Ushering in a new generation of partially compostable cars, Ecovative has teamed up with Ford to use their mushroom-based foam as a key component in bumpers, side doors, and dashboards. The best part is that the material will decompose just one month after being buried. Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer discovered that mycelia (mushroom roots) are a natural binding agent that can be combined with agricultural products such as corn and oat husks to make an incredibly durable material that can replace styrofoam and polystyrene in practically every application. Several companies from a number of industries are looking to the Green Island, NY-based startup to cook up alternative materials for their products as well — so we can finally leave polystyrene and styrofoam in our earth-loving dust.

Ecovative combines mushroom roots with corn or oat husks in trays of various sizes. These are then left to fester and furl in a dark warehouse for five days, after which the mix emerges glued together. This is then cooked and fried, and voila! a new packaging material is born. Not only is the new product biodegradable, but it is also fire and waterproof, making it an excellent substitute for polystyrene and styrofoam – the bane of every environmentalist’s existence.

The head of Ford’s plastic research department Deborah Mielewski became interested in the product, as that company hopes to replace 30 pounds of each car’s petroleum-based foams with more environmentally sensible alternatives. It turns out that Ecovative’s mushroom foam is every bit as affordable as polystyrene and styrofoam, uses very little energy, and reuses what would otherwise be agricultural waste.

The company, which has approximately 30 employees, has received a total of $4 million in grants and other funding to buoy their research and development initiatives. Other potential applications for their products include cosmetics and computer parts; a wine distributor has even solicited their genius – but we’re not allowed to know why just yet. There is a caveat: Ecovative has to overcome the challenge of maintaining a consistent density with a raw material that is a living organism, but a lot of people believe that they are going to make it work.

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Electromagnetic Shock So smooth, it’s like riding on an electromagnetic field. via Gizmag

Automobile suspensions have come a long way from their humble spring and tension beginnings to the common hydraulic systems in place today, but researchers at Eindhoven University think they can do even better: electromagnetic suspension. Building on an idea that’s been incubating in the auto tech world for a while now, a team there now has a test car ready to demonstrate the technology, which they claim improves ride quality by 60 percent.

Quantifying ride quality into a percentage seems difficult/nebulous, but the technology does seem to have quite a theoretical edge over even the best active hydraulic suspensions. That’s simply because electromagnetic systems can react more quickly to bumps in the road than hydraulic systems can. As sensors and accelerometers placed around the car feed data into an onboard computer, it should be able to make nearly instantaneous adjustments to the ride at all four wheels.

This, according to the Eindhoven team, is the core technological principle that makes its electromagnetic suspension superior to the usual active hydraulic systems. But the benefits don’t end there. Each shock absorber unit packs both an electromagnetic actuator and a passive spring, so if the batteries for some reason fail in the electromagnetic system, the suspension still functions as a mechanical system (via the spring) until the car can be serviced.

Moreover the batteries have a peak consumption of 500 watts, the Eindhoven team says, which is roughly a quarter of the power needed to keep active hydraulic systems running. The new system also incorporates tiny generators that turn road vibrations into battery power, helping to keep batteries replenished without tapping the car’s main power source.

As for that 60 percent ride improvement number, it was obtained in the lab and we’re not exactly sure what 60 percent overall ride improvement feels like. But seeing the benefits on paper definitely makes us feel like an electromagnetic suspension could go a long ways toward smoothing out an otherwise bumpy ride.

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The more physically active you are, the less your blood pressure rises in response to a high-salt diet, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions.

“Patients should be advised to increase their physical activity and eat less sodium,” said Casey M. Rebholz, M.P.H., lead author of the study and a medical student at the Tulane School of Medicine and doctoral student at the Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. “Restricting sodium is particularly important in lowering blood pressure among more sedentary people.”

Investigators compared study participants’ blood pressure on two one-week diets, one low in sodium (3,000 mg/day) and the other high in sodium (18,000 mg/day).

The American Heart Association recommends consuming less than 1,500 mg/day of sodium.

If a person’s average systolic blood pressure (the top number in the reading, measured when the heart is contracting) increased 5 percent or more from the low-sodium to the high-sodium regimen, the researchers labeled them as high salt-sensitive.

Based on physical activity questionnaires, researchers divided participants into four groups ranging from very active to quite sedentary.

The average increases in systolic blood pressure after switching from low to high sodium, adjusted for age and gender, were:

• 5.27 mm Hg in the least active group
• 5.07 mm Hg in the next-to-lowest activity group
• 4.93 mm Hg in the next to highest activity group
• 3.88 mm Hg in the most active group

Compared with the sedentary group, the odds of being salt-sensitive, adjusted for age and gender, fell:

• 10 percent in the next-to-lowest activity group
• 17 percent in the next-to-highest activity group
• 38 percent in the most active group

“In all the analyses we found a dose-response relationship with the more activity, the better,” Rebholz said.

