Best News of the Day: We Can Go back to Wasting Helium

As Humans we have a poor track record of functioning of stewards of anything let alone the Creation we were told to take care of while God was busy. The best example I can think of is the element helium that we first discovered in the gases that are tapped off of oil fields so we can get to the sweet sweet hydrocarbons.

The story of the discovery of helium is a remarkable one in that it was discovered in the spectrum of the sun before it was discovered here on Earth. On Earth, our helium is the product of radioactive decay in the deep rock of the Earths crust and is therefor a non-renewable resource.  Anyway, helium is a noble gas which means it has little chemistry and because of its density it functions poorly as a blanket gas so we decided to pretty much throw it away in the form of floaty party balloons.

Policy changes by the American government meant that the National Helium Reserve was  liquidated and the and the stability of the helium market was subject to violent and expensive fluctuations. It seems like it was only then that we realized that helium is a crucial natural resource and chemistry departments all over the world spent millions and millions of dollars upgrading their instruments to minimize and re-cycle their helium used in their labs.

The panic can now be set aside with the discovery in Tanzania of a huge natural reserve and I have no doubt that we will go back to wasting the resource letting our superconducting magnets quench and blow the helium up to the stratosphere.

For us, that means that we can now go back to mass releases of helium filled party  balloons that will eventually end up in the ocean where they will kill turtles. It is almost like we do not think we will ever be called to accounts for our stewardship.

Chemistry and Culture: Rule Britannia

I see that Sainsbury has posted their Christmas video and it makes you have all the feels. there is one tiny moment that merits a shout out and this is the image.

Gotta love a little British girl that dreams of getting a chemistry set for Christmas. I wonder if her parents know about this Kickstarter project.

Comic Chemistry: The Truth About Chemistry Kits

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has a comic up today that bemoans the pulling of the teeth of chemistry sets. This has been commented on at length on the internet (LINK) but that does not change the betrayal of science that is captured by removing any risk from the sets.

I received my first chemistry set when I was 12. It was my gateway to DIY science and a remarkable insight for may parents to not only appreciate that I would like a chemistry set but to also purchase one for me.

The problem of course is the potential for lawsuits arising from the use of the equipment and chemicals in the set. And so the sets have been reduced to what the comic implies ... a safe irritant blocking further interest in chemistry.

It also makes me wonder about the curriculum of homeschooled students and how the lab experience of those students could possibly approach that of the experience and possibilities in a structured school lab unless the parents are science adept (and I have to say my experience is that the parents are often the ones getting the A's).

Comment added after initial post:

So, the day after this was posted a blog I follow posted on the solution to the whole problem as available in England. Perhaps soon it will come to Canada.

Comic Chemistry: Love and Preservatives

The webcomic Bug today had something positive to say about food preservatives:

While the webcomic Sheldon seemed to be having an off day with a reductionist fatalism about the reality do love and purpose.

I have to say that the idea of food preservatives acting as a preservative for us is an interesting one. the principle of Mithriditism (yes, there is a shout out to LOTR fans) is an old one and has some basis in fact for cumulative toxins like arsenic and mercury. Some very cool chemistry and biochemistry at the bottom of that idea.

As for the second comic I have to object to the word "only". Chemistry should be enough love for everybody. The comic then ends with a reference to "processed sugar" that has to make us pause when we consider the language. Sugar is a highly processed food and there is no "natural" process for making it other than personally sucking to juice out of sugar cane. That said, as an industrial process sugar and salt may come from natural sources but the food industry markets them as chemically pure reagents which I think is cool in itself. The only other foods that I can think of that are chemically pure would be home preservatives such as vinegar, alum and baking soda.

Chemistry and Culture: Chemistry as the Universal Image of Science

The website for the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression had this up on their website today.

I have argued in the past that the only scientific discipline that is visually recognizable as science is chemistry and this is another example, not only of the lab coated chemist but also the Erlenmeyer flask as universally recognizable symbols for science. It is a cute reversal of the observer being observed but also confined.

Chemistry and Culture: Images of Mixtures

It is not often that you see a humanities style magazine use chemical imagery to convey concepts but the Chronicle of Higher Education did it today (warning link behind pay wall).

To my eyes there seems to be a volume mis-match between the flasks and the beaker but I get what they are selling and appreciate the use of chemistry as a image for mixing in various proportions. I might have used graduated cylinders.

As for the mix in an ideal class, the selection is truly American with the reference to SAT marks standing in for academic ability and parents income for ability to pay. In the spirit of the liberal arts I appreciate the extracurricular like athletics in the creation of whole persons as well.

Comic Chemistry: What's that Smell

Chemistry tends to get very little mention in the popular media and as a popular culture reference chemistry is associated with explosions, bad smells and obscure information. That said, chemistry shows up from time to time either directly or indirectly referenced in popular culture including the webcomics I noticed that the current run of Foxtrot which publishes only on Sundays now made a direct reference to good practices in the lab but also fell back on the chemistry equals smell thing. Today the Foxtrot Classics (a zombiecom) also made reference to chemistry but using the obscure information theme, Sigh, at least we got mentioned.

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Monday Meditation: A Voice Not Replaced

Carl Sagan was a scientist who turned into a voice for science. He died a while ago and much of what he did as a scientist is now dated and not remembered. He did have some rather timeless thoughts about the role of science in society. We was a progessivist who believed that we can make ourselves better so some of what he said I disagree with but this meditation of his called "A Pale Blue Dot" is worthy of a Monday Meditation. I like this artist's (Zen Pencils)interpretation of the passage and that he gives links to the authentic Carl speaking the words and previous artistic interpretations.

