Well, the truth is we don’t yet know, but as nanotechnology becomes more available, so will nano-waste. If such waste harms the body, it might be worth researching before more nano-products begin to flood the market. | Interest in ‘green’ innovation means not just thinking big but also very, very, very small. |
A survey by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies found that nanoparticles — particles less than 100 nanometers in size — are now used in more than 1,000 consumer products ranging from cars to food. Silver nanoparticles are widely used as coating materials in cookware and tableware and as ingredients in laundry liquids and clothes because of their antibacterial properties. You can even buy socks infused with silver nanoparticles designed to reduce bacteria and odor. |
“But what happens if we buy those socks and we wash them?” Sadik asked. “The nanoparticles end up in our water system.” |
| Some are known toxins; others have properties similar to asbestos. And it’s difficult, if not downright impossible, to monitor them |
| “We want to be able to develop nanomaterials while avoiding the unintended consequences of such developments,” Sadik added. |
As weather patterns become increasingly severe and heat rises, evidence suggests human aggression increases. Of course for a future world in heated chaos this would come as no surprise. Yet, crimes of desperation can be prevented before they happen if we secure our communities with networks of trust. Just something to think about… | If global warming is a scientific fact, then you better be prepared for the earth to become a more violent place. That’s because new Iowa State University research shows that as the earth’s average temperature rises, so too does human “heat” in the form of violent tendencies. |
| “It is very well researched and what I call the ‘heat hypothesis,’” Anderson said. “When people get hot, they behave more aggressively. |
| the researchers estimate that if the annual average temperature in the U.S. increases by 8°F (4.4°C), the yearly murder and assault rate will increase by 34 per 100,000 people — or 100,000 more per year in a population of 305 million. |
| global temperatures also increases known risk factors for the development of aggression in violence-prone individuals |
| rapid climate change can lead to changes in the availability of food, water, shelter |
| such shortages can also lead to civil war and unrest, migration to adjacent regions and conflict with people who already live in that regionRead more at www.newswise.com |
| A new study suggests that chlorine, a chemical usually kicked into the atmosphere by sea spray, is more abundant than expected in air far from any coastline, and looks to be interacting with man-made pollution at night in ways that might affect air quality and climate. |
The high levels of inland, chlorine-containing gases confirm that human activities such as coal burning, biomass burning, and roadway de-icing are changing the chemistry of the air in the continental United States, according to the new study. |
“We expect this to be occurring other places as well,” says Joel Thornton, University of Washington scientist and lead author of the study. Air quality measurements taken in a number of national parks across the United States indicate similar conditions in or near other non-coastal metropolitan areas, he adds. |
Further work will be needed to sort out the implications of the latest findings for air quality and climate, according to the research team. Read more at futurity.org |
There is much illegal use of CFCs, especially in the “Third World”, but can that explain such a large increase? It’s been over 20 years since the Montreal protocol was brought into force. The treaty, which aimed to control substances which lead to the depletion of levels of ozone in the earth’s stratosphere, has been hailed as a great success. |
The ozone layer is vital for the continuation of much of life on earth - its protective effect stops harmful UV-C radiation from reaching the surface. Whilst some of our efforts may have had unintended consequences , the struggle still remains to ensure that the existing hole does not continue to grow.
The data below shows that since the Montreal protocol came into force, the size of the ozone hole has increased in size by 36%. The hole was around the size of Cuba in 1979 (130,000 sq km) and has grown to the size of North America today (25 million sq km). Read more at www.guardian.co.uk |
Anyone care to speculate why babies are predisposed to boogie to musical beats and not to spoken blabber? Evolutionary links…?
| Babies may be born with a predisposition to dance and find music - specifically, rhythm and tempo - more engaging than speech, according to a study of infants aged between five months and two years old. |
| While predisposition towards music may be innate, researchers are unsure why it developed in humans. |
| Infants’ rhythmic movements were assessed by multiple methods |
| Babies in the study engaged in more rhythmic movement to music than to speech and exhibited tempo flexibility to some extent. Results also revealed that “children were able to synchronize their movements with the music the more they smiled,” said Dr Marcel Zentner, from the University of York’s Department of Psychology.Read more at www.scientificblogging.com |
Scientists show how inactivating one gene, the “p21″, could potentially give humans the salamander-like ability of accelerated healing.
Improved human regeneration may be one day enabled by this discovery, Heber-Katz said. The gene could conceivably be temporarily inactivated to improve the healing process. |
| The super-healing mice form a “blastema”, a clump of immature cells that behave like stem cells, at the injury site. |
Vandana Shiva has been a wise scientist for so long. The tragedy is that her warnings and advice have been largely ignored. | The monsoons recharge the groundwater and surface-water systems. Since 1966, as a consequence of the introduction of the Green Revolution model of water-intensive chemical farming, India has over-exploited her groundwater, creating a water famine. The chemical monocultures of the Green Revolution use ten times more water than the biodiverse ecological farming systems. |
In the 1970s, the World Bank gave massive loans to India to promote groundwater mining. It forced states like Maharashtra to stop growing water-prudent millets like jowar, which needs 300mm of water, and shift to water-guzzling crops such as sugar cane, which needs 2,500mm of water. In a region with 600mm of rainfall, this is a recipe for water famine. |
| Chemical fertilisers destroy the living processes of the soil and make soils more vulnerable to drought |
The solution for the climate crisis, the food crisis and the water crisis is the same: biodiversity-based, organic farming systems. Read more at www.resurgence.org |
Plus the “unsustainable” slaughter of the fish, the plastic refuse ’soups’ thousands of miles across and the chemical pollution … The chemistry is quite straightforward. It’s the same process that occurs when bottled water is carbonated. Most of the carbon dioxide simply dissolves in the water. But some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid. And, that’s what’s happening in the world’s oceans as humans release more and more carbon dioxide into the air. |
| the effects are already being observed–they are no mere projections- |
| humans have indisputably been dumping exponentially increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the beginning of the industrial revolution |
… which is caused by extra fertiliser and pesticide run-off from intensive farming to produced massively subsidised ethanol.
The increased frequency and intensity of oxygen-deprived “dead zones” along the world’s coasts can negatively impact environmental conditions in far more than just local waters. In the March 12 edition of the journal Science, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science oceanographer Dr. Lou Codispoti explains that the increased amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) produced in low-oxygen (hypoxic) waters can elevate concentrations in the atmosphere, further exacerbating the impacts of global warming and contributing to ozone “holes” that cause an increase in our exposure to harmful UV radiation.
Read more at www.physorg.com |
EVEN if we knew precise details of Earth’s core, we would not be able to predict a catastrophic flip in the polarity of its magnetic field more than a decade or two ahead. |
Our planet’s magnetic field has reversed polarity from time to time throughout its history. Some models suggest that a flip would be completed in a year or two, but if, as others predict, it lasted decades or longer we would be left exposed to space radiation. This could short-circuit satellites, pose a risk to aircraft passengers and play havoc with electrical equipment on the ground. |
The last polarity switch was around 800,000 years ago. Over the past few decades, the magnetic field has weakened rapidly enough to flip within a few thousand years, but this could also be part of a more limited variation. Read more at www.newscientist.com |
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Are Nanoparticles a Hidden Danger?