The participants were 1,906 Han Chinese adults (average age 38) in the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Salt Sensitivity (GenSalt), a large project to identify genetic and environmental factors contributing to salt sensitivity. Siblings and their parents were invited to become involved in GenSalt if at least one sibling had pre-hypertension (blood pressure between 120/80 and 139/89 mm Hg) or stage-1 hypertension (between 140/90 and 159/99 mm Hg). No one was on blood pressure medication during the study.

The GenSalt project is located in rural China because the homogeneous population makes it more likely that genes influential to blood pressure control will be identified.

“The study needs to be repeated, but I suspect that the relationship between physical activity and salt-sensitivity will apply to other populations,” Rebholz said.

Co-authors are: Dongfeng Gu, Ph.D.; Jing Chen, M.D., M.S.; Jian-feng Huang, M.D.; Jie Cao, M.D., M.S.; Ji-chun Chen, M.D., M.S.; Jianxin Li, M.D.; Fanghong Lu, M.D.; Jianjun Mu, M.D.; Jixiang Ma, M.D.; Dongsheng Hu, M.D., M.S.; Xu Ji, M.D.; Lydia A. Bazzano, M.D., Ph.D.; Depei Liu, M.D., Ph.D.; and Jiang He, M.D., Ph.D.

Author disclosures and sources of funding are on the abstract.

Note: Actual presentation time is 5 p.m ET, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. Statements and conclusions of study authors that are presented at American Heart Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association’s policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at www.americanheart.org/corporatefunding.

Additional resources:

Multimedia resources (animation, audio, video and images) are available in our newsroom at EPI/NPAM 2011 – Multimedia. Downloadable audio and/or video interview clips with AHA experts offering perspective on news releases will be added prior to embargo for use after embargo.

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October 29, 2010 – Toyota Motor Corporation, in conjunction with 3 other companies, announced this week that they have developed the first recycling business to recover the nickel in hybrid vehicle batteries that will be re-used in similar hybrid battery products.

Until now, the nickel that was recovered for recycling from these batteries was sent to stainless steel manufacturers for use in their products. By reusing the nickel from nickel-metal-hydride batteries, the company hopes to reduce the production costs of its hybrid vehicle batteries, and in turn its hybrid vehicles.

The company hopes to use the project as a springboard to showcase recovering and recycling technologies in response to global resource limitations. The 3 participating companies, other than Toyota, are Toyota Tsusho Corp, Sumitomo Metal Mining Company and Primearth EV Energy Company.

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Previous research has established that calcium supports bone formation and repair, while vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium.  Many experts have suggested the combination of vitamin D and calcium supplementation to reduce the risk of bone fracture among older people, particularly those at risk of or suffering from osteoporosis. M. Karkkainen, from the University of Kuopio (Finland), and colleagues analyzed data collected from participants in the Osteoporosis Risk Factor and Prevention-Fracture Prevention Study (OSTPRE-FPS), involving 3,432 women, ages 66 to 71 years.  A subset of 593 women were randomly selected for bone mineral density (BMD) measurements, with half of the women receiving the daily vitamin D plus calcium supplements, while the other group received nothing.  After three years of study, the researchers report that the total body BMD increased by 0.84% in the intervention group, compared with 0.19% increase in the control group.  Further, the team found that those women who complied the best with the supplementation protocol, taking at least 80% of the supplements, experienced the greatest benefits in BMD measurements.  The researchers conclude that: “Daily vitamin D and calcium supplementation have a positive effect on the skeleton in ambulatory postmenopausal women with adequate nutritional calcium intake. “

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Microsoft’s Surface Touchscreen Display A new patent filing by Microsoft could lend a tactile quality to the company’s touchscreen tech. Ergonomidesign via Wikimedia

The slick touchscreens of our iPhones and Droids are visually magnificent and the epitome of tech chic, but their slick, untextured glass screens don’t resonate with humans’ tactile nature (that’s why some people just can’t kick the hardware button keyboard). Good tactile touchscreens – screens that impart a feeling of touch or texture in sync with a displayed image – have thus far eluded device makers. A new Microsoft project could change all that.

Previous attempts at tactile screens have focused largely on so-called vibrotactile displays that use small voltages at different frequencies to create the illusion of texture, but Microsoft wants to offer the real deal. The tech giant’s patent calls for pixel-sized plastic cells that can be physically manipulated to create the ridges and bumps that create a realistic touch sensation.

