Algae to power electronics in future

Reports indicate that scientists are working towards developing paper-based batteries made from algae to power electronics in the future.

According to a report in Live Science, scientists worldwide are striving to develop thin, flexible, lightweight, inexpensive, environmentally friendly batteries made entirely from nonmetal parts.

Among the most promising materials for these batteries are conducting polymers.

However, until now these have impractical for use in batteries - for instance, their ability to hold a charge often degrades over use.

The key to this new battery turned out to be an often bothersome green algae known as Cladophora.

Rotting heaps of this hairlike freshwater plant throughout the world can lead to unsightly, foul-smelling beaches.

This algae makes an unusual kind of cellulose typified by a very large surface area, 100 times that of the cellulose found in paper.

This allowed researchers to dramatically increase the amount of conducting polymer available for use in the new device, enabling it to better recharge, hold and discharge electricity.

"We have long hoped to find some sort of constructive use for the material from algae blooms and have now been shown this to be possible," said researcher Maria Stromme, a nanotechnologist at Uppsala University in Sweden.

"This creates new possibilities for large-scale production of environmentally friendly, cost-effective, lightweight energy storage systems," she added.

The new batteries consisted of extremely thin layers of conducting polymer just 40 to 50 nanometers or billionths of a meter wide coating algae cellulose fibers only 20 to 30 nanometers wide that were collected into paper sheets.

They could hold 50 to 200 percent more charge than similar conducting polymer batteries, and once better optimized, they might even be competitive with commercial lithium batteries, the researchers noted.

They also recharged much faster than conventional rechargeable batteries.

While a regular battery takes at least an hour to recharge, the new batteries could recharge in anywhere from eight minutes to just 11 seconds.

The new battery also showed a dramatic boost in the ability to hold a charge over use.

While a comparable polymer battery showed a 50 per cent drop in the amount of charge it could hold after 60 cycles of discharging and recharging, the new battery showed just a 6 percent loss through 100 charging cycles.

The researchers suggested that their batteries appear well-suited for applications involving flexible electronics, such as clothing and packaging.

iPhone can act as chemical detector

If scientists have their way, then smartphones like the iPhone may double up as chemical sensors that can transmit alerts to first responders about the release of dangerous chemicals.

According to a report in Live Science, a Nasa scientist has unveiled a postage-stamp-sized sensor that can plug into an iPhone and convert Apple's beloved product into a mobile chemical detector.

The tiny device can sniff out low amounts of ammonia, chlorine gas and methane, and send alerts to other phones or computers over regular phone networks or a Wi-Fi connection.

"Ours is the smallest in the world that can do complete sensing work," said Jing Li, a physical scientist at NASA''s Ames Research Center in California.

Her prior work gave the device a strong NASA pedigree that includes air quality sensors tested on the International Space Station.

Li and other researchers developed the proof of concept for the Department of Homeland Security's Cell-All program.

Homeland Security hopes to eventually see such sensing chips embedded in everybody''s cell phone, so that the mobile devices could form a huge chemical-alert network wherever people go.

The new silicon-based sensing chip contains 64 nanosensors that combine compactness, low-cost, low-power and high-speed.

Li's group created a power-sipping sensing chip that consumed just 5 milliwatts, or 40 milliwatts when combined with a sampling jet to help pick up chemical traces.

By comparison, an iPhone 3G charger might draw about 2 watts, or 2,000 milliwatts.

The research team estimated that an iPhone battery can last for more than 100 hours while running the sensing chip continuously, without the sampling jet.

Having continuous use with the sampling jet cuts the battery endurance down to around 20 hours - but Li pointed out that the sensing chip would probably run with only a time interval, such as every 5 or 10 minutes for a 1 or 2 minute operation, based on the user''s desire.

Li's group plans create a slicker sensor that can display the data right on the iPhone, because a computer is currently required to do all the data decoding.

The researchers want to not only identify chemicals by name, but also detect chemical concentration, humidity and temperature.

They even plan on the data including pinpoint locations of the chemical events, courtesy of GPS on the iPhone.

Scientists grow meat in laboratory

London: In what can be claimed a breakthrough, scientists have for the first time grown a form of meat in a laboratory, but they are yet to taste it.

A team in the Netherlands has created the "soggy pork" by using cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish, which it believes may lead to sausages and processed products being made from laboratory meat in five years.

The scientists extracted cells from the muscle of a live pig and then put them in a broth of other animal products. The cells then multiplied and created muscle tissue.

"You could take the meat from one animal and create the volume of meat previously provided by a million animals," The Sunday Times quoted Mark Post of Eindhoven University, who is leading the Dutch government-funded research.

The scientists have so far managed to develop a soggy form of pork and are seeking to improve its texture.

"What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. "We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there. This product will be good for the environment and will reduce animal suffering. If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it," Post said.

