Volcanic mud could make ideal building material, scientists say

Polish scientists have used volcanic stone to create a highly insulating and resistant material that they say could soon replace traditional building supplies – and would be cheaper, too.

Researchers at the University of Technology of Krakow have developed the artificial stone from volcanic tuff, itself made up of consolidated ash. They mixed the tuff with other components such as alkaline solutions and water glass.

The team says the resulting material, known as an inorganic geopolymer, is almost as hard as granite, another volcanic rock.

Professor Janusz Mikula, who led the research, said the material’s ability to withstand heat is what makes it different from other geopolymers available.

“Imagine a fire in your house. The temperature rises up to 800 or 900 degrees Celsius,” Mikula said.

“Under normal conditions, traditional building materials and even polymers begin to lose strength. Traditional building materials begin to disintegrate, to crack. In contrast, our polymer won’t crack or scatter, instead its strength will increase.”

The scientists say these unique properties could make it an ideal building material, but it could also have other uses. It could for instance replace the polystyrene foam used in insulation.

The geopolymer also has an unusual porous structure, allowing it to ‘breathe’: it absorbs water, regulating humidity and even absorbing smells.

This could make it a suitable coating for metals, to prevent corrosion. The researchers say the new material could even be used in aeronautics, for example to cover elements of a spacecraft.

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Resistance movement: the battle to beat the antibiotic-proof superbug

"Resistance is coming from nature and we need to understand why these resistance genes can move from bacteria that live in the soil or in water to bacteria that can cause disease in humans."

Antibiotics have saved countless lives since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, but their indiscriminate use means some diseases have become resistant to existing drugs.

At a nursing home in Utrecht, The Netherlands, Futuris met a woman whose condition is typical of this troubling phenomenon. Joke Leeuew was holidaying in Greece with her husband Gerard when she had a stroke. Things took an even worse turn when, at a local hospital, she picked up an infection that made her treatment much more difficult.

“She was hospitalised at the nursing home, where they found that she was carrying a dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” explained Gerard. “She had to be quarantined, along with four other people who, by that time, were also infected. And although she didn’t have any bacteria-related symptoms, it was very difficult for her because her friends and family couldn’t come to visit and many people were afraid to get close.”

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be life threatening, particularly to people who do not have a good immune system. The so-called ‘superbugs’ are very difficult to get rid of and their origins are still unclear.

A European research project is investigating ways of addressing the rise of the superbug.

Willem van Schaik, associate professor of microbiology at the University Medical Center of Utrecht is the coordinator of the EVOTAR project: “These bacteria can cause urinary tract infections or blood stream infections and they can all be very dangerous for a patient who is very ill, and if a bacterium is resistant to antibiotics there’s also not a lot of treatment options left for clinicians to treat this type of infections.”

Clinicians warn that the problem is growing rapidly in Europe, especially in southern European states. The problem is probably caused by the overuse of antibiotics and poor hygiene in hospitals.

Marc Bonten, a clinical microbiologist at the University Medical Center of Utrecht, said a multilateral approach is needed: “This problem is of such a size that it needs a concerted action of many things – first of all, antibiotic usage should be more rational and restrictive; second, we need better hygienic measures in hospitals; and third, in the end, we’ll also need new antibiotics to treat these bacteria, because they won’t go away.”

Some bacteria have developed resistance to naturally-occurring antibiotics over millions of years. Researchers are trying to find out how, today, this resistance has evolved in bacteria that cause diseases in humans.

“Resistance is coming from nature, and we need to understand why these resistance genes can move from bacteria that live in the soil or in water to bacteria that can cause disease in humans,” said Prof. van Schaik. “We don’t really understand that. We also still need to figure out how we can stop resistance genes moving between different bacteria that cause infections in hospitals. If we understand these processes, we can develop interventions to stop the spread of antibiotic resistance.”

Separately, researchers in Paris are developing a method to counter these apparently “invulnerable” bacteria.

When a patient takes antibiotics they work efficiently until the residues reach the colon. There, they needlessly kill lots of “good” bacteria, clearing the way for resistant bugs to spread. So the antibiotic action must be stopped before it gets into the colon.

Pierre-Alain Bandinelli, Chief Business Officer of research group Da Volterra in Paris explained: “There’s an extremely important bacteria population in the colon – we even say there are more bacteria in the colon than there are cells in the human body. In killing all these bacteria, the residue of the antibiotic completely disrupts the intestinal flora.”

The proposed solution comes in the form of tiny capsules that are taken with the antibiotic to neutralise its residues. The capsules dissolve and release the adsorbent element only when they get to the colon.

“It acts a bit like a sponge,” said Bandinelli. “It’s something we take with the antibiotic. When it reaches the colon it absorbs all antibiotic residues so that this antibiotic excess doesn’t disturb the intestinal flora.”

The new medicine has successfully passed two clinical trials and will soon be tested on patients, hopefully giving clinicians a new weapon in their battle against antibiotic resistance.

