British Scientists Generate Electricity With Urine

British scientists at the University of the West of England in Bristol, have revealed a toilet which create electricity with urine, that could be used to provide electricity in distant areas such as refugee camps.British scientists with aid agency Oxfam developed this urinal toilet.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was funded this project "Urine tricity."

"It is always a challenge to light inaccessible areas far from a power supply," explained Andy Bastable, Head of Water and Sanitation at Oxfam.This invention is a great step to future.It is very difficult to live in a camp without light.Invention of this technology is a big sucess for scientists.

According to Ioannis Ieropoulos, who is a research team leader, a single unit costs approx £600 to install and supply electric power.It contains bacteria that break urine's chemicals during this process energy release in the form of electricity then stored on a capacitor in a fuel cell.

"The microbial fuel cells (MFC) work by employing live microbes which feed on urine for their own growth and maintenance," explained Ieropoulos."The MFC is, in effect, a system which taps a portion of that biochemical energy.

"This technology is about as green as it gets, as we do not need to utilise fossil fuels and we are effectively using a waste product that will be in plentiful supply," said Ieropoulos.

Earlier in 2013 the University of West of the England has displayed a urine powered cell to charge a smartphone.

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Engineers Prepared High-Tech Ink To Build Do-It-Yourself Sensors

A team of nanoengineer from the University of California, San Diego developed a tool that will help to make sensors.The team of researcher has prepared high tech bio-inks which react with chemical such as glucose.Researchers filled the pens with this inks and draw sensors on the skin and on the leaves to measure glucose and pollution respectively.The pen could be used on phones for health monitoring and on building walls to monitor toxic pollutants.It also has potiential to detect explosives and nerve agents on the battlefield.

A member of research team Wang said, "Our new biocatalytic pen technology, based on novel enzymatic inks, holds considerable promise for a broad range of applications on site and in the field."

During development the researchers faced a big challenge which was making inks from chemicals that are not toxic to plants and humans and able to act as the sensors electrodes and ability to keep their properties over long times in storage and in different conditions.They used polyethylene glycol which is biocompatible, used in some drug delivery applications as a binder.For the conductive of inks they used graphite powder.Then they added chitosan, an antibacterial agent used in bandages to reduce bleeding, to make the ink adhered.The inks also contains xylitol, a sugar substitute for the stabilization of enzymes that react with chemicals the do-it-yourself sensors are designed to monitor.

One ink loaded pen can draw 500 glucose sensor strips directly on the skin and could control eletrodes with electronic device via Bluetooth, device known as potentiostat, to collect data.For detection of pollutants, draw a sensor on a leaf then enzymes react with an industrial chemical phenol.Then put the leaf in a solution of phenol and water and the sensor was connected to a detector.

Nanoengineers explain that their next steps include connecting the sensors to devices wirelessly and checking sensors performance in difficult situations such as extreme temperatures and altering humidity.

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Solar Powered Plane Is Ready To Fly Around The World

 In the United Arab Emirates a solar powered plane made a third successful flight test and planned to promote solar power energy worldwide through the world tour.The flight test was one hour long from the UAE capital Abu Dhabi's small Al-Bateen airport and tested by two Swiss pilots Piccard and Andre Borschberg.Mission Chiefs said, "The pilot reported no problems."

"Hopefully next weekend, if the weather is good, we will be in the air going 35,000 kilometres (21,748 miles) to the east until we come back here," Piccard told AFP.

The plane has more than 17,000 solar cells install on its wings and wings are 72 metres long as an Airbus A380 superjumbo.It is made by light weight carbon fibre that weighs about 2.3 tonnes, approximately equal to a family 4X4 or 1% less than the weight of the A380.

The two Swiss pilots aim to demonstrate that "clean technology and renewable energy can achieve the impossible," Piccard said.

The plane will start the world tour from Abu Dhabi to Muscat then fly to Oman before crossing the Arabian Sea to India.Then it will fly to Myanmar, China, Hawaii and New York respectively.The pilot will be connected to a control centre in Monaco and landings are depending on weather conditions.The plane can go at speeds of 50 to 100 kilometres per hour, the slower speeds will be accepted at night to save the batteries from draining to quickly.The plane will arrive back in Abu Dhabi in July.

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Inexpensive Solar Cells Made From Shrimp Shells

Researchers have developed a way to create cheaper solar cells by utilizing two compounds found in the shell of shrimp and tasty crustaceans.The shells of shrimp have two chemicals, chitin and chitosan that are much cheaper and abundant than expensive matels such as ruthenium, similar to platinum that are used in the production of nanostructured solar-cells.

