Jellyfish stings. Nothing ruins a day on the beach faster, especially if it is a kid that gets stung. And worse – the treatment being applied in some places is out-of-date. This is making the situation worse.
A team of scientists at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) decided to research the best methods of relief once and for all. The research came about after a rash of stingings in the waters off Galway. This was thanks to a jellyfish called the lion’s mane. The lion’s mane jellyfish is the most problematic jellyfish in Ireland and the UK. Thousands of bathers are badly stung each year. Here in Australia, the most common type of jellyfish sting comes from bluebottles. Also called Portuguese man o’ war, they are found all around the coastline of Australia.
Jellyfish stings = Ew
The Research
There are new findings from NUI Galway working in conjunction with the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They have identified the best way to treat stings. For jellyfish and bluebottle stings, douse the sting area with vinegar or Sting No More. This gets the tentacles out, with the help of a pair of tweezers. The vinegar deactivates the tentacles. Then douse the area with the hottest water the patient can stand. The hot water denatures the poison that causes the pain.
You need to soak the sting area in hot water for at least half an hour. Therefore the ideal beach sting treatment pack would include vinegar, tweezers, an ice cream bucket, and a large thermos of hot water. You need to keep topping up the water in the bucket to keep it hot for as long as you can. You can use the elbow skin test to check the water temperature, especially for children. But the hotter the water the patient can stand, the better. Venom protein is denatured by heat treatment, the pain does not usually resolve until hot water immersion therapy is started.
The use of heat to treat sea stings was first recorded in 1758. German fishermen were reported to have applied a hot poultice onto sting wounds caused by weever fish. For centuries heat has been used as a traditional cure for marine stings – heating methods included hot water, vinegar, stones and even hot urine. Now we know where the pee method came from. It’s the heat that helps, not the chemical make-up of the urine. But, body temperatures aren’t quite warm enough to do the job, so put your bladder away.
The Same Treatment Applies
Said Dr Tom Doyle, Lecturer in Zoology at NUI Galway, “What most people don’t understand is that these jellyfish – the lion’s mane, the Portuguese man o’ war and the box jellyfish, are as different from each other as a dog and a snake. Therefore when developing first aid treatment for a jellyfish sting it is very important to test different treatments on these very different types of jellyfish. Now that we have shown that vinegar and hot water work on these three jellyfish species, it will be much easier to standardise and simplify first aid for jellyfish stings where many different types of jellyfish occur.”
Current best practices in many parts of the world recommend using sea water and cold packs. This is not the correct action for treating these jellyfish stings, as it causes increases in venom delivery. But rinsing with vinegar or Sting No More Spray does not increase venom delivery.
Keep your anti-sting kit in your beach buggy, and those marine creatures won’t beat you! Happy swimming!
If you’d prefer to stay at home and check out the beach in virtual reality, check this out!
IS YOUR BEACH swim going to be in clean waters? Soon, you’ll know in a jiffy, thanks to a new kind of robot buoy. The new technology is being developed by researchers in the USA. So how does it work?
The buoys are deployed in the water near a beach. Information is gathered by sensors embedded in them. Information can be anything: From how clear the water is, to water temperature, to toxin levels. The water is analysed, and information on water quality is fed back to a land-based server.
Buoys to the Rescue
“Current beach-management practices are slow and unreliable,” says Phanikumar Mantha, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at MSU. “A water sample needs to be gathered, then taken to a lab for analysis. That can be anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. If you go to the beach today and swim, then you find out tomorrow you shouldn’t have gone, that’s not very helpful.”
Once the information is gathered via the buoy, it is sent to the people who need to know. For example, a parks official who then makes the decision whether or not to close the beach. Data could also be published on web pages that provide the information to the public. Data from the sensors can also detect harmful bacteria, and alert authorities who can shut the beach.
The good news is that beaches can stay open if bacteria is not detected. Says Mantha, “If you close a beach unnecessarily, it’s hurting the local businesses. Our ultimate goal is to protect the public from getting exposed to contaminated water. This problem can be particularly hard on children and seniors, who tend to be more susceptible to its dangers.”
