Students create biodegradable membrane to replace water bottles

A biodegradable organic membrane, which can store water, was created in London by three students of industrial design. The aim is to reduce the use of disposable bottles.

Called Ooho, the bubble is created by a process of "esferificação", the same technique popularized by Spanish chef Ferran Adriá, which made famous the elBulli restaurant, in Barcelona. Through this method, the liquid is shaped in the form of spheres, which generate a double membrane, protecting water and the hand that's drinking.

The structure is composed of algae and calcium chloride, which create a gel around the water.

While the wrapper is created, the water is in solid state â€" as if it were frozen, and you can thus generate a larger ball, which keeps the ingredients in the membrane and water separated.

According to the creator of the membrane, the aim is to reduce the use of disposable bottles by society. "Eighty percent of the bottles we use and throw away are not recycled. This consumerism reflects the society in which we live, "says Rodrigo Garcia González, who developed the Ooho with his college friends, Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche.

Garcia also claims that, in addition to being ecologically correct, the "bubble" will reduce costs, since most of the cost to produce water comes from own production of bottles.

The Ooho can be produced for only €0,01 ($ 0.04), according to the sustainable planet.

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Don't blame the camels by global warming

Never accuse science of neglecting the smallest and seemingly least dignificantes details in the search for better understanding the functioning of planet Earth. It is common knowledge that many large animals produce large amounts of methane-gas that results from your digestive process and which is much more damaging than carbon dioxide.

However, a new study by a team of Swiss investigators recently revealed why we should not blame the camels by global warming. The camels â€" like its relatives: llamas, alpacas, dromedaries and vicunas â€" produce methane during its digestion, which is 20 times more potent in terms of greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide. However, these animals produce methane in smaller quantities to ruminants such as cows, goats and sheep.

When digest the food, ruminants emit large amounts of methane, which correspond to approximately 20% of the total emissions of this gas, reports the Guardian. The assumption that was made so far was that the camels produced similar quantities to ruminants. However, researchers at the University of Zurich found that camels emit less methane than ruminants.

Ruminants and camels are similar, but not identical. Both groups of animals have compartmentalized stomachs, which allows them to regurgitate the food from camera to camera to be better digested. Is this resemblance that he the idea that camels produce an amount of methane similar to ruminants. But this idea has now been ruled out.

During the study, the research team collaborated with the Zurich Zoo and private owners of camels. The scientists then measured the amount of methane produced in three types of camelids and concluded that the three species had a lower metabolism that ruminants, because they ate less and therefore produce less methane.

Foto: jemasmith/Creative Commons

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Monique Pool, the woman who rescued and lived with 200 sloths

The passion of Monique Pool by sloths began in 2005, when after losing the dog adopted a baby sloth animal welfare society of Suriname. Since then, many sloths have passed the House with the Pool before being returned to the natural environment. On average, there is always a lazy new every week.

In October 2012, the animal welfare Society has asked the Pool to host several sloths that were found on land near Paramaribo â€" Suriname's capital â€" it would be desflorestado for the construction of a breeding farm.

Accustomed to dealing with these animals and have several at home at the same time, Monique Pool accepted the challenge, since you indicated that would be near 14 sloths rescue.

At the end of the rescue, Pool realized that wasn't the deal only with 14 sloths â€" but rather with 200 sloths, which were installed in your home. "At the end of the first month of rescue we had close to 100 and at the end of the operation reached 200 sloths", indicates the BBC Pool.

Despite being slow and generally peaceful animals, sloths are wild animals â€" often shriek, struggle and pinch the hand that feeds them. "Sometimes fought at night and I was awake by cranes," Pool. "In most cases were males fighting each other. A fight between sloths is a special event to observe. They dangle a on another and sometimes bite each other's feet ".

Most of the sloths has been reintroduced in the natural habitat, but still shares its Pool House with five sloths and three cubs. In June this year, Monique going to rescue another group of sloths to another terrain near Paramaribo that will also be desflorestado. The land owner calculates that may exist 15 sloths, but once the area is slightly larger than the previous one, Pool estimates that may exist about 300 sloths.

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Dog missing for seven years back to reunite with their owners (with PHOTO)

When in 2007 John Hartman and his wife lost their Labrador retriever, Buddy, during a violent wave of fires that hit California, thought it never would see your four-legged friend.

However, during a visit to his son, who lives in Southern California â€" shortly after the animal disappear, Hartman moved to the Oklahoma State â€" the couple received a strange call from animal Service Department of California. A passerby found the family dog wandering near the beach and took it to the pound.

Thanks to a microchip that Hartman had deployed as a precaution, the animal, the Kennel employees realized that Buddy was missing for seven years and belonged to John Hartman and his wife. Later, the animal was handed over to the owners, who never expected to be able to see the animal after all this time.

"I give a lot of animals to their owners here in California and elsewhere in the world, but return an animal after seven years was our record," says Dan DeSousa, Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Services, cites the Huffington Post.

The Hartman, who lost the House in the wake of the fires never realized what happened to Buddy. The dog was found in 2007 but eventually escape and never knew of his whereabouts until now.

Foto: BAD MOUTH/Creative Commons

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2014 FIFA World Cup mascot is facing extinction, but FIFA refuses to help in their conservation

The banded, common name for the species of Armadillo in the genus Tolypeutes, was chosen for the World Cup 2014 symbol. He is in all promotional materials of FIFA, which organizes the tournament, and its partners; posa alongside celebrities and ex-futebolistas and have your image marketed in various products.

