Crazy as it sounds, but all this freezing weather is the result of the North Pole losing pressure to keep its arctic weather belt intact... perhaps cinch up that belt tighter, North Pole.  The North Pole is approximately 36 degrees Fahrenheit warmer since 2016, compared to only being 5 degrees warmer recorded in 1979.  Sea levels have risen dramatically too.  Make note of the historic Fisherman's Point shacks in South Portland, Maine yanked out to sea on January 14 of this year; truly historic and ironic.  I remember my 5th grade science teacher in 1977 speaking of catastrophes to come by year 2050.... boy was he off by a decade or two. Or was he?

All of what is happening are only samplings or precursors , if you will, of what is touted to come. Whether, no pun intended, to substantiate or dismiss the scientific guestimates of climate change patterns requires the same amount of work and years of studying environmental impacts and causes to stand on either side of that fence. I won't bore you with scientific study analysis from our scientists because there has been plenty: scientific studies are referenced on the very city billboards that turn into flying debris from the record amount of hurricanes and tornados in recent years.  And this coastal flooding isn't new, but what is new is the frequency and intensity. 

In a previous blog post, I mentioned the Polar Vortex. This Arctic shift to the southern hemisphere is because the climate is a little broken, maybe a little more than a little, but not yet a lot.  We will get to that point later in this article.  The rise in sea levels are related to this Polar Vortex as well as most all recent unique weather conditions currently being experienced locally in the United States and internationally.  The U.S. Eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico are most affected, where the hightides and nuisance flooding had been predicted to rise four times a year and eightfold per year by year 2050 (1).  However, those occurrences are happening in more irregular frequencies as of to date. Florida is predicted to experience future catastrophic flooding, and today the state of Maine is experiencing flooding never before seen.

Now about fixing what is broken. Could there be a chance of a reprieve?  Understand the cogs of motion are already spinning and grinding against each other, damage has already been done and more is to come.  But climate and environmental scientists are currently developing processes to stop a complete environmental meltdown.  Safeguarding a certain degree of collateral damage, such as loss of human life, property damage, whole towns and cities decimated, is what is at stake for the future. There is no fixing of the environment, not in the immediate sense, but there is healing, which will take decades, if not centuries, to repair the damage from all that has affected our planet.

Perhaps many of you feel this climate change to be just a natural occurrence.  Sure, listen to the marketing mechanisms of oil and gas producers delivered as "education,"  keep driving that SUV, big luxury car or hot rod like so many mimicking the fantastical world of the Fast and Furious big screen series. There must be another way to look tough and act cool without that furiously fast car.  And what about your children's futures?  What then, where to next, if weather is unpredictable, big coastal cities are unliveable, and certain industry jobs are no longer options?

Perhaps if we all had paid attention to our 5th grade science teacher back in the 70's, we would have acted upon the climate change warnings.  And as you read this from your comfortable chair, consider that we as a species need to move forward quickly to mitigate the dangers of Climate Change, from demanding muscle cars be "muscled" out, scrutinize climate-change-denying politicians and educating our children about the importance of living with environmental decision-making at the forefront of every purchase. Our future is at stake!

(1) https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/flooding-in-the-united-state...

Sources:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-arctic-is-warming-four-ti...

https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/flooding-in-the-united-state...

https://www.neefusa.org/story/climate-change/increases-coastal-flooding

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44632

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4406948-what-is-the-polar-...

Image Source: Bradley Carroll, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved and is monitoring a slow discharge of radioactive cooling water in the Pacific Ocean from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.

Immediately following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake of a magnitude of 9.1mw, a 15-meter tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, causing three cores to melt completely.  The plant had been offline since the disaster but can no longer accomodate the resulting contaminated wastewater needed for cooling its fuel rods.  The Japanese nuclear agencies developed a plan to release filtered nuclear cooling water into the Pacific Ocean over a regulated time-table.  The contaminated water is processed to reduce concentrations of radionuclides except for one radioactive isotope of hydrogen called tritium that cannot be filtered out. "Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, and hydrogen is part of the water itself (H20). So it is impossible to create a filter that could remove the tritium."¹ 

According to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), "annual radiation levels from the release of the tritium-tainted water are estimated at between 0.052 and 0.62 microsieverts if it were disposed of at sea and 1.3 microsieverts if it were released into the atmosphere, compared with the 2100 microsieverts (2.1 mSv) that humans are naturally exposed to annually."²  The IAEA and the government of Japan have assessed the levels released to be safe enough for the environment however that assessment has not abated related political disagreements and cultural harrassments from neighboring countries.

Japan, trying to prevent another disaster of overflowing untreated contaminated material, is mitigating the risks involved to dispose treated water to make room for more unfiltered wasterwater. Considering their own economy and health are at risk, Japan took a decade to develop a technical process to disperse the water over decades so as not harm the environment.  The IAEA and other international nuclear agencies are providing oversight to monitor release of tritium into the ocean will have minimal impact to the ecosystem and consequently may impart diplomacy with environmental concerns from all countries.

