World Watch FOSSIL-FUEL CARS DRIVE INTO A NORWEGIAN SUNSET It is full speed ahead for electric cars in Norway. The Nordic country has announced it will phase out fossil-fuel vehicles by 2025 —which would make it the first country in the world to do so. Plug-in electric or hybrid cars already account for more than 25 per cent of new-vehicle sales in Norway. Norway also recently introduced the world’s fastest charging station for electric cars. With a view to meet the needs of long-distance electric vehicles, the station is located on the main north- south highway of the peninsula that extends from the tip of Sweden to Kirkenes, Norway, in the Arctic Circle. The station provides fast charges for all three systems now used. It’s capable of delivering nearly 2,000 kilowatts when all chargers are running. CHILDHOOD DEHYDRATION TARGETED BY ZURICH ENGINEERING STUDENTS Dehydration kills more than one million children a year in hot weather, usually in impoverished countries. Many of them are too young to tell anyone what they feel or need. Now, mechanical engineering expertise is being applied to the deadly problem, through the creation of a device that will help laypersons recognize when treatment is necessary. Mechanical engineering students and others at ETH Zurich’s Mobile Health Systems Laboratory and Zurich University of the Arts developed the prototype. It consists of identical blue cuffs, one for the hand and one for the foot. The cuffs are embedded with electrodes linked by a cable. A weak current sent through the electrodes enables resistance to be calculated. The information reflects water concentration in the body. It’s gathered in real time without medical professionals and the process is relatively inexpensive. Further field studies are planned, but so far the researchers in Switzerland think it could be useful in diagnosing conditions like dehydration, especially in developing countries.
LATITUDE
A SUBDUCTION PRODUCTION Clashing tectonic plates gave rise to the Andes, part of which is shown here—the Torres del Paine in Patagonia, Chile.
QUESTION: WHEN A CONTINENT COLLIDES WITH A SUBDUCTION ZONE, WHAT DO YOU GET? The collision of continents created major mountain belts like the Himalayas and the Alps. But what about the Andes? They’re located not at a point of continental collision but in a subduction zone—a place with one tectonic plate atop another. What sort of geologic roughhousing created them? Whatever their origin story, the outcome is that the Andes are the longest and second-highest mountain belt in the world. Dutch geophysicist Wouter Schellart, PhD, spent more than a decade pondering how it all began for the Andes, and now, through his research, he’s come up with what he thinks is the answer, says information released by Vrije University Amsterdam. Using Australia’s supercomputer Raijin, Dr. Schellart discovered that the subduction zone is about 7,000 km long, the world’s largest. That fact was crucial for mountain building. As well, the existence millions of years ago of long, narrow seas at the western edge of the South American continent contributed to the formation of the massive mountain chain. Downward flows from the narrow seas into the depths the subduction zone dragged South America westward. The continent didn’t collide with other another continent—it collided with the subduction zone itself, thereby forming the Andes, concludes Dr. Schellart’s research.
SPRING 2018 PEG | 55
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker