živimo SF

[zakk]

Mislim da je veća fora to što može plastika da se razbaca po ličnom prtljagu i da se sastavi u avionu/gdeveć, a da na proverama ne zaliči na oružje.

[zakk]

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/10/25/1154237/uk-police-seize-3d-printed-gun-parts-which-are-actually-spare-printer-parts

[Meho Krljic]

No batteries needed! Future robots may run on urine

Scientists have found a way to power future robots using an unusual source -- urine.
Researchers at the University of the West of England, Bristol and the University of Bristol worked together to build a system that will enable robots to function without batteries or being plugged into an electrical outlet.
Based on the functioning of the human heart, the system is designed to pump urine into the robot's "engine room," converting the waste into electricity and enabling the robot to function completely on its own.
Scientists are hoping the system, which can hold 24.5 ml of urine, could be used to power future generations of robots, or what they're calling EcoBots.
"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories," said Peter Walters, a researcher with the University of the West of England. "In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."
In the past 10 years, researchers have built four generations of EcoBots, each able to use microorganisms to digest the waste material and generate electricity from it, the university said.
Along with using human and animal urine, the robotic system also can create power by using rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water and sludge.
Ioannis Ieropoulos, a scientist with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, explained that the microorganisms work inside microbial fuel cells where they metabolize the organics, converting them into carbon dioxide and electricity.
Like the human heart, the robotic system works by using artificial muscles that compress a soft area in the center of the device, forcing fluid to be expelled through an outlet and delivered to the fuel cells. The artificial muscles then relax and go through the process again for the next cycle.
"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibers to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly,"  Walter said.

[scallop]

I mi trčimo kad nas potera.

[Meho Krljic]

  Valja.

Ali uzgred, ovaj tekst je takoreći satira sam za sebe. Mislim, roboti koji ulaze u javne vecee da se natankuju. Kao neki skeč Montija Pajtona ili Top Liste Nadrealista.

[džin tonik]

hvala alahu autor napusta termin 'robot' i dalje rabi 'robotic system'. mnogo toga razvije se iz potpuno apstraktnih ideja, ali ovi, ne znam kako ih nazvati u skladu noje sagita vele, a ne biti prost, ocigledno uspjesno jasu na eko-struji. zasto se spominje robotika, ideje namam. marketing, sta li vec.

[džin tonik]

potpuno pogresan akcenat clanka.

... smart shape-changing materials.

...

Bioinspired Control of Electro-Active Polymers for Next Generation Soft Robotics. EPSRC joint project with University of Sheffield, University of Bristol and Bristol Robotics Laboratory ...

Dr Peter Walters Research Fellow

autonomne komponente. steta sto jedan ovako bzvzni novinar proda senzacionisticko lose stivo usmjereno na sliku robotike malog ivice.

[Meho Krljic]

Kad smo već kod senzacionalizma: Internacionalna Svemirska Stanica je zaražena kompjuterskim virusom koga su na nju doneli ruski astronauti na USB stiku 

International Space Station Infected With USB Stick Malware Carried on Board by Russian Astronauts               

Renowned security expert Eugene Kaspersky reveals that the International Space Station was infected by a USB stick carried into space by a Russian astronaut.




Russian security expert Eugene Kaspersky has also told journalists that the infamous Stuxnet had infected an unnamed Russian nuclear plant and that in terms of cyber-espionage "all the data is stolen globally... at least twice."
Kaspersky revealed that Russian astronauts carried a removable device into space which infected systems on the space station. He did not elaborate on the impact of the infection on operations of the International Space Station (ISS).
Kaspersky said he had been told that from time to time there were "virus epidemics" on the station.
Kaspersky doesn't give any details about when the infection he was told about took place, but it appears as if it was prior to May of this year when the United Space Alliance, the group which oversees the operaiton of the ISS, moved all systems entirely to Linux to make them more "stable and reliable."
Windows XP
Prior to this move the "dozens of laptops" used on board the space station had been using Windows XP, which is inherently more vulnerable to infection from malware than Linux.
According to Kaspersky the infections occurred on laptops used by scientists who used Windows as their main platform and carried USB sticks into space when visiting the ISS.
The ISS's control systems (known generally as SCADA systems) were already running various flavours of Linux prior to this switch for laptops last May.
According to a report on ExtremeTech, as far back as 2008 a Windows XP laptop was brought onto the ISS by a Russian astronaut infected with the W32.Gammima.AG worm, which quickly spread to other laptops on the station - all of which were running Windows XP.
Stuxnet
The Russian said this example shows that not being connected to the internet does not prevent you from being infected. In another example, Kaspersky revealed that an unnamed Russian nuclear facility, which is also cut off from the public internet, was infected with the infamous Stuxnet malware.


Quoting an employee of the plant, Kaspersky said:
"[The staffer said] their nuclear plant network which was disconnected from the internet ... was badly infected by Stuxnet. So unfortunately these people who were responsible for offensive technologies, they recognise cyber weapons as an opportunity."
Infamous
Stuxnet is one of the most infamous pieces of malware ever created, though it was never designed to come to the attention of the public.
Never officially confirmed by either government, the widely-held belief is that Stuxnet was created jointly by the US and Israeli governments to target and disable the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in Iran, in a bid to disrupt the country's development of nuclear weapons.
The malware was introduced to the Natanz facility, which is also disconnected from the internet, through a USB stick and went on to force centrifuges to spin out of control and cause physcial damage to the plant.
Stuxnet only became known to the public when an employee of the Natanz facility took an infected work laptop home and connected to the internet, with the malware quickly spreading around the globe infecting millions of PCs.
Expensive
Kaspersky told the Press Club that creating malware like Stuxnet, Gauss, Flame and Red October is a highly complex process which would cost up to $10 million to develop.
Speaking about cyber-crime, Kaspersky said that half of all criminal malware was written in Chinese, with a third written in Spanish or Portuguese. Kaspersky added that Russian-based malware was the next most prevalent threat, but that it was also the most sophisticated.
He also added that Chinese malware authors were not very interested in security with some adding social media accounts and personal photos on servers hosting the malware.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tlUvb26DzI&feature=player_embedded

[scallop]

