Russell and McNeill seminars

Two environmental chemists have visited campus in the last two weeks to present seminars.

Prof. Lynn Russell of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography came on Sept. 17 and spoke about “Organic Functional Groups in Marine and Continental Atmospheric Particles“. Her research involves collection of aerosols at different locations around the globe and then characterizing the molecules that make up these aerosols using spectroscopic techniques. Her work shows that aerosols vary greatly in their composition. Some aerosols arise mostly from natural products while others arise from factory and car emissions.

The following week, Sept. 24, saw a return to campus by Prof. Kris McNeill (Reed ‘92) of the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland (formerly of the U. Minnesota) who spoke about “Incineration or liquid handsoap: Which is the larger source of dioxins to the aquatic environment?“. His presentation, which was given in honor of emeritus professor Tom Dunne, showed how scientists are tracking what happens to triclosan, the “anti-bacterial” ingredient in anti-bacterial soaps, when it enters the environment. His research shows that triclosan decomposes to form dichlorodioxins. More worrisome is his recent research which  shows  that triclosan (and the dioxins derived from it) can become further chlorinated when it flows through a water-treatment plant that uses chlorination technology.

If these projects are typical, it appears that graduate students in environmental chemistry can expect to combine field work (ocean cruises, mountain hikes, and river paddles) to collect samples and lab measurements to solve a research problem.

Several Reed students were able to have lunch with the speakers (courtesy of the Chemistry department) including members of the Green Science Project. This “lunch with the speaker” tradition applies to all department seminars, so please take advantage of this opportunity.

Real Green Action

Zenger Farm Greenhouse

Within our very own city there is a CSA farm doing the real footwork needed to transform our food system. In most educated discussions of our food system, decentralizing farming and associating small farms with urban centers are discussed as essential strategies. The CSA model is a great, profitable model that reestablishes the link between farmer and consumer that is lost within the national supermarket distribution system.

In their own words, how it works:

Shareholders come to the farm once a week to pick up their share of the produce (the kinds of shares available are listed to the right). We’ll post a list to tell you how much food to take. The weekly pick-up offers ample opportunity for sampling and socializing.

Please note: While a share entitles you to the bounty of the harvest, it also means a share of the risk. On occasion a crop may fail due to inclement weather, pests, disease, or other conditions beyond our control. Our goal is to bring you, despite these challenges, an abundant and diverse harvest throughout the season.

They farm at three locations, one of which is an educational farm/wetland property on Foster called Zenger Farms. If anyone else is interested in actually going somewhere/doing something, I can probably swing us a tour of the place. Reply, let me know. The easiest time to go would probably be a friday or saturday afternoon and would take 1-2 hours.

Climate change: heard about it, still don’t get it

Everyone has heard about climate change, but what do we really understand? If the temperature rises, what will be the consequences? How soon will they appear? If we need to do something about climate change, how much do we need to do and how soon do we need to do it?

A recent Times magazine article, “What the Public Doesn’t Get About Climate Change” by Bryan Walsh (Oct 28), contrasts views held by the American public with views held by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

“In a paper that came out Oct. 23 in Science, John Sterman — a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Sloan School of Management — wrote about asking 212 MIT grad students to give a rough idea of how much governments need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by to eventually stop the increase in the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. These students had training in science, technology, mathematics and economics at one of the best schools in the world — they are probably a lot smarter than you or me. Yet 84% of Sterman’s subjects got the question wrong, greatly underestimating the degree to which greenhouse gas emissions need to fall.”

Sterman’s students, all of them deeply versed in the language and concepts of science, mathematics, and modeling, grossly underestimated what kind of action was needed on carbon emissions and how soon action is needed to prevent worst-case scenarios. No wonder the public doesn’t get it. Do you get it?

Links:

• What the Public Doesn’t Get About Climate Change by Bryan Walsh, Time, Oct 28
  , online story also contains audio of Walsh’s interview of Prof. Sterman
• ECONOMICS: Risk Communication on Climate: Mental Models and Mass Balance by John D. Sterman, Science 24 October 2008, Vol. 322. no. 5901, pp. 532 – 533, DOI: 10.1126/science.1162574

A New (academic) Year and a New Name

As part of my preparations for the new academic year, I have changed the name of our group from Reed College “Green Chemistry Project” to “Green Science Project“.

I think the new name better reflects the broader interests of the students who have participated in this project over the past two years (at least as many biologists and physicists as chemists) and I hope it will generate more ideas about what our group might do/discuss this next year.

Also, I confess, I was taking a peek at one of my favorite web sites earlier today and I noticed that it had changed its name to the Carnegie-Mellon Institute for Green Science (formerly Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry) and I thought, That’s a good idea!

