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ACCELERATING INTELLIGENCE

Nanomagnet memory and logic could achieve ultimate energyefficiency

July 6, 2011 by Editor

The bright spots are nanomagnets with their north ends pointing down (represented byred bar below) and the dark spots are north-up nanomagnets (blue). The six nanomagnetsform a majority logic gate transistor, where the output on the right of the center bar isdetermined by the majority of three inputs on the top, left and bottom. (Credit: Bokor lab,

UC Berkeley)

Future computers may rely on magnetic microprocessors that consume the least amountof energy allowed by the laws of physics, researchers at theUniversity of California,Berkeley, have determined.

The researchers used nanomagnets to build magnetic memory and logic devices about100 nanometers wide and about 200 nanometers long.

Because they have the same north-south polarity as a bar magnet, the up-or-downorientation of the pole can be used to represent the 0 and 1 of binary computer memory.

When multiple nanomagnets are brought together, their north and south poles interact viadipole-dipole forces to exhibit transistor behavior, allowing simple logic operations.

Such devices would dissipate only 18 millielectron volts of energy per operation at roomtemperature, the minimum allowed by the second law of thermodynamics, the Landauerlimit. Thats 1 million times less energy per operation than consumed by todayscomputers, the researchers said.
http://berkeley.edu/http://berkeley.edu/http://berkeley.edu/http://berkeley.edu/http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/07/01/magnetic-memory-and-logic-could-achieve-ultimate-energy-efficiency/http://www.kurzweilai.net/nanomagnet-memory-and-logic-could-achieve-ultimate-energy-efficiency/magnetic-memoryhttp://berkeley.edu/http://berkeley.edu/http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/07/01/magnetic-memory-and-logic-could-achieve-ultimate-energy-efficiency/


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Ref.: Brian Lambson, David Carlton, Jeffrey Bokor, Exploring the ThermodynamicLimits of Computation in Integrated Systems: Magnetic Memory, Nanomagnetic Logic,and the Landauer Limit,Physical Review Letters, 2011; 107: 010604 [DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.010604]

Comments (1)

July 7, 2011by Anumakonda

In the future, computers, cell phones, laptops and otherconsumer devices might be able to consume only the

smallest amounts of electricity possible under the laws ofphysics. The silicon-based processors we use today maybecome obsolete.

Electrical engineers at the University of California inBerkeley (UCB) feel that replacing electrical microprocessorswith their magnetic counterparts might help improveperformance, while at the same time reducing consumption.

Such a device would operate at the Landauer limit, theminimum level of energy consumption allowed for a deviceto operate, as expressed by the second law ofthermodynamics. This processor would dissipate just 18millielectron volts of energy per operation.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore (AP), IndiaE-mail: [email protected]
http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v107/i1/e010604http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v107/i1/e010604http://www.kurzweilai.net/nanomagnet-memory-and-logic-could-achieve-ultimate-energy-efficiency/comment-page-1#comment-3916mailto:[email protected]://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v107/i1/e010604http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v107/i1/e010604http://www.kurzweilai.net/nanomagnet-memory-and-logic-could-achieve-ultimate-energy-efficiency/comment-page-1#comment-3916mailto:[email protected]


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NEWS

ACCELERATING INTELLIGENCEMagnets with an on and off switch

May 30, 2011 by Editor

Applying a voltage to cobalt-doped titanium dioxide causes the carrier density to increaseand the electrons act as magnetic messengers, aligning the Co 2+ spins (credit: Igor Zutic,et al./Science)

Researchers at Tohoku University added cobalt to titanium dioxide to create achameleon magnet that can be turned on and off by inducing an electric current.

The flowing current causes cobalt ions in the material to align with the same spin,making the material magnetic. When the current stops, the electrons in the material goback to having different spins, making them non-magnetic.

Traditional computing devices process information by moving electrons around,generating a substantial amount of waste heat, drawing power and limiting device life. Byusing electron spin to represent 1s and 0s instead of electrons moving through logic gates,computers could be more efficient, seamlessly integrating memory and logic in the samechip.

Ref.: Igor uti and John Cern, Chameleon Magnets, Science 332, 1040 (2011) DOI:

10.1126/science.1205775

Comments (1)

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/uab-cma052711.phphttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/uab-cma052711.phphttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6033/1040.full.pdfhttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6033/1040.full.pdfhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/magnets-with-an-on-and-off-switch/comment-page-1#comment-3917http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/uab-cma052711.phphttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/uab-cma052711.phphttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6033/1040.full.pdfhttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6033/1040.full.pdfhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/magnets-with-an-on-and-off-switch/comment-page-1#comment-3917


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A major breakthrough in magnetism.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),IndiaE-mail: [email protected]

NEWS


New Magnetic Resonance Technique Could Revolutionise QuantumComputing

March 8, 2011

Source:The physics ArXiv blog Mar 7, 2011

[+]

Graphic: M.S. Grinolds et al.

