Gizmorama
September 15, 2010
------------------------------------------------------------
Silly Shaped Bands are Traded & Collected all over the world.
http://pd.gophercentral.com/u/1095/c/186/a/474
------------------------------------------------------------
Good Morning,
Be sure to read through the first article for an in-depth
explanation of a new water purification method that was
developed to cut the costs of this process in half. Also,
the middle two articles explore the fascinating subject of
how certain masses in the universe are created.
Until Next Time,
Erin
Questions? Comments? Email me at: mailto:gizmo@gophercentral.com
Email your comments
P.S. You can discuss this issue or any other topic in the new
Gizmorama forum. Check it out here...
http://gizmorama.gophercentral.com
------------------------------------------------------------
New process halves water purification cost
CHICAGO, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- A new biochemical carbon dioxide
water purification process from Krebs & Sisler energy firm
halves the cost of turning effluent and salt water into a
potable drinking resource in a move with potential for use
worldwide. U.S. government, military and corporate agencies
spend billions on purifying water while prohibitive costs
and lack of affordable means keeps safe water out of the
reach of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Krebs &
Sisler's method combines photosynthesis with photocatalysis
to treat impure water and turn it into safe water, the comp-
any explained. The method involves water purification through
a rapid growth in biomass, which also can be harvested and
used for human or animal consumption. The treatment method
is expected to produce potable water for half the cost of
reverse osmosis -- most commonly known to purify seawater as
drinking water -- in large continuous-flow volumes while the
biomass is produced and separated for consumption. As the
storehouse for atmospheric oxygen, carbon dioxide is the
resource for recycling both oxygen and carbon. With the new
process it can be separated through photosynthesis at a high
rate. As the CO2 is separated the carbon grows biomass and
the oxygen is released to enrich the air. The process is good
for salt water, sewage and industrial wastewater, the company
said. The biomass is produced by the concurrent use of
photosynthesis and photocatalysis. Light emitting diode
lighting and CO2 and balanced nutrients unite, growing a
biomass from species of algae such as Spirulina. The biomass
growth rate in deep well-lighted enclosed cells is expected
to exceed 100 times the natural rate because all factors
related to culturing the algae can be optimized in the con-
tinuous hydroponic process, the company said. Algae biomass
absorbs minerals dissolved in water and also the minerals
contained in organic and inorganic compounds when they are
released by the photochemical action of photocatalysis.
Photosynthesis purifies the water by mineral absorption given
sufficient light, CO2, nutrients and time. The resulting
biomass is 50 percent carbon and may be dried for fuel, a
farm animal feed supplement or human nutrient because of its
high 60 percent protein and 20 percent carbohydrate values
plus the presence of vitamins A, B and E. When released, the
oxygen bound in CO2 can be released to fortify the atmosphere
or for fuel combustion. Until recently the innovation
wouldn't have seemed to attract investors because, to ensure
it remains economically feasible, ample quantities of cheap
carbon dioxide would be required for the project to remain
feasible. But a potential source for inexpensive CO2 came on
the horizon as oxygen combustion for electricity generation
plants became more frequent. Now the abundance of cheap CO2
opens up possibilities of not letting it go waste and produce
water instead. As it happens, experts said, CO2 water purifi-
cation is the least-cost way to limit carbon dioxide in
Earth's atmosphere.
Astronomers seek cosmic 'building blocks'
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Scientists say a search
for the "building blocks" of the solar system has proved
fruitful as they've added new objects to their cosmic inven-
tories. Icy rocks beyond the orbit of Neptune are known as
trans-Neptunian objects. Pluto, now classified as a dwarf
planet, is one of the largest. Halley's Comet is another.
All are small and receive little sunlight, making them faint
and difficult to spot, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics say. But examining data from NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope has added 14 new TNOs to the catalog,
with the promise of finding hundreds more, they say. "Trans-
Neptunian objects interest us because they are building
blocks left over from the formation of the solar system,"
Cesar Fuentes, formerly with the Harvard center and now at
Northern Arizona University, said. Using software to examine
hundreds of long-exposure Hubble images, scientists have
begun identifying new TNOs, most with diameters of between
25 to 60 miles. Their initial study examined only one-third
of a square degree of sky, leaving much more area to survey.
Hundreds of additional TNOs may lurk in the Hubble image
archives, scientists say.
Comets may have 'seeded' life on Earth
LIVERMORE, Calif., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The building blocks of
life on Earth may have been brought to the planet by special
delivery -- by comets slamming into the Earth's surface,
researchers say. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Nati-
onal Laboratory in California say comets that crashed into
Earth millions of years ago could have produced amino acids,
the precursors of life, a laboratory release said. Their
computer simulations show long chains containing carbon-
nitrogen bonds can form during shock compression of cometary
ice in an impact. After expansion, the long chains can break
apart to form complexes containing the protein-building amino
acid glycine, scientists say. Amino acids are the building
blocks of proteins, which are linear chains of amino acids.
Earth's early atmosphere consisted mainly of carbon dioxide,
nitrogen and water, and research has shown the synthesis of
organic molecules needed for amino acid production would have
been difficult in this type of environment, researchers say.
But comets could have kickstarted the process, researchers
say. "There's a possibility that the production or delivery
of prebiotic molecules came from extraterrestrial sources,"
LLNL scientist Nir Goldman said. "On early Earth, we know
that there was a heavy bombardment of comets and asteroids
delivering up to several orders of magnitude greater mass of
organics than what likely was already here."
Arctic ice melting quickly, report says
BREMERHAVEN, Germany, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- The ice around the
North Pole has experienced another severe meltdown this year,
German scientists said. Around 1.9 million square miles of
the Arctic Ocean will be covered by ice by the end of this
summer, the third-lowest figure since satellite monitoring
began in the 1970s, scientists from the University of Hamburg
and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Re-
search said Monday. In the past four years, the average ice
coverage in mid-September was around 2 million square miles,
led by a record meltdown to 1.6 million square miles in 2007
from an average winter height of 5.4 million square miles.
The scientists attributed the latest meltdowns to a combi-
nation of man-made climate change and seasonal temperature
shifts. The German statistics come on the heels of a report
on Arctic sea ice by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data
Center, which released similar figures last week. Both re-
ports indicate that Arctic ice is thinning, meaning that it
takes less energy to melt it. "There are claims coming from
some communities that the Arctic sea ice is recovering, is
getting thicker again," Mark Serreze, director of the Ameri-
can center, told Postmedia News. "That's simply not the case.
It's continuing down in a death spiral." The melting of the
Arctic ice sheets means that the oceans in the region are
increasingly ice-free during the summer months. This is
opening a new Atlantic-Pacific shipping channel and makes
the vast natural resources lying under the seabed more acces-
sible. Nations have laid conflicting claims to the seabeds.
Russia and Norway have rowed over their Barents Sea terri-
tories, while the United States and Canada disagree over a
swath of the Beaufort Sea and over the Northwest Passage,
which in 2007 for the first time in modern history was free
of ice. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty
ratified by all nations with interests in the Arctic except
the United States, states that Arctic border countries can
claim ownership of natural resources up to 200 nautical
miles off their coasts. Arctic nations are now exploring to
where their continental shelves extend -- findings that
could increase their territories. Observers have warned that
the legal conflict over boundaries might evolve into a mili-
tary one. Russia sparked concern when one of its submarines
planted a flag in the seabed in territory it considers its
own at the North Pole in 2007. In general, military activity
in the region has increased in recent years.
------------------------------------------------------------
Check out Viral Videos on the Net at EVTV1.com
http://www.evtv1.com/
EVTV1.com