Pomegranates through the humanities.
Living plants bring life to us but pomegranates speak to us through ancient history, religion, politics, the arts and design. And, they have provided a clean energy-saving design idea for a team of lateral thinking scientists.
In Pomegranates: A Timeline History, we have story after story, covering their beginning, through ancient civilizations to their role as symbols in religions that still have a powerful influence on the lives of people across the globe. Explore this at your leisure through Pomegranates: A Timeline History and Food Faith. In politics, see why they were chosen as his heraldic badge by Henry IV of France. [A message for those in power today?] Carl Linnaeus names them Punica Granatum. [Find the connection with Punic Wars] See where they come in the French Republican calendar in 1793. A
Pomegranates in science.
Check their nutritional value. Then there is this article in Cosmos 56 April-May 2014.
In Australia, despite continued pressure from fossil fuel interests, those who care about the quality of the future in this time of global warming are focusing on battery storage to ensure clean energy supply.
‘Pomegranates inspire new battery design’.
It is their structure and the seeds this time. The seeds alone were significant in the ancient Greek myth of the creation of the seasons. Philip Dooley writes: “A structural breakthrough could pave the way for a shift from carbon to silicon that would multiply energy storage 10 times.” This article appeared in Cosmos 56 – Apr-May 2014 under the headline “Pomegranates inspire new battery design” Explore #Pomegranates #electricity storage #battery #lithium
Phil Dooley is an Australian freelance writer, presenter, musician and video-maker. He has a PhD in laser physics, has been a science communicator for the world’s largest fusion experiment JET and has performed in science shows and festivals from Adelaide to Glasgow.
“It’s amazing what you can do with a pomegranate. Humans have used the fruit for thousands of years as a tonic for the heart, a cure for diarrhoea and a female contraceptive. And now, in research published in Nature Nanotechnology this February, for electricity storage.”
This time, it is not the fruit itself being used but its structure. It has inspired an ingenious new design for lithium batteries that could increase their capacity many times over.” Read the whole article with pictures of pomegranate and the ‘nano-seeds’ – #Pomegranates #electricity storage #battery #lithium
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Sciences and Humanities 