Transcript

9.18.25 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radio Wized Diary of Science and Nature. Your
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reader's Kelly Taylor. I'll have some articles on the topics
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of science and nature, but first a reminder that RADIOI
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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printed material. Beginning today, we have an article from Scientific American.
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The headline is plastics started as a sustainability solution, what
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went wrong? In eighteen sixty four, Scientific American published a
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competition launched by a billiard table manufacturing company, quote ten
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thousand dollars for a substitute for ivory. The owners of
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Phalan and Collander were pleased to see it. They wrote
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to the magazine to elaborate on what they were looking
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for in an hivery alternative that can be used to
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make billiard balls, and hoped it would quote have the
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effect of stimulating the genius of some of your numerous readers.
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The real stuff from elephant tusks had become scarce, but
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its elasticity, hardness, and density were hard to find in
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any other material. A printer from Albany, New York named
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John Wesley Hyatt came up with an answer in celluloid,
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a moldable compound material made up of cellulose nitrate, a
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polymer that held the ball together, camphor, an organic compound
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that provided flexibility and durability, and ground up cowbone to
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give the ball the right mechanics for play. Rather than
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accepting the ten thousand dollars reward and signing away the
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rights to his invention, Hyatt patented his object in eighteen
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sixty nine and started his own company, selling celluloid billiard
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balls that conservation scientist Arthur Neves, writing in twenty twenty three,
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called the founding object of the plastics industry. The creation
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of the first plastic was essentially an answer to a
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sustainability problem. There were only so many elephants, tortoises, and
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silkworms to go around, and their tusks, shells, and fibers
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were increasingly in demand. Articles and advertisements from the early
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era of the plastics industry portray such materials as relieving
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pressure on natural resources. In a twenty twenty three paper
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in PNAS, nexus Neives and his colleagues called Hyatt's celluloid
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billiard balls one of quote the first successful efforts to
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substitute materials to assist the survival of endangered animals. The
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billiard ball and other reinforced polymer composit its were predecessors
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to commercial plastics, but the term plastic was nebulous, more
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marketing language than scientific category. Philip H. Smith, writing in
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Scientific American in nineteen thirty five, defined it as quote
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the name given to a more or less arbitrarily chosen
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group of substances which, when properly compounded and treated, become
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plastic and can be molded or cast to shape. In
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American Plastic, a Cultural History published in nineteen ninety five,
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Jeffrey Michael writes that the fear of an ivory shortage
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that stimulated plastics development shifted in the twentieth century to
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the idea of democratizing luxury items. Mass production of plastics
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for a wide range of uses began in the nineteen forties,
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when production in the US nearly tripled over the war years.
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This expansion coincided with the replacement of bio based materials
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such as cotton, soybeans, and sugar in polymer bases with
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fossil fuels, which were promoted as an abundant resource to
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give products specific properties. Additives such as colorants, plasticizers such
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as thalates and bisphenol a, and flame retardants were included
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in the polymers during manufacturing. You know where this story goes.
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By the nineteen seventies, Michael writes in his book plastics
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ability to transcend Nature often no longer seemed utopian, but
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instead simply disastrous. Plastics had ushered in an era of
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excessive stuff that was cheap to make. Materials originally celebrated
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for their durability and longevity, became popular in single use items.
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Ninety percent of plastics aren't technically recyclable anyway, and some
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now argue that recycling campaigns only encourage people to feel
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better about buying more plastic things because plastic is not biodegradable.
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It simply accumulates, fragmenting into ever smaller pieces over hundreds
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or thousands of years. In two thousand and nine, the
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first comprehensive review of the impact of plastics on the
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environment and human health was published, a collection of consequences
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and warnings that have gotten only more dire. Now, researchers
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are investigating the wide ranging presence and effects of microplastics,
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tiny specs that leach toxic chemicals into the environment. Single
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use items such as water bottles are an obvious part
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of the problem, but there are many other culprits. Until
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the mid nineteen nineties, natural fibers dominated the fashion industry.
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In twenty twenty three, polymers made up sixty seven percent
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of global fiber production, with polyester alone making up fifty
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seven percent of global fiber production in new clothing, home textiles,
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and shoes. These products shed microplastic fibers with every wash,
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contributing to pollution and groundwater. These contaminants, which are basically
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impossible to clean up, are not just present in soil
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and water. A new study found the leaves of plants
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absorbed microplastics from the air. All animals studied, including us,
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are not just eating plastic in our food and drinking
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it in our water. We now have plastic in our organs.
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The solution to one environmental sustainability problem has become one
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of the biggest and most intractable environmental crises of our time.
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As Rebecca Altman wrote in a twenty twenty one article
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in Science, celluloid quote purportedly spared the elephant, especially from
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the billiard ball industry, but market data show that celluloid
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did not decrease ivory demand, which grew in the years
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after celluloid's introduction. Celluloid, she adds, also accelerated the demand
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for camphor, a product distilled from an evergreen tree prevalent
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in Taiwan. Competition to control the camphor trade destroyed Taiwan's
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forests and displaced its indigenous communities. The advent of synthetic
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polymers didn't free humanity from the limits of natural resources.
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What started as a competition to invent an alternative ivory
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has turned into competitions for inventing methods to clean up
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the Great Pacific garbage Patch and other sprawling plastic icebergs
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in oceans the world over. In nineteen forty two, WILLIAMS. Haynes,
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historian and promoter of the chemical industry, declared that synthetic
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materials would have quote more effect on the lives of
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our great grandchildren than Hitler or Mussolini. He couldn't have
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imagined the biggest impact on future generations might be nanoplastic
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fragments in their brains. Next up, we have an article
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from USA today. Hurricane season isn't over. Here's the latest threats.
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Forecasters are tracking. This is from September sixteenth. Specialists at
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the National Hurricane Center are watching potential storms in both
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the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, which appears to
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be awakening from its unexpected extended quiet period. Forecasters are
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awaiting the expected formation of a tropical depression or tropical
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storm in the waters of the central Tropical Atlantic between
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the Windward Islands and the African coast. The Hurricane Center
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said on September sixteenth that storm expected to form later
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on September sixteen or seventeen, would be named tropical Storm Gabriel. Quote.
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It's the peak of hurricane season, but it's been three
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weeks since we've had an active tropical cyclone in the
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Atlantic basin, said Robbie Berg, the Center's Warning coordination meteorologist,
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in a video published Tuesday. Quote that looks like it's
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going to change, he added. In the Pacific, meteorologists are
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watching to see how much rain the degenerating tropical Storm
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Mario could carry into the San Diego region. The Hurricane
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Center also is awaiting the forecast formation of another tropical
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storm further to the south. The system expected to become
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a tropical storm over the next day or so is
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quote likely to pass northeast of the Lesser Antilles than
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reach the western Atlantic sometime next week. Berg said, plenty
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of time to watch this system for any potential impacts
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in the United States or offshore end quote. On September sixteenth,
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the Hurricane Center put the chances of storm formation at
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ninety percent over forty eight hours. As the low pressure
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area moves to the west northwest in the Atlantic. The
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storm's eventual path may become more clear once it develops
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into an organized tropical depression or storm. There's also plenty
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of time to watch another wave off the western coast
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of Africa, said John Cagelosi, a senior hurricane specialist at
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the Center. Quote this one has a low shot of
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development during the next week, but plenty of time to
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watch that one end quote. That second area of disturbed
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weather behind it is listed at a twenty percent chance
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of development over the next seven days. For now, it
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looks like neither of the storms expected in the Atlantic
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will affect land anytime soon, and both could eventually oar
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curve out over the open Ocean before reaching the Caribbean.
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According to the array of computer models the Center uses
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to forecast hurricane movement. Alan Gerard, retired meteorologist and author
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of the Balanced Weather Substack, said Bermuda will quote need
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to pay attention in quote to the storm expected to
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become tropical storm Gabrielle, and added it looks unlikely to
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have any other land impacts other than maybe some surf
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and rip currents if it becomes a significant hurricane end quote.
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Moisture from Mario is forecast to be picked up by
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another area of low pressure, then interact with high temperatures
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at averaging four to eight degrees above normal in southern
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California and bring rain to the San Diego region. According
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to the National Weather Service in San Diego, Mario's remnants
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will bring increasing chances for showers on Wednesday the seventeenth
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and into Thursday, September eighteenth. The second potential storm south
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of Mexico and west of Central America could produce a
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tropical depression or storm by the weekend of September twentieth.
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The second tropical system could also bring tropical moisture to
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the San Diego region. The to date, the Atlantic hurricane
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season has seen its lowest storm activity since twenty fourteen,
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with only one hurricane so far hurricane aerin that's the
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fewest through September fifteenth since two thousand and two, says
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Michael Lowry, hurricane specialists with w PLG Channel ten in
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South Florida, but he pointed out the plentiful tropical activity
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in late September twenty twenty four. In October twenty twenty four,
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after a similar mid season lull, in a recent update,
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the team of hurricane seasonal forecasters at Colorado State University
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said dry and stable conditions in the Atlantic and shearing
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winds have created unfavorable conditions for storms to form. The
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team still expects conditions to become more conducive to storms.
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And now we'll turn to the Wall Street Journal. They
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have an article headlined, did NASA find signs of ancient
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life on Mars? Or is it another false alarm? This
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is from September sixteenth. If it pans out, it's a
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big deal. Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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caused a stir last week when they announced they had
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found potential signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. Quote
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this very well could be the clearest sign of life
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that we've ever found on Mars, which is incredibly exciting.
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Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said evidence of ancient life
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would suggest that the red planet was once habitable and
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that life could arise elsewhere in the Solar System. But
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this isn't the first time NASA has made such a
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bold announcement. In nineteen seventy six, NASA's Viking one and
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Viking two landers, the first US spacecraft to land on Mars,
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conducted three experiments with Martian soil that hinted at the
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presence of life. NASA scientists later determined that no biological
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material was present. In nineteen ninety six, a NASA team
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said it had found ancient microbial life within a four
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billion year old of Martian meteorite that had landed in Antarctica,
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including microscopic fossils, organic molecules, and mineral structures. After years
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of debate, an international team determined the features were the
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result of brackish water flowing through the rock when it
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formed on Mars. The latest discovery was made by the
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Perseverance Rover, which found an unusual arrow shaped rock in
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twenty twenty four along the northern bank of the dried
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up river bed. It once filled Jesio Crater, a twenty
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eight mile wide feature on Mars. Initial tests performed with
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onboard instruments found that the rock was covered with leopard
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like spots that carried the signature of vivinite and greggite,
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two iron rich minerals found on Earth in sediments, peat bogs,
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and around decaying organic matter. Greggite is produced by some
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microbes on Earth, leading the researchers to conclude it might
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be a sign of ancient microbial life on Mars. On
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the other hand, it might have nothing to do with microbes. Quote,
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there are non biological ways to make these features that
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we cannot completely rule out, says Joel Hurrowitz, a member
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of the research team. If the finding holds up, it
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would be the first compelling evidence that life can emerge
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wherever water, organic compounds, and chemical energy intersect. According to
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Mario Parente, professor of electrical and computer engineering at University
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of Massachusetts Amherst, who wasn't involved in the study, Horowitz
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and other researchers said the only way to confirm the
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finding would be to bring the samples back to Earth
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for more sophisticated tests. That isn't likely to happen. Soon.
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A plan by NASA and the European Space Agency to
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return about thirty cigar size sealed tubes containing rock and
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sediment on Perseverance sometime in the twenty thirties is over budget,
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with costs estimated to run to eight billion dollars or more.
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The Trump administration scratched the mission from his twenty twenty
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six budget proposal. Duffy said NASA is looking for cheaper
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ways to bring the samples back or send astronauts to Mars.
