Category: Uncategorized

Biomanipulation for Rehabilitation of Surface Water Bodies

Surface water bodies, e.g. inland freshwater lakes, can suffer from excessive inputs of pollutants and nutrients which damage their natural buffering and self-cleaning capacity in different ways. Bio-manipulation techniques can be used for rehabilitation of damaged surface water systems. Here we give one example of scientists that work to convert muddy fish pond into clear water body with better water quality a project that concerns biomanipulation. It is a special treatment of aquatic ecosystems where the natural relationships between main components of a lake or a reservoir are being used for rehabilitation. It means we try to modify food webs, mainly between plankton and fish or in the fish community itself. This means also that we influence the availability of phosphorus, the key nutrient for planktonic algae.

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/science/scientists-work-to-convert-muddy-fish-pond-into-clear-lake?set_default_version=1

Developing Countries – Sanitation is Still a Global Threat for Water Quality

In science there is far big gaps between theory, reality and technological applications. The same holds as well for existing enormous gaps between what the UN is wishing to implement in terms of the so-called Sustainable Developments Goals “SDG” and the reality we lived in and we still have to live with. The environmental and ecological situation, in particular water quality around the world, as it exists today did not develop over night and will not disappear over-night. Such reality is the core of lost generation in the past and for decades to come in the future (see earlier posts in http://sustain-earth.com). The real challenges for having sustainable management policies around the world need practical solutions with strong underlying educational and public awareness infra-structures.

There are huge needs in all education and public awareness systems around the world for basic information and practice on hygiene and sanitation issues (http://www.infonet-biovision.org/content/introduction-hygiene-and-sanitation) with systems for strict guidelines for solid implementation in all small communities and villages in rural areas in the developing countries, e.g. Guidelines for Assessing the Risk to Groundwater from On–Site Sanitation “ARGOSS” (http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/guidelines-assessing-risk-groundwater-site-sanitation-argoss).

Indeed, achieving sustainable quality in surface water and groundwater systems and thereby improving ecological and human life qualities in many developing countries, in particular Africa, depend on succsseful sanitation policies as sanitation is an accelerating global threat for water quality, hygiene and health as well as life quality in general.

Africa – Water Is The Core Root For Deep Poverty and Lost Generations For decades to come.

Water should be on the top agenda for promoting good quality of life in Africa. The reality of many people is far from being acceptable and the world should revise their tools what regards how to assess poverty. It is shameful that poverty is still assessed on terms and criteria that do not match modern living conditions on earth.

http://people.rit.edu/~avm4454/105/project3/africa.html

Digital Learning – Be Part of The World, grow With It and Share It With Others

Digital learning or e-learning allows you to be an active part of a very dynamic world, to grow with it and to share it with others. With ICT you can personalize your learning and get “hands-on” practice with educational programs, apps and ICT teaching strategies that you select according to your own needs with diverse possibilities to design, redesign and/or structure, re-structure your work and activities.

An example of the growing e-leaning is: http://diglearning.global2.vic.edu.au/2013/09/11/health-physical-education-ict-conference/

Citarum River – Waste Management, Public Awareness, Education, Protection and Monitoring Are Key Issues In Water Management

Water management explained simply means “water care” where water is being cleaned after using it and before injected it again to the environment. Water in nature is meant to be clean and fresh, and that is the way water ends it global natural cycle in the form of rain.

Successful water management policies are not only essential for life on earth but it is imperative and should be composed of many dynamic key issues involving the effective removal of waste and pollution from joining the water cycle in all its stages. Waste and pollution management, public awareness, education, protection of water bodies and associated monitoring programs are typically carried out through major, strict and comprehensive national strategies, directives and regulations. These have to be in place all the time, anytime and everywhere, it is not a matter of being done now and then as the costs involved in rehabilitation are very huge and time consuming with complicated procedures and actions.

A typical case to illustrate is The Citarum River, indonesia, which is known as the dirtiest river in the world. The Roadmap for the rehabilitation of the river system is an extensive plan with many components and phases that is to be completed by 2023 at a total cost of $3.5 billion. This will be a huge undertaking by people and government of Indonesia for empowering communities to better plan and manage their water resources for a more sustainable future.

