Laboratory Microscope Upgrade

We have an old Olympus IX-70 fluorescent microscope in our lab at Mizzou that has been here for at least a decade.  Although it's a very nice scope, it's been pretty badly neglected over the past few years and has fallen a bit into disrepair.  For my fluorescent microscopy needs, I've been using another professor's brand new microscope with good results.  But recently, an undergraduate researcher in our lab expressed a need to take data using a fluorescent microscope.  Unfortunately, the fluorescent microscope that I've been using is housed in a user facility, and the student would need training and special permission - not to mention pay an exorbitant fee - to access the facility.  So I decided this might be a good opportunity to upgrade our IX-70 and get it back into good working order.

The first step was to order a new dust cover and eyepieces.  At around the same time these items arrived, we had a certified technician come over from St. Louis to adjust and align the optics so that everything would be nicely dialed in.  This particular microscope has a trinocular design, which means that it has three different light paths for viewing a specimen.  With the first setting, the eyepieces are used to view the specimen.  With the second, the image is sent into the side port, which is equipped with a digital camera.  When the third setting is used, the light path is split, with 20% of the signal going to the eyepieces and the other 80% going to the front port.  As you can see in the picture below, the front port is connected to a 35mm camera.  Since we have no need for a 35mm camera, particularly with a digital camera on the side port, I thought it would be nice to equip the front port with a more useful piece of hardware.  And for our applications, it doesn't get much more useful than a spectrometer.

We had an extra Ocean Optics USB4000 handheld spectrometer that no one was using, but I needed a way to interface it with the microscope.  So first, I ordered an adapter from ThorLabs with 1" female threading that would attach to the microscope's front port.  When we received the adapter, I was disappointed to find that it was slightly too small for the front port, so that when the set screws were tightened the adapter was pushed to one side and no longer centered.  The shop guys in our department machined a beautiful collar for the adapter, which allows the adapter to slide snugly into place, but includes holes that allow the set screws to be tightened effectively.  Next, I threaded an SMA adapter into the 1" threading in the center of the adapter; this adapter is what the optical fiber will screw on to.  I also built and attached a lens tube to the backside of the adapter.  The lens tube slides into the microscope housing and directs the light from the specimen right onto the center of the SMA adapter and into the optical fiber.  With the adapter in place, the front port now looks more like this:

And here it is with the spectrometer connected to it:

Earlier this week, we put in another order for a brightfield filter that will give a more natural white light to our brightfield images.  Also included in the order was a new mercury bulb for the fluorescence lamp.  When these items have been installed, our old IX-70 will literally be better than brand new.  And there's been talk of ordering a new camera for the scope sometime this summer, which would also be a big upgrade.

Not The Worst News Ever

The president has released his proposed 2013 federal budget and ScienceInsider has been rolling out updates on how the budget is set to affect science funding.  You can find a list of recent posts related to the budget here.  Also, Wired Science has weighed in with a post on proposed cuts in the NASA budget.

Since I'm not an expert in such matters, and since the subject has obviously been tackled by folks who are much more knowledgeable than yours truly, I'd rather not delve into the details of the president's proposed budget.  I will, however, sum up the whole situation as I understand it by saying that the field of science is receiving a mixed bag by the administration's budget.  A lot of department budgets are being cut, but money is then being shuffled around so that science and research funding in these departments will actually be increased relative to the previous year.  Except for NASA.  Their funding is being cut and programs are being cancelled, so it seems to be all bad news for the space agency.

So I guess all-in-all, its only slightly bad news.  Not horrific.  But not good, either.

Your New Wallpaper

Most of you have probably already come across these new images of Earth taken by the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership.  The images are being called the new 'Blue Marble' after the original 'Blue Marble' image that was taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on their way to the moon.  The new 2012 Blue Marble is just ridiculously spectacular.  The images found on the NASA website are big-time high resolution and are definitely worth checking out.  And unless you're vehemently opposed to any desktop wallpaper other than Lolcats or something like that, I recommend saving the image (either hemisphere) as your background.  It's certainly a dazzling reminder of our both our insignificance and our accountability.

