globalbriefs
Solar Socket Portable Power from Any Windowpane
The Window Socket, a new device that at- taches to any window using a suction cup, provides a small amount of electricity to charge and operate small devices from its solar panel. Inventors Kyuho Song and Boa Oh, of Yanko Design, note, “We tried to design a por- table socket so that users can use it intuitively, without special training.”
Even better, the charger stores energy. After five to eight hours of charging,
The Socket provides 10 hours of juice to charge a phone, even in a dark room. The device is not yet available in the United States.
Find more information at
Tinyurl.com/WindowSocket.
Feathered Friends Food Shortages Guide Behavior
A new report published in American Naturalist by a pair of ecologists, W. Alice Boyle and Courtney J. Conway, at the University of Arizona, in Tuc- son, has determined that the primary pressure prompting short-distance bird migrations comes from seasonal food scarcity, not their amount of eating or living in non-forested environments, as was previously thought. “It’s not just whether they eat insects, fruit or nectar, or where they eat them; it matters how reliable that food source is from day-to-day,” says Boyle. A universal assumption has been that short-distance migration is an evolution- ary steppingstone to longer trips. The team’s work contradicts that idea by showing that the two are inherently different. They also found that species that forage in flocks are less likely to migrate. “If a bird is faced with food scarcity, is has two op- tions,” Boyle notes. “It can either forage with other birds or migrate.”
Oil Alternative Bio-Breakthrough Can Reduce Fossil Fuel Use
Researchers at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, attest they have succeeded in using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydro- gen in a method that can be performed using any source of biomass. “Our new process could help end our de- pendence on fossil fuels,” projects Y. H. Percival Zhang,
the associate professor of biological systems engineering who is spearheading the initiative. This environmentally friendly method of producing hydrogen utilizes renewable natural resources, releases almost zero greenhouse gases and doesn’t require costly heavy metals. Most hydrogen for commercial use is produced from natural gas, which is
expensive to manufacture and generates a large amount of the greenhouse gas car- bon dioxide. “It really doesn’t make sense to use non-renewable natural resources to produce hydrogen,” says Zhang. “We think this discovery is a game-changer in the world of alternative energy.”
12 Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Edition
NaturalCinci.com
High-Tech Teachers Students Use Smartphones to Study
Highlighting the potential for digi- tal learning, a new survey by the Verizon Foundation has found that a third of middle school students are already using mobile apps on smartphones to do schoolwork and collaborate with peers on projects. Beyond accessing information via the Internet, students often turn to free apps to play games that help them master math concepts, virtually dissect an animal or analyze clouds and concepts of condensation and more. The Verizon Foundation offers
training to educators on integrating mobile technology into lesson plans by partnering with the nonprofit Technology Student Association and the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology. Together, they are sponsoring the Innovative App Challenge, in which hundreds of middle and high school student teams are conceptual- izing mobile apps that incorporate science/technology/engineering/ mathematics (STEM) activities to solve a problem in their school or community. Ten teams won personal smartphones and $10,000 grants for their schools, plus assistance in creating their apps and bringing them to the public earlier this year. Verizon expects to launch a new edition of the program this fall.
Source: The Christian Science Moni- tor at
CSMonitor.com
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