Ispectrum Magazine 12

ISPECTRUM Issue 12/March-April 2015

MAGAZINE

wi-fi from the sky

Antibiotic Apocalypse Anthroposophic Medicine Driving on sunshine

a long and winding road to the future

CONTENTS Features

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03 Wi-Fi From The Sky 04 The Internet must be fast, fair, and open 09 The competition in the aerospace sphere 12 Internet for everyone 15 Antibiotic Apocalypse 18 Antibiotic resistance 20 New antibiotic 22 How to minimize the development of antibiotic resistance?

25 Driving on sunshine a long and winding road to the future 29 Too good to be true 32 A step forward 36 literally integrative Anthroposophic medicine 38 Anthroposophic therapies 39 Anthroposophic drug therapy

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41 Phytotelmata and other extreme habitats of dragonfly development: review 43 Extreme places to live 48 Why do Odonata develop in such harsh habitats?

editorial Dear readers, Here we go again with a new issue full of amazing contents. This month we start with our contributor Alakananda Mookerjee and a topic that is generating huge discussion: should the Internet be free? What would the pros and cons be?

A conversation is now starting to bubble over novel modes of extending connectivity to those parts of the world where almost 4.5 million citizens remain unconnected, by beaming it down from space.

Medicine is facing one of the most challenging problems of the century and the message of the World Health Organization could not be more clear: antibiotic resistance will kill 300 million people by 2050 if we do not find and develop new antibiotics. Ellie Pownall has been taking the pulse of the situation to bring some light; what future is awaiting us?

Joe Baylis comes with a new energy concept that has been gaining a great deal of attention in the engineering community over the past year. Known as a “solar road�, it would essentially turn our transport infrastructure system into one huge renewable power station. Find out more in his article.

Anthroposophic Medicine is a holistic therapy that treats the individual from an integral approach. Anette Bopp, one of the main experts in this field, has written the article we bring you in this issue.

Finally, Olga Antczak, from the University of Lodz, has kindly shared with our readers her latest research about the extreme habitats of dragonfly development, a valuable scientific paper.

Thanks for reading. And remember: comment, share and spread the word!

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Mado Martinez Editorial Director

Ispectrum magazine

Published Bimonthly

ISSN 2053-1869

Editorial Director Mado Martinez, madomartinez@ispectrummagazine.com Art Director Rayna Petrova raynapetrova@ispectrummagazine.com Contributing Editors Matt Loveday mattloveday@ispectrummagazine.com Ravinder Dhindsa Bradley Terblanche Jonathan Masters Jennifer James Contributing Writers Alakananda Mookerjee Ellie Pownall Joe Baylis Anette Bopp Olga Antczak Images Cover:OneWeb.net commons.wikimeadia.org morguefile.com freeimages.com www.ispectrummagazine.com admin@ispectrummagazine.com +44 7517 864 167 (UK)

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Wi-Fi From The Sky

by Alakananda Mookerjee

J

ust as it’s absurd for 21st century citizens—at least in the industrialized West—to read a book in the flickering halo of a gas lamp, it’s equally odd being offline. The Internet, a seemingly invisible tool, has become so intrinsic to our lives that we’ve come to regard it as vital as clean water and electricity.

A civilization sans Facebook will hum along fine. But without internet, it’ll surely fall.

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to be streamed more speedily into So, when in the middle of last our tablets or televisions. And if year, when the American Federal they paid more, they’d make us Communications Commission, pay more. Aside from fattening our under pressure from the internet monthly bills, it’d also put a dampservice provider lobby, proposed a ener on innovations whose very new set of rules wherein U.S. telebedrock is the Internet. com giants like Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable would be able to bifurcate the ‘information Fortunately, the crisis highway’ into a so-called was averted. Nearly ‘fast lane’ and a 4,000,000 letters ‘slow lane’, there from consumwas an uproar. ers and advoProtesters cacy groups shrieked “the Internet must be fast, poured into that that’d fair, and open” the federal kill ‘network agency, cajoln e u t r a l i t y ’, ing it to save the long-standthe Internet from ing concept that falling into the internet service hands of corporate profiproviders treat all data teers. In response, in a statement equally and fairly, regardless of to WIRED, Mr. Tom Wheeler wrote, whether it’s bits and bytes of The “the Internet must be fast, fair, and New Yorker or a song on Spotify open”. And so it will remain—for or a banter on WhatsApp. They now and in the future. Yet, what we shouldn’t play favorites with packperceive as an indispensable utilets of data—they demanded. Under ity, without which we find ourselves the new arrangement, a company isolated, lost, and bored, is a luxlike Netflix or Hulu would have to ury that 4,400,000,000 across the pay a ‘toll’ to allow their content 4

world have no access to. Not yet touched by the hand of the internet god, they don’t know what is to be ‘connected’. But a conversation is now starting to bubble over novel modes of extending connectivity to them by beaming it down from space—but

more on that later.

When you send an e-mail, you casually tap on the ‘send’ button. Whoosh. And like that, it’s gone. You think nothing of it after that, secure in the certainty that it’ll pop up

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in another inbox, near, far, or very, very far away. You couldn’t be sniggered at for thinking that it flew away on the wingtips of a firedrake. After all, there’s so little of this service that we can see—nothing beyond our laptop, router, and modem.

In reality, the Internet has a Cyclopean physical architecture, made of a zoo of computers and a dense mesh of wires that girdle around the globe. Once your message leaves your desk, say, in Chicago, it’s broken down into small pieces. And then it hops from telephone pole to telephone pole until it reaches land’s end.

Next, it journeys through optical fibers— each an incredibly thin strand of glass or plastic that serves as a pathways for information— sealed in submarine cables that run along level stretches of the seabed, carefully avoiding coral reefs, sunken ships, marine troughs and ridges, and fishbeds, before arriving at its destination, say, Beijing. The diameter of a deep-water cable 6

is roughly that of a garden hose (0.7 inches) while those in shallower waters are thicker, about the cross-section of a soda can (2.7 inches). Similarly, when someone in Los Angles wants to read the lifestyle section of the leading English daily, The Times, she keys in its U.R.L. A request to retrieve it goes out.