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Now turning to Scientific American, this article is headlined see
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how fusion energy could power the future. Nuclear fusion promises
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a green and infinitely renewable supply of energy if we
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can harness it. Fusion happens all the time inside the Sun,
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but to recreate the process on Earth, we must control
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incredibly hot chaotic matter in an exceedingly dense state. Prototypes
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of several different fusion reactor designs are being tested around
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the world. The National Ignition Facility in if at Lawrence
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Livermore National Laboratory in California, for example, uses lasers to
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spark fusion in a small pellet of fuel tookeomacs such
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as the International Thermonuclear experimental reactor. The Iteer in France
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use electromagnetic fields to confine plasma and heat it to
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the temperatures and densities necessary to ignite fuel fusion, and
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stellar rators such as the Windelstein seven X experiment in
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Germany add a twist to the magnetic field concept of tokomax.
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It's too soon to say whether any of these technologies
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can overcome their challenges to become a reliable energy source,
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but the motivation to make that happen is clear. Quote.
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Necessity is the mother of invention, says Laura Burzak Hopkins,
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Associate Laboratory director at the Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma
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Physics Laboratory. Quote. We have increasing energy demands and a
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changing climate, and fusion is the way we can address
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both those needs. In quote, nuclear fusion is the process
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by which two atoms combine to form a larger atom
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minus a bit of mass plus energy. To achieve sustained fusion,
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the atoms must reach a certain temperature and density, and
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they must stay in these states for an extended period.
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There are three general ways to meet these conditions. Gravitational
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confinement within stars. Gravity is intense enough to hold particles
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at the right heat and density for long enough to
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sustain fusion. Inertial confinement and magnetic confinement On Earth, Inertial
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and magnetic confinement are two strategies to reproduce the conditions
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in stars. Both methods, however, still struggle to extract more
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energy from fusion than they use to produce it. The
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goal is to get more sustained energy out of the
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system than goes in. Experiments in twenty twenty two at NIF,
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the most famous inertial confinement facility, provided proof of concept.
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The project did release more fusion energy than its lasers
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used to create the reaction, but charging those lasers incurred
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and energy cost. Recent experiments using magnetic confinement have also
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demonstrated progress. Two different concepts, a stellar rator and a tokomac,
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have each held superheated plasma at the right temperature and
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densities for nearly one minute, achieving new records. Why is
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this significant? Containing the fuel for sustained times is a
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huge challenge to understand why. Let's dive into an example.
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Totomac reactors such as the massive Iter project, which is
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still under construction, use a doughnut shaped container. Here's how
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they work. First, remove all gas from the vacuum chamber,
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then charge the magnetic system around the vessel. Next, inject
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a small amount of deuterium and tritium gas into the vacuum. Third,
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switch on the coil of wire called a solenoid at
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the center of the tocomac to start up the magnetic
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field that will keep the gas contained. Run a powerful
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electric current through the vessel. This current strips electrons off
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the gas particles, which collide with other particles to kick
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off more electrons. The atoms become an ionized gas called
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a plasma, in which charged particles follow magnetic field lines. Fourth,
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heat the plasma to thermonuclear temperatures one hundred fifty million
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degrees celsius by injecting electro magnetic radiation and beams of
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high energy neutral atoms. Fifth. As the temperature rises, the
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density and energy within the plasma increase, causing particles to
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collide and immediate fusion. Some of the energy released from
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each reaction is used to heat additional incoming fuel, perpetuating fusion.
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The goal is then transfer most of the heat out
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of the reactor and use it to generate electricity by
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way of for example, steam turbines. What's the problem. The
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process seems straightforward, so why is it so difficult When
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left to its own devices. Plasma is turbulent, with pockets
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of temperature variations that create convection currents. This turbulence also
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moves heat from the plasma core to the edge, dampening
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diffusion reactions. Scientists want to encourage collisions between particles within
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the plasma to promote fusion, but they also need to
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avoid particle collisions with the reactor hardware itself. Powerful magnetic
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fields steer the plasma around the doughnut in a roughly
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circular path, but a closer look reveals that the particle
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trajectories aren't that simple. Different plasma shapes each have benefits
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and drawbacks in maximizing temperature and density within the suspended plasma.
