How the Greenest Skyscraper Complex Ever Is Rising Out of the Rubble of the World Trade Center

By Andrew Tarantola - Gizmodo

From Overhead A view of the entire construction zone, with the Hudson River at the top of the photo.Getty Images: Mario Tama

LIVE AT LEEDS

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification is an internationally-recognized third-party verification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to confirm that a building—or community, for that matter—was designed and constructed with the aim of improving energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions, indoor environmental quality, and intelligent resource management.

For the new WTC complex to qualify for the LEED Gold Certification—the second highest attainable below Platinum status—it must meet a number of requirements, among which include achieving a Net Zero CO2 footprint for all base building electricity consumption and reduction of the complex's energy consumption to 20 percent below New York State's energy code requirements.

"The building [in this case, 1 World Trade Center] is designed to achieve a gold level certification. Which, for a project of its size, would be a first of its kind, Eduardo Del Valle, Director of Design Management at 1 World Trade Center, told us. "Now, there are some other projects in New York City that have achieved a Platinum certification, which is the highest—but not on this scale."

ENERGY CONSERVATION AND PRODUCTION

One means of achieving these goals is "Daylighting"—which thankfully involves neither Bruce Willis nor Cybill Shepherd. Instead, as Del Valle points out, "if enough daylight is coming into the window it automatically dims the interior lights. It's all about reducing energy consumption. Every space within 15 feet of the facade will be equipped with dimming devices."

This practice not only benefits the WTC complex's energy consumption, but the occupants of the towers as well, increasing productivity and reducing the rate of minor illnesses, as well aspromoting bone health and increase the activity of natural killer cells simply by improving the quality of light. Because humans require exposure to UVB light in order to synthesize Vitamin D, the dimming of artificial lights and use of ultra-clear glass to allow more natural light in.

When the sun isn't shining, the WTC complex employs hydrogen fuel cells to provide approximately 1.2 megawatts of power and steam turbines which, according to DelValle, "take the wasted steam that happens during steam generation and converts that into electricity."

BREATHING EASIER

During construction, the complex is requiring its contractors to use only ultra-low sulfur diesel fuels—a "clean diesel" that reduces nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions and is considered one of the cleanest (comparatively speaking) fuels available. This implementation is so effective that New York City and State now require that non-road construction equipment used on public construction projects by public agencies use ULSD. In addition, all construction vehicles are equipped with extra particulate filters to further reduce their impact. Finally, the materials used in the complex cannot include any Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)—a variety of chemicals that leach from building materials in gaseous form with both short- and long-term health effects.

After construction is complete, Del Valle states that, to further improve indoor air quality, they're going to watch it like a cybernetic hawk:

"CO₂ monitors control ventilation and make the building healthier and improve indoor air quality. If the CO₂ sensor sends a signal to the air handler software, telling it you need more fresh air in a certain space because there's more CO₂ than there should be, it automatically increases the fresh air mix coming into that space. We have over 3,000 points of monitoring."

In addition, the WTC will improve the air of the greater Manhattan Financial District by reducing the amount of vehicular traffic in the area by providing ample public transportation access and extensive facilities for bicycle commuters.

HARVESTING THE RAIN

It rains in New York City, on average, 60 inches a year—second only to Miami. Rather than simply let this precipitation run off the buildings and into storm drains, the WTC will collect and store that rain water for later use in its new high-efficiency evaporative cooling towers and for irrigating greenery within the 16-acre complex. (Since it hasn't been treated, the harvested rainwater cannot be used as a potable source.)

WTC: River Water Pump Station:  Image Courtesy of WTC Progress / Flickr

HARVESTING THE HUDSON

New York, as with most areas of the country outside of the confines of Northern California, requires significant air-conditioning service throughout the year. The occupants of the new WTC complex will stay frosty in even the muggiest of Autumnal weather thanks to the new and highly efficient 12,500-ton Central Chiller Plant (CCP) that uses water from the Hudson River to cool the WTC Transportation Hub, National September 11 Memorial and Museum, retail space and other non-commercial areas.

FULL SIZE

Located in the far Southwest corner of the complex—roughly in the same area as the previous plant—the CCP employs water extracted through the River Water Pump Station (RWPS), on the other side of the West Side Highway, to chill (and heat, during the Winter) water for distribution to the rest of the complex.

It will circulate 30,000 gallons of river water every minute. That's enough to fill 750 bath tubs, flush 10,000 toilets, and cool the same amount as approximately 2,500 home air-conditioners.