And if you're interested, Wired Science has a pretty good article on how the new Blue Marble images were taken and constructed.

Bad Winter

I know some of you will wholeheartedly disagree with me on this one, but the winter so far this year has sucked!  If memory serves, we've gotten roughly two-and-a-half inches of snow so far this winter and we've only had a handful of below-freezing days.  And all this with department stores starting to roll out their spring clothing lines.  I suffered through the hot, hot heat of summer with the expectation that I would feel sweet relief in the form of cold, snowy days on which to drink big, scary beers and make pots of soup.  And an unseasonably warm, dry winter has ruined everything.  It's a goddam travesty is what it is.

As it turns out, there are a couple of meteorological phenomena that have compounded to produce the horrific winter that we're currently experiencing.  I ran across a good article describing the reasons for our crappy winter at Discovery News, via Pharyngula.  The first reason is La Nina, which has pushed the jet stream north - interestingly, La Nina was partially responsible for last year's harsh winter weather - and La Nina has combined with Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation, which have matched their phases, pulling the few weather systems that form over North America out into the Atlantic. I don't claim to be well versed in meteorology, so I won't even attempt any sort of in-depth discussion of this process.  But according to the article, we may return to some semblance of a real winter later this month.  I suppose time will tell.

All I know is that this has been a really lame winter so far.

Social Media and Scientific Journals

There have been rumblings of major changes in the way scientific journals peer review submissions.  Criticism of the current system has been growing for quite some time, particularly with respect to the lag time between when a manuscript is submitted and when it is published.  In the fast-paced world of modern research, by the time a paper is published - which can be many months after submission - it is often already out-of-date.  Some publishers have also faced criticism of favoritism, with lower quality papers being chosen over higher quality papers solely due to the name or affiliation of the author(s).

The first step towards a major paradigm shift in peer review has already occurred:  a social media network has been created by a group in Finland that is dedicated to reviewing manuscripts for publication in a Wiley journal.  Science Insider has a pretty good description of how the network functions and why it will be better than the current system, so I won't dwell on it.  But I will say that I'm still on the fence about this.  I think it's good that they're doing some cautious beta testing on one scientific journal, rather than instituting it widely right out of the gate, as it will allow Wiley to gather some valuable data, test the waters, and optimize the network before moving forward.  I'll definitely be keeping a close watch on this, because it represents a substantial change in the way peer reviewed journals select papers for publication.  And who knows?  It just might work.

I'll Drink to That

Most of us who care about such matters are probably quite familiar with the idea that moderate alcohol consumption can be a healthy and life-extending activity.  But I still couldn't help my giddiness when I came across an article on the Yahoo! featured news feed that describes the health benefits associated specifically with beer.  Some of the 10 health benefits the author describes are common to all alcoholic beverages, but are greater for beer than for other alcoholic drinks like wine and spirits.  And some of the benefits truly are specific to beer alone.

So the next time you raise a pint to your lips, take comfort in the fact that you're drinking that pale ale for recreational AND medicinal purposes!

My Phone Just Got Way Cooler

This is awesome.  A computer scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a smartphone app that allows users to see images from the latest download link of the Mars rover Opportunity as soon as they're available.

If you're interested, the app is called Mars Images and it is developed by PowellWare.

Yes, I've already downloaded and tried out the app.  Yes, it is wicked cool.

Optomechanics Are Rad - Part II

In my last installment, I described the construction of a dip-coating apparatus for applying thin films onto the tips of optical fibers.  With that out of the way, the next step involved the construction of an optics system for measuring the fluorescence produced by a thin film on the tip of an optical fiber.  And so that's what I set about doing today.  Similarly to the dip-coater, I started with a clean breadboard.  Because I am measuring fluorescence with this system, I wanted to minimize any stray light, so I enclosed the breadboard within a black box.  The box is hinged in such a way that the top and front can be opened.

