Researchers from Shenzhen University in China have discovered a novel method to ensure lesser energy consumption while cooling buildings, vehicles and equipment. They have achieved it by using new nanofilms which have been inspired by butterfly wings which find a way around the heating effect experienced by coloured objects that absorb light in varying degrees, depending on what the colour is.
The new nanofilms developed by the researchers lower the temperature of colourful objects two degrees Celsius below the ambient temperatures, and when kept outdoors in the sun, the blue versions of the films were found to be 26 degrees Celsius cooler than the traditional blue paint on a car, yielding an annual energy saving of about 1377 megajoules per square metre. Unlike traditional colours, these new nanofilms do not absorb light. For instance, white absorbs the least light, in fact, reflects it the most, compared to darker colours, with black absorbing the most.
The researchers have found that these nanofilms can be used to cover structures like buildings, vehicles and equipment to significantly reduce the load on cooling systems like air-conditioners. Currently, systems used for efficient ventilation and cooling consume a large amount of energy to achieve the desired effects. Especially in electric cars, A/Cs can drastically reduce the driving range to less than half while being used to cool the interiors.
The new find was inspired by Morpho butterfly wings, which produce a highly saturated blue colour but do not absorb light due to their nanostructure. The researchers have mimicked the nanostructure to recreate the nanofilms that now can help save energy while cooling buildings and vehicles. The new nanofilm design produces vibrant colours that do not absorb light like the traditional colours.
'Smell therapy' found to fight dementia
Have you experienced a vague smell taking you back in time and reviving memories of an incident or an event that is linked to that smell? University of California, Irvine (UCI), researchers are now using just that to sharpen the cognitive capacities of senior citizens who may suffer from dementia. In an experiment conducted on a group of senior citizens, on one hand, and a control group, on the other, they found that when exposed to fragrances for two hours every night for six months while sleeping, cognitive capacities and memories shot up by 226 per cent among the elders exposed to it compared to the control group which was not subjected to the fragrance.
The UCI researchers linked the latest finding about fragrance sharpening memory capacity to the long-known capacity of the olfactory system — which provides the ability to smell — in predicting 70-odd psychiatric and neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s, dementia, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s and alcoholism.
The latest in this domain is Covid-induced smell loss and the resulting cognitive problems. The researchers had also previously discovered that those with moderate dementia, when exposed to different odours twice a day over a period of time boosted language skills, eased depression and also improved their smelling capacities. The same is now being used as a non-invasive tool to fight dementia.
The brains of those who showed significant improvements were imaged, and the UCI researchers found better integrity in a pathway in the brain called uncinate fasciculus that connects the medial temporal lobe to the decision-making prefrontal cortex, which gets weaker with age. The participants who showed better cognitive capacities also reported sounder sleep when subjected to the fragrance for two hours every night.