The world is good

2021-05-27 13:29:19 20 years on, the world’s biggest trash dump is now a green oasis

In its heyday, the Fresh Kills trash dump on Staten Island was one of the world’s great eyesores. Imagine New York’s Central Park with trash mounds 20 stories high. Now imagine that times three. That’s how bad it was.

By the late 1970s, an estimated 28,000 tons of trash arrived at Fresh Kills every day. But where there once was a giant dump just 20 years ago, a massive green park now sits where flora and fauna do as they please. How did this come to be?

After the dump was shut down in 2001, New York City gave the park to James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architects responsible for the famous High Line. The idea was not just to build a park, but to reimagine the idea of the park. If Frederick Law Olmsted’s Central Park was the work of a static, pastoral painter, then Mr. Corner and his team were less artists than restoration biologists, jump-starting a framework and leaving the ecology of the site itself to finish things up.

The core problem was adapting the site to address the trash — no less than 150 million tons of garbage had been dumped at Fresh Kills (roughly the equivalent of the amount of plastic currently floating in the ocean). The trash was capped with plastic, then slowly covered with millions of tons of clean soils, and planted with native grasses. The four garbage mountains were transformed into four soft green hills straddling the convergence of creeks.

Tree planting (started by arborists, accelerated by seed-carrying birds) occurred in coordination with the careful engineering of what you might call the dump’s natural excretions: the methane, and the leachate. Over the course of 20 years, the parks and sanitation departments worked together with Field Operations to restore tidal wetlands, generate forests, and grow scrublands  and wide-open fields of grasses. The Sanitation Department even refines the methane and pipes it to Staten Island homes for cooking and heat.

A few kayaks were permitted in the waterways in 2011. Goats were brought in for their ecological restoration skills in 2012. (They eat phragmites, a common reed that tends to take over.) An art gallery popped up in 2018. A first section of the park will open to the public in spring 2021. The rest will debut by 2036. Open / Comment

2021-05-26 10:46:04 A prototype of the concrete battery developed at Chalmers University of Technology Open / Comment

2021-05-26 10:45:54 Novel concrete battery could let buildings store their own energy

One of the more interesting areas of battery research centers on how these devices can not just store energy, but also double as structural components. We've seen some impressive examples of this that could be worked into electric vehicles, and now scientists in Sweden have applied this type of thinking to big buildings, demonstrating a novel type of cement-based battery that could see large structures constructed from functional concrete.

The research was carried out at Chalmers University of Technology, where scientists were working on developing more sustainable building materials, with a particular focus on concrete. As the world's most widely-used material and one that is very energy intensive to produce, we're seeing a lot of research into how the carbon footprint of concrete could be reduced, and the authors of this new study have come up with an interesting potential solution.

Like regular concrete, it starts with a cement-based mixture, but one spiked with small amounts of short carbon fibers to add conductivity and flexural strength. Also incorporated into the mix are a pair of carbon fiber meshes, one coated in iron to act as the battery's anode and the other coated in nickel to act as the cathode. As the battery's two electrodes, these ferry electrons back and forward as the device is charged and discharged.

The concrete-based battery was found to have an energy density of 7 Wh per square meter of material, which the team says could prove more than 10 times greater than previous concrete-based batteries. It is, however, still far lower than commercial batteries, but the fact that it is made of concrete, which can be scaled up to form massive structures, could help counter its limited capacity.

The scientists imagine all sorts of uses for their innovative battery design, starting with buildings that can double as energy storage devices. It could also be used to power LEDs, provide 4G connections in remote areas, or be paired with solar panels to power sensors built into concrete structures, like along highways and bridges.

The team notes that it is very early stages for the research, with some technical problems still to iron out. Some of the key questions to answer relate to the lifespan of the battery, as concrete structures are typically made to last decades or more. So the scientists will need to work out either how to make the battery last as long, or come up with a way to extract and replace them once they wear out. In any case, they are optimistic about the possibilities. Open / Comment

2021-05-25 12:11:26 Open / Comment

2021-05-25 12:11:19 Biodegradable Food Wrap Created From Algae and Cinnamon Compound is the Packaging Solution We Needed

Scientists from India and Russia have created edible food wrap for packaging produce, bakery, poultry, meat, and seafood.

Designed to replace one of the most un-recycled materials on the planet, the wrap consists of natural ingredients that are safe for the environment and humans. The research, which was published in the Journal of Food Engineering, describes three types of food films based on the well-known naturally occurring seaweed biopolymer sodium alginate—a compound found within the cell walls of brown algae.