Geoengineering – Pollution to save the world

I’m not sure how many of you have heard of James Lovelock, but he’s the scientist who invented the electron capture detector (ECD) back in the 50’s and also proposed the Gaia Theory in the 70’s. I recently read an interview with him by Rolling Stone (I know; I would never read it otherwise; its trash) and a lot of his ideas were intriguing to me, and I highly suggest you look into who he is. Anyway, reading about him online sent me on a linking frenzy and I came across an article in Nature about Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist who won the 1995 Nobel Prize for ozone layer research, who is proposing that we seed the air with sulphur to enhance the earth’s albeido (no, not libido!). Crutzen has also found that the nitrogen required to grow biofuel feedstocks, such as corn (ethanol) and canola (biodiesel) is liberated as N20, a really bad greenhouse gas, which makes it just as bad as burning fossil fuels. I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks about Geoengineering as a whole at our next meeting.

Jordan

Oil-Eating Bacteria

“Researchers have worked out how natural bacteria deep within the Earth break down crude oil and produce methane. This knowledge could help with projects to encourage these bacteria to covert more oil, faster. And it could point towards a way to produce hydrogen — an even cleaner fuel — by using these natural fuel-processing plants.”

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071212/full/news.2007.375.html

Enjoy the break, everyone.

-Jordan

Jatropha and Microalgae as Biodiesel Feedstocks

Here’s a good article I found about the two most promising new feedstocks for commercial biodiesel production.

http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=1959

That magazine rocks, too, and most of the articles are on the website.

Jordan

Lead test kits

After writing about lead-free ammunition, I thought I might be finished with this metal for a while, but there it was coming out of my radio this morning…

NPR’s Morning Edition (Dec 6, 2007) ran a story on Testing Toys for Lead. It seems that the confluence of detectable amounts of lead in certain Chinese-manufactured toys, and the annual rush to buy toys for Christmas, has created a marketing opportunity for a new product: lead test kits. Smear a little test reagent on your toy and see whether the reagent changes color. If it does, you (and Santa) have a problem – a lead-contaminated toy. If it doesn’t, you (and Santa) have another problem – a toy covered with test reagent.

There is also the question of whether the test kits really work. Consumer Reports tested five kits and found three that were acceptable. No “false positives” or “false negatives.” (A “false positive” refers to a result that gives you a false sense of danger – the test reagent says, “yes, there is lead on this toy” when there really isn’t. A “false negative” refers to a result that gives you a false sense of safety – the reagent says, “no lead here” when there really is some.)

If you should run into lead anywhere this Christmas, whether it is a toy, old house paint, a lead acid battery, or a computer monitor, dispose of it properly. Do not simply toss the item in the trash.

Lead links:

• Environmental Protection Agency Lead Home Page
• Metro (Portland, OR) Guide to Hazardous Waste
• Living on Earth The Secret Life of Lead

Earth-friendly ammo?

The Nov 26 issue of C&E News (p. 10) carries a story titled, “Getting the Lead Out of Bullets“. Concerns over lead poisoning from hunters’ ammunition were first raised many years ago and led to a 1991 nationwide ban in the use of lead shotgun pellets for waterfowl hunting. Lead-containing ammunition is still sold for other purposes, however, including deer hunting.

The poisoning scenario works something like this: Shotgun blast scatters lead pellets over a field. Animals eat the pellets mistaking them for food or the pellets break down into small compounds that get ingested by microorganisms. Either way, the poisonous metal finds its way into the food chain.

So how can green chemistry improve this state of affairs? By developing less toxic metal alloys to replace lead. Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory report that a new 57% tungsten-43% tin composite bullet can be produced by pressurizing tungsten and tin powders at 100,000 psi. The chemical makeup of the new bullets should even make it possible to “close the loop” and recycle used bullets. Tin melts at a much lower temperature than tungsten so heating a bullet will cause it to degrade into molten tin and solid tungsten which are easily separated and reused.

Algae in your tank

If you had mentioned algae to me last week, I would have probably asked you how to kill the stuff. As winter sinks in and the furnace comes on for more and more hours each day, the air in our house dries to an uncomfortable extent. Humidifier to the rescue! Unfortunately, our humidifier is several years old and has been gathering an unremovable layer of algae (yes, I have tried scrubbing, I have tried bleach). Ew. But it turns out that algae aren’t all bad. I might have discovered a way to produce (an inconsequential amount of) fuel oil.

Please read Algae Emerges as a Potential Fuel Source > NY Times > Science > Dec 2, 2007. The article shows a beautiful picture of a lab at U Minnesota with several Erlenmeyer’s filled with algae. I assume the tubes bring CO2 to the flask and the algae are harvested later for their oil. The article mentions one of the problems that has to be solved before you pump some algae (or more accurately oil produced by algae) into your tank: cost. There are other problems too. Check out these links for more information about the U Minnesota program and the potential of algae:

• Center for Biorefining at U Minnesota
• Algae-Based Fuels Set to Bloom > MIT > Technology Review > Feb 5, 2007
• GreenFuel Technologies Corporation