Low-cost sensor to monitor area-wide flooding
Scientists have developed a low-cost sensor to monitor area-wide flooding, especially from swelling rivers that can help forewarn residents in the vicinity to evacuate or take preventive measures to minimise loss of lives and property. Although a range of devices already exist to monitor the same, they are liable to damage due to exposure to water or are unable to provide continuous monitoring. Nor do they have remote reading capabilities, and can be expensive. But University of Bonn researchers’ cost-effective device is found to be reliable and capable of continuously transmitting water level data to an evaluation center. It is suitable for providing a densely-distributed network for flood and drought warning systems. The core of the device is a low-cost Global Navigation Satellite System receiver and antenna to determine the position of its location with several meter accuracy. While the satellite transmission is direct the water level and data on the surrounding environment is reflected, and takes longer.
Power packs from waste paper to charge cars, phone
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, have come up with a method to develop rechargeable batteries to power electric vehicles, phones and medical equipment using hold your breath! waste paper. The technique involves converting waste paper from single-use packaging, cardboard boxes into crucial components of lithium-ion batteries. This is being done through a process called carbonisation that converts paper into pure carbon. The researchers turn paper’s fibers into electrodes, which in turn can be made into rechargeable batteries that power mobile phones, medical equipment, and electric vehicles. The anodes can be charged and discharged up to 1,200 times.
Remote-controlled microscope brings access to biology students
UC Santa Cruz researchers have developed a method for using remote-controlled, internet-connected microscopes to enable students anywhere in the world to participate in designing and carrying out biology experiments. The researchers implemented the microscope technology in the biology classrooms and found their it to be an effective and scalable approach for giving students in the biology stream the ability to conduct complex experiments remotely. The researchers did this by taking an internet-connected camera and attaching it to the view piece of the microscope. The objective of this research was to create a roadmap for a wider number of students to conduct and study complex experiments in a networked manner from remote parts of the world simultaneously. While project-based learning has proven to be an effective method for teaching biology, it is restricted by barriers cost and logistics of shipping material to isolated communities, limited teacher training, under-resourced schools, and potential exposure to hazardous materials. For instance, the researchers in their user trials found that tissue culture experiments, typically unheard of in high school and even the first few years of college, could be accessed by students who earlier were unable to get the resources by using the remote-controlled microscope.