From wherever it is— presumably, London— it travels through the

cold, dark depths of the Atlantic to her internet service provider’s terminal. It’s a short hop from there to her desktop. At this time, there are 278 active cables. Together, they loop around for some 555,000 miles under the sea, linking all the continents, barring Antarctica and a few island nations. (For perspective -- Mount Everest stands five miles tall). And it is this aquatic grid that powers the overwhelming bulk of our internet.

While on the go, it can be reached on a smartphone through a cell phone tower. Reception is excellent at a Starbucks, in New York’s Time’s Square, but as you move away from bustling urban pockets, it tends to get sluggish and patchy, until it dwindles to naught. Driving along a rural section of Asia’s Grand Trunk Road, your device will receive hardly any signal at all. Worse still, what if you’re in an area in the middle of nowhere, where there’s not even a radio mast and an aerial in the vicinity? Then, the only way to log on is by means of telecom satellites. These are pieces of school bus-size machinery that are placed

Cell Phone Tower

in what is known as a ‘geostationary orbit’. As Earth spins, they spin with it, in tandem, 22,236 miles above the surface, in a circular path, like a hoopla hoop, along the plane of Earth’s midriff.

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work. You’re on a luxury liner, sailing on the Aegean Sea, and you’d like to call someone in Istanbul.

As you place your call, your phone connects to the ship’s on-board, ‘transmitter’, which then beams it up to a ‘receiver’ up on a satellite in an ‘uplink’. The satellite’s transmitter, in turn, sends it back down in a ‘downlink’ to another receiver on the Turkish coast, from where it’s then routed to the recipient. The entire process takes place within a flash. But while it works wonderfully for a standard, voice-only phone call, it may not if you were trying to tweet from the deck or download ‘War and Peace’ on your e-reader from inside your cabin.

To an observer, looking out the window, therefore, they’d appear to be stationary, hovering at the same position night after night. They’re so placed such that ground-based antennas, which ‘talk’ to them, don’t have to keep rotating to keep track of them. They serve as enormous mirrors in space, capable of bouncing off telephone calls, television and radio broadcasts, and internet content, from one sector of the world to another. This is how they

Presently, satellites are slowpokes when it comes to providing entry to the Internet. Signals from Earth— in the form of radio waves, which travel at the same speed as light— take 0.25 seconds to make one round-trip. While that may sound like an infinitesimal time frame, it’s not small enough to support a real-time video call, made through an application like Skype. As of 2006, satellites handled a surpris8

ing 1% of the volume of all telecom traffic.

But that could change if the vision of a couple of Silicon Valley tech tycoons materializes.

Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX, a Hawthorne, Californiabased private space

firm. Its spacecraft, Dragon, made history in May, 2012, when it became the first commercial vehicle to dock with the International Space Station. After retiring the Space Shuttle four years ago, NASA handed it the job of ferrying cargo to the orbiting lab. (The

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American crew, however, so far, still hitch rides with the Russians, aboard Soyuz). He also has a finger in other bleeding-edge pies: Tesla (maker of high-end electric cars); SolarCity (provider of Dragon in orbit

Photo credit:SpaceX

solar power equipment); Hyperloop (a concept tube transport that will hurtle passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in roughly half an hour, at a tearing 598 m.p.h.)

And now, he’s fallen hard for the notion of

bringing high-speed internet (repeat: highspeed) to everyone, everywhere, through a swarm of 4,000 miniature Sputniks, buzzing around in low Earth orbit—just 750 miles up in the sky. Greg Wyler

of OneWeb has plans to put up a smaller fleet of 648. His project is expected to be up and running before the end of the decade and is expected to cost $2 billion.

Keeping the satellites wheeling closer to home will reduce the lag by a wide margin: to a mere 0.006 seconds. On the downside, the area covered by each will be very Photo credit:OneWeb

OneWeb Satellite Drawing

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limited, about the size the New Mexico. Their narrow reach, however, is compensated for by their multitude. Sometimes, it’s hard to put your imagination to work, if the capital required to make it happen is an astronomical sum (if you’ll pardon the pun). But both these enterprises have attracted the pocketbooks of big-name players. Searchengine titan Google and an investor, Fidelity, have plunked down $1 billion into Musk’s venture, which carries a price tag of a staggering $10 billion. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Qualcomm, on the other hand, are backing OneWeb. The media splash made by these recent announcements has eclipsed the success of 03b, which has been in the business since before all the hoopla began.

The Channel Islands-based company (OneWeb) was the first to offer broadband service to a sizeable geographic belt, running 45 degrees north and south of the equator. By placing a constellation of a dozen satellites at 5,000 miles, it’s been able to cut the delay to 11

CubeSat satellites

0.15 seconds, making connections more energetic. The cost of putting a satellite in orbit depends on its size and how far away from Earth it’ll be deployed. They can weigh anywhere between one kilogram (such as CubeSat) to over 1,000. O3b’s products are 700 kilo-

Google Loon balloon (Google Loon launch event , June 2013)

grams when fully fueled. To make the technology more feasible, it’s imperative that satellites be built more compactly and lighter so that a single rocket launch can transport a big batch. O3b has sent up four at a time. While Google has invested in Musk’s endeavor, it’s also finetuning an experiment of its own to haul service to the Internet boondocks in rural, far-flung regions.

‘Loon’, like the orbital proposals, is about delivering connectivity from above but while also staying 12

put within Earth’s a t m o s p h e r e .

A cluster of giant, unmanned balloons, floating in a bluish, cloudless, ozonedrenched r e a l m , about 20 miles vertical, will create an aerial Wi-Fi matrix that will offer 3G-like speeds. In that serene ‘near-space’, where the air is thin, dry, and nippy, they’ll have no trucking with commercial jets or weather-related turbulence—but only different layers of winds. These dirigibles will scud away to wherever they’re needed by hitchhiking on the back of a cold stream, moving north, south, east, or west. To test the program, 30 balloons were deployed above New Zealand’s South Island, in June, 2013. Each unit can provide coverage to an area with a diameter of 25 miles. Below, in an apartment complex, subscribers will be able tap into it, using a bowl fixed on their rooftop.

Not to be outshone, Facebook, too, has ambitions to develop yet another kind of network: a network of massive drones that’ll allow more people to get online. ‘Connectivity Lab’, unveiled in March last year, envisions hoisting sun-driven, long-endurance flying machines that’ll stay airborne uninterruptedly for months.

