Imagine cars that change colors on-demand, or bridges and buildings whose colors reflect the amount of strain or stress applied to them. We would all benefit from such innovation.
Last week, March 12, researchers at the University of California, (UCL), Berkeley, announced the creation of a thin semiconductor film of silicon, 120 nanometers thick, that when flexed or bent can reflect colors on a wide variety of the light spectrum; a color-changing sensor film.
Attempts at creating a color changing sensor is not new. Last year, in a research funded by the National Science Foundation, (NSF), researchers at the same University, but the Riverside campus, created a nanosphere-laced polymer that changes color under stress using gold nanoparticles. What differentiates the silicon film from other sensors is that the range of reflected light is much flexible and the material used was much more permeable to bending or flexing.
The colors of a butterfly excites the emotions.Credit: Stux on Pixabay.
The idea behind the invention came from nowhere but nature. They conceived the idea of imitating butterflies and beetles who create iridescent displays of colors.
According to one of the researchers, "the next step is to make this larger-scale and there are facilities already that could do so," said Chang-Hasnain. "At that point, we hope to be able to find applications in entertainment, security, and monitoring."
Cars of tomorrow might respond like a chameleon to its environment, or change to colors reflecting the amount of pressure applied to the body, or in relation to the amount of stress or strain undergone during its lifetime. The possibilities are enormous.
No matter how poisonous it is to the brain, especially to infants, children and fetuses, mercury pollution seems unavoidable, especially if you live in a developing country where regulation and alternatives seem nonexistent or very expensive. Name it – either from plants manufacturing chlorine bleach, detergents or shoes, or firms where Polylvinyl Chloride (a.k.a PVC) is part of the production process, then mercury pollution is part of the problems we have to bear.
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According to the environmental protection agency (EPA), the waste that is left for many days in your kitchen, medical waste and incinerators that are used to burn these wastes also emit mercury into the atmosphere. In countries with coal mining industries, mercury is emitted into the atmosphere through coal-fired plants, or cement industries that fire kilns run by coal. The worst culprit, tralala!, is gold mining. Thousands of pounds of mercury are released when that wonderful metal is heated for separation and not only into the air, directly into underground water.
Pollution does not only contaminate the waters, air and land, it also makes us sick and sometimes, the costs in ill-health and lost working days run into the billions. So, is it with mercury pollution.
Mercury pollution works by bioaccumulation and bioconcentration.
If ecosystems and food chains were as simple as an artists imagination, there would be less problems from pollution and human negative impacts. Flickr.com/rubyblossomUnlike greenhouses gases like carbon dioxide which directly pollutes your lungs and gives you cancer and ill-health, mercury pollution works indirectly. Mercury pollution works by bioaccumulation and bioconcentration.
Bioaccumulation is the process of taking in a pollutant such as mercury and then storing them in the body . After mercury is released into the air and water through the sources which I outlined above, the eventual media for mercury reaction to take place is water. Whether in soils containing water or in bodies of water, there are some organisms that methylate mercury or add methyl compound to mercury, thereby transforming it to methylmercury (MeHg). Methylmercury, not mercury on its own, is the devil to be afraid of. MeHg is a neurotoxin, damages the brain and impairs neuromotor development. Methylmercury accumulates in tiny plants and animals which are the start of the food chain. By a series, whether short or lengthy, of consumption patterns, MeHg accumulates in the food chain and into our meals.
First, tiny plants (or phytoplanktons) and animals (or zooplanktons) take up MeHg. These are then eaten up by other animals, accumulating it. Eventually big fishes and animals like Tilapia eat these other fishes and also accumulate MeHg. Finally, you and I take up these poisons into our system when we catch and make these big fishes part of our meals. The higher the organism is in the food chain, or the bigger the size of the organism, the higher the amount of MeHg poison you will find in it. This means that by eating big fishes like Tilapia contaminated with methylMercury, you stand a high chance of having it in your system. This process is called bioconcentration, the higher an organism is in the food chain, the higher its concentration of methylmercury.
The cost is extremely high
MeHg pollution attacks the nervous system, whether in adults or children, although children, fetuses and infants are more vulnerable. It damages the nervous system. It can stop your nerves from working well; can affect the workings of your memory such that you can no longer keep attention when needed; it can affect how your limbs work, and furthermore, it can affect how your eyes calculates space such that you could mistakenly fall down from a story building without realizing it. In health and human terms, the cost is enormous.
A team of researchers wanted to find out the effect of MeHg poisoning in 17 European countries by collecting hair samples from mothers and their children. They found that 1.8 million children are born exposed to toxic levels of MeHg, and of these, about 13% (i.e 232,000) are exposed to hazardous levels. By country analyses showed that children born in Portugal and Spain were most exposed, while Hungarian children were the least.
A member of the research team, Prof. Philippe Grandjean, explained that converting the effects of MeHg on developing brains into IQ points would mean that controlling MeHg pollution equates to 700,000 IQ points per year that would be salvaged; translated into monetary benefits, these is equal to between 8 billion to 9 billion euros per year for the whole of the European Union . Controlling exposure levels in European countries is certainly worth the effort.
The task of controlling MeHg is everyone’s responsibility.
Although MeHg seems unavoidable, the task of controlling it is everyone’s responsibility. Reducing exposure to safety limits should be the goal of every country. Many corporations are going green these days. You can encourage your local power supplier to do the same. When buying items like shoes, bags, and detergents, ask about the manufacturing process. Read the labels. Make sure PVC was not used in the production process. Ask experts in your local community about this if you are in doubt. Keep yourself informed concerning health, safety and environmental issues.
