Guineans vote in second democratic presidential election.
The 2010 election marked a change from military to civilian rule, but was also suspected of fraud (Image courtesy of Getty Images)
Eight candidates are running in Guinea’s second democratic presidential election, including current President Alpha Conde, who is running for a second term. His main challenger is Cellou Dalein Diallo, who is urging his supporters to vote. However, ethnic, political, and religious tensions are prevalent and have turned into violence. At least three people have been killed in pre-election violence. Official results are expected Monday or Tuesday.
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Scientists convert harmful algae blooms into hard carbon battery electrodes
HABs have an advantage over petroleum as they grow quickly and do not require land. (Image courtesy of Andrew Weber)
Seasonal harmful algal blooms (HABs), caused by cyanobacteria, can affect humans, livestock, and wildlife causing illness and death. Recently, researchers led by Dr. Da Deng at Wayne State University in Detroit demonstrated that heating HABs at 700 – 1000 degrees Celsius in argon gas could convert them into “hard carbon”. This material is a high value product, usually derived from petroleum, used in Sodium ion batteries as electrodes. This “trash to treasure” approach mitigates the effect of the HABs and aids the development of cost efficient Na ion batteries.
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Boeing announces creation of microlattice, “one of the strongest and lightest materials” .
Microlattice is light enough to be supported by the head of a dandelion. (Image courtesy of Boeing and HCL laboratories.)
Aerospace giant, Boeing, announce their creation of “the world’s lightest material”, microlattice. The material is an open-cell polymer structure, as described by Sophia Yang, a researcher at HCL laboratories. She compared the structure of the material, which is 99.9% air, to bone structure, which is also made of interior air pockets. Microlattice is 100 times lighter than styrofoam and offers enough protection for an egg, being dropped from 25 feet, to survive. Future applications of microlattice include use in aircrafts to increase fuel efficiency and decrease weight.
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Russia launches 64 airstrikes within 24 hours on Syria .
The EU is encouraging Russia to cease the airstrikes. (Image courtesy of Reuters.)
Russia launched 64 raids in Syria within a 24 hour period, beginning on Friday, October 9. The target of the airstrikes were communication bases, warehouses and training centres belonging to militants in the provinces of Raqqa, Hama, Damascus, and Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said the presence of terrorists in this region is low and Russia should focus their efforts is terrorist heavy areas, like northern Syria. There are no numbers, at the moment, to account for the casualties. Russia’s involvement with raids against ISIS began in late September and has Russia has since been suspected of violations of the laws of war.
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Danish zoo announces the public dissection of a young lion.
Dissections at the zoo occurs “once or twice a year.” (Image courtesy of Odense Zoo.)
A zoo in Copenhagen, Denmark is under controversy again for their plans to publicly dissect a young lion. This occurs almost a year after the same zoo publicly dissected a young giraffe and fed the carcass to lions in front of children.. The Odense zoo put down the young female lion as a “last resort” to prevent inbreeding and to reduce the population of felines in the zoo. The dissection will occur during the week of fall break of Danish students. Michael Wallberg Soerensen, a zookeeper, said the dissections are for education and not for entertainment. On Odense zoo’s Facebook page, there are posts from Dane supporters stating that children will learn from the experiences.
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