Sri Rama – The Model Leader for the World

On this auspicious occasion of 25^th International Ramayana Conference, let us observe the great traits of leadership in Raama, as portrayed by Sage Valmeeki in Ramayana. Leadership is a natural trait for many people, among which Sri Rama stands as the tallest.

Leadership cannot demand respect, but shall command respect. To command respect, leadership cannot limit itself to preaching, but shall stand in the frontline, to practise the tenets of the philosophy, they follow. Valour is not to slay a mighty person or a group of weak kneed foot soldiers. Valiant Leader is the one, who does not crumble under pressure to compromise the principles.

To analyse this better, let us remember some of the ground rules to define leadership and valour.

· विकारहेतौ सति विक्रियन्ते येषान्न चेतांसि त एव धीराः। They are the brave people, whose minds do not waver in the trying circumstances.

· न मात्सर्यं न च क्रोधः न भीतिः, न च भेदधीः। No Jealousy, No Fury, No Fear, No Discrimination – These are traits of a good leader.

· न खलु वयस्तेजसो हेतुः। The nature of great people is noticed from the very beginning. Age cannot be the criteria, for bravado.

· संस्कारमात्रेण जनः प्रवर्तते, निर्बन्धवाक्यं फलदायि न स्यात्। स्वयं त्वनुष्ठाय फल प्रदर्शनं You need not and should not force someone to follow your principle. Instead, exhibit your achievement and success by simply putting into practice your guiding principles. Your success should induce your follower to be guided by your philosophy. This will have long lasting effect, rather than compulsion.

· धर्म एव हतो हन्ति धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः। Dharma is a principle, which protects the humanity, if followed properly. If violated, it would turn out to be your nemesis. Apply this to the instance of a traffic rule, which prohibits traffic movement on the right side of the road (in India). If you violate this principle, collision is inevitable which could result in grievous injury and even death.

All of the above mentioned sentences are exemplified by Sri Rama. We shall now analyse the Magnanimous personality of Raama by citing some of the instances from Ramayana.

Generally people tend to follow principles, if it conforms to their convenience. A person can be termed, as principled if does follow under two circumstances.

1. In the most trying difficult moment.

2. In absolute privacy (where there is no supervision or surveillance

Though most of us come across such situations of life it is common that we succumb to the temptation. The incarnation of Rama was to help us draw parallels of joys and sorrows of life and manners of dealing with the circumstances. All through his life, Rama had faced many such testing situations in life. His apt behaviour had not only defined his virtuous character, but also laid ground rules for thousands of generations to emulate. Let us cite some of them.

1. Following Sage Viswamitra to the forest, in view of the compelling state of his unwilling father

2. Slaying the demoness Taataka

3. Relinquishing throne, to honour the promise of his father to Kaikayee.

4. Reaffirming his resolve to spend 14 years of Life in forest, even without basic amenities

5. Refusing the lusty overtures of Surpanakha (even in absolute privacy)

6. Obliging Hermits to control the misdeeds of demons

7. Providing refuge to the kin of the enemy, without inhibition

8. Dispatching an emissary with a message of peach to avoid bloodshed of thousands of followers (Soldiers) and ordinary mortals losing life for the sake of the lust of their ruler

9. Ensuring decent funeral and according respects to the brave and great enemy, in spite of his committed sins

10. Assigning the kingdom to the native, instead of usurping the defeated regime

These are some of the examples to draw our attention to the fact that, Sri Rama had been a leader to inspire scrupulous adherence to fundamental principles of life. In fact, he was a sort of unassuming leader inspiring millions of people throughout the kingdom to follow his path.

Normally, ideals are construed as impractical. (Whatever is termed as good ideal ought not to be practical, due to constraints and temptations). However, Rama’s regime was one such exception in known human history, where the emperor had led his subjects to practise and uphold Dharma. Precisely, this is the reason, why we fondly term the word Raama Raajya, which refers to the combination of idealism with practicality.

Eventful years in the history of Raama, such as the 14^th year of Vana Vaasa (Stint at the Forest) and the preceding and following years are gloriously portrayed in many treatises, due to the dramatic values. But, very little is said about the institution, Sri Rama had set up during his greatest regime, spanning over 10,000 long years. He was the first known ruler to assign administrative divisions to able men, among the clan for better administration. In fact, this decentralisation of power had averted frequent battles.

Moreover, no transgression on the part of administrators or officials was overlooked and excused, instilling a sense of accountability among ruling class. Absence of this vital aspect, wreaks havoc in the world, as it is evident. Threat of usage of Force, rather than the actual usage of force worked wonders in his regime. This was solely possible; due to the moral authority he exercised to pre-empt the crime; apart from the divine prowess.

