external-blog

Thrilling Toy and Important Tool - microscope!

Fri, 05 Jun 2015 21:57:02 +0100

Already in 1590, the first optical microscope - two lenses in a tube - was developed, although it is hard to identify the original inventors. Technical improvements during the following centuries made microscopy very popular among the scientists. In 1903, Richard Zsigmondy developed the ultra microscope that made it possible to study objects below the wavelength of light. He was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Another improvement was made by Fritz Zernike in the 1930s, when he invented a microscope where light phase content enhanced the image contrast. In 1953, he was awarded the Physics Prize for the phase-contrast microscope, allowing studies of colorless and transparent biological materials.

Professor Frits Zernike receives the telegram notifying him that he has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics while at his home in Groningen, the Netherlands. Flowers and further telegrams soon arrive. Professor Zernike then shows his phase contrast microscope in action. From SF Veckorevy 1953-11-23.
Copyright © Sveriges Television AB 2006
Go to www.NobelPrize.com to watch the video about this important discovery!

Hawaii Bans the Use of Plastic Bags

Mon, 07 Apr 2014 16:43:19 +0100

There are an insane amount of cons to the manufacturing and use of plastic bags. To name a few:

They are made from raw components of oil, which is a limited resource.
According to studies they take at least a few hundred years to decompose; therefore, they consume space in landfills.
When disposed of in the oceans, they are often introduced to the sea creature food chains, which can ultimately lead to their deaths.

While these are only a few cons of plastic bags, they are already alarming facts. They have too many negative aspects that hurt our environment. That is why it is important for people to be aware of their harmful attributes and to take action against using them.

One state that is paving the way for the elimination of plastic bag use is Hawaii. Thanks to local grassroots movements, all four County Councils of Hawaii were able to pass legislation outlawing the usage of plastic bags at checkout counters starting January 17^th. Instead consumers may go for paper bags or bring their own reusable bags. While plastic bags will still be in use for products such as nuts, fish, and meats, it is still a huge step in the right direction. It makes sense that Hawaii is the first state to pass this law being that they are more exposed to the adversities plastic bags can have on marine life. We at Microempowering applaud them and urge all of you to contact your local council members expressing your concerns on the usage of plastic bags.

MicroEmpowering DIY Lava Lamp Workshop

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:14:02 +0100

Come out and join the MicroEmpowering team in a STEM education and eco-art workshop at Socrates Sculpture Park on Saturday, June 15th from 12pm-3pm.

Through this interactive workshop participants will be taught how to create a lava lamp using everyday household items and recycled materials. These vibrant, mesmerizing lamps are a fun and exciting way to get children involved in math and science. All materials will be provided on site. This workshop is open to children and their families on a “drop-in” basis.

Note: If you will be arriving in a group of 10 or more, please contact the office a week prior to your visit by calling (718) 956-1819.

Event:
June 15^th, 2013
12pm-3pm
Blast to the Past: DIY Lava Lamps
MicroEmpowering.org

Location:
Socrates Sculpture Park
36-01 Vernon Blvd
Long Island City, NY 11106

About MicroEmpowering

MicroEmpowering was founded by a group of people who have always been concerned about sustainability, efficiency, and transparency. We promote a “learn by doing” approach to education by introducing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) concepts to today’s youth. Our goal is to develop resources and lead workshops that cover topics related to the field of STEM education, which include broader issues faced by students, parents, educational organizations, and policy makers. We believe, once provided with the necessary resources and information, most individuals can craft solutions for creating sustainable communities and improving lives.

Contact

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at website@microempowering.org.

A Boon for Biofuels Research

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:29:50 +0100

Researchers from the United Kingdom, the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the University of Kentucky have recently published a paper describing a novel cellulose-degrading enzyme from a marine wood borer Limnoria quadripunctata, commonly known as the gribble.

Gribbles are biologically intriguing because they exhibit a relatively unique ability to produce their own enzymes instead of using symbiotic microbes to break down the biomass they eat. New biomass-degrading enzymes from novel sources such as the gribble may prove beneficial to the biofuels industry.

Gribbles are 1-3 millimeters in length, but collectively they bore through wood quickly, and are responsible for significant natural and man-made marine timber damage around the world. Scientists at Universities of Portsmouth and York in the United Kingdom and the University of Kentucky in the United States, with researchers from NREL, are hoping to turn that special talent into a source of novel enzymes for the biofuels industry.

