointed to long-term cycles  in ocean temperature, which have a huge influence on climate and  suggest the world may be approaching a period similar to that from 1965 to 1975, when there was a clear cooling trend. This led some scientists at the time to forecast an imminent ice age.

Professor Anastasios Tsonis, of the University of Wisconsin, was one of the first to investigate the ocean cycles. He said: ‘We are already in a cooling trend, which I think will continue for the next 15 years at least. There is no doubt the warming of the 1980s and 1990s has stopped.

Then… NASA satelite images showing the spread of Artic sea ice 27th August 2012

…And now, much bigger: The same Nasa image taken in 2013

‘The IPCC claims its models show a pause of 15 years can be expected. But that means that after only a very few years more, they will have to admit they are wrong.’

Others are more cautious. Dr Ed Hawkins, of Reading University, drew the graph published by The Mail on Sunday in March showing how far world temperatures have diverged from computer predictions. He admitted the cycles may have caused some of the recorded warming, but insisted that natural variability alone could not explain all of the temperature rise over the past 150 years.

Nonetheless, the belief that summer Arctic ice is about to disappear remains an IPCC tenet, frequently flung in the face of critics who point to the pause.

Yet there is mounting evidence that Arctic ice levels are cyclical. Data uncovered by climate historians show that there was a massive melt in the 1920s and 1930s, followed by intense re-freezes that ended only in 1979 – the year the IPCC says that shrinking began.

Professor Curry said the ice’s behaviour over the next five years would be crucial, both for understanding the climate and for future policy. ‘Arctic sea ice is the indicator to watch,’ she said

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/Global-cooling-Arctic-ice-caps-grows-60-global-warming-predictions.html#ixzz2f549LVAu
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Before you leave….

Thank you for stopping by my blog! If you are an entreprenuer, blogger or want to learn how start a home based business sharing what you love, be sure to click on one of the banners on this site and watch the video to see why I chose Empower Network as my preferred blogging system for my business and personal use. It’s great way to earn extra income online, as well as get your posts/website ranked high in Google.

Think about it. How did you find this post? It wasn’t by accident.

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How the Blue Whale can teach us about fans, filters and biomimicry

The Biomimicry Manual: What can the Whale Teach Us About Fans and Filters?

by Tamsin Woolley-Barker, PhD., 09/04/13

Source: Inhabitat

 

Whales are some of the most extreme creatures on Earth. The 115 foot, 150 foot ton Blue Whale, for instance, is the largest animal that ever lived. These magnificent creatures are social mammals, descended from an ancient land dweller that also gave rise to the hippopotamus family. Like hippos and humans, they are warm-blooded and air-breathing, and stay with their young, nursing them for an extended period of time. And like us, they maintain complex social networks. As you might imagine, the whale faces some special challenges doing all this in the ocean. As usual, where challenge is extreme, the solutions are efficient. So how can the Blue Whale inspire us today? Find out in The Biomimicry Manual.

Some whales, like the Sperm and the Orca (really a very large dolphin), flash a mouthful of sharp, fish-grabbing teeth. Others, like the Blue and Humpback, maintain their huge bodies by gathering protein-rich plankton from the water. These “filter feeders” gulp seawater, then press it through comblike “baleen” sieves in their cavernous mouths. Baleen is the same stuff your hair and fingernails are made from, and not so long ago we used it like plastic, putting it in corsets and hoop skirts. Whale populations were decimated, of course, but today, they are making a comeback. They still have something to share with us: beautiful and brilliant bio-inspiration.

 

I am often asked whether actual biomimicry products are making it to market. Absolutely, they are, and the potential for innovation is limited only by our imagination and power of observation. Every creature is exquisitely honed to exist in its environment, and their challenges are often ours as well. Take the Baleen Filter, for instance, a patented liquid-separation technology inspired by real baleen. The filter removes particles smaller than anything you could see with your naked eye, and it mimics the swiping motion of the whale’s tongue to stay clean. The Baleen Filter is finding wide agricultural interest, from fish processing to pig farming. Like most of nature’s “inventions,” this bio-inspired solution is highly efficient and nontoxic, and folks are also interested in using it for wastewater treatment, biogas generation, composting, and emergency cleanup response. Sounds like a great idea.

Whale-inspired fans and wind turbines are also finding their way to market. The humpback whale is a graceful dancer, despite her size. An irregular jagged edge on the front of her flippers is the key, creating tiny whirlpool ball bearings along her skin. These increase lift by 8%, reduce drag by 30%, and increase the angle of attack by 40%. WhalePower is commercializing this by adding similar bumps to the leading edge of its industrial fan blades, reducing noise and increasing efficiency. Since fans consume 20% of our electricity, this represents a significant way to do more using less!

 

And here are a couple of other highly marketable ideas from the whale. A thick layer of fatty blubber insulates his body from the cold, but not his tongue. Since he thrusts it out into the water with every plankton-rich mouthful, this is a problem. In response, his tongue has become an enormous radiator, with blood vessels artfully arranged for maximum heat retention. Could we apply this strategy to cool electronics or buildings?

Last, the humpback whale’s 2,000 pound heart sees him through rough seas and deep dives. Microscopic heart ‘wires’ stimulate his heartbeats, even through thick, non-conducting blubber. Can his heart show us the way to better performing, less expensive, battery-free pacemakers? Maybe it’s a $3.7 billion industry just waiting for a solution from the great Blue Whale.

Read more: The Biomimicry Manual: What can the Blue Whale Teach Us About Fans and Filters? | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

 

Related articles

• From High-Rise to Low Impact: A Building That Mimics a Forest (science.kqed.org)
• Dolphins filmed having fun with a blue whale (Video) (treehugger.com)
• Watch these humpback whales come within feet of gobbling up two divers (io9.com)
• How Whales Avoid Sunburn (ilyaszoology.wordpress.com)

Before you leave….

Thank you for stopping by my blog! If you are an entreprenuer, blogger or want to learn how start a home based business sharing what you love, be sure to click on one of the banners on this site and watch the video to see why I chose Empower Network as my preferred blogging system for my business and personal use. It’s great way to earn extra income online, as well as get your posts/website ranked high in Google.

Think about it. How did you find this post? It wasn’t by accident.

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Email: empower@youreminentsuccess.com

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Your Eminent Success | Forward Into The Future