Fiddling With The Earth’s

Thermostat

WORLD TEMPERATURE CONCERNS

Scientists, including Obama’s science advisor, get tied in knots over geoengineering.

Oil and gas are so deliciously tempting that humans are having no success in slowing down global warming the way scientists agree we should, by going easy at the fossil fuel buffet.

So like surgeons who use liposuction to deal with obesity, scientists are considering ways to deal with the consequences of our unhealthy carbon diet. They are thinking about blowing soot into the stratosphere, hanging sunshades in space and sprinkling the oceans with fertilizer to create blooms of carbon-sucking phytoplankton.

These approaches are aimed at cooling the earth by either allowing less sunlight in or letting more heat bounce back to space by removing heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. The big idea–fighting or reversing atmospheric changes with large-scale tinkering of the earth–is called geoengineering, and it’s tying scientists in knots.

President Obama’s science advisor, John Holdren, got twisted up himself last week. In his first interview since he was appointed, he mentioned to the Associated Press that he and the administration had discussed geoengineering approaches. Holdren later had to write an e-mail clarifying his position in response to fears that he and the administration were considering planning something specific. They aren’t.

“I said that the approaches that have been surfaced so far seem problematic in terms of both efficacy and side effects, but we have to look at the possibilities and understand them because if we get desperate enough it will be considered,” Holdren wrote.

This highlights why geoengineering is such an extraordinarily touchy scientific subject and why there is such deep ambivalence in the scientific community about it. Almost no one thinks that humans should be trying to change the atmosphere on a global scale. But then again, aren’t we already doing that by removing carbon from the ground in the form of fossil fuels and depositing it in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide on a massive scale? And what if we don’t solve the problem in time?

TOO HOT??

What complicates things is that the scientists who are most concerned with the pace of global warming and the destruction that might ensue are the ones who are forcing themselves to think about radical solutions. It terrifies them because they know better than anyone that the climate is massively complex and that unintended consequences lurk everywhere.

Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen, best known for his work on ozone depletion, has advanced the idea of injecting sulfur particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from earth. James Lovelock, a hero to early environmentalists who proposed the Gaia hypothesis, has advocated placing long, vertical wave-driven pipes in the ocean that would pump nutrient-rich water to the surface to fertilize algae that would consume carbon dioxide.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 16th April 2009

Sugar-Based Biofuels

BIO FUEL - SUGAR BASED

Madison, Wis.,-based Virent Energy Systems has a low-temperature, low-pressure, catalytic process for turning carbohydrates (sugars) into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. Its 70 employees now make a gallon or so daily. Targeting gasoline as its first fuel, Virent hopes within five years to raise that production to 10 million to 15 million gallons annually. Virent has pulled in more than $30 million in venture funding and has strategic relationships with the likes of Cargill, Honda Motor and Royal Dutch Shell.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 31 st March 2009

Improved Lithium Ion Batteries

LARGE FORMAT LITHIUM IRON BATTERIES

Lithium ion batteries were commercially introduced in 1991 for consumer electronics. The automotive and defense industries also look promising for these powerful rechargeable batteries. A123Systems makes lithium ion batteries suitable for both autos and heavy duty vehicles. The company is working with General Motors to produce batteries for the Saturn Vue and the Chevrolet Volt, both plug-in hybrids.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 31st March 2009

Portable justice to areas in China

rural chinese court

People gather to audit a trial held by the mobile court at a village in Dagze County, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, March 26, 2009. The court of Dagze County has dispatched the mobile court to villages for years to unload the economic burdens of those who entangled in lawsuits and popularize law knowledge among local residents.[Xinhua]

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 30th March 2009

When mixing your foods can be

dangerous

weight watcher

For people whose eyes are bigger than their stomachs, a big meal with lots of different tastes usually satisfies. But some foods do not go with others. When the mix is wrong, people will not be able to assimilate the nutrients in the food. Sometimes there are risks of more serious side effects.

Crabs and persimmons are a well-known example. When the two are eaten together, they cause diarrhea.

Li Hongyan, a senior nutritionist from Shanghai Tongmai Food Co Ltd, suggests that when mixing different foods, people have to look out for those that might result in bad reactions.

She offers some tips.

Category 1: Soybean and milk products

Bean curd and spinach

When bean curd and spinach are eaten at the same time, they affect absorption of calcium and may lead to blockages in the abdomen. Spinach contains oxalic acid, which can react with the calcium in bean curd in the intestines and form insoluble precipitates of calcium oxalate. The foods taken together affect the absorption of calcium.