A paper describing the crystal structure of a key enzyme produced by the gribble appears online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/05/31/1301502110.short

Gribbles live in inter-tidal zones and, similar to termites, they burrow into wood. Gribbles, unlike termites or many other animals including people, do not rely on gut bacteria to make enzymes to aid their digestion. Gribbles instead exhibit a sterile gut, and secrete their own enzymes into their guts made in a special organ termed the heptopancreas that runs the entire length of their body.

Interestingly, several of the enzymes produced by gribbles are in the same important enzyme classes that are typically harvested from fungi in the biosphere for industrially deconstructing the cellulose in biomass. The gribble enzymes hold promise of tolerating salts much better, likely due to the fact they evolved in a marine environment. This unique adaptation may have beneficial implications for the ability of the gribble enzymes to more efficiently operate in a high-solids, industrial environment, breaking biomass down more effectively into sugars, which can then be converted into ethanol or a hydrocarbon fuel to replace gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.

The biofuels industry needs tough, efficient enzymes that are tolerant of industrial processes. "For biochemical conversion with enzymes, industry needs to push up to very high solids, with very little water around," NREL Senior Scientist Gregg Beckham, one of the co-authors, said. "The structure of the gribble enzyme reveals new evolutionary adaptations that may suggest mechanisms for producing more robust, industrial enzymes for high-solids loadings environments."

NREL ran computer simulations and aided in the structural and biochemical analysis of the enzyme.

The work leading to the paper provided deeper understanding of how the organism adapts and survives. NREL and UK scientists are now examining how features of the gribble enzymes could be incorporated into industrially relevant enzymes and settings.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Visit NREL online at www.nrel.gov to read more

MicroEmpowering Product Giveaway!

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:54:22 +0100

Microempowering would like to give a big thank you for all the support you have shown us.

We will be hosting a giveaway of more than 100 products. This product giveaway will start on May 1st and will end on June 1st. All you have to do for a chance to win is subscribe to our newsletter mailing list! You can do that right on our blog page.

The winners will be selected randomly but everyone has a high chance of winning! Once selected, the winners will be requested to provide us with their first name, last name, home address, and phone number for shipping purposes and for future announcements. Its as easy as that!

Here are some of the awesome products you can win:

EARTH DAY LOBBY DAY 2013!

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:29:40 +0100

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013
9:30 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.New York State Capitol, Albany, NY

Can’t make it to Albany? Don’t fret! You can support this important day by pledging to call your legislator on the 23rd and provide back-up to the advocates pounding the halls of the capitol.

If you’re signing up to call, we will give you all the information you need to easily make the call!

This year's Earth Day Lobby Day will focus on critically important environmental issues such as expanding solar energy, curbing greenhouse gas emissions, keeping toxic chemicals out of children’s products, and protecting New York from the dangers of hydrofracking.

Join hundreds of environmentalists from across the state in advocating for measures to protect our air, water, land and health. No lobbying experience needed! This event is free and open to the public, but you must register to attend so we get you the information you need.

Earth Day Lobby Day 2013 is sponsored by Audubon New York, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Clean & Healthy New York, Environmental Advocates of New York, New York Interfaith Power and Light, NYPIRG, Sierra Club, and many other great organizations.

NASA Seeks Academic Partners for Smallsat Technology Collaboration

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:29:05 +0100

RELEASE : 13-094

NASA Seeks Academic Partners for Smallsat Technology Collaboration

WASHINGTON -- NASA is seeking small spacecraft technology project proposals from U.S. colleges and universities that would like to collaborate with agency researchers.

Small spacecraft, or smallsats, represent a growing field of space research and operations in which universities often have led the way in technology development. Smallsats, some of which are as small as a four-inch cube, are not expected to replace conventional spacecraft, but sometimes can provide an alternative to larger, more costly spacecraft. Smallsats can serve as platforms for rapid technology testing or specialized scientific research and exploration not otherwise possible. Smallsats also can be developed relatively quickly and inexpensively, and can share a ride to orbit with larger spacecraft.

"This new opportunity will engage university students and graduate researchers in advancing technology of value to NASA and the nation, and help strengthen our high-tech work force," said Andrew Petro, program executive for the Small Spacecraft Technology Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "There is a vibrant small spacecraft community emerging within America's universities and NASA is taking steps to increase our collaboration with that community. The universities will benefit from the deep experience NASA has in space research and technology, while NASA will benefit from fresh ideas and cost-conscious innovation at the universities."

NASA expects to competitively select approximately 10 proposals. Each team will form proposal partnerships with researchers from any of NASA's field centers. Awards for each project will include as much as $100,000 ($150,000 for teams of more than one school). Proposals submitted in response to this NASA cooperative agreement notice are due June 5.