At a recent Mashablehosted conference, Yael Maguire, the project’s director of engineering, said that they’d be about the size of a Boeing-747. Facebook is yet to announce when they’ll roll out.

weapons of destruction but instruments of empowerment. Not all of it is motivated by altruism, of course.

Some of it is driven by greed. There’s money to be made and lots of

Since the end of the Cold War, we haven’t seen fiercer competition in the aerospace sphere. Only, this isn’t a race between two nations but among corporations, all belonging to one nation. Also, it’s not a race to put up 13

it. The more the eyeballs, the more is the advertising moolah.

But that’s not the end of it. Mr. Musk intends to channel that revenue into funding a similar infrastructure

on… Mars. By the time humanity arrives on the Red Planet and sets up a colony there, he’d like for them to be able to send their maiden Instagram post from a steep-walled valley

on Noctis Labyrinthus.

Perhaps. Close your eyes. Can you visualize an internet station on the rim of the Pavonis Mons?

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But for the moment, there’s a mission to accomplish on our blue dot.

Antibiotic Apocalypse

by ellie pownall website

www.ispectrummagazine.com

S

ince the likes of Sir Alexander Fleming, the single greatest contribution to medicine has been necessary for all aspects of health care; antibiotic’s. The reduction of risk in open wound surgery, infections and cancer treatments has 15

been massive, not only prolonging the lives of millions of people but also creating a spring board for new technology and future discoveries. However, we can ask ourselves how much progression have we made since the original brilliance of Sir Fleming in 1928.

The most recent discovery of a new class of antibiotics was in the 1980’s1, and there are only two companies left (GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca) in a shrinking field of research into new antibiotics which are slow and expensive to develop2.

Some journalistic publications such as Nature Magazine, were able to shed some light on the diminishing horizons for the future of antibiotic’s, suggesting that the key to the success of new antibiotics is screening uncultured bacteria - through which a new antibiotic, ‘Teixobactin’ has been found.

Teixobactin inhibits cell wall synthesis by binding to a highly conserved motif of lipid II (precursor of peptidoglycan) and lipid III (precursor of cell wall teichoic acid3). This development arguably suggests a new path for the discovery of antibiotic’s and only time will tell how far this new method will reproduce the diminishing support behind new antibiotic progression.

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A recent article by the BBC outlined that a “terrible future could be on the horizon4” and this along with warnings from the World Health Organization and The US centres of disease control, states there will be an emergence of “nightmare bacteria” and an “apocalypse” of disease. The antibiotics we use every day are so valuable to life, scientists question what we will do without them.

From the tinniest scratch, to open surgery, these operations will be increasingly risky. It seems a grave future for the development of antibiotic progression lies ahead; the brilliance that was nineteenth century scientific bacterial discov-

In 1928 Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) discovered penicillin, made from the Penicillium notatum mold.

eries has simmered to an end and, whether the technology needed to discover new antibiotics is simply too advanced or there is no existing new strains of antibiotic to discover is debatable.

Developing antibiotics poses problems both commercially and economically: Dr Brad Spellberg, one of the authors of the 2004 17

IDSA report Bad Bugs, No Drugs expresses: “Antibiotics, in particular, have a poor return on investment because they are taken for a short period of time and cure their target disease. In contrast, drugs that treat chronic illness, such as high blood pressure, are taken daily for the rest of a patient’s life. “Companies have

figured out that they make a lot more money selling the latter drugs than they do selling antibiotics,” Spellberg says, “highlighting the lack of incentive for companies to develop antibiotic”5. The lack of initiative to produce new antibiotics is a clear flaw in the plan to revolutionise antibiotic medicine.

While the lack of interest in creating these n e w treatments is clearly due to expense, some companies however are still working hard to improve this technology.

Dr John H Rex, Head of Infection and Global Medicines Development at AstraZeneca recently spoke about the dangers of antimicrobial resistance on National

Public Radio’s “To the Point” show6, during which he noted that he is terrified at the prospect of returning to a pre-antibiotic era. This display of the true concerns for the development of antibiotics as they are; hard to discover, hard to develop, and the econom-

The resistance against antibiotics is commonly described as the situation when the concentration of antibiotic needed to kill the bacteria cannot be achieved at the site of infection.

However, if a bacteria is resistant to one strain of antibiotic this does not mean it will be to a new or different type. This highlights the need for new antibiotics to pre-

ics difficult to manage; suggests scientists are still working increasingly hard to assist in developing new strains of antibiotic, even if some corporations have deemed it too expensive.

vent bacteria that is resistant to multiple types of treatment, named ‘multi-resistant’. There are many works being done to prevent the spread of multi-resistant bacteria for example, “A group of International experts came together through a joint ini-

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One form of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, causes a range of illnesses, from skin and wound infections to pneumonia and bloodstream infections that can cause sepsis and death.

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Photo credit:National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

and PDR. These help to categorize different antibiotics’ and determine how they would be tested for each relevant bacterium, how to define resistance within an antimicrobial category and be epidemiologically meaningful. For example penicillin using the antimicrobial agent ampicillin, the bacterium Citrobacter koseri (C. koseri) which contributes to initiate brain abscess’s during meningitis, was found to be resistant. It is important to subcategorise and organise the findings of these results to e n s u r e which strains of resistance are increasing and eventually, how we will prevent them. This new way of categoriz-

tiative by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the centres for disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to create a standardized international terminology with which to describe acquired resistance profiles in Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococus spp, Enterobacteria (other than salmonella and shigella), pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter spp., all bacteria often responsible for healthcareassociated infections and prone to multidrug resistance7”. The result of this was creating three different subcategories for Antibiotics to be placed: MDR, XDR,

ing antibiotic’s will hopefully decrease the chances of an antibiotic apocalypse by enabling scientists to find new techniques to develop the antibiotic’s that h e a l t h care systems and surgery practices can use to prevent the spread of disease and risk of operations.

by using specific growth factors.

