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Photo courtesy: anoldent/CC BY-SA 2.0
Researchers and programmers have come up with modeling software for all kinds of complex systems, including modeling how the earth's systems may alter with climate change. But what has yet to be modeled is a deeply complex natural ecosystem from soil microbes and fungi all the way up to apex predators and giant trees. Just wrapping one's head around the scope of such a task is exhausting, and yet the knowledge that could be gained by creating such modeling software would be invaluable, and would help make smart policy changes regarding conservation. Which is why Microsoft is giving it a go. In fact, climate change models have been so successful, it's no wonder researchers are interested in using the same sort of system for biodiversity.
Drew Purves, head of Microsoft’s Computational Ecology and Environmental Science Group (CEES) and his colleagues at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, United Kingdom, are working with the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) to create software that will accurately model a natural ecosystem -- or as they put it, a general ecosystem model (GEM).
Microsoft's Green Blog states, "Building a GEM is challenging — but not impossible. Microsoft Research and the UNEP-WCMC have spent the past two years developing a prototype GEM for terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The prototype is dubbed the Madingley Model, and is built on top of another hugely ambitious project that the group just finished, modeling the global carbon cycle. With this as starting point, they set out to model all animal life too: herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores, of all sizes, on land in the sea."
The major challenge facing the project is, obviously, the need for as much data as possible. To make a GEM work, large-scale global collection of ecological data is needed. After all, how are we to model an ecosystem if we don't know much about how the ecosystem functions or even what organisms exist within it. The challenge needs to be met with the collaboration of all the governments around the world. If enough data can be collected and software devised to use the data for accurate modeling, then scientists would have an incredibly powerful new tool for illustrating how policy choices would affect ecosystems.
This is not Bob. Photo courtesy: Yahoo!News
A Verizon case study recently revealed that some people will go to great lengths in order to be able to watch cat videos all day.
We first heard about it on TNW.
The study documents the scam of a developer, who is referred to as Bob. He worked at a "critical infrastructure" company in the U.S. and started outsourcing his work to China underneath his company's nose, and would only pay those people less than one fifth of his six-figure salary.
Here's how it was possible.
Bob's company had started letting employees work remotely from home on certain days, so it set up a VPN concentrator to facilitate that. The company implemented two-factor authentication for the connection, with the second factor being a physical, rotating token RSA key fob. So all Bob had to do was send the key over to China via FedEx.
The company eventually noticed strange activity in its VPN logs, so it asked Verizon for some help understanding what was going on. The logs showed that Bob was logged in from Shenyang, China, even though he was sitting at his desk.
The company initially thought there was some kind of malware routing traffic from an internal connection in China, and then back to the U.S.
But Verizon investigators quickly noticed a major red flag. The VPN connection wasn't new and had been active for at least six months.
So they zeroed in on Bob himself, and took a forensic image of Bob's computer to recover as many files as possible and check for signs of malware.
What they ended up finding were hundreds of PDF invoices from a third-party contractor in Shenyang, China.
A look at his browsing history revealed what his typical work day consisted of:
• 9:00 a.m. – Arrive and surf Reddit for a couple of hours. Watch cat videos.
• 11:30 a.m. – Take lunch.
• 1:00 p.m. – Ebay time.
• 2:00 – ish p.m. Facebook updates – LinkedIn.
• 4:30 p.m. – End of day update e-mail to management.
• 5:00 p.m. – Go home.
So while workers in China were doing Bob's job for him, Bob was sitting back, relaxing, watching cat videos, and earning "several hundred thousand dollars" a year.
BTW, for those who think this was a good idea - Bob is now looking for other career opportunities.
Photo courtesy: Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0
Many years ago, I thought I had been visually violated when I closed the door to a ladies' stall; and, found a face staring at me. I felt that advertising had finally crossed the line - I mean some places are supposed to be sacred; and, this was one of them. However, this was many years ago; and, apparently things have progressed since then. Read on for Lloyd Alter's point of view:
I have always been dubious about the rebound effect, or Jevons Paradox. It's the theory that suggests that as things become more efficient, we use more of them, say building a bigger house or driving a bigger car as the fuel economy improves. I never thought that it really applied, because in Jevons' day, coal was getting cheaper every day, which promoted the development of more ways to use the stuff. Today, our energy sources are mostly getting more expensive over time, so we should logically be using the greater efficiency to basically stay in the same place.
Then I used the loo at lunch at Noce, and saw that the simple frames with ads that used to be over urinals in Toronto are now LED video screens. That the technology has become cheap and ubiquitous enough that we can essentially have a TV running all day to sell advertising, complete with, according to Newad, "Full stereo motion-activated sound that grabs the consumer’s attention." (which fortunately wasn't running while I was there)
IDS11: IKEA Model Kitchen Demonstrates Jevons Paradox
Perhaps I was wrong about Jevons after all. We may not buy fridges that are twice the size or drive our Priuses twice as far, but we are certainly finding crazy new ways to waste energy. When I wrote about another, similarly stupid waste of energy last year at the Interior Design Show, commenter Anthony nailed it:The Jevons Paradox definitely is important- as efficiency rises, the cost of consuming a product or service falls, so we consume more of it. So efficiency can't happen in a vacuum. It needs to be combined with either rising energy prices (by taxes or decreasing supply) or by a culture that embraces efficiency as a value in itself. That's all it means. Efficiency is still an essential component: it allows us to consume less without having to give something up.