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Inside of a totomac, particles move in two general patterns,
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helical motion called ion gyro motion and a banana shaped path.
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Different reactor shapes and sizes result in different plasma trajectories
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and have different pros and cons. All totomacs confine the
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plasma using a central electric current that can make fusion
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reactions difficult to maintain. Traditional doughnut shaped totomacs have more
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space in the middle. This space makes room to shield
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a central electromagnet from the heat of the plasma. Spherical totomacs,
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such as pppl's National Spherical Torus Experiment, have narrower central
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areas than traditional totomacs. They're more compact, can more efficiently
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confine plasma particles. Can be more economical to build, but
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the smaller central area requires a skinnier central electromagnet that
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can make the generation of the plasma current more difficult.
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Stellar rators, which take a twisted shape don't require a
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central current to keep plasma trajectories in shape. Magnets along
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the winding tunnel wall do the trick, but getting up
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to temperature can be tricky. Because our energy demands are
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high and getting higher. It's likely that there is room
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for multiple models to succeed. Quote. I'm confident that we
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need fusion, ppl's Burzak Hopkins says, so that makes me
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very confident that we will solve fusion. End quote and
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now from Scientific American deep sea salination pulls fresh water
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from the depths from Cape Town to Tehran to Lima
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to Fien, dozens of cities across the globe of recently
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experienced water shortages. In the next five years, the world's
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demand for fresh water could significantly outpace supply, according to
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a United Nations forecast. Now, several companies are turning to
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an unexpected source for a solution, the bottom of the ocean,
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called subsea desalination. The idea is to remove the salt
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from water in the deep sea. If it worked at scale,
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the technology could greatly alleviate the world's water access problems.
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Costs and energy requirements have kept desalination from going mainstream
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in most of the world. Early desalination involved boiling sea
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water and condensing the steam, a purely thermal method that
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used loads of energy. This approach was later replaced by
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multi stage flash distillation, in which temperature and pressure flash
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salt water into steam. In the past twenty five years,
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revert verse osmosis has become more common. This process uses
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high pressure to push sea water through a membrane with
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holes so small that only water molecules squeeze through, leaving
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salt behind. Reverse osmosis is more efficient than distillation, but
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it takes a lot of energy to pressurize millions of
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gallons of sea water to force it through filters. What
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if we could let that movement happen naturally by harnessing
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the pressure hundreds of meters under water. That's the concept
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behind subseed desalination. Reverse osmosis pods are submerged to depths
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of around five hundred meters or sixteen hundred feet, where
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immense hydrostatic pressure does the hard work of separating water
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from salt. Purified water is then pumped back to shore.
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Far fetched as the setup may sound, there are multiple
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prototypes already at work. The companies behind them aim to
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make cheap, large scale desalination from pipe dream to reality.
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One of these companies is Oslo based Floation. Its founder
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and CEO says there's no revolutionary new technology behind his business.
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It's quote essentially a subsea pump cleverly coupled to existing
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membrane and filter technology. Quote. What's new is the energy savings.
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Floation uses forty to fifty percent less energy than conventional
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plants and modular systems that can be deployed to many
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deep sea locations without special engineering. The seafloor has other
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benefits to the region. Harbors fewer bacteria and microorganisms that
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shallower depths do and there's little local variation in temperature
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or pressure. The deep sea is really predictable. They say,
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it's the same three hundred and sixty five days a year.
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This isn't the case at land based plants, which you
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have to deal with algae blooms, river runoff, storms and
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seasonal temperature changes. Plus less chemical pretreatment of the water
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is needed at depth because this equipment is all underwater.
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There's no not in my backyard controversy over putting big,
28:18
unsightly infrastructure near the seashore. Well, that's all for today's
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Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader was Kelly Taylor.
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Stay tuned for further programming on RADIOI