Chemistry&Technology

Carbon nanotubes improve metal’s longevity under radiation

2016-04-15T03:37:00.003+02:00

Nuclear reactors are incredible feats of engineering, but they come with a persistent problem: the metals holding everything together don't age gracefully under intense radiation. Over time, exposure to the harsh radiation environment near the reactor core causes metals to become porous and brittle — a gradual deterioration that eventually forces reactors into early retirement.

But a team of researchers from MIT and several international partners may have found a surprisingly simple fix: carbon nanotubes.

Tiny Tubes, Big Impact

The idea sounds almost too straightforward. By mixing just a small quantity of carbon nanotubes — less than 2 percent by volume — into a metal during manufacturing, the resulting composite becomes dramatically more resistant to radiation damage. The team published their findings in the journal Nano Energy.

Here's what actually happens inside a reactor: nuclear fission produces helium gas, which gets trapped within the metal's crystal structure. Over time, this trapped helium forms tiny bubbles along grain boundaries, making the metal progressively more brittle. It's a slow-motion weakening that nobody has been able to stop — until now.

The carbon nanotubes, despite being just a minuscule fraction of the total material, form what the researchers describe as a percolating one-dimensional transport network. Think of it like a system of microscopic chimneys running through the metal, giving the trapped helium a way to escape before it can cause lasting damage.

Surviving the Extreme

Testing showed the composite structure held up under 70 DPA of radiation damage — a measurement that describes how many times, on average, every atom in the material gets knocked out of its position by radiation. That's a lot. In practical terms, the new material showed five to ten times less embrittlement compared to untreated metal samples.

Even after heavy radiation exposure, the nanotubes retained their slender, one-dimensional shape. MIT's Ju Li described the phenomenon as something like "insects trapped in amber" — the nanotubes transform chemically into carbides, but their structure persists, continuing to provide those crucial escape routes for helium.

Stronger Before Radiation Even Hits

What's particularly striking about this material is that its benefits don't wait for radiation exposure to kick in. Even in a brand new, unirradiated state, the addition of carbon nanotubes boosts the metal's strength by 50 percent and also improves its tensile ductility — its ability to bend and deform without snapping.

For now, the approach has only been demonstrated in aluminum, which limits it to lower-temperature environments like research reactors. But the team is already testing the concept with zirconium — a metal widely used as fuel rod cladding in commercial reactors — and believes the radiation-shielding effect is likely a general property of metal-nanotube composites.

Affordable and Already Being Made

One of the more practical aspects of this discovery is cost. Carbon nanotubes are already being manufactured at industrial scale in South Korea for the automotive industry, which means the raw materials are relatively cheap. The composite itself can be produced using standard industrial processes, and it's already being made by the ton.

If the results hold up across other metals, this approach could meaningfully extend the operational lifetimes of nuclear reactors — both research facilities and commercial power plants — while also finding applications in spacecraft and nuclear waste storage containers.

Source: MIT News

Mint can as anti-cancer drug!

2016-03-30T01:30:00.001+02:00

Mint is one of those herbs most people associate with fresh breath or a soothing cup of tea. But researchers at India's Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) in Lucknow have been looking at it from a very different angle — as a potential weapon against cancer.

Their focus? A compound called L-Menthol, naturally found in the mint plant, which has shown a surprising ability to kill cancer cells and block their growth.

What Makes Menthol Stand Out

What makes this research particularly interesting is not just that menthol works against cancer cells — it's how it works. The compound appears to interfere with cell division, preventing cancer cells from multiplying and spreading to other organs. In laboratory studies, it has shown activity against colon cancer cells, and researchers believe it could have broader applications.

Menthol's potential isn't entirely new to science. Studies have looked at its effects on liver cancer, colon cancer, and even brain tumors. One intriguing area involves menthol-modified nanoparticles that can carry anti-cancer drugs across the blood-brain barrier — a major obstacle in treating brain tumors — achieving deeper penetration into tumor tissue than conventional formulations.

A Cost-Effective Alternative

One of the more practical arguments for exploring menthol as an anti-cancer agent is economics. Current cancer drugs are often extraordinarily expensive to produce. Paclitaxel, for instance, is derived from the bark of the European Yew tree — a slow-growing and limited resource. Menthol, by contrast, is cheap to produce, widely available, and already manufactured at scale for use in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

That cost difference could matter enormously in making cancer treatments more accessible, especially in developing countries where high drug prices are a major barrier to care.