"It uses the Hudson as a way of both dissipating heat and preheating water," Del Valle explained. "Because water below a certain depth is a pretty constant temperature (about 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit), so what happens is, during the winter it takes less energy to heat and circulate it, and conversely, in the summer it takes less to cool it."

RECYCLING, REDUCING, REUSING

The new World Trade Center is already 75 percent old. Everything from the gypsum boards to the ceiling tiles contains a minimum of 75 percent post-industrial recycled content. This reduces the environmental footprint, not only on-site, but reduces the stress on the natural resources and energy needed to produce them.

At the same time, the WTC construction project recycles an incredible 80 percent of the waste generated at the site. According to Del Valle, "We've exceeded our original target by about 20 percent. The contractors have been really good, we've been watching and documenting how the material is recycled and sent back to the plants. It's really a cycle that's feeding on itself."

Monster Machines is all about the most exceptional machines in the world, from massive gadgets of destruction to tiny machines of precision, and everything in between.

A civilization can distinguish itself by how well it responds to disaster, and 10 years later, 9/11 is as much a story about recovery and rebuilding as it a story of terrible loss and tragedy. As a nation, our political and economic response has been imperfect—possibly even dead wrong—but we're focusing on the mechanical marvels that have helped us bounce back.

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Beat enzyme, curb cancer: study

AGENCY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH SINGAPORE

Targeting the EZH2 enzyme paves the way to treat the most aggressive form of breast cancer. Image: ideabug/iStockphoto Scientists from the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), an institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and their colleagues at the National University of Singapore (NUS), have uncovered a new way to target EZH2, an enzyme that promotes the estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer, a type of breast cancer that is aggressive and unresponsive to current forms of treatment. This discovery, published in the journal Molecular Cell, paves the way to develop more effective treatment strategy for aggressive breast cancers associated with EZH2. It has been known that EZH2 enzymatic activity promotes cancer by inactivating some important tumor suppressors, which function as “brakes” to stop tumor growth. Over-expression of EZH2 is often linked to aggressive and rapid spread of breast cancers, the most common cancer in women all over the world. Therefore, EZH2 is an ideal target for breast cancer treatment. For a long time, pharmaceutical companies have focused on developing drugs to block EZH2 enzyme activity so that tumor suppressors can perform their protective role in blocking cancer growth. The team, led by GIS Senior Group Leader Dr Qiang YU, discovered that besides inhibiting tumor suppressor genes through its enzymatic activity, EZH2 is also able to promote cancer through the activation of specific genes involved in the well-known cancer pathway, called NF-kB that is associated with the aggressive estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. These genes include inflammatory cytokines such as IL6 and IL8 which have important roles in breast cancer progression and cancer stem cell self-renewal. In fact, the team led by Dr Yu discovered that the latter gene-activating function of EZH2 does not require its enzyme activity. “This work suggests that EZH2 may confer its oncogenic role in cancer not just through its gene silencing function of the tumor suppressors but also through its gene activation function of NF-kB pathway,” said Dr Yu. “This new understanding on how EZH2 works as a cancer-causing gene in breast cancer has important therapeutic implication, the results suggest that small molecule drugs that block enzyme activity of EZH2 may not work for cancers caused by EZH2’s activation genes in NF-kB pathway.” Assoc Prof Chng Wee Joo, a clinician scientist working on hematological oncology from the Cancer Science Institute at the NUS commented “This work has important clinical implications. EZH2 is currently thought to cause cancer through its enzymatic activity, hence inhibitors being developed mostly target EZH2’s enzymatic activity. This study from Dr Yu's group demonstrates that the oncogenic effect of EZH2 is cell context dependent and may not always be dependent on its enzymatic activities. This should prompt a re-think in our therapeutic strategies.” “Moving forward,” added A/P Chng, “we should develop biomarkers that will either allow us to identify tumors where EZH2 is predominantly acting through its enzymatic function as a histone methytransferase, inhibiting the protective role of tumor suppressor genes, or where EZH2 is predominantly acting through activation of genes involved in other oncogenic pathways. This will ensure that the appropriate therapeutic strategy can be applied. Alternatively, we should design therapies that will shut down EZH2 completely and not just inhibit its enzymatic function. While this study is conducted in breast cancer, the current findings are likely to have broader implications for cancer therapy in general as EZH2 is deregulated across many types of cancer.” The research findings can be found in the 2 September, 2011 advance online issue ofMolecular Cell under the title “Context-Specific Regulation of NF-κB Target Gene Expression by EZH2 in Breast Cancers”.