Harvard University scientists have develop a miniaturized MRI device that could lead tolarge-scale quantum computers.

The did it by placing a powerful magnet at the scanning tip of an atomic forcemicroscope to create a powerful magnetic field gradient in a volume of space just a fewnanometers across. That allows them to stimulate and control the magnetic resonance ofsingle electrons in a way that could easily be adapted for quantum computation.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1103.0546: Quantum Control Of Proximal Spins Using NanoscaleMagnetic Resonance Imaging

Comments (1)
mailto:[email protected]://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26477/http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26477/http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/Magnetic-resonance-QC.pnghttp://arxiv.org/abs/1103.0546mailto:[email protected]://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26477/http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/Magnetic-resonance-QC.pnghttp://arxiv.org/abs/1103.0546


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A major achievement in quantum computing through

Magnetic Resonance Technique . Congratulations for thefine work Harvard University Scientists.


NEWS


New microscope produces 3-D movies of live cells

March 6, 2011 by Editor

High-speed imaging reveals the surface of a HeLa cell (credit: Janelia Farm)Scientists at theHoward Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Farm Research Campus havecreated a microscope that lets researchers see the dynamic inner lives of living cellsusing a form of high speed imaging called Bessel beam plane illumination microscopy.
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The microscope uses an exquisitely thin sheet of light similar to that used insupermarket bar-code scanners to peer inside single living cells and create dazzling 3-D movies that make biological processes, such as cell division, come alive.

Their work appears March 4 inNature Methods.

Janelia Farm group leader Eric Betzig comments that until recently, microscopes couldsee objects no smaller than 200 nanometers in size. Several years ago, Betzig and hisJanelia Farm colleague Harald Hess invented photoactivated localization microscopy,PALM, which can produce images of objects only 10-20 nanometers in size.

Although other researchers, including Janelia Farm Fellow Philipp Keller, have usedplane illumination to great effect to study multicellular organisms hundreds of microns insize, the light sheets were still too thick to work effectively for imaging within singlecells only tens of microns in size.

The new microscope is also exciting because it may be used in the future to improvesuper-resolution microscopy. PALM and other super-resolution techniques are limited tolooking at thin, dead samples, and can be very damaging when looking at liveones. Bessel beam plane illumination microscopy will be a powerful tool for cellbiologists, Betzig says, since it noninvasively images the rapidly evolving three-dimensional complexity of cells.

Adapted from materials provided byHoward Hughes Medical Institute

Comments (1)


Great News. I will be improvement of super-resolutionmicroscopy.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India

E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/hhmi-nmp030211.phphttp://www.hhmi.org/http://www.kurzweilai.net/new-microscope-produces-3-d-movies-of-live-cells/comment-page-1#comment-3920mailto:[email protected]://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/hhmi-nmp030211.phphttp://www.hhmi.org/http://www.kurzweilai.net/new-microscope-produces-3-d-movies-of-live-cells/comment-page-1#comment-3920mailto:[email protected]


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NEWS

ACCELERATING INTELLIGENCEPhysicists store information on worlds tiniest computer memory

December 17, 2010 by Editor

[+]

A phosphorus-doped silicon chip, only 1 millimeter square, used to demonstrate how datacan be stored in magnetic "spins" within the centers or nuclei of phosphorus atoms, andthen how that data can be accessed and read electronically (C. Dane McCamey,University of Utah)

University of Utah physicists stored information for 112 seconds in what may become theworlds tiniest computer memory: magnetic spins in the centers or nuclei of atoms.Then the physicists retrieved and read the data electronically a big step toward usingthe new kind of memory for both faster conventional and superfast quantumcomputers.

The length of spin memory we observed is more than adequate to create memories forcomputers, says Christoph Boehme (pronounced Boo-meh), an associate professor ofphysics and senior author of the new study, published Friday, Dec. 17 in the journalScience. Its a completely new way of storing and reading information.

However, some big technical hurdles remain: the nuclear spin storage-and-read-outapparatus works only at 3.2 degrees Kelvin, or slightly above absolute zero thetemperature at which atoms almost freeze to a standstill, and only can jiggle a little bit.And the apparatus must be surrounded by powerful magnetic fields roughly 200,000

times stronger than Earths.

Yes, you could immediately build a memory chip this way, but do you want a computerthat has to be operated at 454 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and in a big nationalmagnetic laboratory environment? Boehme says. First we want to learn how to do it athigher temperatures, which are more practical for a device, and without these strongmagnetic fields to align the spins.
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As for obtaining an electrical readout of data held within atomic nuclei, nobody hasdone this before, he adds.