It is nice to know that the waters are clear and that the temperature is just right. Many of us would subscribe daily to this information. Would you? ■
Renovating: If you are selling your home, here are some tips to get that buyer to sign on that dotted line.
There are many things you can do to get your house in a state whereby a buyer can see it as their own. This includes cleaning, painting, de-cluttering, landscaping and deciding which other projects might reap the greatest reward given limited time and money. Nearly one quarter of sellers who make renovations or improvements before selling, sell above list price. This is compared with 16 percent of sellers who don’t. The key is making smart decisions about what to upgrade, because home-improvement projects don’t necessarily pay for themselves. Some improvements actually cost more than they return in value. A smaller, inexpensive upgrade typically brings a bigger reward than a more involved and time-consuming one. Here are some tips to maximise return and minimise renovation headaches:
Dive into the “curb appeal” projects first, and do them smartly.
New paint inside and out and basic landscaping don’t break the bank, and are typically the most common and necessary improvements. And choosing the right eye-catching colours can increase a home’s value far beyond just the appeal of new paint. Yellow homes sell for nearly $3,500 less than expected, while the right colour door can lead to an extra $6,000 in a seller’s pocket.
Dive into the “curb appeal” projects first, and do them smartly.
Upgrade the bathrooms (but not too much).
A mid-range bathroom remodel, replacing the toilet, tub and light fixtures, adding a double sink, tiling the floor and hanging some wallpaper, is a good idea. This typically results in a $1.71 increase in home value for every dollar spent, if the bathroom is at least 25 years old. But an upscale bathroom remodel with top-end features, full-body-wash shower wall, bidet, will actually cost a seller. It adds 87 cents of home value for every dollar spent.
Upgrade the bathrooms (but not too much).
Install new windows.
New mid-range windows can return $1.15 for every dollar. But get too fancy and you’ll end up breaking even.
Install new windows.
Pay attention to current design trends.
Warm modernism and organic accents are in. Bold colours and an overtly rustic feel are out. The right design can show buyers the potential in your home.
Pay attention to current design trends.
Don’t focus on the kitchen.
Kitchen renovations, at any level, are among the worst return on investment of the home improvements, at about 50 cents on the dollar. Part of the reason is that the kitchen is one of the few rooms in a house where different people want different uses. You could spend $30,000 renovating a kitchen only to turn off some potential buyers who would have done it differently.
Renovating a kitchen: be careful how you spend your money on it
If you’re fixing up your home to appeal to a variety of potential buyers, go for changes that have a broad appeal. Fresh paint in the new ‘it’ neutral signals a well-maintained home, and most people can imagine their own furniture matching the walls. A luxury chef’s kitchen won’t matter to the majority of people who can’t call themselves a good cook and just eat out often anyway.
Do you wear a wetsuit in winter? Then check this out.
Ocean lovers of the Gold Coast don’t need to think about wetsuits too much. But if you want to get that wave this winter without feeling the cold, then the wetsuit of the future may be just what you are looking for.
Brrrrrr
We here on the Goldie are lucky, our waters are warm pretty much all year round. But there are other places where the oceans aren’t as welcoming.
Damn It’s Cold
Diving in icy water is extremely dangerous to humans. Within seconds, arteries tighten, blood pressure and heart rate race, and lungs gasp for air. After only minutes, hyperventilation strikes and arms and legs go numb. This is the onset of hypothermia.
Over in the USA, the Navy is trying to develop ways that let divers to stay under freezing waters for longer. They want a wetsuit to work like animal blubber. And they may have cracked it.
What the scientists have come up with is a wetsuit infused with an artificial blubber layer. This layer can triple the endurance time of divers in frozen waters. If this wetsuit can help divers last longer in icy oceans, then think about what it could do for you in the mild Pacific Ocean in our winter.
Boffins to the Rescue
The two professors working on the wetsuit are Dr Michael Strano and Dr Jacopo Buongiorno. Their focus is on a material called neoprene. Neoprene is the most common material used to make wetsuits. It is a synthetic rubber resembling a thick foam with numerous air pockets. These pockets slow the transfer of heat from the body into the surrounding cold water.
