Bee Buzz--- Newly discovered "Ant-like" desert bees!!!

Researchers from Utah State University have reported the identification of nine new species of desert bees under the genus Perdita, including two "ant-like" males.

The research was led by entomologist Zach Portman, Utah State University, who discussed in details about desert bees in the journal Zootaxa (December 23, 2016). His co-researchers including Terry Griswold, USDA-ARS Research Unit of Utah and John Neff, Melittological Institute in Austin. The research was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship awarded in 2011 and a Desert Legacy Grant from the Community Foundation.

Source: www.bestanimations.com

The unexpected finds of the research are the ant-like males of two of the species which are completely different in appearance from their mates. "It's unclear why these males have this unique form, but it could indicate they spend a lot of time in the nest. Understanding their nesting biology may clear this confusion", Portman said. 

According to Portman, these solitary bees are not major pollinators of agricultural crops but play an important role in the natural ecosystem of the American Southwest, including the sizzling sand dunes of California's Death Valley. "Their activity during the hottest part of the day may be avoiding predators", researchers add. Portman tracks the bees by observing their buzzing shadows in the blinding, midday sunlight the minuscule insects tend to favour. 

Some of the bees, exclusively found in North America, have scientific names inspired by Shakespearean characters, like Perdita titania, named after the fairy queen from A Midsummer Night's Dream. The activity of the elusive and tiny insects appear to be important pollinators of desert plants commonly known as "Crinklemats". Flowering plants of the genus Tiquilia, Crinklemats grow low to the ground and sport very small flowers. "The bees must squeeze into the long, narrow corollas and dunk their heads into the flowers to extract the pollen" said Portman.

The scientists report the female bees use pollen collected from the flowers to build up supply to nourish the young ones. Once the pollen provision is completed, the bees lay their eggs on the stash and leave their offspring to fend for themselves. The bees have developed a special adaptation, "hair basket", with inward facing, hooked hairs, that allows them to collect pollen as they dive into a flower. It is still unknown if the bees use their legs to scoop the pollen into the basket or simply use their heads.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161227110229.htm

Credit: Zach Portman/Utah State University

"There is still a lot of unknowns". Though declined in the bee populations have heightened awareness of the importance of pollinating insects to the world's food supply, numerous bee species remain poorly understood, the researchers pointed out. 




References:
Times of India :http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/new-species-of-ant-like-desert-bees-found/articleshow/56156302.cms
Science Daily : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161227110229.htm
Tech Times: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/190114/20161227/9-new-species-of-desert-bees-identified-one-ant-like-in-appearance.htm
Journal Reference: Zachary M. Portman, John L. Neff, Terry Griswold. Taxonomic revision of Perdita subgenus Heteroperdita Timberlake (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), with descriptions of two ant-like males. Zootaxa, 2016; 4214 (1): 1

Air Into Fuel

After some intense research, scientists have finally demonstrated the direct conversion of CO₂ to methanol (CH₃OH) using a homogenous catalyst.  

The study was led by G. K. Surya Prakash, a chemistry professor at the University of Southern California, along with the Nobel laureate George A. Olah, a distinguished professor at the University of Southern California. The researchers have published their paper on the CO₂ to methanol conversion process in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

"Direct CO2 capture and conversion to methanol using molecular hydrogen in the same pot was never achieved before," lead researcher G. K. Surya Prakash, from the University of Southern California, told Phys.org. "We have now done it!" 

The major breakthrough in the study was identifying the catalyst which speeds up the reaction and does not degrade at high temperature required for the process. Majority of the catalysts did not work beyond the formic acid stage. The catalyst, based on metal ruthenium, is a homogenous catalyst, i.e, it is in the same phase as CO₂ and hydrogen reacts with. Due to this fact, CO₂ does not need to be transformed after it is captured from the air and be simple added to Hydrogen gas. The catalyst can function at high temperature (decomposes at 155⁰C) and does not lose its efficiency_. The catalyst can also reduce the carbamates or alkylammonium bicarbonates directly to methanol.

The process:

Air is bubbled through an aqueous solution of pentaethylenehexamine (PEHA), which is a polyamine and a catalyst is added to stimulate hydrogen to latch onto CO₂ (atmospheric- 400ppm) under pressure.

The solution is heated at high temperature (≈150⁰C), and around 79% of CO₂ is converted to methanol. Methanol at this stage is mixed with water, which can be easily separated through simple distillation.

The reaction is as follows:

References:
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/01/fuel-air-carbon-dioxide-capture-methanol-renewable-energy
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-carbon-dioxide-captured-air-methanol.html
http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-can-now-convert-captured-co2-directly-into-methanol-fuel

THE DRINKABLE BOOK

Source- http://www.designboom.com/technology/the-drinkable-book-cleans-purifies-water-with-advanced-filtering-paper-05-06-2014/

They say a book is a man’s best friend, but who would have thought that Dr. Theresa Dankovich a researcher at Carnegie Mellon would take a stride to redefine all we thought a book could do.