Two years ago, another group of scientists reported storing so-called quantum data fortwo seconds within atomic nuclei, but they did not read it electronically, as Boehme and

colleagues did in the new study, which used classical data (0 or 1) rather than quantumdata (0 and 1 simultaneously). The technique was developed in a 2006 study by Boehme,who showed it was feasible to read data stored in the net magnetic spin of 10,000electrons in phosphorus atoms embedded in a silicon semiconductor.

The new study puts together nuclear storage of data with an electrical readout of thatdata, and thats whats new, Boehme says.

The study was led by Boehme and first author Dane McCamey, a former researchassistant professor of physics at the University of Utah and still an adjunct assistantprofessor. His main affiliation now is with the University of Sydney. Other co-authors

were Hans van Tol of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Fla.,and Gavin Morley of University College London.

The study was funded by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, the NationalScience Foundation, the Australian Research Council, Britains Engineering and PhysicalSciences Research Council and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, aBritish funding agency led by Prince Philip.

Electronic and Spintronic Memories

Modern computers are electronic, meaning that information is processed and stored by

flowing electricity in the form of electrons, which are negatively charged subatomicparticles that orbit the nucleus of each atom. Transistors in computers are electricalswitches that store data as bits in which off (no electrical charge) and on (charge ispresent) represent one bit of information: either 0 or 1.

Quantum computers a yet-unrealized goal would run on the odd principles ofquantum mechanics, in which the smallest particles of light and matter can be in differentplaces at the same time. In a quantum computer, one quantum bit or qubit could beboth 0 and 1 at the same time. That means quantum computers theoretically could bebillions of times faster than conventional computers.

McCamey says a memory made of silicon doped with phosphorus atoms could be usedin both conventional electronic computers and in quantum computers in which data isstored not by on or off electrical charges, but by up or down magnetic spins inthe nuclei of phosphorus atoms.

Externally applied electric fields would be used to read and process the data stored asspins just what McCamey, Boehme and colleagues did in their latest study. By


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demonstrating an ability to read data stored in nuclear spins, the physicists took a keystep in linking spin to conventional electronics a field called spintronics.

Spin is an unfamiliar concept to comprehend. A simplified way to describe spin is toimagine that each particle like an electron or proton in an atom contains a tiny bar

magnet, like a compass needle, that points either up or down to represent the particlesspin. Down and up can represent 0 and 1 in a spin-based quantum computer.

Boehme says the spins of atoms nuclei are better for storing information than the spin ofelectrons. Thats because electron spin orientations have short lifetimes because spins areeasily changed by nearby electrons and the temperature within atoms.

In contrast, the nucleus sits in the middle of an atom and its spin isnt messed with bywhats going on in the clouds of electrons around the nucleus, McCamey says. Nucleiexperience nearly perfect solitude. Thats why nuclei are a good place to storeinformation magnetically. Nuclear spins where we store information have extremely long

storage times before the information decays.The average 112 second storage time in the new study may not seem long, but Boehmesays the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in a modern PC or laptop storesinformation for just milliseconds (thousandths of a second). The information must berepeatedly refreshed, which is how computer memory is maintained, he adds.

How to Store and Then Read Data in the Spins of Atomic Nuclei

For the experiments, McCamey, Boehme and colleagues used a thin, phosphorus-dopedsilicon wafer measuring 1 millimeter square, and placed electrical contacts on it. The

device was inside a supercold container, and surrounded by intense magnetic fields.Wires connected the device to a current source and an oscilloscope to record data.

The physicists used powerful magnetic fields of 8.59 Tesla to align the spins ofphosphorus electrons. Thats 200,000 times stronger than Earths magnetic field.

Then, pulses of near-terahertz electromagnetic waves were used to write up or downspins onto electrons orbiting phosphorus atoms. Next, FM-range radio waves were usedto take the spin data stored in the electrons and write it onto the phosphorus nuclei.

Later, other pulses of near-terahertz waves were used to transfer the nuclear spin

information back into the orbiting electrons, and trigger the readout process. The readoutis produced because the electrons spins are converted into variations in electrical current.

We read the spin of the nuclei in the reverse of the way we write information, Boehmesays. We have a mechanism that turns electron spin into a current.

Summarizing the process, Boehme says, We basically wrote 1 in atoms nuclei. Wehave shown we can write and read [spin data in nuclei], and shown that the information


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can be repeatedly read from the nuclei for an average of 112 seconds before all thephosphorus nuclei lose their spin information. In a much shorter time, the physicists readand reread the same nuclear spin data 2,000 times, showing the act of reading the spindata doesnt destroy it, making the memory reliable, Boehme says.

Reading out the data stored as spin involved reading the collective spins of a largenumber of nuclei and electrons, Boehme says. That will work for classical computers, butnot for quantum computers, for which readouts must be able to discern the spins of singlenuclei, he adds. Boehme hopes that can be achieved within a few years.

