Global Warming

For my research paper, I had chosen the topic of pollution and global warming with its effects directly on the health of people. Many of you have probably have seen the movie The Day after Tomorrow, as well as the movie An Inconvenient Truth. In both movies the melting of the polar ice caps is mentioned because they are melting. Very quick melting of the polar ice caps is a bad thing because they release cold fresh water into the ocean that intervenes with the natural 'conveyer belt flow' of the ocean. The ocean has a natural current wrapping between the continents carrying warm water north and cold water to the south. The colder water is in the deeper part of the ocean with the warmer water at the surface due to reasons some of you may know from chemistry. Also from chemistry you may know that a less dense fluid will float atop a more dense fluid. The freezing cold fresh water melting from the polar icecaps does not want to push to the bottom of the ocean regardless of its temperature because it is less dense than the salt water. The result of this is the drastic decrease in the temperature of the warm water flowing to the north. Without a differential between the temperature of the water, the current will ultimately cease causing the northern hemisphere to become much colder. Good news however, Josh Willis of Nasa has helped develop a new system to determine the temperature of the current all around the world and has determined that it has not been greatly affected over the past 15 years, in fact it is increasing in speed. Although the melting of the icecaps could become a problem for the 'conveyer belt' as the melting of the glaciers were, assisting in the freezing cold temperatures for the north during the ice age, they fortunately are not a problem as of now.

" The latest climate models predict the overturning circulation will slow down as greenhouse gases warm the planet and melting ice adds freshwater to the ocean. "Warm, freshwater is lighter and sinks less readily than cold, salty water," Willis explained.
For now, however, there are no signs of a slowdown in the circulation. "The changes we're seeing in overturning strength are probably part of a natural cycle," said Willis. "The slight increase in overturning since 1993 coincides with a decades-long natural pattern of Atlantic heating and cooling.""-PHYSORG.COM


This does not mean the icecaps are not melting or that global warming is not an issue, however, it does insure us the world wont turn into a giant snowball if you don't go by a prius tomorrow. While the effects from our pollution, if carried far enough, can literally change the entire climate of the planet permanently destroying species and changing the way we live, the change in subtle statistically insignificant changes in temperature are most likely just due to the fact that the earth is going through a cycle. Keep in mind the earth has gone through cycles before, and has had an iceage, and from what we know mammoths and cavemen weren't driving hummers, so it does just happen regardless of our contribution to the greenhouse gas increase.

another approach

Before I became a biomedical engineering major, I was at Loyola in Chicago as a biology major. While in biology obviously we learned just about everything atleast on a general level about cells and the human body. Learning about the Integumentary system was really something I found pretty interesting, especially how the layers of skin worked. Obviously most people know just from word of mouth that your skin is dead, atleast the outside layer (your epidermis). Have you ever stopped to wonder why? It's because of something called Keratin. Your dermis is impregnated by keratin before becoming your epidermis. The effect of cells becoming impregnated by keratin is they become water proofed, so water proofed that the cellular membrane becomes blocked off for any transport including simple osmosis (transport of water from high potential to low potential). This newly water proofed cell becomes starved for nutrients and dies. How effective is this? Well unless you start leaking and falling apart when you take a shower, odds are you're pretty water proofed. So while talking to my dad I had a thought. If Keratin does such a fantastic job at killing cells on a manageable level that doesnt effect our health, why hasnt a synthetic version of it been directed towards cancerous cells in localized areas to keep them from dividing and mulitplying, and killing them as simply as a skin cell dies. Granted I certainly do not know enough on the topic, however, I do think it's an approach that should be explored. Chemotherapy is extremely taxing to your entire body, it is effective in killing bad cells but it also kills many good cells. I am not saying keratin would not do the same thing, however your body would not be poisoned by keratin being injected into localized areas, it would essentially turn the bad stuff localized in a tumor into something more like the skin on your arm. Thoughts?

Porsche 918 spyder

As an engineering student with a mechanical concentration, I have always been completely obsessed with cars. Seeing as to how we are supposed to blog about technology, and new things in the world, I thought this time i'd talk about a new car that just came out with some impressive equipment. The porsche spyder 918 recently debuted at the Geneva auto show. However, it is not just a sports car, it is a hybrid. Hybrids, just like the first car, started out with pokey motors that really didnt achieve anything that impressive, however after a while the car became faster and generated towards performance. The new porsche is capable of 78 mpg and also capable of a staggering 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds. For anyone who knows about cars, thats faster than almost all the gas guzzling lamborghinis and ferraris. The car is also capable of regenerative breaking that leads back to a battery. This battery can charge a capacitor which acts a booster for when a "track pass" is needed and more power would be useful. Aside from being extremely economically friendly, this car is an engineering masterpiece and I am really excited because i think designs like this are going to become extremely prevalent in all automobiles. For example, anyone who has seen a nissan with paddle shifters for the transmission. This started out in formula 1 racing with ferrari, and now its worked its way down to every day automobile makers. Lets cross our fingers!