Posts

Citizen Science: The ideal air quality sensor

I am looking for a particulate sensor that we can use with the Eastern Coachella valley Environmental Justice community. The community member hosting the device will benefit from the technology by understanding their air quality, their health and how it compares to the rest of the world. Its an exercise in public health education and empowerment. When a family hosts a device, it could potentially inform and educate them about the air quality parameters that are used; how their community ranks with the rest of the country and localize some of the air quality warnings. The ideal outdoor air quality senso r should have the following abilities: CRITERIA: Be robust, small, portable and weather resistant for an outdoor site. Be unobtrusive in its appearance to detract from vandalism Have AC and DC power options where it could be run from a battery and/or plugged in Require none or very simple zeroing and calibrations that can be run by a citizen with a high school education.  Be net

Publish

Thinking of publishing in an open access journal? Will your tenure track committee notice if the journal has an obscure name? Why don't you publish in the Journal of Applied Public Health Research? Sounds too good to be true? If you are interested, please read about this sting operation: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full I receive many emails per day inviting me to publish in reputable open access journals. My favorite quote is this: "We are ardent to promote erudite, pragmatic, and contemporaneous research" This is from a journal supposedly based in San Diego. . There are more interesting guidelines for selecting a reputable journal here: http://scholarlyoa.com/2014/01/02/list-of-predatory-publishers-2014/

The TRUE sustainable Energy Source

I like the simplicity and message of this video: http://vimeo.com/61922472 Energy can be obtained from waste-water. From the film: "Everyday I have to re convince the same people I convinced  yesterday".. about the energy potential in waste water.