Zark's

Little Progress at Climate Conference

Polar Bear
Image Credit: Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard

The Kyoto Protocol is/was an environmental treaty which was originally developed on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan and effective 16 February 2005.  The U.S. signed, but the the Senate refused to ratify the treaty. 

On surface, it sounded good - the countries would all reduce greenhouse gases by over 5 percent.  The problem though, is the world's largest emitter, China received a free ride.  So did Brazil and India. Parts of the protocol begin expiring at the end of the year.

Climate Talks Near Close, No Breakthroughs Expected tells that the United States has developed a different strategy for the conference in Durbin, South Africa.  The U.S. position is basically, 'we are not signing up to anything unless China does'.  China is refusing, reiterating their position that they are an impoverished nation and all the greenhouse gas currently in the atmosphere belongs to the rich western world. 

UN Climate Talks to Seek New Deal explains there is a divide - those that produce larger quantities of greenhouse gases and those that don't.  But the problem is that if the largest producer of greenhouse gases is only producing more, it nullifies the efforts of the other countries.  Coal is much cheaper energy than alternative energy.  Those that use it will have an economic advantage.

Mmm.  Stalemate.

 

 

 

Mars Rover Discovers Clue of Water

This color view of a mineral vein called "Homestake" comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU

The little rover was launched on 7 July 2003, and has been exploring Mars since 25 January 2004. 

NASA Mars Rover Finds Mineral Vein Deposited by Water tells that the rover has spotted gypsum, most likely deposited by water.  Geologists on Earth are convinced this proves water flowed through fractures in the surface.  The mineral vein shown in the photograph is about the width of your thumb and perhaps 18 inches long. 

The rover is currently headed for a sun-facing slope at the northern end of the Endeavor crater so that its solar panels will be at a favorable angle for the upcoming Martian winter.  It arrived at the crater almost four months ago and has been exploring the crater rim.  During the winter, NASA scientists will send the rover on very short excursions, but not far from its winter home.  Mars rotates about the Sun every two years, so the seasons are approximately twice as long as Earth.

Mmm.  Can you imagine February lasting twice as long?  Perhaps that is the reason we have not discovered life on Mars.

Have they found Higgs?

Computer generated signature of a top quark
Image Credit: Department of Energy

First, my sympathies to Harry Morgan's family.  I enjoyed watching him in many films and television shows.  He was a good man.

Peter Higgs is an English physicist who proposed the existence of the Higgs boson to explain the existence of mass in some particles and not others.  Wikipedia reminds us that contemporary writers have coined the Higgs boson as the 'God particle', which annoys Higgs, who is an atheist. 

Other physicists object to the term because while the Higgs boson will explain a lot of things, it still leaves a lot of things unanswered.  Do you remember Arthur C. Clarke's The Nine Billion Names of God, where a monk seeks to write down all the names of God?  With some clever computer programming, they begin clicking out all the names of God.  When the computer finishes with the last name, the world begins fading away.  I'm going out on a limb here, but I don't think that will happen if we discover the Higgs boson.

That might be soon, so be forewarned.  Rumors erupt over Higgs boson discovery tells that next Tuesday, December 13, the leading scientists of the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS and CMS experiments will be providing an update on the search for the Higgs boson.  Science journalists say this is a tip-off because usually only junior level scientists provide the briefing.  Also, there have been some titillating comments on various physics blogs that the particle has been discovered. 

Higgs at 125-126 GeV? So far 3.5 sigma suggests that physicists have detected a signal in the range of 125-126 Giga Electron Volts and there is a 3.5 sigma probability it is the Higgs particle.  That means it currently has a confidence of 99.9535 percent.  The standard though, for physics is 5.0 sigma, or 99.9999426 percent.  Because of this, the scientists in the 13 December briefing will likely declare significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but refrain from declaring it found.

 

Vaccine for Ebola

The 'Shepherd's Crook' of the Ebola virus viron
Image Credit: CDC/Frederick Murphy

When I was writing my novel, Roman DNA, I had played with the idea of having a subplot involving ebola.  I developed a different subplot, but performed considerable research on the ebola virus.

