Element FYI

Arsenic (also known as rat poison) is found in the drinking water in many countries around the world including Bangladesh and the United States among others. Arsenic may occur in drinking water naturally or as the result of various types of industry, including mining and coal-burning power plants. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has developed a filter that removes arsenic from water using an absorbent recycled by-product that is cheap and widely available. The filtration method uses iron oxide coated sand found in groundwater treatment plants, where natural sand is used to remove iron from the groundwater. Over time, the natural sand becomes coated with iron oxides and has to be replaced with clean sand. Now, rather than sending the iron oxide coated sand to a landfill, it can be reused to absorb arsenic from drinking water cheaply and easily. UNESCO announced last week that they are seeking donations to help build arsenic filtering facilities for public drinking water in needy countries.

We've received several cool, fun, and interesting science video clips lately. There is an online QuickTime video series of three lectures by 93-year-old Hans Bethe, a physicist and professor at Cornell University, who rose to prominence while working on the Manhattan Project and won the Nobel Prize for his work in nuclear physics in 1967. The lectures were given in 1999 to an audience of Bethe's neighbors at a retirement community in Ithaca, NY; thus, the lectures entitled "Quantum Physics Made Relatively Simple" are intended for a non-technical audience. If you're missing the days you spent sleeping in physics class, these are an enjoyable refresher--or a cure for insomnia. The lectures are each approximately 45 minutes long. There's also a voice-only link that you can download to your iPod.

The cost of silicon solar cells has been the principal barrier preventing consumers from converting from fossil fuel-based energy to solar energy. The high cost is driven in part by competing demand for high-quality silicon from the computer industry. Now scientists at the University of California Los Angeles have created a new plastic solar cell that can be produced at 10 to 20% of the cost of traditional silicon solar cells. The new plastic solar cells were designed by Prof. Yang Yang (pictured right with a plastic solar cell (left) and a silicon solar cell (right)) and colleagues at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. The plastic version, however, has only about 30% of the efficiency of the silicon solar cell. Prof. Yang and his team are now working to improve the efficiency rating.

You've probably heard of SETI@home, the project started by UC Berkeley researchers that uses free time on personal computers connected over the internet to analyze radio telescope data with the hope of finding evidence for extraterrestrial life. Now, a similar effort, called the World Community Grid has developed the technical infrastructure to create the world's largest public computing grid. The purpose of the grid is to host scientific research projects that require massive amounts of computing power using computer time donated by the public and which will benefit humanity. The grid has nearly 100,000 members contributing over 150,000 computers that currently are being used to conduct research on human proteome folding. The grid is open to public and not-for-profit organizations and research results must remain in the public domain. Researchers may apply to use the grid by submitting a research proposal. Hardware, software, and technical services were donated by IBM to create the core infrastructure for the World Community Grid project.

A study of the water, sediment, and seafood quality of Lake Pontchartrain by several U.S. government agencies has found that conditions in and around the lake are within limits acceptable for recreational waters. The collaborative study was conducted following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS), Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Pockets of high contamination or "hot spots" were found in sites around the lake; however, the concentrations decreased over a period of three to four weeks after the hurricanes. Areal photographs and other environmental data reports from the areas impacted by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma can be found on the USGS website.

What is the archetypal researcher personality? Are there some personalities that are better suited than others to a scientific career? To provide insight into this issue, The Science Advisory Board created the first-ever psychological profile of life science researchers, the Scientific Personality Assessment. The assessment is meant to help scientists better evaluate their strengths and assets as well as confront the particular challenges they face in their everyday work life. The goal is not to suggest that one personality type is better than another or that having specific character traits will engender more professional success, but rather to encourage people to align their professional aspirations with their own particular blend of expertise and skills. A summary of results based on recent participants has been posted on the Science Board website. It might not be surprising that the largest percentage of participants (32%) fell into the Organizer category, while the smallest percentage of participants (16%) fell into the Enthusiast category, defined as those who like to "interact with and please others." You can try the test yourself at the Science Board website.

Since the interns at Scientific American have nothing to do but surf the web all day, the editors decided to pool all of their bookmarks together, throw away the Gawker and BoingBoing links, and pick 25 science and technology websites that make them look smart. Naturally, the first site on their list is The Whole Brain Atlas. (You can hear them at the cocktail parties now, "and for fun, I study neuroimaging.") Blogs by writers who are not scientists but who write popular science books are also on the list--um, okay. Some of these sites wouldn't pass the bar at Element List, particularly those in need of a professional web designer (yes, even scientists appreciate good design).

Ooh, we love free publicity. American Scientist, the magazine of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, has chosen little ol' Element List for this week's "Site of the Week." Thanks, guys.

Anyone who has ever taken a chemistry class knows the formula for water, H2O. Considering that water covers three quarters of the surface of the Earth and is essential for life, you'd think we'd know everything about it. But scientists have only skimmed the surface, so to speak. Water expands and floats as it freezes, whereas most other fluids become more dense. Fog and sea spray contain dissolved substances that erode rock masses and react with the atmosphere in surprising ways. A new National Science Foundation special report on the chemistry of water covers the latest research questions about this curious substance that are being explored by top scientists from around the world.

