Communicating Chemistry 2017W1 Section 110

Did We Forget Fukushima?

Posted on October 23, 2017 by lori-jon waugh | Leave a comment

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Attribution: Google Maps

You may recall, in March of 2011, the magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust Tōhoku Earthquake that devastated the coast of Japan by tsunamis and killed tens of thousands. You may also recall the nuclear disaster when the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s emergency generators shut down, causing meltdowns, hydrogen gas explosions, and radioactive release into the ocean. While, like me, you may remember the constant focus by the news on the disaster and the failure of the Tokyo Electric Power Company in adequate preventative measures leading to the plant’s inability to manage during a tsunami.

That being said, you, also like me, may have put your focus on other, more recent topics, and forgotten about the entire situation. News is constantly updating and to think of what is happening now and what has ever happened is simply too much for the brain. So, let me remind you.

The nuclear plant is still leaking. According to the Japanese government, 300 tons of radionuclide-containing water is released to the surrounding ocean daily, particularly, cesium. This radioactivity is being found in fish, contaminating the fisheries market, and will take decades to clean from oceans or decay.

The Tokyo Electrical Power Company aims to have collected and treated the water pooled around the reactors by 2020 ; however, to collect all would be impossible and the consequences of the event will remain. Without even considering the everyday struggle that Japanese radioactive refugees are still dealing with, ocean pollution is everyone’s problem.

For more information, watch the following video by Microsoft Research,

-Lori Waugh

Pack Your Things, We are Going to Mars

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Maged | 2 comments

Who said that we are going?

Around a year ago, the South African-born billionaire, Elon Musk, announced his plan for the colonilization of Mars in a live video that went viral. Musk planned to land on Mars in the next decade and get it ready to host life by 2030. Since then, many have questioned the feasibility of the plan, including an esteemed astronaut who hypothesized that the project would stop as soon as Musk realizes the investment is not rewarding.

Are we even close?

According to researchers from the University of Lisbon and the University of Porto, we are. In their paper that was published on 18 October 2017, in the Journal Plasma Sources Science and Technology, Vasco Guerra et al. argue that Mars has nearly ideal conditions for CO₂dissociation to O₂ and CO in Plasmas. As a result, production of O₂ in Mars from CO₂, which constitutes 95.9% of the Martian atmosphere, is possible.

Wait…what?

This is an illustration of a plasma lamp. When current is passed through plasma, amazing colours are observed. Uploaded by Joshua_Willson to Pixabay.com April 26, 2017

Basically, plasma is a state of matter where positive gas ions are surrounded by free negatively charged electrons. It can have interesting applications, such as plasma lamps. This state does not necessarily require high temperaturet. For example, non equilibrium low temperature plasma is a very interesting field of study and it is the type that Guerro describes as “the best media for CO₂ dissociation”. There are several studies about how plasma assists the dissociation of pure CO₂in the presence of a catalyst, usually TiO2. First, plasma supplies energy to drive the highly endothermic dissociation of CO₂through electron direct impact, in which an electron from the plasma transfers its energy to the CO2 molecule by collision, which aids the break of the C=O bond. Second, plasma adjusts the particles to the catalyst’s interface. Third, low temperature hinders the reverse reactions.

Why mars?

That is exactly Guerro’s argument. Guerro states that the atmospheric pressure of mars, 4.5 Torr, replaces the use of vacuum pumps that are necessary for the process on earth. Moreover, the average Martian atmospheric temperature, -63 ^oC, enhances the energy transfer from the plasma to the CO₂. Also, Guerra mentions that the operation only requires as low as 20 W, which can be achieved on mars. Finally, the Martian atmosphere consists of 95.9% CO₂, so O₂ should be produced from this abundant source. Guerro says that the byproduct of this reaction, CO, can be used to fuel the return trip. In this way, the CO₂ decomposition provides two benefits. Also, look at how beautiful it is:

An illustration of Mars, which is very beautiful. Uploaded by GooKingSword at pixabay.com

Personally, I used to think that if we can fix the atmosphere on Mars, then we should be able to fix it on Earth first. However, it turned out that Mars is helpful, but Earth is not. I started packing already…

