Learning something? Better Have a Nap

Having a nap in the afternoon can help your brain function – particularly for remembering things. I do enjoy a good nap every so often and now I think’ll make a habit of it.

Researchers in the U.S. studied 39 young adults who were divided into two groups. At noon, study participants took a memory test that required them to remember faces linked to names.

Of those in the study, 20 took a nap for 100 minutes. All of the volunteers were then retested at 6 p.m.

Those who stayed awake did about 10 per cent worse on the tests compared with those who napped, Matthew Walker of University of California at Berkeley said. He presented the preliminary findings Sunday at the American Association of the Advancement of Science meeting in San Diego.

The more hours we spend awake, the more sluggish the brain becomes, the study suggests.

Normally, the ability to learn declines between noon and 6 p.m., but a nap seemed to fight off the decline.

Keep reading at the CBC

New in Biofuel: Cellulosic Ethanol Plants to Ease Gas Consumption

Cars love inefficiently sucking down dead dinosaur juice, though hopefully for not much longer. In the meantime some companies have figured ways to produce cellulosic ethanol cheaply using more sustainable ways – basically a cheaper way to make biofuel for cars to burn on their way to wherever cars go.

Modern biofuels are better to use than dinosaur-based biofuels (which take millions of years to manufacture and I haven’t seen dinosaurs in years) so until we kick humanity’s gas addiction let’s use biofuels.

Novozymes, the world’s largest industrial enzyme producer, today launched a new line it says will yield ethanol from plant wastes at an enzyme price of about 50 cents a gallon. The latest product of a decade of research, this marks an 80 percent price drop from two years ago, according to Global Marketing Director Poul Ruben Andersen.

The advances, Andersen said, will help bring cellulosic ethanol production prices to under $2 a gallon by 2011, a cost on par with both corn-based ethanol and gasoline at current U.S. market prices.

Yesterday, Novozyme’s competitor, California-based Genencor, a division of enzyme giant Danisco, announced its own new enzyme product, which falls within a similar price range of about 50 cents to make a gallon of fuel, according to Philippe Lavielle, executive vice president of business development.

Keep reading at the New York Times

New Ankle That Recycles Energy

Here’s a neat idea: a body part that uses itself to propel itself.

ankle

We developed a microprocessor-controlled artificial foot that captures some of the energy that is normally dissipated by the leg and “recycles” it as positive ankle work. In tests on subjects walking with an artificially-impaired ankle, a conventional prosthesis reduced ankle push-off work and increased net metabolic energy expenditure by 23% compared to normal walking. Energy recycling restored ankle push-off to normal and reduced the net metabolic energy penalty to 14%.

Link to Boing, link to original source.

Thanks Jeanette.

Idea for Christians: Carbon Fast for Lent

If you’re a christian who observes lent then consider going green for 40 days.

Repentance, reflection and self-discipline are supposed to be observed during Lent, which symbolizes the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert and resisted Satan’s temptations, as described in the Bible.

A green Lent could mean “thinking about the environment and doing things to save it for yourself and those who come after us,” said White-Hassler, whose church possesses the mind-set year-round. Since the summer, Grace Episcopal has been undergoing eco-friendly renovations and is considering solar panels.

The practice of a carbon fast for Lent has been talked about in Christian circles since at least 2008, when the Church of England suggested shrinking one’s carbon footprint and provided a list of 40 green actions, one for each day of Lent. (“Day one, Ash Wednesday: Remove one lightbulb and live without it for the next 40 days.”)

The call was part of a global effort with Tearfund, a Christian relief agency, to help drought-ridden, impoverished communities that already suffer from the effects of climate change.

Keep reading the article.

Estonia Cleans Up!

You probably didn’t hear about it, but in 2008 Estonia cleaned up 10,000 tons of trash in their forests by recruiting 50,000 people. How? Through an extensive media campaign and a good dose of networked collaboration.

The “Let’s Do It!” website is here, but in Estonian. So here’s a video in English!

Based on the success in Estonia, the campaign has gone worldwide!