The importance of waste management and fresh water resources: Looking at Indonesia’s Citarum River

The Road to Sustainable Water Management For Pangani River in Tanzania

Can Ecologists and Engineers Work Together to Harness Water For The Future? This is indeed among key questions for the sustainable managements of water resources in the Pangani River catchment. As in many river catchments in Africa constrains from climate changes and the increasing pressures on water uses call for appropriate water management strategies, policies and regulations. In particular considerations to the dynamic nature of climate change versus water resources availability and affordability for diverse needs and services has to be taken into account.

Information on the hydrology and water resources of the Pangani River, Tanzania, is given at (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangani_River#/media/File%3APangani_Town.jpg)

Can Ecologists and Engineers Work Together to Harness Water For The Future?

The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 – The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet

The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 was awarded to National Dialogue Quartet “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011”.
The adoption of a new Tunisian constitution at the end of January has been hailed as a major milestone in the country’s democratic transition. The national dialogue process that brought Tunisia to this point is noteworthy for at least two reasons. First, the mediators in this case were insiders with a stake in the outcome. Second, changes in context, beyond the control of either party, significantly altered the strategic calculations of the negotiators and opened the window to an agreement (http://isnblog.ethz.ch/conflict/mediation-perspectives-the-tunisian-national-dialogue). Several celebrations in Tunisia addressed the importance of the ongoing transition to democracy (Tunisia Celebrating The New Constitution, e.g. http://en.csid-tunisia.org/?p=97).

Among the international reflections on the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet are those being recently debated and released to the media in Europe (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34485865).

More about the announcement and motivations of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize is given here, start your video at around 31 minutes!

2015 – How Much Do We Know About The Gobal Water Reality

Even if we know, how much do we do about it? Searching about water on other planets does not give humans much excuse to turn their backs to our common water resources on Earth.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/343751384028056000/

Lessons Learned – World Leaders Miscalculation and Short-Sighted Politics in Africa and MENA Regions

Refugee crises and tragedies for millions of war-victims in the MENA region resulting from post-WII non-ending “war-peace” conditions have serious long-term and large-scale socio-economic impacts on several scales. Especially for young people with very limited future possibilities what regards education and work on all levels. This is very much reflected in an extremely serious situation facing all world leaders (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/eu-pledges-11bn-agencies-refugees-150923182915943.html). While Europe and the U.S.A. have very limited possibilities to offer in this context the MENA region itself have to face its unfortunate fate and severe harsh reality for generations to come.

Yet, Africa has to cope with its complex large-scale socio-economic difficulties and threats resulting from an enormous pile-up of poverty everywhere in all the African continent. The poverty in Africa has developed over centuries, and the reasons are quite known. It can not be solved over-night and huge efforts are needed also from the developed world to assist in the long journey of transformation towards a more sustainable future. This is why the African countries are illuminating their cities to urge leaders to take action now. We do not need to wait until Africa runs in constant conflicts and wars as well. (http://newsghana.com.gh/african-countries-illuminates-cities-to-urge-leaders-to-take-action/.

Universities as Drivers of Societies in Transformation Phases

Collapse of political structures, economic pressures, constrains in natural resources, and large-scales and long-term socio-economic changes towards sustainable societies force new needs for effective and dynamic synergetic “society-university” interactions.

Higher education (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education), including research institutes, is inevitable what regards forcing major transformation in societies around the world. Ongoing globalization and socio-economic changes towards sustainable societies are very much coupled to the transformation in higher education itself as our world itself is in constant and fast changes and shifts.

Transformation of societies is driven by economic, political, social and cultural as well as religious powers and thereby strategically important for building coupled “university-society” synergies for societies in transformation. In considering how universities can have effective role in coupled “university-society” synergies the following issues are of huge value: curriculum; quality and standards; diversification in teaching, research and society interactions; changes in access policies; student profiles and experiences; and academic responses to change.

Click to access transf-final-report.pdf

Finnish Tap Water Best Sale in Saudi Arabia.

Finnish tap water is shipped to Saudi Arabia but why the Middle East is consuming so much bottled water. Would fixing the tap improve the situation or would it go the same way as in other countries?

In his recently released book, The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water, Charles Fishman explains that while the US has among the safest, most monitored water system in the world, consumers are still choosing bottled water over using a faucet. The same paradox applies for most countries in the developed world as they continue to pay for something they can get for close to free. The situation is different for most consumers in the Middle East and North Africa, where clean safe water often only comes in bottles. But does it have to be that way?