By: Maged Hassan

2 Comments

Posted in Admin

Tagged CO2, Energy, Environment, Mars, Plasma

Scientific Innovations in Nature: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Posted on October 23, 2017 by kiara grant | Leave a comment

Faced with the challenge of determining where we are and where we are going, humans took advantage of the magnetic field of the earth to provide a consistent orientation, with our invention of the compass, in 11^th century China. Over 1.9 billion years prior, magnetotactic bacteria developed that same ability, albeit in a very different form. These bacteria contain chains of magnetic particles which orient themselves in response to the earth’s magnetic field, meaning the bacteria itself behaves like a compass needle, and will always point north (or south, depending on the species). This is one of many examples of how, in parallel to our development of technology through the use of the scientific method, the natural world has been using a different method, namely evolution, to develop its own tools which take advantage of physical phenomena.

Illustrative diagram of magnetotactic bacteria Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A study which highlights the continuing relevance of innovation in the natural world was conducted by a team of researchers at MIT. The team, headed by Kripa K. Varanasi, were looking into how to design surfaces which minimize the contact time of a bouncing drop. In situations where a liquid is dripping onto a hydrophobic (water-repelling) surface, the droplet of water will flatten upon hitting the surface, then reform a droplet and bounce off. The time it takes for the droplet to turn from its flat, pancake- like form into a droplet again is called the contact time. Minimizing contact time can be very important in applications such as the design of plane wings, where a shorter contact time can prevent drops of rain from freezing to the wing and beginning to build up.

Drops of water on a hydrophobic lotus leaf. Were these drops to have fallen onto the leaf, they would have first flattened, then reformed as droplets and bounced off. Credit: Flickr User Aotaro

Traditionally, contact time is reduced by decreasing the interaction between the liquid molecules and the molecules of the surface. When this interaction is decreased, it becomes more favourable for the water molecules to interact with each other, which causes them to clump together faster. However, once the liquid-surface interaction had been reduced to zero, no methods were known to further decrease the contact time. To get around this, the research group at MIT developed a new strategy, which has actually been used in nature for millions of years. By creating macroscopic ridges in the surface of the material, the researchers decreased the contact time by 40%. In their paper, the researchers acknowledge that both Morpho butterflies and the Nasturtium plant use macroscopic ridges in the same way: Morpho butterflies to keep their wings dry, and Nasturtium plants to clean their leaves. Lotus leaves are also very hydrophobic, and have often been thought to be the most hydrophobic surface in nature. However, because of these microscopic ridges, Nasturtium actually has a shorter contact time than even lotus leaves.

The wings of the Morpho butterfly have many amazing properties, including iridscence and extreme hydrophobicity. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The oft-repeated quote by Isaac Ne wton “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” speaks to the importance of prior work in the progression of science. As demonstrated by these examples, whether observed in bacteria, plants, or insects, the innovations of evolution can provide us with a continuing source of ways to see further.

First Time Ocean Floor Mining in Human History, Now What?

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Lilo wang | Leave a comment

Despite our growing need for natural resources, should we still retrieve the resources while we might pay a huge price? In August 2017, the first large-scale seabed mining activity in human history has been approved with a 2-2 vote by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA): the company Trans-Tasman Resources can now mine Iron sand in South Taranaki in New Zealand. Although it will bring more iron ores and job positions, it will certainly bring harmful effects on marine ecosystem and humans, and the severity of the adverse impact on seafloor ecosystem is still unclear.

Map of Seabed Mining Site: Credits: Frances Cook, NewYork Time

Location and Technology

The mining site is over 25 km offshore along the Taranaki coastal-line. Trans-Tasman Resources will remove 5 million tons of iron sand annually for up to 35 years from the around 19 to 42m depth underneath the ocean surface. The total mining area will be 65.76km², starting from 5km² in the first year.