Footnotes:

(1) https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety...

(2) https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety...

References:

https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety...

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/24/1195419846/fukushima-radioactive-water-japan

Images: Image composed by WJ (courtesy of zumwinkle.com) 

Background image: Underwater photo of coral reef.jpg
Jerry Reid, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Japanese flag: War flag of the Imperial Japanese Army.svg
Thommy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

30 years ago, a corporate entity by the name of CADIZ Inc. proposed a plan to pump out 16 billion gallons of water each year from the driest desert in North America, the famed Mojave Desert.  In year 2010, opposition from late activist Elden Hughs and other Sierra Club members were vigilant to keep CADIZ from realizing their plan.  Almost a decade later, CADIZ Inc. had finally been approved by the Trump-era U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Corporate entities with lobbying powers have the will to entice or pressure most anyone as was the case with Southern California Water district board member Bryan Urias, who had decided against purchasing any water from CADIZ Inc. As it appears, there are people with a conscience who can look beyond the horizon and people like Urias could see the ecological disaster from such a project to drain the Mojave Desert.  However, this article really isn't a case against CADIZ Inc, but as an example of the struggle between conservatorship and commercialism and all that entails.

The planet is dying, or the reality is the planet is becoming less inhabitable and it's life that is on a precarious edge of disaster.  The planet will survive and it will eliminate us humans in the interim to do so, but we humans are doing the act upon ourselves as we enjoy shooting ourselves in the foot and then again in the other foot.

Humans have vices, that is a given, though some humans have deeper, overwhelming obsessions with power and wealth and it is that dollar that will be used for such endeavors.  And there are voices who try to speak through those filters to reach an unassuming public whom are not aware, engaged nor empowered to contribute a voice to make logical and reasonable decisions.  It is a huge struggle to reach those ears, and organizations like the Sierra Club are not enough to fight the good fight.

Luckily, on September 14, 2022, a U.S. District federal judge vacated the Trump-era U.S. Bureau of Land Management decision that would have allowed Cadiz Inc. to repurpose a mothballed oil-and-gas pipeline to drain a large aquifer in the Mojave Desert. The current U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under President Biden had sent a motion to the court to dismiss the prior agency's approval of the pipeline that would had traversed Mojave Trails National Monument and other protected public land in southeastern California.

This is life mimicking the arts.  As the Death Star slowly comes around from out of the shadows to align it's target, a small force intervenes to save the day.  Message to you readers, don't let Planet Earth become that Death Star, it won't end well for all of us.

Sources:

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/judge-vacates-appr...

https://socalwatersierraclub.org/campaigns/cadiz/

https://angeles.sierraclub.org/july_2019_issue

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2018/03/22/california-w...

Photo by Thomas Farley, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

As long as fossil fuels are used in energy power plants, vehicles, heating and ac for buildings, sequestration efforts will never successfully reduce CO₂ emissions enough to reverse pollution health damage.

A study analysis by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA makes the case for complete replacement of all fossil fuel use is the only solution to both emssions reduction and substantial social cost.

Data from a coal plant with carbon capture and use (CCU) and synthetic direct air carbon capture and use (SDACCU) equipment netted 10.8% of the CCU plant's CO₂-equivalent (CO₂e) emissions and 10.5% of CO₂ removed from the air by the SCACCU plant over a period of 20 years.

The low capture rates are due to uncaptured combustion emissions from natural gas used to power the emissions reduction equipment, uncaptured upstream emissions and in the case of CCU, uncaptured coal combustion emissions.  Contrary to the efforts of using such emissions reduction equipment, both CCU and SDACCU plants increased air pollution and total social costs relative to no capture.

Using wind as an alternative to using natural gas to power the carbon capture equipment reduces CO₂e but still allowed air pollution emissions to continue and increased the total social cost relative to no carbon capture. 

In terms of total social cost liabilities, no improvement in CCU or SCACCU equipment can change the conclusion of low reduction rates while fossil fuel emissions exist.  Conversely, wind power never incurs a carbon capture cost nor increases air pollution and fuel mining expenditures. Sequestration has proven to be more costly than actual replacement of the use of fossil fuels.

Sources:

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/ee/c9ee02709b

https://www.c2es.org/content/carbon-capture/

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-much-carbon-dioxide-can-united-states-stor...

Photo by Brendan O'Donnell / Unsplash

This present year may prove to be the most defining year for Californians in terms of preparing for the worst ecosystem disaster to ever be recorded.  Meteorologists, climate researchers and scientists have been studying atmospheric modeling and abundant natural vegetation such as chamise to forecast a scenario most likely to materialize for most of California.

Chamise dominates the native chaparral ecosystem throughout the coastal state of California, including dense shrublands that are too arid for trees. Chamise, usually dismissed by many people as a weed, is classified as a shrub, but is intently studied by environmental researchers and climate scientists as an indicator of how dry whole swaths of the landscape are becoming much drier.

