Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Dec 24

The University of Western Ontario has received a $200,000 grant to find out!

There has long been the idea that sensors in contact lenses could help to identify certain medical conditions including diabetes.  In the latter it could be of use if it kept changing color when sugar levels rise or fall in the body and other conditions could be monitored in a similar way.

There is much debate over whether this is of real use to everyday adults with the condition - and many people have commented that they don’t want other people to know they have an illness by using the color change lenses.  However, there is overwhelming support for it’s use in less able individuals who need home support or other forms of care - as a much better alternative to test needles.

And, it is just in contact lenses at the moment - so a normal sighted individual would have to start wearing plain lenses.  But, as technology advances, this could be moved to other areas of the body which are easy to monitor (it’s tricky to see your own eyes) and easier to apply (have you ever tried to get lenses out of your eyes when you aren’t a lens wearer?).

The Big Idea:
Put simply, the fluid secreted from your tear ducts to moisten your eyes can be analyzed for sugar levels and therefore be used to indicate your blood sugar level.

More technically, the use of extremely small nano-particles embedded into the material of the lens will allow for a chemical reaction with the blood sugars secreted by the body allowing for a color change to occur across the whole surface of the lens.

Therefore, the sufferer does not have to repeatedly test their blood sugar levels with a needle testing kit to make sure they are not about to become gravely ill - they just look in a mirror! 

Obviously, diabetes is just one of many conditions that this technology could benefit, but it is one of the world biggest health issue affecting around 220 million people worldwide according to WHO so this technology could save many lives - as around 500 people a day die of the condition.

Imagine if just a quick glance at your friend could save their life! 

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posted by admin on Dec 10

According to current reports from the US - yes you can…….

Obviously the paper is only a small part of the whole energy source, but could lead the way forward in making energy without mining and disposing of tonnes and tonnes of dangerous and wasteful metals.

Reports from Stanford University suggest that by coating plain copier paper with a carbon and lithium mix could actually power many electrical goods, but research is still in the early stages.

How Is It Done?
Testing so far has allowed for rolled sheets of paper to be painted with a carbon ‘ink’ to form a nanotube structure.  The many inter-connected fibres found in paper could be the key to it’s use - and of course it is bendable, can be folded and manipulated into a whole host of shapes (think origami!) that means it could be better manipulated than many common metals used today and it is much, much, lighter!

Once the structure is prepared, the whole thing is lowered into a lithium solution where electrolytes react to create the electrical current.  Nanotube technology is only small scale at the moment - but with the potential that paper offers, these could be scaled up.

Energy Efficient:
With all the component parts of the battery being one and the same will allow for better energy efficiency as there will be less energy wasted moving it around inside the product - the whole thing is electrical.  I mean, you can even cut the paper in half and it will still work - but at 50% of the output of the original!

They are not currently cost effective though, and paper batteries the size required to power a lightbulb are currently way out of kilter with the cost of other power sources.

But, this small step could lead up to things that noone ever expected - just think of the Internet itself - the technology just ran away with itself!

The Future?
With the potential for larger sizes, and the fact that these batteries can release energy much faster than standard batteries, there is talk of the technology being used to power cars for example - although there has been no actual research into this at the moment.

Similarly there has been talk of pacemakers running on these non-toxic fuel cells - but nothing on paper.

Also, with the structure of paper the same over huge dimensions - it is possible that a whole wall could be painted with the carbon ink and used as an energy store rather than a multitude of smaller devices.  And certain cloths are very similar in structure to paper so could be used as well.

I am not sure that I would want a whole wall or a set of curtains in my home filled with electrical energy, but for factories and other workplaces or vehicles, this could be just the thing!

posted by admin on Nov 21

Just a quick note to congratulate the scientists at CERN for finally getting this machine into action after a 14 month stall!

Cheers all round as the machine creaked back into action like nothing had ever been wrong in the first place.  Take a look at the BBC’s updates or at the CERN website for all the latest info…. 

Similar Articles On This Site: Latest Inventions In Physics: The Large Hadron Collider

posted by admin on Jul 9

One size fits all  self-adjusting spectacles are helping the world to see!

