Zark's

Learning From the Birthplace of Democracy

Athens viewed by ASTER
Image Credit: Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Wikipedia reminds us of a lesson from primary school - that Greece is the birthplace of democracy.  The CIA World Factbook tells that Greece's economy has a per capita GDP about 2/3 of the leading eurozone economies.  Tourism represents 15 percent of the GDP and immigrants compose 20 percent of the workforce. 

Consumer spending buoyed the economy following the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, but it plunged into a recession with the 2008 global contraction.  The nation ran into a budget deficit, triggered by falling government revenues and increased government expenditures.  Austerity measures reduced the deficit percentage, but fueled unemployment. 

Is Greece's Austerity Budget a Big Mistake? explains that Greece has a 'primary' deficit of 5 percent (excluding debt payments).  On June 29 parliament passed the austerity measures demanded by the creditor European nations. 

In most western reporting, Greece is mocked as a nation that spends too much money and doesn't work hard enough.  In Greece's Austerity Intifada, a Challenge to Western Economic Orthodoxy provides a counter-argument.  I encourage you to read the article, but the executive summary is, regardless of how the nation got there, why should the citizens accept a decade or more of high unemployment, a lousy quality of life, and a dismal future?  Greece's youth unemployment is already at 35 percent, and most economists expect it to go higher.  Would you accept such circumstances upon yourself to satisfy European banks?  Life is short.

Basically the imposed austerity measure "allows the international financial institutions and rating agencies the unilateral power to command democratically elected governments."  This is scary isn't it?  Particularly when the U.S. government had to bail out these world financial institutions in 2008 and are now separately goading it to reduce its deficit.

Mmm.   A lifetime of observing human behavior has taught me that humans behave rationally when there is "economic security and prosperity for those who study and work hard, and play by the rules".  When that contract is violated, people behave very nonlinearly. 

That contract is now being broken throughout the western world among people who have memory of a better life.  Western leaders should be concerned.

Producing Synthetic Petroleum With Fungus

A view of Aspergillus niger with the fungus’ DNA highlighted in green
Image Credit: Pacific Northewest National Laboratory

Fungi, Wikipedia explains, is a separate kingdom from plants, animals, and bacteria.  A distinguishing characteristic is chitin in the cell walls.  (Chitin is a long-chain polymer based upon glucose.)

The fungus Aspergillus niger is the fungus that spoils fruits and vegetables.  Besides being a pest, it has beneficial to mankind - being used to produce citric acid.  (Prior to World War I, the world's supply of citric acid came from lemons.  Today, it is from the fungus.)  

The fungus' production of acids and enzymes makes it useful for biofuels.  It can be used to eat away the celluose cell walls of plants to efficiently produce sugars that can be converted into synthestic hydrocarbons.

The DOE's Joint Genome Institute (I didn't know it existed) has been sequencing the genome of Aspergillus niger to produce improved enzymes for breaking down biomass. 

 

How Big is North Dakota?

Drilling crew works ona RMOTC Rig
Image Credit: Department of Energy

Mmm.  Obviously I meant more than land area, which happens to be 70,700 square miles.  In the energy world, there is a buzz about the Bakken formation which covers parts of Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan.  Wikipedia explains that oil was discovered in the formation in 1951, but it has been difficult to recover.

3 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil assessed in North Dakota tells that in April 2008, the USGS increased their estimate of what is hiding underneath the Bakken formation.  But they are going to take another look - Will the USGS update its assessment of the Bakken formation explains that beginning in FY12 (October 2011), USGS will undertake perhaps a new two year assessment.

So why hasn't this been exploited to date?  What are some of the problems with drilling in the Bakken formation explains that conventional oil fields produce oil from rocks with high porosity and permeability, so the oil flows out easily.  The Bakken formation is considered a tight formation with low porosity and permeability, meaning that oil doesn't flow well.  To pump from this formation, one technique is to drill down vertically and then drill horizontally.  Water and sand are then pushed down under high pressure to create fissures and cracks for the oil to flow out. (This is called hydraulic fracturing.)

One of the big potential players in the Bakken formation is Continental Resources, whose website bills themselves as America's Oil Champion.  Tycoon says North Dakota oil field will yield 24 billion barrels among worlds's biggest suggests this could double the nation's proven oil reserves.  The Forbes article also explains that so far, the wells go down two miles and then horizontally for another two miles.  So it is not going to come to the surface inexpensively, but at $100 a barrel oil, it becomes feasible.  If you are interesting joining the speculating, the North Dakota Geological Survey has Bakken Three Forks and Evolving Oil Play Information.

Surprise! Planets and Sun Made From Different 'Stuff'

The aftermath of a supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/S. Park et al. Optical: NASA/STScI/UIUC/Y.H. Chu & R. Williams et al.

NASA Mission Suggests Sun and Planets Constructed Differently explains that further analysis of samples from the 2004 Genesis mission indicates the sun and the planets have different forms of oxygen and nitrogen.