Stroke hits bumpy hearts

BAKER IDI

Around one in five older Australians with atrial fibrillation are undiagnosed and live at heightened risk of stroke. Image:onurdongel/iStockphoto More than 3,500 debilitating, often fatal and entirely ‘unnecessary’ strokes will be suffered by Australians with an irregular heartbeat this year, according to a new report by medical experts and health economists. These experts warn that thousands of Australians will be incapacitated and up to 700 lives lost to ‘preventable’ strokes in 2011 because of a widespread failure to provide effective stroke prevention for many Australians diagnosed with this increasingly common heart condition. In addition, the report notes that around one-in-five older Australians with atrial fibrillation are undiagnosed and live at heightened risk of stroke. Commissioned by Boehringer Ingelheim and developed in conjunction with experts from the Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute, Florey Neuroscience Institutes, the report reveals: Almost 25 per cent of first-ever strokes (10,709 of 45,873) in 2011 will be specifically caused by atrial fibrillation at a cost to the economy of $314 million this year alone; Nearly 7,500 strokes will occur in people with either undiagnosed or diagnosed but untreated atrial fibrillation; and At least half (3,532 strokes) could be avoided with the use of effective stroke prevention medicines. The findings of the Deloitte Access Economics Report titled Off beat: Atrial fibrillation and the cost of preventable stroke have prompted medical researchers to call for heightened awareness about who is at risk of atrial fibrillation and an increased use of effective stroke prevention therapy amongst this group. “Atrial fibrillation increases the likelihood of a stroke five-fold yet around 160,000 people at moderate-to-high risk do not receive stroke prevention therapy,” said Professor Garry Jennings, Director, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Research Institute. “With more effective stroke prevention medicines and improved diagnosis, there is evidence that we could prevent and drastically reduce the number of strokes in Australia,” he said. “Projections suggest that the burden of atrial fibrillation will continue to grow as the population ages. By taking steps to address this now, we may prevent the number of strokes caused by this condition and maintain quality of life for people who are at high risk.” Deloitte Access Economics estimates the total number of Australians with atrial fibrillation at more than 500,000. This irregular heartbeat can cause blood clots to form in the heart chamber which can travel to the brain and cause a potentially fatal stroke. “Atrial fibrillation related strokes are usually more severe than strokes caused by other factors,” said stroke expert Professor Donnan, Director of the Florey Neuroscience Institutes. “Survivors tend to be more incapacitated and require long-term care in a nursing home; they also have a greater risk of secondary stroke and of dying,” Professor Donnan said. The Deloitte Access Economics Report suggests that the limitations of the most common stroke prevention therapies on the PBS, warfarin and aspirin, is in part responsible for the high rate of preventable strokes amongst atrial fibrillation sufferers. While warfarin is an effective blood-thinner, it is currently prescribed to less than 40 per cent of atrial fibrillation patients who should receive the medication largely because of the risk of internal bleeding and adverse interactions with some foods and common medicines. As a result of these and other factors, warfarin patients require frequent blood monitoring. “The proportion of people currently receiving stroke prevention therapy is totally inadequate. There’s often unwillingness by patients and doctors to initiate a lifetime of warfarin therapy while aspirin alone just doesn’t provide enough protection,” said Professor Donnan. “We also find that the optimum level of blood thinning is only achieved half of the time among warfarin patients. The need for ongoing blood monitoring is also problematic – especially in rural and regional areas where people have to travel significant distances every few weeks.” The cost to society of warfarin-related bleeds and blood monitoring in atrial fibrillation sufferers is estimated by Deloitte Access Economics to be $95.7 million per year. The Report puts the cost of treating each atrial fibrillation-related stroke at around $30,000 in the first year alone. “Preventable strokes are placing a significant burden on our healthcare system and our community,” said Professor Richard Lindley, President, Stroke Society of Australasia. “More effective prevention would reduce the human misery caused by these severe strokes and would also reduce hospital costs.” The Report concludes with a series of recommendations including: initiatives to increase the use of stroke prevention therapy among untreated patients as well as the use of the most effective available treatments; an atrial fibrillation awareness campaign amongst older Australians; and encouraging GPs to routinely check patients over 50 years of age for an irregular heartbeat. Professors Jennings, Donnan and Lindley said that people over the age of 50 should have regular pulse checks to help identify an irregular heartbeat. They also urge Australians who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation to discuss stroke risk and stroke prevention therapy with their doctor.