In addition, NASA will fund the time for NASA employees to work with each selected team. Project funding is for one year with the potential to continue for a second year. Proposed projects could include anything from laboratory work to advance a particular spacecraft technology to flight testing of a new smallsat. For example, projects might focus on a technology area such as propulsion, power or communications, or on a smallsat capability, such as formation flight or satellite rendezvous.

Details of the opportunity and instructions for submitting proposals are provided in a Cooperative Agreement Notice that is available online at:

http://tinyurl.com/cb3mqdw

For additional information on the Small Spacecraft Technology Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/smallsats

Press Release From: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/apr/HQ_13-094_Smallsats_Partners.html

Quantum Dots that Assemble Themselves Could Bolster Quantum Photonics and Solar Cell Efficiency

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:18:43 +0100

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other labs have demonstrated a process whereby quantum dots can self-assemble at optimal locations in nanowires, a breakthrough that could improve solar cells, quantum computing, and lighting devices.

A paper on the new technology, "Self-assembled Quantum Dots in a Nanowire System for Quantum Photonics," appears in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature Materials.

Quantum dots are tiny crystals of semiconductor a few billionths of a meter in diameter. At that size they exhibit beneficial behaviors of quantum physics such as forming electron-hole pairs and harvesting excess energy.

The scientists demonstrated how quantum dots can self-assemble at the apex of the gallium arsenide/aluminum gallium arsenide core/shell nanowire interface. Crucially, the quantum dots, besides being highly stable, can be positioned precisely relative to the nanowire's center. That precision, combined with the materials' ability to provide quantum confinement for both the electrons and the holes, makes the approach a potential game-changer.

Electrons and holes typically locate in the lowest energy position within the confines of high-energy materials in the nanostructures. But in the new demonstration, the electron and hole, overlapping in a near-ideal way, are confined in the quantum dot itself at high energy rather than located at the lowest energy states. In this case, that's the gallium-arsenide core. It's like hitting the bulls-eye rather than the periphery.

The quantum dots, as a result, are very bright, spectrally narrow and highly anti-bunched, displaying excellent optical properties even when they are located just a few nanometers from the surface – a feature that even surprised the scientists.

"Some Swiss scientists announced that they had achieved this, but scientists at the conference had a hard time believing it," said NREL senior scientist Jun-Wei Luo, one of the co-authors of the study. Luo got to work constructing a quantum-dot-in-nanowire system using NREL's supercomputer and was able to demonstrate that despite the fact that the overall band edges are formed by the gallium Arsenide core, the thin aluminum-rich barriers provide quantum confinement both for the electrons and the holes inside the aluminum-poor quantum dot. That explains the origin of the highly unusual optical transitions.

Several practical applications are possible. The fact that stable quantum dots can be placed very close to the surface of the nanometers raises a huge potential for their use in detecting local electric and magnetic fields. The quantum dots also could be used to charge converters for better light-harvesting, as in the case of photovoltaic cells.

The team of scientists working on the project came from universities and laboratories in Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and the United States.

Report Advises Utilities on Unintentional Islanding Risk for Distributed Generation

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:34:16 +0100

A Sandia National Laboratories report details a procedure to quickly determine whether utilities need an additional unintentional islanding study when evaluating the proposed interconnection of new distributed generation (DG), which includes photovoltaic (PV) systems.

Islanding occurs when the DG continues to energize a load well after it is disconnected from the utility source, and when established accidentally, islanding can adversely affect personnel safety and equipment integrity. Following Sandia's procedure can reduce the planning time — and cost — of interconnecting PV by identifying situations in which the risk of unintentional islanding is extremely low.

NASA Casts a Wide Net for STEM Education Partners

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:16:49 +0100

RELEASE : 13-056

NASA Casts a Wide Net for STEM Education Partners

WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting potential partners to help the agency achieve its strategic goals for education.

Using its unique missions, discoveries, and assets, NASA supports education inside and outside the formal classroom to inspire and motivate educators and learners of all ages in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The agency is seeking unfunded partnerships with organizations to engage new or broader audiences across a national scale.

NASA recognizes the benefit of leveraging those unique resources and abilities that partners can provide in order to improve efficiency and maximize impact of its STEM efforts. This announcement requests information from organizations interested in working with NASA to improve STEM education in America.

Potential partnership activities are varied, and NASA is receptive to a wide range of possibilities. All categories of domestic groups, including U.S. federal government agencies, are eligible to respond to this announcement. NASA particularly seeks responses from creative organizations with wide-ranging areas of expertise that can affect systemic change for improving STEM education. NASA will accept responses through Dec. 31, 2014. Review of responses will begin April 1.

Press Release from http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/feb/HQ_13-056_Education_Partners.html