Skip to main content

Home/ Bobcat Research Institute 2025/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by Sean Nash

Contents contributed and discussions participated by Sean Nash

Simple Middle Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics
Sean Nash

Researchers Discover New Mechanism to Cool Buildings While Saving Energy - 0 views

www.enn.com/index.php

potential research idea HSR HSR-2025 building engineering materials materialsscience civilengineering heat cool energy conservation construction

shared by Sean Nash on 13 Aug 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 13 Aug 24
     
    This one is dripping with feasibility it seems...
Sean Nash

Wild plants and crops don't make great neighbors | UCR News | UC Riverside - 0 views

news.ucr.edu/...rops-dont-make-great-neighbors

crops disease native non-native plants botany agriculture plantpathology pathology HSR HSR-2025 potential research idea science environmental questions biology

shared by Sean Nash on 16 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 16 Jul 24
     
    There are plenty of things about this study that are not so feasible for us at the moment, but... this general area: plant pathology, interactions between native and non-native plants & crops... is a very cool area to explore that would present some feasibility for us.
Sean Nash

A new breakthrough in understanding regeneration in a marine worm | ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240702135526.htm

shared by Sean Nash on 03 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • The sea worm Platynereis dumerilii is only a few centimetres long but has a remarkable ability: in just a few days, it can regenerate entire parts of its body after an injury or amputation.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 03 Jul 24
       
      Trevor Davids used the California blackworm, Lumbriculus variegatus, to examine the effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on regeneration rate. Lumbroculus is a freshwater worm and easy to care for.
  • a research team led by a CNRS scientist1 has observed that gut cells play a role in the regeneration of the intestine as well as other tissues such as muscle and epidermis
  • Even more surprising, the team found that this ability of gut cells to regenerate other tissue varies according to their location: the closer they are to the posterior end of the worm, the greater the variety of cell types they can rebuild
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • This was tracked using different markers in particular by fluorescent beads ingested by the worms.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 03 Jul 24
       
      This is similar to what Grant Reed was trying to do with painted lady butterflies. He wanted to see the effects of ingesting plastic nanoparticles on their development and regeneration. The smart selection of fluorescent nanoparticles (which we purchased and still have) would allow the tracking of the particles using specialized microscopy.
  • Annelids, or 'segmented worms', which have only been studied in the last 20 years, are an ideal model for the study of regeneration, a process that is widespread in animals but still mysterious for scientists.
  • The research team will continue this work to determine whether cell types, other than gut cells, can play a role in regenerating a variety of cell types.
  • Journal Reference: Loïc Bideau, Zoé Velasquillo-Ramirez, Loeiza Baduel, Marianne Basso, Pascale Gilardi-Hebenstreit, Vanessa Ribes, Michel Vervoort, Eve Gazave. Variations in cell plasticity and proliferation underlie distinct modes of regeneration along the antero-posterior axis in the annelid Platynereis. Development, 2024; 151 (20) DOI: 10.1242/dev.202452
  • Sean Nash on 03 Jul 24
     
    There are elements of this study that connect to what Trevor Davids & Grant Reed were doing last year... but with a different model organism.
Sean Nash

Study explores what motivates people to watch footage of disasters and extreme weather ... - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240702135537.htm

disaster media video socialmedia extreme weather HSR HSR-2025 science questions statistical analysis potential research idea behavioralscience

shared by Sean Nash on 03 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 03 Jul 24
     
    Yes. This is science. Behavioral science. Sometimes it looks like this.......
Sean Nash

Simple new process stores CO2 in concrete without compromising strength - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240626173558.htm

HSR HSR-2025 concrete materials science engineering physics chemistry potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • By using a carbonated -- rather than a still -- water-based solution during the concrete manufacturing process, a Northwestern University-led team of engineers has discovered a new way to store carbon dioxide (CO2) in the ubiquitous construction material.
  • Not only could the new process help sequester CO2 from the ever-warming atmosphere, it also results in concrete with uncompromised strength and durability.
  • "The cement and concrete industries significantly contribute to human-caused CO2 emissions,"
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • instead of injecting CO2 while mixing all the ingredients together, they first injected CO2 gas into water mixed with a small amount of cement powder. After mixing this carbonated suspension with the rest of the cement and aggregates, they achieved a concrete that actually absorbed CO2 during its manufacturing
  • After analyzing their carbonated concrete, Rotta Loria and his colleagues found its strength rivaled the durability of regular concrete.
  • based on our experiments, we show the strength might actually be even higher. We still need to test this further
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
       