Joy for $ 1.25 Not the Best TimeLapse

The computer had some issues and randomly stopped storing images but if you stick with it in the middle of the night it makes a creepy sideways motion that I cannot explain.

Friday Science Gleanings

The Chemistry Department of the University of Nottingham has a YouTube video channel where they have a video for each element of the periodic table narracted by the stereotypical chemistry professor Martyn Poliakoff. The vidoes work however because of their verisimiltude ... these vidoes are works of love.

LINK to YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos

In any event their most recent is a mash-up of the famous Lehrer "Element Song" and their narrators saying the names of the elements. It made me smile:



A preoccupation with the trivial is a universal attribute of the scientist. I found this video on light bulb filaments fascinating:



Calamaties of Nature has a series on Science and Spirituality:

And there was this as well by "The Other Coast"

While not specifically about Science I have always thought that this quote spoke to the curiousity and attitude of the Scientist:

"When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth." George Bernard Shaw

I Always Thought the Chemistry Was Wrong On this Issue

It turns out the Mafia informants have been overstating the use of barrels of sulphuric acid to dispose of human bodies. As someone who has put a lot of organic material in concentrated sulphuric acid over the years I just know that the fumes, heat and reaction residue would not be an easy clean-up. So it was good to hear that someone did the actual science on the whole "body in a barrel of Sulphuric Acid" myth. Now I have to come up with a different plans to dispose of the bodies ...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/corpse-dissolving/

(I gotta ask though how this gets tagged as "biology" by the magazine)

Saturday Quote

"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."

Paul Dirac (Nobel Prize in physics, 1933)
Oh, and it snowed last night too.

Friday Science Round-up

Came across this quote in my reading this week ...

"Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths." Bertrand Russell

And I came across these cartoons referencing science ...

LINK

LINK

LINK

Stuff I Like

I like "Indexed" and this is the posting for today. Nice

Sometimes You Just Love Feeling Small

I saw this first on a physics site that I monitor [ LINK ] and it is yet another of the amazing time lapse sequences taken at observatories or in the desert. One can argue that it makes one feel small but I had to watch this three times ... first in amazement ... then humbled and finally grateful. Take a look but just don't be satisfied with the little image here go to the actual video to see it in all its' glory.

He Sees You When You're Sleeping ...

Several of you have expressed interest in the webcamera that I have mounted in the lab. As I have said, there was a time when I was concerned because I was alone in the lab with the students and would have appreciated a second set of eyes and an impartial account of what happened and when in the lab. So here we are. These are the images from the Intro Chem Lab 23 November:



And the Organic Chem Lab 25 November:

A River Runs Through It

So we are in the middle of the biggest storm of the season and I decided to make a quick visit to the culvert (click on image for video).

From 2010-11-07(stream)

The video isn't perfect (I see I forgot to reset the date in the camera when I changed the batteries)but it shows the culvert releasing water at 3 meters per second and pooling over the lower rock field which clearly was created without thinking about the water table. The lower rock field will not act as a filter, the landscape fabric hoarding has been torn out and is now not holding anything in. If you look closely you can also see the demarcation line of the muddy outflow as it mixes with the stream. I have to admit though that the dilution factor has to be a significant factor with the stream volume so high.

I think this confirms pretty much everything I suspected and feared. Now we just need to wait until the city starts salting the streets to see what impact that has on the stream. Something tells me the stream doesn't freeze over this winter.

From 2010-11-07(stream)

From 2010-11-07(stream)

From 2010-11-07(stream)

Calm Before the Whirlwind

It is weirdly quiet and calm here at CU. Sort of that ominous quiet before a big storm. I have been working on my courses for the fall and attending meetings. Oh, this morning I ran into this little fellow on the sidewalk in front of CU.


When informed that he would likely be stepped on he bobbed his head with a sense of resignation (echos of a behaviour observed by a student blogger who had the blog "ChemSucks"). In spite of his fatalism I helped him into a nice shaded bit of dewy grass where I like to think he cavorts and gambols in a salamandery way.

I liked this recent cartoon ...

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

So, we had a significant precipitation event and I decided to make the Friday circuit to check the stream. It turns out the flow was much higher and had turned the water a light brown. This is what it looked like on Thursday before the rain ...


And on Friday morning after the rain the same section of the stream looked like this (and according to measurements was flowing twice as fast and was twice as deep.)

I made the trip up to the upstream site and the culvert. I did not meet up with any animals this time but I did notice some changes.

The hay bale containment barrier is new and there seems to be a bit of a design flaw in the landscaping since it would appear that the local terrain is draining to the side of the storm sewer rock pit. To my eyes it would appear that the rock pit goes too low and has a conflict with the local water table. There seems to have been some work done on the rock pit as well with the part just below the outfall made of larger stones ending in a meter high rock pile that is followed by a flatter rock field made of smaller rocks down to the stream edge ending in a landscaping fabric hoarding. I think we are going to see the stream back fill into the swampy area and create a pond or stagnant overflow catchment upstream to the rock field. Maybe.

On a different note we have had a game camera sitting in the lab for some time now and I decided to unpack the camera and field test it before the semester starts. I set it up tied to a tree at site 3 just downstream from the culvert. This is where I have run into the mist wildlife but over the three days it was set up it mostly took pictures of me measuring the stream and two dudes with dogs. There is one very faint image made at two in the morning that might be a raccoon but it was not the parade of wildlife that I expected. Oh well.

Science in Cartoons

Curiosity, Childhood and the Scientific Method
(click on cartoon to embiggen)

LINK TO COMIC