Doing the above, as well as other safety measures, will go a long way in either ensuring you are free from MeHg poisoning, or you chose a lifestyle that will ensure your exposure to MeHg is below the safe limit of 0.58µg/g recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
As of writing this article, a yahoo online news article reports that [u.n clinches global deal on cutting mercury emissions more than 140 countries have agreed on the first global treaty to cut mercury pollution through a blacklist of household items and new controls on power plants and small-scale mines, the United Nations said on Saturday, January 19.The treaty will take between three to five years to come into effect. This is welcome news for world health. I pray the UN does achieve its goals.
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It is no news that man is faced with a food crisis, especially in developing countries and Africa due to the effects of climate change. Millions go hungry and starve in countries like Sudan and Ethiopia because they do not have enough to eat. Why should it be news that a class of animals, the humble bees, are facing serious decline worldwide?
Bees. Valuable factors in food production. Credit:Alliect 27/Flickr.com
Bees, like bats, are pollinators. That means, they carry pollen from one crop to the other, thereby fertilizing plants. Plant fertilization is a factor for food production. So, the picture is that when bee population is on steep decline, plant fertilization will seriously drop and crop production will also decline. Eventually, if the matter is not tackled on time, we could be awaiting a food catastrophe the like that would drastically change world food sources and supply, and including who gets to eat and who goes hungry. Crops the bees pollinate are also needed as inputs in other industries like the clothing industry.
The mystery of the decline is solved.
The problem is manifold. First, bees are in serious decline. This situation has been referred to as “colony collapse disorder.” Male adult bees are rapidly dying off or deserting their queen, thereby weakening the chances of the survival of the colony. In addition to that, human manipulation has put the lives of these bees at risk. Pesticides have been found in wax samples, some like neonicotinoids, have been identified as posing a danger to the bees and their ability to carry out pollination. Furthermore, habitat destruction and fragmentation as a result of land development and the spread of monoculture agriculture makes the diverse natural food supply that pollinators need scarcer and more expensive. The planting of genetically modified organism (GMO) crops may also be responsible for poisoning bees and weakening their immune systems when these crops contain toxic insecticides within their genetic structure. A Nigerian agriculturist, Mr. Victor Obi, made a note that bee life cycles are being upset.
How does this translate to your income and food supplies? In euro terms, about 153 billion euros would be lost worldwide if bees cannot carry out their pollination activities.
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This represents, at 2005 estimates, 9.5% of the value of world agricultural production that humans use as food. Food that are highly at risk are fruits, vegetables, nuts, coffee and cocoa. The loss to you as a consumer, that is, what we all stand to lose if nothing is done to stem this rapid bee decline will, in euro terms, amount to between 190 and 310 billion euros in 2005 terms . Not only are widespread global agricultural catastrophe being awaited, but it would overturn and be a huge economic shock to so many economies in the world.
A laudable project you can partake in.
It is important then that this trend be well reported and monitored. It is as much of serious concern as climate change given the figures involved. That is why a lead organizer of an annual bee population counting program, “Great Sunflower Project”, Professor of Biology Gretchen LeBuhn, in a United Nations-sponsored study, is undertaking bee population counting projects in 200 locations worldwide. These projects are to serve as early warning signals that could help agriculturists and conservationists, understand the problem of declining bee populations. And the cost? Just a meager $2 million dollars.
Designed to be simple, repeatable, inexpensive and quick to detect bee population declines, compared with the potential economic losses the world faces, the estimated costs for employing international sample sites scaled to fit regional monitoring needs is little change.
You can join the Great Sunflower Project if you think you can help the world understand why bee populations are declining.
Solutions before the end comes
Counting and monitoring bee populations could be one solution to solving the problem. Another is also creating bee-friendly seed mixtures. You know, bees are specialized pollinators. That is, they are choosy about crops they pollinate. These seed mixtures aim to attract bees naturally to plants needing their assistance. Another approach would be for beekeepers to stay abreast of the news related to the industry, especially as it pertains to shipping bees to areas where they are needed for commercial pollination, staying clear of harmful pesticides and herbicides etcetera.
The rapid decline in bee population is nature’s way of telling us that environmental conditions are seriously declining. Present human breeding practices and the use of deadly toxins should be rethought. Either we will eventually learn to live with less choices in food supply if this trend is not checked, or millions of persons will not find food reaching them for survival, or both. That is why we have to join the fight against bees decline now.
You can show your support by visiting the Great Sunflower Project website now!
power cuts are a constant aspect of Nigerian life. Sometimes you wonder how we are going to develop technologically without constant power supply. Why is it that often there is no light?
Businesses need power or light, in the local slang. Homes also do but reflecting on nature, we'd have to realize that we don't need to complain all the time about there being no constant light. We need to thank heavens it's even available.
How and Why?
Watch nature. God made it possible that there is light and darkness. There are animals that work in light and some that work in darkness and never both and some in both luminaries. Take the dog for example. The dog works during the day but bats work at night while humans work both during the day and night.
learning from nature helps us become innovative and content with what we have. It is known that necessity is the mother of invention and so can Nigerians be in this case and learning to cope with little means you can survive in much.
Think very much about this. I did and learnt lessons myself.