The chamise plant is well adapted to ride out droughts without a single drop of water.  Amazingly in the driest of climates, chamise sprouts small white flowers which attract insect pollinators which in turn attract birds resulting in a complex ecosystem from this single particular plant.  An intense fire will obliterate the chamise shrub, leaving charred stems behind. But the chamise shrub can regenerate from its base burl structure which is shielded from fire. These days, fire scientists are as much interested in the chamise's regenerative abilities  as they are in the chamise's current levels of dehydration, since that is an indicator of how dry the rest of the ecosystem's vegetation is. The levels are alarming.

For this year of 2022, scientists were shocked to discover chamise did not generate any new growth from the previous year in 2021.  Chamise, the hardiest of shrubs, which can regenerate from a fire, has not reproduced in the California landscape since the fire season of 2020.  To the layman, you and I, we wouldn't have noticed, but to researchers, it spells doom.  If the 2019 Kinkade Fire that burned 80K acres in Northern California and the hundreds of fires sparked by electrical storms in 2020 didn't shock you, then this year of 2022 may have you on the run.

As much as people are tired of hearing about climate change, let's put this drought and cascading fire season into perspective.  Before humans arrived en masse, the chaparral only burned periodically. If a lightning storm ignited the vegetation without rain to drench the ignition and subsequent burning, chamise still regenerated.  The difference now is that humans inhabit more of the landscape than the ecosystem can support.  Hence the non-regenerating chamise shrub is a tell-tale sign something or someone is out of balance with nature.

https://www.wired.com/story/the-humble-shrub-thats-predicting-a-terrible...

Photo by Anthony Valois (https://www.smmflowers.org), courtesy of the National Park Service.

YUCK! blurts out from your mouth; same thing most children blurt out when trying fish or onions for the very first time. But you know the adage "Don't knock it until you try it!" and I have news for you: kids are known to eat bugs. I certainly did, I'm sure you have too. Now on to the meat of the matter. 

Global warming, attributed to pollution from human consumption of all resources, will adversely affect all future crops and livestock cultivated for human consumption. Regardless of the demands and production of all consumable goods in the interim, the feedlots for raising any and all livestock are destined to dwindle in incremental percentages.  The reductions of herds translates to the reduction of cattle slaughter. In trying to maintain herd sizes, the expected heifer carcass weight will decline.  Starting with year 2022, Sterling Marketing projects a 3% reduction or 1 million less slaughter cattle for the market. The prosperity of investors will be for the short term as prices rise over 20%, but eventually the impact from climate change data will be fraught with a competition that will damage all expenditures and commerce moving forward.

How does the average person mitigate the empty wallet syndrome and substitute alternatives for expensive proteins? Welcome a superior sustainable crop not only rich in all nutritional categories but can potentially stave off the epidemic of the coming world hunger and malnutrition, edible insects.

According to a National Library of Medicine study by Miami University and University of Massachusetts scientists, 'edible insects may have superior health benefits due to their high levels of vitamin B12, iron, zinc, fiber, essential amino acids, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and antioxidants.'  Further resulting health benefits from the nutrition of edible insects are 'improved prevention and management of chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, and enhanced immune function.' Agnieszka Orkusz, a Biotechnology and Food Analysis scientist at the Wroclaw University of Economics and Business in Warsaw Poland compiled data that found 100g of edible insects is roughly equivalent to 100g of meat in nutritional value.

Analysis of the world's growing population by Dr. Amrou Awaysheh, Business Sustainability Lab at Indiana University, and Dr. Christine J. Picard, IUPUI
School Of Science, states "by 2050, the earth will have nearly 10 billion people. The demand for protein will exceed our ability to procure it."  While animals require large carbon footprints to sustain production for consumption, edible insects by comparison require less land, less feed, less water, less transportation fuel, less machinery and less human labor.  Lowering the carbon footprint from all the processes to cultivate insect crops can only lower the impact to global warming.  One can surmise an insect rancher will feel much less impact of losing an insect from wandering aimlessly off, than from a cow disappearing into the distance.

I remember no ominously unhealthy reactions to picking up bugs when tasting them as a child. My curiosity is piqued. Perhaps a fried cricket kabob or a cockroach ice cream cone will be on order. Yum!

Sources:

https://www.agweb.com/news/livestock/beef/cattle-outlook-optimistic-2022

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33397123/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33917531/#affiliation-1

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/how-insects-positively-impact-cli...

Photo by Modern Entomophagy Group on Facebook.com.

Chief Scientist at the Climate Institute in Washington DC and current Environmental Research Advocates Board Member Michael MacCracken's primary focus study to reduce precursors to tropospheric ozone will have an ancillary assist with the launch of MethaneSAT.   

MethaneSAT is an Earth observation satellite that will monitor and study global methane emissions primarily in order to combat climate change. MethaneSAT is the first satellite of its kind which will measure methane pollution from oil and gas facilities worldwide with broad scope and exacting precision. It will orbit the Earth at 200-plus kilometers to have a large view path to quantify known sources, but also to discover and quantify previously unknown sources. It can also measure surface-level methane emissions from other major sources of human-caused methane emissions.

