TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[plaques]

Thanks China. At least its novel, the other main ones don't have the centrifugal force involved. Sorry I still don't go for it. The main objection being that with the pole plan view as shown there would still be a centrifugal effect in the 'low' tide areas. Also for the tidal bulge to keep up with the moon's rotation it would have to travel at over 1000 mph.

More thinking I think.

[Sue]

Hope all is OK with you China.

[chinatyke]

Hope all is OK with you China.

Thanks Sue. Yes, I'm fully recovered and better than ever now, hopefully there is still a few more years left in the old dog!

[Stanley]

Don't take them all China, leave a few for me.

[Tizer]

China, that Cosmos Magazine article is good, very easy to understand. There's a good graphic part way down this web page too: Barycenter Under `Gallery' look at the 3rd graphic along - it show the Moon and Earth.

[plaques]

China, that Cosmos Magazine article is good, very easy to understand. There's a good graphic part way down this web page too: Barycenter Under `Gallery' look at the 3rd graphic along - it show the Moon and Earth.

I came to the conclusion that the Earth would wobble as the moon rotated round it. From this the gravity at the surface should change. I haven't figured out how much this change would alter the density of water causing it to expand. Although 0.5% over 4km depth of water would give a 20m rise at the surface. This is just me thinking, Proof required.

[Tizer]

I don't think the change in gravity would have much affect on the water, which is fairly incompressible. Also any effect would probably be insignificant compared with that of pressure.

[Stanley]

Anyone who has ever had a slug of water in a steam engine cylinder would agree with that!

[Tizer]

That's a powerful image, Stanley, thank you!

[Stanley]

Nowt like a practical demonstration Tiz. This one was unplanned but happened.... Crow Nest Mill.

[Tizer]

This fits nicely with Stanley's photo above...
`The research centre dedicated to the science of cracks' BBC

As Chinatyke can't get BBC here's the university's page: LINK

[Stanley]

Cracks.... Lovely link Tiz. I have always been fascinated by two things in mechanics, cracks and corrosion. I have been observing their effects over the years. One LKF about the M6 is that when they used Tubular girders extensively in the construction they introduced cracks caused by the temperature gradient behind welds in the structure and I believe that structures like the Broughton road end fly-over are still inspected regularly. The first Severn Bridge was never entirely serviceable because of heat zone cracking caused when they welded the bulkheads into the hollow section deck elements so they could float them under the bridge to lift them in.
When I was talking to the head of Tribology at a major university during my research into the plane crash that killed Big Harry he asked me where I had studied the subject and congratulated me when he found it was all from practical experience. Corrosion is closely liked with tribology and I could bang on for hours about it!
(Incidentally, he sat on the committee that named the subject and said that they decided that 'tri' should be pronounced as in 'try' and not as in 'tribute'. An LKF for you....)

[Stanley]

See THIS Guardian report about the discovery of what could be an effective new source of antibiotics. It was done by creating an artificial intelligence algorithm and letting it loose on existing databases of experimental results with the instruction to look for promising characteristics. It searched millions of entries and came up with a result far faster than we humans could.
Impressive but at the same time it's frightening.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report about the biggest explosion in space since the Big Bang. I find the numbers they quote incredible, I just can't imagine a space big enough to hold several Milky Ways! They say it was big enough to warp space and time when it happened. Glad we weren't nearer to it!

[Stanley]

Optimistic news from Queensland University that the search for a vaccine is going well and they hope to be testing it on humans by June. Of course it may not work but the professor sounded optimistic.
He also said that one advantage they have is that this virus doesn't seem to mutate as fast as bog standard winter Flu.
I do like good news!

[Tizer]

I didn't know about BBC Future but find that it has many interesting articles and takes the same evidence-based approach as the BBC Reality Check service. BBC Future

[Stanley]

Thanks Tiz, a good link, I have bookmarked it.
On the general subject of the search for a vaccine. Understandable that some of the reports are a tad optimistic. I heard an estimate of 12 to 18 months before there was a valid one and suspect that's more realistic.

[Tizer]

We already know that in the geological record in rock strata in the future there will be marker point of the beginning of the Anthropocene due to the radionuclides deposited since the first atomic bombs were dropped. I'm now wondering if there will be a marker of the first Covid-19 pandemic - less deposition of those metals coming from car exhausts and tyres, perhaps? If I were being flippant (which I never am of course!) I'd suggest there might be a distinct layer in the rocks that turns out to the residue from latex gloves!

[Stanley]

That's got to be right Tiz and as for flippancy, how about the layer of plastics and disposable wipes and nappies?
Years ago I was talking to some English Heritage boffins and remarked that in future, archaeologists would have a field day with our middens (but we call it 'landfill' now). They agreed but thought I was going too far when I also predicted that with advances in ground detection devices like magnetic surveys we would gradually refine them to the point where we would be able to detect minute traces of disturbance and eventually would be able to detect individual footprints. I still believe that we will approach this level of detail in archaeological time.