Research Is Still in Early Stages

It's worth being clear: this research is still primarily at the laboratory and preclinical stage. Menthol has shown genuine promise in cell studies and animal models, but it has not yet been through the rigorous clinical trials needed to confirm it as a human cancer treatment.

Scientists at the University of Salford in the UK have also been investigating a related compound, hoping to move toward testing on human cancer cells from breast and lung tissue. The path from a promising lab result to an approved drug is long and demanding — but the early signals are encouraging enough to keep researchers interested.

For now, mint remains your herb garden's most intriguing overachiever — and researchers are just beginning to understand what it might truly be capable of.

Source: Chemistry World

New Way Could Boost Battery Performance using Bee Pollen

2016-02-24T01:03:00.000+02:00

When Jialiang Tang, a doctoral student at Purdue University, heard that his mother had developed a pollen allergy, his reaction was a little unusual. Instead of reaching for antihistamines, he started thinking about batteries.

"I was fascinated by the beauty and diversity of pollen microstructures," Tang explained. "But the idea of using them as battery anodes didn't really kick in until I started working on battery research and learned more about the carbonization of biomass."

The result is a genuinely surprising piece of research: pollen — nature's most notorious allergen — might be a viable alternative to graphite in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries.

From Flowers to Electrodes

The Purdue team tested two types of pollen: bee pollen (collected from multiple flower sources by bees) and cattail pollen (which comes from a single plant and has a more uniform grain structure). Both were converted into carbon microstructures through a process called pyrolysis — heating the pollen to high temperatures in an argon-filled chamber to yield pure carbon that retains the original pollen shape. A follow-up step, heating in the presence of oxygen, created tiny pores throughout the structure that boost energy storage capacity.

The results were published in Nature's Scientific Reports.

Surprising Performance Numbers

Cattail pollen outperformed bee pollen in testing, delivering a specific capacity of 590 milliamp hours per gram at 50°C and 382 mAh/g at room temperature. For context, conventional graphite — the standard anode material in lithium-ion batteries — has a theoretical capacity of 372 mAh/g. So the cattail-derived carbon is already exceeding what graphite can theoretically offer.

Bee pollen performed somewhat less impressively but still showed strong early results. After just one hour of charging, the anodes reached more than half their full capacity — delivering 200 mAh/g in that short window. A full charge required about 10 hours.

Why This Matters

Beyond the performance numbers, pollen has a few practical advantages. It's renewable, abundantly available, and can be harvested without complex industrial processes. The pyrolysis method used to convert it into carbon is relatively simple and low-energy. That combination — accessible raw material plus straightforward processing — is attractive from both a cost and sustainability standpoint.

The researchers tested the anodes at two temperatures (25°C and 50°C) to simulate real-world climate differences, since battery performance can vary significantly depending on where in the world a device is used.

Still Early Days

Professor Vilas Pol, who led the research, was candid about where things stand. "We are just introducing the fascinating concept here," he said. "Further work is needed to determine how practical it might be."

The current study only looked at pollen in anodes. The next phase of research will test pollen-derived carbon in full-cell batteries paired with commercial cathodes — a necessary step toward understanding whether this could ever move from laboratory curiosity to real-world product.

Whether pollen ever makes it into your phone battery remains to be seen. But for now, it's hard not to appreciate the irony: the thing that makes spring miserable for millions of allergy sufferers might one day help power their devices.

Source: ACS Energy Letters / Purdue University

ZIKA VIRUS USED TO SPREAD COMPUTER VIRUS [Really]

2016-02-23T01:02:00.000+02:00

When a health crisis captures global headlines, cybercriminals are rarely far behind. The Zika virus outbreak of 2016 was no exception.

As fears about the mosquito-borne virus spread across Brazil and beyond, security researchers at Symantec uncovered a malicious email campaign specifically designed to exploit public anxiety — using concern about Zika to deliver malware directly to people's computers.