Strano and Buongiorno found that by substituting air with gasses, they created a more efficient, artificial blubber layer within the wetsuit. The gases they used in the wetsuit are non-toxic, don’t have negative chemical reactions, and don’t burn or explode. Using this suit, the diver’s tolerance went from one hour in freezing waters, to multiple hours.
Nope
Strano and Buongiorno placed a neoprene wetsuit in a sealed, specially-designed tank the size of a beer keg. They then pumped the container with the gasses for several hours. Laboratory tests showed the newly-pressurised wetsuit kept its insulating properties for over 20 hours after treatment. This is far longer than divers usually spend in frigid waters. The treatment also could be done in advance of a dive, with the wetsuit placed in a bag to be opened just before use. In such cases, the 20-hour countdown didn’t start until the suit was removed from the bag.
Super Nope
New Wetsuit? Nah.
“The great thing about this research is that you don’t have to recreate neoprene from scratch,” said Strano. “You can take an existing wetsuit from a closet, pump the gas into it and transform it into a super fabric.” While their laboratory tests and simulations have been successful, Strano and Buongiorno hope to test the wetsuit further during in-water demonstrations involving Navy and civilian divers. So watch this space, July-swimming enthusiasts.
Driverless yachts are finally here! Drink-boating is just around the corner! (Just kidding that’s terrible advice).
There is now a yacht that pilots itself. A robotics start-up founded by three engineering students is making headlines. They have been developing technology to create boats similar to Google’s driverless cars. And we can’t wait!
For quite some time, scientists have been working on driverless solutions for maritime shipping, search-and-rescue operations and security work. But driverless tech has been absent from recreational boating until now. Since forming a few years ago, the Buffalo Automation Group has successfully tested its technology on a 16-foot catamaran.
Dance instead of drive!
Driverless Yachts – Patents Pending
The company has filed two provisional patent applications and secured thousands of dollars in funding. “The success we’ve had illustrates there is a market for safe, highly-effective and easy-to-use marine autopilot systems. They can provide recreational boat owners with well-deserved peace of mind,” says Thiru Vikram, the company’s CEO. Fellow co-founders Shane Nolan, and Alex Zhitelzeyf agree.
Each year, recreational boating accidents cause hundreds of fatalities and thousands of injuries. Buffalo Automation Group wants to reduce those numbers through use of its technology. The company is targeting small yachts and inboard boats up to 40 feet long. Driverless yachts could save lives.
The yacht will drive itself while you hide from weird pirates
Nolan says, “These are vessels that are big enough for a family to spend anywhere from a few days to a few weeks on the water. But they’re often too small to hire a crew, or even a junior captain, so the captain must keep constant vigil over the boat.”
Autopilot
Like aeroplanes, many of these boats have an autopilot option. The problem, Zhitelzeyf says, is that these systems are reactive. They only respond after the boat senses a change in tide, wind or other conditions. The technology that Buffalo Automation Group is developing uses a combination of sensors, cameras and wireless communication systems. It is predictive, meaning it fuses real-time data, such as weather conditions and obstacles in the water (boats, swimmers, logs, etc.), with nautical charts and other static information. This preempts any threats to the boat and its course of direction.
Just think of all the stupid things you can do if you don’t have to drive your boat
Designed for new and used vessels, the system would dock the boat and allow the captain, at any time, to easily regain control over the boat. It also has the potential to reduce insurance costs. Zhitelzeyf says, “You will connect your smartphone or laptop to the system. From there, you use your device to tell the system where you’d like to go. It then guides the boat, from port to port, using the safest, most efficient route possible.”
The co-founders plan to continue to refine the technology while meeting with potential investors, boat manufacturers and retailers that sell marine electronics.
We here at GCLife are all about the robot yachts. Who wants to pilot a boat when you could be jumping off the back and catching a live marlin with your bare hands? And yes, we can do that, stop doubting us. ■
