Science

North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue was recently asked to comment on where she stood regarding Titan America’s ongoing efforts to secure an air permit for what would be the nation’s 4th largest cement plant in Castle Hayne, a small community just outside of Wilmington, NC. She reportedly said, “I am going to wait for the science to determine what will happen.”

Precisely what piece of science the Governor is waiting on is anyone’s guess. If she’s waiting to see how Titan’s emissions (fine particulate matter like PM2.5, sulfur dioxide and mercury) are going to affect sensitive populations in our county, she’ll have to wait decades because that sort of science isn’t included in North Carolina’s air permit review.

In America, today, there are three kinds of drivers: those who look at the other gas pumps down at the ol’ gas station and think: “Oh my God, I can’t believe how much that guy’s spending on gas”, those who look at their own pump down at the ol’ gas station and think: “Oh my God, I can’t believe how much I’m spending on gas” – and those who are doing both at the same time.

On September 21, 2009,
the Second Circuit made an important decision on a case known as
Connecticut vs American Electric Power.
Without going into too much detail, this was a case where several groups like the Audubon society were trying to stop coal plant emissions because it was harming the value of their land trusts. The lower court ruled as other courts have, that Climate Change was part of the political realm, not the courts.
However, the appellate court overturned this decision on the grounds that the Energy company were causing a public nuisance, and nuisance cases have been heard by courts for decades.

As Carl Sagan says, "We remember those who prepared the way. Seeing for them also...."

For many years I have been enrolled as a freshman in Thinking 101, a course that begins when you are born and ends when you go back to the place you were before you were born.

There is this very cool video some of you might have seen. If you can explain the concepts, let me know. That will be be me over in the corner curled into a fetal position.

Part 1:

Part II (yes it is more of the same--it does say "10" after all):

This is the coolest scientific article I've read in months, sent along by one of our BlueNC community members.

There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information. This appears to be true for the quantum world, is certainly true for special relativity, and is currently being explored for general relativity. Having a way to handle energy on the same footing may help to draw these diverse strands together.

Pay special attention to the comments. Good stuff all around.

We’re diving deep into “geek world” today with a story that combines economic hardball, the periodic table of the elements, and a barely noticed provision of the Defense Authorization Act that seeks to break a monopoly which today gives China near-absolute control over the materials that make cell phones, electric cars, wind turbines, and pretty much every other tool of modern life possible.

If we successfully break the monopoly, we’ll be able to create millions of new manufacturing jobs in this country—and if we don’t, somebody else owns the 21st Century.

Ironically, the global warming we’re trying to fight with new green technologies might be an ally in our efforts to make those very same green technologies happen.

There’s a revolution in industrial processing going on, rare earths are at the center of it all...and in today’s story, the revolution will be televised.

In another light

Here's some science for you—I'm taking advantage of the public wireless outside in downtown Carrboro and it's quite unpleasantly chilly out here. Fall sure did roll in since last week, and I'm not looking forward to lows in the 30s over the next few days. But more relevant to this post is that a bunch of Nobel Prizes were awarded over the last couple weeks. The Peace Prize got plenty of attention already, and since the other prizes hardly got any I won't give it any more. This week's post is devoted to the Medicine and Chemistry prizes.

A series of destructive earthquakes in Indonesia and the southwest Pacific has attracted a lot of recent media attention. It's unusual for so many destructive earthquakes to occur in such rapid fire succession as they did over three days last week, and especially for one country (Indonesia) to get hit by two powerful quakes on consecutive days. Given the topic's relevance and general badassness (full disclosure: I'm a seismologist and have a particular interest in it), this first edition of what I hope will become a weekly series is devoted to earthquakes and seismology.