The Setup: A Fake Health Alert

The scam emails were crafted to look like they came from Saúde Curiosa (Curious Health), a legitimate Brazilian health and wellness website. The subject line read: "ZIKA VIRUS! Isso mesmo, matando com água!" which translates to "Zika Virus! That's right, killing it with water!"

Inside the email, recipients were urged to click buttons labeled things like "Eliminating Mosquito! Click Here!" or "Instructions To Follow! Download!" Both the links and the attachment led to the same destination: a piece of malware called JS.Downloader, hosted on Dropbox. Once installed, this malware acted as a gateway, downloading additional malicious software onto the victim's computer.

More than 1,500 people had already clicked the infected links by the time Symantec reported it.

Why Brazil Was the Target

Brazil was the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, with the vast majority of global cases concentrated there. The WHO had declared Zika a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in February 2016, following a significant surge in birth defects in affected regions.

The timing made Brazil's population especially vulnerable to health-related phishing campaigns. People were actively seeking information and protective guidance, which made a convincing fake health alert all the more dangerous.

How to Protect Yourself

Symantec issued clear guidance at the time, which applies to any similar situation:

For health information, go directly to official sources like the World Health Organization website
Never click links or open attachments in unsolicited emails, even if the sender looks familiar
Keep your security software updated and running
Treat any email with urgent health warnings and download buttons as suspicious by default

This kind of social engineering exploiting fear and urgency to bypass people's better judgment is one of the oldest tricks in cybercrime. Whenever a major health scare or global crisis dominates the news cycle, expect a wave of phishing emails to follow within days.

Source: Symantec Security Response

Air Quality Monitor help you to see what you breathe

2016-02-22T19:10:00.002+02:00

Most of us only think about air quality when we're stuck in traffic or when wildfire smoke rolls into town. But here's the uncomfortable truth: the air inside your own home can be just as polluted as anything you'd encounter outdoors — sometimes worse.

A device called the AirVisual Node was designed to change that, giving ordinary people the ability to see exactly what they're breathing in real time.

What Is the AirVisual Node?

Developed by AirVisual, an international team focused on air quality awareness, the Node is a compact air quality monitor with a bright, colorful 5-inch LED screen that displays key environmental readings at a glance. It tracks PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), CO2 levels, temperature, and humidity — both indoors and, when connected to Wi-Fi, outdoors through a global network of monitoring stations.

PM2.5 refers to particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter — small enough to pass through your nose and throat and lodge deep in your lungs. These include dust, soot, smoke, and chemical compounds from common household sources like cooking, cleaning products, candles, and even furniture off-gassing. The Node can also detect PM10 particles — slightly larger but still inhalable.

How It Works

The Node uses a laser-based sensor that draws air through the device with a small fan. As particles pass through a beam of light, the sensor measures how the light scatters, calculating particle concentration. According to AirVisual, the PM2.5 sensor has an accuracy range of about ±8% and a minimum lifespan of three years.

CO2 readings update every 1-2 minutes, and PM2.5 readings stabilize within 30 seconds — making it practical for moving around a home or office to spot-check different rooms or identify problem sources.

Smart Forecasting Built In

When connected to Wi-Fi, the Node does more than measure current conditions. It uses AI-driven analysis and data from thousands of environmental monitoring stations worldwide to generate three-day air quality forecasts for your area. This can help with planning outdoor activities, deciding when to open windows, or knowing when to run an air purifier.

Why Indoor Air Quality Matters More Than You Think

Indoor air pollution is an underappreciated health issue. The EPA has noted that indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air in many cases. Cooking fumes, off-gassing from synthetic materials, pet dander, mold spores, and air seeping in from outside all contribute to what people breathe every day without realizing it.

Having a real-time monitor that surfaces this invisible data — and makes it easy to understand — is exactly the kind of tool that can shift behavior. When you can actually see your CO2 levels spike after a room full of people has been sitting together for an hour, or watch PM2.5 readings jump when you fry something on the stove, it changes how you think about ventilation.

The AirVisual Node won't clean your air — that's a job for purifiers and good ventilation. But it gives you the data you need to make informed decisions, and sometimes, simply knowing is the first step.

Source: AirVisual

What You have to know about zika virus Causing Congenital deformities!!