MethaneSAT is a mission jointly funded and operated by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an American non-governmental organization, and the New Zealand Space Agency.  While most large-scale satellite projects from researchers and space-program organizations require multi-purpose platforms and private-sector ventures sell data to corporate and government agencies, MethaneSAT data will be available to everyone.  It should be noted, this satellite project will be New Zealand's first entry into a space program.

With so much importance and information placed on CO2 emissions, the need to address methane in the atmosphere is much more critical. Methane is 85 times more powerful than carbon dioxide when it comes to planet-warming properties.  Methane, being one of five man-made global greenhouse gasses, is an exceedingly effective greenhouse gas at trapping infrared radiation.  The atmospheric residence time of methane is approximately 10 years. However, over a span of 100 years from continuous emissions, methane will be 28 times more effective than carbon dioxide in trapping heat and cause global warming on a grander scale -- it is considered the green house gas on steroids.

Reducing precursors to tropospheric ozone is now at a critical moment in history since global warming is identified as a direct reaction to active ozone formations in the atmosphere.  The majority of tropospheric ozone formation occurs when nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), react in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight, specifically the UV spectrum.

MethaneSAT will provide data much quicker than prior technologies, to assist scientists, researchers and, hopefully, industrialists to reduce methane emissions to help slow the consequences of global warming.

Sources:

https://www.methanesat.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MethaneSAT

https://www.edf.org/climate/how-methanesat-is-different

https://climateaccountability.org/pdf/MacCracken%20Bio%20Jul13.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_level_ozone

Image courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund, edf.org.

Many credible environmentalists and scientists agree society needs to be less reliant on petroleum and the grid.  As a world consortium, we all realize the dependence the human population has on non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels that power 80% to 90% of all humankind's energy needs. Aside from inevitable depletion of natural non-renewable resources and the destruction to the planet's eco-system, current energy systems cannot sustain a growing population indefinitely. The solution is the human population itself; why not use the human body as that alternative renewable energy source we all will eventually need?

Enter TEG.  Thermoelectric generators (TEG) is a technology that converts heat into electrical current. Jianliang Xiao, an associate professor at the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder, has developed a wearable mini TEG that can stretch from a ring to a bracelet converting low-grade heat emitted from the human body into renewable electricity.

Xiao's wearable mini-thermoelectric generator (TEG) can generate about 1 volt of energy for every square centimeter of skin space, powering small devices such as watches, Fitbits, LED lights and other low-capacity devices.  Modular stacking of TEG(s) can provide more voltages as needed.

The TEG is composed of modular thermoelectric chips, liquid metal as electrical wiring, and dynamic covalent thermoset polyimine as both the substrate and encapsulation for liquid-metal wiring. The stretchy polyimine has self-healing properties in case of tear damage. All parts of the TEG are recyclable, given that its development was engineered for environmental concerns as well. TEG technology may even cause the battery to become obsolete!

So much energy is wasted from the human body, in truth we are the most inefficient mammal on planet earth.  However harnessing our own body heat to generate power for devices we normally carry, such as mobile phones, watches, health monitoring devices, radios, pace-makers, and hearing aids, can help reduce human dependence on finite power sources.

Sources:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe0586

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2021/02/10/thermoelectric

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a35533572/body-heat-battery/

Thermoelectric illustration courtesy of Popular Mechanics, illustrated by Alyse Markel using photo courtesy Xiao Lab.

"Let there be Lightbulb" image by Will J (courtesy of Zumwinkle.com).

Dr. Jane Goodall Lecture at New Roads School, Santa Monica, CA.

From New Roads School: Yesterday’s conversation with legendary primatologist, conservationist, activist, humanitarian peacemaker, and founder of Roots & Shoots Dr. Jane Goodall was the first of a series of projects that New Roads will lead to foster peace in our world and support our community as messengers of peace. We salute and thank Class of 2011 alumni parent and Co-Founder and CEO of Environmental Research Advocates (ERA Science) Denise Avchen for her invaluable work in connecting New Roads with Dr. Goodall to launch these peace initiatives. We’ll be announcing more transformational peace projects in the coming days and weeks - stay tuned!

The discussion was incredible and made a huge impact on our students and teachers!

Inspired by our recent event with Dr. Jane Goodall, New Roads is proud to announce the creation of New Roads School Roots & Shoots, the Messengers of Peace initiative. All members of our community – students, teachers, staff and parents – are Messengers of Peace who can act upon and carry forward to other domains actions to foster peace led by elementary, middle and high school student Ambassadors of Peace.

Thank you for bringing Dr. Goodall to New Roads and for inspiring the transformational peace initiatives!

Denise Avchen and the ERAscience team is thrilled that Jane’s New Roads visit was so meaningful and also thrilled to have collaborated in the initial development of New Roads’ exciting peace initiatives in 2021.

Bladeless turbine windmill that wiggles and vibrates reminiscent like a dashboard toy, perhaps humorous but science advances our world to even odder and somewhat alien-like technology.