The bottled water business is huge, and growing. According to the latest Beverage Marketing Corporation, bottled water accounted for more than 29 percent of total volume of liquid refreshment beverages in 2009 with the global rate of consumption increasing by 2.7 percent in 2009. Although the US is the single-largest national market in terms of volume, just about everywhere else in the world the segment is sizeable and expanding. The same report shows several Middle Eastern markets ranking on top of the list in terms of per capita bottled water consumption.

This may come as no surprise for a “hyper-arid” region where precipitation, primarily rainfall and fresh surface water systems (such as lakes and rivers) are few, populations increasing, and underground reserves shrinking fast. According to UN reports, the Arab countries collectively contains 1.1 percent of global renewable freshwater for a total of 4.6 percent of the world’s population. In addition, although not all countries in MENA are poor, there is a general lack of infrastructure and resources to deliver potable water, so that even rich countries like Saudi Arabia the need to buy bottled water can be a necessity.

– See more at: http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/05/tap-water-bottled-middle-east/#sthash.us26QHhA.dpuf

Why Finnish Tap Water Is Shipped to Saudi Arabia

The U.S. – Assessing Tap Water Versus Bottled Water

Nany of us have many questions about tap water and bottled water in terms of quality, access and affordability? Is bottled water more pure than tap water? What is most appropriate for a state or a country in terms of water management policies and services provided to the citizen? What regulations and directives that control water quality? What feedback impacts of the quality of natural waters on household needs in particular drinking water?

The quality of water varies considerably around the world. So, you better learn about sources and quality of your water. Even in countries with high tap water quality people still go for bottled water. In the U.S. popularity of bottled water is exploding again. During 2014 Americans consumed about 270 single-serving bottles of water per person with total value of bottled water sold of approximately $13 billion. Within the next two years bottled water in the U.S. is expected to become the most consumped packaged beverage in the United States. Water delivered by public water supplies in the U.S. is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) while bottled water is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These two agencies have different standards for the water. In general, EPA’s quality standards are higher while FDA does have strict standards of purity and labeling that must be met by all manufacturers.

Is Bottled Water High Priced Tap Water?
It often is. About 25% of the bottled water sold in the United States comes straight out of a tap. This is also the case in many other counties around the world. It can cost over 1000 times as much as tap water. The FDA requires bottlers to identify what type of water is in every bottle. If it is marked “from a community water system” or “from a municipal source” or something similar, you are buying the equivalent of tap water. The bottler might treat municipal or community water so that it meets the United States government’s definition of “purified water”, “demineralized water”, “deionized water”, “distilled water” or “reverse osmosis water”. It can then be labeled with those names. All steps of processing, bottling and labeling have a cost.

In the U.S. some bottled waters are specially produced and marketed as being from natural water sources. These are also regulated and labeled according to FDA definitions. Some of the more common water identities are: Mineral Water, Spring Water, Artesian Water, Sparkling Water, Ground Water and Well Water.

In the U.S. if you are drinking bottled water because you think that it is more pure, better for your health or safer than community or municipal water you are probably not getting your money’s worth.
One concern that motivates many people to drink bottled water instead is “taste” as some don’t like the taste of tap water.

The benefits of bottled water are mainly convenience and novelty. Instead of buying bottled water you can carry a canteen or a drinking cup and save lots of money by using tap water. For lits of reasons drinking tap water will also help the environment.
Water has no calories, no dissolved sugar, no alcohol and no caffeine. If you regularly drink water as a replacement for soda, beer, coffee or iced tea you are probably making a healthy choice. There are many real benefits of bottled water or tap water. It’s easy to drink water as an alternative beverage. So, start thinking of water as an alternative beverage. Drink bottled water when you need convenience. Drink tap water to save money and preserve the environment.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100310/why-tap-water-is-better/

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/19/health/upwave-bottled-water/

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/health/bottle-vs-tap-7-things-to-know-about-drinking-water-1.2774182

http://abcnews.go.com/US/mississippi-delta-state-university-lockdown-dead/story?id=33748843

http://geology.com/articles/bottled-water.shtml

Environmental Awareness – Should be Compulsory in All Schools Around The World

Many schools around the world, at early stages of education, should promote various forms of increasing environmental awareness. This should be supplemented, also, by the implementation of practical policies for following and monitoring predefined Guidelines for Standard Sets of Environmental Code of Conduct.

The Internet can provide schools with rich information on what, how, where and when we need such information, e.g. for Environmental Pollution drawings visit: http://clipgid.com/environmental-pollution-drawings.html

Modern Face and The Cardle of Humankind

Reconstruction of human evolution is an important part of science and technology where enormous amount of knowledge is being gained about our distant roots, evolution, habits and interaction with the enviroment including early settlements and adaptation to the living conditions on earth. Also, to give us information and feedbacks on how science and technology have impacted on us and living conditions on earth. Among basic instruments and tool for such reconstruction is archeology in particular (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology) and palaeo-sciences, e.g. South African Strategy for the Palaeosciences, the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Palaeosciences of thttp://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/newsitems/201304/19759/news_item_19759.html, in general.

Face Changes is related to historical path of the human story that goes back millions of years. But how do we reconstruct such complex evolution and retrieve all the necessary details with precise linkage to time? Here is one story that has puzzled humans for centuries, if not even longer.

Two years ago, a pair of recreational cavers entered a cave called Rising Star in the northwest of Johannesburg. In the back of their minds was another mission, as this region of South Africa produced so many fossils of our early ancestors that it later became known as the Cradle of Humankind, they were looking for bones.

This is the story of one of the greatest fossil discoveries of the past half century, i.e. what regards understanding of human evolution. The face, skull, and teeth show enough modern features to justify H. naledi’s placement in the genus Homo. Artist Gurche spent some 700 hours reconstructing the head from bone scans, using bear fur for hair. A trove of bones hidden deep within a South African cave represents a new species of human ancestor, scientists announced such findings in the journal eLife.

Here is the full stroy: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/?utm_source=NatGeocom&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=wild_science_20150911&utm_campaign=Content&utm_rd=1084349381

Strategies To Balance Your Household Economy

Many of us, if not all, have considerable dreams and needs to improve their household economy. When dreams and needs keep piling up life changes its face to constant nightmares. With increasing competition on natural resources, decreasing access to high-quality affordable products and accelerating needs for improving life quality there are two options for improving household economy either (1) increasing income or/and (2) decreasing living costs.

Increasing incomes though very rewarding it seldom comes without painful impacts and constant difficulties e.g. cutting down free-time activities, enhanced stress and breaking social relations even within the family itself and constant misconfort as well. It is even not suitable or recommended under certain conditions, e.g. having small children with constant needs for care or not having proper health or simply the merits of doing other jobs. This said, you will not be left with any space whatsoever to make wise and weighted decisions for solving household problems. In contrast this may even increase your household spending or/and erod long-term efforts for improving your living conditions.

On the other hand, if a long-term agenda is created for gradually decreasing your living costs and thereby increasing the savings that can indeed provide enormous benefits and advantages. The golden rule is “save when you have and spend when you do not have”. Believe or not you can always save and you should try it.

The point is not the absolute amount of money you can save, it rather the relative amounts as saving is naturally dependent on income. Huge global variabilities exist in terms of income e.g. the U.S. is now LESS affordable – but still cheaper than Britain and France. The global cost of living index is topped by Switzerland (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2921059/Map-shows-U-S-affordable-cheaper-Britain-France-cost-living-index-topped-Switzerland.html).

Here are ten hints how to improve your household economy:

(1) DIY “Do It Yourself”. In many countries the labor is becoming either inaccessible or unaffordable. At the sametime the WWW provide enormous possibilities to find solutions for doing things by ourselves (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_it_yourself). Critical search by Google with input information from Pinterest, Bolgs and YouTube can allow you to create and solve many household problems, e.g. reparations, restoration, cooking, cleaning, carpeting, ….. you name it …. etc.

(2) examine prices, quality and guarantee conditions by using pricerunner (http://www.firedog.co.uk/thinking-space/news-opinions/creativity/what-is-pricerunner-animated-video/). Prices for same thing can vary considerably. You can save enormous amounts of time and money by learning how to use the WWW to cut down your spending.

(3) Get use of second-hand items (https://sv.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_hand). It is no shame in saving money and resources. Among the richest persons in the word are poeple who did this. It is very constructive to learn how to survive. You still find high-quality articles in second-hand shops and flea market.