2016-02-17T18:41:00.000+02:00

When the Zika virus began spreading rapidly across Latin America in 2015 and 2016, it quickly became clear that this was not a typical mosquito-borne illness. What made Zika uniquely alarming — and uniquely heartbreaking — was what it appeared to do to unborn children.

The Connection to Microcephaly

Brazilian health authorities first noticed something unusual: a sudden and dramatic spike in cases of microcephaly — a condition where infants are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains. Normally rare, microcephaly cases in Brazil surged by more than 20 times the historical average during the height of the Zika outbreak.

The evidence pointing to Zika as the cause built up quickly. Researchers found the virus in the amniotic fluid of fetuses diagnosed with microcephaly. Zika RNA was detected in the brain tissue of infants who died shortly after birth. And the geographic pattern matched: areas with the highest Zika transmission rates also had the sharpest increases in birth defects.

How Zika Attacks the Developing Brain

Zika is transmitted primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same species responsible for dengue and chikungunya. But unlike most arboviruses, Zika appears to have an unusual ability to cross the placental barrier and directly infect fetal neural progenitor cells — the cells responsible for building the brain.

Laboratory studies showed that Zika preferentially targets and kills these precursor cells, effectively halting normal brain development. The virus can also trigger programmed cell death and disrupt cell cycle progression in developing neural tissue. The result, in severe cases, is a brain that is drastically smaller and less developed than it should be.

Other Neurological Effects

Microcephaly captured the most attention, but researchers identified a broader constellation of problems now referred to as Congenital Zika Syndrome. This can include:

Severe brain malformations beyond microcephaly
Eye damage and vision problems
Joint problems, including contractures that limit limb movement
Excessive muscle tone
Hearing loss

Importantly, not all babies born to Zika-infected mothers develop these complications. The timing and severity of infection during pregnancy, along with other factors, appear to influence outcomes. Infection during the first trimester carries the highest risk.

The WHO Response

On February 1, 2016, the World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern — the same designation used for the Ebola crisis. The declaration mobilized international research funding and accelerated vaccine development efforts.

For pregnant women or those planning to conceive, the key guidance was clear: avoid travel to Zika-affected regions if possible, use insect repellent consistently, wear protective clothing, and use mosquito nets. Sexual transmission of Zika was also confirmed, adding another layer to prevention strategies.

The Zika outbreak brought into sharp focus how devastating a seemingly mild illness can become when it intersects with pregnancy — and reminded the global health community that emerging viruses deserve careful monitoring long before they reach crisis levels.

Source: World Health Organization – Zika Virus

3D BIOPRINTER CREATES BONE, MUSCLE AND CARTILAGE FOR THIS EAR

2016-02-16T17:26:00.000+02:00

Science fiction has long imagined a world where doctors could simply print replacement body parts. At Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, that future just got a little closer.

A team led by Dr. Anthony Atala has developed a 3D bioprinting system — called the Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System, or ITOP — capable of printing human-sized structures made from living bone, muscle, and cartilage. Their findings were published in Nature Biotechnology.

What Makes ITOP Different

Previous bioprinting systems ran into a fundamental problem: once printed tissue reaches a certain size, the cells at its core die because nutrients and oxygen can't reach them. The ITOP system solved this by printing microscopic channels — essentially a network of tiny tunnels running through the tissue — that allow blood, nutrients, and oxygen to penetrate deep into the structure and keep cells alive.

The printer uses two types of materials working together: biodegradable plastic (polycaprolactone) that acts as a structural scaffold, and a gel containing living cells. The plastic holds everything in shape while the cells settle in and grow. Over time, the plastic degrades and the living tissue takes its place.

The Ear, the Bone, the Muscle

The Wake Forest team demonstrated the technology with several proof-of-concept experiments. They printed human-sized ear structures from rabbit cartilage cells and implanted them under the skin of mice. Two months later, the ears had maintained their shape and developed their own blood vessels — a critical sign that the tissue was integrating successfully into the body.

They also printed muscle tissue from mouse and rat cells and implanted it into rats. Within a week, the tissue had not only maintained its structure but had started to develop blood vessels and triggered nearby nerve formation. Skull bone fragments printed from human stem cells had formed new bone tissue with blood vessels by five months post-implantation.

