Category Archives: Science

More about bottled water: it may sex you up

Via Wired, it seems that bottled water has some contaminant issues (like that whole scare about polycarbonate water bottles). I still think that leachates are not so great a concern as people think, but most things that will get people to stop drinking bottled water are good ideas in my book.

The study referenced used snails to measure the effects of sex hormone analogues (probably pthalates) that are used as plasticizers in all kinds of things these days. Snails grown in bottled water tended to have a lot more little snails. That is an indicator that there might be some hormone analogues coming out of the plastic.

I doubt the effects on humans will be so easily determined.

Cheers,

Peter

Medical Hypotheses about belly button lint

There’s an article in C&EN that led me to about this article in Medical Hypotheses about belly button lint. A real scientist, Prof. Steinhauser of Vienna University of Technology made a careful study of the stuff. I almost wrote serious scientist, but I think Prof. Steinhauser would agree that he is a funny scientist.

The upshot is that his hypothesis seems to be true: if you have belly hair, you are probably more prone to belly button lint.

The reactions to this 2+ year trial have been mixed. I certainly think he deserves an IgNobel award. That is mixed praise at best. But I will say this: there is a place for frivolous science. Frivolous is not the same as wasteful. A study that is funny, interesting and still rigorous and well designed constitutes a feat.

I would make the analogy of a serious columnist writing a humor piece. It’s still journalism and it’s still an opportunity for good writing. In a similar way, science with a spirit of levity still deserves to be called science.

-Peter

"Miracle" water for cleaning is probably not all that miraculous

Alert Reader Jason strikes again! About a week ago, the L.A. Times covered the following story.

Simple elixir called a ‘miracle liquid’

It turns out to be less miraculous than it might seem. What you have here is the electrochemical generation of dilute bleach and dilute hydrochloric acid. This is a process that has been done industrially for a century, and now you can do it at home. Or you could just buy a bottle of bleach and a bottle of vinegar.

-Peter

Algae for Biofuels

Another article crossed my desk that was all about algae for biofuels. This one quoted a figure: Algae absorbed roughly 20% of all venture capital invested in biofuels last year. I think that’s pretty impressive. That’s about $180 million. Also impressive: an article over at Green Car Congress talks about a 91 octane gasoline derived from algal a biocrude.

Here are a few of the companies looking into algae biofuels:

Sapphire Energy

Petrosun [edit 3/9/14, defunct]

Imperium Renewables

GreenFuel Technologies [defunct]

AXI, LLC – this one is was cooperating with my Alma Mater [defunct]

-Peter

Geoengineering – is it possible to really engineer our ecosystem?

Today is the start date for a program in which iron based fertilizer will be seeded into a swath of the southern ocean. That will cause a massive algae bloom, and (in principle) soak up carbon dioxide. The notion is that, I suppose, it will stay in the ocean end up as sediment.

The Science short news article is not heavy on the details, but I at least wonder about the possibility of harvesting that algae. But it’s a secondary interest. The bigger issue is: we can certainly inadvertently cause unintended effects on the climate; can we really hope to create intended consequences as well?

I saw a TED talk on that a while back, and thought it was great.

Hope you enjoy.

-Peter