They will use an integrated mining/processing vessel attached to a suction crawl. The suction crawl would remove anything on the seedbed including the sea-organisms on the seabed and form a pit hole, then separate the iron ores by depositing other materials including sands and dead organisms into the sea. Then the minerals will be exported onshore directly from the storage ship. The short video below explains the mining technology clearly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=nbOvX8eoOSw

Impacts

Trans-Tasman Resources is consent to have adverse effects on the marine lives or marine environment. During their mining procedure, the entire seabed will be removed, along with the sessile organisms, such as seaweeds. The motile creatures such as fishes and mammals would be affected by habitat loss, as well as the noise and/or electromagnetic radiations. Some mammals might experience negative behavior changes including extreme avoidance of their habitats; some could become less capable fleeing from their predators due to the noise effects, and some will lose their food resources. This would lead to species loss, and eventually biodiversity loss.

Humans health might also be affected by this project eventually. As New Zealand also has a long history of commercial fisheries, people might be harmed from the possible bioaccumulation of heavy metals in their seafood. The toxicity generated from the mining procedure can be eaten and stored by the fishes, and eventually consumed by people. This could possibly damage humans’ organs and/or nervous systems. Since it is still unclear about how far exactly can the pollutions in the mining area span, it would be even more difficult to prevent the health issues in humans.

Now what?

Although we now understand the risks and impacts of the mining project a little bit, unfortunately, it would be almost impossible for us to stop the mining project now, according to the approval agreement. However, as a part of the public, we can still put pressure on the government to allow the scientists monitor this project closely, and develop new regulations for this type of mining activities in future. With more measurements, scientists can then reduce the uncertainty, and manage the environmental impact more adaptively in future.

-Lilo Wang

Protect Yourself From Nonsense

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Jake Medeiros | 1 comment

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have considered protection to be a vital aspect of their lives. From hunter-gatherers trading berries for spears, to serfs selling their goods to a lord for his knights, protection from harm has always been something of value to us. In modern society, scientific advances lead to new threats to our safety and way of living, such as the atomic bomb or climate change. From this progress will always rise those who try to take advantage of others due to their lack of understanding, such as the extortion of taxes from illiterate farmers. An example of this is the wonderful Vybe Energy Pendant, which claims to “Protect you from what the eye cannot see”.

This pendant claims the following benefits (taken from the Protect Your Vybes website):

We are surrounded by things like cell phones, laptops, television, electrical appliances, and so on. These devices emit Electromagnetic Radiation (EMF) which is a known human carcinogen and negatively effects our thoughts, memory, focus, and bodily functions.
Energy Pendants eliminate EMF effects, giving you a protected mind, body, and soul.
This is a 100% natural and Earth-made product.
The benefits of the Energy Pendant have been known for hundreds of years and kept secret due to it’s complexity.
There are multiple studies and tests that have been performed throughout the years that show that the Energy Pendants do much more than just protect you from EMF.

For those who are interested, I would recommend checking out the website and the associated video, both of which are a good laugh if you find this kind of stuff funny. I for one, do not. This company uses blatant pseudoscience to sell their product to a target audience clearly defined as those who are ignorant to rudimentary science. My main issue with this product isn’t that it exists, but rather that it claims to be “Backed by Scientific Evidence that proves the benefits of this product”. First off, experimental evidence can never prove something; it can only lend weight to the validity of a hypothesis. Second, the “scientific evidence” they cite is never explained.

“This photo shows shows the enhanced blood flow after wearing the pendant through thermal tests and photos.” Photo Credit

The images provided on the website just show useless values without any information to back why it is important or valid. For the target audience however, simply having these “scientific images” likely provides proof of the pendant’s function.

To be frank, there is so much wrong with this advertising that it would take an essay to point out all of it. The main point of this blog is to simply identify that much of this pseudoscience exists and is being used to exploit those who are not scientifically literate. This will unfortunately continue though, because “People fear what they cannot understand and what they cannot control.” -Andrew Smith. But hey, if you want to buy one they’re $35.