(4) Shop on line and not using credit with high interest-rates that eats up your income and even your capital. Use the huge information on the net to do your business economically, e.g. Alibaba, Aliexpress, … etc (http://m.alibaba.com/?uptime=20111230&ptsid=1012000000604534&crea=21430684027&plac=&netw=g&device=m&ptscode=0110101010010001), (http://m.aliexpress.com/?tracelog=wwwhome2mobilesitehome).

(5) Pay on time to avoid fine-fees and other unnecessary extra fees.

(6) Save energy and water (space and traffic costs). At home, in work or any other space and services that needs energy, water, transport and traffic think about stray, random and spontaneous actions that continuously eat up your spending by unnecessary extra use of natural resources that either destroy your economy or generate waste and degrade your living quality on several levels starting from your own household. Here are some examples: (http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/energy-saver-guide-tips-saving-money-and-energy-home; https://www.progress-energy.com/carolinas/home/save-energy-money/energy-saving-tips-calculators/100-tips.page?; http://www.gracelinks.org/2970/water-saving-tips-energy-use; http://yourenergysavings.gov.au/water/water-home-garden/water-efficiency-home)

(7) Buy only when and what you need otherwise many unnecessary things and items will pile-up, eat your space, economy and time as you when always need them and you may discover that you can manage without them and even more effectively.

(8) Avoid spontaneous impulse shopping (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_purchase). This will gradually turn you to shoppolic and you will always be guided by your emotions instead of logic. However, you have and should be brave enough to show people what’s important in your life. (http://www.sophiekinsella.co.uk/books.php?c=Shopaholic_series).

(9) Save when you have and spend when you do not have. Saving here is to create capital or liquid-money “reserves” so as to avoid going on blanco loans with high interest-rates that can be up to 25% which means that if you do not pay so rapidly what you borrowed, this will double in three years! Many unexpected things and needs may shows up at any moment and you need to be prepared.

(10) continuously up-date yourself by market issues and improve your knowledge to manage DIY, your economy needs and to keep up with whatever is necessary to learn not only for your survival but for your development and improvements as well.

Agrictulture Management in Small Scale Farming – Catching Up With ICT technology

Human innovation never halts and it’s not only a matter curiosity but in most cases a matter of survival. Indeed, both curiosity and survival are very much related on long-term perspective. Curiosity can generate solutions for survival and our survival instinct fuels our creativity and curiosity.

I enjoyed very much being a student and I still love to learn as it is the only tool to refresh and jog myself forward in a turbulent and an ever changing world. For successful navigation in life you need a compass to direct yourself but there are no such ready-make compasses that are tuned for everyone. So, I created one for myself, “a survival compass driven by curiosity”. Survival makes my everyday living while curiosity gives the momentum to cope with changes and unexpected obstacles in everyday living.

During my studies at school and even in many parts of my university education there were no luxury things like electricity, machines and modern ICT-solutions. Everything were done manually, e.g. to go long distances, solve mathematics using paper-based tables, write personal notes after teachers, and not to mention never ending stories of searching and waiting for literature for days, weeks or even months through local and national libraries and book-stores as well as personal contats. Every technical and scientific transitions in the society were met with great curiosity and my compass has to recalibrated to continue safe and secure navigatation, just because of my very instinct for survival.

In late forties and the fifties came the amazing semi-conductor technology (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor) and the invention of transistors which gradually changed our life in terms of bringing about intelligent tools, calculators and semi-intelligent machinery, ….. and so on. Advances never stop once humans open small doors that keep creating big inventions and changes. The whole semi-conductor technology moved forwards more and more towards automation and control. The new era of ICT-revolution has started its definite journey that no one expected that it will bring about enomous changes that we are experiencing today in modern houses and in all service-sectors. Here is an example regarding ICT applications for agriculture risk management for micro-scale farming:

http://www.ictinagriculture.org/sourcebook/module-11-ict-applications-agricultural-risk-management

UN has projected that world population could reach 9.6 billion by 2050 and debate has emerged about how best to support farmers between advocates of large-scale agricultural projects and those who prefer more targeted, small-scale efforts. Global food production must double by 2050 to feed the world. Smallholder farmers provide up to 80% of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa’s food, where the vast majority of the world’s poor people live. Long-term food security has to be based on food sovereignty in national, regional and international policies that influence food systems where small-scale farmers are important in this context. In order to thrive, farmers in the developing world need access to seed, fertiliser, microcredit and microinsurance, as well as rights to land and union representation: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/feb/19/feed-the-world-small-farmers-big-agriculture-mdgs