Wikipedia tells that there are four variants: Bundibuyo, Ebola, Sudan, and Tai Forest.  Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a viral hemorrhagic fever with an incubation period of 13 days and begins with influenza-like symptoms.  Soon, the central nervous system exhibits symptoms such as severe headaches, seizures, and even coma.  Although the disease carries the term hemorrhagic, circulatory system problems only develop in about 10 percent of the cases.

The virus evolves at about 1 percent of the speed of typical influenza, but about the same as hepatitis.  The disease spreads by skin-to-skin contact and body fluids.  The published fatality rate is about 68 percent.  Survivors may continue to harbor the virus.

It first emerged in 1976 in Zaire and Sudan, with a fatality rate of 90 percent.  It is believed pandemics begin with the ground zero victim having contact with an animal hosting the disease.  Because of its lethality, pandemics tend to burn themselves out rather than spread like a swine flu pandemic.

Vaccine developed against Ebola tells that researchers have been frustrated in developing a vaccine.  Long-term storage damages the virus and hence, a vaccine's protection.  The new vaccine however, is a synthetic protein instead of a crippled version of the Ebola virus.  It has been successfully tested with mice.  Sometime in the future though, it needs to be tested with human volunteers.

 

 

Voyager Enters the Stagnation Zone

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space, which scientists are calling the stagnation region.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mmm.  Stagnation zone sounds like a description of the global economy, but it is like a no-man's region between our solar system and the outside universe.  Inside the solar system, the Sun streams particles outward and combined with the Sun's magnetic field, keeps out the particles from the universe from entering out solar system. 

Currently Voyager 1 is 119.88 Astronomical Units (distance from Earth to Sun) away from our planet.  Signals from the spacecraft take over 16 hours to reach Earth, although it has taken 33 years to fly to its present purgatory.  (It was launched the year Elvis Presley died, Apple II and Commodore PET computers were first introduced.)  Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 both carry 12-inch golden photograph records that are a time capsule of Earth culture and knowledge.  (Can you imagine extraterrestrials attempting to order a record player on eBay so they can listen to the records?) 

NASA's Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge tells the spacecraft has detected a 100 times increase in the intensity of high-energy particles coming from the outside universe.  The detector is sort of like the wind sock at an airport, determining the wind speed from the outside universe.  Voyager 1 is also indicating that the magnetic fields are increasing.  JPL explains it is due to the back pressure of the external universe particles colliding with our solar system's wind and magnetic field.

Scientists don't know how long Voyager will be in this no-man's land.  It could be months, or even years.  But someday it will provide the first information about what the universe is really like.

 

 

 

2012 Brings New Lightbulb Standards

First electric lightbulb powered by a nuclear reactor
Image Credit: Department of Energy

In primary school, you undoubtedly learned that Thomas Edison invented the electric lightbulb on October 22, 1879.  Using a carbon filament, the great American inventor produced light for 13.5 hours.  Several months later Edison's team discovered a carbonized bamboo filament which provided 1200 hours of operation.

Despite having been invented 132 years ago, the incandescent bulb has changed very little.  It produces more heat than light energy.

Light bulb standards being taking effect in 2012 explains new efficiency standards (but not cost) commence on January 1, 2012.  The legislation is staged, beginning with the 100 watt light bulb and then others in subsequent years.

 

The graphic on the left illustrates the improvement required for light bulbs.  A 72 Watt bulb must produce the same light energy as the older 100 Watt.  Later in 2013, a 53 Watt replaces an older 75 Watt variant.  Basically, most bulbs available for general purchase are required to be about 30 percent more efficient.

 

Generic Lipitor Approved

Cholesterol in Mouse Brain
Image Credit: Cynthia McMurray, Mayo Clinic

Known to docs as Atorvastatin, but as Lipitor to the public, this Pfizer drug was the top-selling pharmaceutical in the world.  Last year it is estimated Phizer sold $10B of Lipitor in America.  It works by inhibiting the enzyme, HMG-CoA reductase produced by the liver. 

Ranbaxy, India's largest pharmaceutical, has received FDA approval to sell a generic version of the drug in the U.S.  70 percent of Lipitor's sales were within the U.S. 

