A landfill like this one is causing local residents lots of headaches (Thinkstock)
Residents unlucky enough to live near a foul-smelling landfill near Bridgeton, Mo., recently got some bad news and better news.
The bad: The landfill stench is likely to get worse as officials go to work to fix the problem.
The sort of good news: The owners of Bridgeton Sanitary Landfill in Missouri have offered residents within a one-mile radius of the waste site a temporary reprieve by moving them to hotels for the next month.
According to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, ?270 households in the Spanish Village subdivision, Terrisan Reste mobile home community and some residents of Carrollton Village condominiums? qualify for the relocation to extended-stay hotels three miles away, which also accept pets.
Those preferring to move in with family or friends will receive $125 a week.
The landfill, about 52 acres that goes 240 feet below ground, took in waste from 1985 to 2004.
But in 2010, landfill started to stink.
The website for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources describes what happened starting on Dec. 10, 2010, as a ?subsurface smoldering event.?
Translation: The trash is burning.
Complaints started coming in from residents, nearby workers, even the local hospital, where people caught a whiff of the foul odor in the operating room.
By early spring 2012, the department noted that the ?an increase in odors was noticed with some odor complaints being filed by nearby residents and businesses.?
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has sued Republic Services on eight charges of violating state environmental laws, the Post-Dispatch reports.
Meanwhile, residents have to decide what they will do in the short term. ?We thought we had a nice little house in a nice little place,? resident Mike Dailey told the Post-Dispatch. ?Three years ago it starts stinking like hell.?
Battery and memory device in 1Public release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Christian Schipke c.schipke@fz-juelich.de 49-246-161-3835 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Future nanoelectronic information storage devices are also tiny batteries -- astounding finding opens up new possibilities
Resistive memory cells (ReRAM) are regarded as a promising solution for future generations of computer memories. They will dramatically reduce the energy consumption of modern IT systems while significantly increasing their performance. Unlike the building blocks of conventional hard disk drives and memories, these novel memory cells are not purely passive components but must be regarded as tiny batteries. This has been demonstrated by researchers of Jlich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), whose findings have now been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. The new finding radically revises the current theory and opens up possibilities for further applications. The research group has already filed a patent application for their first idea on how to improve data readout with the aid of battery voltage.
Conventional data memory works on the basis of electrons that are moved around and stored. However, even by atomic standards, electrons are extremely small. It is very difficult to control them, for example by means of relatively thick insulator walls, so that information will not be lost over time. This does not only limit storage density, it also costs a great deal of energy. For this reason, researchers are working feverishly all over the world on nanoelectronic components that make use of ions, i.e. charged atoms, for storing data. Ions are some thousands of times heavier that electrons and are therefore much easier to 'hold down'. In this way, the individual storage elements can almost be reduced to atomic dimensions, which enormously improves the storage density.
In resistive switching memory cells (ReRAMs), ions behave on the nanometre scale in a similar manner to a battery. The cells have two electrodes, for example made of silver and platinum, at which the ions dissolve and then precipitate again. This changes the electrical resistance, which can be exploited for data storage. Furthermore, the reduction and oxidation processes also have another effect. They generate electric voltage. ReRAM cells are therefore not purely passive systems they are also active electrochemical components. Consequently, they can be regarded as tiny batteries whose properties provide the key to the correct modelling and development of future data storage.
In complex experiments, the scientists from Forschungszentrum Jlich and RWTH Aachen University determined the battery voltage of typical representatives of ReRAM cells and compared them with theoretical values. This comparison revealed other properties (such as ionic resistance) that were previously neither known nor accessible. "Looking back, the presence of a battery voltage in ReRAMs is self-evident. But during the nine-month review process of the paper now published we had to do a lot of persuading, since the battery voltage in ReRAM cells can have three different basic causes, and the assignment of the correct cause is anything but trivial," says Dr. Ilia Valov, the electrochemist in Prof. Rainer Waser's research group.
The new finding is of central significance, in particular, for the theoretical description of the memory components. To date, ReRAM cells have been described with the aid of the concept of memristors a portmanteau word composed of "memory" and "resistor". The theoretical concept of memristors can be traced back to Leon Chua in the 1970s. It was first applied to ReRAM cells by the IT company Hewlett-Packard in 2008. It aims at the permanent storage of information by changing the electrical resistance. The memristor theory leads to an important restriction. It is limited to passive components. "The demonstrated internal battery voltage of ReRAM elements clearly violates the mathematical construct of the memristor theory. This theory must be expanded to a whole new theory to properly describe the ReRAM elements," says Dr. Eike Linn, the specialist for circuit concepts in the group of authors. This also places the development of all micro- and nanoelectronic chips on a completely new footing.
