Liquid Crystal Design

Engineers develop technique to craft new materials using liquid crystals as structural guides

Liquid crystals, ubiquitous in cell-phone screens and computer monitors, were known to science long before engineers realized their utility in displays and other technologies. Now, an international team of researchers has discovered how to use liquid crystals as scaffolding to build novel materials with undiscovered properties.

Reporting their findings in the journal Nature on May 3, the researchers describe a sophisticated computational model for determining how liquid crystals behave within the confines of nanometer-scale droplets containing molecules that lower the surface tensions of liquids, called surfactants.

The researchers, led by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineer Juan de Pablo, show that as the droplets cool, the liquid crystals confine the surfactant molecules, organizing them into discrete structures.

As the researchers adjusted the model's parameters, such as droplet size or surfactant concentration, the simulation revealed that it is possible to use the technique to guide self-assembled structures with a wide range of properties and applications.

For example, the researchers suggest the technique could be used to construct materials from DNA building blocks, allowing unique detectors for biological materials and toxins.

"The researchers have taken a new and exciting approach to the study of liquid crystals, which will have impact in several scientific and technical arenas," adds Mary Galvin, National Science Foundation (NSF) program director for Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers.

NSF supported the research through the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center on Nanostructured Interfaces, an NSF Center of Excellence for Materials Research and Innovation.

For more information, read the full University of Wisconsin-Madison press release.

 -NSF-

Robot SHARKS

Video provided by the National Science Foundation.  Edited by Jessica L. Tozer

Sharks with lasers on their heads!

Okay, not really, but I still don’t think Dr. Evil would be too disappointed.  Robot sharks are still pretty awesome.  And thanks to new research, not far from reality.

Dive in with NSF funded researcher John Long and his robotic sharks. A professor at Vassar College , Dr. Long and his team study real live sharks and their vertebral columns. They then takes these findings and design computer models and artificial vertebral columns to understand sharks’ movement and biomechanics.

Maybe lasers can be an additional feature…

From Science 360

DOD Facilities Drive Technology for Secure Power

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – As the nation’s top energy user, the Defense Department is pushing commercialization of the technology it needs to lower costs and keep its facilities secure, the deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment said here today.

Dorothy Robyn addressed an audience of military, federal and industry experts at the Military Smart Grids and Microgrids Conference in Arlington, Va.

Robyn manages and oversees permanent military installations worldwide and manages installation programs that involve energy, the environment, safety and occupational health.

In fiscal 2011, the cost of electricity spent to power 300,000 buildings on Defense Department installations -- barracks, data centers, offices and hospitals -- and to operate 160,000 vehicles was $4 billion a year.

“We also account for a disproportionate share of the department’s greenhouse gases,” Robyn said.

And such U.S. military installations depend almost entirely on a commercial electric grid that experts say is vulnerable to disruption.

“In 2008 the Defense Science Board called us out and said, ‘Your critical missions are at risk because of the potential for disruption to the grid,’” Robyn said.

Today the strategy for bolstering DOD facility energy security and innovation, she added, includes reducing demand for traditional energy, expanding the supply of renewable and other forms of on-base energy, focusing directly on base security, and leveraging advanced technology.

In the area of advanced technology, Robyn said DOD is uniquely positioned to overcome barriers to commercialization for some of the most potentially groundbreaking energy innovations. Among these are smart grids and microgrids.

A smart grid is an electrical grid whose capabilities are boosted by computer technology to monitor and regulate the energy that utilities generate and distribute to consumers.

When it becomes fully functional over the next decade in the United States, the automated grid will be able to communicate with consumers, remotely sense and fix problems on its own network, and save users money by better managing energy use, and by integrating power from wind, solar, biomass and other renewable energy sources.

Microgrids and minigrids are smaller, less-automated versions of smart-grid technology. They interconnect small, modular electricity-generation sources to low-voltage distribution systems, and some can be powered by a combination of petroleum-fueled generators, solar, wind and other sources.

“I am something of a cheerleader for microgrids, because they solve a huge problem we have -- namely the energy security of our bases,” Robyn said.

But also, she added, “because I have spent much of my career working in the economics of network industries, primarily transportation and telecom, and I’ve seen what disruptive technology and competition have done in those sectors, and I think we’re due for that in the utility sector.”

Impediments to such emerging technologies, Robyn said, include a highly fragmented building industry, high costs for first users of new technology, and a lack of operational testing that deters potential technology adopters.

DOD is uniquely positioned to help overcome these barriers, the deputy undersecretary added.

“The key to this is using our installations as a testbed for next-generation energy technology, pre-commercial technology that we think has promise on our installations,” Robyn said.

“We think that we have a role to play here in being a first user. It’s a role that is justified by the huge infrastructure that we have -- 300,000 buildings. We look at risk differently,” she added.

“If we try 10 things out and seven of them work and three don’t, … we can deploy those so broadly as to make it profitable,” Robyn said. “So that’s what we’re doing.”

Robyn’s team is working on advanced technology in three areas -- smart and secure installation energy management, efficient integrated buildings, and onsite power generation.