Adapted from materials provided by the University of Utah

Comments (2)


Once it was macro then micro and now nano,tiny,thin is theorder of the day.Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),IndiaE-mail: [email protected]

O circle of blueReporting the Global Water Crisis

Peter Gleick: When Beliefs Conflict with FactsSunday, 03 July 2011 08:10

Representative Jim Costa and the California Drought

Last week, the Pacific Institute released a comprehensive assessment of the actualimpacts of the 2007-2009 California drought. There is a lot of myth, misunderstanding,and misrepresentation swirling around about how the drought affected Californiaagriculture, jobs, and the environment. Our report sets the record straight using real data,not political spin.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/uou-cmt121010.phphttp://www.kurzweilai.net/physicists-store-information-on-worlds-tiniest-computer-memory/comment-page-1#comment-3921mailto:[email protected]://www.pacinst.org/reports/california_drought_impacts/http:/www.pacinst.org/reports/california_drought_impacts/http://www.pacinst.org/reports/california_drought_impacts/http:/www.pacinst.org/reports/california_drought_impacts/http://www.circleofblue.org/waternewshttp://www.circleofblue.org/waternewshttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/uou-cmt121010.phphttp://www.kurzweilai.net/physicists-store-information-on-worlds-tiniest-computer-memory/comment-page-1#comment-3921mailto:[email protected]://www.pacinst.org/reports/california_drought_impacts/http:/www.pacinst.org/reports/california_drought_impacts/http://www.pacinst.org/reports/california_drought_impacts/http:/www.pacinst.org/reports/california_drought_impacts/


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These data and facts apparently conflict with Representative Jim Costas politicalposition or his basic beliefs (needless to say, this isnt unique to Rep. Costa; many of hiscolleagues have the same problem with climate change science a much longerdiscussion). After our report came out he posted a note to his constituents (the 20thCongressional District) on his House of Representatives webpage, entitled The Pacific

Institute is Wrong.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Peter Gleick is president of the Pacific Institute, an internationally recognized waterexpert and a MacArthur Fellow.

As the famous physicist Richard Feynman said If [your belief] disagrees withexperience, its wrong. Thats all there is to it. Congressman Costas beliefs about thelinks between the drought and the economic problems in his district, heartfelt though theymay be, simply disagree with experience. Worse, his post makes it clear that he has notread the report or understood the data that it presents. Here are a few examples.

Representative Costa says: The report claims that these [environmental]

regulations had a minimal impact on our water supply because they accounted for

only 25 percent of the problem.

The Pacific Institutes source on this matter was the Congressmans own legislativeresearch branch, the Congressional Research Service (CRS):

Restrictions on water deliveries resulting directly from federal and state regulations, orimposed by courts interpretation of those rules, are estimated to range roughly from 20%to 25% of total water delivery reductions for 2009, depending on the time period used forestimating annual deliveries. The remaining 75%-80% of 2009 water reductions,according to the Department of the Interior, are due to lack of run-off (i.e., drought)and other factors. In the absence of the current three-year hydrological drought, it is

unlikely that the existing regulatory water delivery restrictions would have createdcontroversy of a similar magnitude. [From CRS (Cody et al. 2009)]

Representative Costa says: the report minimizes the painful effects of the drought

on our livelihoods.

Data are data. The report uses federal and state agency data to actually quantify impactson Central Valley livelihoods. Data do not minimize, however they can demonstrate
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/about/staff/#Peterhttp://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/about/staff/#Peter


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when something is minimal. The pain in the Central Valley is real; but the cause is notwater shortages. The facts show that the real employment disaster in the region is inconstruction and other sectors not linked to water supply. Yet our report repeatedlyacknowledges that poverty remains a very serious problem in the Valley:

The drought played an important role in highlighting the very real and chronic povertyin the San Joaquin Valley Communities within the San Joaquin Valley have had thehighest levels of unemployment and poverty in the state for decades, in both wet and dryyears (CRS 2005).

And, even when water supplies improved substantially in 2010, unemployment in everySan Joaquin Valley county went up, not down. Again, quoting from our report:

Policies to improve conditions in the area should focus on identifying and addressing thefactors that have led to long-term economic hardship in the region.

Our analysis actually reports significant job losses in the Central Valley, though theywere concentrated in non-agricultural sectors:

The drought period coincided with the foreclosure crisis and a national and globalrecession. From 2005 to 2009, unemployment almost doubled statewide from 5.4% to11.3%. Michael et al. (2010) found that over the same time period crop production andagricultural support jobs declined by 1.5% (2,500 jobs) to 2.3 % (3,750 jobs) in the SanJoaquin Valley. The U.S. Census data, however, indicates that many employment sectorssaw far greater declinesThese conclusions are strengthened by EDD [CaliforniaEmployment Development Department] data, which finds that over a longer time period(2003-2009) agricultural employment throughout the Central Valley gained slightly (2%)

while natural resources, mining, and construction jobs fell by 44% and employment inthe trade, transportation, and utilities sectors fell by 46%.