Inside the box, I put my detector - a handheld spectrometer (left) - and my light source - a blue laser (right).  Not shown is the laser's power supply.  This unit is somewhat bulky and, since it doesn't necessarily need to be inside the box, I left it out.  By the way, I apologize for the blurriness of these images; this is the product of a mediocre phone camera combined with shaky hands brought on by a bit too much morning coffee.

I decided that I would take all of my measurements by submerging the fiber tip into a fluid sample, into which I could then inject the analyte that I'm trying to detect and thus monitor any change in the fluorescence output in real time.  I also wanted to illuminate the fiber tip with the laser transversely - or perpendicular to the direction of the fiber - by slicing the laser's coherent beam directly across the tip of the fiber to maximize my excitation intensity.  In order for all this to work correctly, I decided to use a cuvette to hold the sample, therefore minimizing scattering as the beam enters the liquid sample.  So I put a cuvette holder into the box and secured it in place using a few breadboard mounts.  Then I aligned the laser so that the beam was directed through the center of the cuvette holder and bolted it into place.

With the cuvette holder and laser aligned and anchored onto the breadboard, I then needed some way of holding the fiber in place.  In order to make sure that each fiber could be accurately positioned into the path of the laser, I bolted two micro-manipulators onto the breadboard to act as the base of the fiber holder while also allowing me to adjust the X and Y position of the fiber.

Onto the micro-manipulators I then added a fiber holder.  The fiber holder seen in this image came more-or-less preassembled.  The lower section has a turnscrew that clamps the fiber in place and I added the tube seen in the upper section to help keep the fiber straight as it enters the cuvette.  Astute observers might notice that the fiber holder I've used is manufactured by Newport, whereas pretty much every other optomechanic component I've used is manufactured by ThorLabs.  What can I say?  The Newport fiber holder was all I had on hand.  It was a bit of a pain in the ass getting it secured to the ThorLabs components because the dimensions and threading are different between the two manufacturers, but I got things worked out nonetheless.  And once the fiber holder was in place, the whole thing was finished.

To test the system out, I popped an empty cuvette into the cuvette holder and threaded a fiber through the fiber holder and down into the cuvette.  I attached the other fiber terminus - the one with the SMA connector - to the spectrometer and turned on the laser.  Then I used the micromanipulators to position the fiber tip directly into the beam of the laser.  You can see in the picture below that once the laser was incident onto the fiber, the blue laser light was scattered everywhere and fiber tip seemed to glow bright blue.

If there were a thin layer of my novel fluorescence sensor material on the tip of the optical fiber, which there is not because this was just a spare fiber that I found lying around, it would emit a bright green fluorescence when excited by the laser.  The fluorescence emission would be guided through the fiber and into the spectrometer.  The spectrometer is connected via USB to a laptop computer equipped with software that shows the real-time fluorescence spectrum being sent through the fiber.  And there you have it.  Pretty easy to set up and use.  By using a coherent light source along with a fluorescent sensor material coated directly onto an optical fiber, I've negated the need for lenses or other optics.  Once you start adding lenses, alignment becomes a major issue, and the components have to be aligned and adjusted precisely.  On the other hand, this system required only minimal alignment and went from a clean breadboard to a fully functional optical measurement system with about 2 hours of build time.

Now you can hopefully see why these optomechanics systems are so fun.  Once I finished building, part of me wanted to break the whole thing down and start over.  Just like I did with my LEGOs when I was a kid.

Optomechanics Are Rad - Part I

There are a lot of fun things about my job.  And I'd like to devote a couple of posts to one of my favorite aspects of developing optical sensors.  One challenge that arises occasionally is when the optical or fluorescent analysis instruments that we have on hand in the lab are not sufficient for analysis of the optical sensor platforms that I've developed.  This is often the case when dealing with flat, planar substrates onto which a sensor architecture or layer has been applied or when we apply a sensing mechanism onto the tip of an optical fiber.  When this happens, I have to build a bench-top optics system using our inventory of detectors (PMTs and hand-held spectrometers), light sources (LEDs and lasers), and optomechanics components that we keep in the lab just for this type of situation.  And let me just say this:  building a bench-top optics platform is outrageously fun.  It's like playing with LEGOs.  But these LEGOs are bigger, studier, and able to achieve precise alignments.  They also cost thousands of dollars.