Meho, priča o pogonu na urin i nije tako blesava, kao što na prvi pogled izgleda. Postoji priča o jednom našem, ne znam dal' je bio Hrvat ili Srbin, to je tako teško razlikovati kad je na daljinu, koji je od gradonačelnika jednog SAD grada tražio ovlašćenje da bez naknade uklanja urin iz javnih toaleta. Dobio ga je i posao oko jeftine nabavke sjajne sirovine za proizvodnju veštačkih đubriva je mogao da počne. Išlo je sjajno, pa je proširivao posao, od grada do grada, sve dok jedan gradonačelnik nije shvatio da svaka sirovina ima svoju cenu, pa je čitav posao crk'o. Ko zna, kako će biti u budućnosti, život je SF, moguće je da se i NASA programi delom finansiraju iz prečišćavanja urina svojih posada.
Ta priča je bila aktuelna i kod nas kad smo razvili sjajnu tehnologiju proizvodnje aktivnog uglja od šljivovih koštica. Svet priznao da je taj ugalj kvalitetniji od istog prerađenog iu ljuski kokosovih oraha. Međutim, prelazak na masovnu proizvodnju je bio katastrofalan. Naš partner, "Voćar", imao je ponudu da sakupi oko 3000 tona godišnje na moravskom kompleksu proizvođača i prerađivača šljiva. Međutim, čim su isti proizvođači saznali za organizovano prikupljanje tog otpadnog materijal, on je dobio cenu koja je sve planove učinila besmislenim. Moguće je da na istom principu propadne i ideja o pogonu robota na urin. Jebiga.

[Meho Krljic]

Da, jasno, kao što je nafta do momenta kada je shvaćeno da može da se preradi i koristi kao gorivo bila ne samo jeftina sirovina nego i nepoželjan zagađivač zemlje koja je korišćena u druge svrhe.

[scallop]

Mnogo si mi ozbiljan. Baš ne znaš da uživaš.

[Meho Krljic]

Pa... volim čokoladu. U njoj uživam. 

Ali ovde sam pokušao da budem ozbiljan, to je istina.

[SuperSynthetic]

Multikompanije će po gradu postaviti gomilu kioska u kojima će otkupljivati naš urin. Posle će to već da uznapreduje, pa će nam u kupatilima postviti wc šolje koje automatski mere kolićinu ispišanog i odmah isplaćuju. Pišanje će postati smisao života. Biće, ko može više urina da proizvede, a ne ko ima veći. I žene će tako birati frajere. Ako se nekoj ipak desi da se zaljubi u lepotana koji ne može puno da piša, moraće da piša za njega. Jbg. Ništa nije idealno.

[mac]

Nije urin jedini resurs koji proizvodmo. Tu je i metan...

[scallop]

Ovo je već bolje. Song koji slušamo do besvesti biće "Pišonja i Žuga". Mac će biti probni pilot za metan, pa će da mu implantiraju kolektor sa apsorberom koji će metan direktno da ubacuje u sistem unutrašnjeg sagorevanja njegovih kola. U kamionskom transportu će da koriste krave. Naravno, depo za krave će imati naviljke sena i priključak za mužu sa automatskim bućkalom za puter. Nafta će se koristiti isključivo u proizvodnji aspirina i vijagre. Za pre i posle.

[SuperSynthetic]

Pasulju će da skoči cena. Ko vozi brza kola moraće da ga jede u velikim količinama. Ali to će mu biti kao da ima nitro. Sve će to biti lepo vakumski povezano sa vozačevim sedištem tako da se nikakav miris neće osećati.

[scallop]

Pa, Synthetic, na sajtu fantastike moraćeš da se baviš i pripremom. Pasulj će se više koristiti ta atomsku fisiju. Bombardovanje atoma i tako to. Za solidnju vožnju kupusi su bez premca. Futoški za limuzine. Za malolitražne - briselski kupus. Kelj za džipove.

[SuperSynthetic]

Ali da prostite, biće super fazon. Prdiš i juriš. Kad god vozač prdne ubrzanje ga zalepi za sedište.  Plastični hirurzi će im ugrađivati ojačane čmarove da ih ne bi pocepali.   

[saturnica]

Multikompanije će po gradu postaviti gomilu kioska u kojima će otkupljivati naš urin. Posle će to već da uznapreduje, pa će nam u kupatilima postviti wc šolje koje automatski mere kolićinu ispišanog i odmah isplaćuju. Pišanje će postati smisao života. Biće, ko može više urina da proizvede, a ne ko ima veći. I žene će tako birati frajere. Ako se nekoj ipak desi da se zaljubi u lepotana koji ne može puno da piša, moraće da piša za njega. Jbg. Ništa nije idealno.

Nije to što će žena morati pišati za oboje, kao da je problem ispiškiti se, već zamisli samo koliko bi ta žena morala piti da bi u ispišavanju pronašla smisao života udvoje?

[SuperSynthetic]

Sve za ljubav.

[saturnica]

Sve za ljubav.

Pusti ti ljubav, što li muškarci sve neće ljubavlju zvati. Već vidim budući scenarij, doći će neka, ne mlađa kao danas, već neka koja može još jače potegnuti iz boce... i tako...

[mac]

Ali što bi se ta što bolje poteže zadovoljila nekim ko je ispod njenog nivoa potezanja?

[saturnica]

Ali što bi se ta što bolje poteže zadovoljila nekim ko je ispod njenog nivoa potezanja?

Pa vjerojatno ne bi, to bi tek kasnije shvatila, al moguće je da bi početno nasjela na riječ ljubav!

[SuperSynthetic]

Čuj, nasjela. Ti baš nešto i ne vjeruješ u ljubav?

[saturnica]

Čuj, nasjela. Ti baš nešto i ne vjeruješ u ljubav?

Ne brzaj u zaključcima.

[SuperSynthetic]

Dobro, neću.

