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Little research on biodegradable plastics The management of plastic waste under discussion at a conference in Paris cannot be a solution to address the increasingly urgent problem of the generalized presence of microplastics in the environment, at least according to the opinion of some environmentalists who argue that it could be a concession to the petrochemical industry on globalized markets. Only a small percentage of plastic is really recycled, then the cost to produce new is really very low and in practice it is not convenient to build recycling plants and there is little research for new biodegradable plastic materials that can be competitive on the market. It is also a contradiction to call ecological transition insulating buildings with plastic coats and fixtures, without taking into account all the products that seem ecological but contain hydrocarbon derivatives. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: May 30, 2023 
n°: 5349
 Controversy over the tracing of genetic material When an individual moves, he leaves traces of genetic material "eDNA" in the environment, even in the air, that can be used to have a large amount of information that can favor tracking aimed at a specific person or entire ethnic groups. These are technological tools that could make it possible to catch criminals, but some say they pose ethical, privacy and surveillance issues depending on how they will be used. In practice, skin cells, hair, coughed droplets and organic liquids from wastewater analyzed could be in the near future of instrumental quality comparable to those obtained from a traditional examination and this technique is already partly used for example to trace endangered animal species. Of note shifting attention to artificial intelligence the protests of authors and readers of audio books who complain about the use of computerized voices instead of human ones. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: May 16, 2023 n°: 5337 New recycled, ecological and lighter materials The demand for the search for new materials that derive from the assembly of recycled raw materials and are also ecological and lighter is increasing, for example some have long argued that means of transport could be built by assembling them even in part with recycled plastic materials and composites allowing a good weight saving and therefore energy having to move lighter vehicles, then also various boats recycling fiberglass boats avoiding that plastic materials turn into microplastic polluting the water. Of note changing the subject but remaining on technological issues the first uses of waiter robots that approach a future scenario dominated by machines perhaps equipped with artificial intelligence superior to the human one, developing a dependence on these so that it will no longer be possible to "pull off plug" in a figurative way. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: May 10, 2023 n°: 5332 Increasingly invasive and heavy technology With the advance of the presence of artificial intelligence in everyday use, some complain that there will no longer be room for personal inventiveness and creativity while others say that a computer however advanced as a technology can never for example write a sophisticated text like that devised by a human brain, but this consideration recalls in parallel the statement about the first applications that many years ago allowed computers to play chess that do not never beat to this game the inventiveness and strategy of an expert chess player (everyone knows how it ended). As far as the weight of the technology reference is made to the weight of lithium batteries; in fact, some point out that the increasing use of heavier vehicles raises questions about the durability of bridges, roads, garages (perhaps multi-storey) and various infrastructures. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: May 03, 2023 n°: 5326 Some common goals for solar and wind Seven rich nations would have planned in Sapporo in Japan new common energy targets for solar and wind regarding the achievement of important production quotas, in a faster transition to free themselves from dependence on fossil fuels, defined as significant and at the same time guaranteeing security leaving the possibility in case of need to continue to use for example gas to support sudden strong energy demands and avoid any drop in production in the absence of sun and wind. It has also set 2040 to progressively reduce plastic pollution to zero, a goal to be achieved in a decade, but environmentalists have long pointed out that the demand for plastic around the world would support the production of fossil fuels and that it was necessary to replace it with biodegradable one. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: Apr 17, 2023 n°: 5314 Barcode degeneration and augmented reality An innovation that could be useful to identify goods such as the barcode, of which yesterday we remembered fifty years since its appearance on the market (but patented in 1952 and improved with further developments in 1971), is now in many cases replaced by the so-called QR code so much so that some say that its days are numbered since we tend to use the new technology that is often applied almost everywhere even to living organisms and connected to programs called augmented reality that for example explain what is being framed with the smartphone. It is a bit like turning off the brain and relying on the computer as it happens for artificial intelligence that in an even more invasive way completely replaces the human mind in its creative capacity and reasoning opening up scenarios with images seen in science fiction fiction in which only one computer can beat another computer. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: Apr 04, 2023 n°: 5303 Controversy about artificial intelligence As already widely verified regarding the consequences of teaching experts strategies to win a game of chess to a computer that have led in the past to the defeat of biological human intelligence against a made of silicon causing questions if we should continue to educate semiconductors, now the controversy against artificial intelligence that learns by itself from what is proposed to it and from the internet with possibilities once unimaginable. Needless to say that decades ago this experimentation on artificial intelligence had to be stopped and now some say that it is too late to try to put a stop to a technology that many have already used for some time, then others say that competitions on the development of these technologies must be taken into account; however in theory could still intervene against this intellectual threat. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: Mar 31, 2023 n°: 5300 Considerations on EU energy efficiency The measures established to save energy in Europe for buildings with the aim of building in the coming years all new homes with zero impact and reaching class E of energy efficiency by 2030 for all buildings and class D for 2033 (apart from historical and artistic ones and various derogations) cause some questions; in fact, if on the one hand they allow to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and to limit polluting emissions, on the other it is not clear with which materials to carry out this ecological transition. Putting thick coats almost always made with petroleum derivatives and fixtures with plastic frames on buildings would not seem to be a sustainable choice even considering that these materials will sooner or later have to be disposed of, then not enough research is carried out on ecological materials that allow good efficiency. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: Mar 16, 2023 n°: 5286 Difficult transition to expensive electric cars An electric car has a much higher efficiency than that driven by a combustion engine and with much lower polluting emissions if the energy chain for recharging the batteries is clean, therefore suitable for improving the air quality of polluted and unlivable cities (for example in Italy in cities like Turin and Milan the levels of fine particles are alarming); but some argue that they are expensive and not affordable for all budgets, then much of their components are not very sustainable and the extraction and processing of rare metals and chemical components necessary for their assembly takes place in factories around the world very polluting. Europe is far behind other countries in this transition having invested little in the electric car sector and risks being penalized by this transition, in practice without being able to obtain substantial advantages. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: Feb 01, 2023 n°: 5249 A laser to guide lightning In the hope of finding a method to protect people from lightning discharge, the researchers would have developed a laser beam to guide them in the desired direction and possibly with future developments to be able to control them. There are over four thousand people in the world who lose their lives for lightning that discharge their power to the ground even forty to one hundred and twenty times per second with considerable damage to the affected structures, then more frequent for the climate change. Benjamin Franklin (Boston 1706 - 1790 Philadelphia) experimented in 1749 with a simple lightning rod still widely used, then did other tests described in the work "Experiments and Observations on Electricity" of 1754. For many years we have been trying to exploit the energy of lightning, but there remain limits on capabilities and how to store such a large power discharged in a very short time. e-mail: info@salutary.eu Tel: +39 338 1809310 Date: Jan 17, 2023 n°: 5236 Technology and publications * The author doesn't assume some kind of responsibility for the bad use of the articles councils (all rights are reserved) |
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