Representative Costa says: this report ignores the facts that the Valleys water

supply is unreliable and that growing the food for a booming population across the

globe is in our nations vital interest.

We dont ignore these problems; we highlight them. The report focuses on these verypoints in agreement with Representative Costa:

Project contractors (or those that receive Delta water from water projects) may not

receive 100% of their contractual allocations even in normal years. This is due to the factthat the federal and state water projects were never fully completed and contractualallocations were larger than actual resource availability could guarantee. And, Insituations of shortage there is also a hierarchy of contracts whereby some contractorsreceive more of their contract water than others, leading to highly varied droughtimpacts.


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California produces approximately 400 different agricultural commodities, supplyingabout half of the fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts consumed by Americans. Californiaalso provides food for the international market, accounting for 15% of the nations totalagricultural export.

Representative Costa says: I walked through fallowed fields that once grew foodfor our families and the world. I spoke with folks I represent standing in lines at

food banks that stretched for blocks. I met face-to-face with countless people who

were unable to find jobs or provide food for their families.

We walked those fields too, and talked to farmers, irrigation districts, and workers. Andone fact stands out: even in one of the highest-grossing agricultural regions in the world,in wet or dry years, high unemployment rates and poverty levels have been the norm fordecades and are only equivalent to the Appalachian region of the United States. Quotingfrom a January 19, 2004 Fresno Bee Pablo Lopez article (before the drought and legalrestrictions on moving water through the Delta):

On a cold January day, farmworkers stand on street corners in Mendota, hoping forwork. Parents and children wait in line for free bags of groceries at the Westside YouthCenter Heres why: Of the estimated 841,400 people living in Fresno County, about343,000 people, or 41%, go hungry or worry about finding their next meal.

Representative Costa says: Finally, the report falsely claims that the coping

strategies and extraordinary measures our famers employed during the drought left

the Valley unharmedThese short-term strategies were essential, but they cost us

much of our groundwater supply and will not be sufficient for the next, possibly

longer, drought on the horizon.

This statement, as much as any of the others, shows that Representative Costa simplyfailed to read our report, choosing instead to issue ideological statements. If he had readit, he would know that once again, were in agreement. Indeed we make this veryargument in our report:

some of the response strategies such as groundwater mining were short term fixes thatwould not provide water security in the face of a longer or more severe drought.

In order for California to become more resilient to future drought conditions, it will becritical to shift from crisis-driven responses to development and enactment of long-term

mitigation measures. All of the sectors that we examine in this report (agriculture, energy,and the environment) are highly vulnerable to future droughts and should develop morecomprehensive drought planning and mitigation measures to reduce the potential forhuman, environmental, and economic harm.

If Representative Costa would like to have a discussion about real actions that could betaken to help his constituents face the realities of Californias water challenges and theinevitability of future droughts, we would welcome such a discussion. Weve been


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having them with his constituents and farming communities around the state. The painand suffering in this region should not be used as a political pawn by localrepresentatives, but should inform genuine efforts to determine the root causes of povertyand to begin to honestly address them.

Peter Gleick

1 Comment

Dr.A.Jagadeesh

July 7, 2011 at 3:22 am

Excellent article on impacts of the 2007-2009 Californiadrought. Your analysis is outstanding Dr. Peter Gleick.


Israeli Data Company Makes a Splash inthe Water Industry (And Keeps the Drops inthe Pool)Wednesday, 29 June 2011 06:30

TaKaDu uses algorithms to save water, energy, and money for utility companies around

the globe.

By Brett Walton

Circle of Blue

Located in an arid region of northern Chile, Antofagasta is a city in transition. Fueled bya mining boom in the nearby Atacama Desert, the citys population has grown by 20
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percent over the last decade to more than 360,000. Chilean statistical agencies predictthat the population will push 500,000 by 2020.

With traditional water sources exhausted, the regional supplier, Aguas de Antofagasta, isinvesting heavily in desalination. The Pacific Ocean already provides more than 60

percent of the utilitys water supply, and, by 2014, the Antofagasta will become the firstcity in South America to rely solely on desalinated water.

But the utility is not only worried about creating fresh water from sea water, but also howto make sure that all of that water reaches its intended destination.

Currently, Antofagastas distribution system loses 23.5 percent of its supply to leaks,which, according to the World Bank, is a performance measure just under the globalaverage of 30 percent loss. For Aguas de Antofagasta, however, the water waste cutsmuch deeper: the company squanders significant amounts of energyand moneydesalinating and pumping water that customers never see.