My research project is nearing a point at which we will begin applying our fluorescent sensing material onto optical fibers (I'll discuss the application of a sensing mechanism onto optical fibers another time).  This has left me with a couple of specific needs that must be addressed before the project can move forward:  1) the sensor material must be dip-coated onto the optical fiber tip and to do this, the rate of withdrawal of the fiber tip from the precursor solution must be kept constant at a particular rate, and 2) I have to have some way of accurately measuring the fluorescence emission from the layer coated onto the fiber tip.  In this post, I'm going to focus on the dip coating apparatus.  As it turns out, the optomechanics components that are used to build bench-top optics systems are also quite useful for constructing a home-built dip-coater.  Here's how I did it:

First, I started with a plain breadboard.

Next, I bolted one large post into the center of the breadboard.  The large post allowed me to align the entire system vertically.

Onto the post, I clamped a small system of rails.  The top and bottom of the rails are secured using filter/lens holders.  I used these because they have large holes cut out of their centers.  In between the two filter/lens holders is a modified filter/lens holder that has a small metal cylinder attached with epoxy.  The cylinder is just the right size to a hold a 4 ml vial - and this will hold the precursor fluid that is to be dip-coated onto the optical fibers.  While the top and bottom holders are clamped tightly to the rails, the vial holder in the center was left loose, allowing it to slide up and down the rails freely.

Above the rail system I added a small v-clamp.  The clamp will hold the optical fiber in place during the dip-coating process.

Last, I added a small actuator and the accompanying controller.  The actuator moves the vial holder up and down, like an elevator.

When I clamp an optical fiber into place, you can hopefully see how this apparatus works.  The fiber is submerged into the fluid to be dip-coated onto the exposed tip.  Then I just flip a switch on the actuator and the vial holder slowly descends, withdrawing the fiber tip from the liquid.  When the fiber tip has been completely removed from the fluid, it can be removed from the apparatus and the thin layer that has been deposited on the tip is allowed to crosslink and/or cure into a solid film.

Now this setup was pretty simple.  And because no light sources or detectors were involved, alignment of the entire apparatus was not a big deal.  I just needed the little elevator to withdraw the fiber from the fluid at a constant rate.  My next project - which I'll be working on over the next couple of days - will be to build a system for measuring the fluorescence of the thin film dip-coated onto the fiber tip.  This will be slightly more difficult, though using the fiber itself to gather the fluorescence emission does make things much easier.  But more on that to come.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? - Update Style

In regard to the question of whether to start a new blog, thereby leaving this one to a die a quick death, my abnormally beautiful and supremely intelligent wife offered to co-author a blog related to bicycles with me.  Having a co-author would allow me to worry less about posting regularly on the new blog.  This means that I might indeed have enough time to continue updating this blog, while also occasionally posting on another.  So as for now, I am going to keep this blog alive with semi-regular updates.  If it begins to look like I can't keep up with both blogs, I'll make an executive decision at that time.

So it looks like I'll be starting a new blog with my wife.  My wife will author posts focused on cycling fashion - particularly with respect to office-appropriate clothing that is feasible for a bicycling commute.  This is more or less the content of her current blog, which is very good.  She'll also include tidbits about her daily commute.  This is also a feature of her current blog, and most of the notable moments during her commute consist of encounters with asshole motorists.  My posts will likely also include information about my daily commute - dipshit motorists and all - but I plan to focus more on bicycle repair and restoration.

With the holidays imminent, I'm not sure when we'll get the new blog up and running, but I'll post a link to it here when the time comes.  In the meantime, I'll try to keep the science-related updates coming as best I can.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I've become a regular reader of a motorcycle blog called Chin on the Tank.  Although the theme is cafe racers and similarly-styled vintage motorcycles, the content varies quite a lot.  The author has a workshop and is a skilled photographer, so he takes a lot of pictures of his shop and the bike projects that he works on.  He also includes information on the local cafe racer scene, promotes motorcycle events, and documents group rides.  It's a fun blog and it's made me yearn for a vintage motorcycle.