[PTY]

No batteries needed! Future robots may run on urine

Srećom je barem Alah dobrostiv, pa možda i neće dozvoliti da nam se ama baš sve svede na prdenje i pišanje:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131112-potato-power-to-light-the-world/all

[scallop]

Uvek me obraduješ. I meni je bilo dosta isticanja prednosti autogenih humanih resursa. Imamo mi još konja za trku, mada, da se figurativno izrazim to nisu konji za kafileriju ili pet food proizvodnju, nego konji u punom trku. Naime, posle kukuruza koga već abnormalno koristimo za proizvodnju goriva za naše ljubljene automobile umesto da ga stoka i mi pojedemo, krompir je novi hit kao low voltage resurs. Jest da je još Aleklsandar Volta pokazao kako da se mrtva žaba batrga, kao što je Kepler napisao sve moje knjige, prilično je zgodno što svaka drljava zemlja na svetu ima svoju potencijalnu krtolu. Što bismo jeli, ako možemo da osvetlimo stranicu knjige koju čitamo?
Da ovo ne bi izgledalo kao kritika, neka moj doprinos bude kiseli kupus. Naravno, to ne bi bio ovaj naš koga ovih dana pakujemo u kace i buriće, nego GMO verzija. Ona bi bila podešena da se između listova generišu metalni slojevi za galvanski spreg, a u korenu utičnica. Pa u kacu red običan, pa red GMO kupus. Kad se sve ukiseli kako treba i dolikuje, jedna glavica za sarmu, a jedna za osvetljenje.

[Meho Krljic]

Da notiramo da su Kinezi lansirali svoju prvu letelicu koja treba da na Mesec spusti istraživačko vozilo.

China launches first moon mission

(CNN) -- China launched its first lunar probe early Monday, which, if all goes well, will make it only the third nation -- after the United States and the Soviet Union -- to soft-land on the moon.
The launch of the unmanned probe took place at 1:30 a.m. Monday (12:30 p.m. ET Sunday), state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The Chang'e-3 blasted off from a Long March 3B rocket in Sichuan province located in southwest China and is expected to land on the moon's surface in mid-December.
The new space effort comes just over a decade after the country first sent an astronaut into space.
Unlike the soft-landing of the U.S. and the Soviet Union's unmanned spacecraft, Chang'e-3 will be able to survey the landscape first and determine the safest spot.
Researchers say an impact crater named Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, is its likely destination. In 2010, China's previous lunar mission captured images of the crater while scouting potential landing sites for the 2013 probe.
China sets course for lunar landing this year


On landing, the spacecraft will release Jade Rabbit (called Yutu in Chinese) -- a six-wheeled lunar rover equipped with four cameras and two mechanical legs that can dig up soil samples, a designer for the rover told Xinhua last month. A public poll determined the the solar-powered robot's name, which comes from the white pet rabbit of the Chinese moon godess Chang'e. The slow-moving rover will patrol the moon's surface for at least three months, according to Xinhua.
Timeline: China's race into space
In the United States, scientists are concerned the Chinese mission could interfere with a NASA study of the moon's dust environment. Chang'e-3's descent is likely to create a noticeable plume on the moon's surface that could skew the results of research already being carried out by NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), Jeff Plescia, chair of NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group told Space.com,a space news site.

[Meho Krljic]

A Indusi su šibnuli raketu na Mars pa nek ide život:

India's Mars mission enters second stage; outpaces space rival China

(Reuters) - India's first mission to Mars left Earth's orbit early on Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet and overtaking the efforts in space of rival Asian giant China.
The success of the spacecraft, scheduled to orbit Mars by next September, would carry India into a small club, which includes the United States, Europe and Russia, whose probes have orbited or landed on Mars.India's venture, called Mangalyaan, faces more hurdles on its journey to Mars. Fewer than half of missions to the planet are successful."While Mangalyaan takes 1.2 billion dreams to Mars, we wish you sweet dreams!" India's space agency said in a tweet soon after the event, referring to the citizens of the world's second-most populous country.China, a keen competitor in the space race, has considered the possibility of putting a man on the moon sometime after 2020 and aims to land its first probe on the moon on Monday.It will deploy a buggy called the "Jade Rabbit" to explore the lunar surface in a mission that will also test its deep space communication technologies.China's Mars probe rode piggyback on a Russian spacecraft that failed to leave Earth's orbit in November 2011. The spacecraft crumbled in the atmosphere and its fragments fell into the Pacific Ocean.India's mission showcases the country's cheap technology, encouraging hopes it could capture more of the $304-billion global space market, which includes launching satellites for other countries, analysts say."Given its cost-effective technology, India is attractive," said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, an expert on space security at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in Delhi.India's low-cost Mars mission has a price tag of 4.5 billion rupees ($73 million), just over one-tenth of the cost of NASA's latest mission there, which launched on November 18."BIG ACHIEVEMENT"Homegrown companies - including India's largest infrastructure group Larsen & Toubro, one of its biggest conglomerates, Godrej & Boyce, state-owned aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and Walchand Nagar Industries - made more than two-thirds of the parts for both the probe and the rocket that launched it on November 5.India's probe completed six orbits around Earth before Sunday's "slingshot," which set it on a path around the sun to carry it toward Mars. The slingshot requires precise calculations to eliminate the risk of missing the new orbit."Getting to Mars is a big achievement," said Mayank Vahia, a professor in the astronomy and astrophysics department of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.India's space agency will have to make a few mid-course corrections to keep the probe on track. Its next big challenge will be to enter an orbit around Mars next year, a test failed in 2003 by Japan's probe, which suffered electrical faults as it neared the planet."You have to slow the spacecraft down once it gets close to Mars, to catch the orbit, but you can't wait until Mars is in the field of view to do it - that's too late," Vahia said.India launched its space program 50 years ago and developed its own rocket technology after Western powers levied sanctions for a 1974 nuclear weapons test. Five years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon.By contrast, India has had mixed results in the aerospace industry. Hindustan Aeronautics has been developing a light combat aircraft since the early 1980s, with no success.The Mars probe will study the planet's surface and mineral composition, besides sniffing the atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth. NASA mission Curiosity did not find significant amounts of the gas in recent tests.China is still far from catching up with the established space superpowers, the United States and Russia, which decades ago learned the docking techniques China is only now mastering.Beijing says its space program is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing ways to keep adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.(Additional reporting by Krishna N Das in NEW DELHI and Sumeet Chatterjee in MUMBAI; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

[PTY]

Tiny kidneys are world's first 3D printed living organs

[PTY]

The most absolutely awful thing about the story of Nick Starr is not that he exists, but that there are surely more people like him: the Seattle IT drone threw a Facebook fit when he was asked to take off his face-camera at a cafe. "I would love an explanation, apology, clarification...or her termination."