"The new findings will help to solve a central puzzle of international ReRAM research," says Prof. Rainer Waser, deputy spokesman of the collaborative research centre SFB 917 'Nanoswitches' established in 2011. In recent years, these puzzling aspects include unexplained long-term drift phenomena or systematic parameter deviations, which had been attributed to fabrication methods. "In the light of this new knowledge, it is possible to specifically optimize the design of the ReRAM cells, and it may be possible to discover new ways of exploiting the cells' battery voltage for completely new applications, which were previously beyond the reach of technical possibilities," adds Waser, whose group has been collaborating for years with companies such as Intel and Samsung Electronics in the field of ReRAM elements. His research group has already filed a patent application for their first idea on how to improve data readout with the aid of battery voltage.
###
Original publication:
I. Valov,E. Linn, S. Tappertzhofen, S. Schmelzer, J. van den Hurk, F. Lentz & R. Waser
Nanobatteries in redox-based resistive switches require extension of memristor theory
Nature Communications. 23 April 2013
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2784
Further information:
Jlich Aachen Research Alliance for Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies (JARA-FIT): http://www.jara.org/de/research/jara-fit/
Electronic Materials Research Lab (EMRL): http://www.emrl.de/h_.html
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Battery and memory device in 1Public release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Christian Schipke c.schipke@fz-juelich.de 49-246-161-3835 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Future nanoelectronic information storage devices are also tiny batteries -- astounding finding opens up new possibilities
Resistive memory cells (ReRAM) are regarded as a promising solution for future generations of computer memories. They will dramatically reduce the energy consumption of modern IT systems while significantly increasing their performance. Unlike the building blocks of conventional hard disk drives and memories, these novel memory cells are not purely passive components but must be regarded as tiny batteries. This has been demonstrated by researchers of Jlich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), whose findings have now been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. The new finding radically revises the current theory and opens up possibilities for further applications. The research group has already filed a patent application for their first idea on how to improve data readout with the aid of battery voltage.
Conventional data memory works on the basis of electrons that are moved around and stored. However, even by atomic standards, electrons are extremely small. It is very difficult to control them, for example by means of relatively thick insulator walls, so that information will not be lost over time. This does not only limit storage density, it also costs a great deal of energy. For this reason, researchers are working feverishly all over the world on nanoelectronic components that make use of ions, i.e. charged atoms, for storing data. Ions are some thousands of times heavier that electrons and are therefore much easier to 'hold down'. In this way, the individual storage elements can almost be reduced to atomic dimensions, which enormously improves the storage density.
In resistive switching memory cells (ReRAMs), ions behave on the nanometre scale in a similar manner to a battery. The cells have two electrodes, for example made of silver and platinum, at which the ions dissolve and then precipitate again. This changes the electrical resistance, which can be exploited for data storage. Furthermore, the reduction and oxidation processes also have another effect. They generate electric voltage. ReRAM cells are therefore not purely passive systems they are also active electrochemical components. Consequently, they can be regarded as tiny batteries whose properties provide the key to the correct modelling and development of future data storage.
In complex experiments, the scientists from Forschungszentrum Jlich and RWTH Aachen University determined the battery voltage of typical representatives of ReRAM cells and compared them with theoretical values. This comparison revealed other properties (such as ionic resistance) that were previously neither known nor accessible. "Looking back, the presence of a battery voltage in ReRAMs is self-evident. But during the nine-month review process of the paper now published we had to do a lot of persuading, since the battery voltage in ReRAM cells can have three different basic causes, and the assignment of the correct cause is anything but trivial," says Dr. Ilia Valov, the electrochemist in Prof. Rainer Waser's research group.
The new finding is of central significance, in particular, for the theoretical description of the memory components. To date, ReRAM cells have been described with the aid of the concept of memristors a portmanteau word composed of "memory" and "resistor". The theoretical concept of memristors can be traced back to Leon Chua in the 1970s. It was first applied to ReRAM cells by the IT company Hewlett-Packard in 2008. It aims at the permanent storage of information by changing the electrical resistance. The memristor theory leads to an important restriction. It is limited to passive components. "The demonstrated internal battery voltage of ReRAM elements clearly violates the mathematical construct of the memristor theory. This theory must be expanded to a whole new theory to properly describe the ReRAM elements," says Dr. Eike Linn, the specialist for circuit concepts in the group of authors. This also places the development of all micro- and nanoelectronic chips on a completely new footing.
"The new findings will help to solve a central puzzle of international ReRAM research," says Prof. Rainer Waser, deputy spokesman of the collaborative research centre SFB 917 'Nanoswitches' established in 2011. In recent years, these puzzling aspects include unexplained long-term drift phenomena or systematic parameter deviations, which had been attributed to fabrication methods. "In the light of this new knowledge, it is possible to specifically optimize the design of the ReRAM cells, and it may be possible to discover new ways of exploiting the cells' battery voltage for completely new applications, which were previously beyond the reach of technical possibilities," adds Waser, whose group has been collaborating for years with companies such as Intel and Samsung Electronics in the field of ReRAM elements. His research group has already filed a patent application for their first idea on how to improve data readout with the aid of battery voltage.
