TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Stanley]

Cathy, not sure if you are right about the herbivores. One of the trademarks of Aborigine coastal settlements is huge mounds of oyster shells dating back 40,000 years. Animal bones found in caves with butchering marks on them 20,000 years old here in the Isles.

[Tizer]

We are descended from an ape ancestor that was omnivorous, eating whatever it could find or catch. Cooking food not only had the benefit for our ancestors of making more nutrients and energy available from a meal, it also meant they had to do less hunting, scavenging or growing to get the same amount of energy and nutrients. That meant they had more time available and that's when cave art started and the further development of tools.
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This is significant - Scientific American magazine is world-renowned and trusted. Very worth reading...
`Scientific American Endorses Joe Biden: We’ve never backed a presidential candidate in our 175-year history—until now' Scientific American magazine

[Stanley]

I told Martha yesterday. She hadn't heard about it and is delighted. I'll bet Biden is as well.
See THIS news about attention being focussed on tyre dust. I have nagged for years about where the rubber that wears off tyres goes to and it appears that these students have been asking the same question. Then there is the dust from brake linings and pads, it all goes somewhere!

[Tizer]

There's been a lot of research in the past on the polluting particles from tyres and brakes but it's been highlighted by the proposed move to electric vehicles - cutting down CO2 emissions makes it even more desirable to cut the other emissions. You can't claim electric cars to be `clean' when they're still putting out other pollution. So it's good to see some brilliant innovation. Let's hope it's developed in the UK by Dyson and not shifted abroad.
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Some confusion over mass extinctions this morning...a man was interviewed on the Today programme about a sixth mass extinction of animals in geological history. He said it had already been noted but there was now greater certainty that such an event occurred about 230 million years ago. That would be close on the heels of the well--known Permian extinction at 272 million years ago. I've searched the web but can only find two relevant articles, one of them in Science Daily dated 9 September 2019: `Researchers unearth 'new' mass-extinction
New analysis brings total of species extinctions to six' LINK and another in 2015: `New mass extinction event identified by geologists' LINK I wonder if the Beeb has got confused?

[Stanley]

I heard the same report Peter but didn't query it. If the Beeb is confused it wouldn't be the first time!
Later... See THIS for "the most important moment in the scientific year" (Nature). The Ignobel prizes. I particularly like the research that assesses the utility of knives made from faeces. You couldn't make it up!

[Tizer]

Some good news. I mentioned this project when it started exploration and now the company has published results. It has long been known that Cornish geology has plenty of lithium in its minerals, such as tourmaline and lepidolite but the problem was always like that of the gold mines - mining it was bad for the environment. This method extracts dissolved lithium salts and puts the water back in the rock.
`Cornish Lithium finds “globally significant” grades at UK project' Mining.com
`Cornish Lithium, a start-up hoping to lead the development of an industry for the battery metal in the UK, said on Thursday it had found “globally significant” lithium reserves in hot springs within Cornwall’s historic mining area. Initial test results suggest geothermal waters in south-west England contain some of the world’s highest grades of lithium and best overall chemical qualities, the exploration company said....The find is also significant from an environmental point of view. Extracting lithium from geothermal water allows using the same hot rock water to power up turbines, generating zero-carbon electricity and heat....The £4 million ($5.2m) project will trial direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology, which removes dissolved lithium compounds from water without the need for the large evaporation ponds, such as those used in South America’s salt flats....Cornish Lithium recently decided to also begin exploring for other battery metals, such as cobalt and copper..'.

[Stanley]

Good news indeed Peter but I have this nagging dislike at the back of my head of all extractive industries that eat finite resources. I've burned more than my fair share of such resources over the years but knew no better. Now I know too much perhaps and these things worry me. I look at a country like Australia which is 100% dependent on extracting iron ore and coal and exporting it to China and other countries. Bit like Saudi Arabia, eventually the market and the demand will dry up. What then?

[Tizer]

But at present we've got no choice about needing lithium, it's essential to modern life that depends on batteries and our mighty leaders have now realised how dangerous it is to rely on foreign sources for essentials.

[Stanley]

I realise that Peter but that does nothing to assuage my dislike of resource extraction.
Larders tend to empty if you keep eating and don't replenish stocks.
Perhaps I am too simplistic for this world....

[Tizer]

I'm glad to see Britain is trying to something about this critical issue. Scroll down and you find this bit about Adrian Little...
`Can space diplomacy bring order to the final frontier?' LINK
`Britain has begun a diplomatic campaign to draw up new rules for responsible behaviour in space. UK ambassador Aidan Liddle has drafted a resolution for the UN General Assembly that aims to broker a new international consensus. "As space becomes more congested, the likelihood of accidents and miscalculation or misunderstanding increases," he told me. "It's really in everybody's interest that we have some sort of framework governing how states and militaries behave in space. "We may disagree on exactly what those rules should be or what they should cover but really it's in everybody's interest that we fill the gaps that exist in the law governing space and that we work out together a way of managing those threats so that we don't we don't exacerbate tensions between states on Earth."

And there's more on his blog here: LINK

[Stanley]

Eminently sensible and I'll bet he's a Star Trek fan!
Will it work? Of course not. Eugene Wesley Roddenberry said "Space. The final frontier." His construct was great and could work but he forgot one thing, man's inhumanity to man is the final frontier and I see no signs of that being conquered. Sorry Tiz but I've read too much history!