To improve the systems efficiency and service quality, Aguas de Antofagasta has turnedto TaKaDu, a small technology start-up based in Israel. After a brief trial period, the twocompanies officially announced a contract on May 18.

Not A Water Company

Founded in 2008 and employing 35 people, TaKaDubrings a different sensibility to thewater sector.

We really do not consider ourselves a water company, said Guy Horowitz, vicepresident for marketing, in an interview with Circle of Blue. The people who founded

the company are from the telecommunications industry. Our foundation is in informationtechnology.

As is the trend for water aid organizations, TaKaDu uses its IT background to search forpatterns in data that signify something is amiss with the water supply system. Earlydetection catches small problems before they turn into big ones, preventing a pipe leakfrom becoming a much costlier break.

TaKaDus service requires the installation of no additional equipment, though it has moreappeal in areas where the water distribution system has a high sensor density, since moredata makes identifying smaller leaks easier. TaKaDu offers a software solution that

works with the data already collected by the utilitychunks of information on flow rates,water pressures, and sensor readings. (Water infrastructure monitoring, as TaKaDu callsit, oversees the water distribution system, not the water used by customers.) Data isuploaded to remote servers and analyzed to establish a baseline water-use profile.TaKaDus algorithms and mathematical models sift new data as it comes in to identifyanomalies in real time.
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By using the software, Aguas de Antofagasta hopes to reduce water loss by 3.5percentage points within three years, saving 1.7 million cubic meters (450 billiongallons), according to the companys general manager Marco Kutulas. Kutulas toldCircle of Blue via email that the predicted electricity savings of 7,000 megawatt-hoursper year represent 10 percent of the companys annual use.

Because new water sources are more expensive to develop, utilities like Aguas deAntofagasta are looking to make better use of what they have. And there is a risingsupply of data mavens who want to do just that.

Weve identified a new niche, Horowitz said. Water is a scare resource, but it hasntreceived a lot of attention and innovation from investors.

Small Company with Global Ambitions

The companys global ambitions are evident in its name, which Horowitz said is anonsense word selected precisely because, as far as the company knows, it doesnt mean

anything.TaKaDu serves water utilities in Israel, Australia, Europe, and now Chile. Its largestclient is Thames Water, which serves close to 9 million water customers and 14 millionsewer customers in London. Horowitz said, in the next few weeks, the company will beannouncing a contract with an even larger utility.

These new contracts come on the heels of some prestigious global recognition. Last fall,TaKaDu won a technology award from the World Economic Forum (WEF) and asustainability award from the International Water Association for its Thames Waterproject.

It is also a member of the Smart Water Network Forum, a club for spreading the gospelabout how data management can improve water systems.

Brett Walton is a Seattle-based reporter for Circle of Blue. Reach Walton [email protected].

1 Comment

Dr.A.Jagadeesh

July 7, 2011 at 3:26 am
http://www.swan-forum.com/index.htmlhttp://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/about/staff/#Brettmailto:[email protected]://website/http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2011/world/israeli-data-company-makes-a-splash-in-the-water-industry-and-keeps-the-drops-in-the-pool/comment-page-1/#comment-17548http://www.swan-forum.com/index.htmlhttp://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/about/staff/#Brettmailto:[email protected]://website/http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2011/world/israeli-data-company-makes-a-splash-in-the-water-industry-and-keeps-the-drops-in-the-pool/comment-page-1/#comment-17548


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Marvelous. Israel is well known for its water research andirrigation techniques.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India


Solar at Risk?

Policy stalemate undermines future

Bill Opalka | Jul 07, 2011

Solar power has the biggest project pipeline of any energy source in the country. So why is the industry

worried about the future?

I spoke to Arno Harris, CEO ofRecurrent Energy, a utility scale solar developer based in California that also

has operations in Canada and Europe. Solar developers are excited about the future but policy gridlock

means much of its recent progress could be undercut by Washington gridlock in a matter of months. The

initial victim is the ability to finance projects.

First, the good news.

Its an interesting in that theres more solar in the pipeline than weve ever seen in the past. The proportion

is astounding, Harris said.

That would be 30 gigawatts of utility scale projects in advanced permitting, according to astudy by the

American Public Power Association. We have this tremendous buildup of projects because of declining

costs and the policy in play. In order for theme to make it to completion to operating assets, they need pass

through the gauntlet of permitting and finance, he added.
mailto:[email protected]://www.renewablesbiz.com/author/bill-opalkahttp://www.recurrentenergy.com/http://www.recurrentenergy.com/http://www.publicpower.org/files/PDFs/Newplantsanalysis2011.pdfhttp://www.publicpower.org/files/PDFs/Newplantsanalysis2011.pdfhttp://www.renewablesbiz.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.renewablesbiz.com/author/bill-opalkahttp://www.recurrentenergy.com/http://www.publicpower.org/files/PDFs/Newplantsanalysis2011.pdf


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As the projects move down the list, however, solar drops to number four when listed as projects awaiting

construction, at 6.2 gigawatts.

