The world is good

2021-09-28 10:42:57 Open / Comment

2021-09-28 10:42:49 This technique measures drinking water quality using a smartphone camera

While the provision of safe drinking water in impoverished countries is of vital importance, people often lack the facilities necessary to test the water for pollutants. To help solve that problem, a team of scientists has developed a system that uses a smartphone camera to check up on tiny aquatic organisms.

Coming from researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, the setup is designed to analyze untreated water samples from lakes and rivers right on the spot, within just a few minutes.

The team came up with the system after zeroing in on paramecia, single-celled organisms that are abundant in bodies of water across the world. The researchers first noted the average swimming speed of the organisms in unpolluted water, and then observed how much the speed varied as different concentrations of toxins such as heavy metals and antibiotics were introduced.

Next, the scientists measured the swimming speed of the microorganism in water samples using a simple microscope attachment on a phone camera, along with object tracking algorithms. The team then discovered that they could accurately identify how polluted the water was, just by observing how much slower than normal the paramecia swam.

They found, for instance, that even when polluting elements were present in concentrations considered to be half of what’s safe for drinking, the swimming speed of the paramecia decreased by half, reports New Atlas.

“Taking a sample of water and measuring the speed of paramecia can therefore be used as a straightforward method to assess the drinkability of water without the need for specialized equipment or chemicals,” says Fernandez. “Usually, you would need a different test for each pollutant, but paramecia swimming is a global measurement.” Open / Comment

2021-09-27 11:19:23 Open / Comment

2021-09-27 11:19:12 Ancient footprints could be earliest evidence of humans in the Americas

Exciting new research from a team of archeologists in New Mexico shows that humans likely reached the Americas far earlier than previously thought. A hotly debated topic in the scientific community, previous research placed the arrival of humans in the North American interior around 16,000 years ago, but new evidence suggests they may have arrived a whole 7,000 years before that.

The team of researchers discovered a set of human footprints which they have dated to between 23,000 and 21,000 years old. Found in the soft mud near an ancient shallow lake which now forms part of Alkali Flat in White Sands, the footprints suggest that there are multiple previously unknown human migrations in the Americas and that some earlier populations could have even gone extinct.

The radiocarbon dating was conducted by a team from the US Geological Survey. The footprints, which appear to belong to teenagers or young adults walking back and forth in the area, offer insights into what life was like for the earliest inhabitants of the Americas. Based on the tracks, the researchers have hypothesized that the creators of the prints could have been collecting firewood or hunting.

Footprints hold significant weight in the field of population dating as they cannot migrate between layers of sediment like tools or bones can. The researchers are confident in their assertions even after taking into account the “reservoir effect”—the phenomenon in which carbon can sometimes get recycled in aqueous environments, making some layers appear older than they are.

These new footprints suggest that humans arrived in the North American interior by the height of the last Ice Age, offering insights and of course provoking new questions on the movement of our ancestors on this planet. Open / Comment

2021-09-26 11:14:59 Open / Comment

2021-09-26 11:14:49 Spain to ban plastic wrapping on fruits and vegetables by 2023

After years of campaigning from green activists to stop grocers and large supermarkets alike from wrapping fresh produce in plastic packaging, the Spanish government is now finally devising legislation that will ban the use of this unnecessary waste by 2023.

The move is part of a decree currently being drafted by the country’s Ministry for Ecological Transition and will include measures to encourage the purchase of loose, unpackaged produce, and the use of reusable bottles for water.

The ban on fruit and vegetable wrapping will apply to produce weighing under 1.5kg, and mirrors similar legislation from France, where it will go into effect next year, reports El País. The ban is intended to “fight the overuse of packaging in the most effective way,” said a ministry spokesperson, adding that plastic pollution “has exceeded all limits.”

In addition to slashing fresh produce wrapping, the decree also intends to compel authorities at every level of government to “encourage the installation of drinking fountains in public spaces” while “introducing alternatives to the sale of bottled drinks,” as well as rolling back “the distribution of single-use drinking cups” at public events, beginning in 2023.

