Latest Inventions

If you farmland is flooded - how can you still grow crops?

Well there is one solution that will no doubt help millions of people all across the globe in these times of climate change and rising sea levels - a floating farm!

Many communities around the world inhabit wetland areas and have developed raised housing and methods of transport and livelihoods that make the most of existing circumstances - but growing crops on water?

That really is something quite amazing - and sustainable!

The Idea:
Well, areas of India and Bangladesh for example have annual flooding - but it’s lasting longer and longer these days - and coming when it’s not expected, ruining crops and homes, and leaving farmland underwater and families without anyway to feed themselves.

So, why not farm on the water itself?  Well it’s not as difficult as you might think, and as this is only a temporary solution it doesn’t need to be highly advanced and permanent.

Basically you can build up layers of floating vegetation mixed with fertiliser and stabilizers and you have a raised bed for growing anything.  And as long as you tether it to your home or river bank - you can grow your crops! 

Even if the water levels rise again - your crops do too, so they are not destroyed!  And when the water finally falls back to earth - your crops are already on a bed of fertile compost!

When the water level falls, you can transplant your seeds back into the now fertile soil (enriched with sediment from upstream) and grow them to maturity.  Maybe you could even sell the excess at a local market increasing your income.

The Implementation:
A small charity called Practical Action is working with communities in Bangladesh and has already helped hundreds of families do just this.

Their solutions are simple and cheap to construct for the local communities as they are made from local ‘ingredients’ and are not huge in size.  For example they base their ‘raised beds’ on an initial layer of water hyacinths strengthened with a layer of bamboo strips on top, then bound in place by a further layer of water hyacinth on top so the roots create a sturdy platform.

On top of this solid base is a layer of animal dung and earth - both plentiful in the area - in which to grow the actual crops.  And watering them is not a problem!

The Future?
This is already a lifeline to so many people in Asia, but it could help with innovations across the globe.  If the future is to bring more flooding and adverse weather to many countries - it’s great to know that there are people out there already working on the solutions.

Some of these recent inventions in areas that are already experiencing problems can be the basis for future inventions and inventors to plan for similar scenarios.  Planning for crops that can grow on water could lead to new crops, new farming methods and new lifestyles.

It could also be the first step towards living on water and building flood resistant homes, crops and energy stations!

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I mean, is biodegradable plastic such a good invention after all?

It always seems like an invention suddenly comes along and you think ‘wow, that is absolutely fantastic!’ - until you think it through for a bit longer.

Well this is exactly like that.

The invention is still a great idea - but the implications of it could actually have worse effects than before it was invented!

Why?  Well let’s follow through the life cycle of a plastic bottle and see what happens - but first - what is biodegradable plastic all about?

The Invention:
Regular plastics are made of polymers that can take literally for ever to break down.  They will do though - at varying rates - depending on the type of plastic they are it can be months or years before they start to break apart.

Now, we all know that plastics will never actually really ‘biodegrade’ in the sense of breaking down into total natural products that can be used again by organisms - but the word is used for the relatively fast breakdown of an entire container or sheet of plastic.

Now, this plastic is made to contain certain other particles that will help to induce and encourage the ‘natural’ breakdown of the item.  Just like burying a plastic carrier bag in damp mud will help it to weaken and fall apart.

So, anyway - they have come up with 2 types - Hydro-Biodegradable Plastics (HBP) and Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics (OBP) - and they work either by the chemical actions of hydrolysis or oxidation respectively to reduce the overall bulk of the product.

This then renders it into small enough pieces that natural bio-degradation can start to act on the remaining parts, reducing the product to it’s chemical components much faster than normal.
 
The Problem:
Normal plastics have been designed to be virtually indestructible, therefore you can use a plastic bottle over and over and over again. Even if you can recycle it - it is still as strong as it was before.

This was the original problem, meaning that plastic products never broke down:

Old Plastic Bottle: Brought new with product inside - product used up - container cleaned - container reused to carry another product - and another - and another -and another - then the container is recycled to start all over.

However, now this means that all new plastic will only have a short shelf life - too short for some - in fact, it is already making regular plastic fall apart as well!

New Plastic Bottle:  Brought new with product inside - product used up - container cleaned - container thrown in compost heap to degrade - the end!

So, how is it affecting new bottles?  Well - biodegradable plastics shouldn’t ever be recycled as it will compromise the quality and durability of new mixed plastics - basically it is starting to make recycled products less reliable!

If you buy a product in a biodegradable container, you must dispose of it after use - this means more plastic is being produced and thrown away than ever before!

At least with the regular plastic, you could reuse your toiletries bottles when travelling, use old pots and tubs for planting and store water and food over and over again.

Not with this new invention!  You will just have to keep replacing your containers and as a result, dispose of more plastic than ever!  And in fact, there are governments who are really getting angry about these new plastics and is trying to get them eliminated!

The Answer?
Well, we still need the regular plastic and we still want the biodegradable plastics!

Can they both co-exist or has 1 got to go?

I suppose it all depends on the person using it as to how beneficial each type is - to them and the planet.  Can you trust people not to recycle the new type - and can you trust people to recycle the old type?

Is it better to have lots of old plastic going around and around  - or only new plastic, but a higher production rate?

Well, maybe financially - it was a better invention after all!

Imagine lighting your rural home all night without the cost - and danger - of kerosene fuel and fumes!

