Prosthetics

This is the last blog so let's end it with a bang! This story actually was published a couple of weeks ago, but the topic is just so fascinating, that I couldn't let it go. A dog from Loveland, Colorado, received an operation which gave him quadruple prosthetic limbs. 

Prosthetic body parts have always fascinated me. I always knew that these things existed but my first major notice of it was during the 2012 London Olympics when Oscar Pictorius competed.

He may as well have been one of the most inspirational athlete of all time, if he hadn't murdered his girlfriend. Despite this setback, Oscar has managed to inspire many people and show everyone that disabilities cannot keep people down. As long as the person has soul, he/she can accomplish anything.

Prosthetics have such a diverse range of uses but how are these things actually made?

 

Nowadays, a prosthetic body part is made from a carbon fiber outer shell and a plastic inner shell. The plastic is usually molded with the specific body part and is flexible so that it moves with the person and provides comfort to the user. The plastic is attached to the carbon with glue and wherever it is connected to the person's joint, there are two screws. The joints (the ankle or the elbow) are usually composed of flexible aluminum fiber and more screws are found in this region to change the angle of the joint. 

The prothetic is usually attached to the person with a pin, which is then screwed into a liner which is then put around the specific body part. A prosthetic leg can be easily moved and removed, however, the challenge comes when an important body part such as the arm is involved.

I'm not saying that the leg isn't just as important, but the prothetic arm involves brain power. It is very hard to work a prosthetic arm in that an arm is connected to the nervous system of the body which is then connected to the brain, in other words, the movement are created through mind control. Scientists are working to figure out how to give people the ease of comfort such as that of the prosthetic leg, but the road is long and difficult.

The current arm systems work through the release of electrical currents from the body as well as muscle contractions, but now, the new arms that are being made to move with the release of more specific electrodes that are directly connected with the muscles and cause the muscle's movement in the first place.  

Prosthetics have taken new bounds and with technology rapidly advancing, prothetics will soon achieve new heights.

 

I am grateful to all of those who have read my blog this entire year and I wish the best of luck to all of you and your future endeavors :)

~Maisha 

The New Battery

Imagine that there is a battery that can charge a phone form 0% to 100% in the span one minute. Well, this can be possible with the creation of the aluminum battery by Stanford University students.

It's long-lasting, fast charging and inexpensive. It has a high-charged storage capacity and low flammability. With the introduction of curved and bendy technology, this battery is perfect replacement to the lithium powered batteries.

What makes these batteries different from regular lithium batteries? Lithium batteries in their own right were a breakthrough in technology during the early 90s. Never had there been a battery that contained so much energy in very little density, and with the improvement of technology overtime, research on ways to create batteries which can hold even more energy were underway and with people being more and more dependent and interlocked with technology, the pressure on scientists to find a solution to this increased drastically. The problems that are faced with batteries now is that the lithium batteries are not long lasting and tend to decay overtime. A regular battery can recharge an appliance over 1000 times before it starts to decay. If a person charges a phone once a day, then the charger will last a little under 3 years and this is if the person charges the phone and immediately unplugs it after the phone reaches 100%. Some people are prone to charging their phone all night or forget that they are charging their phone and are oblivious to the fact that they are reducing the capacity significantly of the 1000 full charges, losing the life of the charger significantly. With the aluminum batteries, the appliances can be charged over 7500 times, before it starts to decay. Due to the fact that the phone will take about a minute to charge, people are more likely to remember to unplug it, because, let's be honest here, people have very short attention spans (have you heard of vine?).

So how do these batteries work? In scientific terms, this battery uses an aluminum metal anode and a three-dimensional graphitic-foam cathode, which operates through the electrochemical deposition and dissolution of aluminium at the anode, and intercalation/de-intercalation of chloroaluminate anions in the graphite, using a non-flammable ionic liquid electrolyte. 



In simple terms, the battery uses carbon based graphite as the base and when reacting the graphite with aluminum and a salty ionic liquid, it formed and electric current which is then converted into energy. For all the chemical enthusiasts out there, when a salt combines and reacts with certain liquids, it is separated into its component parts and the energy that is used to separate it is then forms into an electric current. For example, table salt's formula is NaCl or sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is separated into Na+1 and Cl-1 and because it separates, or disassociates, completely, a strong electric current is formed. Because many compounds don't separate completely, like sugar, a very weak electric current is formed. Going off of this principle, batteries are made, but the formula to create the most long-lasting, durable and cheap battery is still underway as the aluminum battery is not perfect as of yet. There are still lots of research being conducted but as of now, it isn't set to hit the markets.   

Sweat=Sweet

I am pretty sure that most of us have that day in our life where we sweat so profusely that even with the amount of deodorant we put on, we can still smell our odor. Perfume and deodorant have existed from long ago as a way to tackle these horrifying smells. Companies have been advertising these products for many decades and the practice still continues today. Some notable companies include Secret, Axe and Old Spice.

The notable difference nowadays is that the type of application of the product changes overtime. For women in particular, at first, sprays were used as a cheap alternative to perfumes, while giving off the vibe of perfumes, however, the sprays were not powerful enough, so deodorant sticks were created.  While, the purpose of deodorant and perfumes are to eliminate body odors, it is important to hide the fact that one is using it. Whether it is make-up or anything else, being natural is the new form of beauty. This concept applies with deodorant particularly. As bad as a pit stain can be, a white stain can be just as bad.

Because I exercise regularly, body odor is a problem that happens to me often and I get very self-conscious, however, a new invention may change this. Scientists from Queens have developed a new perfume that makes you smell better the more you sweat.

So what actually happens to your body when you were deodorant? How does it work? Deodorant makes you smell good because when applied, it breaks down the bacteria cause by perspiration and another subgroup within the formula of the deodorant called antiperspirants, go directly to the sweat glands to prevent more sweat from forming, but this process can only last for so long.

The way I see it, this new deodorant is just like a Febreze, but for bodies. So how does this new perfume work? The perfume is composed of an ionic salt which reacts to water, meaning that the sweat produced creates moisture which reacts with the ionic salt and produces an aroma. The more water that was mixed with the perfume, the stronger the smell of the perfume was produced. Another perk to this perfume is that it is long-lasting. The reaction that happens not only makes a fine aroma, but it also breaks down the chemicals behind the smell of sweat, attracting many perfume and deodorant manufacturers and companies.

This product has the potential to change the cosmetic industry. Because using this ionic salt has been proven to be safe, many skin care products and health care products may adopt using a method similar to this (b/c  the similarity in smells may confuse the purchaser. The way to attract the customer is by formulating a different smell. This helps the company stand out from the competition).  There are no signs on when a product like this will be on the market, but more research is being done to create other fragrances and test the prototype to various situations/chemical reactions.