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Andrea Ferrari: the graphene guru

Andrea Ferrari is one of the world’s best known experts in one of the world’s most exciting new materials: graphene. Yet he is also a cautious one.

In a world where scientific breakthroughs are often heralded as game-changing technologies the day after they emerge from the laboratory, Ferrari is keen to stress that we shouldn’t rush to conclusions. “I never speak about wonder materials,” he says.
“Sometimes there is an unrealistic expectation that after one day you immediately have something on the market.”

Graphene has certainly been billed as a “wonder material” in the past, because its ability to add strength and electrical conductivity means it could be used to improve everything from concrete to touchscreen smartphones. As Ferrari tells Euronews Explorers: “What is amazing about graphene is that in the lab you can basically make anything you want with it.”

The challenge that Ferrari is facing as he directs the Cambridge Graphene Centre is how to take it from the lab into the outside world. However, this Professor of Nanotechnology at the University of Cambridge, England, stresses that graphene has time on its side. Work began in earnest in 2004, “But it was only around 2009-2010 that engineering, material science, and companies took notice of this material,” he explains. “So despite what people may think, we are still in a very early stage of investigation”

For the moment, if you want to buy something mainstream that features graphene, you had better be used to thwacking a ball around, sliding down hills or peddling on two wheels, because some of the only easily accessible graphene products are items like tennis rackets, skis or bicycle wheels, which employ the material in a graphene composite to improve strength and lightness.

There’s much, much more to come, according to Ferrari. “In an ideal world, graphene is indeed an extremely exciting and exceptional material, with a lot of properties, thermal, mechanical, optical and so on, that are really beyond what most of the existing materials can provide.” He cites working prototypes of mobile phones and panel displays with flexible touch screens as some of the best emerging technologies.

In fact when you ask an expert like Ferrari why graphene is surrounded by so much buzz, the superlatives start flowing faster than you’d expect from an academic: “It’s the strongest material in existence, stronger than diamond, it’s the material with the highest thermal conductivity, so it can dissipate heat better than any other material existing. It’s a material where the electrons and the charge carriers are quicker than most other materials. It’s the only material that can interact with light of any possible colour or energy or frequency you want”. In short, graphene is exploding with potential.

However, delivering on the real promise of graphene is what keeps Ferrari busy in the part of eastern England known as Silicon Fen. It’s not that it’s hard to make either: “The easiest way to make it is to just to take a pencil and trace a line on a piece of paper, a small fraction of what you leave behind will be graphene,” smiles Ferrari. Graphene is essentially a very large molecule of carbon, with each carbon atom connected to three other carbon atoms, forming a lattice of hexagon shapes. It’s an atomic structure with unique properties of conductivity and strength

Scaling up and making it on an industrial scale that companies can use across their product ranges is the challenge. Ferrari takes up the story: “There are two main ways of making graphene. One is taking graphite and applying some solvent or water or whatever you like, shaking it in a solution, and creating an ink or a dispersion, and then once you have this ink you can print it, place it in a composite, so on and so forth.”

“The second approach is similar to what the traditional semi-conductor industry is already doing, so you basically deposit atom by atom the graphene layers using a gas, typically methane, and then you can make some monolayers of graphene over a substrate in a large area.”

Where the material is touted as a having the potential for massive impact is in the world of batteries which, as every smartphone, tablet and portable computer user knows, is an area that still holds plenty of room for improvement.

It also has interesting applications in architecture too. A concrete product that included graphene would not tend to get dirty over time, and adding graphene to materials in road tunnels would see the graphene molecules decompose harmful gases into less toxic ones.

Graphene is not alone, stresses Ferrari, who says there are over 500 known materials with a layered structure that can have useful properties to make what he describes as ‘novel materials, not present in nature’. However they “are at a much earlier stage of investigation,” so don’t expect to see them in your local store too soon.

The issue for the moment is that innovations in materials need to be cheap and really disruptive to existing technology, and they have to pass a wide range of tests in order to be deemed safe to go to market.

To the explorers like Ferrari at this new frontier in materials, graphene is clearly set to change what we make and how well it performs. But we all need patience, as Ferrari concludes: “People don’t seem to make a distinction between something like Facebook, a software developed at university and widespread after a few years, and something in hardware, or materials, that unfortunately can require decades of development to transition from lab to fab.”

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Energy-generating clothes and smart lights join the Internet of Things

"People try to remove static electricity in daily life and attempts to use it as an energy source were quite limited. That's why we started this research"

Smart electronic devices are becoming very popular, but charging them can prove problematic. South Korean scientists say they have developed an energy-generating fabric that can power a range of devices. Just tapping the fabric – known as a wearable triboelectric nanogenerator – can power devices such as, for example, a remote control for cars or a light-up badge. Professor Kim Sang-Woo led the research at Sungkyunkwan University.

“People try to remove static electricity in daily life and attempts to use it as an energy source were quite limited. That’s why we started this research, to use static electricity as an energy source,” he says.

The layers of silver-coated textile rub against an organic polymer film. The researchers have shown the electricity created from this friction can power lights, screens – and more.