Thats where the financing challenge appears.

Its really frustrating problem because theres a tremendous amount of interest in solar projects, in particular

the utility scale projects, because the credit is really strong, the terms are strong, and the underlying

technology risk is well understood, Harris said.

But worldwide credit markets and they are worldwide; go to any renewable energy finance conference and

half the audience seems to be comprised of Europeans have billions to invest in clean energy, with the

United States seen as the largest solar market bar none.

But with about three times as much demand as the available supply in the tax equity markets -- $9 billion in

projects in a pool of $3 billion of tax equity the competition is fierce and capital cost high.

In the relative short run, Congress could extend some of the programs that have worked in recent years, likethe 1603 Treasury grants in lieu of production tax credits. Congress may be unwilling in the current budget

climate, but some fixes could be helpful.

One policy making the rounds is the refundable investment tax credit to solve the liquidity problem. Another

would be to move toward whats used in oil and gas, amaster limited partnership for solar.

What that would allow is the millions of individual investors who have an interest, but cant write a $20

million check to participate by investing in a fund, Harris said. A convoluted and inefficient system has

grown up around the industry, with Congress only willing toextend existing programs at the last minute.

Thats why 1603 was so different, but that is only a temporary fix.

"In the longer term it makes a heckuva lot of sense to move away from tax credits because markets dont

seem to be working, Harris said.

But that requires a policy discussion that is only now just beginning. In the meantime, the tax equity market

exists, for better or worse.

Theres a chance we could blow it if we dont get the policies right, Harris said.

If so, Canada and Europe are poised to pick up where weve left off.

Comments
http://seekingalpha.com/article/277817-desperately-seeking-yield-through-equities-part-8-master-limited-partnershipshttp://seekingalpha.com/article/277817-desperately-seeking-yield-through-equities-part-8-master-limited-partnershipshttp://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/11/01/weve-seen-moviehttp://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/11/01/weve-seen-moviehttp://seekingalpha.com/article/277817-desperately-seeking-yield-through-equities-part-8-master-limited-partnershipshttp://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/11/01/weve-seen-movie


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Solar has great future when Efficiency goes up

- Jul 7, 2011 - 6:03 AM

Good Editorial. Solar PV is still uneconomic in many

countries because of its limited efficiency. Unless

CSP,Improved materials for solar cells like Gallium Arsenide,

Gallium Phosphide,Tandem,Organic Polymer come to the

market Solar is a far cry especially in the developing

countries.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore (AP), India

Wind Energy Expert


naturenewsPublished online 5 July 2011 | Nature475, 19 (2011) | doi:10.1038/475019a

News

Mosquitoes score in chemical war

Growing resistance is threatening global malaria-control efforts.

Declan Butler
mailto:[email protected]://www.nature.com/news/author/Declan+Butler/index.htmlmailto:[email protected]://www.nature.com/news/author/Declan+Butler/index.html


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Key weapons in the fight against malaria, pyrethroid insecticides, are losing theiredge. Over the past decade, billions of dollars have been spent on distributing long-

lasting pyrethroid-treated bed nets and on indoor spraying. Focused in Africa, wheremost malaria deaths occur, these efforts have greatly reduced the disease's toll. But

they have also created intense selection pressure for mosquitoes to developresistance.

"Data are coming in thick and fast indicating increasing levels of resistance, and alsoof resistance in new places," says Jo Lines, an entomological epidemiologist and head

of vector control at the Global Malaria Programme of the World Health Organization(WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO now intends to launch a global strategy to

tackle the problem by the end of the year.

Pyrethroids are the mainstay of malaria control because they are safe, cheap,

effective and long-lasting. Alternatives such as organophosphates and carbamatesare available for indoor spraying, although they cost more and are less effective. But

pyrethroids are the only insecticides approved by the WHO for use in bed nets. "Wehave lots of our eggs in the pyrethroid basket," says Robert Newman, director of the

Global Malaria Programme.

Click for larger image

The international community has been slow to respond to the threat despitewarnings, says Janet Hemingway, director of the Liverpool School of Tropical

Medicine, UK, and chief executive of the non-profit Innovative Vector ControlConsortium, a publicprivate venture set up in 2005 to develop new insecticides and

monitoring tools. "A number of us had been banging the drums, saying: 'As soon asyou scale up you are going to get resistance.'" But Lines says that the malaria-

control community felt too many lives were at stake to let the threat of resistancestand in the way of massively scaling up the bed-net and spraying campaigns.

Teasing out the impact of resistance on the success of malaria-control interventionsis difficult because so many other factors influence their outcome. More systematic

and more sophisticated monitoring of resistance is also vital, says Lines. The best
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surveillance data (see 'Resistance on the rise'), although useful, do not give acomplete picture of where resistance is emerging and how prevalent it is, he says.