Jake Medeiros

1 Comment

Tagged Analysis, Electromagnetic Forces, Energy, Health, Materials, pseudoscience

Swimming or not swimming

Posted on October 22, 2017 by Nancy Ma | 4 comments

Swimming is one of the most popular sports around the world. Not like other sports, swimmers have a direct contact with water in swimming pools, therefore, the cleanness of water will influence swimmers’ skins, eyes, and other organs. One of the most commonplace issues is the amount of urine in a swimming pool. Many people have admitted to peeing in a swimming pool, even professional swimmers may do it during long distance training.

This is an example of a clean swimming pool (source)

Scientists have created a way to test the amount of urine in the water by measuring the concentration of an artificial sweetener, acesulfame potassium(ACE), that is commonly found in processed food and passes through the body unaltered.

People always think the disinfectants in the swimming pool will kill the harmful substance in urine. It is not true, disinfectants are forms of chlorine, bromine, ozone, and ultraviolet radiation. They only kill microbes by reacting with and disrupting the function of biomolecules. Actually, Urine is sterile, compounds in urine such as urea, ammonia, and creatinine will react with disinfectants to form byproducts such as DBP and trichloramine. DBP is a commonly used plasticizer that leads to eye and respiration irritation, trichloramine is a dangerous substance and was first prepared in 1812 by Pierre Louis Dulong, and cost his two fingers and an eye in two explosions. It links to asthma and other respiratory issues.

“urea ncl3”的图片搜索结果

This is how trichloramine is formed in a swimming pool. (source)

Swimmers should be encouraged to take a shower before getting in the pool and refraining from peeing in it to improve the swimming environment for themselves and for everybody else who uses the pool. It is also important to rinse the body after swimming.

I am not encouraging people to not swim since the health benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle through swimming far exceed the potential risks associated with urine in swimming pools.

Written by: Nancy Ma

4 Comments

Posted in Admin

Tagged Analysis, chemical hazard, Health, swimming, trichloramine, water in swimming pool

A New Wastewater Treatment Strategy by a Porous β-cyclodextrin Polymer

Posted on October 21, 2017 by jennifer liu | 1 comment

Micropollutants are residue from substances, used everyday in modern society, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), hormones, pesticides and industrial chemicals. According to University of Georgia Office of Research, 90% of consumed prescription drugs ultimately end up in our waste water. Micropollutants are hazardous, persistent, and not bio-degradable. They cannot be removed with conventional waste water treatment technologies. The continued release of micropollutants with wastewater effluent can cause long-term hazards such as rise of antibiotic-resistant organisms and reproductive and developmental abnormalities on sensitive species.

Wastewater treatment plant (Photo source: IWA)

Activated carbons are the most common materials used to remove organic pollutants from water. However, they have several deficiencies, including slow pollutant uptake (of the order of hours), poor removal of relatively hydrophilic micropollutants and poor regeneration performance. Since activated carbons bind to most substances through London dispersion forces, they adsorb larger molecules and non-polar molecules preferentially.

Scientists from Cornell University had synthesized porous β-cyclodextrin-containing polymers (P-CDPs) to remove the micropollutants from water. β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) is an inexpensive, sustainably produced cyclic macromolecule of glucose. It was crosslinked with rigid aromatic groups, providing a high-surface-area polymer of β-CD containing pores of 1.8–3.5 nm diameter. The resulting polymer can rapidly remove a variety of organic micropollutants with adsorption rate constants 15 to 200 times greater than those of activated carbons. In addition, the polymer can be easily and repeatedly regenerated by rinsing the polymer with methanol at room temperature while with no loss in performance. Finally, it can rapidly remove a complex mixture of organic micropollutants, including aromatic model compounds, pesticide, plastic components and pharmaceuticals, at environmentally relevant concentrations. The porous cyclodextrin-based polymers offer a rapid, flow-through water treatment.

P-CDPs were derived from nucleophilic aromatic substitution of hydroxyl (-OH) groups of β-CD by tetrafluoroterephthalonitrile (1) (Fig. a). The side groups of the P-CDPs, including fluoride (-F), cyano (-CN) and hydroxyl (-OH) groups, can bind to pollutants of different sizes and hydrophobicities through London dispersion forces and ionic, covalent and hydrogen bonds.