According to the patent filing, the technology is aimed at large displays like Microsoft’s table-sized Surface display rather than portable touchscreens – for the time being, anyhow. Surface works via a projector that beams images onto the tabletop screen from below. Users’ fingers touching the other side of the screen generate infrared reflections that are picked up by sensors below, creating touchscreen capability.

Microsoft’s patent envisions augmenting this with a shape-memory polymer that responds to light commands; when certain wavelengths of UV light hit pixels they respond accordingly, becoming harder, or softer, or protruding or retracting. Syncing this up with visual information could create the kinds of ridges and bumps that could five an image texture, or simulate the feeling of pressing real buttons rather than relying on the flat touchscreen tap iPhone users are familiar with.

Don’t put it on your Christmas list – this technology is nascent to say the very least, and Microsoft is mum on its development plans or if/when a tactile product might come to market. But the fact that a big player like Microsoft is pushing beyond vibrotactile displays is promising for the field in general. If researchers there can make it work, texting on touchscreens might never be the same.

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Now, here is an interesting piece of news for all you movie buffs. The world gets its first “smallest solar-powered movie house.” Hailed as “Sol Cinema,” the movie house is powered by four large lithium-ion batteries that are charged by two 120W solar panels. Commissioned by the media arts charity Undercurrents, this unique entertainment house is made using a two-berth caravan from the 1960s. It features a full library of comedy, quirky, music videos and short films with inspiring environment themes to offer a unique cinematic experience to 8 adults or 12 young people it houses comfortably.

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Studies have suggested a role of black raspberries, by way of the polyphenolic compounds they contain, in reducing the risk of a variety of cancers. Wancai Yang, from the University of Illinois at Chicago (Illinois, USA), and colleagues examined the potential activity of black raspberries in the colorectal tract of two mouse models of colorectal cancer. The first strain – Apc1638 – is engineered to develop intestinal tumors, whereas the second strain – Muc2 – induces colitis, an  inflammation of the large intestine that is suspected to contribute to the development of colorectal cancer.  Both sets of mice ate a Western-style diet, high in fat and low in vitamin D and calcium, or the same diet with an additional 10% freeze-dried black raspberry powder.  After 12 weeks, the researchers found that Apc1638 mice that ate the additional raspberries displayed a 45% reduction in tumor incidence and a 60% reduction in the number of tumors. As well, the Muc2 mice fed the additional raspberries showed a reduction in chronic inflammation, with a 50% reduction in both tumor incidence and the number of tumors.  The team concludes that: “Collectively, our data suggest that [black raspberries] are highly effective in preventing intestinal tumor development … through targeting multiple signaling pathways.”

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Someday, This Tree Could Be Producing Its Own Light nauright on Flickr

Taiwanese researchers have come up with the elegant idea of replacing streetlights with trees, by implanting their leaves with gold nanoparticles. This causes the leaves to give off a red glow, lighting the road for passersby without the need for electric power. This ingenious triple threat of an idea could simultaneously reduce carbon emissions, cut electricity costs and reduce light pollution, without sacrificing the safety that streetlights bring.

As many good things do, this discovery came about by accident when the researchers were trying to create lighting as efficient as LEDs without using the toxic, expensive phosphor powder that LEDs rely on. The gold nanoparticles, shaped like sea urchins, put into the leaves of Bacopa caroliniana plants cause chlorophyll to produce the reddish luminescence.

In an added bonus, the luminescence will cause the leaves’ chloroplasts to photosynthesize, which will result in more carbon being captured from the air while the streets are lit. The next steps are to improve the efficiency of the bioluminescence and apply the technology to other biomolecules.

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Tesla, schmesla. This, friends, is the electric vehicle that your garage has been waiting for. Designed by North Carolina’s own Li-ion Motors, the downright stunning INIZIO is being hailed as the world’s first all American-made electric supercar, and while the Roadster is definitely peppy, it ain’t got nothing on this. Using the company’s own lithium-ion battery technology and management system, the car can purportedly cruise for up to 250 miles on electricity alone, and it can hit a top speed of 170 miles per hour without breaking a sweat. Naturally, you won’t (legally) fit more than two humans into this thing at once, but those two individuals will enjoy adjustable, leather / suede Recaro seating with heating and cooling features, an inbuilt 12-inch subwoofer, digital surround sound system, integrated navigation system, DVD player and rotational doors that raise on a 90-degree angle. Oh, and they’ll probably drool a little after racing from zero to sixty in 3.4 face-numbing seconds. The company also adds that it emits no carbon emissions, can be recharged over 2,500 times and can go from drained to rejuvenated after just eight hours on the plug. It’s expected to launch in mid-2011 with a starting price of $139,000, or just a few pennies more than the current value of the wretched Carolina Panthers franchise.

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