About the author- litigation lawyer in telecoms, taxation, criminal, labor, appellate, family law and corporate; a radio broadcaster, speaker, author a husband, a father, advocate for consumers, for justice www.angkapatiran.org and a sinner who wants to
be a saint. hilman1108@yahoo.com
I received infothat robbers prey on vehicles in the evening. either stay on the center lane or just use edsa.
the robers smash the drivers window so that the driver will stop and do the robbery. Please contact the Taguig police on why they are not around when it rains.
Here are the DOST News for the week.
DOST to lead 51st National Science and Technology Week
By Joy M. Lazcano
The Department of Science and Technology will lead the celebration of the 51st National Science and Technology Week that starts July 20. Various activities that showcase recent developments and achievements in domestic science and technology along with technology fairs and scientific fora are lined up for this year’s celebration.
The annual event also aims to raise public understanding of science and technology as well as DOST’s role and contributions to national development.
This year’s NSTW keeps in step with current global challenges through the theme “Science and Technology, Responding to Global Challenges.”
Various symposia related to climate change and business fora will be held to try to provide a venue for discussions on prevailing world climate change scenarios, and encourage Filipino technopreneurship.
Meanwhile, the science communities in Quezon City, Manila, Bicutan, and in Los Baños, Laguna will hold separate celebrations within the weeklong NSTW while regional celebration schedules are spread throughout July.
The Quezon City and Metro Manila Science Communities will focus on disaster mitigation and health issues, respectively. The Los Baños science community will present lectures mainly on agriculture and aquaculture sciences.
The Bicutan science cluster will offer several livelihood seminars at SM City in Bicutan.
The NSTW, previously called as the Philippine National Science Week in the 50s, was instituted by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 2214 in 1982. It was later amended through Republic Act 169 on April 23, 1993 which declared the third week of July of every year as the National Science and Technology Week.
NSTW has since become the platform for informed exchanges on important S&T issues, developments, and locally developed technologies. [S&T Media Service]
ITDI researchers develops solar wastewater detoxification
By Glory Rose M. Echavia
Researchers at the Industrial Technology Development Institute, an agency of the Department of Science and Technology trying to develop a technology using sunlight and ordinary cosmetic ingredient to clean industrial wastewater of pollutants, have successfully eliminated pesticides in contaminated water during initial tests.
Trial runs are onstream to treat wastewater contaminated with dyes used in handicraft industry. They hope to help cottage dyeing industries comply with strict regulations imposed by countries that rigorously monitor the environmental impact of exporters and their manufacturing activities.
“Eventually, we intend to design and build a simple and inexpensive technology that runs using sunlight and, when that is not available, by using ultraviolet lamps as backup,” explains Dr. Christopher M. Silverio, chief of ITDI’s Environmental Division.
The technology is called solar photocatalysis, a promising technique that uses sunlight and titanium dioxide, a non-toxic chemical commonly used as white pigment in paints and cosmetics to break down toxic and hard-to-remove pollutants.
Photocatalysis occurs when a relatively small amount of light-absorbing material, called photocatalyst, chemically reacts with pollutants without itself being consumed. In this case, the photocatalyst used is titanium dioxide.
In standard photocatalysis, ultraviolet lamps driven by electricity are used. In contrast, solar photocatalyis uses sunlight, which is abundant in tropical Philippines.
“Wastewater, especially those containing harmful chemicals, need to be treated before disposal. Various wastewater treatment processes like filtration, microbial degradation and chemical decomposition are available.”
“However, these systems may be cheap but inefficient, effective but costly or the contaminants basically remain as pollutants,” says Dr. Silverio.
Solar photocatalysis can completely destroy toxic pollutants into harmless end products without leaving solid residues”,
“Our technology is also designed so that it will be cheap, easy to operate, and does not need filtration process that limits its commercial feasibility in the past,” Dr. Silverio added. “It simply involves passing of wastewater through glass tubes packed with titanium dioxide under sunlight.”
Different designs have seen successful applications in countries such as the United States and Japan. In Spain, they call it “solar water detoxification.”
Solar photocatalysis is virtually unheard of domestically until ITDI researchers thought of ways to use sunlight to remove difficult-to-treat pollutants in wastewater.
PAGASA unveils new Iloilo weather monitoring facilities
By Joy M. Lazcano
The early start of the rainy season has stirred the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration to gear up its capabilities unveiling state-of-the art weather monitoring facilities in simple rites at the Iloilo provincial capitol recently.
The new weather facilities in the Western Visayas province are part of a grant from Korea International Cooperation Agency on disaster mitigation in the Philippines. “This is a very important project because we look at our role in giving early weather warnings as crucial in the preservation of lives, as well as minimizing damage to property,” Department of Science and Technology Secretary Alabastro said.
PAGASA is a DOST attached agency.
Alabastro commended DOST’s partner agencies for the project especially Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Choi Joong-Kyung, KOICA resident representative In Kim, and the Iloilo City government led by Mayor Neil D. Tupas, Sr. for the successful implementation of the project.
Under the KOICA grant, three new automatic weather stations are installed in different regions nationwide. One is in Luzon’s Aurora province inaugurated last February, and another is in Agus-Lake Lanao watershed in Mindanao’s Lanao province that’s expected to be operational by June 2009.
KOICA’s grant includes 1 monitoring office, 2 rainfall gauging stations, 5 water level gauging stations, 1 automatic weather station, 1 evaporation station, and 10 units of global system for mobile communication.
The event was followed by the unveiling of a marker to commemorate the project at the automatic weather station in the town of San Enrique, Iloilo.
National summit on aquaculture mechanization
By Dalisay DG. Fernandez
Chief SRS, PCAMRD
The First National Summit on Mechanization in Aquaculture will be held at the Asian Fisheries Academy in Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan City, Pangasinan on June 24-25. It is built on the theme “Makabagong Pangisdaan Tungo sa Masaganang Pamumuhay”.
The summit aims to gather information on available technologies, identify gaps and markets for development of mechanized aquaculture industry, draw up strategies for a five-year road map, and introduce a resolution to promote mechanization of Philippine aquaculture.
The summit is a joint initiative of the Asian Fisheries Academy, National Fisheries Research and Development Institute of the Department of Agriculture, and the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology.
[For details, please contact Zenaida C. Pamulaklakin at Tel No. (049) 536-5577.
Science and Technology Information Institue
DOST Complex, Gen. Santos Ave., Bicutan, Tagig City
Tel/Fax Nos. 837-7520, 838-1510
Trunkline No. 837-2191 loc. 7
