Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- "Reinventing the Toilet"

Bill, Melinda and William H. Gates Sr.

            The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a grant-making organization that promotes research and problem solving initiatives locally and globally. Recently, the foundation has announced a focus on their next project, which is to re-engineer the toilet with the help of Chinese researchers.

            The foundation had announced this on Thursday, which was actually a Seattle-originated project known as Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, to China, which seeks to help make toilets more environmental friendly, economical and effective. The China branch of the project is valued at $5 million, allocating anywhere near $100,000 to $500,000 to grant awardees who are selected to explore what the China Daily claims to be as the "poop power."  

            While China is particularly interested in this challenge, researchers at Pasadena-based California Institute of Technology have received a $100,000 first prize for their unique solar-powered toilet design, which helps transform waste product into hydrogen gas and electricity. 

             A report shown by Xinhua News Agency have relatively shown some light on the subject in how much of an impact this "toilet reinvention" would help revolutionize nations and their livelihood. According to the report, 40% of the world's population--roughly 2.5 billion--do not have proper sanitization or sewage facilities and perform open defecation.

Solar Panels Helps Cool Buildings (like Trees)!

         Usually, trees provide us shade for buildings, whereas we are kept cooler than in if it were to be fully exposed by the sun. However, these days, solar panels, when mounted onto the rooftops of buildings, are able to also provide us comfort and shade (along with generating clean electricity). 

          Researchers at the University of San Diego took a closer look at the solar panels' cooling effect to see how big the effect is and what kind of panel orientation can reap the most benefits." They note that "Using thermal imaging, researchers determined that during the day, a building's ceiling was 5 degrees Fahrenheit cooler under solar panels than under an exposed roof."