      It is a good sign when you read: "We still need to test this further!"
  • It could be used in beams, slabs, columns, foundations -- everything we currently use concrete for."
  • "The findings of this research underline that although carbonation of cement-based materials is a well-known reaction, there is still room to further optimize the CO2 uptake through better understanding of the mechanisms tied to materials processing,"
  • Journal Reference: Xiaoxu Fu, Alexandre Guerini, Davide Zampini, Alessandro F. Rotta Loria. Storing CO2 while strengthening concrete by carbonating its cement in suspension. Communications Materials, 2024; 5 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s43246-024-00546-9
  • Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
     
    Know anyone who works with concrete that might let you experiment? I had a student back in the day who did this. They incorporated plastic polymer beads into standard concrete molds for strength testing.
Sean Nash

Common plastics could passively cool and heat buildings with the seasons | ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240627172053.htm

HSR HSR-2025 materials heat climatechange science engineering physics chemistry potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • Researchers at Princeton and UCLA have developed a passive mechanism to cool buildings in the summer and warm them in the winter.
  • coatings engineered from common materials can achieve energy savings and thermal comfort that goes beyond what traditional building envelopes can achieve
  • "With the increase in global temperatures, maintaining habitable buildings has become a global challenge,"
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • "In recent years there has been massive interest in cool roof coatings that reflect sunlight. But cooling walls and windows is a much more subtle and complex challenge."
  • "By coating walls and windows with materials that only radiate or absorb heat in the atmospheric window, we can reduce broadband heat gain from the ground in the summer, and loss in the winter, while maintaining the cooling effect of the sky. We believe that this idea is unprecedented, and beyond what traditional roof and wall envelopes can achieve."
  • The findings' impact is significant for two important reasons. First, the researchers show in the article that many common and low-cost building materials radiate heat in the narrowband and block broadband heat. Material such as polyvinyl fluoride, already used as siding material, could be adapted for the purpose, as could even more common plastics.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
       
      Smells like feasibility....
  • "We were really excited when we found that materials like Polypropylene, which we sourced from household plastics, selectively radiate or absorb heat in the atmospheric window." Raman noted. "These materials border on the mundane, but the same scalability that makes them common also means that we could see them thermoregulating buildings in the near future."
  • The second reason for optimism is that the potential energy impacts at the building scale are substantial. The researchers noted that seasonal energy savings with their mechanism are comparable to the benefits of painting dark roofs white. This could be useful as air conditioning cost and heat related casualties continue to soar worldwide. Mandal and Raman plan to continue this research further.
  • "The mechanism we proposed is completely passive, which makes it a sustainable way to cool and heat buildings with the seasons and yield untapped energy savings."
  • Journal Reference: Jyotirmoy Mandal, Jyothis Anand, Sagar Mandal, John Brewer, Arvind Ramachandran, Aaswath P. Raman. Radiative cooling and thermoregulation in the earth’s glow. Cell Reports Physical Science, 2024; 102065 DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.102065
  • Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
     
    Don't know if you're following changes in climate, but... this might be an area for some engineering. What are the other problems involved with this field of study? Interesting to anyone?
Sean Nash

New fabric cools people in sweltering cities - 0 views

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/...ople-cool-in-sweltering-cities

HSR HSR-2025 science statistical analysis engineering physics chemistry potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • researchers have designed a new wearable fabric to help people beat the heat in urban settings. The material, reported in the journal Science, could find use in clothing, cooling facades for buildings and cars, and for food storage and transport.
  • Existing cooling fabrics reflect sunlight and also wick away sweat to cool a person via evaporation. More recently, researchers have designed cooling fabrics that rely on the principle of radiative cooling: the natural phenomenon in which objects radiate heat through the atmosphere straight into outer space.
  • But radiative cooling fabrics made so far are designed to work when laid horizontally as opposed to vertically, as they would be when worn.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • researchers at the University of Chicago made a new three-layer fabric. Its wool bottom layer wicks heat from the skin to the middle layer, which is made of silver nanowires that block heat from coming in. The top layer selectively emits heat into the atmosphere.
  • In tests conducted in the urban heat island of Chicago and under blistering Arizona sun, the material stayed 2.3°C cooler than sports cooling fabrics and 8.9°C cooler than commercial silk used for summer clothing.
  • Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
     
