hamamadrama

We went to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for our second weekend here. Awww look how cute we are! The dome on the rock! In Jerusalem we toured the old city with an MIT group, visited Yad Vashem (the holocaust museum) and the Israel Museum. Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Greek orthodox part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre We also went to the Mahane Yehuda market which had really good food. Shakshuka at Mahane Yehuda Market inside the Mahane Yehuda market by the market                      near the hostel in Jerusalem                Rayna is excited for food! pastry shop near the market The next day we took a bus to Tel Aviv, and walked to Jaffa- the oldest part of Tel Aviv. Jaffa port           in Jaffa walking to Jaffa We got a slushy drink and went around a ...

What's green and comes in stacks? CA$H money Okay yeah, but what else? Our Battery! Truth be told, this battery has not been nearly as successful as we hoped at the start. We've been plagued with a wide variety of issues, including but not limited to leaks, deformations, and contaminations. But in the true spirit of engineering, we slapped some tape on it and kept moving forward. Meet your friendly neighborhood scientists Two weeks ago, we met with a man from Tel Aviv University, who does research on algae and bacteria symbioses. He plans on doing service at the greenhouse, which came in handy for us. He was more than willing to listen to our questions, and provided us with several rather important answers that we weren't able to find in the original papers. From there, we made the decision to 3D print the battery. This allowed us more flexibility and precision when designing its structure, though limited the battery's size (our largest battery, which wasn...

A hydroponics system Our time at the greenhouse is about to end, and if we don't now have an idea of what it is about, we never will. We arrived over three weeks ago, entirely unsure of what to expect. Yet, even expecting the unexpected, we were surprised. Beyond pure culture shock, the greenhouse is unlike anything we have ever seen. It's unique in its existence. The first thing impressed upon us was the incredibly outgoing hospitality of everyone here, both in the greenhouse and the kibbutz at large. In a day, we must have been asked seven times if we were okay, if we needed anything, if everything was comfortable. Several others offered their assistance should we need it. The Greenhouse Lab, where students can learn about laboratory science and experiments are conducted on algae The second thing we took in was the greenhouse's appearance. It's absolutely beautiful. Everything about it is open. Its ceilings stretch higher than most, the tallest reaching per...

Llamas and salt don't mix well We made a more advanced battery. This battery, if it works properly, should generate electricity while desalinating water. However, we having trouble, as the current battery generates a very small amount of electricity, and actually increased the amount of salt in the water due to a faulty design of the  membranes in the battery. We were disappointed. If you couldn't tell already, salt is giving the  HamamaLlamas some problems. This battery is based off of:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258040530.  Left chamber: muck with anaerobic bacteria (anode) ; middle chamber: salt water; right chamber: spirulina (cathode) To make the battery, we used the same material for the agar membrane as we did in Project Update 2, and the same material for the anode, and we also added the carbon cloth plus metal wire for the cathode as well. The hardest part was definitely making the membranes- after that we just poured in Spiru...

To better understand our project, we decided to make a simpler battery using just bacteria and freshwater. This generated a half a volt of electricity, along with a very weak current. We were hoping to power a small LED with it, but alas! It could not be done. Agar membrane The battery was designed according to specifications from: https://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/gadgets/make-microbial-fuel-cell/ The basic battery was a fairly standard two-part system, an anode and cathode, separated by a membrane of agar and salt (agar is a gelatin-like material that allows certain materials to pass through it, such as water and some small ions, but not larger molecules). The anode consisted of char cloth wrapped in a wire mesh. Char cloth is what results when you take something high in carbon, such as a cotton shirt, and heat it at high heat with minimal airflow. The lack of oxygen prevents the cotton from burning as in a fire, and instead it smolders, until all that is left is a thi...

Are you ready hevreh*?? Aye aye Captain Who lives in some ruins down by the sea Cea sareans Cea sareans Old and stony and powerful is he Cea sareans Cea sareans They were really powerful but then lost some wars Cea sareans Cea sareans Owned by the Romans, they had the best port READY Cea sareans Cea sareans Cea sareans Cea sareans Cea sareans Cea sareans *hevreh is kind of like saying "guys" in Hebrew Today, Noam, Yair, and the HamamaLlamas went to Caesarea, the ruins down by the "cea", a tourist sight on the Mediterranean coast. Israel being a religious country, and Saturday being a religious day, public transportation was closed, as were most stores. Rayna tried on the loveliest (/sarcasm) hat, chosen specially by Claire. Rayna also tried to play with a cat, although it just ran away. The GORGEOUS HamamaLlamas stare into the sun Caesarea is a sight of ruins, filled with history from the Jews, the Romans, the Christians, the Muslims, and ...