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Elephants have names

July 11, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Elephants are considered to be very smart creatures.  They have the largest brain of any land animal and have three times as many neurons as humans.  Of course, a lot of that brain hardware is needed to control those big elephant bodies, but elephants have also demonstrated impressive mental capabilities on many occasions.

A new study by an international team headed by researchers from Colorado State University has found that elephants call each other by name and respond when they hear others call their name.

The researchers analyzed hundreds of elephant calls recorded over more than a year in Kenya.  With machine learning techniques, they were able to identify specific sounds that elephants made when calling each other.  When the researchers played recordings of these sounds, the elephants responded to the sound of their own name by calling back or moving toward the loudspeaker.  Their response to other names was much less enthusiastic.

Very few animals use names at all, and, in most cases, it is more a matter of imitation.  For example, dolphins refer to other dolphins by mimicking their unique sounds.

These findings at least suggest that elephants may be capable of abstract thought and perhaps may have a vocabulary beyond names for each other.  The researchers are investigating whether elephants can identify food, water, or locations using their calls.  The great hope is that it might ultimately be possible to communicate with elephants directly.  It would be wonderful to be able to alert them to poachers or other threats.  The lead author of the study said that he would like to be able to tell elephants things like “Do not come here.  You’re going to be killed if you come here.”

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Elephants Have Names for Each Other, Study Finds

Photo, posted April 24, 2016, courtesy of Neil Ransom via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Smart Window | Earth Wise

March 31, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

New smart window technology to reduce energy consumption

Researchers at Oxford University have developed a new adaptable smart window technology that has the potential of reducing the energy usage of the average home by a third.

The technology uses a spectrally tunable low-emissivity coating that can control the amount of heat that comes into a room without affecting the quality of the light that enters.

The thermal energy from the sun’s infrared rays is absorbed by the glass and then is re-emitted as heat.  That heat can either be used to warm the room using transparent electrical heaters embedded in the glass or can be reflected away to cool the room.  The windows can change according to seasonal needs.

The researchers built a prototype using a material called an active chalcogenide-based phase change material.  When it is cold, the infrared rays from the sunlight are harvested and used to heat the building.  When it is warm, the new glass can switch state to reflect the heat and reduce the need for air conditioning.  The active phase change material is adjustable so that the amount of heat absorbed or reflected can be tuned for precise temperature control.  There is essentially no effect on visible light passing through the window.  Current low-emissivity glass for windows can reduce heat transfer, but its properties cannot be altered according to seasonal needs.

The researchers estimate that using windows fitted with the new prototype glass – including the energy required to control the film – would save 20 to 34% in energy usage annually compared to double-glazed windows found in many modern homes.

A spinout company from Oxford called Bodle Technologies is collaborating with two existing industrial partners to develop the technology further.

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New adaptable smart window coating could help heat or cool a home and save energy

Photo, posted April 26, 2008, courtesy of Lima Andruska via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Smart Roof | Earth Wise

January 21, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Scientists are working on smart roof technology

Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory have developed an all-season smart roof coating that can keep homes warm during the winter and cool during the summer, and the coating does not consume any gas or electricity.

Existing cool roof systems consist of reflective coatings, membranes, shingles, or tile that lower house temperatures by reflecting sunlight as well as emitting some of the absorbed solar heat away from the roof as infrared radiation.  The problem with such systems is that they continue to radiate heat during the winter, which actually drives up heating costs.

The new material is called a temperature-adaptive radiative coating or TARC.  It enables energy savings by automatically turning off the radiative cooling in the winter.  TARC reflects about 75% of sunlight year-round, but its thermal emittance is high when the temperature is warm – promoting heat loss to the sky – but decreases in cooler weather, helping to retain the heat in a building.

The researchers produced thin-film TARC material that looks like Scotch tape that could be affixed to a surface like a rooftop.  They applied the material to a balcony alongside a sample of commercial dark roof material and a sample of commercial white roof material.

In experiments simulating 15 different climate zones across the US, they found that the TARC material outperforms existing roof coatings for energy savings in 12 out of the 15 zones, particularly in regions with wide temperature variations between day and night, such as in the San Francisco Bay Area, or between winter and summer, such as New York City.

The researchers believe that installing TARC coatings on roofs would save the average U.S. household about 10% in utility costs.

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New Smart-Roof Coating Enables Year-Round Energy Savings

Photo, posted May 18, 2017, courtesy of Damian Gadal via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Smart Heat-Blocking Window | Earth Wise

December 9, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

An international research team led by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has invented a ‘smart’ window material that controls the transmission of heat without blocking the view through the window.  The technology could help reduce the amount of energy needed to cool and heat buildings.

The new material can be the basis of an electrochromic window that can block or pass infrared radiation at the flick of a switch.  Current electrochromic windows can be darkened when switched on and are found in many ‘green’ buildings as well as in many car mirrors.  But these windows are only effective in blocking visible light so infrared radiation – meaning heat – still passes through them.

The new coating material blocks up to 70% of infrared radiation when switched on but still allows up to 90% of visible light to pass through.  The material is a specifically designed composite nanostructure and utilizes advanced materials including titanium dioxide, tungsten trioxide, neodymium, niobium, and tin oxide.  It is intended to be coated onto glass window panels and be activated by electricity when needed.  The material was put through rigorous on-off cycles to assess its stability and durability and it appears to offer superior performance in that regard compared with current electrochromic technology.

The researchers also created a switchable system that helps control conducted heat, which is the heat from the external environment.

The combination of the two technologies could result in smart windows that control two types of heat transmission:  infrared radiation and conduction heat.  Such technology could help conserve energy used for the heating and cooling of buildings and could contribute to the future design of sustainable green buildings.

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Scientists invent ‘smart’ window material that blocks rays without blocking views

Photo, posted March 11, 2016, courtesy of Open Grid Scheduler via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Major Investments In Solar Power

February 22, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/EW-02-22-18-Major-Investments-in-Solar-Power.mp3

There is big money going into renewable energy and energy-smart technologies and half of that is going into solar power.  In 2017, global investments in green energy reached $334 billion and $161 billion of that was in solar.

[Read more…] about Major Investments In Solar Power

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