Environmental News

Stretch the definition of this thread to Betelgeuse at 430 light years? Quite a stretch.

Anyway it is an old red supergiant with unusually variable brightness. A ground-based telescope with very fancy spectroscopy has looked:

New study sheds light on the mysterious dimming of Betelgeuse

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25018-3#Sec8

Bringing it to your attention because observations were made in near infrared, which does not get through atmosphere very well. So we sent telescopes up like SOFIA, Spitzer, IRAS, and James Webb soon.

Yet there are still things to be learned in near infrared, even with pesky 3-atom molecules (H2O, CO2, longer list on request ) in the way.

Echelle spectroscopy is mostly for people who look at Fourier transforms and think 'Ugh too simple'

 

I am entranced every time a new electric airplane design appears. Another example:

Pyka - Autonomous Electric Airplanes

 

I am also entranced by new ideas that seem just plain weird. Not all of them get PriusChatted. Probably a good thing.

But there are clever minds around here that may wish to consider:

Remember: A personal dosimeter is waiting in | EurekAlert!

The idea seems to be at early stages. Which pills for this are best to carry? How much will analyses costs and where and how quickly can they be performed? In view of such things, the media release seems a bit overstated. OK then.

But it seems interesting to think about. Radiation release in commercial and research settings takes many forms. Where it is expected to have potential risks, people already use conventional dosimeters. There may be value in collecting much denser data, if analytical costs are low (this is the part that really nags me).

If analytical costs are not quite low, simply pre-deploy 'pills' around nuclear power stations, or around military nuclear facilities (not all are submarine ). Very little money is spent unless there is an oopsie, in which case a highly detailed picture can be obtained.

My own experience with radioactive isotope research indicates that universities (even rich ones) take a lowest cost approach to this aspect of biosafety. Possibly room for improvement.

Sending a large Musk rocket around the moon and back will happen in a few years. That thing ought to have 1000s of aspirin (or whatever) pills stuck all over the place. Help avoid headaches of radiation exposure to future travellers beyond earth's effective blanket.

If this catches anyone's attention here, they will probably have additional thoughts.

 

Bats could go here, in 'COVID', or earlier 'amazing animals' thread. Dracula was a good fit for cinema. We have been previously advised to appreciate bats as insect hunters, which I would not dispute. But more recently, dang. Bats are too good as virus hosts.

So, let's sketch it out. Global bat population is at least 1 billion, and improving that estimate may be done by braver people than me. NOPE in really big letters. They are many bats right here in China's Yunnan Province and even more to the south and southwest in other countries. I really don't know why this part of the world got so 'lucky'. But what you need to know for next paragraph is that global bat populations are not uniform.

OK, another, rats (and mice), with global populations > 20 billions for sure, are much more uniform across habitable areas. This gang has had large roles in human diseases. Relative to our population concentrations, rats are 'in' while bats are 'edge'. I guess it is easier to kill an 'in' than an 'edge'.

Human population nears 8 billions; way high by ecological-pattern theory, but supported by tech and energy use. Big civilization! Big money! But on the downside, a big target.

For curious readers, other large-mammal populations now are mostly food animals; cows, pigs etc. One billion of delicious them. Providing great places for diseases to explore, and taking more manufactured antibiotics than humans, and providing opportunities for diseases to beat manufactured antibiotics.

Meanwhile, bats and their viral loads are on the outside 'looking in'.

==
Earth can be seen as a fantastic success, with 7.8 billions humans and all our things. It is not clear that we have yet made a durable future. Many other aspects of biology are looking for a delicious slice of this pie.

 

Rejoice, you have a(nother) book to consider buying:

How to Talk to a Science Denier | The MIT Press

 

Arsenic in rice has been a nagging problem. Readers might ease in to it here:

Inner Workings: Keeping arsenic out of rice | PNAS

Not mentioned is the main low-tech way to treat arsenic in groundwater (a related problem). Namely, rust. Fe2O3. If it does not help in (anaerobic) paddy soils, that would explain lack of mention in article. Seems highly unlikely that authors are not aware.

 

"...a practical way to make ships CO2 neutral...":

The case for onboard carbon dioxide capture o | EurekAlert!

Well, maybe, but enjoy a peek at what might be cutting edge.

 

Higher UV light levels did not happen, so plants are happier.

Scientists reveal how landmark CFC ban gave p | EurekAlert!

Should be noted that 580 billion tons carbon mentioned here is pretty darn huge. But manuscript reviewers went for it, so...

 

Caldor fire in California may have potential to reset S. side of Lake Tahoe (forests and structures), but not the rest of it:


Caldor Fire Information - InciWeb the Incident Information System

 

Very large efforts against Caldor fire may be saving most of the 'value-added' wood that people live in there.

 

Besides all such serious problems, small matters trouble me. Readers are forgiven if they don't much care. Here is a large (and therefore nice) study:

https://www.science.org/content/article/substituting-even-bit-regular-salt-can-reduce-stroke-heart-attack

The matter of appropriate experimental controls is what troubles me (as it very often does). (Excessive) Sodium intake makes more kidney work for sure. But Potassium, that other +1 cation, is separately helpful for unhappy hearts. Those unhappy hearts who take diuretics often also take potassium pills to make sure they have enough 'in the loop'.

This NEJM study did not (obviously) include a positive control for potassium. As usual, my email goes to author, and may stimulate a response.

Experiments that cover all the bases are hard to plan and to carry out.

 

"Never have so many journals come together to make the same statement":

Over 200 health journals call on world leader | EurekAlert!

It may be a topic for discussion at COP 26, Glasgow, Oct 31 - Nov 12.

 

If you have no need for 'another thing to worry about', just skip this post.

Global vehicle tire 'retirement' is about one billion per year. A non-obvious fraction of them are recycled into various things that last much longer.

One large tire dump is getting cleaned up:

Kuwait starts to recycle massive tyre graveyard

Actually US has been cleaning many such dumps recently but I don't find that conveniently summarized either.

A large open tire fire is a pretty awful thing. I used to live near one.

But my real beef with tires is with their fundamental design. They are retired at 75 to 85% of initial weight, so that fraction of tire production must be processed to new use, or wait for the pile to burn. I remember we have looked at alternative tire designs before, but they will only slowly replace 'the fleet'. Meanwhile, global discard is about 10 megatons per year.