The BBC article explains that Ranbaxy was not permitted to use its manufacturing facilities in India due to quality concerns, but instead will supply the U.S. market through a U.S. branch of the company. 

The FDA gave Ranbaxy an exclusive license to sell the generic version for 180 days, blocking competitors from entering the market.

Europe Has a Measles Problem

Single Virus Particle of Measles
Image Credit: CDC/ Cynthia S. Goldsmith; William Bellini, Ph.D.

German measles (rubella) and English measles (rubelola) are two unrelated diseases.  Wikipedia explains that rubella was first identified by German physicians, hence the name, German measles.  It is caused by the rubella virus, and although extremely dangerous for pregnant women, it is a "relatively trivial infection" lasting 1-3 days.

Measles is an infection of the respiratory system, although like German measles, the patient develops a rash.  A much more serious disease, there many complications ranging from pneumonia, acute encephalitis, and corneal ulceration.  The disease without complications can last up to two weeks.

WHO issues Europe measles warning tells there were 26,000 measles cases in Europe for the first nine months of 2011.  90 percent of the cases were in patients who had not been vaccinated.  Health officials believe there are two reasons for the new cases.  First, Europe became complacent toward measles and immunizations were skipped.  Also, the introduction of eastern bloc populations which historically have not had access to vaccinations.

Health officials say it is never too late for a vaccination.

 

NASA Satellites Show Less Coal Plant Pollution in U.S.

The graphic on the left shows that fossil fuels produce over 2/3 of U.S. electricity.  Surprisingly, coal is reponsible for almost half.

Coal is considered non-renewable, since it requires millions of years to naturally convert biomass into the substance we know as coal.  The U.S. has an estimated 260,551 million short tons of recoverable coal.  Believe it or not, the U.S. exports more coal to Canada than any other country.

90 percent of U.S. coal is used to produce electricity.  The price of coal varies.  Low sulfur content coal is currently about $80 a short ton, while higher sulfur content is about half that cost.  Also, depending upon the location, transporation can add another 10 to 25 percent to the delivered cost of coal.

Map shows average sulfur dioxide levels measured by the Aura satellite for 2008-2010 over a portion of the eastern United States.

Image Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory

NASA Satellite Confirms Sharp Decline in Pollution from U.S. Coal Power Plants tells that NASA's Aura satellite has revealed that sulfur dioxide levels near major coal powered plants has dropped almost by half since 2005.  About two-thirds of America's sulfur dioxide air pollution is generated by coal plants.  NASA adds that since the passage of the Clear Air Act in the 1980s, levels of sulfur dioxide has dropped by 75 percent. 

Mmm.  Pretty compelling argument for environmental regulation, isn't it?

 

USA Producing 13.6 Billion Gallons of Ethanol Yearly

Corn kernels
Image Credit: Department of Energy

Most likely the gasoline you purchase in the USA is E10 or E15, which is 10 and 15 percent ethanol, respectively. The goal is for 10 percent of all gasoline consumed to be from renewable products. 

While it works well in automobiles, boat owners and small gasoline engine users fume at the residue left by the gasoline mixture.  In this past year, I had to replace the carburetor on my power washer and my emergency generator required a significant overhaul because of the ethanol fuel.

Producers receive a 45 cent per gallon tax credit for each gallon of ethanol that is blended into gasoline.  But this tax credit was killed by the Senate during the summer, so the tax credit disappears on 31 December.

Is U.S. Farm Boom Sitting on a Bubble explains that ethanol production consumes 40 percent of the U.S. corn production.  This has raised corn and other agricultural prices.  Farmland in the corn belt is selling for $9K - $10K an acre.  The Reuters article speculates that farmland prices could take a dive if ethanol production decreases.

United States ethanol is under fire in Europe tells that U.S. ethanol exports have increased so much that the European Commission has slapped a $1.00 per gallon tariff on the U.S. product.  (European agriculture can only supply 85 percent of their ethanol demand, the rest must be imported.)  Similarly, the U.S. has a tariff of 54 cents per gallon on imported ethanol.  That tax also disappears on 31 December.

Image Credit: EIA

As shown on the left, over 90 percent of U.S. ethanol production comes from the midwest.