Texiocbactin, as previously stated, was discovered in a screen of uncultured bacteria. It states “This molecule, which we named teixobactin, is an unusual depsipeptide which contains enduracididine, methylphenylalanine, and four D-amino acids. The biosynthetic gene cluster (GenBank accession number KP006601) was identified using a homology search (Supplementary

An article named “A new antibiotic kills pathogens without detectable resistance8” by Dr. Lewis, outlines the development of several methods to grow uncultured organisms by cultivation in-situ or 20

ing patients from infections, and a future of discovery will be needed to prevent this outbreak of newly resistant biotic strains.

Discussion).” This shows the development of homology searches and the hope that future gene clusters will contain new antibiotic information that we can use and re-develop.

The article is optimistic, stating that “Teixobactin has excellent activity against Gram-Positive Pathogens, including drug-resistant strains”.

This is vital for companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca researching a new antibiotic to replace resistant strains. The new antibiotic is arguably a break in the seemingly bleak period of scientific discovery in this field. Scientists suggest that “Inhibition of teichoic acid synthesis by teixobactin would help liberate autolysins, contributing to the excellent lytic and killing activity of this antibiotic”, suggesting a stronger, more powerful antibiotic will be developed and available in the future. The development of “teichoic acid synthesis” is arguably a procedure which can be used on future new developments of bacteria and therefore improve the strength and stability of this medicine in killing bacteria in patients. Of course, one antibiotic will not change the course of a scientific apocalypse in prevent-

The new field of resistance from the body is an ideology which scientists hope to erase, the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) are fighting to produce clearer patient instruction to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance. Many aspects of antibiotic resistance rely on the understanding of patients, for example, if a patient were to not finish the prescribed amount of antibiotic. The NHS explains that “Strains of bacteria can mutate, over time, become resistant to a specific antibiotic. The chance of this increases if a person does not finish the course of antibiotics as some bacteria may be left to develop resistance.”9 This highlights the importance of the patient being fully aware of the need to finish a course of antibiotics and therefore can prevent the urgency of the need for new strains of antibiotics, in some cases.

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This poster, for example, describes the correct measures to prevent a completely resistant future for antibiotics. The development of patient information and guidance is deemed just as important as the development of new antibiotics and anti-resistant science.

of anti-biotic which will be produced in the future, is a positive change from previous antibiotic developments. This article describes how the new development of antibiotic will regard both the interests of the individual patient but also the ecological impact of different drugs and their delivery schedules.

This will be done by controlling the concentrations within the human body in a series of compartments,

The Department of Microbiology, Hospital RamĂłn y Cajal, Madrid, Spain, suggest a theory of how to minimize the development of antibiotic resistance. Stating that “Bacterial populations harbouring determinants of antibiotic resistance will be selected for by a range of antibiotic concentrations which are able to suppress or slow the growth of susceptible populations.â€? Suggesting the new strain 22

Photot credit: Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts

Dr. Kim Lewis (Northeastern University)

However, there is still the case of finding these new strains of antibiotic resistance in order to prevent the growth of resistant bacterial populations.

where the potential selective power will be roughly proportional to the time of exposure of bacteria to the drug (selective period). This will make the antibiotic more powerful and less likely to be resistant as it won’t be in full contact with the bacteria for a long period of time.

The department of Microbiology suggests these new antibiotic will be able to fight against resistance and therefore create a more economic and effect pool of medicine.

Overall, the existence of usable antibiotics is slowly coming to an end and it is up to scientists such as Dr. Lewis and the department of microbiology, to discover new ways 23

to find strains of antibiotic which have not yet been discovered, in order to restart the cycle of disease cured by antibiotic’s leading to good health. The importance of antibiotic development is seemingly overlooked by funding programmes, however scientists continue to work excessively to develop a way for antibiotic’s to function at the same level of effectiveness as previous discoveries. The rising of ‘Teixobactin’ holds a good lead for future development. Although the rate of development and discovery of antibiotics is exceedingly slow, the outcome will prevent bacterial resistance and eventually, continue the effectiveness of treatments in diseases and infections.

2.The Battle to Discover new Antibiotics http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ newsbysector/pharmaceuticalsandchemicals/9010738/The-battle-to-discover-newantibiotics.html 3.Uncultured Bacteria-The way forward http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/ v517/n7535/full/nature14098.html 4.BBC Article http://www.bbc.com/news/health-21702647 5.Bulletin of the World Health OrganizationRace against time to develop new antibiotics 6.Bad News Bugs and The Need for New Antibiotics- Stephanie Fischer 7.Research into Multi-Resistant bacteria http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ j.1469-0691.2011.03570.x/full 8.A new antibiotic kills pathogens without detectable resistance- Losee L. Ling1 *, Tanja Schneider2,3*, Aaron J. Peoples1 , Amy L. Spoering1 , Ina Engels2,3, Brian P. Conlon4 , Anna Mueller2,3, Till F. Scha¨berle3,5, Dallas E. Hughes1 , Slava Epstein6 , Michael Jones7 , Linos Lazarides7 , Victoria A. Steadman7 , Douglas R. Cohen1 , Cintia R. Felix1 , K. Ashley Fetterman1 , William P. Millett1 , Anthony G. Nitti1 , Ashley M. Zullo1 , Chao Chen4 & Kim Lewis

REFERENCES:

9.Patient Input http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Antibioticspenicillins/Pages/Introduction.aspx

1.Novel classes of antibiotics or more of the same? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC3085877/

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Driving on sunshine -a long and winding road to the future

by JOe baylis

A

new concept has been gaining a great deal of attention in the engineering community over the past year or so, with the potential to transform how we see energy production. It is known as a ‘solar road’ and

would essentially turn our transport infrastructure system into one huge renewable power station that produces excess clean energy, pays for itself, prevents accidents and filters run-off to create drinking water.

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Interlocking ‘Solar Freakin’ Roadway’ panels

You’d be forgiven for treating this proposal with cynicism. It does sounds like it’s too good to be true. Indeed, several well-qualified people have protested passionately and pessimistically, ‘proving’ that this idea will never work.

And they’re off!

Back in 2006, Mr and Mrs Brusaw, an engineering couple in Idaho, USA, started work on the idea of replacing roadways with hexagonal smart solar panels strong enough on which to drive the heaviest of vehicles.

Worry not however! The pioneers continue to push on, and more recent developments late in 2014 have put things back on track.