[Meho Krljic]

Da notiramo da su Kinezi lansirali svoju prvu letelicu koja treba da na Mesec spusti istraživačko vozilo.

Fotografije!!!!!!!! Sa Mjeseca!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25393826

[Meho Krljic]

Još kao dijete pitao sam se kada ćemo šećer početi da koristimo kao energetski izvor za druge stvari sem sopstvenih tijela. I evo:



Powering Phones, PCs Using Sugar

Sugar-powered enzymatic fuel cell design produces power an order of magnitude greater than the lithium-ion equivalent.

A team of researchers at Virginia Tech University have developed a battery with energy density an order of magnitude higher than lithium-ion batteries, while being almost endlessly rechargeable and biodegradable as well – because it's made of sugar.
The battery is an enzymatic biofuel fuel cell – a type of fuel cell that uses a catalyst to strip molecules from molecules of a fuel material. Instead of using platinum or nickel for catalysts, however, biofuel cells use the catalysts made from enzymes similar to those used to break down and digest food in the body.
Sugar is a good fuel material because it is energy dense, easy to obtain and transport, and so simple to biodegrade that almost anything biological can eat it.
Sugar-based fuel cells aren't new, but existing designs use only a small number of enzymes that don't oxidize the sugar completely, meaning the resulting battery can hold only small amounts of energy that it releases slowly.
A new design that uses 13 enzymes that can circulate freely to get better access to sugar molecules, however, is able to store energy at a density of 596 amp-hours per kilogram – an order of magnitude higher than lithium-ion batteries, according to Y.H. Percival Zhang, who studies biological systems engineering at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.
"Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature," Zhang said in a statement announcing publication in Nature Communications of his paper describing the battery. "So it's only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery."
The team Zhang leads developed a synthetic enzymatic pathway to expose the enzymes to maltodextrin, a sugar derived from starch, in an air-rich environment that allows the sugar to be oxidized more completely.
The primary byproducts of the process are water and electricity. "We are releasing all electron charges stored in the sugar solution slowly step-by-step by using an enzyme cascade," Zhang said.
The design is simple and stable enough, Zhang added, to be developed within about three years into a commercially manufacturable product that could replace batteries in laptops and mobile phones.
The sugar battery is rechargeable, but also refillable. Sugar can be added to it in the same way toner can be added to a printer.

[Meho Krljic]

Već je pominjano da ljudsko telo zapravo nije baš prilagođeno odlasku u svemir:



Beings Not Made for Space

HOUSTON — In space, heads swell.
A typical human being is about 60 percent water, and in the free fall of space, the body's fluids float upward, into the chest and the head. Legs atrophy, faces puff, and pressure inside the skull rises.
"Your head actually feels bloated," said Mark E. Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut who flew on four space shuttle missions. "It kind of feels like you would feel if you hung upside down for a couple of minutes."
The human body did not evolve to live in space. And how that alien environment changes the body is not a simple problem, nor is it easily solved.
Some problems, like the brittling of bone, may have been overcome already. Others have been identified — for example, astronauts have trouble eating and sleeping enough — and NASA is working to understand and solve them.
Then there are the health problems that still elude doctors more than 50 years after the first spaceflight. In a finding just five years ago, the eyeballs of at least some astronauts became somewhat squashed.


The biggest hurdle remains radiation. Without the protective cocoon of Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere, astronauts receive substantially higher doses of radiation, heightening the chances that they will die of cancer. How much of a cancer risk later in life is acceptable?
At the Johnson Space Center here, the home base for NASA's human spaceflight program, scientists probably have until the 2030s to dissect these problems before the agency sends astronauts to Mars — a mission that would take about 2.5 years, or nearly six times the current standard tour of duty on the space station.
The longest any human has been off Earth is almost 438 days, by Dr. Valery Polyakov on the Russian space station Mir in 1994 and 1995. (Two private organizations, Inspiration Mars and Mars One, have announced plans to launch a manned interplanetary flight sooner and have had no problem attracting people despite the risks, known and unknown.)
NASA recently announced that it would continue operating the space station until at least 2024, in part for additional medical research.
NASA officials often talk about the "unknown unknowns" — the unforeseen problems that catch them by surprise. The eye issue caught them by surprise, and they are happy it did not happen in the middle of a mission to Mars.
In 2009, during his six-month stay on the International Space Station, Dr. Michael R. Barratt, a NASA astronaut who is also a physician, noticed he was having some trouble seeing things close up, as did another member of the six-member crew, Dr. Robert B. Thirsk, a Canadian astronaut who is also a doctor. So the two performed eye exams on each other, confirming the vision shift toward farsightedness.
They also saw hints of swelling in their optic nerves and blemishes on their retinas. On the next cargo ship, NASA sent up a high-resolution camera so that they could take clearer images of their eyes, which confirmed the suspicions. Ultrasound images showed that their eyes had become somewhat squeezed.
NASA is now checking astronauts' eyesight before, during and after trips to the space station.
The issue turns out not to be new. Many space shuttle astronauts had complained of changes in eyesight, but no one had studied the matter.
"It is now a recognized occupational hazard of spaceflight," Dr. Barratt said. "We uncovered something that has been right under our noses forever."
Dr. Barratt said the vision shift had no effect on his ability to work in space. The concern, however, is that the farsightedness may be just a symptom of more serious changes in the astronauts' health. "What are the long-term implications?" he said. "That's the $64 million question."