    Materials science is certainly a nifty bit of engineering. This is the second time I've seen this study mentioned. Look interesting enough to dig into various materials and how they might be combined to serve a key purpose?
Sean Nash

Ignoring Noise Pollution Harms Public Health - 1 views

undark.org/...-pollution-harms-public-health

HSR HSR-2025 noise

shared by Sean Nash on 01 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 01 Jul 24
     
    I think this shows tons of promise for feasibility- especially since we have an international airport nearby, and measuring sound is straightforward. Acquiring the data acquisition probes to do this is certainly feasible. A lot of room for creativity here. If this is interesting, also dig into ARC-GIS as a tool to geographically map out the sound data generated.
Sean Nash

Tools to illustrate your scientific works! (open source web-based) | by Dr. Veronica Es... - 0 views

medium.com/...-source-web-based-c5bd12aaec5b

GoOpen CC creativecommons HSR HSR-2025 science illustration images art illustrations modeling models diagrams free opensource

shared by Sean Nash on 01 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • 1.-ChemixChemisc is an educational app that lets you easily draw lab diagram setups and explain your experiments. It has a large library of highly customisable apparatus and various features to help you draw diagrams with ease [3].
  • 2.-SmartSince its launch in 2001, Servier Medical Art is a trusted and internationally recognized resource used in respected journals, textbooks, online resources, and more. [ In this website you will find 3000 Free medical images to illustrate your publications and Powerpoint presentations!
  • 3.-BioiconsBioicons is a free library of open source icons for scientific illustrations using vector graphics software
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 01 Jul 24
       
      This one I already knew of and used. Several students made use of this resource last year.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • 4.-Health IconsHealth Icons is a volunteer effort to create a ‘global good’ for health projects all over the world. These icons are available in the public domain for use in any type of project.
  • 5.-SciDrawSciDraw is a free repository of high quality drawings of animals, scientific setups, and anything that might be useful for scientific presentations and posters [9].
  • 5.-Draw.ioDraw.io is a free, online diagramming tool that allows you to create flowcharts, diagrams, mind maps, organisation charts, and much more. A web-based application, Draw.io is fully integrated with Google Drive. This means that you can automatically save the results of your work in your Google Workspace or Gmail account [10].
  • Sean Nash on 01 Jul 24
     
    Save these for later this year. You will likely use resources like this to aid in your diagrams/models for your display.
Sean Nash

Are plants intelligent? It depends on the definition | ScienceDaily - 1 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240612113314.htm

plants science HSR-2025 HSR environmental botany biology potential research idea behavioralscience

shared by Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • When leaf beetle larvae eat goldenrod leaves, the plant emits a chemical that informs the insect that the plant is damaged and is a poor source of food. These airborne chemicals, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are also picked up by neighboring goldenrod plants, prompting them to produce their own defenses against the beetle larvae. In this way, goldenrod move herbivores on to neighbors, and distribute damage.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
       
      Are these VOCs (volatile organic compounds) detectable by us? If not detectable, they can we identify them... and then produce or purchase those chemicals to test their effects on plant responses?
  • start producing defensive compounds that help the plants fight off insect pests.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
       
      It seems to me that I remember hydrogen peroxide being one of these signaling chemicals (at least from one part of a plant to another).
  • When no neighbors are present, the plants don't resort to accelerated growth when eaten and the chemical responses to herbivores are markedly different, though they still tolerate quite high amounts of herbivory.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Neighboring goldenrod also exhibit intelligence when they perceive VOCs that signal the presence of a pest. "The volatile emission coming from a neighbor is predictive of future herbivory," Kessler said. "They can use an environmental cue to predict a future situation, and then act on that."
  • Applying the concept of intelligence to plants can inspire fresh hypotheses about the mechanisms and functions of plant chemical communication, while also shifting people's thinking about what intelligence really means, Kessler said.
  • "What that means is, the brain in the plant is the entire plant without the need of central coordination," Kessler said.
  • "They can smell out their environment very precisely; every single cell can do it, as far as we know,"
  • André Kessler, Michael B. Mueller. Induced resistance to herbivory and the intelligent plant. Plant Signaling & Behavior, 2024; 19 (1) DOI: 10.1080/15592324.2024.2345985
  • Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
     
