Turning Human Waste into Plastic

2 Replies Jonny Hankins

One of the unsung heroes and villains of modern life is human waste, or poo as we like to call it. It is like death and taxes in that well known phrase about certainty, there is an awful lot of it around, and it is full or carbon.

A few years ago there was uproar when we discovered that farmers were using human waste to make their plants grow faster, a practice that like many of life’s more unsavoury issues has remained largely out of the public gaze for years. But what do we do with all of this waste? We can just pump it out into the sea, or dump it in landfill sites as is common in the USA, although these don’t really seem like great solutions to me. Good news is on the horizon though, a company in California has started to use it to make plastic, taking some out of the dumping category and making use of the carbon.

Admittedly we have the old gag reflex again. A plate of carrots grown with the aid of human waste to go with your minced beef with horse trace pie with a plastic bottle made out of human sewage full of fresh, crystal clear mountain water to wash it all down. But just think about the potential.

Waste Not.

Make Use of Human Waste

Plastic can be produced using human waste, bottles can be made from it, and it is biodegradable, so why not? This BBC video tells the story of an experimental bio-plastics lab called Micromidas, where this process is being experimented and researched, and where human waste is already being turned into plastic.

The process involves making a kind of nutrient soup from the waste to which bacteria is added. They produce something called PHA, a type of polyester. They feed on the waste and take up the carbon and turn it into this form of plastic. Then the plastic containing parts are separated and cleaned.

The material is then dried, the plastic extracted and made into pellets. It can then be used to make practically anything that we currently make using fossil fuel based plastic. There is after all no shortage of raw materials, so proponents hope to replace the old fossil fuel production with the new.

The process is very much in experimental stage, but the researchers hope to be able to produce on mass within the next 2 to 3 years, bringing the price down so that it can compete in a global market. Good for everyone, and the environment.

Just as a slightly less obnoxious adjunct I would like to add that Micromidas are also setting up a lab that is working on turning cardboard into Paraxylene, a chemical once more used to make plastic bottles, again in the hope of getting into and cutting out the fossil fuel market (usually Paraxylene comes from oil). Read this report about their work.

Zappix iPhone App Review

9 Replies Steve August

There are apps that do just about anything these days, including starting your car for you. And while you are waiting for your car to start up, why not make that annoying phone call to the cable company about your monthly bill? If you answered, “Because I don’t want to wait on hold forever,” Zappix could be your one app for your customer service needs. This app provides the user with a simple way to maneuvering through irritating automated customer service wait times.

The simplicity of this free app arises in the very beginning when the user signs into the app. After entering the straightforward information one can access a large number of major companies, non profits, and government agencies, with new ones to come all the time. So whether or not it is the cable company or the court house the user needs to call, Zappix has you covered. If the company the user is trying to get a hold of and is backed by Zappix then the appropriate menu appears for the user to significantly cut back on the wait time.

Companies list in Zappix

Zappix uses a visual means that even the not so savvy smart phone user would understand. You can connect it with all the popular social media such as Twitter and Facebook, which in the end connects you to the companies Twitter and Facebook pages; making it that much easier for you to get a hold of someone. A user can also find the customer support email, and write to the company if the issue calls for more than a minimum number of characters.

Everyone has those days where it seems that everything is happening at once. Bills need to be paid, kids need to be picked up, soccer practice and ballet lesions after dinner all come with one thing consumers want more of – time. With the direct links to mobile websites and information pages Zappix takes out the need to Google the information and jot down the phone numbers which the user then needs to find time call. And to make it that much quicker the app uses stores the “Recent” contacts and “favorites” the contacts that the user specifies.

Since there is nothing perfect in life, though this app may seem to the user like the closest thing, Zappix also has its downside. Because the app is so new the number of companies does have an ending point. Though more and more companies are being added to the list daily, some users find that not every company specific to their needs can be found by searching the company name.

Higgs boson find makes time travel “feasible”

4 Replies Christopher Roberts

Ground-breaking research has emerged this morning, as scientists from the LHC released verified data that proves the existence (and therefore discovery) of the Higgs boson.

CERN's logoThe particle which has been hailed by some as the ‘God particle’ was thought to have been discovered earlier last month, causing euphoria amongst physicists across the globe. This morning CERN have released certified proof of the particles existence.

Late last night cosmologist Carl Sagan and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (among other high profile scientists) descended upon Geneva for what was known up until now as a ‘private consultation’. It is now thought that the scientists were being asked to help verify the findings of the LHC’s latest discovery.

At just gone 12am BST (01:03 local time) a spokesman emerged from the centre in Geneva and announced that CERN had “falsifiable proof of the existence of the Higgs boson“.

Time Travel

In the press conference which was held shortly after the announcement, leading physicist Stephen Hawking commented on how due to the structure of the particle, he felt that in the not so distance future there is a “real possibility that time travel could soon become a reality“.

After Hawkins statement, there was an eruption of excitement among the media present, and no doubt across the globe from all those watching the press conference live.

Our Sun

Nuclear fusion (the reaction which happens within the sun) is a technology which we are yet to crack

Later in the conference, after the euphoria had died down slightly, a CERN scientist mentioned that not only did the Higgs boson seem to hold the key to time travel, but also (like previously thought) the origins of the universe.

Furthermore, nuclear fusion now seems to be a viable possibility as a future power source. Nuclear fusion is the reaction that goes on in the sun, and could enable us to create an almost unlimited supply of energy from a very limited amount of resources. Until recently scientists have been struggling to understand how to ‘crack’ the fusion equation, with the Higgs particle seeming to be a key component.

On the 1st of April 2013 we find out that free unlimited power and time travel are just around the corner. What a discovery!

UPDATE: This was an April Fools’ joke!