Dead shrubs tell climate secrets

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Mountain plum pine is found in the incredibly harsh and constantly cool Australian Alps. Image: colleenbradley/iStockphoto In an Australian first, scientists from The Australian National University and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage have uncovered a new way of identifying 300 years of climatic changes in the Australian Alps by looking at the growth rings of a sturdy, long-lived alpine shrub. Mountain plum pine is found in the incredibly harsh and constantly cool Australian Alps where annual growth is very slow at less than 1 millimetre in diameter. Dr Matthew Brookhouse from ANU said the 2003 bushfires led to the investigation into the native shrub, which can live for up to 600 years. “Prior to the devastating fires, most mountain plum pines were so old that the idea of cutting them up for analysis was not even considered. But the fires killed many plants that were centuries old and we found that they only regenerated from seed in the soil,” he said. “With large numbers of dead plum pines available, we gathered cross sections and discovered that the growth rings could be used to reconstruct past climate, even though Australian plants had long been thought to be poor for this purpose. “We cross referenced rings from Mt Blue Cow in Kosciuszko National Park samples and found that in years with a lot of snow, the plants had narrow growth rings, so growth was directly related to temperature in the growing season.” A narrow series of rings in all samples in the 1950s and 1960s reveal big snow years, especially in 1960, and in 1923, which was probably the biggest snow year of the 20th Century. OEH botanist Dr Keith McDougall said the discovery made the mountain plum pine a very useful tool. “The process of measuring the width of growth rings is painstaking. Each stem has to be polished to a mirror-like surface and then examined microscopically, however, we’ve successfully measured about 50 cross-sections so far,” he said. “With funding from the Australian Alps Liaison Committee we‘ve extended our work throughout the Snowy Mountains and to alpine areas in Victoria and the ACT, with the aim of reconstructing the climate of the Alps for the past 300-400 years and to determine historic fire frequencies. “A strong relationship between mountain plum pine growth and snow cover means we may be able to estimate annual snow conditions well before European settlement, which is important because it will tell us whether the current declining snow conditions have precedent. “If there have been other periods of low snow cover, the plants and animals of the Alps may have the resilience to get through the immediate effects of climate change or, if not, they may be the first threatened.”

New rice high in iron, zinc

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR PLANT FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS

White rice contains insufficient concentrations of iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements. Image: bo1982/iStockphoto Scientists from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) have produced rice with high enough iron levels that it meets daily recommended requirements for iron intake. The team, based at the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne and South Australia, and Flinders University, and funded by the Australian Research Council and HarvestPlus, genetically modified rice to increase the amount of iron that is transported to the endosperm of the grain (the part that people eat). This resulted in rice that has up to four times more iron than conventional rice. The rice also has doubled zinc levels. ‘Rice is the primary source of food for roughly half of the world’s population, particularly in developing countries, yet the polished grain, also known as white rice, contains insufficient concentrations of iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements’ said Dr Alex Johnson from ACPFG. ‘A lack of genetic variation in rice has hindered efforts by conventional breeding programs to address iron levels. These programs have not been able to achieve the level of iron and zinc in the rice grain that we are able to achieve with a biotech approach in our glasshouse experiments,’ said Dr Johnson This research represents the first time rice lines have been reported with iron levels at or higher than the daily recommended levels. According to the World Health Organisation, iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world and affects more than two billion people (30 per cent of the world’s population). Symptoms include poor mental development, depressed immune function and anaemia. ‘The development of new cereal varieties containing increased concentrations of iron and other essential micronutrients, an approach known as biofortification, offers an inexpensive and sustainable solution to the chronic micronutrient malnutrition problems that currently plague people in developing countries,’ said Dr Johnson. The results of this research were published yesterday in the online peer reviewed journal PLoS ONE: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024476 Work is now underway to test this technology in field trials.