Someone has invented a great way to help everyone find the right glasses by using the same pair of spectacles!  I don’t just mean they all use the same frames - I mean that they all buy the exact same style of glasses and they will all be able to see!

Basically you adjust them yourself from the standard model!

I know it sounds a bit odd, but it could revolutionise the way people live in developing countries across the globe!

More than a billion people worldwide need glasses - but there are just not enough opticians to go around.  We might have 1 on every corner, but in developing countries like sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio is more like 1 optometrist per 1 million people.

How can we expect people to work, farm or support their families if they can see past the end of their noses?  We can’t - and someone is trying their hardest to help them all!

Who Is The Inventor?
The determined scientist behind this revolution is the British inventor and (now) retired Oxford University professor Joshua Silver.

He is now the director of the Centre For Vision In The Developing World, and is trying to scale up his invention and distribution to spread his adjustable glasses to the billion or so desperate and struggling individuals across the globe.

He has great plans to achieve this by 2020 - the beautiful irony of it will make anyone smile!

So far he has distributed hundreds of thousands of pairs to some very grateful people - helping them to continue working - or to come out of forced retirement from jobs that rely on perfect vision like needlework and jewelry trades.

How Do They Work?
Basically, they are a basic pair of spectacles with a syringe and tube on each side which feeds into each lens (2 pieces of thick but pliable plastic). 

Each ‘eye’ has it’s own syringe of silicon gel that can be fed into the gap between the lens until it has distorted their shape enough to correct their vision.  So rather than cutting and shaping glass to get the right curvature - the pressure of the gel does it there and then.

If you over-correct, you just retract the gel again and start over. 

Each eye can be adjusted as many times as you want until the best focus is attained for the wearers’ purpose - either close up for threading needles or more distant for driving. 

Once the perfect ‘prescription’ has been agreed - they can be set like this permanently by screwing in the stopper and then removing the tubing and syringes to make them look ‘normal’.

The Results:
We take eye care for granted and don’t think what a devastating effect it can have on an individual or a community.  Even if we lose our sight, there is technology that we can rely on and employment isn’t usually affected.

However, in the case of a villager in India or a farmer in Africa, this could mean the end of their working life completely.  How can a weaver work if they become too long-sighted?  How can a taxi-driver stay safe if they become too short-sighted?

And the thought of the head of a farming family or a mother of 6 young children without vision doesn’t bear thinking about!

Thank goodness Professor Silver isn’t selling out his invention to a large company - otherwise there could be a price tag on these glasses that puts them out of reach for thousands of people again…..

posted by admin on Jun 10

Among the dozens of other Girl Scout Badges available to earn - you can now try out for one signed by Dolly herself! 

The Coat Of Many Colors Badge

Inspired by the famous song of the same name - this badge focuses on the way that people should just accept other people for what they are, and is hopefully linked closely to the aim and concepts of modern girl scouting today. And it certainly has got some publicity!

Dolly Parton was at a ceremony to explain all and sing the famous song about her past - in her new girl scouts uniform having been made a Girl Scout just over a year and a half ago.

Why The Coat?
Dolly had a poor upbringing - and no winter coat - so her mother made her one out of different colored pieces of scrap material that they had been given - hence ‘the coat of many colors’. 

She was bullied at school because of this coat - even though she loved it dearly and continued to wear it to classes because of how special it was to her.

The new badge has already inspired kids to make their own versions of this coat adding personal touches of their own to make them special - regardless of what other people think of say!  Some have been adding pictures of family members and other have been adding various patches and accessories to make their coat individual.

What The Badge Means:
In addition to inspiring the girls into physical action, it also hopes to encourage them to recognise when someone is less fortunate than themselves and to accept them as a person rather than as just being ‘poor’.  And hopes to get girls scouts to offer help to people and causes that deserve some support.

The badge also represents the idea that girl scouts should not be afraid to do something that they like that is different or unique - and should therefore accept anything that another person has done as they themselves are being different.

And from the words of Dolly herself:

Now I know we had no money
But I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me…….

It certainly seems an odd addition to the scouting world - but if its aim is to help inspire young girls to become accepting of others and to want to achieve great things - then get stitching!