However, the banded-the real, which is threatened and endangered â€" not yet profited nothing with this promotion. That's what says the NGO Association Caatinga.

"FIFA does not passes nothing for conservation, or a portion of them to profit by exploiting the brand Fuleco mascot," said Roberto Castro, Executive Secretary of the NGO, the Folha de s. Paulo.

Roberto Castro has been working for several years to save the species and led a campaign to become the official mascot of the World Championship. The responsible asked FIFA to distribute any part of the World Cup profits, even if it's a small part, to the conservation of the banded.

"When the banded was chosen to be the mascot, in 2012, we were very optimistic. Now, the practical result is that almost nothing has changed, "explained the charge, which also criticizes the lack of information on the natural characteristics, habitat and conservation status of banded in products linked to you.

The banded lives mainly in caatinga and has suffered from the destruction of its habitat. In the last ten years, there has been a 30% decline in population.

Contacted by Folha de s. Paulo, FIFA explained that admires the work of the Caatinga and that one of his sponsors, Continental tires, financed for 2013. According to Roberto Castro, however, support has ended and FIFA and other partners have already decided they will not invest in the conservation of the banded.

Here are some pictures of the banded. The real, as Jose Mourinho.

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Panasonic hit solar cells efficiency record

Solar cells HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer), from Panasonic, reached a new record in terms of energy conversion efficiency â€" 25.6%. The improvement is almost 1%, compared to 24.7% efficiencies attained in February 2013. According to the manufacturer, this is a new record for a crystalline silicon solar cell of "practical".

The Panasonic sorts a cell of "practical" as one that has an area greater than 100 square centimetres. The February record of last year was registered to a cell with an area of 101.8 square centimetres. The new record was observed in a device with 143 inches square, referred to Gizmag.

However, the Panasonic indicates that this last record is also an improvement over the previous record of 25% efficiency for small cells, about four inches square. Still, these energy efficiency values are below the values recorded for other types of cells, such as the multijunção solar cells and solar cells of triple-compound joint hubs about 38.8% and 44.4% efficiency, respectively.

The new record of efficiency achieved by Panasonic was possible due to the development of the properties of hetero-junction technology.

Foto: Mountain/\Ash/Creative Commons

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The company which forces employees to work from home

Dear reader: the reason you're reading these lines due to Automattic, a company founded in August 2005 and is responsible for the WordPress platform, a software used by Green Savers and thousands of other sites from around the world to publish their news.

Automattic has about 230 employees, who are spread over 170 cities and different locations. But the company has only one headquarters in San Francisco. In other words, the vast majority of their employees work from home and avoid the morning and evening â€" stress â€" the traffic.

According to the CEO of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, the reason that Automattic has a thirst is not related to working conditions. "Well, we had to have somewhere to receive our mail," explained to Mashable.

According to the charge, this strategy allows Automattic to find the best professionals in the world. "It allows us to reach the best and brightest professionals in the world," he explained.

The company has a monthly amount for each employee find a local co-working-180 ($ 550) â€" and offers an initial investment of € 2,175 ($ 6,600) for each mount your home office.

Automattic organizes some annual sessions with all workers, so that they can know each other better. "What we save, spend on travel," jokes Mullenweg. Employees can also choose the place where you will meet and rediscover.

One of the companies that work directly with Automattic, the WooThemes â€" which makes the themes and plug-ins for WordPress-has 37 people, out of a total of 45, working at home or in co-working spaces.

"Work at home brings several appointments. An e-mail conversation can be misunderstood, so I spent a lot of time on Google Hangout to see our faces, "explained CEO, Mark Forrester.

There are companies that are moving towards the opposite entido. Near the headquarters of Automattic, in San Francisco, three other multinationals repel the work from home. Apple, which has built a culture of secrecy, see telecommuting as an unnecessary risk; Google began offering free meals to keep their workers at Headquarters; and last year, Yahoo asked all the collaborators who worked from home for leave to.

Work from home

The term "telecommuting", which means, in Portuguese, working from home or telecommuting, was invented in the early 70, a NASA scientist who criticized the fact that the science taking a man to the Moon, but was unable to end the problem of traffic.

The solution found by this scientist Jack Nilles, was a concept in which people stop spending hours in traffic to, whenever possible, to work at home or in places close to home. That would mean not only an improvement of quality of life for them, but also for other workers who were unable to do the same.

The first company which adopted this strategy, an insurance company that wanted to increase the percentage of retaining talent, set up satellite offices near locations where many of their workers lived. We were in the years 70, pre-Internet era and pré-computadores.

The widespread use of computers "eureka" moment for Nilles. In 2014, anything is possible from home, since videoconferences, share documents and collaborate in real time from your phone, tablet or computer.

However, telecommuting is still not seen with good eyes by companies. In the United States, only 2.6% of the workforce (2.9 million people) worked from home, on full time, in 2012. About half of the labor force, however, could do it.

According to the Global Workplace Analytics, if all these 50 million workers stayed home only 2.4 days per week, for a year, the reduction of greenhouse gases would come to 51 million tonnes â€" the equivalent of removing all workers from New York.

Foto: ishane/Creative Commons

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