But how bright is the future of solar roads really? Will we ever get the chance to literally walk on sunshine? Let’s take a look at the complicated journey the solar road concept has taken so far, and the pros and cons of the technology.

They developed their idea further before, in 2014, announcing to the world that it was time to enter it into reality, in the form of a boorishly attention-grabbing YouTube video called Solar Freakin’ 26

dollars - that’s twice what they were aiming for. To add to this, the American Federal Highway Administration had previously invested $750,000. This big idea was obviously capturing the public’s and state’s It kick-started a crowd- attention. funding campaign that And frankly, why went on for two months and managed to raise wouldn’t it? If you don’t 2.2 million American have the time or the Roadways, which has amassed nearly 20 million views (have a look for yourself using the link below). https://www. youtube.com/ watch?v=qlTA3rnpgzU

disposition to watch the above video in full, then here’s a brief list of the proposed benefits: • Production of enough clean renewable energy to supply the USA with three times its needs (assuming the whole road network was transformed). The worries of global warming and our dependence

Could ‘Solar Freakin’ Roadways’ make these images a thing of the past?

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Heating element snow test/LEDs on show (in the dark)/Artist’s impression of ‘Solar Freakin’ Roadways’

nance costs, especially as repairs would simply involve directly replacing each damaged tile.

• The panels have LEDs installed, meaning that the road can light up ahead of cars, flash • Buildings would warning signals and plug directly into the reconfigure at a touch road, and electric cars of a button (great for could be charged as car parks, playgrounds and managing traffic they drive. flow).

• The panels are more durable then tarmac • The panels have and so reduce mainte- pressure sensors so on dwindling fossil fuels would be allayed.

• The surplus energy could then be sold so that the solar panels effectively pay for themselves.

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can warn drivers of any obstructions in the road ahead (especially attractive for unlit roads in regions where large wildlife roam dangerously in the darkness).

• The panels contain heating elements so can clear the road of ice and snow constantly, preventing untold numbers of accidents.

Of course, the process of transforming the whole US road net-

work would be a slow and gradual one with large initial expenditures.

Nonetheless, most would agree that the ideas presented are certainly very exciting.

Too good to be true As with any new and exciting development, there are plenty of people out there looking to debunk this concept; armed with realism (some may read pessimism), they argue that the project is just far too ambitious. Unfortunately for the yea-sayers, these critics have some valid points. The below is a useful video:

Photo credit:homewaters-jim.blogspot.co.uk How will LEDs be seen under conditions like this?

enough energy to power even their own LEDs, let alone provide energy to the grid, pay for themselves, heat up and filter water. It is argued that they will end up losing money.

https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=H901KdXgHs4

This primary concern is made up of the following problems:

The main argument is that, in the absence of real data, the maths simply does not add up, even with some very generous assumptions made. The solar panels allegedly will never be able to produce

• Thickness of glass. The proposed glass has to be thick enough to withstand huge pressure and rough enough for added traction.

This means less light can reach the 29

• Dust, dirt and organic matter mean the roads will need regular cleaning for the solar cells to remain efficient. Wear, tear and scratches will also reduce the amount of light reaching the cells. And most roads are lined by large objects like trees, preventing light from reaching the surface.

solar panels underneath, reducing their efficiency.

• The LEDs are unlikely to be visible during the day. What ramifications does this have for warning systems and lane configurations?

• There is no information available regarding stopping distances on this new glass surface. Of particular concern is stopping in wet conditions.

• It is impossible to angle the solar panels towards the sun as it moves across the sky, as with other solar panels, further reducing efficiency.

The most efficient solar panels track the movement of the sun and have very thin, clear glass. Even these take approximately a decade to ‘pay for themselves’

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• The interlocking nature of the tiles means that varying loads will displace each tile in different ways, creating an uneven and dangerous road surface more susceptible to weathering.

solar panels?

• The project will be incredibly expensive to get off the ground.

Cutting-edge technology, complex wiring and solar panels do • How will roads get not come cheap. the energy in the winter to melt ice when the • How will such comangle of the sun is low, high-tech cloud cover is high and A full car park will block sunlight at the most valusnow is covering the

able time of the day/Will the road get enough energy to melt ice if it is already covered in snow? And let’s not forget about trees and buildings that often cast shadows over roads

remote areas – moniponents fare toring is nigh on imposin inhospitable sible. environments e.g. the impact • Car parks will be of frost and useless given that they are commonly covered heat. in cars during the day, • What about when all the sunlight is the problem of around for business. theft? Valuable pieces of • In the longer term equipment will – will the problem of be placed in black outs and cyber 31

attacks be addressed?

This has the potential of causing absolute havoc.

A step forward

• What about light pollution? This is already proving to be an annoyance around the world.

Laying down roads that light up won’t exactly help the situation.

The Brusaws refuse to take these criticisms lying down and have issued answers to many FAQs. For example, their embossed glass design will not only create traction but also refract light onto the sensors below, apparently reducing the problem of the changing angle of the sun. Some of these replies are a little generic and woolly though, so a direct rebuttal to the critics, with hard facts and figures, would be useful.

The FAQ section of their website can be found in the link below. http://www.solarroadways.com/faq.shtml

Admittedly, it does look like a worrying collection of set-backs and opponents simply say, why not just cover the millions of empty roofs around the world with proven, high efficiency solar panels?

So, does this spell the end of solar roadways?

I wouldn’t be so sure…

But it’s not all about the Brusaws. This idea is also being developed in the Netherlands, with the building of a solar cycle path in the north32

ern town of Krommenie.

A 70 metre stretch of road is actually currently in use (something that has been missing from the Idaho campaign) and supports around 2000 cyclists a day, cost 3million Euros to build (half covered by the government) and, an extension of 100 metres, will power three houses.

Initially developed by TNO (a Dutch scientific research company), the design is called SolaRoad, and is slightly different to Solar Freakin’ Roadways. One variation for example, is that the solar cells are embedded in rectangular concrete slabs rather than in a tessellating pattern.

So, maybe this is 2-1 to the pioneers…

Any word from the naysayers?