David Yanez, co-founder of the startup Vortex Bladeless in Spain, is the inventor of a bladeless wind turbine, a slender vertical cylinder that oscillates to produce wind power as a typical windmill with propeller blades does.

Utilizing a linear generator, The bladeless turbines stand at 3 metres high, a curve-topped cylinder fixed vertically with an elastic rod. To the untrained eye it appears to waggle back and forth, not unlike a car dashboard toy. In reality, it is designed to oscillate within the wind range and generate electricity from the vibration. It has already raised eyebrows on the forum site Reddit, where the turbine was likened to a giant vibrating sex toy, or “skybrator”.

Yanez states his invention is not a competition against traditional windmills, but to fill a gap where common propeller-type turbines would be impractical in terms of space, location and logistics.  Aside from having a small carbon footprint, the advantages over tradition bladed generator windmills are almost zero maintenance as it has no gears or moving parts.  These "skybrators" are made of light-weight recycled plastics, which will not rust from weather, humidity and salts.  The cost to produce and install is roughly one-quarter the cost to install a typical bladed windmill.  And most importantly is the low impact on the environment where the lack of blades do not harm or kill migrating birds and other wildlife.

The Vortex Bladless design has already won the approval of Norway’s state energy company, Equinor, which named Vortex on a list of the 10 most exciting startups in the energy sector. Equinor will also offer the startup development support through its tech accelerator programme.

The Vortex Bladeless attracted the European Commission to fund the Vortex project with an Horizon 2020 programme for research & innovation.  Microgravity Institute of the Technical University of Madrid and the European University of Madrid, alongside CDTI, BirdLife International,  Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and Altair Hyperworks provided advanced simulation computations and support for research and development.

Sources:

https://vortexbladeless.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_Bladeless

https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/05/27/167972/bladeless-wind-turbin...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/bladeless-turbine-1.6040555

Image courtesy of vortexbladeless.com

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA is proud to present its annual Nanovation Competition.

Team ERAscience is once again honored to partner with CNSI (UCLA) for their annual Nanovation Nanoscience Competition for 2021.  Ten teams of 4-5 middle and high school students with a teacher leader and UCLA graduate student mentors will create cutting-edge design and technology business proposals based off of CNSI’s Nanoscience Institute workshop series.

The top 3 winning teams will be awarded science classroom supplies, and will be selected by a jury of UCLA professors and Los Angeles business professionals.

• First place: $2000 in classroom supplies.
• Second place: $1000 in classroom supplies.
• Third place: $500 in classroom supplies.

All ten finalist teams will receive an award for completing the pitch and final business proposal submissions.

Timeline of events

• January 4 – Call for submissions is officially open.
• January 29  – Submission deadline.
• February 12 – Finalists announced.
• March 5 – Kick-off meeting.
• May 21 – Final presentation video submission deadline.

FAQs

• When are submissions open?
  • See the timeline of events on our website for the most up-to-date information. No submissions will be accepted prior to the submission period.
• Who can participate?
  • We accept submissions from any middle and high school teacher who can lead a team with the correct number of team members. All participating teams must be able to attend our kick-off and final events.
• I have a lot of interested students! Can I submit multiple teams?
  • There is a maximum of 8 submissions per teacher per school, and a maximum of three teams from one school will be accepted as finalists. Each student may only be a part of one team.
• I’ve never taken a workshop with CNSI / I’ve done a lot of research on nanoscience and want to submit about a different topic. Can I still submit?
  • We welcome submissions related to any nanoscience topic. They do not have to relate to topics offered by our Nanoscience Institute series.
• I’m in the competition now! How do I get in touch with my mentor?
  • All mentor meetings will occur virtually, either by phone or online chat for 30 minutes with each mentor per week. It is the responsibility of the teams and teacher leader to establish the meetings with their mentors.
• My question wasn’t answered here. Who can I contact?
  • Additional questions can be mailed to education@cnsi.ucla.edu.

Submissions: https://cnsi.ucla.edu/education/nanovation-competition/

For prior Nanovation Competition results, please review older post in our News Blog.

Read about the very first UCLA CNSI Nanovation Competition in ERA Science News.

Many humans believed that the earth was flat because the naked eye cannot see the curvature of the horizon.  The same can be said about a nearly invisible single strand of virus that is potentially stronger, more powerful, more adaptable than our strongest muscleman.

What was just said sounds silly, perhaps even absurdly mundane.  Placing that level of importance on a lower life form over the most advanced species on earth would be dismissed simply as quackery.  Humor, for a brief moment, what earth's current demeanor really has in store for the current model of the human species.  Surely, silly speculations are easily dismissed, but consider that Albert Einstein's theories came to him in his dreams. As humorous as it may sound, by the end of this article, you will be wishing you payed attention to that guy parading at the street corner holding a sign stating "The End is Near."

One such respectful town crier in the form of Dr Nafeez Ahmed, Research Fellow at the Schumacher Institute, pragmatically states "The COVID-19 crisis is an urgent early warning signal for how industrial civilization is rapidly eroding the very conditions of its own existence.”