[Tizer]

`Coronavirus: Pangolins found to carry viruses related to Covid-19' BBC
`Pangolins smuggled into China have been confirmed to contain viruses closely related to the one sweeping the world. Sale of the animals in wildlife markets should be strictly prohibited to minimise the risk of future outbreaks, says an international team. Pangolins are the most-commonly illegally trafficked mammal, used both as food and in traditional medicine. Bats are thought to be the original viral source, with another species playing a role in human transmission. In a new research paper, published in the journal Nature, researchers say their genetic data suggests "handling these animals requires considerable caution, and that their sale in wet markets should be strictly prohibited."
`Further surveillance on pangolins in the wild in China and Southeast Asia is needed to understand their role in the emergence of coronaviruses and the risk of future transmission to humans, they add. The ant-devouring scaly mammal, said to be the most widely trafficked mammal in the world, is threatened with extinction. The animal's scales are in high demand in Asia for use in traditional Chinese medicine, while pangolin meat is considered a delicacy by some. ..'.

That's all there is in the BBC article. I couldn't find it in the current issue of Nature journal but saw this which ios either the same or a similar report: `COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin' Science Daily
In the same magazine I saw this article from early 2018 on the `Illegal global trade of pangolins' LINK
In particular, this is interesting:
`With the decline of the Asian species in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of African pangolins seized in Asia. Consequently, in 2016, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) -- a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals -- banned all international trade in the African species in a bid to restrict wildlife losses. The new study focused on Gabon, in Central Africa, where, as in many other countries, domestic hunting and eating of certain species of pangolin is legal....The study concluded that the high international price of scales was driving up local costs, with hunters increasingly targeting pangolins to sell them on, rather than for home consumption. Dr Abernethy said: "We conclude that whilst there is clear potential and likelihood that a wild pangolin export trade is emerging from Gabon, traditional bushmeat trade chains may not be the primary support route...."The link between Asian industrial workers working on major projects in Africa and requests for pangolins is worrying, and warrants further investigation."

[Stanley]

Interesting Tiz. I keep hearing about Pangolins but hadn't the faintest idea what they were so I found this WWF image. Amazing what lurks out there!

[Tizer]

The headline is misleading but the information is interesting. We had a news report a little while back about detection of environmental lead in glaciers from the French lead mines of AD600-700.
`Thomas Becket: Alpine ice sheds light on medieval murder' LINK

[Tizer]

Now for something different - a press release from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

`A molecule with a hollow center proves ideal for separating a common industrial chemical mixture.'
An industrial process that currently consumes vast amounts of energy in petrochemical plants around the globe could be replaced by an alternative process so efficient that it requires no heating or elevated pressure. Niveen Khashab from KAUST’s Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center and her colleagues have developed a new way to separate derivates of benzene called xylenes.

Xylenes come in three different forms, known as isomers, which differ from each other only in the location of a single carbon atom. Xylenes are used in many large-scale applications, including in polymers, plastics and fibers, and as fuel additives, but many uses rely on just one of the three isomers. Because the isomers are so similar, their physical properties, such as boiling point, are very close, which makes separating them energetically expensive.

“Every year, the global energy costs of separating these isomers using distillation is about 50 gigawatts, enough to power roughly 40 million homes,” says Gengwu Zhang, a postdoc in Khashab’s team and first author of the study. “We wanted to develop a method with high efficiency and low energy consumption to separate and purify these isomers for the petrochemical industry.”

To draw apart the xylene isomers, Khashab and her team used doughnut-shaped molecules called cucurbiturils. The hole in the middle of these molecules can host smaller molecules inside it. The hole in the middle of cucurbit[7]uril is the ideal size for hosting the ortho-isomer of xylene, the team showed. Using a process called liquid-liquid extraction, the team used cucurbit[7]uril to separate ortho-xylene from the other isomers. “We could separate ortho-xylene with more than 92 percent specificity after one extraction cycle,” Zhang says. “Unlike previous methods, our method is performed under ambient temperature and pressure, which means very low energy consumption and easy operation,” he adds.

The whole process was designed to be readily adopted in the existing plants of petrochemical companies, Khashab explains. “Liquid-liquid extraction towers are already used in industry and so it is relatively easy to incorporate our material in this setup,” she says. In addition, cucurbit[7]uril is inexpensive, commercially available or easily made, and highly stable compared to most porous materials. “We have already shown that we can separate xylene from commercial oil samples at scales of up to 0.5 liters,” Khashab adds. “We are in touch with Saudi Aramco to take this process to industrial implementation.” The team is also examining other applications for this separation process, Zhang says.
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If you are wondering why the molecule used is called cucurbituril - it's because it's shaped like a pumpkin, Cucumis pepo, a member of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae.

[Stanley]

All that explanation and what do I take away from reading it? The root of the word cucumber!

[Tizer]

`Crops were cultivated in regions of the Amazon '10,000 years ago'' LINK