Astonishingly enough Dr. Theresa during her PhD at McGill University developed a paper with high antimicrobial activity. She engineered this sturdy sheet of paper, which is embedded with silver nanoparticles and put together as “THE DRINKABLE BOOK”. The pages of the drinkable book having silver nanoparticles coating are fatal for 99.9% of bacteria, such as cholera, E. coli and typhoid that contaminates the water, thus rendering the water free of harmful pathogens and fit to drink.

This book meets the US EPA guidelines for bacteria removal to produce safe drinking water and the process of purification in itself is an easy task. One can tear the filter pages in the book and put it in the filter box that happens to encase the book, pour the water and what filters out is water free of microbes, healthy and safe to drink. Each filter can provide 30 days of clean water and the book assures freedom from water related diseases like typhoid, cholera, etc. for a period of 4 years.

The drinkable book provides a great promise for the world which faces the problem of a whooping death rate of 3.4 million deaths each year from waterborne diseases. Additionally this book acts like a manual for educating people about water safety and healthy drinking habits and threats that may surround them in terms of water they drink. Hence for the purpose of educating people and providing a low cost filter Dr. Theresa has teamed up with a non-profit organization called Water Is Life, along with an agency called DDB NY to make this discovery of hers available to the real world with the hope of bringing about a change with this book which will truly be a man’s best friend.

Source- http://www.campaignbrief.com/2014/05/the-drinkable-book-revolutiona.html

REFERENCES-

·         http://www.fastcocreate.com/3031955/anatomy-of-a-cannes-contender-a-drinkable-book-delivers-clean-water-in-a-new-form

·         https://drinkablebook.tilt.com/the-drinkable-book

Want to breathe Fresh Air in Delhi?

As the lifespan of Delhiwalas, even with iron lungs, is decreasing due the worsening air quality, some natural lungs are waiting out there to help us without anything in return. No air purifier can do what they can do that is, decrease carbon dioxide and increase oxygen. Yes! We are talking about our dear plants. Many researches are done by NASA and other organizations including our very own environmental activist, Kamal Meattle, CEO of Paharpur Business centre & Software Technology Incubator Park based in New Delhi, India, on these plants.

Meattle, with his rigorous research has come up with the perfect formula for healthier conditions in Paharpur Business Center (a 50,000 sq ft building, with over 1,200 plants for 300 building occupants). The Indian Government has rated the building as the healthiest building in Delhi.

Here are three such plants that work well indoors with minimum maintenance in Delhi conditions: 

The Living Room Plant:

 

 The Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) does great air cleansing work during the day by removing Carbon Dioxide.

The Bedroom Plant:

The Mother-in-law’s Tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata) takes over by converting Carbon Dioxide to Oxygen at night, does well in bedroom. 

The Specialist Plant:

 

The Money Plant (Epipremnum aureum) does the job of filtering out removing Formaldehyde and other Volatile Organic Compounds and also reduces PM levels.

Time to get some fresh air at home!!!

Visit the website http://breatheeasy123.com/clean-air-home/plants/ for more details on these plants!

What the pl@@@@@stic !!

Plastic is the most egregious offender amongst all the packaging material. This commonly used packaging  material, also known as Styrofoam is a piece of white toxic material which is found in pretty much everything from surfboards to coffee cups to table tops and finds its way to the landfills mostly. What a nuisance..ahh! It is just not toxic or harming the environment but also a single cubic foot of this material has the energy of about a liter and a half of petrol yet we would dispose it off as thrash within a few days of use.

Now what ? we do need packaging material. Don’t we?

So an organization called ECOVATIVE after years of effort came up with a biologically compatible packaging material which was strong, sustainable, and comparatively cheaper to produce using..MUSHROOM’s mycelium and not petroleum!!!

Now, mycelium is an amazing material, because it's a self-assembling material. It actually takes things we would consider waste, things like husks or woody biomass and transforms them into a chitinous polymer. The mycelium acts as a natural glue and by using mycelium as a glue, the agricultural waste can form any custom mold shape, engineered to protect any product just like in the plastic industry. 

Ecovative basically used a few steps to develop this awesome product. 

Agricultural waste, feedstock was taken and it was put in a tool, physically filling an enclosure of the shape required. Mycelium was grown on and through its surface forming a biocomposite, (MYCOBOND as they like to call it!!) ,  as the mycelium continued to grow and digest the plant husk and create a complex network around it binding it together, it essentially became a cohesive hold,  this living material binded together to form packaging material of all shapes. After having finished growing packaging parts which only takes a couple of days they were heat treated to stop the growth process to ensure that no spores or allergens were produced. These sustainable high performance parts are then safe and ready for shipping.

The product has properties like insulation, fire-resistance, moisture-resistance, vapor-resistance, it can absorb acoustical impacts, and best of all when it gets to the customer, it's not trash, they can actually put this in their natural ecosystem without any processing, and it's going to improve the local soil, because it is made of natural materials, and is hence 100 percent compostable in the backyard. So it is a win- win situation !!

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh-2TEmLtQE