I think I fall into the culture that embraces efficiency as a value in itself, and think that this is just an appalling trend.
I'm with Lloyd on that one. Some things just go too far.
Photo courtesy: mckaysavage/CC BY 3.0
In some places in the world, for instance India, sewage and wastewater flow into open canals and eventually into waterways, spreading odors and enabling the easy breeding of insects such as flies, which can be a vector for pathogens affecting human health.
An obvious and comprehensive fix would be to overhaul the wastewater and sewage infrastructure to keep potential disease sources contained and processed, but until such time as those projects can be undertaken, there's a simpler, more cost-effective solution for mitigating the effects of open sewage and wastewater canals.
According to one company, BiOWISH, they have developed and released a novel biocatalyst that can be applied to wastewater canals in just ten minutes a day - without a complex or expensive delivery system. BiOWISH says their "Aqua" product can be administered to waterways and sewage systems using just a simple drum, hose, and valve system, and the results are quick and effective, reducing Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) by 80 to 90%. "BiOWiSH technology creates a composite biocatalyst from a unique blend of microorganisms, enzymes, and co-factors. Manufactured using a highly-refined, proprietary fermentation process, BiOWiSH enhances biochemical reactions at a faster and more efficient rate than available alternatives over a wide range of environmental conditions." - BiOWISH
The company says their biocatalyst technology can be put to use across multiple industries, including agriculture, aquaculture, and wastewater treatment, and is certified organic and contains no GMO ingredients. The technology is said to work with a broad spectrum of organic matter, and is effective in a variety of diverse environmental conditions.
BiOWISH has released a series of case studies from their work in Pune, India, and says that residents near the canal have reported a "dramatic reduction in odor and flies, potentially reducing the incidences of waterborne pathogens". The company believes their technology to be both cost-effective and environmentally friendly:"BiOWiSH technology provides municipal governments around the world a simple, cost effective, and environment-friendly solution to treat sewage in open canals. It's estimated that implementing BiOWiSH-Aqua costs about $2-$3 per person per year (USD). That's less than 5% of the cost to install a traditional secondary wastewater treatment system." - David Fennema, BiOWISH Senior EVP for Environment
BiOWISH also produces home/residential solutions as well, to reduce odors and unclogs drains or septic tanks, to accelerate the composting process and keep water in ponds and fountains clean and clear.
Photo courtesy: e³°°°/CC BY-SA 2.0
University of Pennsylvania Engineering Professor Shu Yang and her team have mimicked the reflective and water-resistant properties of butterfly wings to create a material that could coat solar panels and increase their output by keeping them clean and dry. The efficiency of solar panels takes a major drive when moisture and debris collect on their surface, so this inventive nature-inspired solution could keep them working at their maximum efficiency, not to mention the iridescence would be beautiful to look at.
New Scientist explains how Yang made the holographic wafer material:
"Yang used holographic lithography to recreate the wings' reflective properties, using a laser to make a 3D cross-linked pattern in a kind of material called photoresist. A solvent then washes away all the photoresist untouched by the laser, creating the 3D structure that affects light to create the colour effects. Then a poorer solvent roughens the surface, creating the texture that makes butterfly wings water-resistant."
Photo courtesy: © Advanced Functional Materials
The holographic material could also be used to coat buildings. While this wouldn't have any clean energy applications, Yang does see them as a way to make buildings more beautiful. The coated buildings could be connected to a chip that lets the owners change the color and transparency.
Yang is working under a grant to produce the hydrophobic coating for solar panels. A prototype of the material should be ready by June 2013.
Spider silk is being widely researched for its amazing qualities. Photo courtesy: PhoTones_TAKUMA/CC BY-SA 2.0
Researchers have been trying to crack the code of spider silk for years. Its properties make it ideal for so many uses, but so far its recipe has remained the secret of spiders. Yet that doesn't mean researchers aren't coming up with amazing ways to use the silk spiders produce themselves. And this time, it's computer chips.
According to Wired, "Light can travel through a silk strand as easily as it does through a fiber optic cable" as discovered by physicist Nolwenn Huby of the Institut de Physique de Rennes in France.
"Huby and her team were able to transmit laser light down a short strand of the silk on an integrated circuit chip. The silk worked much like glass fiber optic cables, meaning it could carry information for electronic devices, though it had about four orders of magnitude more loss than the glass. Huby said that with a coating and further development, the silk could one day have better transmission capabilities."
Because spider silk is a harmless natural material, the electronics made from them could be put to use in the medical field, with devices such as bandages with embedded electronics that can monitor for infections, and which can be absorbed into the body. And because spider silk is biodegradable, the scale of e-waste could potentially be greatly diminished.
Of course, the possibilities are still a thing of the future. It is difficult to imagine being able to harvest enough spider silk to fulfill the needs of the global electronics industry. Scientists would probably still need to figure out how to craft synthetic silk, let alone figure out how to use silk in devices like batteries, chips and so on.
Still, the discovery of the latest amazing feature of spider silk should give us another reason to pause and be marveled by nature.
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