Malaria-control programmes often lack insect-resistance monitoring, and detection ofall forms of resistance is not easy. Quick, cheap tests can pick out gene mutations

that help the mosquitoes' nerve cells withstand pyrethroid attack. But other forms ofresistance, which depend on increased levels of mosquito enzymes that can destroy

pyrethroids before they reach their target, require more complex tests to detect (H.Ranson et al. Trends Parasitol. 27, 9198; 2011).

But uncertainties about the extent of resistance or its impact are "no excuse forinaction", says Newman, arguing that the proposed WHO strategy needs to be

urgently implemented, and also rolled out preemptively in places where resistancehas yet to be detected. The WHO's plan will recommend, for example, that control

programmes rotate insecticides sprayed indoors, using pyrethroids one year and adifferent class the next. This would be more costly and less effective than relying

only on pyrethroids, however, so control programmes may be reluctant to adopt thismeasure.

Lines says that new combinations of insecticides also need to be developed, so thatmosquitoes resistant to one would be killed by the other. In areas where pyrethroid

bed nets are used, a different class of insecticides should be used for wall spraying,he adds.

Ultimately, entirely new classes of insecticides particularly those that can be

applied to bed nets are needed to alleviate the dependence of malaria-controlefforts on pyrethroids. For indoor spraying, some longer-lasting and more cost-

effective non-pyrethroid insecticides should be available by next year, Hemingway

says, although developing wholly new classes will take five to seven years.Repurposed agricultural insecticides might also act as a stopgap were resistance to

pyrethroids to develop rapidly. Research targeting mosquito control is "grosslyunderfunded" compared with that on malaria drugs and vaccines, she adds, which is

why control efforts have had so few options to call on

Comments #25039

There are many plants which are used as natural

insecticides including mosquitos as repellents:

Achillea alpina (mosquitos) alpha-terpinene (mosquitos) Basilo Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110705/full/475019a/box/1.htmlhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2010.08.004http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2010.08.004http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2010.08.004http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2010.08.004http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2010.08.004http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110705/full/475019a.html#comment-id-25039%23comment-id-25039http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110705/full/475019a/box/1.htmlhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2010.08.004http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2010.08.004http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110705/full/475019a.html#comment-id-25039%23comment-id-25039


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Callicarpa americana (Beautyberry) Camphor (moths) Carvacrol (mosquitos) Castor oil (Ricinus communis) (mosquitos)

Catnip oil (Nepeta species) (nepetalactone againstmosquitos)

Cedar oil (mosquitos, moths) Celery extract (Apium graveolens) (mosquitos) Cinnamon (leaf oil kills mosquito larvae) Citronella oil (repels mosquitos) Oil of cloves (mosquitos) Eucalyptus oil (70%+ eucalyptol), (cineol is a synonym),

mosquitos, flies, dust mites Fennel oil (Foeniculum vulgare) (mosquitos) Garlic (Allium sativum) (rice weevil, wheat flour beetle) Geranium oil (also known as Pelargonium graveolens) Lavender (repels insects) Lemon eucalyptus (Corymbia citriodora) essential oil

and its active ingredient p-menthane-3,8-diol (PMD) Lemongrass oil (Cymbopogon species) (mosquitos)

o East-Indian Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon flexuosus) Marigolds (Tagetes species) Marjoram (Spider mites Tetranychus urticae and

Eutetranychus orientalis) Neem oil (Azadirachta indica) (Repels or kills

mosquitos, their larvae and a plethora of other insectsincluding those in agriculture)

Oleic acid, repels bees and ants by simulating the"Smell of death" produced by their decomposing

corpses. It is a 400 millions years old naturalmechanisms helping to sanitise the hives or to escapepredators

Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) (mosquitos, fleas), butvery toxic to pets.

Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) (mosquitos)


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Pyrethrum (from Chrysanthemum species, particularlyC. cinerariifolium and C. coccineum)

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) (mosquitos) Spanish Flag (Lantana camara) (against Tea Mosquito

Bug, Helopeltis theivora) Tea tree oil Thyme (Thymus species) (mosquitos) Yellow Nightshade (Solanum villosum), berry juice

(against Stegomyia aegypti mosquitos

In the olden days Municipalities in India used to have aprogram to spray Kerosene in ponds and open canals which

are breeders for mosquitos. When Kerosene spreads itforms a layer which does not allow sunrays to enter and assuch prevent mosquito breeding. People put the dried leavesof neem made as powder (Azadirachta indica)and put themon natural coal fire and the smoke repels the mosquitos.

The more chemical used are Mosquito mats, liquidevoporation, Mosquito coils smoke, putting ointment on the

skin etc.,2011.7.7 9:05:16 AM

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