Millions of homes in rural Africa are now all proud owners of the new eco lamp called The Kiran.  It is a simple solar powered lamp that is free to power and could save the lives of over 1.5 million people a year based on current statistics!

Now, that is a good enough advocate for this new lamp as it is - but it is also very eco friendly as well - and infact that is what it has recently won the Ashden Award 2010 for Sustainable Energy.  

The Lamp:
Basically, it is just a simple hand held lamp that harnesses the sunlight during the day, and releases it when needed during the evening.

However, it has been specially designed to be not only durable and cheap to produce and sell - but made to offer the same if not better lighting than the existing alternative: kerosene.

Over 75% of households in Africa have no access to electricity - and for those that do, the supply is not always 24 hour!  Therefore they have no alternative than to light with other means, and this is usually kerosene gas.  A gas that is known to gives of unpleasant and dangerous fumes when used internally or in badly ventilated areas.

Infact it is estimated that over 1.5 million people a year in Africa alone die from bad ventilation in combination with kerosene fumes.  Not to mention the cost of buying and storing the fuel in the first place - and the risks of house fires and personal injury.

Needless to say, D Lights small solar lamp eliminates all of that worry for the consumers!

It has 2 light settings depending on your use requirements and also has various positions for the handle so you can carry it, suspend it or fix it to a wall.  It’s fat base allows it to stand freely on a table of the floor as well. 

The Result:
This just goes to show you that the simplest things are still some of the best inventions!

Just the right design at the right time in the right place - and the invention is a winner.  I mean you have been able to get a chain of little solar lights for your garden for years now; but they didn’t win any awards!

They didn’t need to be so practical and so durable - and were infact made to be priced as profitably as possible rather than as affordable as possible!  Ironically it is the cost effective version here that is winning awards and selling millions of products.

So maybe you budding inventors need to think of something else simple and everyday that could be tweaked to make another great invention!

Get designing!

Dyson are at it again with something totally new to the world - and something stylish too!

Not only have they come up with the bag-less vacuum - and the vacuum that goes around corners; they are now breaking out from the floor and up onto our desks and tables!

Well, why only blow wind about inside a cute little vacuum cleaner when you could be cooling off busy office workers instead?  So, they gave it a go!

The result is the very stylish looking desk fan that blows cool air around - but without the blades.  It is basically a fancy looking basketball hoop on it’s end!

The Bladeless Wonder!
The theory of these new fans is the fact that they don’t have blades spinning around at top speed all the time - making rather a loud annoying noise.  And the blades are usually covered in dust and stuck in an equally dusty ‘cage’ around them making them virtually impossible to clean - however they are made safer by this.

What Dyson want to do is get rid of the dirty noisy fan blades and make the physics of air do all the moving you need!

Just as moving water sucks more water towards it - so does air - and this is one of the factors which makes the fan work - and also gives it it’s complete name: the Air Multiplier. 

Basically, a small motor in the base sucks in air from the surrounding space and then shoots it out of a thin slither at the rear of the ‘fan’ and shoots it over the curved surface (just like on a planes wing).  This action of faster moving air drags in more air behind it to replace that which has been blown over it in the first place!

Still with me?  Good.  Now we have already got the air from the fan itself shooting out towards you as well as the sucked in air around the edges - but there is more multiplying to come!  The rim of the fan gets wider, so therefore spreads out the air - and you guessed it: that sucks in more air through the centre of the hoop!

And yet more - as the air all rushes through it also draws in air from outside of the fan hoop and shoots it out towards you as well - basically multiplying up all the original little bit of air loads of times!

Your basic Air Multiplier!

Other Benefits?
Well apart from the cleaning part and the unbroken stream of air (that hasn’t been chopped up by the fans) - they also claim it is more environmentally friendly than air conditioning.

Although this isn’t a direct comparison, they aren’t lying as the amount of wattage to run these fans is so much less than a whole air conditioning system.

However, you would need an awful lot more of them to keep the whole office cool - and I’m not sure if the production, transport and production energy costs have been taken into account here.  I would imagine that you would need a fan for almost every desk, so about 200 for a large office - now imagine how much less energy would be used for a comprehensive air con system instead of 200 single electrical fans on site!

However - they do look pretty cool and come in all shapes and sizes too (at around £199 though!).

This edition is all about medical technology and advances - and there have been plenty sent in this month……

Lets start small with Peggy Stoppelmoor well researched article on 25 Ways Nanotechnology is Revolutionizing Medicine. and we can only get bigger from there, can’t we?

Just a short one from Glory Scott comes next with a few impressive links about How To Learn About Xray Technology for Free, and then another 2 quickies by Heather Sanders highlighting the technology needed for Everything You Need to Know About Radiology Technology and Top 50 Medical Technology Blogs.

Whoopie Patterson comes in here with her list of 10 Essential Web Tools for Research Scientists if you are already researching the next medical advances - and you might even be able to get yourself a grant from it!

And maybe the health-care professional out there may want some web tools too to help keep their CPD on the move - so take a peek at John Laugherton short piece on 10 Essential Webtools for Healthcare Professionals.

Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without some apps now would it?

So let’s join Elisha Knackwood with her Top 25 Android Apps for Your Health and Happiness -and Melissa Seyfried with hers: 5 Excellent iPhone Apps for Health & Medical Reference.

Feel Better Now?