Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop | Data Driven Urban Transformation
China's energy infrastructure mapped
Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy has released its latest China Energy Map, an open-source, interactive chart of the country's energy infrastructure. The map was created by Shih Yu (Elsie) Hung, a research manager at the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies, and Gabriel Collins, the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy and Environmental Regulatory Affairs at the institute. "We are releasing the Baker Institute China Energy Map in the hope that an open, comprehensive and regularly updated source of vital China energy infrastructure data can help facilitate improved analysis by a broad range of participants," they wrote. The map, first released in February 2019 as the China Oil Map, "tracks nearly 4,000 energy facilities in China—it serves as a great resource of facility-level data to both academia and general public," Hung said. Project Website. Map.
Interview with Michael R. Wasielewski on materials in energy
Can electrostatic fields limit the take-off of tiny whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci)?
Electrostatic fields are abundant in the natural environment. We tested the idea that electrostatic attraction forces between tiny whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) and the substrate could be substantial to the point of limiting their take-off. These insects are characterized by a very small body mass and powerful take-offs that are executed by jumping into the air with the wings closed. Wing opening and transition to active flight occur after the jump distanced the insect several body lengths away from the substrate. Using high-speed cameras, we captured the take-off behavior inside a uniform electrostatic field apparatus and used dead insects to calculate the electric charge that these tiny insects can carry. We show that electrostatic forces stimulate the opening of the insect's wings and can attract the whole insect toward the opposite charge. We also found that whiteflies can carry and hold an electrical charge of up to 3.5 pC. With such a charge the electrostatic field required to impede take-off is much stronger than those typically found in the natural environment. Nevertheless, our results demonstrate that artificial electrostatic fields can be effectively used to suppress flight of whiteflies, thus providing options for pest control applications in greenhouses.
The internet information platform EMF-Portal of the RWTH Aachen University summarizes systematically scientific research data on the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF). All information is made available in both English and German. The core of the EMF-Portal is an extensive literature database with an inventory of 31,713 publications and 6,775 summaries of individual scientific studies on the effects of electromagnetic fields.
Quote by Luc Montagnier - The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008
The appearance of endogenous electromagnetic fields in biological systems is a widely debated issue in modern science. The electrophysiological fields have very tiny intensities and it can be inferred that they are rapidly decreasing with the distance from the generating structure, vanishing at very short distances. This makes very hard their detection using standard experimental methods. However, the existence of fast-moving charged particles in the macromolecules inside both intracellular and extracellular fluids may envisage the generation of localized electric currents as well as the presence of closed loops, which implies the existence of magnetic fields. Moreover, the whole set of oscillatory frequencies of various substances, enzymes, cell membranes, nucleic acids, bioelectrical phenomena generated by the electrical rhythm of coherent groups of cells, cell-to-cell communication among population of host bacteria, forms the increasingly complex hierarchies of electromagnetic signals of different frequencies which cover the living being and represent a fundamental information network controlling the cell metabolism. From this approach emerges the concept of electromagnetic homeostasis: that is, the capability of the human body to maintain the balance of highly complex electromagnetic interactions within, in spite of the external electromagnetic noisy environment. This concept may have an important impact on the actual definitions of heal and disease.
Quantum Teleportation on the Nanoscale Using a Chemical Reaction
“By generating entangled electrons through photochemistry that interact with a third electron in an organic radical, we can teleport information from one end of a molecule to another through electron transfer and ensure that it is moved without compromising, or changing, the information carried.” — Matthew D. Krzyaniak
DNA teleportation is a claim that DNA produces electromagnetic signals (EMS), measurable when highly diluted in water. This signal can allegedly be recorded, transmitted electronically, and re-emitted on another distant pure water sample, where DNA can replicate through polymerase chain reaction despite the absence of the original DNA in the new water sample.[1] The idea was introduced by the Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier in 2009. It is similar in principle to water memory, a concept popularised by Jacques Benveniste in 1988.
Scientists Predict There's 90% Chance Civilization Will Collapse Within 'Decades'
The team of researchers believes that the end of civilization will come within decades. In the new study, which was published in Nature, the researchers wrote, "Clearly it is unrealistic to imagine that the human society would start to be affected by the deforestation only when the last tree would be cut down." Before humans started to dominate the world, the planet was covered by 60 million square kilometers of the forest but now there are less than 40 million square kilometers of forest, revealed the study. As trees and forests play a huge role to balance Earth's ecosystem, fewer forests will cause more deduction of oxygen from the blue planet and create an unwanted change in the food chain. "It is highly unlikely to imagine the survival of many species, including ours, on Earth without [forests]," the study added.
One football pitch of forest lost every second in 2017, data reveals
Global deforestation is on an upward trend, jeopardising efforts to tackle climate change and the massive decline in wildlife
Worldwide 99% of everything bought is no longer in use after 6 months.
Cthulhu Spectrum
“The only constant in life is change” - Heraclitus
“To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.” - Stephen R. Covey
Forget
When they germinated, people in Europe still lived in the Stone Age. Scientists are now arguing whether some tree species even completely negate the aging process.
All Dogs in Shenzhen, China Will Get Microchipped By 2020
In May, China's southern city Shenzhen announced that all dogs must be implanted with a chip, joining the rank of the U.K., Japan, Australia and a growing number of countries to make microchips mandatory for dogs. This week, city regulators began to set up injection stations across their partnering pet clinics, according to social media posts from the Shenzhen Urban Management Bureau. The chip, which is said to last for at least 15 years and comes in the size of a grain of rice, is implanted under the skin of a dog's neck. Each chip, when scanned by authorized personnel, reveals a unique 15-digit number matching the dog's name and breed, as well as its owner's identity and contact information -- which will help reduce strays.
Largest shipping company won’t take recyclables to China
Maersk on July 20 told customers it would stop shipping recovered paper, plastics and other scrap materials to China and Hong Kong. The company said the policy is being implemented “to fully comply with government requirements of the People’s Republic of China about zero solid waste import as of 2021.”