    "When goldenrod is eaten by herbivores, it adapts its response based on whether or not another plant is nearby."
Sean Nash

Electrified charcoal sponge soaks up CO2 from the air - 0 views

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/...s-up-co2-directly-from-the-air

CO2 carbondioxide climatechange charcoal electricity HSR HSR-2025 science environmental engineering chemistry biology physics potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • With a little bit of electric charge, the sponge-like charcoal material used in household water filters can also capture carbon dioxide from air, researchers report in the journal Nature. The advance could provide a low-cost, efficient route for removing the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
  • For the material, the researchers turned to an activated charcoal sponge, a porous substance with a large surface area. The material is commonly found in household purifiers to capture chemicals and toxins from water. Activated charcoal cannot efficiently capture carbon dioxide from air normally. But chemist Alexander Forse and his colleagues proposed that inserting charged, reactive particles into activated charcoal could turn it into a direct air capture sorbent.
  • The researchers charged the activated charcoal cloth in a battery-like setup. They used the cloth like one electrode in a battery, placing it in a solvent solution with an opposite electrode. When they passed electricity through the device, charged hydroxide ions accumulate in the tiny pores of the charcoal cloth.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Tests showed that the resulting sorbent material rapidly captured carbon dioxide from ambient air by reacting with hydroxides.
  • One downside to the material is that its performance decreases under humidity. The researchers are working to fix that, and are also to increase the quantity of carbon dioxide that the material can capture.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
       
      Seems like a potential engineering challenge to me. I think it would be immediately interesting to figure out more of the detail of what they've done here... and run some quick feasibility tests. Can we easily replicate with available materials? Can we measure the CO2 uptake with simple probes? When testing different versions of the same material, can we compare results with a microscopic examination of the material to potentially correlate a particular construction with better performance? Could we perhaps then suggest best materials for certain circumstances? Could we even create materials that perform better?
  • Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
     
    "When researchers ran a charge through charcoal sponges commonly used in home water filters, they discovered a low-cost, low-energy route to remove CO2 from the air"
Sean Nash

New fabric makes urban heat islands more bearable | ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240613161204.htm

HSR HSR-2025 science environmental engineering physics biology potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • This year has already seen massive heatwaves around the globe, with cities in Mexico, India, Pakistan and Oman hitting temperatures near or past 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
  • In tests under the Arizona sun, the material kept 2.3 degrees Celsius (4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the broadband emitter fabric used for outdoor endurance sports and 8.9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the commercialized silk commonly used for shirts, dresses and other summer clothing.
  • "You can save a lot of cooling, electricity and energy costs because this is a passive process," Sui said.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Spectrally engineered textile for radiative cooling against urban heat islands. Science, 2024; 384 (6701): 1203 DOI: 10.1126/science.adl0653
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
       
      I'm not yet convinced of the feasibility of this one, but this might provide a spark for someone. Some types of materials engineering like this is done on a nanoscale, which may not be the best for what we can do... but I believe there is space here for exploring composite materials with different properties to engineer better outcomes than what we're currently dealing with.
  • Sean Nash on 15 Jun 24
     
    "With applications in clothing, construction and food storage, the new textile reduces heat from both the sun and thermal radiation from nearby buildings"
Sean Nash

Mysterious Underwater Acoustic World of British Ponds Revealed in New Study | Current S... - 1 views

currentsciencedaily.com/...sh-ponds-revealed-in-new-study

hydrophone sound survey pond potential research idea biology physics computer science environmental science HSR HSR-2023 HSR-2025