Endless scientific studies repeatedly point to the same end game scenario, where a rise above 3° C, equivalent to 37.4° F, will bake the planet extra crispy.  How you say?  Let's explore the scientific facts that explain the consequences of the global economy and our current state of chronic instability.

The probability of a global pandemic was dramatically increased by relentless and unregulated industrial expansion, which has destabilized ecosystems critical for planetary life-support. The same processes are driving other ecological crises which threaten to permanently undermine the health of the global economy.  Reinforcing Dr. Ahmed's findings, Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, explains how a destablized ecosystem alters how we relate to other species and the opportunity for SARS-2 based viruses to evolve, he states "As the planet heats up, animals big and small, on land and in the sea, are headed to the poles to get out of the heat. That means animals are coming into contact with other animals they normally wouldn’t, and that creates an opportunity for pathogens to get into new hosts."

The components of a destabilized eco-system; deforestation, loss of habitat, carbon dioxide emissions, species extinction, polluted and piosoned water sources, over-population are the very same ingredients for such conditions giving rise for COVID-19 to dictate our global economy and our bumbling reaction and relationship to all other segments of the eco-system. This is earth's new reality, not just an epidemic, but a runaway world-wide pandemic, larger than previous pandemics in relation to the context of the world being in the "advanced" modern age.

As Dr. Ahmed coins our current state of affairs: "humanity faces a heightening risk of cascading breakdowns across interconnected social, economic and political systems. Without a transition to a lifeboat economy, markets cannot be recalibrated to protect public health and natural systems."  Meaning, humans lose, the virus wins.

Sources:

https://nen.press/2020/11/15/pandemic-signals-breaching-of-planetary-tip...

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/subtopics/coronavirus-and-climate-...

Image courtesy of Town of Princeton, North Carolina (https://www.myprincetonnc.com/covid19).

United Nations issued a warning of the rising levels of toxic brine in earths oceans.  The UN study concluded that 50 percent of the brine produced by desalination plants were underreported.

Recent study by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (Canada), Wageningen University (Netherlands), and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (Republic of Korea) analyzed a newly-updated outdated statistics to revise the worlds desalination plants.

Desalination plants extract potable water from ocean seawater, lakes and rivers either through thermal desalination or membrane processes. 16,000 desalination plants have been built throughout the planet and operate to counter the decreases in dependable water sources and drought, and the maintenance of habitation on arid lands.

In conjunction to high operating costs; high consumption of kilowatts per hour per water litre, resulting carbon emissions, environmental footprint, and chemicals for treatment, the discharge of waste chemicals and leftover treated brine are more difficult to mitigate.  Most operators simply dump that chemical-laden leftover brine back into the ocean.

Raising salinity levels, beyond the capacity of the ocean to disburse large quantities of waste, decreases oxygen levels, suffocates animals and plants.  Along with other chemicals such as chlorine, hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide, the discharge from large-scale desalination processes affect plankton and phytoplankton, which form the base of all marine life by forming the base of the food chain.

Huntington Beach Desalination Plant Proposal

For decades, the California Coastal Commission has struggled to restore Bolsa Chica Wetlands and its endangered marine life as well as a deteriorating water inlet.  Lack of capital to reverse erosion and industrial damage along the coastline have thwarted plans to restore Bolsa Chica and all life that depends on a healthy eco-system.

After the drought of 1998, Poseiden Water proposed a desalination plant in Huntington Beach where they successfully lobbied Santa Ana Regional Water Board for an approval to the measure.  The proposed plant will impact marine life from Palos Verdes to Dana Point.

In recent studies of the Poseiden Water Desalination Plant operating in Carlsbad, California, the Coastal Commission issued no less than 82 environmental violations including raising salinity levels as far as 80 miles out from the coastline as well as fining Poseiden Water tens of millions of dollars in penalties.

In the course of needing to address the deteriorating wetlands of Bolsa Chica, an amendment to the proposal required the same developer to restore and safeguard the wetlands habitat and maintain the water inlet so crucial to the survival of endangered species and plant life.

Sources:

https://unu.edu/media-relations/releases/un-warns-of-rising-levels-of-to...

https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-water-scarcity-increases-desalination-...

https://www.un.org/depts/los/global_reporting/WOA_RPROC/Chapter_28.pdf

https://voiceofoc.org/2020/09/conservationists-split-over-poseidon-desal...

https://www.coastkeeper.org/advocacy/desalination/

https://sciencing.com/pros-cons-of-desalination-plants-13425360.html

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190131143433.htm#:~:text=B....

https://www.surfrider.org/campaigns/desalination-plant-huntington-beach

https://greengarageblog.org/12-biggest-pros-and-cons-of-desalination

Photo by Crishazzard, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons

On April 4, 2019 team ERAscience was honored to host Dr. Jane Goodall’s 85th birthday celebration in Los Angeles at the home of ERAscience’ founders.
ERAscience is proud to align our mission with that of the Jane Goodall Institute. Dr. Goodall travels the globe over 200 days a year raising awareness of the fragility of our planet’s ecosystems and the need for united efforts to stem the tide of destruction caused by climate change and overuse of natural resources. According to a UN report, one million species of animals are near extinction. Let’s all join Jane in her fight to sustain our planet.

