Holding the Weight of the World

Preservation vs Industrialism

The fact that alternative energy resources intersect with politics is an understatement.  Alternative resources primarily rely on politics and law enforcers to be put into motion. However, not one level of government is involved, it encompasses all levels in order for the energy source to be out into effect. The two mechanisms that effect the implementation of alternative energy are indirect and direct effects. Indirectly, politics effect the renewable energy policies deployment by influencing the adoption of renewable energy policies. Directly, alternative energy resources are affected by development through regulatory politics, interest group politics, and entrepreneurial politics. Politics and market forces pave the way to renewable energy policy adoption through political climate, interest group competition, and entrepreneurial activities.  

I believe that implementing alternative energy resources is a bit tricky when it comes to politics for a variety of reasons. One of them being that the policies have to consider the population that will be affected by the new source. A politician has to make sure that the population promotes the new changes that are about to take place. They have to be ensured that nothing will be taken away from them or that they will have to pay higher taxes or something of that sort. Another aspect of alternative energy resources is that you have to make sure that you can continue the research of them without any dispute. In my previous article, I had discussed that a possible energy source was seaweed that produced biofuel.  However, some activist groups may view that in a negative light.  They may see it as disrupting the environment to better-fit society’s needs.  I had also had mentioned in one of my papers that wind power is also being researched as a possible energy resource.  The population and activist group might fight this because windmills are large and tend to make obnoxious sounds.  The politician or a group of them will come to the decision if that alternative source would be the best source for power.  They would have to decide on a location that is far enough from a majority of the population that will not create an eye sore and cause them discomfort from the sound. The bottom line is that before an alternative source is implemented many aspects need to be addressed.

Alternative energy resources can also produce problems with other countries.  I had discussed in my prior blog that we acquire oil from a few countries.  If we begin producing our own oil, this can cause friction between the United States and the other country. A country like Saudi Arabia heavily relies on the United States as a consumer of their oil. The same goes for a country like Mexico, they rely on the U.S. to consume their oil too.  Before politicians go and begin implementing all these new resources they have to make sure of a couple of things.  They have to do their research on the new resource to make sure it is adequate and they have to make sure that it pleases the population. Most importantly they have to make sure that it could sustain as long as the original source.

References:

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e1b4a7fa-5b56-4e68-91c8-8e5995b20ffd%40sessionmgr4003&vid=2&hid=4203

Alternative Resources for a Better Tomorrow

Clean Biofuel for Everyday Use

Imagine one sunny day, cruising down the road in your brand new convertible. All is well until out of nowhere, your dreaded fuel light of death turns on! As you desperately search for a cheap place to refuel, you are shocked to see that gas is over $10 dollars a gallon! Confused and wondering how the heck can gas be so expensive, you then have no choice but to look at other modes of transportation. Lucky for us that isn’t the case today, however we can’t say much about the future. As we all know, oil and gasoline are finite resources that one day will run dry. Now although there have been many advancements for renewable energy through wind, water, and the sun, there are still other options that haven’t been so popularized. One in particular that we will focus on is seaweed. In a journal written by Elizabeth Fusco and Timothy Dowding, they discuss how the biofuel seaweed can be a sustainable resource for the future. The name of the journal is An Alternative Source of Energy: The Production of Biofuels from Seaweed.

Simple Seaweed That Turns to Fuel

Fusco and Dowding begin by telling us exactly how crippling our dependence to oil actually is. The U.S. alone consumed over 19 million barrels of oil in 2010 and numbers are steadily rising. The high demand for oil will eventually lead to an increase in the global market. The United States is the leading consumer of oil, but produces none of its oil supply. The U.S. imports their supply of oil from other countries such as: Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. However, the oil from each of these countries presents an individual problem with their quality of oil. To save the U.S. from cleaning other sources of oil, researchers have decided to look into ways that may produce a cleaner and more cost effective oil. A source that is being researched is seaweed.

