A brief history of the disposal cup

The disposable cup was created with the purpose of protect the public hygienic. In 1908 Hugh Moore created a porcelain apparatus to serve cold and pure water. The apparatus had three compartments: the top for the ice, the middle for water and the bottom for used cups. The apparatus had an add stating that the cups were not be used again, because they were just an accessory. The most important thing to be sold was the water, no the cups!

Some Moore´s water dispensers were installed in different streets of New York, but nobody bought the water. It became a financial problem for Moore that was resolved by a member of the sanitation department. He was Samuel Crumbine.

People used to drink water in public places from an unhygienic single cup. Crumbine was making the campaign to eliminate it for the good of the public health. Their attention went therefore to the disposal cups of Moore. Meanwhile, different States approved laws to abolish the public cups. It meant the business opportunity for Moore.

Caring the environment

Today, the disposal cup is common in any modern society. But what Moore and Cumbrine did not think was the environment. Tons of disposal cups are contaminating the earth.

Picture from Caracol.

The Colombian-American astronaut, George Zamka, the Colombian Nasa scientis Jaime Forero and three of the tripulants of Discovery, Stephanie D. Wilson, Paolo A. Nespoli and Douglas H. Wheelock, are in Colombia in a visit organized by the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Colciencias. The famous team “star” team will make some conferences in Bogotá, Cali and Medellín in a program to promote science for youth and children in the country. Of course, Zamka, whose mother is Colombian, is the one who attracts more the attention.  He was born in New Jersey in 1962, but he lived in Medellin for a year and he brought the Colombian flag in the 14-days space trip around the planet, the same he will give to President Uribe in his meeting with him next Tuesday in Bogotá.

By LA MONICA EVERETT-HAYNES
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

For the past four years, Raul Cuero has used NASA’s factory-made soil to breed microbes in his lab, much like 100 other scientific researchers in the nation — and seven others in Texas — have done since 1998.

And as Opportunity sits at Endurance, a 430-foot-wide crater on Mars, awaiting NASA’s command to jump in, Cuero has moved forward in his discovery that Mars soil may lead to solutions that could rid Earth of toxins.

At least that’s what the microbiologist hopes.

Cuero is trying to be the first to patent a set of techniques demonstrating how Martian soil can help Earth.

During his research of the artificial soil, Cuero, whose most recent patent was approved earlier this year, created an organic solution that prevents mold and bacteria from growing on vegetables. Using a $120,000 grant from NASA, he also developed a technique that, without using synthetic chemicals, can extract toxins from metals.

“This proves that not only is Mars’ soil important to life, but it is important to be used to clean toxic materials on Earth,” said Cuero, 55, who believes that actual Mars soil will be more effective than the manufactured soil. The artificial soil is 80 percent similar in composition to the Red Planet’s grainy plains.

Cuero has high hopes for his inventions, and a long list of what he believes they could accomplish, including making copper, uranium and lead less hazardous. He also said they could give avocados and lettuce longer shelf lives. They could make drinking water zinc-free, he said, and, hopefully, cure some forms of cancer.

“Everything we do is for survival. The more you know, the more you discover things to do and, therefore, you are not limited,” Cuero said. “(My inventions) can lead to changes in paradigms. The concepts of contamination can change.”

During his research, Cuero also received grants from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization totaling $108,000 for similar studies. Cuero trained two Russian scientists this semester on ways to remove contaminants using his techniques. A follow-up session will soon take Cuero to Russia to assist the scientists in a project.

It’s too early to know whether Cuero’s experiments will pan out, said David S. McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Without the actual Mars soil, scientists are not completely confident that it will have the same results found in Cuero’s lab.

“We hope that we’ll be able to send a real-bodied mission and send some soil back as soon as possible because we think that the scientific benefits of that would be really tremendous,” said McKay, who worked with Cuero on the research.

Two companies have approached Cuero with requests to license his discoveries for production. The Baltimore-based Omo Petroleum Company LLC has licensed Cuero’s invention that helps to clean oil, producing a more environmentally safe product. Cuero would not identify the second company because no deal has been finalized.

“This can have a big impact on health, the environment and biotechnology,” said Cuero, who didn’t want to disclose the specifics of his research.

Instead, he spoke broadly of how Mars soil may be able to kill off contaminants.

Earth is seething with toxins because the planet is oxidized, Cuero said. Because Mars lacks oxygen and is mostly composed of iron, the planet can easily destroy pollutants, he said.

This process, called oxidation-reduction, was crucial in validating Cuero’s findings. Cuero says that the future of Mars exploration, coupled with his inventions, will “bring on a social and economic renaissance.”