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Sean Nash

What the Heck Is Seaweed Mining? | Hakai Magazine - 6 views

hakaimagazine.com/...hat-the-heck-is-seaweed-mining

remediation minerals rareearthelements seaweed mining geology ecology environment science Hakai kelp reclamation magazine HSR-2025 HSR environmental questions chemistry biology potential research idea botany

shared by Sean Nash on 29 Apr 24 - No Cached
  • “It’s pure chemistry,” Umanzor says. “Positive with negative, and then it just collects.”
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 03 May 24
       
      For those interested in chamistry topics, this looks really interesting.
Kylie John

Source reservoir controls on the size, frequency, and composition of large-scale volcan... - 0 views

www.science.org/...sciadv.add1595

HSR-2025 environmental chemistry volcano

shared by Kylie John on 13 May 24 - No Cached
  • Fig. 1. Source reservoir processes that may supply a large volcanic eruption.
    • Kylie John
      Kylie John on 13 May 24
       
      How did they figure out what caused the volcanos to erupt? Can you see how a specific volcano erupted based off of that?
  • Development of buoyancy overpressure at the top of a magma layer
  • Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities develop naturally whenever buoyant magma layers form.
Sean Nash

Dynamic microvilli sculpt bristles at nanometric scale | Nature Communications - 0 views

www.nature.com/...s41467-024-48044-3

3Dprinter 3D synthesis biomimicry biology chemistry physics engineering science HSR-2025 HSR potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 16 May 24 - No Cached
  • Scanning electron microscopy/SEM
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 16 May 24
       
      They had to use scanning electron microscopy to figure this out, yes. BUT... in scaling something like this up, we would not need such a thing!
  • The refractive index tomograms of isolated bristles were obtained by Nanolive 3D Cell Explorer, and raw data were deposited at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10207240.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 16 May 24
       
      This might be the way to dial in the measurement ratios to mimick something like this on a larger scale for some purpose. How do the worms use them? If this doesn't get it, we can ALWAYS email the actual scientists to see if they can send us this data to do what we're trying to do. They are usually VERY helpful in such things for creative and hard-working students.
  • Sean Nash on 16 May 24
     
    I am often thinking about biomimicry. I wonder if something like this process could be 3D printed at a larger scale... for another valuable use of some sort. (?)
  • Sean Nash on 16 May 24
     
    This one is a LOT of chew through, but it is super interesting to figure out how living things bioengineer such structures over millions of years of evolution. Biomimicry is simply us studying (and then mimicking) the most interesting things in nature... to enhance something in the human world. This article is the original journal article linked to and highlighted by one of the ScienceDaily stories from today.
emmarrogers

Analysis of pesticides in surface water, stemflow, and throughfall in an agricultural a... - 0 views

www.sciencedirect.com/...S0045653518311913

HSR HSR-2025 science environmental chemistry pesticide

shared by emmarrogers on 11 Sep 24 - No Cached
  • The highest pesticide concentration observed was 10.50 μg/L of metolachlor
  • sticide in surface water and stemflow samples was metolachlor (0.09–10.5 μg/L), h
  • he most commonly detected pesticide in throughfall samples was biphenyl (0.02–0.07 μg/L).
Sean Nash

Rocks beneath our feet could be key to carbon-neutral cement - 1 views

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/...-for-reducing-carbon-emissions

climatechange carbonsequestration carbondioxide concrete olivine peridot HSR HSR-2025 science environmental engineering chemistry potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 15 May 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 15 May 24
     
    This sort of thing isn't exactly my specialty, but I HAVE had a student do an award-winning project that dealt with engineered concrete...
Sean Nash

Q. What's the greener building material, fungus or concrete? - 1 views

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/...ng-material-fungus-or-concrete

fungi concrete electricity ecology environment green building materials science fungus HSR-2025 HSR environmental questions engineering physics chemistry biology potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 06 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 06 Jun 24
     
    This is more of a broad idea re: the use of living things as building materials - not so much detail in this specific article
Sean Nash