Seaweed would be grown on a large scale and in polluted areas. The seaweed would absorb the inorganic nutrients from the water and eventually produce a biofuel, while decreasing pollution as well. This will also increase the amount of oxygen in the water and improve the water quality. Extra seaweed can be converted into biodiesel, while the carbohydrates can be converted into ethanol. A research study at the University of Connecticut is utilizing its time to determine how to alleviate pollution in the Long Island sound. The study has also shown that the remains of the seaweed can also be used for animal feed. If this project were proven true, it would create such a huge impact on the world. Oil could potentially be reserved and at a reasonable price, but we could have a back-up plan in case anything were to go wrong. It is crucial that we start conducting research now, because there is only so much time left until oil becomes even more scarce. Who knew that the future of the world would be in the hands of a slippery algae?

No Belvedere, Just Bell

The Basic Properties of the Carbon Cycle

 










When one typically hears the infamous name of Alexander Graham Bell, one would automatically consider the history of the telephone. He not only contributed to the widely used source of mass communication, but he also contributed his efforts to developing alternative energy sources.  

Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Scotland. He was homeschooled for most of his life, but later went to public high school. He was an average student, but displayed an uncommon ability to solve problems.  At the age of 12, he had realized that husking a wheat grain was a slow process.  He soon developed a device that husked the wheat grain at a quicker rate, therefore making this his first invention.

After his invention of the telephone, Bell showed interest in the study of alternate energy resources. He was among the first to determine that the increasing use of fossil fuels would eventually harm the environment.  He also realized that it was not long before that these nonrenewable resources would eventually be completely gone. Bell used the term “greenhouse effect” to describe the warming of the earth because of the burning of fossil fuels. In the early 1900s, he began experimenting possible alternative energy sources for fossil fuels.  After experimenting with different possible alternatives he had finally determined that ethanol or alcohol was the best fossil fuel substitute.  He found that ethanol can be produced fairly cheap as long as it is not for human consumption. He discovered that the way to manufacture them cheaply would be to extract it from a corn stalk, but also from any other vegetable matter that is capable of fermentation. This could be also farm stubble, growing crops, or weeds.

The fermentation and distillation of alcohol begins with sugar that comes from  various versions of grain such as:

• corn stalks
• barley
• sugarcane

Biomass is also required to complete the process, this includes:

• wood chips
• sawdust, and
• wheat straw

These included cellulose and hemicellulose as well. Alcohol proved to be a better source of fuel because it seemed that its supply was fruitful and did not cause any harmful emissions while burning. However, this source did not come without obstacles. Many of the new automobiles had low-compression engines, whereas today high-compression engines work more efficiently with alcohol fuel.  Another obstacle that arose was to sustain a sufficient amount to maintain the rising demand for the new fuel. In the 1920s the total supply of alcohol for all purposes was 100 million gallons, therefore, causing hesitation to use it as a fuel source.

  However, Bell’s theories did not go to complete waste because in today’s society alcohol is used as an alternative source. Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park has been collecting vegetable oil from local businesses and has been refining it into biofuel to power their park equipment. Kejimkujik National Park, in Nova Scotia, has adopted Bell’s theory of the “greenhouse effect” by having a solar hot water system in the shower building.  His theories remain to be used amongst different aspects of science.

Resources:

http://www.brighthub.com/environment/renewable-energy/articles/97245.aspx

http://www.biography.com/people/alexander-graham-bell-9205497

Pacing For Life

Basics of a PaceMaker

           In the European Union a revolutionary product in the medical world has been produced, a tiny wireless pacemaker.  Over the last couple of years pacemakers have been troublesome to insert and are not always the most reliable.  Since pacemakers today have wires, they can often have glitches or even move due to the contractions of the heart.  Due to this many of the pacemakers have been recalled because the people who use them depend on them to never have glitches and if something went wrong with it, their lives could be at stake.  

