Chloé Sharrocks

A British engineer has devloped a microchip which has the potential to change the lives of paraplegics with its Blue-tooth style technology.

Reported in The Telegraph today, Dr Sprately, has created a chip which can be implanted onto the brain’s surface and controlled by thought alone.

Paraplegics may have lost the ability to move their limbs, but electronic impulses are still produced by their brain when they try and move.  This new microchip is able to capture the electronic impulses and transmit them wirelessly to a receiver housed in a simple computer potentially allowing paraplegics to control a range of simple devices.

The technology was developed by Sprately whilst he was studying for a PhD at Birmingham University and according to The Telegraph article, it is hoped that “paraplegics, amputees or those with motor neurone disease, such as Stephen Hawking, could be able to operate light switches, PCs and even cars by the power of thought alone.”

Microchips similar to these could be implanted in the brains of paraplegic patients - Image courtesy of David Henry

The chips can be implanted in the brain using minimally-invasive surgery and pick up signals from the brain’s motor cortex capturing the paralysed patient’s ‘thought’ as they imagine to use their limbs.

Dr Sprately now works for specialist engineering company 42 Technology, who are based in Cambridgshire, and was awarded the MediMaton prize by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

I’ve never understood why people dislike the appearance of wind farms so much.  Maybe it’s just I’m a bit of a fan of modern architecture anyways, but to me there is nothing obtrusive about the view of turbines over the British countryside (although I can understand concerns with noise etc if built too close to people’s homes) and I often wonder if they looked a bit more like windmills, if they wouldn’t be more welcomed.

Thankfully, however, developments in wind turbine technology have allowed the very first world’s floating wind turbine to be created out at sea.  ‘Hywind’ is the name of the floating turbine which is shortly to be towed out to sea just off the coast of Norway.  Like other future floating wind turbines, it will be connected to mainland grids via cables run along the sea bed.  However, this can be expensive – the longer the cable, the more costly – and is likely to be a restrictive factor.  But, wind turbines out of sea offer a wealth of advantages – stronger and more consistent wind, no problems for bird life and tourism and benefits for military radar operations and the shipping industry.  What’s more, the offshore wind farms will be out-of-sight for those people who feel they are a blight on the landscape.

A more traditional static off-shore wind turbine

The Hywind is capable of generating 2.3 megawatts (enough to power approximately 1600 homes for a year) and will be tested for 2 years.  Like an iceberg, it is partly hidden below the sea – with a 100 metre draft anchored to the sea bed with cables as long as 700 metres.  Although, such floating turbines are currently more expensive than static offshore installations, it is hoped that over time as the technology becomes more common-place the price will fall in-line with the static turbines.

It is hoped that floating wind farms can later be established off the coasts of North America, the Iberian peninsula and the UK as well as further developments of the coasts of Norway.

Two interesting accomodation stories this week:

A Moon Cottage

A joint venture between scientists and an artist is attempting to construct the first ever house on the moon with the help of a robot called Roony.

Researchers at Mälardalen University are combining their skills with Mikael Genberg to build a robot that can be sent to the moon to construct a little red cottage to symbolise mankind’s achievements.  They hope that in 2012 Roony will travel in a a small cabin within a space rocket, find a suitable vacant lot on the moon and create the first lunar building.  The final design of the cottage has not yet been decided upon, but it will have a mass of 5kg, occupy 6litres of transport space and the final living area will be 10 square metres in size.

Straw House

Earthquake simulations have shown that a straw house designed by engineers at the University of Nevada withstood an 82-ton force – 200% more acceleration and shaking than was recorded in 1994 at the time of the largest measured ground acceleration in the world.

Using ideas from houses built in Pakistan by civil engineer Darcey Donovan, the straw house measured 14-by-14-foot, with gravel foundations and clay plaster walls.  It was subjected to seven tests (each one more forceful than the previous) and despite some violent swaying, cracking at the seams and a cloud of dust and straw it remained standing.

The experiments were used to test Donovan’s innovative design for straw-bale houses using bales as structural and load bearing components as well as for insulation.

With earthquakes occurring at night, such as the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, fatalities are often as a result of poorly built houses collapsing on people whilst they sleep in their beds unaware.  The 2005 earthquake resulted in 100,000 deaths and 3.3million people left homeless.  Donvan’s work is thus a key development in suitable housing in earthquake prone areas, with her designs costing half the amount of conventional earthquake-safe construction in Pakistan.  She is also working hard to train local residents how to build their own straw homes and use the readily available materials of clay soil, straw and gravel.

Donovan has been quoted on Science Daily outlining her future aims: “Our goal is to get the largest number of poor people in earthquake-safe homes.  We want to make it as affordable as possible so they build a safe home.  We want to save lives.”