“Its molecules have film-forming properties,” said Rammohan Aluru, senior researcher at the organic synthesis laboratory at Ural Federal University, and co-author of the paper. “The greatest advantage of sodium alginate is that it performs as liquid-gel in an aqueous medium.”

Alginate molecules were cross-linked with a natural antioxidant ferulic acid (a derivative of cinnamic acid), and the delicious combination makes the film not only strong, but also homogeneous, more rigid, prolonging the life of the products, say the scientists.

“Food stays fresh longer due to the antioxidant components that slow down the oxidation processes,” said Grigory Zyryanov, professor of the Department of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry at Ural Federal University. “

And, the films are water-soluble and dissolve by almost 90% in 24 hours.
In addition, we can add to the films natural antiviral agents, which will also extend the shelf life of food. Garlic, turmeric, and ginger contain compounds that may prevent the spread of the viruses.” According to the authors, no special equipment for the production of films is required. On an industrial scale, it can be created by food products and film manufacturers.

“It can also be produced at a polymer production plant. The only condition is that it must meet the standards that apply to food production. And if an inexhaustible source of algae in the ocean is nearby it will be quite simple to create such films,” said Grigory Zyryanov.

Joined by scientists from the Sri Venkateswara and Sri Padmavati Mahila Viswavidyalayam Universities in India, the research was supported by that country’s University Grants Commission and the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, also in India.

Sodium alginate is a well-known edible biopolymer of natural origin used as a thickener and stabilizer, and ferulic acid (the derivative of cinnamic acid) has a wide range of pharmacological properties, in particular, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antitoxic, hepato- and cardioprotective, antiviral, and antibacterial ones, which is mainly due to the antioxidant properties of this acid. Open / Comment

2021-05-24 10:38:57 https://vimeo.com/386805764 Open / Comment

2021-05-24 10:38:54 3 project that help children

Because International
Over two billion people have some kind of soil-transmitted disease. More than 300 million kids do not have shoes—and countless more have shoes that do not fit. When kids have shoes that fit, they can stay healthy and continue to go to school, help their families and communities and have as many chances to succeed as possible. Kenton and the team at Because International have created The Shoe That Grows—a shoe that can adjust and expand five sizes and last up to five years—to address this problem. The team distributes shoes to kids worldwide, providing a pair of shoes that fits year after year.

Acton Children’s Business Fair
In 2007 Jeff and Laura Sandefer wanted to spark a sense of wonder and entrepreneurship in their children. With the help of a few other families, they created the first Acton Children's Business Fair in Austin, Texas. The Sandefer's enjoyed their first Children's Business Fair so much, they knew they had to share it.
The Acton Children’s Business Fair is a free program offered to entrepreneurial families by the growing network of Acton Academy schools and the Acton Next Great Adventure program.
Hosting a fair can be surprisingly inexpensive. For a small fair, all you need is a small yard or some greenspace, a few donated card tables and some excited young entrepreneurs from your neighborhood.

Social Innovation Academy
Marginalized youth and refugees lack opportunities to create a dignified life and are expected to remain in poverty. Social Innovation Academies in East Africa are transforming the educational system and allowing marginalized communities to create their own solutions and social enterprises tackling root causes of social problems.
SINA was born in 2014 after of six years of educational sponsorships for Ugandan orphans, who could not find meaningful employment or go to university after completing high school.
It has been able to create mindset changes and unleash the potential of youth. Over 35 social enterprises have been born at SINA and have impacted close to 1 million lives with their products and services. SINA Scholars have also won numerous international awards. Open / Comment

2021-05-23 13:41:02 Open / Comment

2021-05-23 13:40:54 Harvard researchers uncover breakthrough in lithium-metal battery efficiency

Researchers at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science have discovered what is being referred to as the “holy grail” of battery breakthroughs, solving a 40-year quest for a fast-charging, long-lasting electric vehicle battery. 

The newly developed lithium-metal batteries are capable of holding substantially more energy and charging in a fraction of the time compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries. The new battery can be charged and used at least 10,000 times while also increasing range and charging speed. 

The technology takes advantage of assembly to boost performance, using a multi-layer approach to put them together to slow degradation.

Xin Li, an associate professor at Harvard who worked on the project says, “This proof-of-concept design shows that lithium-metal solid-state batteries could be competitive with commercial lithium-ion batteries. And the flexibility and versatility of our multilayer design make it potentially compatible with mass production procedures in the battery industry.”

This research is critical in expanding the reach of EV technology while reducing battery waste. It provides an additional resource to help facilitate the anticipated growth of EVs that will make gas-free models more affordable than combustion-powered engines by 2027. Open / Comment

2021-05-22 11:34:26 Open / Comment