The first chapter of Ramayana enlists the virtues mandatory for an administrator. Ramayana mentions, the humility required for the mighty, so that one does not end up being arrogant.

In these days, in the garb of secularism, we are not teaching the next generation, the basic ethos of our culture. Even those, reading Ramayana as a religious scripture are oblivious of the great Dharmik traits exhibited by Sri Rama, ending up as equally indifferent. In this process, the society is getting demoralised, in the sense of insensitivity towards morality and ethics. In fact, conservative Europe is still lucky to have the religious education, in which students inculcate fundamental ethics of life. But, for minor exceptions the system has been quite useful, as we can observe. Etymologically speaking, religion is to reconnect our self to divinity, so that we remain poised and dignified in joy and sorrow.

In order to train our future administrators, officials and to inspire the rulers including politicians to do the perfect job, it is highly needed to study the Ramayana from the administrative perspective. Rather than looking Rama as a mythological figure or a religious personality, it is quite pertinent to view his administrative personality as a case study and to emulate the precedent, as applicable to current day context.

On this forum, we call upon the intelligentsia and political leadership, to wake up and address the calamity of ethical degeneration, resulting in the disintegration of society due to corrupt practices and environmental pollution due to greed, perversion and neglect. Poverty in terms of values and ethics is far more frightening than material poverty, as affluence acquired thru ill-gotten methods is destined to end up in disaster sooner or later. This is often proved by history.

Let us vow to emulate Sri Rama in right earnest and promote His principles thru the study of Ramayana.

आपदा मपहर्तारं दातारं सर्वसम्पदाम्।

लोकाभिरामं श्रीरामं भूयो भूयो नमाम्यहम्।

श्रीरामाय नमः

Overuse of antibiotics can make you drug resistant during critical & Serious treatment

London: Regular use of cough and cold medicines is not good for health as it makes a person immune against antibiotics, experts have warned.

The prescription of the pills, even when it is not required, is fuelling a rise in number of infections that are resistant to antibiotics, experts at European Centre of Disease prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm said.

Due to routine use of cough and cold drugs, modern medicine is reaching a point when it will not be able to function as antibiotics would become powerless to fight life-threatening hospital infections, the Telegraph reported.

"If this wave of antibiotic resistance gets over us, we will not be able to do organ transplants, hip replacements, cancer chemotherapy, intensive care and neonatal care for premature babies," said Dominic Monnet, senior expert at ECDC.

Echoing Monnet's views, Laurance Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association's General Physicians committee, said, "the idea that antibiotics cure coughs and colds and are all purpose things that are good for you has to be discarded".

Sarah Earnshaw, another expert at ECDC said, patients, especially parents are often demanding antibiotics for their children. A survey in 2002 showed that 60 per cent of people did not know that antibiotics do not work against viruses such as flu".

The ECDC would be writing to all general physicians warning them about overuse of the drugs and giving them materials to help them explain to demanding patients that antibiotics must be used sparingly, she added.

SOLAR ENERGY FROM SPACE for the usage on EARTH

It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan’s space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves.

The government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades.

With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in renewable energies and this year set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.

But Japan’s boldest plan to date is the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), in which arrays of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres (square miles) in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming,” researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, wrote in a report.

The cells would capture the solar energy, which is at least five times stronger in space than on Earth, and beam it down through clusters of lasers or microwaves.

3 Vegetables That Fight Against Stomach Fat

3 Vegetables That Fight Against Stomach Fat

A unique way that a few specific vegetables can actually stimulate the burning of abdominal fat...

An Article by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist

I bet you didn't know that there is a specific class of vegetables that contain very specific phytonutrients that actually help to fight against stubborn belly fat.

Let me explain what these unique vegetables are and why they help to burn stomach fat...

Chemicals that force your body to hold onto belly fat

Something you may have never heard about is that certain chemicals in our food supply and our environment, such as pesticides, herbicides, and certain petrochemicals from air and water pollution, household cleaners, cosmetics, etc can react with your body and make your body store excess abdominal fat.

These chemicals are known as xenoestrogens.

Xenoestrogens are chemicals that you are exposed to (and are hard to avoid in the modern world) that have an estrogenic effect in your body.  Excess exposure to these can cause hormone balance disruptions for both men and women. So these can wreak havoc in the body for both guys and gals.

These estrogenic chemicals that we are exposed to on a daily basis can stimulate your body to store belly fat, along with many other problems (including cancer risks in the long term).

So here's where this specific class of vegetables comes in handy...

One of those cool tricks that I teach my clients that hire me for nutritional counseling is the use of cruciferous vegetables to help fight against stomach fat.

Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, etc. contain very specific and unique phytonutrients such as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) that help to fight against these estrogenic compounds...

And by fighting against these belly fat stimulating estrogenic chemicals, this is just 1 more step in helping you to win the battle against abdominal fat!