It is one of the many things NASA will be monitoring in the health of Scott J. Kelly, who will spend one year on the space station beginning in spring 2015: twice as long as his stay there in 2010 and 2011 and the longest for an American. A Russian astronaut, Mikhail Kornienko, will also make a yearlong trip to orbit then. Dr. Polyakov and three other Russian astronauts have already had orbital stays longer than that and returned seemingly not much the worse for wear.
John B. Charles, chief of the international science office of NASA's human research program, is setting up the medical experiments, designed to figure out whether there are differences between a six-month stay and a 12-month stay. "Logically, you might say, how can there not be?" Dr. Charles said.
But it is also possible that the body becomes acclimated to weightlessness after only a few months, and that the changes in vision and bones level off.
The doctors will also compare Scott Kelly's health with that of Mark Kelly, his twin brother. "I imagine I'll be giving blood and urine samples," said Mark Kelly, who is married to Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman. "My attitude is, I worked at NASA for 16 years and whatever I can do to help, I will."
A decade ago, NASA scientists worried that astronauts were returning to Earth with weaker bones, their density draining away by 1 to 2 percent per month. In space, the body does not need to support its weight, and it responds by dismantling bone tissue much faster than on Earth.
NASA turned to osteoporosis drugs and improved exercises, like having the astronauts run while strapped to a treadmill. The up-and-down pounding set off signals to the body to build new bone, and NASA scientists reported that astronauts then came back with almost as much bone as when they had left.
"That was huge," said Scott M. Smith, a NASA nutritionist.
Because both the formation and destruction occur at accelerated rates, "we don't know if that bone is as strong as when you left," Dr. Smith said. But the scientists now feel that bone loss is not a showstopper for a long-duration mission.
For the eyesight issues, scientists have more questions than answers. They suspect that the adverse effects result largely from the fluid shift, the higher pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid in the skull pushing on the back of the eyeballs, but that has not been proved. And that theory does not explain why it usually affects the right eye more than the left, and men far more than women.
Dr. Smith has also found that the astronauts who experienced a shift in vision had increased levels of the amino acid homocysteine, often a marker for cardiovascular disease. That may suggest that a zero-gravity environment sets some biochemical process in motion.
Artificial gravity could be generated by spinning the spacecraft like a merry-go-round, alleviating both the bone loss and the fluid shift. But that would also add complexity to a mission and raise the potential for a catastrophic accident.



But the eye issue "could be something that drives us back to artificial gravity," Dr. Barratt said.
The lack of gravity also jumbles the body's neurovestibular system that tells people which way is up. When returning to the pull of gravity, astronauts can become dizzy, something that Mark Kelly took note of as he piloted the space shuttle to a landing. "If you tilt your head a little left or right," he said, "it feels like you're going end over end."
That may not be as big an issue for a Mars spacecraft that lands autonomously, and in which the astronauts have time to rest before getting out of their seats.
Regarding radiation, NASA operates under a restriction that astronauts should not have their lifetime cancer risk raised by more than three percentage points, but that is an arbitrary limit. Mark Kelly, for one, said he would be willing to accept twice that if he had a chance to go to Mars.
There may be other complications, though. At Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, scientists are bombarding mice with radiation that mimics high-energy cosmic rays that zip through outer space. Those mice take longer to navigate a maze, suggesting that the radiation may be damaging their brains. Scientists say it may damage other organs, including the heart, nervous system and digestive system. "Those could be acute effects," said William H. Paloski, the head of NASA's human research program. "We just don't know. It's one we're looking at."
Beyond the body, there is also the mind. The first six months of Scott Kelly's one-year mission are expected to be no different from his first trip to the space station.
But Dr. Gary E. Beven, a NASA psychiatrist, said he was interested in whether anything changed in the next six months. "We're going to be looking for any significant changes in mood, in sleep, in irritability, in cognition," he said.
For trips beyond Earth orbit, astronauts will be isolated from the rest of humanity. During the Apollo missions, there was a lag time of 1.3 seconds between a command from mission control and an astronaut's hearing it, the time for a radio signal to travel the 240,000 miles from Houston to the moon. At Mars, the lags would stretch minutes, and real-time conversation with someone on Earth would be impossible.
The crew of a Mars mission — four or six astronauts in NASA's current thinking — would have to be more self-reliant to solve any personality conflicts. Dr. Beven envisioned computer systems that could detect subtle changes in facial expressions or tone of voice, perhaps offering some suggestions for defusing tensions.
In a Russian experiment in 2010 and 2011, six men agreed to be sealed up in a mock spaceship simulating a 17-month Mars mission. Four of the six developed disorders, and the crew became less active as the experiment progressed.
"I think that's just an example of what could potentially happen during a Mars mission, but with much greater consequence," Dr. Beven said. "Those subtle changes in group cohesion could cause major problems."
Dr. Charles said he thought NASA could already send astronauts to Mars and bring them back alive. But given the huge expense of such a mission, he said it was crucial that the astronauts arrived productive and in great health.
"My goal," he said, "is to see a program that doesn't deliver an astronaut limping to Mars."

[Meho Krljic]

Da notiramo da su Kinezi lansirali svoju prvu letelicu koja treba da na Mesec spusti istraživačko vozilo.

Fotografije!!!!!!!! Sa Mjeseca!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25393826

Avaj, Žadni kunić je izgubljen   



China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon

Yutu moon buggy had been experiencing problems since Jan. 25



China's first lunar rover, Yutu, has officially been declared lost.
The English-language website of the state-owned China News Service reported Wednesday that Yutu "could not be restored to full function Monday as expected and netizens mourned it on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service."




The six-wheeled, solar-powered moon buggy, whose name translates to "Jade Rabbit" in Chinese, hasn't been working since Jan. 25, when it experienced mechanical problems. The problems appeared to be related to the probe's process for shutting down for the lunar night, which lasts more than two weeks and brings the surface temperature down to –180 C.
The 140-kilogram rover arrived on the moon in December aboard the stationary Chang'e 3 lander, which became the first man-made vehicle to land on the moon in 37 years. It was designed to spend three months exploring for natural resources on the moon.
Chang'e 3 was named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon. It is designed to take scientific measurements for a year.

OR IS IT???



China's Jade Rabbit rover comes 'back to life'

Beijing (AFP) - China's troubled Jade Rabbit lunar rover has survived a bitterly cold 14-day lunar night, officials said on Thursday, prompting hopes it can be repaired after suffering a malfunction last month. The problem was a setback for Beijing's ambitious military-run space programme, which includes plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually sending a human to the moon.
"The rover stands a chance of being saved as it is still alive," Pei Zhaoyu, spokesman for China's lunar probe programme told the official news agency Xinhua.
An earlier report by the semi-official China News Service said an attempt to restore the vehicle to full functionality on Monday had been unsuccessful.
The rover, named Yutu or Jade Rabbit after the pet of Chang'e, the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology, experienced a "mechanical control abnormality" as the lunar night fell on January 25, provoking an outpouring of sympathy from Chinese Internet users.
Scientists had been concerned it might not be able to survive the extremely low temperatures of the lunar night, when it was supposed to remain dormant, but it was now receiving signals normally, Xinhua cited Pei as saying.