New fabric cools people in sweltering cities - 0 views

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/...ople-cool-in-sweltering-cities

HSR HSR-2025 science statistical analysis engineering physics chemistry potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • researchers have designed a new wearable fabric to help people beat the heat in urban settings. The material, reported in the journal Science, could find use in clothing, cooling facades for buildings and cars, and for food storage and transport.
  • Existing cooling fabrics reflect sunlight and also wick away sweat to cool a person via evaporation. More recently, researchers have designed cooling fabrics that rely on the principle of radiative cooling: the natural phenomenon in which objects radiate heat through the atmosphere straight into outer space.
  • But radiative cooling fabrics made so far are designed to work when laid horizontally as opposed to vertically, as they would be when worn.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • researchers at the University of Chicago made a new three-layer fabric. Its wool bottom layer wicks heat from the skin to the middle layer, which is made of silver nanowires that block heat from coming in. The top layer selectively emits heat into the atmosphere.
  • In tests conducted in the urban heat island of Chicago and under blistering Arizona sun, the material stayed 2.3°C cooler than sports cooling fabrics and 8.9°C cooler than commercial silk used for summer clothing.
  • Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
     
    Materials science is certainly a nifty bit of engineering. This is the second time I've seen this study mentioned. Look interesting enough to dig into various materials and how they might be combined to serve a key purpose?
Sean Nash

Common plastics could passively cool and heat buildings with the seasons | ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240627172053.htm

HSR HSR-2025 materials heat climatechange science engineering physics chemistry potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • Researchers at Princeton and UCLA have developed a passive mechanism to cool buildings in the summer and warm them in the winter.
  • coatings engineered from common materials can achieve energy savings and thermal comfort that goes beyond what traditional building envelopes can achieve
  • "With the increase in global temperatures, maintaining habitable buildings has become a global challenge,"
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • "In recent years there has been massive interest in cool roof coatings that reflect sunlight. But cooling walls and windows is a much more subtle and complex challenge."
  • "By coating walls and windows with materials that only radiate or absorb heat in the atmospheric window, we can reduce broadband heat gain from the ground in the summer, and loss in the winter, while maintaining the cooling effect of the sky. We believe that this idea is unprecedented, and beyond what traditional roof and wall envelopes can achieve."
  • The findings' impact is significant for two important reasons. First, the researchers show in the article that many common and low-cost building materials radiate heat in the narrowband and block broadband heat. Material such as polyvinyl fluoride, already used as siding material, could be adapted for the purpose, as could even more common plastics.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
       
      Smells like feasibility....
  • "We were really excited when we found that materials like Polypropylene, which we sourced from household plastics, selectively radiate or absorb heat in the atmospheric window." Raman noted. "These materials border on the mundane, but the same scalability that makes them common also means that we could see them thermoregulating buildings in the near future."
  • The second reason for optimism is that the potential energy impacts at the building scale are substantial. The researchers noted that seasonal energy savings with their mechanism are comparable to the benefits of painting dark roofs white. This could be useful as air conditioning cost and heat related casualties continue to soar worldwide. Mandal and Raman plan to continue this research further.
  • "The mechanism we proposed is completely passive, which makes it a sustainable way to cool and heat buildings with the seasons and yield untapped energy savings."
  • Journal Reference: Jyotirmoy Mandal, Jyothis Anand, Sagar Mandal, John Brewer, Arvind Ramachandran, Aaswath P. Raman. Radiative cooling and thermoregulation in the earth’s glow. Cell Reports Physical Science, 2024; 102065 DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.102065
  • Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
     
    Don't know if you're following changes in climate, but... this might be an area for some engineering. What are the other problems involved with this field of study? Interesting to anyone?
Sean Nash

Simple new process stores CO2 in concrete without compromising strength - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...240626173558.htm