Why am I bringing this up, you ask?  Well, as I've mentioned before, I am a bicycle enthusiast of sorts.  In particular, I enjoy restoring older bikes and putting them back on the road.  In my garage I essentially have a fully functioning bicycle workshop and I spend a fair amount of time working on my personal restorations, as well as a pretty steady stream of projects for my friends.  And so I'm considering starting a bicycle blog.  On this blog I would document and detail the projects that I work on.  Posts would include a lot of photographs - particularly before-and-after images of full-on rebuilds.  And I would try to include a lot of information on the restoration process, costs involved, problems and challenges that I came across, etc.  I would probably also talk about group rides that I participate in, and discuss any notable events from my daily bicycle commute.

The reason I'm mentioning this here is because if I start a new blog, it is unlikely that I would be able to continue updating this one.  There are only so many hours in the day, and I'm unable to spend much of them writing blog entries.  I should note that there are a number of other good science blogs out there, whereas I have been unable to find a good bicycle restoration blog.  On the other hand, I sometimes go fairly long periods without having any bike-related projects, and the cold Missouri winter can really cripple my motivation to work out in the garage.  So updates might sometimes be sparse (though it's not like I'm doing a great job of updating this one consistently).  A few things I should note about this:  1) it's likely that a bicycle blog will motivate me to spend more time tinkering in the shop, 2) I can always ditch the new blog and pick this one back up if things aren't working out the way I had envisioned, and 3) I have a fairly substantial back-log of projects, so I could fill the gaps in current projects with old projects that I've worked on in the past.

Thoughts on which direction I should go?  Let me know...stay the course or try something new?

That. Was. Unexpected.

An article at ScienceInsider is reporting that the new spending bill proposed by the House of Representatives is a little more science-friendly than one would have expected.  Not only are the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy slated to receive modest budget increases in this bill, but Rick Shindell of SBIR Insider is also reporting that SBIR/STTR program funding has been reauthorized for another 6 years as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

This is definitely a glimmer of light in what has been an otherwise dim season for scientific research and education funding - see here and here - but I'll definitely take the good news wherever I can find it.

The End of Movember - Update Style

As I mentioned in my previous post, I did indeed shave my moustache on December 1, signifying the end of Movember.  Now that the moustache is gone, I'll be working on my winter beard.  Here is a picture of me without the moustache - not totally clean-shaven, as I was sporting four days worth of growth when this picture was taken; but not looking particularly bearded, either.

I should note that this picture, along with the last one I posted in which I am sporting the moustache, were taken by my lovely wife and featured on her blog, CoMo Cycle Chic.  I should also note that her blog is a lot better than mine.

Anyways, subsequent to last week's post, I received a comment regarding an additional issue concerning beard wearers:  hygiene.  But not just any normal old pirate-on-the-hair-ship hygiene.  The journal article that was brought to my attention by my colleague and good friend KP is titled, 'Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men.'  This study examined the risk that a beard poses to exposing the wearers' friends and family to potentially dangerous microorganisms.  Of course, this only applies to microbiologists or other laboratory workers who often come into contact with such dangerous organisms.  I don't commonly deal with harmful species of bacteria, so this isn't much of a concern for me personally.  But for all of you bearded microbiologists out there:  beware!  You may be exposing your loved ones to more than just unfettered manliness!

The End of Movember

It's now the final day of November and, as I'm sure my wife will be happy about, that means Movember is coming to an end.  I did a half-assed job of participating in Movember.  You see, as November approached, I knew that the month was dedicated to the growing and grooming of a moustache to raise awareness for mens' health issues - particularly prostate cancer.  At that time, I had a well-trimmed full beard.  I had some important business meetings on November 3rd, and I cut my beard short so as to look somewhat professional on that day.  Then on the morning of November 4th, I groomed my facial hair into a tight moustache with the accompanying jazz spot (known more commonly as the soul patch):

Unbeknownst to me at the time, the rules of Movember state that participants must begin the month with a clean-shaven face and subsequently grow and groom the moustache throughout November.  When I learned of this rule - by which time it was nearly a week into November - it seemed futile to start anew.  So I just went with it, meaning that I broke the Movember rules and basically cheated.