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London, have used a technique called hydrothermal carbonization to create carbon quamtum dots which absorb UV light and act as semi-conductors in solar cells.Then these are coated with zinc oxide nanorods to form the solar cells.

"This could be a great new way to make these versatile, quick and easy to produce solar cells from readily available, sustainable materials. Once we've improved their efficiency they could be used anywhere that solar cells are used now, particularly to charge the kinds of devices people carry with them every day" Dr Joe Briscoe said, one of the research team member.

Professor of Sustainable Materials Technology Magdalena Titirici at QMUL added, "New techniques mean that we can produce exciting new materials from organic by-products that are already easily available. Sustainable materials can be both high-tech and low-cost.We've also used biomass, in that case algae, to make the kinds of supercapacitors that can be used to store power in consumer electronics, in defibrillators and for energy recovery in vehicles."

Now it is in the process of development, the bio-mass solar cells have low efficiency.If this can be improved, they could be used in everything from wearable chargers for tablets, phones and smartwatches, to semi-transparent films over window.

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Alarm Armband That Observe Heart Rate And Body Temperature

Researchers have made a flexible armband at university of Tokyo known as "fever alarm armband."It is a self-powered device, can be wore on an arm which sounds an alarm in case of high body temperature.It is introduced on 22 to 26 February this year at the International Solid State Circuits Conference, San Francisco.This armband is 30 cm long and 18 cm wide.

The device contains a flexible amorphous silicon solar panel, temperature sensor, piezoelectric speaker, and power supply circuit produced with organic components in a single flexible, wearable package.It is a health indicator device which constantly monitor heart rate and body temperature.It has flexible and wireless sensors that don't need any external power supply and maintenance free as well.It also gives an opportunity to get print of incorporates organic components by an inkjet printer.It is the first organic circuit capable to make a sound output, and the first to integrate an organic power supply circuit.

The device has developed by research groups lead by Professor Takayasu Sakurai at the Institute of Industrial Science and Professor Takao Someya at the Graduate School of Engineering.Professor Someya said, "Our fever alarm armband proves that it is possible to 

produce flexible, disposable devices that can greatly enhance the amount of information available to carers in healthcare settings." "We have established the technology with a temperature sensor and fever alarm, but the system could also be adapted to provide audible feedback on body temperature, or combined with other sensors to register wetness, pressure or heart rate."

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Fuel Cell Car that Emit nothing harmful than Water

Akio Toyoda president of Toyota has told that Toyota is making hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.The japanese automaker has goal to manufacture 700 Mirai sedan that is powered by hydrogen and emits only water vapour from exhaust pipe.The company has plan to produce 2,000cars in 2016 and about 3,000 cars in 2017.In japanese meaning of this car name (Mirai) is "future".

The Mirai can go 650 kilometres with single time fueling that is three times more than an electric car.It takes a few minutes to refuel.Toyoda president of Toyota, told reporters last month when he presented a Mirai to the prime minister's office, "We are thrilled to think that before everyone else, we are taking a historic step toward the establishment of a hydrogen society in Japan."

Fuel cell technology is a environment friendly technique in the field of green cars as they are powered by a chemical reaction of oxygen and hydrogen, and exhaust nothing harmful except water.It is reported that the country's seven major makers have plan to invest $24 billion in this field to research the sector.

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Volvo Will Put Autopilot Cars On The Road Soon

Volvo a Swedish auto maker has announced that it will put 100 self-driving cars on the road in the Swedish city of Gothenburg in 2017."Volvo Cars has designed a complete production-viable autonomous driving system," Peter Mertens, head of Volvo's research and development said in a statement.Autopilot car systems use an array of sensors to take three dimensional pictures of the surroudings.Cameras and radars help the vehicle to understand traffic signals and other conditions of road.A laser scanner for the detections of objects in front of the car.A 3-D map which provides information about road.It is using Ultrasonic sensors, cloud-based positioning systems and intelligent braking and steering technologies."

"We are entering uncharted territory in the field of autonomous driving," Peter Mertens.The Swedish car maker said this vehicle come with backup setups that will allow to work safely if some of their parts stop working.It also said that in case of an emergency the new car would react faster than humans.

"Making this complex system 99 percent reliable is not good enough. You need to get much closer to 100 percent before you can let self-driving cars mix with other road users in real-life traffic," said Erik Coelingh, a Volvo technical specialist.

In case of system failure or if the autopilot stops its work, the car will prompt the driver to take over.If the driver is unable to take control, the car will stop safely on the side of the road.

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