[Tizer]

A novel approach!...
`What wobbling rocks can tell us about nuclear safety' LINK
`...The amount of shaking is worked out by taking lots of photos of the PBRs [precariously balanced rocks] and making a 3D model. Various equations will then elicit the strength of the ground accelerations required to topple the rock. Working out the second part - the "age of fragility" - relies on a smart technique that tracks changes induced in the rocks as they've been exposed to energetic space particles through time. Cosmic rays when they hit the oxygen atoms in chert's quartz minerals will generate the radioactive element beryllium-10. Counting the amount of Be-10 in the blocks' surfaces therefore gives an estimate for how long the stones have been in their precarious situation...'.

[Stanley]

Once again you boggle my mind. I love the thought processes that go into these techniques and the fact that people pursue them. More power to their collective elbows!

[Tizer]

Poor old bats, they get blamed for all sorts of bad things but it's we humans who are making life difficult and dangerous for them...
`Covid: Why bats are not to blame, say scientists' LINK

[Tripps]

Wasn't it bats that brought rabies to England in the sixties? I remember where I was at the time, and scenes on TV of local shotgun men trying to eliminate anything that moved from some wooded area - Aldershot way I think.

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PS

Adjust teflon memory. It was Camberley 1969, not Aldershot (near miss), and bats weren't involved. Google though will easily show they are well involved in the disease.

Found after a very long search. Rabies Camberley 1969

PPS
Freudian slip there - not teflon which is the exact opposite to what was intended - velcro.

[Stanley]

It's the flu jab affecting you David.
One of my cherished memories is of my mate Roger Paas chasing a bat out of the house in Northfield, MN with a tennis racquet kept specially to hand for that purpose. They were big bats as well. (No bats were injured in the process.)
I've seen fruit bats in Oz near Dubbo, NSW. They were big buggers and could strip a tree in a day.

[Stanley]

Peter, You mentioned Science in Action in another topic. I'm listening to the current programme now on World Service. The Covid evidence is equally fascinating n this ne an at the moment we are on to Black Holes. Definitely worth a listen!

[Stanley]

Science in Action on world service was an interesting mix. It covered contagious yawning and laughing not only between humans but with animals as well. Then there was an interview with a surgeon who operates on people who suffer from uncontrolled frequent blushing by severing nerve connections. He said that he didn't know why people blush or what causes it to become uncontrollable. I had never realised how serious blushing can be or what the history of it is.

[Tizer]

I think that's lined up next in our BBC Sounds downloads.

I saw this story in The Times newspaper on Saturday but I can't link it online here (subscriber access only) but I've found a New Scientist version. Very interesting. According to The Times it's all to do with using iron in an extremely finely divided form in which its properties change. That reminds me of graphene. Just think of what we might learn if we look at other metals in this way!...
`Microwaving plastic waste can generate clean hydrogen' LINK
`...Most existing approaches involve first using very high temperatures of more than 750°C to decompose plastic into syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and then using a second step to separate out the hydrogen. Edwards and his team instead broke the plastic into small pieces with a kitchen blender and mixed it with a catalyst of iron oxide and aluminium oxide. When blasted with a microwave generator at 1000 watts, the catalyst created hot spots in the plastic and stripped out the hydrogen – recovering 97 per cent of the gas in the plastic within seconds..'.

[Stanley]

That sounds like something that should be prioritised Peter. Imagine if it could be used in conjunction with contaminated water!

[Tizer]

It will trigger a lot of research because there are so many opportunities to find new properties.

And I hope this triggers widespread concerns and demands for action...
`Bottle-fed babies swallow millions of microplastics a day, study finds ' Guardian
`Bottle-fed babies are swallowing millions of microplastic particles a day, according to research described as a “milestone” in the understanding of human exposure to tiny plastics. Scientists found that the recommended high-temperature process for sterilising plastic bottles and preparing formula milk caused bottles to shed millions of microplastics and trillions of even smaller nanoplastics. The polypropylene bottles tested make up 82% of the world market, with glass bottles being the main alternative. Polypropylene is one of the most commonly used plastics and preliminary tests by the scientists found kettles and food containers also produced millions of microplastics per litre of liquid. Microplastics in the environment were already known to contaminate human food and drink, but the study shows that food preparation in plastic containers can lead to exposure thousands of times higher. The health impacts are unknown and the scientists say there is an “urgent need” to assess the issue, particularly for infants. The team has also produced sterilisation guidelines to reduce microplastic exposure..'.

[Stanley]

I alerted my grand daughter Jess and like the smart lass she is she had already clocked it. She said that as Kahara's diet includes garden soil now she has decided that it is not a matter of immediate concern. What a level headed view!

See THIS Daily Mail account of NASA's latest achievement. Their Osiris Rex probe appears to have touched down successfully on the asteroid Bennu and collected a sample. Quite amazing!

[Tizer]

As one interested in mineralogy I'm looking forward to hearing what they've found!

Meet the diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus)...
`Secrets of the 'uncrushable' beetle revealed' LINK
`Equipped with super-tough body armour, the insect can survive being stamped on or even run over by a car. Now scientists have investigated the secrets of how the beetle can withstand forces up to 39,000 times its body weight. And the findings could give clues to building tougher materials for use in construction and aeronautics..'.

[Cathy]

Oh, that sort of Beetle...
you had me there for a second. Haha

Sorry Tize

[Stanley]

I listened to the BBC report about the beetle. Isn't nature amazing!
Thinking about pressure. My mate Alan Broadhurst, an ex naval diver, spent many years as a saturation diver in the North Sea. He told me that one day while working at a depth of about 500ft he was passed by a Gannet chasing a fish. And we think we are clever.