Now that Movember is coming to an end, I guess the next step is to shave the 'stache and start growing the traditional winter beard.  And on that note, I thought I'd share some interesting things that I've come across recently regarding beard-growth, bearded men, and beards in general.  First off:  the beard-second.  I first discovered this extraordinary unit of length at The Evolving Scientist.  Wikipedia defines the beard-second thusly, "the beard-second is a unit of length inspired by the light-year, but used for extremely short distances such as those in nuclear physics."  It appears as though the most widely accepted conversion to SI units is 1 beard-second is equal to 5 nanometers.  I deal with lengths at this scale quite often in my work and I'm looking forward to sneaking in a 'beard-second' reference in a future conference presentation.

Less fun is a study described in the journal Heart, Lung and Circulation in 2008.  The article is titled 'Sternotomy and the Beard,' and it describes the difficulties associated with performing a sternotomy on patients with beards.  As it turns out, beards can cause issues with mask ventilation, sterility, and effective skin preparation.  The authors recommend folding the beard over the jaw, toward the patients' face, then securing it in that position using a surgical mask.  This sounds pretty reasonable considering the alternative is to shave the beard off.  I'd hate to wake up from surgery to find my beard gone.  Then again, I don't allow my beard to grow so long that it would interfere with chest surgery.  Yet.

And finally, a research group in Wisconsin examined the effect of beards on high altitude oxygen processing.  The results showed that at a height of 7.5 km, bearded mountain climbers had a 7.3% increase in oxygen respiratory index (ORI).  At 8.0 km, the increase in ORI grew to 10.7%.  And at the summit - approximately 8.8 km - the gap widened to nearly 15%.  That's a pretty significant difference, and good news for mountaineers who are unopposed to beard growth.  Personally, I'll plan on using this little bit of information as further justification for my winter facial growth, even though I don't do much mountain climbing.  Not that I really need any further justification.  Keeping my face warm in the cold Missouri winter is reason enough.

I Promise I'll Do Better

Lately I've been keeping an eye on the stats for this blog.  I noticed that my readership has increased notably over the last couple of months and I'm starting to get some steady traffic.  Of course it stands to reason that this would be happening when I'm extraordinarily bogged down with proposal writing, heavy amounts of lab time, and on top of it all, holiday season.

So to all of you - yes, all three of you - who have been checking in regularly, I apologize for neglecting to update recently.

How about a little update on what I've been so busy with?  Well, the main reason I've been mind-fryingly busy is that I'm working on getting an SBIR proposal submitted while simultaneously getting another one started.  These proposals are company-related and we're trying to get some funding to pursue proof-of-concept studies for one of Emergent Sensor Technologies' core projects.  My colleagues and I are beginning to realize that it may be foolish to depend on SBIR support to initially fund the company, so I'm also working on two proposals for contract-based research for large companies.  In other proposal-writing news, I've been working on getting two proposals that were not funded revised and resubmitted.  These proposals are university-related and are for projects that we are starting at Lincoln University.

Along with cranking out endless grant proposals, I've also been busy in the lab at Mizzou.  Things have started progressing quickly with the MU research team and I'm in the midst of gathering data at a semi-furious pace.  Toss the rapidly approaching holiday season into the mix, and you can get a good idea of why this blog has taken a backseat to my other responsibilities.

Having said all that, I feel a bit despondent about my obvious delinquency.  I'll try to have another update (one with actual science-ish content) by the end of the week.  In the meantime, have a drink to celebrate the successful launch of Curiosity.  It's got a long journey ahead of it and I'm hoping for its safe arrival on the Red Planet.