Among the primary goals of the new legislation is to slash the sale of plastic bottles for drinks by 50 percent by 2030 and ensure that 100 percent of packaging on the market is recyclable. Spain follows in the footsteps of other governments that have recently stepped up their efforts to close the tap on plastic pollution, including the UK, Chile, and India. Open / Comment

2021-09-25 11:26:39 Open / Comment

2021-09-25 11:26:31 This company offers accessible pharmacy services for the vision impaired

During the pandemic, many of us relied on drive-through services to pick up essential medications or get a Covid test, but for blind or vision-impaired individuals, these convenient and safe options were simply not a possibility. Even before the pandemic, accessing and reading prescriptions was significantly more difficult for the vision impaired. Even if someone can get a ride to a pharmacy, reading prescription instructions and differentiating between prescriptions is difficult. This inequality is what prompted Alex Cohen and Andy Burstein to launch Accessible Pharmacy Services, a pharmaceutical services company specifically for the blind and vision impaired.

Based in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, the company offers prescription mailing services, and each prescription label comes with Braille, large print, and audio. Using ScripTalk, the label can be translated into spoken word using an app or free-standing device. Some packaging even offers tactile differentiations for morning and evening doses.

In addition to more accessible labels, the company also employs concierge agents who help coordinate refills, answer dosage questions, and communicate with patients’ doctors. Patients can also use Accessible Pharmacy Services to order medical equipment like blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, and blood glucose meters.

Pharmacy accessibility services for all may seem like a clear need, but if you’re not one of the 12 million people in the US with impaired vision, you might not even think about the limitations of traditional pharmacies. This lack of awareness is part of the reason that Accessible Pharmacy Services meets with an advisory panel of blind adults each month to identify potential shortcomings in their business model. So far, these meetings have led to the addition of pet and guide-dog medications to the delivery menu and over-the-counter essentials like aspirin and toothpaste.

Some states have taken initiative to expand pharmacy services for the vision impaired. Nevada and Oregon both mandate that pharmacies make a prescription reader available to customers, while Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Maine are exploring legislation that would require prescription labels to include Braille, print, high-contrast, and audio. Until more states adopt these measures, Accessible Pharmacy Services is operating in 31 states and hopes to expand to the entire US in the near future. Open / Comment

2021-09-24 12:24:41 Open / Comment

2021-09-24 12:24:35 This sleek pair of sunglasses is made from carbon sucked from the air

In recent years, the fashion industry has welcomed an increasing number of innovative brands whose goal is to weave sustainability into the clothes and accessories we wear. As part of its goal to make the fashion industry more environmentally friendly, Pangaia has developed a pair of limited-edition sunglasses using state-of-the-art technology from Twelve, a startup that creates petrochemicals — the building blocks of almost every product we use — out of captured CO2.

While polycarbonate lenses in sunglasses are typically made from fossil fuels, Pangaia’s latest pair uses Twelve’s “CO2Made” chemicals instead. “We’re always looking for places where we can take the waste and transform it into something useful,” Amanda Parkes, chief innovation officer at Pangaia, tells Fast Company. “We’re trying to get away from why there should even be a waste. Nature works in full circles, where everything is reused, and we should mimic that in our process around the product.”

The company normally works with plant-based materials, but making polycarbonate out of bio-based sources is a very difficult undertaking, explains Parkes. “There are still some things that haven’t quite been figured out in the biosynthesis category. And polycarbonate is an advanced plastic that has really amazing characteristics of durability.” Indeed, the material is about 10 times stronger than glass or standard plastic, and it won’t shatter if it breaks.

Though they raise the bar quite high in terms of sustainability, the limited-edition steel-frame sunglasses are also quite pricey, selling at $495 a pair. The sunglasses, however, won’t be the last product created by Pangaia with Twelve technology, with the company planning to expand its line of products that include materials made from captured greenhouse gases. Open / Comment