Bean curd and green onion

The combination of bean curd and green onions may affect the absorption of calcium. Bean curd contains plenty of nutrition like protein and calcium. But green onions contain a great deal of oxalic acid. When calcium meets oxalic acid, the calcium oxalate they form destroys calcium. If one eats bean curd mixed with green onions over a long time, it can lead to a lack of calcium causing spasms, osteomalacia and fractures.

Milk and chocolate

sexy chocolate

Believe it or not, milk and chocolate do not match. While milk is rich in protein and calcium, chocolate contains oxalic acid. Eaten together, the calcium from milk and the oxalic acid of chocolate can combine and form insoluble calcium oxalate, which is not only indigestible but also can cause diarrhea.

Milk and pomelo

The protein in milk can react with the fruit acids in pomelos and make one’s stomach feel bloated. The acid can also over-stimulate the stomach and cause diarrhea.

Lactic acid drink and ham

Many people like having a sandwich with yogurt. However, ham and bacon in sandwiches, when taken with yogurt, could cause cancer. To extend the preservation of meat products, producers add nitrate to prevent decay and botulinus. But when nitrate meets organic acid, it can turn into nitrosamine, a carcinogen.

Soy milk and egg

Soy milk contains nutrition including vegetable proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. If drunk by itself, it is very nourishing. However, if taken together with eggs, it can reduce the activity of protease, which helps the body assimilate protein. Eggs are, of course, very rich in protein.

Category 2: Meat

Mutton and vinegar

mix and match

Mutton is a “hot” food, while vinegar is “warm” and like alcohol. When the two are cooked together, they can over-activate yang energy and the circulation. According to Compendium of Materia Medica, a book on Chinese herbal medicine, eating mutton and vinegar at the same time harms the heart.

Mutton and watermelon

Watermelon is a “cold” food. When taken together with mutton, the “heat,” the nourishing effect of the mutton will be dramatically decreased. For those who suffer from asthenia of the spleen, it can harm their energy and upset the spleen and stomach.

Beef and chestnut

chestnuts

Beef and chestnuts are good for the stomach. However, chestnuts contains vitamin C, which can react with microelements in the beef and lessen the chestnuts’ nutrition. The combination is not good for digestion and can cause dyspepsia.

Category 3: Seafood

Crab and tea

Some people might get used to drinking tea after eating crabs, thinking that it is good for the digestion. On the contrary it can cause indigestion. Gastric juices are diluted after drinking tea while eating crabs, and this not only disturbs assimilation but also reduces the ability of the gastric juices to sterilize. On the other hand, tea has as much tannic acid as persimmons.

Shrimp and vitamin C

If someone eats shrimps and also takes a lot of vitamin C on the same day, he or she is taking a serious risk. Shrimps contain a compound which reacts with vitamin C becoming the poison arsenic.

Catergory 4: Vegetable

White radish and carrot

The ferment in carrot can destroy the vitamin C in the white radish. To get the best nutrition, it is better to eat them separately.

Persimmon and sweet potato

Having persimmon and sweet potato at the same time can cause blockages in the stomach. The sugar in the sweet potato gets fermented in the stomach, which increases stomach acid. Together they could even cause a gastric hemorrhage or gastric ulcers.

so confused

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 30th March 2009

10 foods to make you happy

Feeling sad and blue? Mung beans, lobster, turkey, asparagus, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, pineapple, tofu, spinach and bananas could lift your spirits.

FRESH FRUIT AND VEG

A diet high in tryptophan – an amino acid converted by the body into the feel-good chemical serotonin – can improve mood and wellbeing, pediatrician and natural health expert Caroline Longmore said.

The body cannot produce tryptophan so unless we get enough through our diets, we may suffer a deficiency, leading to low serotonin levels which are associated with mood disorders, anxiety, cravings and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

“Following a diet which contains foods rich in naturally occurring serotonin will improve your mood, leaving you energised and in a state of harmony and wellbeing,” Dr Longmore said.

Mental health experts say while the theory behind tryptophans for improving mood is solid, its use by depressed patients has a chequered history in Australia.

MACADAMIA NUTS

Gordon Parker, from the Black Dog Institute, said tryptophan supplements were widely used before the 1990s but after a number of patients suffered serious side effects from a contaminated batch, they were temporarily taken off the market.

Professor Parker said while some patients strongly believed such supplements were beneficial, scientific evidence was lacking.

