51勛圖厙

Subscribe to the OSS Weekly Newsletter!

Refrigerators and Climate Change

20 Mar 2017

The walls of refrigerators have to be heavily insulated in order to maintain efficient cooling. Polyurethane foam insulation has been the classic material used for this purpose and guess what it...

The Art of Mixing Bleach and Acids

20 Mar 2017

Chemistry is all about mixing things. But you have to know what you are doing. A lady was complaining to a neighbor about an infestation of mice in her house. The well-meaning friend had a...

Are Wind Farms Really Bad for People's Health?

20 Mar 2017

At present wind turbines produce a little over 2% of Canadas electricity. The industrys goal is to have this number go up to 20%by 2025 leading to a rapid expansion of wind farms around the...

Bark Beetles

20 Mar 2017

To protect the trees from attack by the mountain pine beetle. The little bags contain verbenone, a chemical normally released by beetles as they lay their eggs just under the bark of a pine tree,...

Dateline NBC: Endocrine Disruptors

20 Mar 2017

Well圩inally the Dateline piece on hormone disruptors,: for which I was interviewed aired on March 24th. It was not as bad as it could have been, but not as good either. In the endI got 58...

Greenhouse Gases and Grave Stones

20 Mar 2017

Acid rain! Many gravestones are made of marble, which dissolves in acid. This means that if rain water is acidic, every time there is some precipitation, a bit of the marble is worn away. Acid rain...

Why isn't the carbon dioxide from breathing a concern for global warming?

20 Mar 2017

The carbon dioxide we exhale does not contribute to global warming for the simple reason that we also take up an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the air, albeit indirectly. Everything we...

Why has California issued a health advisory about eating fried grasshoppers covered with chili - a traditional Mexican treat?

20 Mar 2017

Worry about contamination with lead! Chili powder is at the heart of Mexican cuisine and finds its way into numerous foods ranging from candies and salsa to fried grasshoppers. Unfortunately...

Biodiesel Complications

20 Mar 2017

One thing you can count on in science is that virtually every issue is more complicated than it first seems. Take biodiesel as an example. It can be made from virtually any plant oil by reacting it...

Pages

Back to top