Earth's Crust

The ceramic produced in Prof. Igor Lubomirsky's lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science seemed too good to be true. It belongs to a class of materials that are the backbone of many essential technologies but that unfortunately also create an environmental problem because they usually contain lead, which is highly toxic.

Arsenic has a well-deserved reputation as a poison; in ancient times it was known as the "Poison of Kings and the King of Poisons." But arsenic, an element found naturally in soil, air, and drinking water, also has beneficial uses. How should we think about arsenic in terms of human health?

If you could sink through the Earth's crust, you might hear, with a carefully tuned ear, a cacophany of booms and crackles along the way. The fissures, pores, and defects running through rocks are like strings that resonate when pressed and stressed. And as a team of MIT geologists has found, the rhythm and pace of these sounds can tell you something about the depth and strength of the rocks around you.

The earth contains a lot of titanium - it's the ninth most abundant element in the earth's crust. By mass, there's more titanium in the earth's crust than carbon by a factor of nearly 30, and more titanium than copper by a factor of nearly 100. But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint…

I marvel at fossil fuels. I really do. Fossil fuels are found in the earth's crust, the natural byproduct of decomposed plants and animals. The best examples are coal, oil and natural gas. Leftist environmentalists have a curious hate relationship with fossil fuels, even as these fuels are produced naturally,

The Florida legislature passed a bill that could take the state one step closer to using a radioactive waste product from the fertilizer industry in road asphalt, reported NPR on Tuesday."HB 1191 would compel the Florida Transportation Department to study using phosphogypsum in paving projects, call...

Here's to astatine: we barely know ye.

The ancient dead star is only 90 light-years from Earth.

A new study sheds light on the question of whether Mars ever supported life

Sustainable chemical applications need to be able to employ renewable energy sources, renewable raw materials, and earth-abundant elements. However, to date many techniques have only been possible with the use of expensive precious metals or rare earth metals, the extraction of which can have serious environmental impacts. A team of researchers has now achieved a breakthrough in the use of chromium, an abundant…

As metals necessary for electronics face shortages, some say the solution is in recycling what we have

How it got there in the first place is even more interesting.

Catalytic converters are becoming an endangered species. Why? They contain three valuable metals - platinum, palladium, and rhodium, making them worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars, stolen or not. It's the rhodium thieves are after. It's very rare, very expensive and has some strange properties. Could there be a better time for a Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell? I think not.

A new study, published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials, is the first to show graphene can replace Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) in an electronic or optical device.

UC Irvine-led research reveals that the optical properties of materials can be dramatically enhanced—not by changing the materials themselves, but by giving the light new properties.

When radionuclides enter our organism, whether by inhalation, ingestion, or through wounds, they pose a potential health risk. Many previous studies on radionuclide exposure have focused mainly on animal experiments. However, we have little data on toxicity at the cellular and molecular level.

C-Crete, founded by MIT alumnus Rouzbeh Savary, has created a more sustainable cement binding material that could significantly reduce the industry's carbon emissions.

Earth's largest continental rift, the East African Rift (EAR) system, has been something of a mystery for geologists – but a new study combining computer models with GPS satellite data appears to have found an explanation.

Bacteria that feed on methanol are able to grow on certain rare earth elements as well as their radioactive relatives. These findings suggest a possible role for such bacteria in the decontamination of areas where actinides are spilled, or in the separation of lanthanides and actinides for analytical or preparative purposes, according to a study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Article URL: http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2012/06/07/is-the-moon-full-just-ask-the-lhc-operators/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35655523 Points: 2 # Comments: 0