###
Original publication:
I. Valov,E. Linn, S. Tappertzhofen, S. Schmelzer, J. van den Hurk, F. Lentz & R. Waser
Nanobatteries in redox-based resistive switches require extension of memristor theory
Nature Communications. 23 April 2013
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2784
Further information:
Jlich Aachen Research Alliance for Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies (JARA-FIT): http://www.jara.org/de/research/jara-fit/
Electronic Materials Research Lab (EMRL): http://www.emrl.de/h_.html
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Apr. 24, 2013 ? In a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Energy & Environmental Science, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory describe details of a low-cost, stable, effective catalyst that could replace costly platinum in the production of hydrogen. The catalyst, made from renewable soybeans and abundant molybdenum metal, produces hydrogen in an environmentally friendly, cost-effective manner, potentially increasing the use of this clean energy source.
The research has already garnered widespread recognition for Shilpa and Shweta Iyer, twin-sister high school students who contributed to the research as part of an internship under the guidance of Brookhaven chemist Wei-Fu Chen, supported by projects led by James Muckerman, Etsuko Fujita, and Kotaro Sasaki.
"This paper reports the 'hard science' from what started as the Iyer twins' research project and has resulted in the best-performing, non-noble-metal-containing hydrogen evolution catalyst yet known -- even better than bulk platinum metal," Muckerman said.
The project branches off from the Brookhaven group's research into using sunlight to develop alternative fuels. Their ultimate goal is to find ways to use solar energy -- either directly or via electricity generated by solar cells -- to convert the end products of hydrocarbon combustion, water and carbon dioxide, back into a carbon-based fuel. Dubbed "artificial photosynthesis," this process mimics how plants convert those same ingredients to energy in the form of sugars. One key step is splitting water, or water electrolysis.
"By splitting liquid water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen, the hydrogen can be regenerated as a gas (H2) and used directly as fuel," Sasaki explained. "We sought to fabricate a commercially viable catalyst from earth-abundant materials for application in water electrolysis, and the outcome is indeed superb."
This form of hydrogen production could help the scientists achieve their ultimate goal.
"A very promising route to making a carbon-containing fuel is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide (or carbon monoxide) using solar-produced hydrogen," said Fujita, who leads the artificial photosynthesis group in the Brookhaven Chemistry Department.
But with platinum as the main ingredient in the most effective water-splitting catalysts, the process is currently too costly to be economically viable.
Comsewogue High School students Shweta and Shilpa Iyer entered the lab as the search for a cost-effective replacement was on.
The Brookhaven team had already identified some promising leads with experiments demonstrating the potential effectiveness of low-cost molybdenum paired with carbon, as well as the use of nitrogen to confer some resistance to the corrosive, acidic environment required in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis cells. But these two approaches had not yet been tried together.
The students set out to identify plentiful and inexpensive sources of carbon and nitrogen, and test ways to combine them with a molybdenum salt.
"The students became excited about using familiar materials from their everyday lives to meet a real-world energy challenge," Chen recounted. The team tested a wide variety of sources of biomass -- leaves, stems, flowers, seeds, and legumes -- with particular interest in those with high protein content because the amino acids that make up proteins are a rich source of nitrogen. High-protein soybeans turned out to be the best.
To make the catalyst the team ground the soybeans into a powder, mixed the powder with ammonium molybdate in water, then dried and heated the samples in the presence of inert argon gas. "A subsequent high temperature treatment (carburization) induced a reaction between molybdenum and the carbon and nitrogen components of the soybeans to produce molybdenum carbides and molybdenum nitrides," Chen explained. "The process is simple, economical, and environmentally friendly."
Electrochemical tests of the separate ingredients showed that molybdenum carbide is effective for converting H2O to H2, but not stable in acidic solution, while molybdenum nitride is corrosion-resistant but not efficient for hydrogen production. A nanostructured hybrid of these two materials, however, remained active and stable even after 500 hours of testing in a highly acidic environment.
"We attribute the high activity of the molybdenum-soy catalyst (MoSoy) to the synergistic effect between the molybdenum-carbide phase and the molybdenum-nitride phase in the composite material," Chen said.
Structural and chemical studies of the new catalyst conducted at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) are also reported in the paper, and provide further details underlying the high performance of this new catalyst.
"The presence of nitrogen and carbon atoms in the vicinity of the catalytic molybdenum center facilitates the production of hydrogen from water," Muckerman said.
