Water harvetsting
watercone
As featured in the exhibition D. Day, Le design Aujourd’hui at Pompidoo Center (2005), this high-tech water tank filters water to fresh water. The main body is made of polycarbonate and is 78cm in diameter, 35cm in height. The design is by Stephan Augustin.
The Watercone® is a solar powered water desalinator that takes salt or brackish water and generates freshwater. It is simple to use, lightweight and mobile. The technology is simple in design and use and is discribed by simple pictograms. With up to 1,7 liters (nearly 2 quarts) in 24h the Watercone® is an ideal device to cover a child`s daily need of freshwater. UNICEF: “every day 5000 children die as a result of diarrhea coused by drinking unsafe water”
Philosophy of the Watercone® concept:
Many peripheral, de-centralized small units will ensure a better supply of freshwater than one central big generator. If the big one fails, there is no water generation for anyone. If a small one fails, the other ones still keep on working.
TÜV Rheinland
“Next to eliminating salt from basic sea water, the Watercone also does NOT transport highly toxic elements such as mercury, arsenic or cadmium from the pan into the cone.”Environmental compatibility
As described before the Watercone® is a solar powered desalinator. The condensation runs
just with sunlight. The longer and hotter, the better.
Yet without machines, nor chemicals, nor electricity, nor photovoltaic panels, nor filters.
Due to the fact that the Watercone® is made out of new and recycled Bayer Makrolon
polycarbonate sheets which are very durable and environmental friendly, a long time
sustainable use is taken for granted.
- watercone at Yemen
Cytoplasm – intercelluar water
So I wanted to know little more about the intercellular water, cytoplasm which is essentially salty water with various organic molecules suspended in it. Here is more about how the water is contained.
The cytoplasm is contained within a cell membrane. Cell membrane is a phospholypid bilayer – this means that it is composed of two layers of tighly packed molecules of fat. Within the membrane, proteins are embedded into the bilipid layer and are more or less free to move around within the membrane. These proteins are important for the communication between the inside and outside of the cell.
From http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2006/11/cell_structure.php
On “how water-cytomatrix interactions may be of significance”
Here I’ve found an interesting research paper explaining an interrelation between the cytomatrix,
the cellular structure and its aqueous surroundings. Emphasis on thinking two as part of the whole mechanism which in this case the metabolism of an organism. What I find interesting is that this looks at the whole reciprocal relationship between the container and content, and together as a function to the rest of the unity….
…
that the cytomatrix can be
expected to play a major role in determining the properties
of intracellular water (in spite of our current lack of understanding
of the details). Likewise, water may very well play
an important role in mechanismsthat regulate the cytomatrix,
and both seem linked to most cellular activities. Evidently, it
is this entire system that must be studied if we are to understand
the participation of water and the cytomatrix in cell
structure and function.
Diagrammatic description of the microtrabecular lattice (MTL) and surrounding aqueous cytoplasm
From Intracellular Water and the Cytomatrix by JAMES S. CLEGG, Laboratory for Quantitative Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124
On bone marrow
The Cytomatrix vs bone marrow
So here I am, looking into what bone marrow is in relation to the body – of course the microscopic imagery is too familiar which makes me not think beyond the imagery…. It looks like a sponge and the notion of sponge is often just a skeleton and nothing really more than that…
Bone marrow is the flexible tissue found in the hollow interior of bones. In adults, marrow in large bones produces new blood cells. It constitutes 4%[1] of total body weight, i.e. approximately 2.6 kg (5.7 lbs.) in adults. (Wikipedia)
I’ve found that recently we have managed to produce an artificial bone marrow…. There is an article as quoted below which outlines how they made it.
When they started their research, Dr Kotov and his team knew that the stem cells from which marrow is derived grow naturally in specialised pores within bone. These pores are lined by a mixture of connective-tissue cells, bone cells and fat cells, which collaborate to nurture the stem cells. The researchers also knew that the cells in this lining send chemical signals to one another and to those stem cells they touch. That suggests a stem cell’s fate may depend on its surroundings in three dimensions, rather than the two dimensions of the bottom of a Petri dish—the type of vessel traditionally used to grow cell cultures. If correct, this would explain why attempts to make marrow in Petri dishes have failed.