Managers have bigger brains

Managers have bigger brains

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

The study found a clear relationship between the number of employees a person may have supervised or been responsible for and the size of the hippocampus. Image: Yuri_Arcurs/iStockphoto Managing other people at work triggers structural changes in the brain, protecting its memory and learning centre well into old age. UNSW researchers have, for the first time, identified a clear link between managerial experience throughout a person’s working life and the integrity and larger size of an individual’s hippocampus – the area of the brain responsible for learning and memory – at the age of 80. The findings refine our understanding of how staying mentally active promotes brain health, potentially warding off neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The study was presented at the Brain Sciences UNSW symposium Brain Plasticity –The Adaptable Brain today. The Symposium focuses on research into “brain plasticity” that is revealing the brain’s ability to repair, rewire and regenerate itself, overturning scientific dogma that the brain is “hard-wired”. “We found a clear relationship between the number of employees a person may have supervised or been responsible for and the size of the hippocampus,” says Dr Michael Valenzuela, Leader of Regenerative Neuroscience in UNSW’s School of Psychiatry. “This could be linked to the unique mental demands of managing people, which requires continuous problem solving, short term memory and a lot of emotional intelligence, such as the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes. Over time this could translate into the structural brain changes we observed.” The research comprises the doctoral work of Mr Chao Suo, supervised by Dr Valenzuela in collaboration with Scientia Professor Perminder Sachdev’s Memory and Ageing Study based in Sydney. Using MRI imagery in a cohort of 75-92 year-olds, researchers found larger hippocampal volumes in those with managerial experience compared to those without, even after accounting for any of a number of possible alternative explanations. While many male participants followed traditional management career paths, the effect was also seen in women who had taken on managerial roles in nursing or teaching, for example. The Brain Sciences Symposium at UNSW also features keynote speaker, Dr Henriette van Praag, from the US National Institute on Aging, who will present research on the link between exercise and the production and viability of new brain cells.

Cellular metabolism self-adapts to protect against free radicals

Cellular metabolism self-adapts to protect against free radicals

“Feedback mechanism coordinates cellular respiration and the degradation of free oxygen radicals.”

Posted by Biomechanism 

Oxygen-consuming organisms obtain energy through cellular respiration, transforming carbohydrates and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water.

Cellular respiration is the process by which cells convert sugar into ATP, the energy they need to survive. ATP is an acronym for adenosine triphosphate, the fuel all living things use.

This process also produces toxic oxygen radicals, which must be decomposed immediately, as they would otherwise cause damage to cells. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin have discovered a mechanism with whose help cells can coordinate respiratory activity and the degradation of free radicals. Thus, the cells prepare their metabolism for free radicals before they even arise.

Cellular respiration is a very efficient process through which a lot of energy is generated from a few sugar molecules and oxygen. However, up to two per cent of the oxygen used in this process is transformed into superoxide, a free radical that is toxic to cells.

A considerable proportion of this superoxide evades the mitochondria's respiratory chain and threatens biological macromolecules like DNA, RNA, proteins and fatty acids. However, evolution has equipped eukaryotic cells with comprehensive mechanisms that can decompose free radicals which arise in the cell and therefore prevent damage to the cell. These mechanisms work extremely efficiently and are well coordinated so that, contrary to popular belief, treating healthy tissue with natural or synthetic antioxidants can disrupt the natural balance and, at worst, damage cells and accelerate the ageing process.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics compared respiring and non-respiring yeast cells. When respiration was activated, there was a direct increase in the cells’ tolerance to oxidised substances; however, contrary to expectation, this was not accompanied by a rise in the concentration of free radicals. This proved that respiring cells can deal with the increased formation of free radicals and keep them at the level of the non-respiring cells.

According to the researchers, a hitherto undiscovered feedback mechanism within a central metabolic pathway is responsible for this process. The carbohydrate-degrading enzyme pyruvate kinase regulates the respiratory activity of yeast cells. It is less active in respiring cells, which leads to the accumulation of its substrate phosphoenolpyruvate. The accumulation of this substance inhibits another glycolytic enzyme, triosephosphate isomerase.

The researchers were already very familiar with this enzyme: they had previously discovered that a low level of activity of this enzyme provides protection against free radicals. “If we block this feedback mechanism artificially while activating respiration, the free radical concentration increases significantly, damaging proteins and mitochondria. This tells us that cells can predict when the radical production will rise and adapt their metabolism before the free radicals are even produced,” explains Markus Ralser, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics and the University of Cambridge.

This discovery may prove to be of particular significance for cancer research. The enzyme pyruvate kinase is partly responsible for the fact that tumour cells usually respire less and thus have a higher rate of sugar metabolism than healthy tissue. This effect is named after Otto Warburg, the first scientist to demonstrate this higher rate of sugar metabolism in cancer cells in the 1920s.

The Max Planck researchers hope it will be possible to use this newly discovered feedback mechanism to cause targeted nutrition deficiency in tumour cells and render them more vulnerable.