After grounding the Space Shuttle fleet for two years since the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia, NASA is preparing Space Shuttle Discovery for a launch window of May 15 to June 1. The Return to Flight Mission crew of seven astronauts will fly to the International Space Station to test new shuttle safety procedures and to bring sorely needed equipment and supplies to the space station. The Return to Flight website contains numerous multimedia features, including an introductory video and various videos that follow the preparation phases of the mission.

Nanoscience spans a range of disciplines including chemistry, mathematics, physics, biology, and medicine. Recognizing the need to bring researchers from these fields together, the Universities of California at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara have joined to create the California NanoSystems Institute. The goals of the institute are to create a multidisciplinary center for nanosystems research and development, and to develop commercial applications of nanosystems technology. The new CNSI building, designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects, is expected to be completed by December 2005 on the UCLA campus and will include an Integrated Molecular Systems Facility (INMOS) designed for "linking top-down semiconductor fabrication with biologically and chemically assembled molecular materials." The new center will eventually offer graduate degrees in nanosystems research and technology. This video provides an introduction to the center and its mission.

Let's say you want to measure the daily changes in a period gene, that is, one whose properties change over time. How would you go about doing that? By making a transgenic fly that glows with the period gene, duh! Actually, it took Ph.D. scientists a while to figure that one out, but now you can learn how to create your own glowing transgenic flies in the Virtual Transgenic Fly Lab from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In this virtual lab you do every step yourself from preparing the DNA, to injecting it into fly embryos, to breeding your own glowing flies, and finally to measuring the light with a bioluminescene counter. (White lab coat not included.) This virtual lab isn't dumbed down like many science websites--which is just how we like it. It's a realistic, comprehensive, sophisticated, interactive multimedia lab that will leave you more knowledgeable about genetics and how genetics research is done.

GeoScienceWorld (GSW) announced the launch of its new portal containing 30 leading geoscience journals plus GeoRef on Friday, Feb. 25, 2005. The initial GSW collection incorporates the full-text of 30 journals from 22 leading societies and institutes from six countries. Full-access to all content will be freely available to anyone visiting the site until March 30, 2005. Following the first months free-trial period, anyone will be able to view the titles and abstracts of articles in the GSW journals. Paid subscribers will also have access to the full-text articles, in both HTML and PDF formats, and the ability to search and link using GeoRef. Most of the journals will be complete with full text back to 2000. In addition, subscribers will also have access to older issues of some journals going back as far as 1931.

Ever wish you could spend your time studying cheetahs in Namibia, dolphins offshore of Brazil, or stone age archeology in France? Now you can - for a fee, of course. For around $2,000 to $3,000 (not including travel to the rendezvous point), the Earthwatch Institute will send you on your choice of dozens of scientific research expeditions that could use a research assistant or two. Earthwatch emphasizes that these are volunteer opportunities, not tours, meaning that you're actually going to have to do some work while you're out there. Most of the tasks are simple, like counting bugs or interviewing farmers, while some expeditions may require scuba training or a high level of physical fitness. Over 4,000 volunteers participate in the program each year. You can find a schedule of expeditions at the EI website.

Element List sure seems to be getting around these days. For curiosity's sake, we pulled up the map at right, which shows the locations of just the last 100 visitors to the Element List website. We have visitors from all over the world, from North America to South Africa to New Zealand and elsewhere, with most of the visitors concentrated in the US and western Europe. Very cool.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) has elevated the level-of-concern color code for Mt. Spurr Volcano to yellow in reponse to recent restlessness, including shallow seismic activity, emissions of gas and steam, and the widening of the summit pit, where hot magma beneath the surface of the crater has melted the ice and snow cover above. The pictures at right from the AVO show the summit of Mt. Spurr on July 7 (above) and August 1, 2005. According to a report (pdf) released by the AVO on October 10, "[T]he observations indicate that new molten rock (magma) has intruded deep beneath Mount Spurr. In response, AVO raised the level-of-concern color code to yellow. Eruptions, however, do not always follow such activity. Most times the magma never reaches the surface but instead harmlessly cools miles beneath the ground. At this time, it is impossible to forecast whether the current activity will culminate in an eruption or slowly diminish."

A large earthquake shook Pakistan at 8:50 am local time. The epicenter has been calculated by the USGS as being 95 km (60 miles) north-northeast of Islamabad. The earthquake was felt across northern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, with deaths and damage being reported. The event was a thrust-type earthquake on a southeastward trending fault plane. The fault lies along an ancient subduction zone in the Pir Panjal Mountains, where the Indian Plate is colliding with the Eurasian Plate at a rate of 5 cm per year. In addition to the USGS website, the ASC India website contains up-to-date information about the quake as well as historical and geological information about the region.