“With this energy, we can power Light Emitting Diodes and Liquid Crystal displays without an external power source, as well as demonstrating low-power devices like sensors,” says Kim Sang Woo.

The developers see their ‘smart’ fabric connecting people to the everyday products they use.

“If technologies for the Internet of Things develops more in the future, various sensors could be attached to human skin. The fabric could be an independent power source for those sensors,” suggests the professor.

The foldable fabric is much more wearable than a bulky battery. So charging your phone as you walk could be a step closer to reality.

From smart fabric we turn to smart sensors. Imagine a floor that lights up when it is walked on. Finnish researchers at the VTT company are developing ‘smart’ sensors connected to the environment to send information directly to a smartphone. The developers say the sensors can be used for guided lighting, burglar alarms and even a baby monitor.

“What we are seeing here is people being detected walking in the corridor. That is based on depth cameras. We are using the detections to control lighting in the corridor so we can guide the people to the places they are going to,” says research scientist Esa-Matti Sarjanoja.

The trend to connect to our surroundings with smart devices, known as the Internet of Things, is fast-growing. The company says the technology could also be used for security purposes. For instance, an LED lamp could be put into burglar alarm mode, sensing movements by intruders in the home and sending notifications to a smart device throughout the day.

Some other uses include putting smart sensors in baby monitors. The company’s prototype smart dummy gathers information about the baby’s temperature, breathing and nutrition and sends the information to a smartphone.

In sturdy Finland babies are often left to nap outside, even in freezing temperatures. Parent Soledad Peresin says she will be using the system regularly.

“I can monitor her temperature, her body temperature, the temperature outside if there is a sudden drop on the temperature. I can go and bring her inside and also it gives me information about her suction pressure. When you know your baby well enough to know the suction pattern you know when she is about to wake up as well,” she says.

The company is keen to expand the use of its smart sensors in light fittings with colour changing, dimming and beam-steering properties. They see the sensors being used for a variety of lighting solutions from energy-saving street lamps to self-adjusting interior lighting.

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The Astronaut Academy:We focus on leg muscles and back muscles

"There are special muscles you need to work on, especially the anti-gravity muscles."

The human body didn’t evolve for spaceflight, so astronauts have to train hard to get ready for the unique experience of living in microgravity. At the European Astronaut Centre’s well-equipped gym, Euronews met up with astronaut Thomas Pesquet and his trainer André Rosenberger to find out how you get fit for space.

As Thomas is getting ready to fly next year, he has a specific workout plan ahead of him, as André explains: “There are special muscles you need to work on, especially the anti-gravity muscles which are important for upright posture, and walking and running. So for our strength training we focus on the leg muscles and the back muscles.”

The training regime is roughly split 50/50 between aerobic and muscle strength training. “We want to gain muscle, or maintain actually muscle mass, and bone mass, and so it’s more the general fitness which we want to achieve,” says André.

Astronauts are never less than busy, with a packed schedule , but they still have to find time for sport, Thomas says: “You have to exercise as often as you can, maybe not every day, because of the travelling and the training, but at least four times a week.”

The reason for all this preparation? “After six months in space you lose some body mass, you lose some bone mass, you lose some balance. You’re not in great shape when you come back, and that’s the whole point of training for space,” concludes Thomas.

Thomas will launch into space for a 6-month mission from November 2016 on board the ISS. Born in Rouen, France in 1978, Thomas is a black belt in judo with an interest in mountain biking, kite surfing, skiing and mountaineering. With a Master’s degree in spacecraft design and control from the Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace, he has worked for French space agency CNES and space engineering company Thales Alenia Space.

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EU-funded smart city renovation in Spain not to everyone's taste

With its 31 buildings, some 1,500 flats housing 4,000 residents, the Torrelago district in Laguna de Duero, near Valladolid in northwestern Spain, is emerging as a large-scale example of energy efficiency in Europe. The old red brick facades have been given a green makeover, aimed at reducing energy consumption and improving comfort. Part of the EU project CITyFied, the renovation work started a year ago and is scheduled to be completed next by 2017.

“Out of the 31 buildings that make up the Torrelago district, seven have already had their facades completely renovated with new insulation, and inhabitants have noticed a considerable improvement in comfort. Plus, energy needs have dropped by 40 percent,” says project coordinator Ali Vasallo.

The rehabilitation project in Laguna de Duero includes upgrading the heating and hot water systems by replacing gas boilers with biomass ones. There are also plans to upgrade the energy distribution and management systems with smart grids.

“We have several sources of heating – 80% will be produced using biomass and 20 percent using natural gas. And we also have a backup system: in the event of high demand, if we don’t have enough biomass, we can also use natural gas to produce energy. These multiple sources of energy production bring down CO2 emissions by more than 70 %,” says Veolia research engineer Javier Martin Sanz.

The project has encountered strong opposition from some local residents who claim they were not consulted before renovation work went ahead and have accused it of being a “fraud” using poor quality materials.

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