Learning Area

Zombies Really Exist in Haiti! 

August 18 2013

Haitians don't fear zombies as much as becoming one. A person is given a toxic mixture to induce a coma, "resurrected" and given another potion to ensure domination. 

Wade Davis, a Harvard ethno-botanist, went to Haiti to perform zombie research in 1982. He interviewed Clairvius Narcisse, a man, and Ti Femme, a woman, who claimed to be zombies. Both told him how they died, witnessed their own funerals and how a bokor, black-magic Voodoo hougan (priest), woke them.
It took Davis months of research, talking to hougans, to confirm his suspicions that some form of drug was involved in the creation of zombies.

How Are Zombies Created? 

The bokor creates a highly toxic mixture that includes poisonous plants and animals. Dumbcane is added because it harms the larynx, making breathing difficult and vocalizations impossible.
The poison is mixed with food to be ingested or placed over an open wound to ensure it gets absorbed into the victim’s bloodstream. The person will lapse into a deep coma-like state so life cannot be detected, then buried before being “resurrected” by the bokor. The victim is aware of what is happening, but cannot react.
The zombie is “resurrected” by being force-fed a mixture of sweet potatoes, sugar cane and Datura stramonium, referred to as zombie’s cucumber. The potion causes disorientation and hallucinations. The bokor gives the zombie a new name and a new life. Confused, the victim follows and totally obeys the bokor and his or her new master. There’s no antidote for the potions and zombies require little food. Salt is withheld because it’s believed that it can bring back the ability to speak and taste. Voodoo beliefs play an important role.

Modern Zombies

Traditionally, zombies worked in fields at night. Some Haitians considered to be zombies lead normal daily lives with families and jobs.
Papa Doc Duvallier, former Haitian dictator, had a private army of tonton macoutes, said to be in trances, who obeyed all commands. He had his own Voodoo church with many followers. Duvallier promised to return after his death; he didn’t return, but a guard was placed at his tomb, to ensure that he wouldn’t try to escape and that no one would steal his body.
There are stories of people who have died and then returned. Caesar returned eighteen years after he “died,” married, had three children and finally died thirty years later.
A student from Port-au-Prince was shot during a robbery attempt. Six months later, he returned to his parent’s house as a zombie. He said a bokor stole his body from the ambulance and transformed him into a zombie. As time went by, the student lost his ability to communicate, grew increasingly lethargic, and then died.

Zombies and the Law

Zombification was used a means of control. The Maroon societies were comprised of slaves who escaped their masters, and then hid in the mountains. Zombification enabled the slaves to establish a judicial system used to maintain order. Only a tribunal of elders could authorize this fate. Narcisse was sentenced to zombification because he was impregnating women any time he felt like it, then walked away without concern for the women or the many children he had abandoned. The tribunal felt he was a danger to the community and had to be stopped.

Today, according to Haitian Penal Code Article 249, zombification is illegal. It’s considered a form of attempted murder when a person is given substances to induce a prolonged lethargic coma; it becomes murder is when the person has been buried, whether or not s/he dies.

New research suggests perovskite as cheaper replacement for silicon-based solar panels

August 18 2013

(Phys.org) —Researchers at Oxford Photovoltaic and other companies investigating the use of perovskite—a crystalline organometal—as a replacement for silicon in photovoltaic cells have created prototypes that are approximately 15 percent efficient. But this is apparently just the beginning. Kevin Bullis suggests in an article published this week in MIT Technology Review that researchers are predicting efficiencies as high as 25 percent very soon, putting the material on a par with silicon.

Simply meeting the same efficiency levels as silicon isn't a big deal of course, other materials have been found that are capable of doing so as well, what's newsworthy here is that using perovskite to make solar cells would be far cheaper. Not only is it more readily available, but it doesn't require as much production cost. Also, cells that use it would require far less material. Silicon cells, for example, typically wind up approximately 180 micrometers thick. A comparable cell made using perovskite on the other hand would be just 1 micrometer thick.

Perovskite isn't some newly discovered material—scientists have known about it for over 170 years. What's new is that researchers are only now beginning to fully realize its potential as a material for use in solar cell technology. It was only in 2009 that researchers first thought of using the semiconductor in such cells—initial testing indicated that it was only 3.5 percent efficient. Worse, it didn't hold up for very long when used. But since that time, researchers have figured out how to make it last longer and have continuously improved its efficiency to boot. 

Current prototypes are made using a process that involves spraying the material on a base, which means the material is far more versatile than silicon as well. But what really has researchers exited are expectations for creating solar panels far more cheaply than can be done today—estimates suggest they could cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt, as compared to 75 cents per watt for traditional silicon based panels—fossil fuels cost an average of 50 cents per watts, suggesting that the use of perovskite could cause a dramatic shift to solar power in the future if its efficiency can be improved as researchers hope.