Radiation Protection Drug
Researchers at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center may have found a drug that can protect people from radiation poisoning. The drug has been successfully trailed in rodents and looks like it may be able to revolutionize cancer treatment. It may even help protect people who are in jeopardy of developing radiation poisoning that can come from working in an environment where they may be exposed to large doses of radiation. The drug has been labeled as PQ (pharmacological quiescence) and stops enzymes responsible for cell division in their tracks. Although the drug has not been tested on human subjects as yet, the likelihood of it being successful is quite high.
The drug is relatively non-toxic. It is also touted as being effective after the subject has received a dose of radiation. It is fair to suggest that it may help reduce the risks associated with radiotherapy which is often risky due to the potential danger of radiation poisoning. A lot of the time radiotherapy can make the patient exceedingly sick before the patient is able to start recovering from the cancer that radiotherapy is attempting to do battle with. In this regard, PQ can be considered something that will help a lot of people overcome cancer in the long term. Radiotherapy has cost people their lives because the radiation has made them too sick to continue treatment without further risk to the patient’s health.
There is no word on when human trials will begin as yet. It is likely to be soon however in order to get the drug approved for use as soon as possible. It is a relatively cheap drug to produce and will help countless people overcome cancer despite the fact that it is not attacking the cancer. It will enable treatment to continue for those most susceptible to radiation poisoning.
Programmable Traffic Signs
With almost every country in the world trying to reduce its impact on the environment, the adoption of LED (light emitting diode) lighting has started to become apparent. Programmable traffic signs make use of LED lighting to transfer the work of three or four specific traffic lights into a single programmable display. For example, an intersection (depending on where you live) that makes use of traffic lights has a green, orange and red light for each direction. On top of this they will also have a light to say when you can walk across the crossing and a light that says you can’t. In total that is twenty separate lights. You can quite easily cut that down to eight.
How this works is by having a single light per direction that depicts the color to direct traffic and a single light for each direction that depicts whether or not it is safe to cross for pedestrians. The lights do not have to rely on tinged glass because they are LED lights that can display a color based upon how they are coded. They can also draw symbols and are a lot cheaper to run than a standard light. For a large city that may have thousands of sets of traffic lights this can potentially save millions of dollars in the long term and will dramatically decrease their carbon foot print.
Programmable traffic signs can also be reprogrammed in the event the system needs to be altered. If they decide to suddenly change the color of a stop sign to purple, there is no need to remove the light and replace it; it is just a matter of replacing a few lines of code to depict the color they wish to show. This is essentially a time and cost cutting measure that can be utilized for the long term.
Portable USB Chargers
These are essentially devices that you can carry with you to give any other devices you have that are able to be charged via a USB connection some extra power while you are on the go. The device itself is recharged via USB as well. This is excellent for long trips where you may not be able to get to a power supply easily. For instance, think of a long journey on an aircraft where your device only has around four hours worth of charge when using it full time. The journey itself may be a twelve hour flight. It is unlikely that you will be able to recharge that iPod while on the plane so having a device such as this can help ensure you don’t end up having to speak to the person next to you.
The chargers are quite small and do not weigh much so if you are required to stay under a weight limit then there is a good chance that the device will not impact on the limitations. They also work with a fairly wide variety of devices. If you can draw power and recharge the item you want to charge via your computer, then it will most likely work with the portable charger. The price charged for these devices is not exuberant either. If it can save you a few hours of boredom on a long trip it is well worth the price.
The technology to charge devices through the power drawn from a USB connection is something that is potentially game changing. No longer have we had to rely on purchasing batteries to supply our walkmans with power. MP3 players now offer us a massive range of music through high capacity storage that we never have to travel with a back pack full of CDs.
Portable Solar Charger
Finding somewhere to charge a device when you are on the go can be a nightmare. This is particularly true if you are camping and you don’t have the correct connection to hook up a USB connection to the cigarette lighter in your vehicle. There are a few devices out there that offer the portability of a charger in the form of a solar powered unit. There is no need to actually put charge into the device in order to pass the charge to another device – the whole thing is run off the sun. This is useful for anyone who is in the middle of a forest and finds their cell phone running out of charge.
It can also be a matter of life and death in certain situations. If you are in the middle of nowhere and break your leg and try to call for help and notice you have no cell phone battery left – then you probably are going to wish you had a portable solar charger. The portable solar chargers come with a fairly wide variety of connectors, so you are not reliant on a USB connection. However, it is worth investing in a USB connector for your devices in order to fully utilize the device. It will also help you reduce the amount of connectors you need to carry around.
There are other chargers out there that rely on being charged prior to connecting another device to it for charging. Having a solar powered charger eliminates a lot of the middle man requirements of the device. However, many of these solar chargers have the option to pre-charge via a USB or wall socket connection in the event you are unable to get the device into the sun to charge up the connected device. It is a clever investment for anyone who travels a lot.
Reverse Vending Machines
While the concept may sound confusing if you consider just the title alone; it actually makes a lot of sense when you realize how the idea works. In order to promote an easy way to recycle, the machine takes empty recyclable containers from the user and then gives them money. It is an initiative developed in Australia that attempts to reduce littering and promote recycling at the same time. The idea has a lot of merit. The machine takes the container from the user and scans it using an imaging camera that can tell what type of material the container is. It then gives the user a receipt that they can then scan in adjacent cash machine in order to collect their funds.
The amount it gives back the user is approximately ten cents per container. This is actually a pretty good rate of return for the user. The machine is likely to become commonplace in many Australian cities if it works well. It has the potential to really make a difference. Australia has already got a system of garbage collection that designates specific bins for specific wastes. If a user can get cash back from their recyclables instead of just inserting them directly into their trash bins then they are probably going to accumulate the recyclable containers and drop them in the machine for some extra money when they go shopping.
Even though the machine is only just been deployed for use in the field, it has garnered the interest of other countries and looks like it may take off overseas as well. If it can reduce the amount of landfill and thus reduce the carbon output that a country accumulates then it can only be considered a good thing. The bonus is that it actually pays users for doing the right thing.
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