Keep Yourself Updated – UN Sustainable Development Summit 2015

UN Sustainable Development Summit 2015 “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/summit

Household – Managing Economy Successfully in Modern High-Tech Society

Urbanization and modern high-tech societies bring with them lots of responsibilities to the citizen and household both on collective and individual levels. If the chain of interaction between technology, individual household and the society in general is not fully coherent and economically sustainable severe impacts are to expect. These impacts to be expected on different levels and may gradually pile- up causing that economical or technological collapse.

On the individual level you need to manage household reparations and/or restorations (http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/m/photos/0,,20434090,00.html) either by yourself “DIY” or through payed services.

In both cases “DIY” and payed services, you need to have minimum knowledge of understanding how to protect yourself and your surroundings from accidents that may arise from improper operation, management and use of modern household appliances. These involve basic safety and security issues including hiden chemical (http://chemicalfreelife.tumblr.com/post/44070640011), electrical and ICT or “cyber” (http://www.powermag.com/cyber-threats-proving-their-power-over-power-plant-operational-technology/) threats.

An important issue is the technical terms where English is the dominant language (http://english4me2.com/kitchen/household-chores-verbs-and-nouns/).

Academic Career Path -Publishing Is Imperative

In a globalised world with increasing competition for professional careers, e.g. an academic career, or even for getting or/and maintaining or/and improving professionslism in private or public sectors it is IMPERATIVE to be “visible”. It is a simple fact in nature that we can not see and evaluate any object unless it is, in away or another, becomes visible. In addition of being essential is also problematic how and where you need to be visible. Equivalently, it is important how your visibility is going to be judged and by whom.

The common tool and instrument for visibility in any academic career (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2012/06/14/the-perfect-academic-career-pathway/) is “Publishing” regardless which state/stage in the academic career you are. At any stage several key questions arise along any academic career, e.g. why, how, when and where you get your material published.

For early stage researchers putting a plan for your research strategy (why and how) is critical to get a good start (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2015/01/13/new-years-research-resolution-plan-your-research-strategy/).

Even if you leave the research for some short periods, which might be very healthy, one can always get back to research after professional breaks (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2014/09/17/opportunities-for-researchers-after-a-career-break/).

The are considerable needs for researchers to keep contact with the outside world, i.e. apart from the small groups there are integrated in. Such contacts indeed bring in additional dimensions not only to the research itself but also to the researchers. They can also be arranged and organized in many ways and new global alternatives keep emerging, and become more and more available thanks to diverse possibilities of the social media.

As academic staff, with great pressure to publish in academic journals, it is being recognized that academic generalist networks are becoming increasingly essential, e.g. ResearchGate, Academia.edu or Mendeley, which help to disseminate on the web published articles and to try to obtain more citations and name among the scientific community in the existing fields of expertise. They may also help quick and easy accessibility and affordability especially for early stage academics. Also, for setting up research collaboration and international research projects, share ideas and find solutions. What concerns social media Facebook don’t clearly do it because it’s very focused on leisure and personal life but, what about Linkedin? With millions of professors and professionals connected interested in science/research? No and no again, sciences and technologies need specific ones that differentiate researchers, with specific functionalities on usability and sociability (mainly source credibility).

Here are some information for user or scientist concerning main features and how to make out of their time spent in ResearchGate, Academia.edu or Mendeley, also what you can expect from each. An important aspects in social media in general is if not constantly updated (profile and papers), the effort will be useless (http://howtopublishinjournals.com/2014/05/18/academic-networks-contest-researchgate-vs-academia-vs-mendeley/).

EGYPT – World’s Largest Natural Gas Fields.

BBC News announced that the Italian energy group Eni founds one of the world’s largest natural gas fields off Egypt’s coast in an area 1,450m (4,757 feet) beneath the surface of 100 sq km (39 sq miles). It could hold as much as 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, or 5.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

This will help to meet Egypt’s gas needs for decades and can transform energy scenario of Egypt,” said Claudio Descalzi at Eni: (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34102656)

To know about natural gas in Egypt, visit (http://mazamascience.com/EnergyTrends/?p=308).