Photo credit: Solaroad

‘SolaRoad’ cells are embedded in concrete slabs, rather than tessellating panels

It is clear that we are still in a period of trials and testing for these solar roads, and the Dutch example demonstrated this in December 2014 (a month after opening). Cold weather caused the top layer to become detached from its anchor and so a metre section was deactivated.

But, before the cynics pounce, this is just par for the course for any ground breaking project. It wouldn’t be a trial without a few tribulations.

The main difference though, is that they have put more emphasis on green energy rather than ‘extra benefits’. The engineers behind this project are hopeful it could be expanded more to the main roads to help power traffic lights and cars in the future, but not to the same outrageous extent as their American cousins. This shift in focus renders a lot of the criticisms more irrelevant, which opponents have acknowledged.

The emergence of SolaRoad has stifled protestations somewhat, because it seems to be more of a well thought out, sensible and realistic project. However, many are indeed still focussing on the sheer expense of such a project, which is a fair point to some extent, espe33

cially if you live in the dreamland that is Solar Freakin’ Roadways.

the total cost of Solar Freakin’ Roadways is 56 trillion dollars (or around $20 million per mile), which is just under four times the national debt of the USA.

The Brusaws and others say that starting small will generate capital to build more, but even that doesn’t look likely, considering how far off we are from actually making a profit on these things. As much as we’d all love to believe that there will still be energy left over to sell, the compelling maths shown by critics shows that this is very far from reality.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Dutch SolaRoad, assuming it will lengthen to 100m, will cost around 3 million Euros (3.5 million dollars), which seems expensive considering that it will only produce enough energy to power three houses. But that’s neither here nor there. It is what this 3 million represents that is important – a step towards a renewable and sustainable future.

To give some kind of perspective, one such astronomical estimate of the total cost of Solar Freakin’ Roadways is 56 trillion dollars (or around $20 million per mile), which is just under four times the national debt of the USA. This is admittedly only an estimate, and is one of the only ones available. The Brusaws are yet to have offered an official detailed quote, which is actually quite worrying in itself.

So… What’s next?

Excitingly, many institutions and organisations are commercially interested in this concept. For example the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been mulling over the possibility of installing these road34

Can you imagine the streets of London replaced by solar cells

ways in the UK’s capital. There is one caveat here though - his focus is currently on the Brusaws’ campaign. I would urge him to remain a little closer to home and look into the Dutch offering first (especially considering Boris’ obsession with cycling).

Several critics of the solar road concept do actually agree that it is an attractive project and shouldn’t necessarily be cast asunder. In this world though, profitability is a barrier to all things; if something doesn’t make money it won’t become mainstream. This rules out the all singing all dancing Solar Freakin’ Roadways at least for now, as we simply do not have the capital. However, it is important not to squash the idea into the ground. To shoot down pioneering work is to halt the progression of the human race. Let’s start at a grassroots 35

level and build from there.

Projects like the Dutch SolaRoad are useful for smaller, more niche applications like high-tech parks, playgrounds, pavements and cycle paths. And who knows, we may see some serious developments in the future. First, traffic lights may be powered using this technology, then streetlights, then cars, then whole streets. Sooner or later who’s to say we can’t end up with cities?

Research into renewable alternatives to fossil fuels is essential. With time, breakthrough will build upon breakthrough and we will emerge with a sustainable energy source that will benefit the whole planet. It is this goal that we must focus on.

by Anette Bopp

Literally integrative: Anthroposophic Medicine

M

ore and more patients want to be treated not only by conventional therapies but also in a holistic way with complementary methods and therapies. This is for good reason: an individual is not simply a body; there is also psyche and personality to be

36

taken into account as well. Furthermore, every human being lives in a certain professional, personal, and social context.

Anthroposophic medicine has occupied this subject in a holistic-integrative manner for more than 90 years.

Anthroposophic medicine is not an ‘alternative medicine’. It doesn’t seek to replace conventional medicine.

On the contrary – it is an extension of it, dealing not only with the physical but also with the soul and spirit. Based on accepted medical science, it draws on everything useful that modern medicine has to offer: medical technology, laboratory tests, medication, operations, and intensive care. But that’s not the only benefit. In addition, it assesses the individual as a whole entity, examining the aspects that determine a person’s uniqueness according to anthroposophical norms. For instance, this may include physique and body language, physical flow, handshake, sleeping habits, sensitivity to changes in

temperature, breathing, and biorhythms.

Anthroposophic medicine therefore attempts to include the individuality of the patient, as well as the accepted features of an illness, in the treatment process. For just as each person is unique, so is each treatment.

Anthroposophic medicine is not pre-determined. It avoids pure routine. Even if the same disease pictures constantly recur, each illness manifests itself differently in each patient – a manifestation inseparable from the uniqueness of the individual.

Anthroposophic medicine therefore aims to form a picture of the physical, psychological, and personal circumstances that have 37

paved the way for an illness to take hold.

Taking such factors into consideration during diagnosis and therapy and re-applying the process to every new patient, guided by scientific findings, medical experience, per-

sonal discernment, and intuition, is fundamental to anthroposophic medicine. Any medicine that ignores the person as an individual cannot claim to be true human medicine.

Moreover, anthroposophic medicine supplements conventional medicine with various special forms of treatment. These include

Anthroposophic therapies deal with more than just the physical body of human beings.

Photo credit: (C) Stephan Brendgen

38

naturopathic medicines, modified physical and palliative treatments (involving baths, compresses, bandages and special [rhythmic] massages) as well as artistic forms of treatment, such as sculpture, painting, music therapy, elocution, and eurythmy therapy. The aim of all artistic forms of treatment is that the patient stimulates the internal healing process of body and soul under guidance from their therapist.

Drug therapy within anthroposophic medicine is based on the ancient principle: as little as possible and

only as long as necessary. In cases of acutely severe and life-threatening illness, the use of allopathic or conventional drugs (like antibiotics or cortisone, etc.) is usually unavoidable. However, whenever possible, symptoms are not suppressed; instead the intention is to activate powers of self-healing with the aid of homeopathic and other produced anthroposophic drugs and to stimulate the body into finding its own natural rhythm once more.

In this field, anthroposophic medicine follows a holistic and pluralistic approach.