So there you go... just another excuse to do what mom always told you and eat more broccoli!

Alternate-day fasting best bet to fight flab

UPAVAASAM on Festivals/ Vratas was meant for that!!

Alternate-day fasting can be the right way lose weight and boost cardio-vascular health, experts from University of Illinois at Chicago have suggested.

The conclusion was reached after observing 16 obese people-12 women and four men- who ordained to a 10-week trial of not eating any food every alternate day.

The age group of the studied people was between 35-65, while their weight was more than £210 each.

Also, they had kept their weight stable for the previous three months, and had body mass indexes of between 30 and 39.9.

Attention was given that none was diabetic, had a history of cardiovascular disease, was taking weight-loss or lipid- or glucose-lowering medications, or smoked.

The study was divided into three different phases. The first two weeks, participants ate and exercised normally.

While, between weeks three and six, participants ate normal meals one day then would fast the next.

On fast days, participants ate the equivalent of a three-course lunch prepared by UIC''s Human Nutritional Research Center. The meal provided between 20 and 25 per cent of daily energy needs.

However, in the final four weeks, participants chose on their own what to eat, based on what they had learned about meal sizes and food choices.

Krista Varady, assistant professor of kinesiology and nutrition, who led the UIC research team, said: "We wanted to see if they could actually do it by themselves -- because what''s the point of studying this diet if you have to feed people meals prepared at metabolic kitchens all the time?"

Researchers noted that weight loss ranged from 10 to 30 pounds; the researchers expected an average loss of only five pounds.

In addition to it, blood pressure and heart rate were lowered, along with total cholesterol and circulating fat levels.

Varady added: "Why are some able to do it but others not? It takes about two weeks to adjust to the diet, after which people don''t feel hungry on the fast day. We need to find out how long they can stay on this diet -- and if they go off it, do they automatically regain the weight?"

The study was published in the November 1 issue of 'The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.'

UPAVAASAM on Festivals/ Vratas was meant for that purpose too! Men and Women after 30s had this stipulation for better health!! Is it not??

Quick Eating will induce Over Eating

Washington: Gorging on your favourite meal can make you overeat, say researchers.

The research team from Laiko General Hospital in Athens Greece have found that eating quickly, as compared to slowly, curtails the release of hormones in the gut that induce feelings of being full.

The decreased release of these hormones can often lead to overeating.

"Most of us have heard that eating fast can lead to food overconsumption and obesity, and in fact some observational studies have supported this notion," said Dr Alexander Kokkinos, lead author of the study.

"Our study provides a possible explanation for the relationship between speed eating and overeating by showing that the rate at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the brain to stop eating," Kokkinos added.

Previous studies on that gut hormones, such as peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1), has shown that their release after a meal acts on the brain and induces satiety and meal termination.

Until now, concentrations of appetite-regulating hormones have not been examined in the context of different rates of eating.

During the study, subjects consumed the same test meal, 300ml of ice-cream, at different rates. Researchers took blood samples for the measurement of glucose, insulin, plasma lipids and gut hormones before the meal and at 30 minute intervals after the beginning of eating, until the end of the session, 210 minutes later.

They found that subjects who took the full 30 minutes to finish the ice cream had higher concentrations of PYY and GLP-1 and also tended to have a higher fullness rating.

"Our findings give some insight into an aspect of modern-day food overconsumption, namely the fact that many people, pressed by demanding working and living conditions, eat faster and in greater amounts than in the past," said Kokkinos.

"The warning we were given as children that "wolfing down your food will make you fat," may in fact have a physiological explanation,” the expert added.

The study appears in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). — ANI

Cell Phone Usage for 10 years or more could lead to BRAIN TUMOUR

Nov 1: Though it's not yet proved that cellphones cause brain cancer, a new study has claimed that long-term use of mobiles could up the risk of brain tumours.

Researchers have based their findings on an analysis of the key 23 studies that have investigated the effects of the phone -- the study involved more than 12,000 patients who had developed brain tumours and 25,000 who hadn't.

The study concluded mobile phone use of 10 years or longer was associated with an increased risk of tumours of up to 34 per cent, the 'Sunday Express' reported.

Radiation expert Dr George Carlo, who led the biggest industry-funded research project into cellphone use and brain cancer, was quoted as saying: "This information confirms our fears, giving serious concern for us and future generations."

The researchers, whose findings have been published in the 'Journal of Clinical Oncology', said only eight of the 23 studies had reliable and up-to-date information.

Later this year, a £20 million research project is expected to show those who used mobiles for a decade or longer could have "significantly increased" risk of developing some types of brain tumours.

Powerwatch, which has examined electro-magnetic fields and health dangers for 20 years, said there was enough evidence to warn people to limit mobile phone use and ban them from children.