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Fuel Cell Technology, The New Source of Clean Energy

A revolutionary new energy source that generates clean, reliable power with minimal environmental impact has been developed by Bloom Energy.

The Bloom Energy Server provides several enhanced sustainability benefits, including: high efficiency, greenhouse gas emission reductions, and reduced air pollutants, water use and carbon footprint.

Built using solid oxide fuel cell technology, the fuel cells are like never ending batteries that “convert fuel into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process rather than by using dirty combustion.”

Researchers have developed the servers by “converting natural gas or renewable bio-gas into clean electricity using a direct electro-chemical reaction without combustion”. Scientists claim that this highly efficient process enables exceptionally high conversion efficiency.

Fuel cells act like batteries that “convert fuel into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process”

The energy servers are currently taking off in a big way, production in the United States is growing exponentially and the clean power systems are also being shipped abroad.

Developers claim that the servers are within the industry-leading 60% electrical efficiency bracket, and are on their way to delivering even higher energy efficiency.

In comparison, coal, another leading energy source, converts only 33% of its energy input into electricity and is powered from huge coal factories in industrial areas. Bloom Energy Servers “generate power at the customer’s site, clean energy is generated and provided directly where it is needed.”

As the world moves closer to adopting a clean energy future, more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly technologies are being developed. Reducing one’s carbon-footprint has not only become fashionable but is also a fundamental part of ensuring our environment is protected.

The United States recently signed the Paris Agreement along with 200 other countries to ensure the global temperature rise remains below 2 degrees, and to ensure carbon emissions from coal production, vehicles and other sources of energy are kept to a minimum.

Bloom Energy Servers allow users to reduce their carbon footprint by using a 100% carbon neutral power generation. When fueled with natural gas, it “releases a fraction of the CO2 produced by coal-fired plants or modern combined cycle natural gas plants even before considering transmission losses.”

It is bold ideas like these that go a long way to ensuring that not only our environment is protected but can generate greater energy efficiency while at the same time reducing carbon emissions.

Scanning Your Food To Maintain A Healthy Diet

Food scanners are set to make a bold impact on the food and health industry. The technology is being hailed as the latest solution to allergies, obesity and the world’s food safety problem by two leading tech firms.

The Scio and Tellspec scanners either come in pocket-size or a mobile app that scan foods at a molecular level for macro-nutrients and contaminants, and provide information on food fraud, food adulteration or food quality.

Not only can the technology give users a complete breakdown of exactly what’s in the products they buy to avoid certain ingredients, but can give full breakdowns of nutritional values, calorie count and other benefits.

With allergies and stomach issues on the rise, including irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulitis, watching what you eat has never been as important as it is now.

According to Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE), researchers estimate that up to 15 million Americans have food allergies and it affects 1 in every 13 children. The economic cost of children’s food allergies is nearly $25 billion per year.

Food scanners can read the chemical make-up of foods, give warnings and steer uses away from allergy inducing edibles by using pre-saved information regarding the user’s dietary needs.

Food scanning technology in pocket-size or as a mobile app, scans food for nutrients, calories, and ingredients that may cause allergies

The technology is also being used in the health and fitness sector, to help identify foods that cause obesity and weight gain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third, 36.5%, of U.S. adults have obesity. The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008; the medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.

The Scio food scanner scans meat, dairy, fruit, and vegetables for “macro-nutrient information” and can “track your body fat composition to help achieve your health and fitness goals.”

The Tellspec Food Sensor can pinpoint contamination of the food at any stage, from production to consumption, identify what produces bacteria, viruses, parasites, chemical agents and toxins, which eventually cause food-borne diseases.

Tellspec developers claim that “exposure to these contaminants is linked to disease such as cancer, obesity, and even neurological disorders”, it is therefore fundamentally important to be completely aware of what is in the foods we eat.

So, as these technology firms help create a clean food revolution by providing food security for all to “spark a vital change in the way people eat and the way food is currently grown and manufactured”, those suffering with food allergies and obesity are finally able to use an effective tool to track their dietary needs and improve their health.

The Role of Augmented Reality in the Digital Transformation of Education

A UK-based technology company has developed an innovative new way of searching the internet by using augmented reality (AR) as the primary tool.

The Blippar visual app uses the camera on a smartphone or tablet to activate an instant digital search to draw information from the internet about the object in focus.

According to The Telegraph newspaper, the technology can lead to many possibilities. For example, when focusing your device on an album cover, the technology can generate videos of the band, a source to buy concert tickets, Twitter posts, and the latest photographs.

The app can be used for many other avenues, including fiction books, DVD covers, and film posters, and is being used as an educational tool for students, and even those with learning difficulties.

Not only is the technology helping the everyday consumer, but is also going a long way in the education sector via Blippar for Education, where the augmented reality is being used to empower educational institutions and workplaces to make their environments interactive.

Now, the software is taking off in the United States after being listed as one of CNBC’s top 50 disruptors of 2016.  The app is so popular that the makers claim more than 65 million people in 170 countries use it.

Blippar also works with some of the world’s largest brands, Coca-cola, Nestle and Jaguar to name but a few, to add an Augmented Reality layer to their products to allow consumers extra information when looking through their camera lens. Cosmetic brand Maybelline are already using the program to help promote a new line of nail polish in print magazines, where users can try different color options using the app.

Admit it or not, we have now in the Digital Generation era as  Augmented Reality used in education. For example, if you point your phone at an apple, the app can give the user all the details about that object, where to buy it and the nearest store that stocks it.

With investment in the product reaching far beyond $100 million, founders of Blippar Visual are confident that their Augmented Reality technology will take off in a big way, and even become the norm.

So, as the digital world evolves at a rapid rate, it is specific ideas like this that make a bold impact on internet-based technologies. As humans crave quick, fast and up-to-the-minute information about the world around them, Blippar Visual is tapping into a market that’s endless, and extremely lucrative.

Eating Bugs Can Provide Humans With The Same Nutritional Value As Meat

A report released by the ACS Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has found that eating bugs can provide humans with the same iron, protein and nutrients as beef.

Researchers claim that insects like crickets, grasshoppers and mealworms can give humans a healthy alternative to eating meat and fulfill that dietary need.

Although the practice of eating bugs is not so common in the Western world, it is more so in Australasia, and the Far East, where the nutritional values of eating insects have been tried and tested for hundreds of years.

Experts point out that what is viewed as unusual in Western societies, can be normal in Eastern societies. A different cultural perspective can yield some interesting insights, and potentially the transference of bold ideas from one culture to another.

According to a recent report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization bugs are included in diets in many regions around the world, areas that are home to more than 2 billion people.

“1,900 insect species have been documented as a food source globally” as a “well-established source of protein”

The report also states that around “1,900 insect species have been documented as a food source globally” and are a “well-established source of protein.”

Although protein is an extremely important part of our diets, it is also crucial to ensure insects provide other nutritional values like iron, which non-meat sources often lack.

Using a laboratory model of human digestion, researchers analyzed buffalo worms, crickets, grasshoppers and mealworms to determine what minerals and nutrients are absorbed by the digestive system.

Scientists found that the insects had “more than the sufficient levels of iron, calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese and zinc to replace meat products”. During the tests, researchers found that crickets had the highest levels of iron than other insects, and therefore the closest substitute to beef.

Research has proven that eating bugs can help humans meet their nutritional needs, and be a viable solution to cutting out meat products from diets.

Although this might seem like a bold idea to us, the practice of eating bugs and insects has been widely accepted and common practice in many countries around the world for centuries. It certainly proves that a lot can be learned from different cultures and applied to our own to have a bold impact on health and sustainability.

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