The NASA report more specifically states that the sun has higher concentrations of O-16, an isotope of oxygen.  The sun also has a lower concentration of N-15, an isotope of nitrogen, than the planets.  (With the exception of the gas-giant, Jupiter.)

The obvious implications are that the planets were not formed at the same time, nor from the same nebula cloud.  This will clearly change scientists' theories on the origin of the universe.

If you have forgotten, the Genesis mission was launched in August 2000 and traveled to the L-1 Lagrange point, where it collected solar wind particles for almost three years.  In late 2004, it released a capsule that rentered the Earth's atmosphere, and then crash-landed.  In one of NASA's more embarassing moments, the space agency attempted a mid-air retrieval of the capsule with a helicopter.

(The L-1 point is the location in space where the effects of gravity between the sun and the Earth are balanced, so the spacecraft was able to loiter without being tugged toward either.)

Research Shows Lithium Promising for Parkinson's Disease Treatment

Depicted in this 2007 was CDC microbiologist Susan Phillips, using an Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) test.

Image Credit: James Gathany/CDC

Parkinson's disease is a disorder of the brain that results in tremors and difficulty with muscle control.  The National Institutes of Health explains that the disease is correlated with a loss of brain cells that produce the chemical dopamine.  Without dopamine, the nerve cells cannot properly send messages and thus a loss of muscle control.  We don't know why these dopamine-producing brain cells suddenly go amok.

If you remember the film, Awakenings with Robin Williams, the story is about neurologist Oliver Sacks who discovers the benefits of L-dopa upon patients who had survived encephalitis lethargica.  The doctor had been impressed with the success of L-dopa upon parkinson's patients and decided to treat his patients similarly.

Levodopa, or L-dopa is the primary treatment for Parkinson's disease.  It temporarily increases the production of dopamine within the brain, but similar to the portrayal in Awakenings, its effectiveness decreases after 4-5 years of treatment.  Curiously, L-dopa is not effective throughout the day, and some other drugs may be required to control symptoms.

Lithium prevents brain damage tells there may soon be another treatment for Parkinson's disease.  In a trial with a mouse model of Parkinson's disease, small levels of lithium appear to be neuroprotective.  It is also possible that lithium can be used in treating Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease. 

Lithium carbonate has been used to treat bipolar disorder since 1970.  There are some side effects and additional research/study needed.

 

Emerging Therapy for Type-2 Diabetes

Sugarcane harvested and loaded into high dump trailers in Bunkie, Louisiana. Image Credit: David Nance, USDA

The simple explanation of diabetes is the patient has high blood sugar because either the body does not produce sufficient insulin or the cells are incapable of responding to the insulin that was produced.

Type 1 diabetes is when the body fails to produce insulin and the treatment is to prescribe insulin injections.  Type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance. 

Insulin of course, is a hormone produced in the pancreas and released when the glucose levels in the blood begin to rise, as after a meal.  Wikipedia explains that "insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood."

Type 2 diabetes in newly diagnosed 'can be reversed' is a startling new claim from Newcastle University.  The executive summary is that an eight-week diet of 600 calories of a day can reverse the course of the disease.  Because the study is new, it is unknown whether the reversal is truly permanent. 

The BBC article explains that the patients consumed only liquid diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables.  After only one week, MRI scans of the pancreas showed a reduction in fat levels.  Some doctors contacted by the BBC explained it has been common knowledge that starvation is a high-confidence cure for diabetes.  Weight loss surgery frequently checks the disease. 

Still, the docs caution that such a regimen should be undertaken with medical supervision. 

The Traveling Reactor

Reactor Discharge Chute
Image Credit: Department of Energy

I had written previously about the Traveling Wave Reactor.  In the posting, I discussed how Microsoft founder Bill Gates was endorsing this new reactor design.  The concept is to create additional fuel and energy by fission, essentially the chain reaction that has long been the concept of breeder reactors.

The reaction is U238 to plutonium and it proceeds in a wave-like, or incremental fashion through the fuel. The twist in the concept is that reactor creates new fissionable fuel slightly spatially forward of the fuel in the cylinder that it is currently consuming. Imagine a candle burning backwards, creating more wax as it burns. The traveling wave advances less than 1 cm a month. Although uranium is possible as a fissionable material, thorium is better.

Curiously, Futuristic U.S. Power Reactor May be Developed Overseas tells that TerraPower, the company advancing the design, is not considering the U.S. for the first construction.  (Hence my title, the Traveling Reactor.)  The New York Times article tells that TerraPower thinks the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission moves too slowly.

TerraPower admits the company doesn't know how the new design will affect the radioactive weakening of the stainless steel containment structure.  Consequently the first model will be more (or less) than a prototype - it will be a test design to see what happens. (I must confess, that seems a bit scary.)

