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Monday, April 16, 2012

Energy Harvesting Using Graphene Oxide

It is an open secret that you can use graphene oxide to harvest or scavenge energy from the environment. You can read about how to convert the energy from the forms you do not want to the forms you need. Who holds the secrets to the universe? Apparently, it is Google Scholar. Is it to simplistic to think that the solution to our problems lies there? Why do people watch the propaganda in the media instead of searching for the truth? Graphene oxide can so be used to purify water and do so many things that it is hard to imagine how civilization can possibly survive without it.  Why are children taught to hate mathematics and science rather than to love the good it could do if only people could imagine the potential they have within themselves? Why are children taught to hate rather than to love each other? Ignorance can never render justice.   

Graphene and Related Two Dimensional Materials

A lecture by A. K. Geim of the University of Manchester, which was given on 2 June, 1911. 
 


Friday, April 6, 2012

Graphene Oxide

Graphene oxide can be used as a filter to purify water as explained by the Manchester Group. Here is the link. 

Thursday, April 5, 2012

A Graphene Energy Scavaging Device

There is a graphene device which harvests energy from the environment to generate electricity.  Here is the paper describing it. The basic idea is to create asymmetrical electrodes so that the charge carriers flow in a preferred direction. When anions come within a certain distance from the graphene, energy is transferred and current flows. The smaller the anions are in the ionic solution, the greater the probabilty they get close and the more current you get. The details are not clear yet.

Sträck Ut Din Hand



Sträck Ut Din Hand  = Stretch Out Your Hand
by Thomas Di Leva

Sträck ut din hand och finn en hand i din = Stretch out your hand and find a hand
 in yours.
så gjorde jag och fann en hand i min. = So I did and found a hand in mine.
Sträck ut din hand. = Stretch out your hand.

Gåtfulla nord, du gör mig förundrad = Mysterious north, you make me amazed.
frihetens tid, lämnar märkliga spår. = Freedom's time, leaving strange tracks.
Ögon av sorg söker himmelens stjärnor = Eye of sorrow searching the stars of heaven
som sprider sitt ljus på den väg där vi går. = who spread their light on the road where we go.

Sträck ut din hand och finn en hand i din = Stretch out your hand and find a hand in yours.
så gjorde jag och fann en hand i min. = So I did and found a hand in mine.
Sträck ut din hand och bygg en mänsklig bro = Stretch out your hand and build a human bridge.
Vi bygger från land till land  = We build from land to land.
Så sträck ut din hand. = So stretch out your hand.

Öppna din famn för restan av världen = Open your arms to the whole world.
Du är en del av allt det som sker. = You are a part of everything that takes place.
Så sprid ut ditt ljus så som himmelens stjärnor = So spread out your light like the stars of heaven.
Ge av dig själv så som stjärnorna ger = Give of your soul as the stars give forth.

Sträck ut din hand och finn en hand i din = Stretch out your hand and find a hand in your.
Så gjorde jag och fann en hand i min = So I did and found a hand in mine.
Sträck ut din hand och bygg en mänsklig bro = Stretch out your hand and build a human bridge.
Vi bygger från land till land  = We build from land to land.
Så sträck ut din hand = So stretch out your hand.

Sträck ut din hand och finn en hand i din = Stretch out your hand and find a hand in yours.
Så gjorde jag och fann en hand i min = So I did and found a hand in mine.
Sträck ut din hand och bygg en mänsklig bro = Stretch out your hand and build a human bridge.

Vi bygger från land till land  = We build from land to land.

Så sträck ut din hand = So stretch out your hand.
Vi bygger från land till land  = We build from land to land.
Så sträck ut din hand = So stretch out your hand.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Neonicotinoids

Save the bee species from extinction.


Assessment of the Environmental Exposure of Honeybees to Particulate Matter Containing Neonicotinoid Insecticides Coming from Corn Coated Seeds

Andrea Tapparo*, Daniele Marton, Chiara Giorio, Alessandro Zanella, Lidia Soldà, Matteo Marzaro, Linda Vivan, and Vincenzo Girolami
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università degli Studi di Padova, via Marzolo 1, 35131, Padova, Italy
Dipartimento di Agronomia Animali Alimenti Risorse Naturali e Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Padova, Agripolis, viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Padova, Italy
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2012, 46 (5), pp 2592–2599
DOI: 10.1021/es2035152
Publication Date (Web): January 31, 2012
Copyright © 2012 American Chemical Society

Abstract

Abstract Image
Since seed coating with neonicotinoid insecticides was introduced in the late 1990s, European beekeepers have reported severe colony losses in the period of corn sowing (spring). As a consequence, seed-coating neonicotinoid insecticides that are used worldwide on corn crops have been blamed for honeybee decline. In view of the currently increasing crop production, and also of corn as a renewable energy source, the correct use of these insecticides within sustainable agriculture is a cause of concern. In this paper, a probable—but so far underestimated—route of environmental exposure of honeybees to and intoxication with neonicotinoid insecticides, namely, the atmospheric emission of particulate matter containing the insecticide by drilling machines, has been quantitatively studied. Using optimized analytical procedures, quantitative measurements of both the emitted particulate and the consequent direct contamination of single bees approaching the drilling machine during the foraging activity have been determined. Experimental results show that the environmental release of particles containing neonicotinoids can produce high exposure levels for bees, with lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena observed by beekeepers.

Another Report on Bee Colony Extiction