A well-known example of a typical anthroposophic drug therapy is mistletoe, which is used as medicinal plant in oncology. In Europe it’s the most common and most investigated drugs in integrative oncology. More than one hundred clinical studies have proved the advantages in quality of life when patients used mistletoe in addition to, e.g., chemotherapy, radiation, or other conventional cancer treatments. Some studies even indicate that there is also the possibility of 39

life extension.

With its synthesis of natural and spiritual science anthroposophic medicine links the conventional pathogenic approach (focusing on the illness) to a salutogenic medical perspective (focusing on health).

This produces a holistic appreciation of health, illness, and treatment – and that’s exactly what modern humanity needs. In this day and age, patients don’t want to be seen merely as an illness, but as a person with an illness.

Anthroposophic medicine is practised in more than 80 countries around the world: in Cape Town and Helsinki, Moscow and Los Angeles, Hamburg and Manila, and Sao Paulo and Santiago de Chile. The first anthroposophic hospital for acute care was Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke (www.gemeinschaftskrankenhaus.de), founded in 1969.

It has a capacity of 471 beds for all important medical departments with 1250 employees and more than 50,000 patients a year (inpatients

Photo credit: (C) Stephan Brendgen The Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke is one of the leading and best equipped hospitals in Germany which offers anthroposophic therapies.

and outpatients). Moreover, there are another two big hospitals for acute care in Berlin and Stuttgart and eleven specialized hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, or medical departments. In addition, there are professional associations for therapists and nurses and a civil organisations like GESUNDHEIT AKTIV – Anthroposophic Medicine (www.gesundheit-aktiv.de), which stands for a holistic health system.

Sources: “Anthroposophic Medicine – its nature, its aims, its possibilities“ and “Anthroposophic Treatments – principles, spectrum, application“, brochures published by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum, http://www. medsektion-goetheanum.org/home/publikationen/.

Website Verband Anthroposophischer Kliniken e.V. Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke www.gemeinschaftskrankenhaus.de Gesundheit Aktiv www.gesundheit-aktiv.de

40

Phytotelmata and other extreme habitats of dragonfly development: a review

by Olga Antczak e-mail

ola.antczak10@gmail.com

Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology, University of Lodz, Banacha st. 12/16, Pl-90-237 Łódź, Poland

41

Abstract:

T

ypical biotopes inhabited by the dragonflies’ larvae are rivers, creeks, streams, lakes, ponds, bogs, as well as tanks in excavation pits. It turns out, however, that there are species of dragonflies resistant to severe environmental conditions, capable of living in very unusual habitats.

There are species inhabiting waterfalls, saline water or even temporary desert pools. Several tropical species inhabit “plant-held waters” - phytotelmata – water bodies in leaves, roots, tree hollows. There are also terrestrial or semi-terrestrial dragonflies, which are adapted to live in moss, on wet rocks or ground litter. The diversity of habitats and adaptations of dragonflies related to these harsh conditions is enormous.

These dragonflies enrich the ecosystems, as an important component of food webs, and their presence certainly increases the aesthetic value of the landscape. The importance of protecting these extraordinary developmental habitats is crucial in context of the conservation of the odonata fauna.

42

1.

Introduction Dragonflies (Odonata) are widespread hemimetabolous insects.

They are amphibiotic their larvae are strongly associated with the aquatic environment, while adults are flying insects connected with water throughout their lives, especially during oviposition.

According to the type of inhabited microhabitat, there are two groups of dragonflies’ larvae - one living on sand or gravel as well as decomposed organic matter, and the second one being phytophiles living mainly among macrophytes.

Those microhabitats are mainly found in running waters, both natural and anthropogenic, like rivers, streams, drainage ditches or channels.

Equally preferable are different kinds of standing waters like lakes, ponds, bogs, swamps, as well as tanks in gravel pits, quarries, clay and peat excavations. But in some cases, tiny and temporary water reservoirs, like phytotelmata seem to be enough.

2. Discussion What we call an extreme place to live is relative, but for this review the extremely challenging habitats, which require special adaptations from dragonflies living there, were selected.

The first species is semiterrestrial Uropetala carovei, which inhabits highland spring-fed bogs in New Zealand (Wolfe 1953, Corbet 1962, Silsby 2001). It drills little burrows in the 43

seepage area, often with two openings or several ‘chambers’ on the basis (Fig.1). However, there was no case of finding more than one larva in single burrow (Wolfe 1953). Larvae live in the chambers embedded in a fine silt with their caudal plates above. The burrows are constructed in such a way as to allow water infiltration to the inside, so that they are provided with the necessary moisture to breathe through their rectal gill.

Therefore, Uropetala larvae can spend even several months out of the water (Wolfe 1953, Corbet 1999). That construction can take various forms, dependent on several factors.

Firstly the larva lives just below the water level, but older instars are found at the greater depth (Wolfe 1953).

Uropetala dragonflies

Similar burrows are drilled by the other Petaluridae larvae, for example Petalura gigantea, which was described by Tillyard (1911).

In addition, a few fully terrestrial species, like Hawaiian Megalagrion oahuense, are known.

Its habitat is a rhizome mat of ferns like Dicranopteris linearis or Gleichenia sp. growing on the steep hillsides (Corbet 1962, Silsby 2001).

The larvae breathe using atmospheric oxygen thanks to the high humidity of the air. Moreover, they have a few morphological adaptations to prevent excessive loss of moisture - they are stocky and hairy, their body is strongly shortened and their caudal Fig. 1. The burrow of Uropetala lamellae are squat and carovei – type with several thickly covered with chambers (Wolfe 1953, modi- setae (Corbet 1962). fied) also use their burrows for hunting. They show nocturnal activity, when the entrances of their burrows are even less visible. The darkness is used to hunt for small arthropods by taking them by surprise (Wolfe 1953, Winstanley & Rowe 1980).

44

Larvae, which inhabit reservoirs periodically drying out, have to deal with similar problems. Australian Synthemis eustalacta occupies summer-dry pools and is able to survive in shallow, dry sand up to 10 weeks without being moistened. After this period of time the larva is so dry that in its first contact with water it floats on the surface (Tillyard 1910, Corbet 1999). It is probably also caused by the structure of the hydrophobic wax covering the body surface (Corbet 1999).