To test their idea, Dr Kotov and his colleagues tried to replicate the interior of a bone using a material, known as a hydromel, that is similar in composition to a soft contact lens. To make the ersatz bone, liquid hydromel is densely seeded with tiny polystyrene spheres (they have diameters of between 50 and 300 microns). When the hydromel has solidified, the spheres are dissolved using a solvent called tetrahydrofurane, leaving a porous matrix. The diameters of the pores in this matrix match those of natural bone. (http://www.economist.com/science/tm/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12883495)
Metal foam as the bed for stem cell growth
The CytoMatrix is a man-made porous foam, originally invented for a launchpad material for space ships! Under a microscope, the matrix looks like bone marrow and that is why stem cells find it natural to grow within them, as if in the 3D matrix of bone marrow. This is a very interesting symbiosis!!!
This man-made sponge is made by carbon skelton coated with metals at very high temperature (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/articles/article/chrissmithcolumn2.htm/).
cytomatrix
The cytomatrix
stem cells on the Cytomatrix
Nature’s form 2
Diatonic
Pertaining to the scale of eight tones, the eighth of which is the octave of the first. Diatonic scale, a scale consisting of eight sounds with seven intervals, of which two are semitones and five are whole tones; a modern major or minor scale, as distinguished from the chromatic scale.
Porous structure from nature to man-made fabrication
The innovative structure of the swimming stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympic is based on the unique geometry of foam, referring the physicists Weaire and Phelan’s structure, which on one hand minimized the amount of the materials needed to make the foam cells (Ball), on the other hand, created random and organic 3D patterns in the facades. The fabrication and assembly were extremely complex however that the structure is more of an achievement in aesthetics than engineering. The physics of nature not only help the architecture achieve a level of complexity and randomness found in nature which appears natural aesthetically pleasing to our eyes, but also with engineering feasibility.
Weaire and Phelan's structure
The Water Cube
Nature’s forms
I am kind of reassured about the fact that porosity in nature takes away the inessential and leaving the only essential. So porosity is worth its complexity in form-making and fabrication…
“…growth patterns. Nature grows things, so you are not restricted by form at all, these interrelated forms inspire everything i do…” Ross Lovegrove from the 2005 Feb.TED talk
interrelated bones from the TED ross lovegrove slide show
porous structure from the TED ross lovegrove slide show
cellular structure from the TED ross lovegrove slide show
Ross Lovegrove on nature as design inspiration
His talk on his love of form at TED 2005 refers to porous form-finding as he also finds that nature makes holes in themselves. His chair designs are inspired by porosity found in microscopic models found in nature. His design is bimimetic in the sense that he translates nature into his own formal representations of nature. He mimics with his artistic license. He is true to his design intuition which i think is rooted deep into how we the human too is part of nature and so our intuition can be in sync with the logic of nature’s form-finding.
He is also interested in natural growth, growth in design and designed a table whose legs grow out of the table top. well that how the legs are produced, being moulded out of one material. i completely agree with this concept of unity in material for fat-free design. if technology can allow it, creating 3d form out of one single material is how nature grows and so “the right way” forward.
Out of all the interesting things he talked, what fascinated me was his interest in bio-polymers and food as the 21st century materials besides magnesium and all that. I can see completely the link between melange and bone in terms of foam but they are not formed the same way. He pointed out that both are made of inorganic minerals and polymers and I find that point interesting. Thinking to design at the level of chemical constituents.
melange from the TED ross lovegrove slide show
bone from the TED ross lovegrove slide show
Organic minerals- these are once living, or are living and can bring life to cells. These contain carbon, and their electrons spin clockwise, just like those of the human body. Additionally, these cells can form an ionic bond with the body and can easily break down into materials to help with bodily function, such as tissue repair.
Inorganic materials- these were never living, without carbon and cannot bring life to cells. The body treats these metals like toxins and are tightly held together; they cannot be easily broken down. And, their electrons spin counterclockwise, out of sync with the rest of the body
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-education3/25-water-organic-inorganic-minerals.htm