Meet the Next Generation describes various designs being pursued by the U.S. Department of Energy.  They have six differen concepts, but funding is a problem.  There doesn't seem to be a national urgency or will to pursue something that might take ten or fifteen years to yield a return.

Mmm.  I think that is one of the roles of government.

Powering the Grid When the Wind is Not Blowing

Concept of Energy Storage for the Power Grid
Image Credit: Department of Energy

One of the problems with renewable energy is that generally it not available all the time.  Solar energy is only available during the daytime and wind energy is available only when the wind is blowing.  How can we utilize such sources to power the grid so that whenever we flip on the light switch, we are assured there will be light?

The problem is not new - the Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station is one solution.  Built in 1960, it has a reservoir on top of a mountain which is filled from the lower reservoir when power grid demand is light such as during the night.  Then during peak load times, the pumps are reversed into generators and the water flowing from the top of the mountain produces surge electrical capacity for the utility. 

Such a solution is costly and not practical everywhere - try to find a mountain in Florida.  Also, with today's environmental impact laws, it is extremely difficult (and certainly expensive) to build such projects in western countries.  The utility owns an additional mountain adjacent to Taum Sauk, but determined it would be too difficult to build the desired storage capacity.

Materials for Energy Storage explains that Department of Energy researchers are attempting to invent batteries that can function like Taum Sauk without the water and mountain.  Of particular promise are high-energy density magnesium batteries.  Magnesium has similar electrochemical properties than lithium and is much, much, cheaper than lithium.  Mg (12 gram (g) per Faraday (F), compared to 7 g/F for Li or 23 g/F for Na).  An example battery is a MgMnSiO₄ cathode with a magnesium-based (MgBu₂(AlCl₂Et)₂/THF) electrolyte.  (For the chemistry-minded.)

A cheaper alternative would be sodium, but additional materials research is needed to find the recipe.

 

Improving or Jeopardizing Nature?

Atlantic Salmon
Image Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Food and Drug Administration has prepared a nice primer on Atlantic salmon, its natural history, aquaculture, and genetic engineering.  The purpose is to better educate the public and lawmakers on the proposed approval of the "AquaAdvantage" genetically engineered salmon.

Unlike Pacific salmon, Atlantic salmon do not die within a few days or weeks of spawning.  Instead, they have a more complex migratory pattern over their life cycle.  The FDA primer tells that Atlantic salmon are extinct in 84 percent of the New England streams and rivers where they once habitated.  Yet as the world population grows, there is increasing demand for all food, including fish. 

To satisfy this demand, there two types of agriculture used for Atlantic salmon.  The first is relatively simple - fish are grown in hatcheries and then released into streams as soon as they can live independently.  The fish begin their migratory pattern and swim out to the big sea for four-to-six years.  When they return to their original stream for spawning, they are harvested. 

More controversial are the floating fish farms where the salmon are penned in cages supported by floating docks or structures attached to the ocean bottom.  There are difficulties with disease and large amounts of concentrated waste.  The FDA tells that large fish farms can be up to 24 acres in size. 

More recently fish farms have been developed inland, far from the native streams.  Again, there is the problem of disease and waste.  Another approach is to improve the fish.  By introducing genes from a Chinook salmon and an ocean pout, the biotech AquaBounty has produced a fish that basically grows at twice the rate of vanilla salmon. 

No 'Frankensalmon' in America explains the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to prohibit the Food and Drug Administration from spending any funding to approve the genetically modifed fish. 

It is a complex problem.  House Moves to Ban Modified Salmon adds that the advocates propose inland farming where the fish could never get out into the wild.  And besides, they are largely sterile.  Mmm.  Remember - that was the geneticist's response in Jusrassic Park. 

I dunno ...  I look out at What a Wonderful World, (as in the Louis Armstrong song) and marvel at how well everything fits together.  I urge caution and rethinking to those who believe they can improve it.

A Glimpse of Cars of the Future

Lynn Gantt Next to Virginia Tech's Winning EcoCAR Challenge Vehicle
Image Credit: Department of Energy

Virginia Tech Wins EcoCAR Challenge tells the team achieved the equivalent of 81.9 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent.  They designed a hybrid vehicle which has a battery and a conventional internal combustion engine that operates on 15 percent ethanol, or E85. 

The second place team from Ohio State also selected an E85 powertrain.  Although I congratulate the first two winners, I am more intrigued by the third-place winner from the University of Waterloo.  Their vehicle has a hydrogen fuel cell plug-in hybrid electric powertrain.

As most product designers know, rarely does leading edge technology result in a winning product.  You end up spending all your resources on taming the technology whereas others can spread the resources across the total package.  That doesn't cheapen the Virginia Tech win - engineering is an art of delivering the best solution to the customer.  The final results of the competition show that Virginia Tech really did deliver the total package. 

Well done, guys!  Good luck on your careers!