“I would say it’s something that can be useful for some people but the quality control varies enormously,” he said.

In her ebook The Serotonin Secret, Dr Longmore claims the best way to get optimum tryptophan levels is through a carefully devised eating plan. She rates dozens of foods for their levels of tryptophan.

Written with Australian-trained medical scientist and naturopath Katrin Hempel, the book has 50 recipes designed to solve serotonin imbalance without drugs. The concept works on the same principle as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as popular antidepressant Prozac.

Britain‘s Food and Mood Project recommends eating chicken, sardines, turkey, salmon, fresh tuna, nuts and seeds to boost serotonin levels.

DR FEEL GOOD

But Associate Professor Michael Baigent, clinical adviser to Beyondblue, said there was only low-level evidence to suggest tryptophans have a medical effect.

DuPont opens integrated knowledge centre in Hyderabad

African freshwater fish species risk extinction

african map

ASHINGTON (UPI) — An international conservation group says many freshwater fish, crabs, dragonflies, mollusks and aquatic plants are at risk of extinction in southern Africa.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a study conducted with the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity shows 7 percent of species are known to be regionally threatened or extinct and that figure is expected to rapidly increase unless conservation is considered in development planning.

The U.S. organization’s study shows that while 77 percent of species aren’t threatened with extinction, there isn’t enough information for the remaining 16 percent to determine their threat status.

FISH SKETCHES

The ICUN said its assessment of 1,279 freshwater species in southern Africa show the more developed a country is, the more species are threatened with extinction. Of the 94 species threatened in southern Africa, 78 of these are found in South Africa, the most developed country in the region.

“We are in a unique position in Africa to avoid an extinction disaster,” said IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefevre. “Most developers have not taken freshwater species into consideration because they simply don’t have the information they need. We hope this detailed study will change that.”

An executive summary of the report is available here.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 24th March 2009

Fruit flies used to study neural circuits in the human brain

fruit fly

PASADENA, Calif. (UPI) — A U.S. biologist says he has used the behavior of fruit flies to study human behavior and, perhaps, develop new treatments for mental illness.

BRINGS A NEW MEANING TO THE TERM ‘FRUIT LOOP’

Am I mad

I have an  eye for the ladys though

Professor David Anderson of the California Institute of Technology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator noticed fruit flies subjected to even gentle wind will assume a defensive position, halting flying until the wind ceases.

Anderson and colleagues subsequently discovered the flies’ wind-sensitive neurons exist in the same sensory organ in the flies’ antennae as the neurons that process the sound of the song of a potential mate.

The next challenge was determining how the same organ processed two distinct stimuli, leading to two distinct behavioral responses. The team mounted a fly under a very powerful two-photon microscope and cut a hole in the shell covering the fly’s brain to observe when any neurons were activated by a particular stimulus.

Simultaneously playing recordings of mating sounds and using a fan to make a breeze, the scientists identified the neurons being activated.

“And it was absolutely obvious that neurons in different regions of the brain were being activated by the sound or activated by the wind, and these regions were different, even if we applied the two stimuli simultaneously,” said Anderson

HEAD SCAN

He said the findings have potential application for the treatment of mental illnesses and might target medications to precisely where they are needed, as opposed to treating the brain globally.

The study appears in the journal Nature.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 24th March 2009

Lasers may spread Internet to rural areas

LASER BRINGS INTERNET

MELBOURNE (UPI) — Australian researchers say they are experimenting with lasers as a way to boost the reach of existing high-speed Internet service to make it accessable to large rural areas.

Ka Lun Lee and colleagues at the University of Melbourne say high-speed digital subscriber line or cable Internet service is too expensive to use in rural areas, since they require extensive networks of equipment and lines. Other technologies, such as satellite and fixed wireless, offer wider coverage but are often unreliable and expensive.

amplify the signal

The researchers found gigabit passive optical networks provide the lowest cost at higher bitrates. But Lee said the reach of that technology into rural areas is limited by the loss in signal strength along the optical fibre, with each line only capable of radiating approximately 19 miles from a central office.

To boost that reach, Lee and his team use a device called a ‘Raman amplifier’. Installed in the central office of a network provider, the high-powered laser feeds the optical signals that carry information as it heads out over a fibre. That, said Lee, increases the power and reach of the signal by a factor of nearly 10 times.

fibre optic cable

The scientists will present their research shortly in San Diego during the Optical Fibre Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fibre Optic Engineers Conference.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 03/17/2009

Sourced and Published by Herny Sapiecha 24th March 2009