Even more impressively, the team printed human-sized jawbone fragments from human stem cells — the exact kind of structure that could eventually be used in facial reconstruction surgery.

Custom-Built for Each Patient

One of the more exciting aspects of the ITOP system is its ability to use CT and MRI scan data to print tissue that's precisely tailored to an individual patient's anatomy. If someone has lost part of an ear, for instance, the system could print a new one matched to the size and shape of their existing ear.

The printer can work with a wide range of cell types, including stem cells derived from amniotic fluid, making it versatile across different tissue types and applications.

Not Ready for Human Use Yet

Atala is careful about expectations. "This is an important advance in our quest to make replacement tissue for patients," he said, "but more research is needed before such 3D printed tissues could be tested in human patients." The next phase will focus on safety testing and developing clinical-grade human cells derived directly from the patients who would receive the transplants.

Still, after a decade of development, what the Wake Forest team has demonstrated represents a genuine turning point — proof that printing living, functional, human-scale tissue is no longer theoretical.

Source: Nature Biotechnology / Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Start Moving to Stop Brain Shrinkage!!

2016-02-11T00:58:00.000+02:00

Your brain begins to shrink in your late 20s. It's an unsettling fact, but it's true. As we age, brain volume declines — particularly in regions like the hippocampus, which is central to memory and learning. By the time we reach our 60s, that shrinkage can translate into noticeably slower thinking and memory problems.

But a growing body of research suggests there's something surprisingly simple that can slow this process: moving your body regularly.

What Exercise Does to Your Brain

A landmark study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tracked 120 older adults over a year. Half followed an aerobic exercise program; the other half did only stretching. At the end of the year, brain scans showed that the aerobic exercise group had actually increased hippocampal volume by about 2% — effectively reversing 1-2 years of age-related brain shrinkage. The stretching group, meanwhile, showed the typical decline.

And it's not just the hippocampus. Consistent aerobic exercise has been shown to increase gray matter volume across nearly all regions of the brain, with particularly strong gains in the prefrontal cortex and caudate nucleus — areas involved in decision-making, attention, and executive control. Exercise also appears to strengthen the connections between these regions, making the brain more functionally integrated over time.

The Biology Behind It

Why does exercise have this effect? Several biological mechanisms are at work. Physical activity increases the brain's production of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a protein that acts like fertilizer for neurons — supporting their growth, survival, and formation of new connections. Exercise also boosts blood vessel formation in the brain, improves cerebral blood flow, and reduces neuroinflammation.

Beyond BDNF, exercise stimulates the release of other growth factors including IGF-1 and VEGF, which promote the growth of new neurons — a process called neurogenesis — particularly in the hippocampus. This ongoing generation of new brain cells appears to be one of the key mechanisms by which exercise helps preserve memory and cognitive function.

What Kind and How Much?

The research points most strongly toward aerobic exercise — the kind that gets your heart rate up and keeps it there. Walking briskly, jogging, cycling, and swimming all count. The studies showing brain benefits typically involved 30-60 minutes of moderate aerobic activity three or more times per week, over periods of months to years.

That said, even lighter physical activity appears to offer some protection. The key variable seems to be consistency: regular movers of all kinds show better brain health outcomes than their sedentary counterparts, regardless of age.

The Takeaway

We tend to think about exercise in terms of physical health — heart disease, weight, blood pressure. But the evidence is increasingly clear that the brain may be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a physically active life. If you're looking for a reason to get off the couch, your future cognitive self might be the best one there is.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Bacteria Evolution speedup by changing phenotypes!!

2016-02-09T22:40:00.002+02:00

Antibiotic resistance is one of the defining public health challenges of the 21st century — and understanding how bacteria evolve resistance so rapidly is key to fighting it. Research from the University of Edinburgh has shed new light on a surprising mechanism: phenotypic switching.

What Is Phenotypic Switching?

Bacteria with identical DNA can still behave very differently from one another — a phenomenon called phenotypic variation. Some cells in a population might grow quickly, while others grow slowly and remain dormant. This isn't caused by genetic differences; it's a kind of behavioral flexibility that bacteria can switch between, often randomly.

