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Traditional secrets to keeping cool—investigating Okinawan textiles

When Yoko Nomura moved from warm, dry California to the subtropical island of Okinawa, she was struck by the stifling heat and humidity. Searching for ways to survive the Okinawan summer months, Nomura, from the Science and Technology Group at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), discovered a traditional secret to keeping cool: a material called Basho-fu.

Basho-fu is an Okinawan textile fabric made from banana plant fibers. Originating from the 13th or 14th century, Basho-fu was used to make traditional Okinawan kimonos. Basho-fu kimonos were popular among all classes of people in the Ryukyu Kingdom, which ruled Okinawa from 1429 to 1879. Basho-fu textiles were highly durable for hard labor such as farming and fishing, and were comfortable to wear in the hot and humid subtropical climate of Okinawa.

The expertise required to make Basho-fu textiles has been passed down through generations of craftspeople in Okinawa. However, the traditional craft is now under threat from a shortage of banana plant materials and an infiltration of modern methods.

In an effort to rescue and document this important part of Okinawan folk culture, researchers from OIST, in collaboration with the University of the Ryukyus and the Kijoka Basho-fu Association, used scientific techniques to characterize Basho-fu materials and to compare traditional and laboratory Basho-fu production processes.

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New book on the Halley VI Research Center. Halley VI is a string of 8 modules located on the Brunt Ice Shelf floating on the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. These sexy buildings are built on skis to help them move around. Check out the book, here.

This came across my desk this morning in the course of philanthropic research, and it’s a fascinating portrait primarily of the head of a charitable organization that serves his own community (the blind and visually impaired) but also a mixed-message reconstruction of a man who mysteriously bequeathed $125M – fifteen times the charity’s operating budget – to an organization that never knew his name. 

(A more-or-less transcript of the podcast is also available below the player.)

New 3-D Printer Produces Delicate Soft Objects

A new method of depositing drops of soft materials in a gel could be a new way to print squishy three-dimensional products like living tissue, soft robots and flexible electronics.

In the technique created by University of Florida researchers, a computer-controlled hollow tip precisely embeds fluid droplets of silicone, hydrogel, colloids or living cells inside a granular medium bath the consistency of hand sanitizer. After using the method to make tiny complex soft structures like delicate jellyfish, a tubular knot and a gel version of the nested shapes called Russian dolls, the group says they might have created a new era for engineering. 

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UN values ecosystem loss to trillions of dollars a year

The study authors have calculated the cost of the “lost ecosystem services value” our planet has suffered in the last decade and a half. According to their calculations, the loss due to land degradation averages US $43,400 to $72,000 per square km, some US $870 to $1,450 per person, globally each year. The percentage of the world’s land affected by land degradation has grown a lot in the last decades – it has doubled between the late 1970s and the early 2000s. And the process is far from its end.

“This study by ELD shows the immediate and global impact of land degradation and highlights that actions to tackle it pay off,” Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs commented on the paper.

“Increased land degradation is also one of the factors that can lead to migration and it is being exacerbated by climate change. On our planet, the area affected by drought has doubled in 40 years. One third of Africa is threatened by desertification. As President Juncker said in his State of the Union speech last week, climate refugees will become a new challenge – if we do not act swiftly.”

Thursday is World Maritime Day which this year spotlights maritime transport as a cost-effective and energy-efficient link in the global supply chain.

Get more information from International Maritime Organization on shipping, sustainable development and the “future we want” here.