However, there are not many drought-resistant larvae. Common adaptation for droughts is a modification of voltinism (Suhling et al. 2004, Corbet et al.

2006). Odonata often use the strategy of accelerating the development cycle in order

to emerge from the pool before drying out. It is an especially common mechanism for the seasonal-rainfall pools in deserts (Corbet 1999, Suhling et al. 2004). In contrast, some dragonflies can withhold their development by the egg diapause. Indian Potamarcha congener can have the eggs in that state up to 80 days (Corbet 1999).

During the temporary zone larvae often get buried in the wet sand and when the pond gets refilled by water, they continue their development (Corbet 1999, Suhling et al. 2004).

Another species of this genus, Megalagrion amaurodytum (= M. koelense) breeds in the leaf axils of Astelia and Freycinetia in the wet upland forests of Hawaii, although it is able to survive without the water (Corbet

1962).

Studies of Howarth and Watson show that M. amaurodytum, as well as Pseudocordulia species, can even climb out if placed in free water (Corbet 1999). Williams (1936) described also other Megalagrion larvae crawling in a water-film on rocks. In many species of this genus the reduction of gills and tracheae is observed (Richards & Davies 1977).

Worldwide 47 dragonfly species are known to use phytotelmata as a larval habitat (Corbet 1999). Lyriothemis tricolor is an example of development in tree holes in India (Das et al. 2013), whereas in Borneo this is probably the most important habitat in the forest ecosystem (Corbet 1999). Water in these tanks is characterized by specific physical and 45

chemical conditions, such as low pH, high content of dissolved solids and nutrients, and oxygen deficiencies. Therefore, the larvae have to have high tolerance to such conditions. In addition, there are even such adaptations as cannibalism. Megaloprepus caerulatus appears to be the best example of this mechanism.

Only one larva can survive for 1-2 liters of water in a tree hollow (Fincke 1994, 2011).

In smaller habitats the larva, which hatched first, can patrol the space, eating all newly hatched larvae (Fincke 1996, 1999, 2011). In the biggest hollows as many as 30 larvae are able to develop (Fincke 2011). This behavior provides them sooner emergence at a larger size (Fincke 2011).

Photo credit:By USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab from Beltsville,USAl via Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC-BY-2.0

Erythrodiplax berenice

Mecistogaster ornata larvae use a different strategy to gain the necessary quantity of dissolved oxygen in tree hollow tanks – some of them live in symbiosis with algae growing on the dorsal surface of their body, including caudal lamellae. They face towards the sunlight, enabling the photosynthesis of the algae (de la Rosa & Ramirez-Ulate 1995,

Corbet 1999).

Despite the most often occupied phytotelmata by Odonata being Bromeliaceae tanks as well as leaf axils of other plants and tree cavities, there are also species found in even smaller water bodies, like Hadrothemis camarensis, which is able to develop in bamboo stamps (Corbet 1962).

Obviously, many of these untypical micro46

habitats are facultative, occupied in case of lack of the more suitable sites (Corbet 1 9 6 2 , S i l s b y 2001).

There are also several dragonflies, which oviposit and develop solely in ‘extreme’ habitats.

The larvae of the only true marine species, Erythrodiplax berenice, is unable to develop in freshwater (Wright 1943, Smith & Smith 1996), however in laboratory studies they have managed to live in the tap water for one month (Smith & Smith 1996). The natural habitats of this dragonfly are rocky mangrove

flats and tidal marshes (Dunson 1980, Smith & Smith 1996, Corbet 1999). Optimal salinity for them is around 36-38 ppt, although they are able to live in sea water up to 260% thanks to osmoregulatory abilities (Dunson 1980). Several Odonata occupy brackish water of varying salinity – on San Salvador (the Bahamas) these ecosystems are inhabited by Erythemis simplicicollis, Orthemis ferruginea and Pantala flavescens (Smith & Smith 1996).

Another interesting larval habitat is waterfalls. The best known example is the African dragonfly Zygonyx natalensis. After copulation, they fly in tandem through the water spray and then a female oviposits in the mats of roots, bryozoans or moss in the spray zone along a waterfall (Corbet 1962, Martens 1991). In Panama and Costa Rica Thaumatoneura inopinata shows similar behavior (Calvert 1914, Silsby 1991). These larvae are able to live on the wet vertical rocks behind rapidly falling water thanks to the dorsoventrally flattened body and long powerful legs with strong claws (Silsby 1991).

In this article only part of 47

very unusual and extraordinary larval development habitats has been described with probably plenty more to be yet discovered.

3. conclusion

Why do Odonata develop in such harsh habitats? One of the answers is definitely lack of other convenient breeding sites. What is more important, in most of such places there are not many predators. Therefore, the adaptations to the living in extreme habitats, like high saline waters and waterfalls, are often the survival strategy (Calvert 1914, Corbet 1999). In phyto-

Why do Odonata develop in such harsh habitats?

48

telmata, for example, dragonfly and damselfly larvae are known to be the top predators (Fincke 1994).

Furthermore, relatively large amounts of terrestrial and semiterrestrial Megalagrion damselflies on Hawaii are most likely the result of adaptive radiation. Jordan et al.

(2003) pointed out that high levels of endemism and species richness can be correlated with islands’ ages. The emergence of the new island allowed the larvae to colonize the available ecological niche by developing new adaptations

and thus, many different ecological guilds were established (Jordan et al. 2003). Consequently, species of this genus inhabit equal amount of habitats as all other damselflies in the world combined (Simon 1987).

Moreover, the larvae had the possibility to colonize phytotelmata and terrestrial habitats due to the historical absence of mammals and ants in Hawaii (Jordan et al. 2003).

Zimmerman (2001) presumes that the terrestrial Megalagrion oahuense larvae could, in the future, be an ancestor for the new order of insects, which would evolve in 49

Hawaii.

One thing is certain - the survival of these extraordinary Odonata depends in greater scale on human activity. The ecosystems inhabited by dragonflies are under strong human pressure. It affects mainly tropical habitats, which are a hotspot of dragonfly biodiversity. In addition, these dragonflies are an essential component of the food web in many ecosystems.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for their protection.

Acknowledgments

Hupało for checking the linguistic correctness.

I am very grateful to Grzegorz Tończyk for valuable comments.

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