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Stretchy And Washable Batteries | Earth Wise

January 13, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Wearable electronic devices are a big market but there are limitations created by the properties of the batteries that operate them. The ideal battery for wearable electronics would be soft and comfortable, stretchable, and washable. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have recently developed just such a battery. The work has been described in a new paper published in Advanced Energy Materials.

The battery encompasses a number of engineering advances. Traditional batteries are made from hard materials encased in a rigid external shell. The UBC battery is stretchable because its key components are ground into small pieces and then embedded in a rubbery polymer. Ultra-thin layers of these materials are then encased in the same polymer. This construction creates an airtight, waterproof seal.

The batteries survived 39 cycles in washing machines using both home and commercial-grade appliances. The batteries came out intact and functional.

The batteries use zinc and manganese dioxide chemistry which is safer than lithium-ion batteries in case they break while being worn.

The materials used are low-cost, so if the technology is commercialized, it will be cheap. When it is ready for consumers, it is likely to cost no more than existing batteries. Work is underway to increase the power output of the batteries and their cycle life. There is already commercial interest in the technology.

There are many potential applications for such batteries. Apart from watches and medical monitors, they might also be integrated with clothing that can actively change color or temperature. If the batteries are commercialized, they will make wearable power comfortable, convenient, and resilient.

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Stretchy, washable battery brings wearable devices closer to reality

Photo, posted April 15, 2021, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Carnivores Eating Human Food | Earth Wise

December 1, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A recent study by ecologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that carnivores living near people often get more than half of their diets from human food sources rather than from their traditional prey. This represents a major lifestyle disruption that puts North America’s carnivore-dominated ecosystems at risk.

The researchers studied the diets of seven predator species across the Great Lakes region using bone and fur samples taken from animals from areas as remote as national parks to metropolitan areas including Albany, New York. What they found – unsurprisingly – is that the closer carnivores lived to cities and farms, the more human food they ate. Dietary contributions of human food varied with species, but on average was more than 25% in most human-altered habitats.

The researchers studied the diets of carnivores like bobcats, coyotes, red and gray foxes, fishers, and American martens by chemical analysis of samples from Minnesota, Wisconsin, upstate New York, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The diets of the animals could be analyzed on the basis of the carbon content of bone and fur samples. Human food, heavy in corn and sugar, lends these samples a distinctive carbon isotope signature. In contrast, prey species confer their own carbon signatures. The ratio of these isotope fingerprints provides information on the proportion of an animal’s diet that came from human sources.

Relying upon human food increases how much carnivores overlap one another in their competition for food. Compared to when these predators vie for distinct prey, there can be more conflicts between animals. Changing how a species gets their food can have far-ranging effects on ecosystems.

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Carnivores living near people feast on human food, threatening ecosystems

Photo, posted August 18, 2007, courtesy of Jitze Couperus via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Online Shopping And Greenhouse Gas Emissions | Earth Wise

April 3, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

These days, consumers have multiple choices for how to shop for even the most mundane products. There are both traditional and online ways to buy most so-called fast-moving consumer goods, such as cleaning supplies and packaged foods. Price, quality, convenience, and time-frame guide our choices.

In the past, these things were always purchased by going to “Bricks & Mortar”, that is, physical retail stores. But now, we can order them from physical stores and have them delivered directly by the store – which is known as “Bricks & Clicks” – or we can order them online from an e-tailer and have them delivered by a parcel delivery company or the post office, so-called “Pure Play” online purchasing..

The carbon footprint of these three approaches depends on multiple factors according to a new study published in Environmental Science and Technology. The study looked at the impact of transport, warehouse storage, delivery, and packaging.

Overall, the greenhouse gas footprints per item purchased at Bricks & Mortar were higher than those of Bricks & Clicks but lower than that of Pure Players. But the results were highly dependent upon how many items were actually being purchased, and where the consumers lived. The type of items also mattered. For example, clothing purchased from a pure-play online source is much more likely to be returned than if purchased in a store.

Bricks & Mortar shoppers could reduce their footprint by 40% by walking or biking to stores, and Pure Players could cut emissions by 26% by switching to electric vehicles for the delivery of products from parcel distribution centers to consumers’ homes.

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Comparing greenhouse gas footprints of online versus traditional shopping

Photo, posted July 15, 2017, courtesy of Elaine Smith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Scandinavian Wine

December 20, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The warming climate is creating some unexpected entrepreneurial opportunities. Many places that have traditionally dominated the wine industry are starting to be worried that the local climates that made them ideal for vineyards are changing and becoming much less ideal. On the other hand, places where wine-making was regarded as a losing proposition are becoming much more hospitable. A prime example is Scandinavia.

Nordic vintners are increasingly convinced that they can develop thriving commercial operations in what used to be places that are too cold for successful wine-making.

Denmark now has 90 commercial vineyards, up from just two 15 years ago. Forty vineyards have sprung up in Sweden. About a dozen vineyards are now operating as far north as Norway.

Many of these Nordic vineyards are in the startup stage and are tiny compared with the established wineries of Europe. Europe has 10 million acres of vineyards, which is enough to cover almost the entire country of Denmark. At the moment, there are only about 1,000 acres of vineyards in Denmark and Sweden.

But, looking forward, Scandinavia’s climate is forecast to be more like northern France, as regional temperatures climb as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Over the past decade, warming has produced milder winters, a longer growing season, and even a small but rising number of award-winning Scandinavian wines.

Meanwhile, traditional wine-growing regions are also dealing with climate change. Winemakers in France, for example, are experimenting with grapes from warmer countries like Tunisia to see if they can retain the tastes and yields that are the basis of a multibillion-dollar wine industry. Spanish and Italian winemakers are planting grapes higher up on mountainsides or on shaded north-facing slopes to preserve the quality of their wine.

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Scandinavian Wine? A Warming Climate Tempts Entrepreneurs

Photo, posted August 24, 2019, courtesy of Ron Reiring via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.