Show Notes 23 September 2022
Story 1: In the Not-to-Distant Future Your Car’s Tires May Be Made from a Desert Shrub
Source: ArsTechnica.com Story by Kevin Purdy
- 2 billion tires are produced worldwide each year.
- And tires today are often made using 20% tropical tree rubber combined with oil or coal-based synthetic rubber.
- Right now, however, Bridgestone is beginning to make tires using a more climate-friendly and surprising alternative: it’s a hardy, evergreen, woody plant called guayule found in the deserts of the American southwest and northern Mexico.
- It turns out that the natural rubber element contained within the guayule bush is remarkably similar to that of tropical rubber trees.
- Bridgestone has been experimenting with guayule since 2012. For several years they’ve been using new clean technologies to extract the guayule plant’s natural rubber compounds.
- And last month, the company committed $42 million to expand the farming and harvesting of guayule, which is part of more than $100 million invested into guayule-based rubber tire manufacturing and distribution.
- And also last month Firestone [a subsidiary of Bridgestone] introduced a racing tire made from the plant at Nashville’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix race.
Story 2: New solar-powered invention can make hydrogen from thin air for home heating and cooking
Source: The Guardian Story by Donna Lu
- University of Melbourne researchers recently announced that they have created a solar-powered device that produces hydrogen fuel with no carbon emissions directly from moisture in the air.
- Now remember, hydrogen is a zero-carbon dioxide emitting fuel that yields only water as a byproduct when used in fuel cells.
- The experimental prototype system produces hydrogen gas with greater than 99% purity and can work in air that is as dry as 4% relative humidity.
- The new University of Melbourne system incorporates a spongy material with a hygroscopic liquid – meaning a fluid that absorbs moisture from the air.
- The absorbed water molecules are then split by electrodes into hydrogen and oxygen gasses, using a process known as electrolysis.
- The University of Melbourne scientists say that if you had 10 square meters [that’s about 108 square feet] of this solar-powered system mounted on a rooftop, the hydrogen gas produced could replace natural gas for home cooking and heating.
Story 3: New Carbon-Neutral Portland Cement Uses Limestone Produced by Microscopic Algae
Source: Popular Mechanics Story by Tim Newcomb
Link: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a40785162/microalgae-carbon-neutral-cement/
- To understand this amazing breakthrough, I need to set the stage:
- First, worldwide we make more concrete than any other material.
- And today the preferred way to make concrete is to use Portland limestone cement as a key ingredient.
- Why “Portland” limestone? For Portland, Maine, or Portland, Oregon? No. Portland Stone or Portland Stone Formation is a limestone formation from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England.
- Contrary to popular belief, concrete and cement are not the same thing; cement is actually just a component of concrete. Concrete is made up of three basic components: water, aggregate (rock, sand, or gravel) and Portland cement. Cement, usually in powder form, acts as a binding agent when mixed with water and aggregates. This combination, or concrete mix, will be poured and harden into the durable material with which we are all familiar.
- But here’s the problem: the limestone needed to make cement is extracted from large quarries and then burned at high temperatures, which accounts for more than 7 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
- But what if you could replace limestone extracted from the Earth with a biologically “grown” alternative suitable for making a cement that could be used for concrete production?
- That’s what a team of engineers from the University of Colorado, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have accomplished using microscopic algae.
- They discovered that microscopic algae could be used to “grow” through photosynthesis calcium carbonate [which is the key chemical compound in limestone].
- In fact, microscopic algae can produce calcium carbonate in much the same way corals secrete calcium carbonate to build coral reefs.
- The team says this discovery offers a new, carbon-neutral way to make a biologically derived limestone substitute for cement production. It’s carbon neutral as the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere during the algae-based limestone creation process equals what the microscopic algae absorb.
- And if the worldwide construction industry switched to this microscopic algae-produced alternative, we could dramatically cut back on the 2 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually pumped into the atmosphere caused by the burning of quarried limestone to make traditional Portland limestone cement.
- And we could pull more than 250 million additional tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and into the concrete for permanent storage.
Story 4: ‘Immortal Jellyfish’ Could Spur Discoveries About Human Aging
Source: Smithsonian Magazine Story by Margaret Osborne
- In oceans across the globe, there’s a tiny jellyfish species [smaller than the nail on your pinky finger] that displays remarkable death-defying abilities.
- After reaching sexual maturity, the Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish [nicknamed the immortal jellyfish] can revert to its juvenile stage and mature again — a feat that would be akin to a butterfly turning back into a caterpillar, and then transforming again into a butterfly!
- It also can do this amazing stunt when an adult “immortal jellyfish” is damaged or stressed, instead of dying, it absorbs its own tentacles and becomes a blob that settles to the sea floor. Over the next day and a half, this blob becomes a new tube-like polyp, which can then ultimately grows into an adult jellyfish.
- Recently a team of researchers from the University of Oviedo in Spain announced that they have mapped the genetic sequence of the immortal jellyfish, revealing the key molecular mechanisms behind its endless rejuvenation capabilities.
- Now, there’s a lot of mind-melting scientific details in the article about how they did this we don’t have time to cover. But I’ll have a link on my website.
- But here’s the bottom line – the University of Oviedo researchers say their findings could help humans—but not to achieve immortality.
- Instead, the goal is to find better answers to the many diseases associated with aging and to inspire regenerative medicines for humans.