SUGAR BATTERIES.

I love Science magazines because I always find seemingly impossible things that could come true. From Virginia Tech’s Y. H. Percival Zhang comes this information:

Even today’s best rechargeable lithium batteries do lose their ability to hold a charge after a while, and are considered toxic waste once discarded. In just a few years, they may be replaced by batteries that are refillable and biodegradable, and that will also have a higher energy density yet a lower price … and they’ll run on sugar.

 

“Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature,” says  Zhang, who is leading the research. “So it’s only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery.”Its energy density is “an order of magnitude higher than others,  a type of enzymatic fuel cell.” The catalyst in its anode is made from inexpensive enzymes, as opposed to the costly platinum that’s used in regular batteries. When the maltodextrin is combined with air, water and electricity are produced. Unlike the hydrogen fuel cell, the sugar battery is non-explosive and non-flammable.

 

Zhang envisions users refilling the batteries with sugar when they need refueling, “much like filling a printer cartridge with ink.” He hopes that they may be powering electronic devices in as little as three years.

 

A paper on his research was published today in the journal Nature Communications.

Well, shoot, I guess pouring sugar in your gas tank isn’t going to happen.  I was hopeful, though until that last sentence, “electronic devices.”  But then, sugar batteries would probably make our chocolate bars, candy, and sweet rolls  VEEERRRRYY expensive if we tried to run cars on sugar. Maybe solve the obesity problem. Reminds me of that song, “….sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar in the sumertime…” I think that was a different kind of sugar though.

Sugar does alleviate boredom between a doctor’s appointment, taxes and my haircut yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

FAIR WEATHER WALK

Yesterday was a beautiful weather day. Jim fixed a blown fuse on the back-up camera, and a few other little chores. I lost my mobile home to an indoor flood and dealt with the related issues much of the morning and late in the day. Jim received news that Aaron Canvasser, a good friend of his died and he was feeling blue.

This is Aaron giving me a haircut on the first day that we met in 2010.  He came to visit us where we were staying in Yuma. Then I gave him a haircut. He was so much fun to be around. It is a haircut I’ll never forget.

We didn’t feel like doing much so we drove around the park, took more swamp pictures. The swamp was  gray and cheerless. I kept trying to find color.

Moving water and shadows produced an abstract.

This one tree near the boardwalk had three different pieces of tackle stuck in it.

This piece was hanging in the wind. The third piece was one of those yo-yos.

I talked to five fishermen on the board walk. This guy was using a baby crawfish for bait. He said he usually gets perch in this lake, and an occasional bass. None of them had fish yet. He told us about an alligator farm nearby.

The boardwalk here is lengthy and makes a pretty pattern.

A clump of iris. The green just emphasizes the gray of the cypress.

But, spring is just around the corner. I expect to see  green leaves soon. We spent the late part of the day sitting outside for the second time this winter. It was comfortable enough to read our books and enjoy the fresh air right up to supper time. Life is good.

MY HAIRCUT PAL AND THE DUTCHMAN

CeeCee and Aaron Canvasser, long time friends of Jim’s, came to visit for a couple of hours. We went to breakfast and returned to the motor home where I gave Aaron a haircut while Jim coached CeeCee how to buy a car at the price you want, from a car dealer. The haircut is looking to become a tradition because the very first time I met Aaron, he offered to cut my hair. I repaid the favor and here we are at:
http://wp.me/pDCku-13v

Aaron and CeeCee hail from Oregon State. They follow a challenge ballroom dance circuit here in Apache Junction.

In the afternoon we visited Superstition Mountain Museum. Apache Junction has thrived on the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s mine and other strange tales because of it, which are fully covered in this museum. The story and setting attracted Hollywood and the museum includes Apache Land, a movie set from the 1960’s. It burned down twice and only a few buildings remain.

There is no known photo of Jacob Waltz, the Dutchman, but there is a collection of drawings and purported photos of him.  The drawings are as varied as the many maps attributed to him.

It even looks fake. Why anyone would pay money for it is beyond my comprehension.

This one in Spanish must have been sold to a Spanish speaking miner. Jacob Waltz did not speak and write Spanish.

A letter from a friend is considered authentic proof that Waltz  found gold and assayed it. Other miners found gold of a specific type as well. The map of his buried treasure was left with the woman who owned the boarding house where he lived and died. In the museum are 28 paper maps.  The maps are crude, unreadable and amusing unless you consider that men fought and died for gold that was never found.

Six stone  maps of an equally obscure Peralta Mine qualify as works of art,another mystery.

A really good site about the mystery and deaths that occurred in this area is this one:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/dutchman.html

We were without a signal for two hours this morning, so I’ll continue this blog tomorrow.