Please support the Jane Goodall Institute and Jane’s Roots and Shoots program.

As 2018 winds down our team at ERAscience is looking back at some of the year’s great moments. On October 20th we were beyond honored and happy as ERAscience partnered with Univision & CSUN to present Univision’s Féria de Educacion Science & Technology pavillion! Thirty thousand in attendance! Infinite thanks to the event producers and huge to CNSI for sparking the minds of thousands of kids at the CNSI installation!! Awesome!!

Team ERAscience is once again honored to partner with the brilliant team at UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI at UCLA) on Nanovation Competition, a three month long Shark Tank like competition for high school students. Teams from 11 Los Angeles-area high schools each developed and pitched their ideas for science-based product concepts presented at the finals. The entries were reviewed by a jury of Los Angeles venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, along with UCLA faculty members and ERAscience.

The first place team earned $2,000 worth of science classroom supplies for its winning proposal: dissolvable contact lenses that use pharmacosomes — molecules that act as a drug delivery system — for patients to use after Lasik surgery.

Nanovation was a dream concept that’s now a reality and is revealing many great young science minds!

Huge congrats once again to the winning teams!

The United Nations marks 11 October as the 'International Day of the Girl Child".

Team ERAscience applauds all the great young female science minds whose creativity and potential can not be stopped. Congratulations again to the phenomenal group of middle school girls who tied for 1st place in the UCLA CNSI/ERAscience 2017 Nanovation Competition. They competed against high schools across Los Angeles, winning for their project aimed at saving lives through use of nano materials in PICC line safety.

Dismayed by the current anti science direction of the U.S.? Take heart, bright young minds shined in creative exploration of cutting edge nano science as ERAscience partnered with CNSI UCLA in the first annual Nanovation Competition on May 1st.

The 2 teams pictured tied for first place in the competition that began with numerous proposals from high schools throughout Los Angeles and culminated in presentations by the top ten finalists. The assigned task of their proposals and presentations were to address a human need using nano science. They exceeded all expectations in content and sophistication. The winning projects were:

1) Nintinol Car Bumper Market Analysis (by group at top of images)

2) Application for Dimethyldecylammonium Chitosan Methacrylate as an Antimicrobial Coating for PICC Line Catheters (by group at bottom of image who happen to be from a middle school!)

For questions and info regarding the projects please contact us.

But for now take comfort in knowing not only that discovery and innovation can not be stopped, but that young science minds like these will be finding solutions and changing the world for countless years and many political administrations to come.

ERAscience is excited to collaborate with the brilliant team at CNSI UCLA in the creation of the first annual Nanovation Competition. The competition is designed to provide young science innovators with the necessary tools to develop and present their nanoscience based projects. Special thanks to UCLA Anderson School of Business for help in developing the program. The finalist teams have been selected and have begun work with mentor scientists. The competition concludes in May when a panel of judges will choose the winning teams.

National Get Up Day is celebrated February 1 in the US "is an opportunity to share inspiring stories of perseverance; it’s a reminder to pick ourselves up when we’ve fallen and give it (whatever it may be) another go!"

Science and academia have felt their freedoms stepped on in recent days. Their response has been to speak out and stand up for the future of research and free flow of thoughtful discovery on the global stage.

The new US administration "have repeatedly cast doubt upon the reality of human-made climate change, questioned the repeatedly proven safety of vaccines. Since the inauguration, the administration has already frozen grants and contracts by the Environmental Protection Agency and gagged researchers at the US Department of Agriculture. Many scientists are asking themselves: What can I do?"

Some scientists are throwing their hat into the political arena to ensure science has a seat at policy tables.
While thousands more have given voice to their concerns by signing a petition against the immigration ban which directly impacts the free flow of ideas.

As of this morning the potion has been signed by:

• Over 18,000 Academic Supporters
• 14,800 U.S. Faculty Members
• 50 Nobel Laureates
• 82 Winners of Fields/Dirac/Clark/Turing/Poincare Medals, Breakthrough Prize, Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur Fellowship
• 443 Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Arts

So what will you do this National Get Up Day?

Great day as ERAscience, CNSI UCLA (California NanoSystems Institute) and Univision, collaborate to bring fun, hands on science experience to 30,000 kids and their parents at Univision's 2016 Feria de Educacion held at Cal State Northridge University Satuday October 15th.

Planes and boats and trains. Solar power hopes to take the renewable energy lead in getting us, and everything we need, where we want to go in emission free style!