shared by Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • The previously hidden and diverse underwater acoustic world in British ponds has been revealed by a team of researchers at the University of Bristol.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      So... my immediate thought is: How cool would it be to do this here? One thing we DO have: PONDS. See if this *sounds* interesting. Get it? ;)
  • Acoustic monitoring has been shown to effectively survey birds and monkeys in rainforests, and marine mammals in the oceans. However, freshwater environments have remained largely unexplored despite their diverse soundscapes.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      BOOM. Again, "relatively unexplored" is super exciting verbiage to me. Acoustics. Hydrophones. Is this feasible? Is the equipment affordable? If not, could we borrow one? Dig into it. What are the possibilities?
  • analysis of the audio files revealed clear daily acoustic activity cycles in each pond
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Aside from the exploratory surveys you would do just to see "what's out there" and assess what we CAN learn from listening to a pond, you could make it experimental by comparing ponds you've assessed the health of by other means. In other words, do acoustic comparisons between two ponds correlate with what you find by doing a macroinvertebrate sampling? I really LIKE the possibilities in this one!
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Typically, a nocturnal chorus is made by aquatic insects that compete to attract mates by producing strange scratching sounds as they rub their genitals against their abdomens. During the daytime, however, aquatic plants dominate the underwater orchestra with rhythmic whining and ticking sounds produced as tiny oxygen bubbles are released by plants respiring in the hot sun.
  • Using this acoustic method, the presence of species, and a determination of ecological health, can be inferred simply by listening to the natural world without disturbing the environment or harming the plants and animals within it.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Here is the obvious value proposition if you could work this out.
  • Publication: Jack A. Greenhalgh, et al., Diel variation in insect-dominated temperate pond soundscapes and guidelines for survey design, Freshwater Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1111/fwb.14092.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      BEST THING YET: Here is the FULL TEXT of the actual research paper!
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Here is the FULL TEXT of the actual research paper!
Sean Nash

Regeneron ISEF 2023 - Finalist Project Portal - 0 views

projectboard.world/...categories

fair projects ISEF ISEF2023 HSR HSR-2023 science potential research idea HSR-2025

shared by Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • Choose a category to begin
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      This is a really good way to dive into specific categories and explore the projects that made it to this year's ISEF. What I would do is start with what immediately interests you for now... and pick up some tips. You might get ideas for areas/topics to research. You might see creative methods used in various studies. Pay particular attention to the fact that some utilize equipment only available at a university or corporate lab, but... many also feature creative methods done by students at home or in school labs as well! Once you get inside projects that you get ideas from, feel free to save them in Diigo for later, or share really interesting ones with others you think might benefit from seeing it. One final thing: you might also get some tips for elements of their presentation that appeal to you.
  • Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
     
    This is a digital version of a fair- almost like being there
Sean Nash

Microwaving an insecticide restores its mosquito-killing power - 1 views

www.sciencenews.org/...to-microwave-insecticide-spray

deltamethrin pesticide mosquito insecticide DDT crystals crystalline structure biochemistry environment evolution ecology chemistry heat potential research idea biology engineering environmental science HSR HSR-2023 HSR-2025

shared by Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • Heating an insecticide can give it new life.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Wait... what?
  • Microwaving the insecticide deltamethrin rearranges its crystal structure but doesn’t change its chemical composition. The rearrangement renews deltamethrin’s ability to kill mosquitoes that have become resistant to the insecticide, researchers report April 21 in Malaria Journal.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Seems like potential feasibility
  • The microwave worked just as well, but Kahr cautions that people shouldn’t use the same microwave for heating food and insecticides.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Ha! Oh really??
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • insecticide resistance is a growing problem
  • “There are all kinds of social and cultural things that you could propose from a scientific perspective that wouldn’t be welcomed by a community of homeowners.”
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Another positive...
  • It’s not certain that the heat-treated deltamethrin would retain its more potent crystal structure through the net-making process.
  • Kahr’s team is working on incorporating the heat-treated crystal into nets.
  • It is encouraging that heated insecticide killed highly resistant mosquitoes, says Hemingway, who directs the Infection Innovation Consortium, a public-private effort to find new ways to combat infectious diseases. But, she says, “this is not something we can take and use that tomorrow.”
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      OK.... this is how you can find an opening (not saying THIS ONE is necessarily, but, when you see language like: "we can't really do it just yet," that is a screaming opportunity to see what we MIGHT be able to add to that. We would just want to get early approval from the fair re: hazardous substances. I think we could.
  • Kahr and colleagues previously discovered that heating deltamethrin changed its crystal structure, which let it work faster
  • Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
     
    "Wait, what? Do say more....."
1 - 20 of 56 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page