"Yutu has come back to life!", he said, adding that the rover "went into sleep under an abnormal status".
Experts were still working to establish the causes of its mechanical control abnormality, the agency reported, without giving details.
Australia-based independent space expert Morris Jones told AFP that the problem involved a solar panel on the rover failing to close.
"This allowed heat to escape from the rover in the cold lunar night. The cold has probably damaged some parts of the rover permanently, but it seems that some parts are still working," he said.
Beijing sees the space programme as a symbol of China's rising global stature and technological advancement, as well as the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes of the once-impoverished nation.


The Jade Rabbit was deployed on the moon's surface on December 15, several hours after the Chang'e-3 probe landed.
The landing -- the third such soft-landing in history, and the first of its kind since the Soviet Union's mission nearly four decades ago -- was a huge source of pride in China, where millions across the country charted the rover's accomplishments.
An unverified Weibo user "Jade Rabbit Lunar Rover", which has posted first-person accounts in the voice of the probe, on Thursday made its first update since January.
"Hi, anybody there?" it said, prompting thousands of comments within minutes.
"I have missed you rabbit! Glad you are back!" said one poster, with another adding: "Yutu - you have finally woken. This is great!"


Xinhua has said the account is "believed to belong to space enthusiasts who have been following Yutu's journey to the moon".
In a previous online posting following the "abnormality", it said: "The sun here has fallen, and the temperature is dropping fast. I've said a lot today, but I still feel it's not enough.
"I'll tell everyone a little secret. I'm actually not that sad. I'm just in my own adventure story, and like any protagonist, I encountered a bit of a problem. Goodnight, Earth. Goodnight, humans."
More than 6,000 Internet users wrote messages in response, many of them expressing hope that the rover had not seen its last day.
"We'll always remember that you're watching us on the moon," wrote one poster. "One day, we'll bring you home."
China first sent an astronaut into space a decade ago and is the third country to carry out a lunar rover mission after the United States and the former Soviet Union.
The central government has said the latest mission was "a milestone in the development of China's aerospace industry under the leadership of... Comrade Xi Jinping".

[Meho Krljic]

Konačno možemo da odahnemo. Zračenje koje produkuju mobilni telefoni nije štetno po zdravlje (u primetnoj meri)
11 Year MTHR Study Finds No Danger from Wireless Mobile Phone Radiation

[Meho Krljic]

Japanese company proposes to build solar power cells on the Moon to provide clean energy to Earth.

[mac]

Izvodljivo je to, ali biće isplativo možda tek za stotinak godina. U međuvremenu možda ćemo naći i neko bolje rešenje ovde, na Zemlji.

[scallop]

Ili nam neće trebati.

[Meho Krljic]

Svemirski lift je opisan u Klarkovom romanu Rajski vodoskoci (čini mi se) i u još gomili drugih naučnofantastičnih dela. Ovo istraživanje (od skoro 350 strana) objašnjava da je ovaj koncept ne samo dostižan nego i isplativ:

http://www.virginiaedition.com/media/spaceelevators.pdf

[scallop]

Kad Klark postavi koncept sve ostalo su potrebne pare i vreme.

[Mica Milovanovic]

Monolit to potvrđuje...

[scallop]

Puj pike ne važi. Kjubrik&Klark janije se ne računaju.

[Mica Milovanovic]

Mislio sam na Bobanov Monolit... 

[scallop]

Zašto se na ovom ZS svi vade na Bobana? Die hard!

[Mica Milovanovic]

Dobra duša... Trpeljiv... Ne bije...

[Meho Krljic]

Најхладније, најтоплије и најпразније место на планети

Тридесетак наших научника учествује у највећим експериментима данашњице, али и бију битку са финансијским проблемима и покушајима да наговоре наше фирме да почну да послују са ЦЕРН-ом