No Sugar for This Bad Medicine

This sucks.  Wired Science is reporting that cuts to NASA's budget are leaving the agency's planetary science program in a state of limbo.  Questions are being raised about a number of slated missions and NASA's ability to carry out these missions without substantial help from the European Space Agency.  These questions are the result of a drop in NASA's budget of nearly 5% from last year.  And all of this comes on the heels of NASA scrapping their shuttle program, leaving our astronauts to rely on the Russian space program to travel to and from the International Space Station.  It's worth noting that this is a program that has recently seen some notable setbacks, with a Soyuz rocket - the same rocket that launches manned missions into low-earth orbit - crashing shortly after launch in August and the failed launch of a Mars moon probe earlier this month.

I guess this doesn't come as much of a surprise, since I've already discussed the cuts that were anticipated for the budgets of NASA and the NSF.  It's still disappointing, though.  NASA provides us with a wealth of information and new technologies.  They have been analyzing climate change for a number of years, tracking hurricanes, and leading the way in discovering alternative sources of energy.  And now it seems as though our lawmakers are methodically and quietly strangling the agency until there's nothing of substance left.  It's sad to imagine living in a country that has the means but lacks the will to explore the universe, visit other worlds, and discover the wonders that exist right here on our quaint little planet.

A Little More On Energy

I've been hard at work bashing the fossil fuels industry lately.  See previous posts here and here.  I'm beginning to wonder why I didn't get my degree in a field related to energy production.  But I know why; it's because I really enjoy my work in chemical and biological sensor development.  And being an advocate for alternative energy while working in the energy sector has got to be one of the most frustrating situations ever.  Besides, I can always apply my current expertise to the energy production industry to try to help aid the development of alternative energy sources in a more indirect way.

Since I've been on a tear about fossil fuels, I thought I'd better share Paul Krugman's latest column, which is also devoted to the energy production industry.  It's a great glimpse into the present and future state of solar energy from the viewpoint of a Nobel prize-winning economist, whose opinion I deeply respect.  He also addresses some of the major issues with fossil fuel extraction, with a particular emphasis on the burgeoning and highly destructive fracking technique.  I should note that he also has a brief follow-up blog post in which he clarifies a couple of ideas that he didn't have space to address effectively.

I also thought I'd share a few thoughts while I'm on this subject.  First of all, I would like to reiterate that I am not an expert in the field of energy production.  I don't do a very good job of keeping up with the latest research or technology in this area, mainly because I have no vested interest in it beyond wanting mankind to be more responsible citizens of our planet.  On the other hand, I'm a relatively intelligent person.  I'm also pretty good at reading data.  So what I've done in previous posts - such as this one and this one - is look at the actual data in the references that the authors cite and make sure that the studies were sound and that the data matches the authors' claims.  After all, I don't have to be an expert to spot bullshit.

As of right now, I'm not sure if I'll continue to take the hatchet to the ACCCE's ridiculously idiotic website or not.  But either way, there will definitely be more on these issues to come.

Keep That Middle Finger in the Air

I happened to catch one of the clean coal television commercials that I mentioned in a previous post.  The advertisement - I wasn't able to find it on YouTube, otherwise there would be a link here - along with the corresponding website, are hosted by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).  One quick thought before I briefly discuss what I found on their website:  I think an advocacy group that tries to help make coal-based energy cleaner is a good thing.  Coal-fired power isn't going anywhere for a while, and if we can make it less destructive in the meantime by utilizing technology that decreases harmful emissions from power plants, I'm all for it.  But that's not what the ACCCE is.

The ACCCE website claims that "the environmental performance of coal-based generation for traditional emissions such as SO2, NOx and particulate matter has been significantly improved."  On the original page, this sentence is a link, presumably to a cited reference for this claim.  When you click on this link, however, it takes you to another page on the americaspower.org site.  So now at this new page, I have to click on yet another link to see the reference that they've cited.  This next link takes me to an EPA air pollution trends database.  From here, in order to see the data that the ACCCE cited, I have to open an Excel file that contains the data.

So that's what I did.  And I learned a few things.