Solar's triple threat this week:

Planes.
Solar Impulse 2, the largest solar-powered aircraft in the world, landed early Saturday in New York City On the 13th leg of its 'round the globe journey-
"It was symbolic to fly over the Statue of Liberty being free from fossil fuel," Borschberg and Piccard the Impulse's pilots and visionaries. The 27,000-mile journey is being powered by 17,000 solar cells built into carbon fiber wings that have a 236-foot (72-meter) wingspan. "Our goal with this flight is for a clearer and more efficient world"

Boats: Solar Voyager launched from Gloucester, Massachusetts, at the beginning of the month, and is headed toward Portugal. It is the world’s first autonomous surface vessel to cross the ocean, and the first to do it on solar power alone.
Isaac Penny and Christopher Sam Soon built Solar Voyager from scratch, with only the solar panels and some standard motor parts. The 18-foot boat is the size of an ocean kayak,has an aluminum shell, it's upper surface is given over to solar panels, 280 Watts worth. Below deck are 2.4-kWh batteries to run at night.

Trains: Indian Railways ‘Solar Mission’, to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, has begun coaches fitted with solar panels which will initially power all the electrical appliances inside a train. The goal is to power transit entirely in the next couple years. Every coach has 12 solar panels on the rooftop each producing 300 Watts and will be able to generate 3.6 Kilowatts of electricity.

The future of transportation is sunny!

In a case of everything old is new again, London Taxi Co unveils development of fleet of
all-electric iconic black London cabs!

London 1897-
The most exciting thing that happened in transportation in London of the 1890s is the Bersey Cab that hit the streets in 1897. Bersey Cabs were not only the first "horseless" taxis in the world, they were also the first electric taxis. They could only travel thirty miles on a charge, but a clever system was devised to make changing the battery quick and easy. Sadly, unreliable tires and a failed attempt to generate his own electricity did inventor, Walter Bersey, in financially and he went out of business in 1899. At their peak Bersey had over 75 "horseless" taxis on London roads.

London 2016-
Cut to today, and the most exciting thing to happen in London transportation in 2016 is the London Taxi Co announcement of development of zero-emission capable vehicles-the "horseless" TX5. ZGH, which owns London Taxi Co has raised $400 million through the sale of green bonds to electrify its taxi fleet of iconic black London cabs!

ZGH expects to launch the new vehicle—a battery-powered hybrid with an aluminum body—in the U.K. at the end of next year and in international markets in 2018. The company is up against a 2018 deadline to get cleaner cabs on London’s roads. That’s when the city’s new “Ultra Low Emission Zone” goes into effect for licensed taxies and private hire vehicles. To travel within that area, all vehicles will need to meet exhaust emissions standards or pay a daily charge.

It took 119 years but Mr Berseys dream of an all electric fleet of London cabs is about to come true---again!

Photo courtesy of The Earthbound Report (https://earthbound.report).

(TOP) Electric Taxi photo courtesy of London Electric Vehicle Company (https://levc.com/)

How did you celebrate Earth Day 2016? Around the world trees were planted, rivers and streams cleaned, and countless events were held with the united goal of ensuring our planet's health and humanity's future.
Impressively, Solar Impulse 2 joined the day of tribute by crossing the Pacific Ocean on the 9th leg of its journey to circumnavigate the globe without one drop of fossil fuel!

During the flight, Solar Impulse 2 visionary and pilot,Bertrand Piccard, addressed the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and 175 heads of states in New York via a cockpit video link as part of the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
"Solar Impulse showcases that today exploration is no longer about conquering new territories, because even the moon has already been conquered, but about exploring new ways to have a better quality of life on Earth," says Piccard. "It is more than an airplane: it is a concentration of clean technologies, a genuine flying laboratory, and illustrates that solutions exist today to meet the major challenges facing our society."

Solar Impulse 2 left Hawaii on April 21, pilot Piccard spent a total 62 hours flying the solar-powered plane which he landed at the Moffett Airfield near San Francisco completing the crossing of the Pacific Ocean with several world records. By attempting the first solar flight around the world, pushing back the boundaries of the possible, going into the unknown, and taking on a project deemed impossible by industry experts, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg want to support concrete actions for sustainability and show that the world can be run on clean technologies. Borschberg will take over for the next leg of the trip, flying the craft from California to New York. The team originally set out from Abu Dhabi last March, 2015, in a bid to raise awareness about solar energy. They're expected to return to Abu Dhabi in August later this year. Taking off from Kalaeloa, Hawaii on 4/21, the one-man, solar-powered airplane reached a maximum altitude of 28,000 ft (8,634 m) and an average speed of 40.4 mph (65.4 km/h) as it covered a distance of 2,810 mi (4,523 km). During the day, power to the electric motors was provided by the solar panels on the upper wing surfaces while special batteries keep SI2 aloft at night.

We've followed the Solar Impulse2 history making journey since it's start in 2015. The cockpit is unpressurized, temperatures are cold and the pilots use oxygen. Their undaunted determination is inspiring. Follow their quest at solarimpulse.com

Photo courtesy of Solar Impulse Foundation (https://aroundtheworld.solarimpulse.com/adventure)

(TOP) Plane photo courtesy of Solar Impulse Foundation (https://aroundtheworld.solarimpulse.com/adventure)