The scientists also tested the MoSoy catalyst anchored on sheets of graphene -- an approach that has proven effective for enhancing catalyst performance in electrochemical devices such as batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells, and water electrolyzers. Using a high-resolution transmission microscope in Brookhven's Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, the scientists were able to observe the anchored MoSoy nanocrystals on 2D graphene sheets.
The graphene-anchored MoSoy catalyst surpassed the performance of pure platinum metal. Though not quite as active as commercially available platinum catalysts, the high performance of graphene-anchored MoSoy was extremely encouraging to the scientific team.
"The direct growth of anchored MoSoy nanocrystals on graphene sheets may enhance the formation of strongly coupled hybrid materials with intimate, seamless electron transfer pathways, thus accelerating the electron transfer rate for the chemical desorption of hydrogen from the catalyst, further reducing the energy required for the reaction to take place," Sasaki said.
The scientists are conducting additional studies to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of the interaction at the catalyst-graphene interface, and exploring ways to further improve its performance.
In the paper, the authors -- including the two high-school students -- conclude: "This study unambiguously provides evidence that a cheap and earth-abundant transition metal such as molybdenum can be turned into an active catalyst by the controlled solid-state reaction with soybeans?The preparation of the MoSoy catalyst is simple and can be easily scaled up. Its long-term durability and ultra-low capital cost satisfy the prerequisites for its application in the construction of large-scale devices. These findings thus open up new prospects for combining inexpensive biomass and transition metals?to produce catalysts for electro-catalytic reactions."
Additional collaborators in this research were Chiu-Hui Wang and Yimei Zhu of Brookhaven Lab.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory.
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Journal Reference:
Wei-Fu Chen, Shilpa Iyer, Shweta Iyer, Kotaro Sasaki, Chiu-Hui Wang, Yimei Zhu, James T. Muckerman, Etsuko Fujita. Biomass-Derived Electrocatalytic Composites for Hydrogen Evolution. Energy & Environmental Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40596F
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Actress and author Mariel Hemingway joins Jacob in the studio to discuss her new documentary "Running From Crazy"...and her first kiss, which apparently occurred at age 16 with Woody Allen in the film "Manhattan." Her partner and Running With Nature co-author Bobby Williams joins as well.
Dropcam, an iOS-friendly Wi-Fi-enabled camera system, recently updated their iPhone and iPad apps so that recording can kick in when you leave the house or at certain times of the day. As always, the Dropcam can push alerts to your iPhone or iPad when the camera detects movement and, if you're a subscriber, let you comb through up to 30 days of previously stored footage, complete with movement markers along the timeline and audio.
Of course, the primary use case for this kind of thing is for home security, but you can also open up the live stream publicly, which is great if you've got an ongoing event that you'd like to share with the world. The only major downside to the camera itself is that it's got to be plugged in all the time, but for a home security system, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
I'm finding myself more and more interested in connected home gadgets like Dropcam, Lockitron, and Lifx. Dropcam in particular seems like it's really easy to set up, and pretty useful, but what do you guys think? What kind of home security do you use? Is it hooked up to your iPhone in any way?
UFC on Fuel 9's main card kicks off at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday. What questions will be answered by these fights in Sweden?
Who the heck is Ilir Latifi, anyway? When the Swedish MMA Federation stopped Alexander Gustafsson from fighting because of a cut, the UFC needed a quick replacement for the main event. Latifi, Gustafsson's training partner, stepped up, but we don't know much about him except that he's on a three-fight win streak. Will he take advantage of the opportunity?
Where does Gegard Mousasi rank in the UFC's stocked light heavyweight division? Mousasi has made a name for himself fighting in Strikeforce, Dream and Pride, but this is the first time UFC fans will get a look at him. Fighting against Latifi, a late replacement, Mousasi could show he is the dominant fighter he once was.
Will Matt Mitrione end his losing streak? It's been a rough go for the football-player-turned-fighter. After starting his career with five straight wins, Mitrione lost his last two. Can a bout with Philip de Fries, who is 1-2 in his last three fights, give Mitrione a chance to right the ship?
Can Ryan Couture step out from the shadow of his famous father? After spending all of his pro career in Strikeforce, Couture will finally fight in the UFC, where his father became a legend. He will also have to ignore the ongoing dispute between UFC president Dana White and his father. Will he be able to win over Ross Pearson and start his own legend?
Will UFC fans still tune in after the main event was changed so close to the fights? This is a tough one. Gustafsson was fighting for a possible title shot. Now, he's off the card, and the rest of it is filled with Strikeforce fighters making their UFC debut and "The Ultimate Fighter" castmembers. Will it be enough for fans to spend their Saturday afternoon watching the fights?
Is Papy Abedi the best name in the UFC? Yes. Yes, it is.
A landfill like this one is causing local residents lots of headaches (Thinkstock)
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Public release date: 24-Apr-2013
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UFC on Fuel 9's main card kicks off at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday. What questions will be answered by these fights in Sweden?