The ACCCE's claim that SO2 and NOx emission have been reduced is true.  In fact, these reductions have been fairly dramatic.  Although I would hasten to add that these reductions are probably largely due to the EPA regulations that the ACCCE is so vehemently against.  This is an odd stance:  touting results as your own victory when you are opposed to the causes behind those results.  And what about the claim that particulate matter emissions have been significantly improved?  Not so much.  Since 1970, the amount of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5-10 microns produced from electrical utilities has been reduced; that much is true.  But particular matter with a diameter of 2.5 or smaller has increased, and done so by nearly four-fold.  Other emissions that have seen increases over the years include carbon monoxide and volatile organics.  And ammonia emissions, which were non-existent in the power production industry through 1995, have increased steadily, reaching 37,000 tons in 2011.

So exactly how clean is coal?  Not really all that clean.

Is Illegal Kidney Trafficking Just the Beginning?

I first heard about the story of the man in New York who was brokering black market kidney transplants yesterday on NPR news.  Then I ran across it again this morning on Wired Science.  The guy got busted by the FBI trying to arrange an illegal kidney transplant.  After the sting, he told investigators that he had brokered several other such deals.  He claims that the transplant procedures took place in U.S. hospitals by experienced surgeons and that the Isreali donors were well compensated.  And that's all good; it would be some pretty frightening shit if the procedures were being done in a roadside motel or an old meat locker or something similarly disturbing.

It's important to note, though, that a kidney transplant is not as easy as changing the fuel filter on an old Chevy pickup.  In particular, immunological markers have to be matched effectively to reduce the risk of the patient having a major foreign body response to the organ.  And even then, the chances of complications after the procedure are not trivial.

But I can't help thinking that this case could be a sort of omen; how runaway medical care costs and high rates of uninsured Americans could be fostering a culture of illegal, black market medical practices.  Not only do people die while on a waiting list for donor organs, but they also die because they can't afford the transplants.  The man who was arrested in New Jersey for trafficking kidneys was charging $160,000.  Seems fairly steep, but would it have cost any less if the patient had gone through official channels to get the kidney?  And how long would they have had to wait on a list before receiving the needed organ?  According to one website, the average waiting time for a kidney is 3 to 5 years.  That's a long time to wait if you are dying a slow, painful death.  And the average transplant cost, according to one study, is just shy of $90,000.  Add to that the $135,000 that it will cost to be on kidney dialysis for the 3 years that you're waiting for a suitable donor organ and suddenly $160,000 for an illegal kidney starts to look like a pretty attractive option.

My guess is that there will be more cases like this in the future, especially if the new Affordable Care Act is repealed.  And you want to know what we can do to make sure that these types of instances don't become commonplace?  Support universal health care.

Giving 'Em The Good 'Ol One-Finger Salute

I've been seeing a few television advertisements, such as those from some sort of Clean Coal organization and Conoco-Phillips, making some odd claims lately.  The Conoco-Phillips commercials show actors posing as young, supposedly intelligent college students discussing how natural gas is "cleaner."  Uh...cleaner than what, exactly?  Cleaner than most other fossil fuel industries like coal and petroleum?  Alright, I can go along with that.  But the big push right now is in the renewable energy sector; solar, wind, and to a lesser degree, biofuels.  If these ass-clowns are trying to tell me that natural gas is "cleaner" than solar energy, they need to go take a walk.

But the Clean Coal commercials are what really raise my ire.  These advertisements make dire predictions about EPA regulations killing jobs and destroying our economy.  I've lately found myself raising my middle finger to salute these advertisements when they appear.  To say the least, I find them unfathomably disgusting.  Paul Krugman has a delightful summation of a study that looks at the quantitative economic impacts of pollution, with regard to health and productivity effects, for various industries.  The researchers then compared these values to the economic value that the industry contributes.  The study indicates that there are some industries that actually have an overall negative impact on the economy.  To take a quote from the abstract:

Solid waste combustion, sewage treatment, stone quarrying, marinas, and oil and coal-fired power plants have air pollution damages larger than their value added. The largest industrial contributor to external costs is coal-fired electric generation, whose damages range from 0.8 to 5.6 times value added.

So there you go.  Want to stop killing jobs and boost the economy?  Regulate the shit out of the coal industry.

By the way, this issue really sticks in my craw, so expect more on this in the coming days and weeks.