HSR HSR-2025 concrete materials science engineering physics chemistry potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24 - No Cached
  • By using a carbonated -- rather than a still -- water-based solution during the concrete manufacturing process, a Northwestern University-led team of engineers has discovered a new way to store carbon dioxide (CO2) in the ubiquitous construction material.
  • Not only could the new process help sequester CO2 from the ever-warming atmosphere, it also results in concrete with uncompromised strength and durability.
  • "The cement and concrete industries significantly contribute to human-caused CO2 emissions,"
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • instead of injecting CO2 while mixing all the ingredients together, they first injected CO2 gas into water mixed with a small amount of cement powder. After mixing this carbonated suspension with the rest of the cement and aggregates, they achieved a concrete that actually absorbed CO2 during its manufacturing
  • After analyzing their carbonated concrete, Rotta Loria and his colleagues found its strength rivaled the durability of regular concrete.
  • based on our experiments, we show the strength might actually be even higher. We still need to test this further
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
       
      It is a good sign when you read: "We still need to test this further!"
  • It could be used in beams, slabs, columns, foundations -- everything we currently use concrete for."
  • "The findings of this research underline that although carbonation of cement-based materials is a well-known reaction, there is still room to further optimize the CO2 uptake through better understanding of the mechanisms tied to materials processing,"
  • Journal Reference: Xiaoxu Fu, Alexandre Guerini, Davide Zampini, Alessandro F. Rotta Loria. Storing CO2 while strengthening concrete by carbonating its cement in suspension. Communications Materials, 2024; 5 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s43246-024-00546-9
  • Sean Nash on 02 Jul 24
     
    Know anyone who works with concrete that might let you experiment? I had a student back in the day who did this. They incorporated plastic polymer beads into standard concrete molds for strength testing.
Sean Nash

Microwaving an insecticide restores its mosquito-killing power - 1 views

www.sciencenews.org/...to-microwave-insecticide-spray

deltamethrin pesticide mosquito insecticide DDT crystals crystalline structure biochemistry environment evolution ecology chemistry heat potential research idea biology engineering environmental science HSR HSR-2023 HSR-2025

shared by Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24 - No Cached
  • Heating an insecticide can give it new life.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Wait... what?
  • Microwaving the insecticide deltamethrin rearranges its crystal structure but doesn’t change its chemical composition. The rearrangement renews deltamethrin’s ability to kill mosquitoes that have become resistant to the insecticide, researchers report April 21 in Malaria Journal.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Seems like potential feasibility
  • The microwave worked just as well, but Kahr cautions that people shouldn’t use the same microwave for heating food and insecticides.
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Ha! Oh really??
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • insecticide resistance is a growing problem
  • “There are all kinds of social and cultural things that you could propose from a scientific perspective that wouldn’t be welcomed by a community of homeowners.”
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      Another positive...
  • It’s not certain that the heat-treated deltamethrin would retain its more potent crystal structure through the net-making process.
  • Kahr’s team is working on incorporating the heat-treated crystal into nets.
  • It is encouraging that heated insecticide killed highly resistant mosquitoes, says Hemingway, who directs the Infection Innovation Consortium, a public-private effort to find new ways to combat infectious diseases. But, she says, “this is not something we can take and use that tomorrow.”
    • Sean Nash
      Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
       
      OK.... this is how you can find an opening (not saying THIS ONE is necessarily, but, when you see language like: "we can't really do it just yet," that is a screaming opportunity to see what we MIGHT be able to add to that. We would just want to get early approval from the fair re: hazardous substances. I think we could.
  • Kahr and colleagues previously discovered that heating deltamethrin changed its crystal structure, which let it work faster
  • Sean Nash on 11 Jun 24
     
    "Wait, what? Do say more....."
Sean Nash

Bioart Source - 0 views

bioart.niaid.nih.gov

Bioart images NIH digital photos art modeling models display project hinorsbiology research ISEF GKCSEF HSR HSR-2025 science environmental botany mathematics biology chemistry

shared by Sean Nash on 29 Oct 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 29 Oct 24
     
    A new NIH product that includes free-to-use biological art
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