The flagship project, she said, is in development at Twentynine Palms Marine Base, the nation’s largest, in California. The smart microgrid there is capable of “islanding” about a third of the base’s total load and meets DOD cyber security criteria. In islanding, a distributed generator continues to power a location even when there is no electrical grid power from the utility.

Electrochromic windows are an example of emerging technology for efficient integrated buildings. These windows can be darkened or lightened electronically, controlling the amount of daylight and solar heat gain through the windows of buildings and vehicles.

Robyn’s team is putting these windows on three sides of a building at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in Southern California and will systematically collect performance data.

“This is a great example of the role we can play in reducing risk,” Robyn said.

Historically, the Energy Department has invested in this technology, but the windows are still very expensive, she noted. “And architecture and engineering firms are understandably reluctant to incorporate them into a new building without rigorous data on their performance,” she said.

Collecting data from the test bed building at Miramar, she added, can help to jumpstart the market.

Many more demonstration projects are under way at DOD facilities around the country, and some are beginning to show results despite challenges that include collecting high-quality data on building energy consumption and performance and getting successfully test bed technologies widely deployed.

“I didn’t list any [challenges] having to do with microgrids,” Robyn said. “I feel like there is tremendous momentum there, and I don’t see the kinds of [comparable] impediments.”

NASA Administrator Meets With Japanese Prime Minister

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, fourth from left, accepts a montage from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, third from left, during a meeting at the Blair House as Associate Administrator for Science and former astronaut John Grunsfeld, left, Associate Administrator for Education and former astronaut Leland Melvin, second from left, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronauts Koichi Wakata and Satoshi Furukawa, right, look on, Monday, April 30, 2012, in Washington.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Ecosystem Effects of Biodiversity Loss Rival Climate Change and Pollution

First comprehensive effort to compare biodiversity loss to other human-caused environmental changes

Loss of biodiversity appears to affect ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to results of a new study by an international research team.

The study is the first comprehensive effort to directly compare the effects of biological diversity loss to the anticipated effects of a host of other human-caused environmental changes.

The results, published in this week's issue of the journal Nature, highlight the need for stronger local, national and international efforts to protect biodiversity and the benefits it provides, according to the researchers, who are based at nine institutions in the United States, Canada and Sweden.

"This analysis establishes that reduced biodiversity affects ecosystems at levels comparable to those of global warming and air pollution," said Henry Gholz, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research directly and through the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

"Some people have assumed that biodiversity effects are relatively minor compared to other environmental stressors," said biologist David Hooper of Western Washington University, the lead author of the paper.

"Our results show that future loss of species has the potential to reduce plant production just as much as global warming and pollution."

Studies over the last two decades demonstrated that more biologically diverse ecosystems are more productive.

As a result, there has been growing concern that the very high rates of modern extinctions--due to habitat loss, overharvesting and other human-caused environmental changes--could reduce nature's ability to provide goods and services such as food, clean water and a stable climate.

Until now, it's been unclear how biodiversity losses stack up against other human-caused environmental changes that affect ecosystem health and productivity.

"Loss of biological diversity due to species extinctions is going to have major effects on our planet, and we need to prepare ourselves to deal with them," said ecologist Bradley Cardinale of the University of Michigan, one of the paper's co-authors. "These extinctions may well rank as one of the top five drivers of global change."

In the study, Hooper, Cardinale and colleagues combined data from a large number of published studies to compare how various global environmental stressors affect two processes important in ecosystems: plant growth and the decomposition of dead plants by bacteria and fungi.

The study involved the construction of a database drawn from 192 peer-reviewed publications about experiments that manipulated species richness and examined their effect on ecosystem processes.

This global synthesis found that in areas where local species loss during this century falls within the lower range of projections (losses of 1 to 20 percent of plant species), negligible effects on ecosystem plant growth will result, and changes in species richness will rank low relative to the effects projected for other environmental changes.

In ecosystems where species losses fall within intermediate projections of 21 to 40 percent of species, however, species loss is expected to reduce plant growth by 5 to 10 percent.

The effect is comparable to the expected effects of climate warming and increased ultraviolet radiation due to stratospheric ozone loss.

At higher levels of extinction (41 to 60 percent of species), the effects of species loss ranked with those of many other major drivers of environmental change, such as ozone pollution, acid deposition on forests and nutrient pollution.

"Within the range of expected species losses, we saw average declines in plant growth that were as large as changes in experiments simulating several other major environmental changes caused by humans," Hooper said.

"Several of us working on this study were surprised by the comparative strength of those effects."

The strength of the observed biodiversity effects suggests that policymakers searching for solutions to other pressing environmental problems should be aware of potential adverse effects on biodiversity as well.

Still to be determined is how diversity loss and other large-scale environmental changes will interact to alter ecosystems.

"The biggest challenge looking forward is to predict the combined effects of these environmental challenges to natural ecosystems and to society," said J. Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, a co-author of the paper.

Authors of the paper, in addition to Hooper, Cardinale and Duffy, are E. Carol Adair of the University of Vermont and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; Jarrett Byrnes of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; Bruce Hungate of Northern Arizona University; Kristen Matulich of University of California, Irvine; Andrew Gonzales of McGill University; Lars Gamfeldt of the University of Gothenburg; and Mary O'Connor of the University of British Columbia and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

 -NSF-