Швајцарско-француска граница – Овде је откривена ,,божија честица" у чије стварање су и српски научници умешали прсте, што је на крају довело и до Нобелове награде за физику 2013. године. Овде је пре 25 година настала и светска мрежа – ,,www" и први сајт. Овде се налази Велики сударач хадрона (LHC), највећи инструмент који је човек до сада направио, пречника 27 километара –најхладније, најтоплије и најпразније место на планети, које се простире на 100 метара дубине, испод границе Швајцарске и Француске. Овде ради више од 15.000 најумнијих глава на свету, говори се више од 50 језика.
Један од њих јесте и српски, како смо могли да се уверимо током обиласка Европске организације за нуклеарна истраживања (ЦЕРН), у организацији Центра за промоцију науке, иначе првог за српске штампане медије, уочи прославе 60 година од оснивања ЦЕРН-а.
Српска заједница у ЦЕРН-у није велика, али јесте утицајна, што смо могли видети на сваком кораку, од петог спрата и канцеларије генералног директора, па до обезбеђења 100 метара испод земље, где се обављају експерименти. У овом тренутку 30 наших људи учествује у шест експеримената и пројеката преко Института за нуклеарне науке ,,Винча", Института за физику београдског Факултета за физику и новосадског Природно-математичког факултета. Међутим, имамо и још око 20 научника и инжењера који раде преко других институција, углавном америчких универзитета.
Наши научници сарађују са ЦЕРН-омод почетка, јер је Југославија била једна од 12 земаља оснивача 1954. године. Србија се званично вратила 2001. године, а од 15. марта 2012. придружени је члан. Сада је у току прелазна фаза до уласка у пуноправно чланство, која траје пет година.
На наше питање да ли нешто може да нас омете на том путу, професор Др Петар Аџић, председник Комисије за сарадњу са ЦЕРН-ом и шеф тима наших научника који раде на ЦМС експерименту, одговара да је прва препрека то што Србија не плаћа редовно чланарину, 800.000 евра, а друга је та што српска привреда не користи довољно предности ЦЕРН-а и трећа – недостатак озбиљне државне финансијске подршке нашим научницима.
На коментар да се и у Србији често може чути да је чланство у ЦЕРН-у прескупо и да наша држава нема ништа од тога, др Аџић нам одговара да то није никакав поклон ЦЕРН-у и да Србија може сто одсто тог новца да добије назад кроз уговоре са српском индустријом.
–Овде се све набавља на тендеру, од сапуна у купатилу до кафе у ресторану. Зашто не би извозили тоалет папир ЦЕРН-у? Морамо да користимо ову прилику која нам се сада нуди, јер ако би се нека фирма из Србије пријавила за посао, имала би предност. Међутим, наша држава ову погодност не користи, наше фирме не учествују на тендерима, а све ће се то гледати када се за три године буде одлучивало о статусу Србије – објашњава професор Аџић који је и представник Србије у овом телу.
Аџић је на ове проблеме указао и у разговору са председником Томиславом Николићем, који је обећао да ће Србија платити чланарину за прошлу годину, али што се осталих ствари тиче, све иде споро.Иако у Србији постоји фама о томе како држава прескупо плаћа учешће наших научника на експериментима у ЦЕРН-у, наши саговорници одговарају да то није тачно, јер од новца за чланарину и за учешће у експериментима, истраживачи не виде ни франка.
–Трећа врста финансирања који никада нисмо добили и бојим се да нећу ни доживети јесте да држава плаћа трошкове боравка својих истраживача овде – каже др Аџић.
Да исто размишљају и челни људи ЦЕРН-а имали смо прилике да се уверимо чак и током неформалног ручка у ресторану ЦЕРН-а.
–Није проблем плаћање чланарине, тај новац ће бити бачен уколико Србија не подржи научнике у земљи. Ви имате сјајне умове – рекао је за ,,Политику" РидигерФос, директор Одељења за за интернационалне односе.
Док смо били у ЦЕРН-у, потписана су и два уговора о сарадњи између Института за физику и ЦЕРН-а, као и Физичког факултета и ЦЕРН-а. На питање ,,Политике" шта ови споразуми практично значе за нашу земљу, генерални директор ЦЕРН-а професор Ролф Хојерје одговорио:
–Ови потписи значе више посла за Србију. Ово је основа за даљи рад, за учешће ваших научника, физичара, компјутерских стручњака, наставника и студенатау експериментима и пројектима у ЦЕРН-у, јер оно што нам је потребно јесу мозгови, али и да ваша индустрија користи могућности које им се овде нуде.
Хојер каже да је стрпљив као и сви физичари, да се труди да држи све под контролом и објашњава да ЦЕРН није оно што гледамо у холивудским филмовима, иако је екипа ,,Анђела и демона"била овде пре него што је почело снимање филма.
–Трудимо се да будемо потпуно отворени за све и да свет види да овде немамо шта да кријемо – каже и са осмехом додаје да су потребни милиони година да би се створила она количина антиматерије која је приказана у чувеном холивудском хиту.
Сандра Гуцијан
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Како да се фирме пријаве за тендере
Све српске државне и приватне фирме које желе да конкуришу за неки од послова у ЦЕРН-у, могу на управо креираној страници http://serbia.web.cern.ch да погледају листу тренутно планираних тендерских понуда, са детаљним упутствима и особама за контакт. Могућности које пружа ЦЕРН за сада су искористиле само три компаније из Србије.
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Граница се прелази сваки час
Овде је запослено око 4.000 истраживача и техничког особља, а на пројектима је ангажовано и око 10.000 научника са 608 универзитета из више од 100 држава. Зграде су разбацане у круг, па се граница прелази сваки час. Будући да су експерименти удаљени и по двадесетак минута вожње колима, до којих се долази проласком кроз мирна села и тракторе на њивама, централно место окупљања у току дана јесте ресторан у управној згради, у којем једно до другог имају прилике да седе и студенти и нобеловци. Како су нам рекли, иако може да изгледа као да неко друштванце ћаска уз кафу, то је тако само на први поглед: овде се ретко разговара о обичним стварима, а сваки разговор може да буде повод за неко научно откриће.објављено: 01.03.2014

[Meho Krljic]

Jebemti... Italijanski kosmonat se zamalo udavio tokom šetnje po svemiru zbog pokvarenog sistema za ekstrakciju vlage iz odela koji je trebalo da je ubacuje u sistem za hlađenje. A nije:


http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0227/Near-drowning-of-astronaut-tied-to-wrong-diagnosis-slow-response-video

Willingness to accept as routine minor amounts of water in a space-walking astronaut's helmet and a misdiagnosis of a previous water leak helped set the stage for an incident last summer that could have cost an International Space Station crew member his life, according to an analysis of the event.

In a 122-page report released Wednesday, a mishap investigation board identified a range of causes for the near-tragedy, including organizational causes that carried echoes of accident reports that followed the loss of the shuttles Challenger and Columbia and their crews in 1986 and 2003.
About 44 minutes into a 6.5-hour spacewalk last July, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano noted that water was building up inside his helmet – the second consecutive spacewalk during which he reported the problem. Twenty-three minutes later, he and partner Chris Cassidy were ordered to end the spacewalk.
"The good news was that Luca was very close to the air lock when this happened," said Chris Hansen, space-station chief engineer and head of the board, during a briefing Wednesday that outlined the findings. "When we terminated the EVA, Luca had a pretty close path to
"The good news was that Luca was very close to the air lock when this happened," said Chris Hansen, space-station chief engineer and head of the board, during a briefing Wednesday that outlined the findings. "When we terminated the EVA, Luca had a pretty close path to the air lock."