Figure a | Left, synthesis of the high-surface-area porous P-CDP from β-CD and 1. Right, schematic of the P-CDP structure. (Alsbaiee et al., 2016)

β-CD and 1 were polymerized in a suspension of potassium carbonate (K2CO3) in tetrahydrofuran (THF) at 80 °C to provide a pale-yellow precipitate, which proved to be the P-CDPs. P-CDPs obtained from 1:β-CD ratio of 3:1 exhibited the highest surface areas. A cost analysis of P-CDP indicates raw materials costs of US dollar (USD) 3.70 per kg.

Existing biological wastewater treatment plants are not specifically designed to remove micropollutants, and conventional activated carbons have poor removal performance and slow pollutant uptake. Therefore, the P-CDP, which can remove a wide range of micropollutants, presents a possible solution for wastewater treatment.

-Jennifer Liu-

1 Comment

Posted in Synthesis

Tagged Analysis, Environment, Materials, Micropollutants, Polymer, Wastewater Treatment, Water Environment

Forget High Internet Lag and Costs: Meet Optical Access Networks

Posted on October 20, 2017 by jake wong | 2 comments

Written by: Jake Wong, Oct. 20th

The average internet speed in Canada is ~30Mb/s (which may be an inflated average), meaning that it takes average Canadians half a minute to download a 1GB movie, or about 3 minutes to download a full 5GB game. However, most people don’t have high internet speeds, or even if they do speeds get bogged down by high traffic and many users using the same site at once. There must be a more optimal way to use the internet that is cost effective and efficient. That is exactly the question Dr. Sezer Erkılınç at the University of College London thought when he began his research on optical access networks.

Optical access networks had already existed prior to this research, as optic fibers are commonly used around the world for data transfer and Internet connection. Essentially, each fiber wire transmits data by sending light pulses. However, this does not necessarily mean that each fiber is restricted to sending information to only one receiver. By having different non-interfering wavelengths of light in each fiber, multiple receivers can be connected to a single fiber. This can be done using coherent receivers, which is highly sensitive and therefore has the precision to separate wavelengths. However, this is extremely costly and would cause fast internet to be unaffordable. Fortunately, Dr. Sezer Erkılınç’s team found a way to implement this multi-wavelength technique without the high costs. This can be done “by adopting a coding technique to fibre access networks that was originally designed to prevent signal fading in wireless communications”. Unfortunately the paper is yet to be published so the details are not clear, but you can read the article about this project here.

This technology will take advantage of the current data system we have in place today, so no new infrastructure will be needed to be built around it. Also, if each user is assigned a specific wavelength of light, other uses accessing the same information will not interfere and slow down the data transfer. Finally, this method is extremely efficient, offering up to 10Gb/s, which is 300x faster than the average speed of Canada. Further testing needs to be done, but if this technology can be put into place, we may be seeing advancing internet speeds to match our ever increasing need for high speed data transfer. This technology will revolutionize how we use the internet, whether it be to watch movies, play games, or download files. I think if this technology will truly allow us to increase internet speeds, experience less lag, AND reduce our payments, it is worth our time investigating and testing it.

2 Comments

Posted in Admin

Tagged fiber optics, internet speeds, low price, optical access network

Beating Plants at Its Own Game

Posted on October 16, 2017 by harvey wu | 2 comments

Photosynthesis, the ability to convert sunlight into energy, has always been known as the trademark for plants. With the treat of climate change and a shift away from fossil fuel energy, this often overlooked ability seem to be a perfect solution.

Photosynthesis in Nature (Sourced: Wiki Commons)

A group of researchers at UCLA has beaten plants at its own game of photosynthesis. They developed an artificial photosynthesis system that is more efficient that its nature counterpart. Photosynthesis is the simple process of using sunlight energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water into chemical energy. In nature, the process of photosynthesis is not very efficient as it only convert approximately 1% of solar energy into usable chemical energy. The research utilized a hybrid system which was reported to be 10 times more efficient than plants.

