Science 'n Shtein

Started by hbionic, August 23, 2011, 02:37:52 PM

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General_Failure

Students Show Common Compound Breaks Down Air Pollution

QuoteThe students coated two sample roof tiles with different amounts of titanium dioxide and put them in an experimental rig meant to mimic outdoor conditions. Nitrogen oxides were fed into the chamber and ultraviolet lights bathed the tiles in a proxy for sunlight.

A gas concentration detector told them the two coated tiles removed 88 percent and 97 percent of nitrogen oxides introduced into the chamber. Since the two tiles removed similarly high numbers of pollutant and one of the tiles was coated with 12 times the amount of titanium dioxide, the student researchers found that the amount of surface area coated in the catalyst was more important than the amount of catalyst that coats each unit of area.

Scaling the results of their research up, the team found that an average-sized residential roof over the course of a year could break down the equivalent amount of nitrogen oxides produced by a car driven 11,000 miles. They also calculated that 21 tons of nitrogen oxides would be eliminated daily for every one million roofs coated with titanium dioxide.

The man. The myth. The legend.

General_Failure

Scientists discover the new black: British researchers devise material so dark it looks like a black hole

QuoteBritish researchers have created the 'new black' of the science world - and it is being dubbed super black.
The material absorbs all but 0.035 per cent of light, a new world record, and is so dark the human eye struggles to discern its shape and dimension, giving the appearance of a black hole.
Named Vantablack, or super black, it also conducts heat seven and half times more effectively than copper, and is ten times stronger than steel.
It is created by Surrey NanoSystems using carbon nanotubes, which are 10,000 thinner than human hair and so miniscule that light cannot get in but can pass into the gaps in between.

The man. The myth. The legend.

Seabiscuit36

some of the nano tech stuff I've seen or heard about are astounding.  Self repairing tools, and vehicles. 
"For all the civic slurs, for all the unsavory things said of the Philadelphia fans, also say this: They could teach loyalty to a dog. Their capacity for pain is without limit." -Bill Lyons

General_Failure

Genome Editing Cuts Out HIV

QuoteLike other retroviruses, the genetic material of HIV wedges itself into the genome of its human host. While antiretroviral therapies are effective at repressing HIV, they don't eliminate the integrated virus, which can lie low in a latent state and reactivate if the treatment is stopped. In a study published today (July 21) in PNAS, researchers take advantage of the snipping precision of a genome-editing technique to cut HIV out of the human genome.

The man. The myth. The legend.

Seabiscuit36

Wasn't exactly sure where to put this, maybe we should have a farg the Earth thread just for SD. 

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/08/3467685/chesapeake-bay-pollution-conowingo-dam/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wO3SwuQQGhk

I can attest that after TS Lee, the bay looked darker than chocolate milk for months.  Fishing was jacked up for months, crabbing hasn't recovered.  I wouldn't at all attribute everything to the dam, but it does beg the question of what can happen.  What is more interesting to me is that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has all of its funds tied up in the cayman islands which just doesn't seem right when you're a tax exempt foundation? 

"For all the civic slurs, for all the unsavory things said of the Philadelphia fans, also say this: They could teach loyalty to a dog. Their capacity for pain is without limit." -Bill Lyons

Diomedes

This issue is complicated.  There are a goodly number of people who point to the dam, which is every bit the problem described here, as an excuse to not do anything themselves.  Literally, they say "why should I care or do anything about the runoff from my roof and driveway when the dam is such a problem."  These are often the same folks who scream about the "rain" tax.

In order to repair and care for the Bay, ALL of these measures, and more need to happen.
There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists." - Yosemite Park Ranger

Seabiscuit36

Agree completely, it's no single issue that's causing the problem's we're seeing today.  At the same time I do understand where residents are frustrated with all of the requirements and taxes that have been implemented over the past 30 odd years, and the bay has only gotten worse. 

I look at the BAT septic system law that was enacted in 2012.  It's a great idea to require new homes and failing systems to have the best technology available to prevent runoff.  The issue is with implementation and execution because they're dealing with the same installers.  Bubba who's dug septics for 30 years just had to apply for a license, and then install a system thats infinitely more complicated than a tube to a cistern, to a drain field.  I've seen 2 of my neighbors go thru the process only to have their septics dug up 2 months after the install to fix issues. 

Again, it's a small subset, and i live in a backwards county so chances are AA/Talbot/Baltimore all have had much more success with the new systems. 
"For all the civic slurs, for all the unsavory things said of the Philadelphia fans, also say this: They could teach loyalty to a dog. Their capacity for pain is without limit." -Bill Lyons

Diomedes

ATL, extremely busy airport, through a thunderstorm:

There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists." - Yosemite Park Ranger

PhillyPhreak54


hbionic

That's pretty damn interesting. That's cool how they work around the clouds to get in.
I said watch the game and you will see my spirit manifest.-ILLEAGLE 02/04/05


Diomedes

They're working around precipitation, not clouds.  You know that.

Smart.

=====
There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists." - Yosemite Park Ranger

General_Failure

Ka-Pow: Watch These Fish Cannons Shoot Salmon Safely Over Dams

QuoteSalmon have serious swimming skills--some travel thousands of miles to return to their original homes to breed. But even though they can jump as high as 12 feet in the air, they can't manage to get over massive concrete dams that we have built to block their journeys back to their homes. Now one new idea could give them a boost. The plan involves whisking the fish through a long vacuum tube at speeds up to 22 mph and then shooting them out the other end like a cannon.

The man. The myth. The legend.

General_Failure

The Great Green Wall of Africa

QuoteThe United Nations estimates that, by 2025, two thirds of Africa's arable land will be covered in Saharan sand, vastly expanding the current 9 million square kilometers. Even if these predictions prove aggressive, the effects of farmland destruction on a continent already hard-pressed for food would be devastating on any level.

With this peril in sight, the leaders of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti have banded together on an unprecedented endeavor to stave off impending catastrophe. Once complete, Africa's Green Wall will be a manmade forest of drought-resistant trees (principally acacia) stretching across the entire continent.

The man. The myth. The legend.

SunMo

I'm the Anti-Christ. You got me in a vendetta kind of mood.

hbionic

Quote from: General_Failure on August 21, 2014, 11:20:40 PM
The Great Green Wall of Africa

QuoteThe United Nations estimates that, by 2025, two thirds of Africa's arable land will be covered in Saharan sand, vastly expanding the current 9 million square kilometers. Even if these predictions prove aggressive, the effects of farmland destruction on a continent already hard-pressed for food would be devastating on any level.

With this peril in sight, the leaders of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti have banded together on an unprecedented endeavor to stave off impending catastrophe. Once complete, Africa's Green Wall will be a manmade forest of drought-resistant trees (principally acacia) stretching across the entire continent.
Quote from: General_Failure on August 21, 2014, 11:20:40 PM
The Great Green Wall of Africa

QuoteThe United Nations estimates that, by 2025, two thirds of Africa's arable land will be covered in Saharan sand, vastly expanding the current 9 million square kilometers. Even if these predictions prove aggressive, the effects of farmland destruction on a continent already hard-pressed for food would be devastating on any level.

With this peril in sight, the leaders of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti have banded together on an unprecedented endeavor to stave off impending catastrophe. Once complete, Africa's Green Wall will be a manmade forest of drought-resistant trees (principally acacia) stretching across the entire continent.

The fact that humans have come together, put aside their differences, and come up with a plan to stave off disaster blow my mind. If in fact they end up accomplishing this goal, I will give humans hope for once.
I said watch the game and you will see my spirit manifest.-ILLEAGLE 02/04/05