• The device is placed via a steerable catheter that’s inserted into the femoral artery.  The pacemaker is then injected inside the heart where it will it stick to the ventricle (lower part) of the heart.  
• The procedure is estimated to take around half-hour.  From this position it can directly send electrical impulses to the heart to slow down the heart rate.  
• This version of a pacemaker’s battery is supposed to last nine to thirteen years.  If something were to go wrong, it could be removed a similar way it was injected.  
• The device still has to be approved by FDA and undergo more human trials.
• The modern pacemaker also helps stabilize heartbeat during physical activity as well making the patient able to maintain their health without worrying that they might have a cardiac arrhythmia.   

This pacemaker is an innovative and easier solution for people with slow heart rate conditions.  The pacemaker was originally introduced and used on a human in 1958 .  It was the first device to ever be surgically placed in a human . The first pacemaker was meant to stabilize a heart if it sensed that the heart was off beat, now they help and produce the correct amount and time span of impulse using multiple electrodes while the original only used one electrode.

Among the United States and Europe there are 780 patients who will participate in a trial. Providence, Oregon is the only site in the Northwest of the U.S. that participants will be tested. Dr. Randy Jones of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center recalls that the procedure is fairly simple as opposed to the old pacemakers. The full article can be seen at: Providence Pacemaker.

I really believe that these new pacemakers are extremely beneficial to people with serious heart conditions. I have a family member who has a pacemaker and the surgery alone was stressful.  She has the older pacemaker and the recovery was very long. She also had pre-existing conditions that made surgery an even bigger risk because if she got an infection there would have been other complications that could have increased problem to be much worse.  I think this a new perspective for electrical engineers because they would be working side by side with biomedical engineers to produce a greater product. The combination of these two professions cannot only make pacemakers, but create other medical products to help patients continue on with their daily lives and even save lives.

Green is the New Black

A few of the different choices today

Alternative energy sources are becoming increasingly popular amongst society today. These types of sources are created to help better the environment and to sustain our current natural resources. However, developing new alternative energy resources poses a few questions for researchers; will the new resources provide the same effect as the old ones? Also, will the new alternative energy resources sustain society longer or shorter than the previous resource? Lastly, another important factor that researchers must cope with, is dealing with the potential negative effects that could cause more damage to society and wildlife than the previous resource. Along with researchers, these are the same basic questions that people in our society are asking due to the heavy dependence on energy sources. Finding the correct resources are one of the hardest missions that researchers have to face, because they have to find the source that produces a more efficient form of the one that already exists.

However, with that being said, there have still been great strides in the alternative resources field. Daily transportation alone has slowly moved in the green direction, from original gas guzzling vehicles to the introduction of hybrid gas-electric cars and even fully functioning electric cars. The electric cars today are totally unrecognizable from their gasoline counterparts, that is, until you realize how much money you saved from never having to refuel again! Even beyond individual level, now governments are making clear efforts to also find new alternatives. The country of Nepal has devised a solar powered plan to help reduce its use of electricity. With very high demands of electricity in very underdeveloped areas, the country is struggling with consistent power outages in many of its key regions. Thus, with the help of solar panels, the government is hoping to significantly reduce stress on the nation’s power grid. This article can be seen at: Nepal Solar-Panel Mission. These are just a few examples of the creative world we live in today, which is needed in a time where the clock is ticking for certain resources.

Now, why is all of this important to you? If you are a college student, the last thing you are probably worrying about is the environment. You have a busy schedule with classes and a job and with finals coming right around the corner, saving the environment probably would not even make it on the list. No one is saying that finding alternative energy sources will be solved today, but actions taken today will help shape the future. As the saying goes, it is the small things that leave the greatest effect. As college students, we are the future, we are the ones that are going to have to eventually deal with this. Why not take some actions now so the problem does not get worse to the point of no return. We live in an era where technology and research rule all and with the proper mindset, we can shape tomorrow to be better than today.