Still, as Parmitano worked his way back to the air lock, water covered his eyes, filled his ears, disrupted communications, and eventually began to enter his nose, making it difficult for him to breathe. Later, when crew mates removed his helmet, they found that it contained at least 1.5 quarts of water.
NASA officials immediately set up the five-member mishap investigation board to uncover the broader causes behind the incident, even as a team of engineers at the Johnson Space Center worked to find the precise mechanical cause for the buildup of water.
Engineers traced the leak to a fan-and-pump assembly that is part of a system that extracts moisture from the air inside the suit and returns it to the suit's water-based cooling system. Contaminants clogged holes that would have carried the water to the cooling system after it was extracted from the air. The water backed up and flowed into the suit's air-circulation system, which sent it into Parmitano's helmet. The specific cause of the contamination is still under investigation.
Investigators noted that the ground team was slow to respond to Parmitano's initial report of water collecting in his helmet. Because the team wasn't aware that the water-separation system could fail in the way that it did, they didn't recognize how serious the situation was at that early stage.
That lack of awareness in turn stemmed from a misdiagnosis of a similar leak in the same suit when Parmitano used it during a spacewalk about a week earlier, according to the report.
At the time, the ground team concluded that the water came from a leaky drinking bag the astronauts wear inside the suits on their chests – although the investigators noted that no one could explain the basis for that conclusion. And at the time, no one challenged the leaky-bag hypothesis.
Investigators insisted they found no evidence of intimidation or an unwillingness to raise safety concerns. But tight schedules and a desire to ensure that crew members spent the maximum amount of time tending science experiments did play a role, the investigators found.
For instance, a detailed probe of the first major leak would have derailed preparations for the second spacewalk. Because a consensus had emerged that a leaky drinking bag was at fault, several members of the ground team told the panel that a more-detailed investigation was unlikely to yield results that would justify the time and expense of conducting it, and so none was conducted.
Investigators also identified deeper causes, one of which involved what some accident-investigation specialists have dubbed the "normalization of deviance" – small malfunctions that appear so often that eventually they are accepted as normal.
In this case, small water leaks had been observed in space-suit helmets for years, despite the knowledge that the water could form a film on the inside of a helmet, fogging the visor or reacting with antifogging chemicals on the visor in ways that irritate eyes.
When Parmitano first reported that water was gathering in his helmet during the second July spacewalk, the ground team discussed these effects, the investigators found. But because these conditions had come to be accepted as normal, no one expected a more-hazardous condition to emerge.
Investigators offered a broad range of recommendations to improve the way the ISS program handles this and similar issues in the future, many of which already are being implemented, NASA officials say.
While the ISS team performs at a very high level day in and day out, the report is sobering, they add.
"The station has been operating for 15 years, and the suit has been around for 35 years. We have quite a bit of experience with the suit and the station," said Michael Suffredini, NASA's space-station program manager.
In its broadest sense the mishap investigation board's report is saying "that we always have to be very, very vigilant," he said. The ISS team needs to remember "to think twice about something that we think we understand."

[Meho Krljic]

Bill Gates je možda napravio revoluciju u IT sektoru, ali to ne znači da sledeća revolucija neće da se desi u toaletu:

This Solar-Powered Toilet Torches Poop for Public Health

For all the admirable efforts to solve the world's problems—beating malaria, improving education access, closing the digital divide—one simple need tends to fall by the wayside: We humans have to poop, and some 2.5 billion of us don't have the proper facilities to do so.
Think about what that means for a second: Beyond the commodes themselves, roughly a third of the planet's population lacks sanitation, leaving communities susceptible to disease and filth. As Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet Organization, told me a couple years ago, a major part of the problem is that sanitation isn't a particularly glamorous cause, which has limited its exposure and support. It's telling that more people globally have cell phones than have proper toilets.
"Why is a cell phone something someone will pay for when they won't pay for it in their house?" Karl Linden, a University of Colorado, Boulder environmental engineering professor, told me. "We need to think of sanitation as a business opportunity, and turn the toilet into a status symbol."
Linden's team of engineers hopes to do just that. With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet challenge, the team has developed a toilet that uses concentrated solar power to scorch and disinfect human waste, turning feces into a useful byproduct called biochar.


The goal is to build a self-contained block of toilets, similar to Coca-Cola's community blocks, that can also provide clean water and power for phone charging—to essentially turn toilets into a community center.
"I think it's hard to make sanitation as sexy as a cell phone, but by integrating into the community and making it a hub, it can be something more popular," Linden said.
The toilet itself, called the Sol-Char, is a fascinating bit of engineering. In order to sanitize waste without the help of massive treatment facilities, Linden's team instead designed the toilet to scorch waste in a chamber heated by fiber optic cables that pipe in heat from solar collectors on the toilet's roof.
"A solar concentrator has all this light focused in on one centimeter. It'd be fine if we could bring everyone's fecal waste up to that one point, like burning it with a magnifying glass," Linden said. "But that's not practical, so we were thinking of other ways to concentrate that light."


According to Linden, the key was figuring out how to get light to enter the fiber optic cables, which are currently about four meters long, at the right angle so it propagates evenly. Linden said that producing heat with the eight fiber optic bundles isn't hard, but packing them tightly without melting was a challenge that required a lot of direct work with materials manufacturers. The result is a high-efficiency feces-burning machine.
"The transmission efficiency is really high, it's like 90 percent as you don't have many losses," Linden said.
The end product is biochar, a sanitary charcoal material that is good for soils and agriculture. By converting solid waste to biochar (liquid waste is diverted elsewhere, as it's easier to deal with), the toilet thus allows for sanitary waste disposal without huge infrastructure investments.
The project received $777,000 in initial funding from the Gates Foundation, with another $1 million in a second round. Currently, the team is in New Delhi for the second-annual Reinvent the Toilet Fair, an event hosted by the Gates Foundation and featuring the 16 teams in the toilet development challenge. Linden's team will present their working prototype, which has been in development for 18 months.


The next step is to build a system that's ready for plug-and-play use in the field, as well as decreasing costs. Linden said that they've already cut costs by 90 percent, and are looking to increase efficiency and decrease the length of their fiber bundles, which are a major cost in the design.
"Our system right now is not field ready. It can operate, and all our technology can work in an integrated fashion, but we have to be there," he said. "The next phase of the research is to take what we're doing now and make it ready for the field."
With continued development, Linden hopes his teams toilet can be delivered to communities to kickstart the conversation around sanitation investment. On its own, the community center model could provide a source of revenue to help maintain the system, while the end result is to increase awareness and demand for improved sanitation infrastructure.
"You have to have a government that's interested in investing in the health of its people, and you have to have a community that's willing to invest not just their sweat equity, but their cash," Linden said.