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!

Invisibility cloak

Any Harry Potter fans out there? I had to say that. Obviously because its one of the only movies I can think of recently that has an invisibility cloak in it. In the movie it was magic, however, to Burkley's engineering team, it's a very real possibility. They managed to bend light in directions it does not naturally alter itself, to make a 3 dimensional prism vanish. Very little of the light was lost during bending, which is very important, because it results in high definition. It would look stupid if a giant ball of crinkled cellophane were floating around, because it would be obvious and really not that impressive, however, the vanished prism was no crinkled ball of cellophane. The possibilities are endless, especially when for military application. Colored camouflage is great for soldiers in the environment because they blend in. However if camouflage were distributed that resulted in vanishment of whatever it encases is a lot farther than just blending in. The technology involves nanowires that allow a form of negative refraction, Obviously the technology is complicated. What would the effect be if this was created? Guns were at one point high tech, now they can illegally be purchased on the street. Would an invisibility cloak have more pros or cons? It's a technology I would really like to see developed, especially for militant purposes but it could definitely have applications for assistance in breaking the law. You can look it up on timesonline.co.uk .. search for University of California scientists bend light to create the invisible

Polymers

I was really blown away by the facts in this article, but at the same time I have to admit I wasn't so surprised. It seems like everyday something new is found that harms the environment and will ultimately be the bane of our existence. It's pretty startling that there is that much plastic floating around the ocean with the potential of harming so much. At the same time however, what happens to all the walnut shells in exfoliating soaps? Walnut shell is practically wood. I know wood softens up and eventually breaks down but at the same time, if it were floating around in the ocean and birds were eating a ratio consistent with what 5 pounds would be to us, i'm sure that would kill them too. Short of us spending our days making only a point of the environments safety and tippy toeing around everything we do, we will never be in a position that's 100% satisfactory. While I do think efforts should be made to curb the amount of plastic we use that gets broken down, I think there are much bigger environmental problems we can invest our time, research, and money into.

Liquid spray on glass!

Ever since I was young, my cousin Chris and I were like two lab rats when we were left about our business at family parties. I still remember today the red work bench we would sit on in the storage room with a roll of tin foil, tape, rubber bands, and various other random supplies. About 15 years later, Chris and I are no different. Just the other day he sent me an article from the website Physorg.com. Physorg is basically a site dedicated to any form of science, be it natural or physical, and has all the hot news on the up and coming. Chris sent me an article titled, "Spray on liquid glass." Naturally I was extremely interested, clicked to the site and began to read. Spray on Natural glass constitutes the molecular build up of Silicon Dioxide. It isn't exactly what you are picturing, which is probably a sticky layer of thick plastic looking junk that would make a mess and have no real practical application aside from what you would find on an infomercial. Spray on glass is totally invisible, partly due to the fact that it is only 100 nanometers thick when one layer is sprayed. That is about 15-30 molecules stacked high, i.e. extremely freaking small. Anyway, this stuff can be used for just about anything you can imagine. Its like an invisible impenetrable shield. It is an extremely flexible, breathable, non toxic, water proof substance. Applications include: spraying on grape vines to protect them from fungus, spraying on plant seeds causing them to germinate extremely quickly, spraying counter tops and effectively halting the spread of bacteria due to properties that make it difficult for bacteria to multiply, spraying on a car to make an extremely protective paint job, or lightly spraying silk cloth protecting it from red wine stains completely. When sprayed on a sterile surface, the surface remained sterile without cleaning for 4 months, which is apparently much longer than usual. In a restaurant setting where you would have to bleach down a counter top after slicing meat, you would only need a wet hot washcloth to wipe the counter top down with. Spray on glass can be used in just about every possible setting. It was very recently invented and is starting out in the UK and Germany. It was invented in Turkey and patented by a German family who own a company called Nanopool. I know I've ranted on for a while but this is going to be a very big thing in a short time to come, it will probably be used on everything tangible. Check it out at physorg.com, even if you dont care about the spray on glass, I am absolutely positive you will find something here that you find interesting.

English 107 Science blog

My interest in Science all dates back to before I can really remember. Since I was about 2 years old, whenever I saw a jeep, I would start kicking in my car seat and freaking out. Eventually I became old enough to play with tin foil without constantly trying to eat it. I would do things like wrap chopsticks in an attempt to make airplanes. Eventually I became an unhealthy asthmatic at about the age of 5. With poor breathing came my nebulizer, which for those of you who dont know, is a device that vaporizes medicine allowing you to inhale it which clears up your bronchial tubes. I learned to like my nebulizer, not only because it helped me breath, but because of how a little white machine was capable of making me feel better. As I got older I became more and more interested in medicine, through high school I took human anatomy classes and decided I wanted to become a doctor. After applying to colleges, about half way through my senior year, I was accepted to the Loyola University of Chicago for their Biology program. I liked it at first, but it wasn't enough, so I joined the biophysics and preengineering program. The preengineering program was a bit too sketchy for me because it did not guarantee a degree in engineering, so once fall of 2009 rolled around I applied for transfer to the University of Miami's engineering program and was accepted. Here I am today majoring in Biomedical engineering with a mechanical concentration. I think it's pretty obvious as to why I chose that curriculum. Since I could count my age on my one hand I was already tinkering with tinfoil trying to make airplanes or fake jet packs with cereal boxes and I would pretend to fly around the room, then came my interest in medicine. The combination of those two things early in my life I think molded together engineering and medicine and brought me to Biomedical engineering which is where I am today. Hopefully I will be successful in my endeavors. I am not 100% sure in what specific field I want to work, however, I know I want to work with the nervous system, because it is unexplored and I believe still has a lot to offer. With technology growing, I think big leaps will be made with patching detached nerves and maybe offering the blind their site back, or the paralyzed their mobility. I guess we'll just see where the road takes me.