Plants’ photosynthesis efficiency is mainly limited by the light absorbing pigments. However, solar panels that absorbs light much better has already been invented. The researchers designed a nano-wire coated with bacteria which collects sunlight similar to a solar panel and allows the bacteria to use the energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuel. The difficulty of previous attempts at imitating photosynthesis is the deaths of bacteria responsible for the conversion of light into chemical energy caused by a bacteria killing oxygen by-product. They developed a new catalyst to kick start the chemical reactions by the bacteria without killing them.

There is a video explaining the nano-wire research below:

This new system is estimated to be able to recycle carbon dioxide in 85,000 liters of air into fuel. The research also found by using a different bacteria, nitrogen gas can be converted into ammonia, a common ingredient in fertilizers. This research can change our approach on how to solve the energy crisis due to climate change.

Who could have known that such little plants could hold the key to solve such a big problem?

Written By: Harvey Wu

2 Comments

Tagged Alternative Energy, ClimateChange, CO2, Energy, Environment, Green Chemistry, Photosynthesis, Solar Energy

Komodo dragon’s blood could be the key to new antibiotics

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Carmen Chu | 2 comments

Antibiotic resistance has been spreading faster and stealthier than ever. At least 23,000 people in the U.S. die every year from infections that are resistant to even the strongest antimicrobial drug. The increasing prevalence of resistant drugs demands new antibiotics before life-threatening infections cannot be treated.

In Feburary, a study was published in The Journal of Proteome Research that offered a glimpse to a new antibiotic. Researchers from George Mason University found that the blood of Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) could counter antibiotic resistance.

Komodo Dragon (Source: By Bahnfrend)

Komodo dragons are the largest living lizards, growing up to 3 metres in length. They have thrived on Indonesian islands despite competition with other venomous reptiles and harsh conditions. Scientists began to study Komodo dragon because of the dragon’s resistance to their own poisonous bacteria. The dragon has 57 deadly bacteria in their saliva.

Staphylococcys aureus Bacteria (Source: By NIAID)

The scientists identified 48 antimicrobial peptides in the blood of a Komodo dragon that have germ-killing abilities and could be used to develop new drugs. They isolated eight of the antimicrobial peptides found in the dragon’s blood to test them against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, two superbugs that are in urgent need of new antibiotics according to the World Health Organization. Seven of the peptides had antimicrobial activity against both microorganisms, while one was only effective against P. aeruginosa.

The antimicrobial peptides in the dragon’s blood inspired researchers to create a synthetic version in the lab called DRGN-1. It was tested on mice with skin wounds infected by P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. When treated with DRGN-1, the wounds healed significantly faster than wounds treated with other antimicrobial drugs or untreated wounds. DRGN-1 broke apart colonies of bacteria on the surface of the wound which accelerated the migration of skin cells to close the wound.

Scientists hope to find more peptides in the dragon’s blood with antimicrobial activity. They believe that this could potentially lead to the development of new antibiotics that will help us fight superbugs.

The discovery of antimicrobial activity in Komodo dragon’s blood is important because we need new antibiotics. Currently, research and development of new antibiotics is lacking because companies are not willing to invest in developing drugs that are only used for the short-term. The government and the World Health Organization need to manage and encourage drug research better. They need to provide financial incentives like raising the prices of antibiotics or offer companies more money so that antibiotic development is worth the investment. An infected cut could be life-threatening if no more antibiotics are available. Our future relies on more research on Komodo dragon’s blood and the development of new antibiotics.

An interesting video of how “Dragon’s Blood Could Save Your Life” is shared below.

Carmen Chu

2 Comments

Posted in News

Tagged Antibiotic Resistance, Antibiotics, Bacteria, Health, Infections

Did We Forget Fukushima?

Pack Your Things, We are Going to Mars

Scientific Innovations in Nature: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

First Time Ocean Floor Mining in Human History, Now What?

Protect Yourself From Nonsense

Swimming or not swimming

A New Wastewater Treatment Strategy by a Porous β-cyclodextrin Polymer

Forget High Internet Lag and Costs: Meet Optical Access Networks

Beating Plants at Its Own Game

Komodo dragon’s blood could be the key to new antibiotics

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