The Edinburgh researchers, led by physicist Bartlomiej Waclaw, found that this switching behavior doesn't just help bacteria survive in the short term — it also dramatically speeds up their evolutionary process, particularly when facing antibiotic pressure.

How It Speeds Up Evolution

Here's the critical insight: when exposed to antibiotics, bacteria that switch to a slower-growing, less metabolically active state (sometimes called a "persister" state) are harder to kill. They aren't resistant in the genetic sense — they just don't give the drug enough of a target to work on. But this temporary survival window gives them time.

While they're persisting, mutations can accumulate. And if one of those mutations happens to confer genuine genetic resistance, the bacterium now has a genetic upgrade that allows it to grow and replicate even in the presence of the antibiotic. The phenotypic switch bought the time needed to find that genetic escape route.

The researchers' modeling showed that bacteria with optimal phenotypic switching behaviors could evolve antibiotic-resistant mutations in as few as 10 to 100 generations — not the millions of generations traditionally assumed. In the context of a fast-reproducing bacterium, that could mean developing full resistance within hours to days of antibiotic exposure.

Why This Matters for Medicine

This finding has direct implications for how we think about and treat bacterial infections. Standard antibiotic dosing protocols are designed based on assumptions about how quickly bacteria evolve. If phenotypic switching dramatically accelerates that process, it means some infections may be developing resistance far faster than current clinical models predict.

It also suggests that targeting phenotypic switching itself — rather than just the bacteria's genetic resistance mechanisms — could be a promising avenue for new treatments. Drugs that prevent bacteria from entering persister states might close off one of their fastest routes to resistance.

Understanding evolution at this level — not just the genetics, but the behavioral flexibility bacteria use to survive — is becoming increasingly important as we try to stay ahead of an adaptive and increasingly dangerous enemy.

Source: Scientific Reports / University of Edinburgh

Nanomembrane Toilet Design [Cranfield University]

2016-02-03T01:53:00.000+02:00

A cheap, easy to maintain, "green" toilet that uses no water and turns human waste into electricity and clean water will be trialed in 2016, possibly in Ghana. Dubbed the "Nano Membrane Toilet" by its creators from Cranfield University, UK, this new approach to managing waste could help some of the world's 2.3 billion people who have no access to safe, hygienic toilets.

The toilet's magic happens when you close the lid. The bottom of the bowl uses a rotation mechanism to sweep the waste into a sedimentation chamber, which helps block any odors from escaping. The waste is then filtered through a special nanotech membrane, which separates vaporized water molecules from the rest of the waste, helping to prevent pathogens and solids from being carried further by the water.

The vaporized water then travels through to a chamber filled with "nano-coated hydrophilic beads", which helps the water vapor condense and fall into a collection area below. This water is pure enough to be used for household washing and farm irrigation.

The residual solid waste and pathogens are driven by an archimedean screw into a second chamber. This part of the design is still being finalized, but the current plan is for the solid waste to be incinerated to convert it into ash and energy. The energy will power the nanomembrane filtration process, with enough left over to charge mobile phones or other small devices.

The only waste product of the whole process is ash from the burning of solids, which is nutrient-rich and pathogen free, and therefore, usable in farming. The toilet can manage the waste generated by households of up to 10 people.

Funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, and winner of the Clean Equity Monaco 2015 award, the nano membrane toilet is to be trialed and tested in 2016, possibly in Ghana.

Currently, more than 650 million people in the world do not have access to clean water, and more than 2.3 billion don't have access to a safe, private toilet. Researchers around the world are working to help solve this problem, but high-tech solutions, such as adding solar panels, are usually too expensive to be practical.

Sociological issues also play a role. As toilet infrastructure deteriorates, people prefer to go outside rather than use a smelly room inside their house. This makes women vulnerable to rape, and creates further sanitation and hygiene issues.

The nano membrane toilet is clean, odorless and aspirational, and it should be capable of working in environments that lack sewage, external power and water. So it will be interesting to see how it works in the field.

The plan is for the toilet to be rented to households through a local organization, helping to spread the costs to stay within the Gate Foundation's challenge of keeping the cost of the toilet below US 5 cents per person per day.

If all goes well, the toilet could also find applications elsewhere like the military, construction industry, yachts, or outdoor events.

Source

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