9.18.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Radio Wized Diary of Science and Nature. Your
reader's Kelly Taylor. I'll have some articles on the topics
of science and nature, but first a reminder that RADIOI
is a reading service intended for people who are blind
or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
printed material. Beginning today, we have an article from Scientific American.

(00:25):
The headline is plastics started as a sustainability solution, what
went wrong? In eighteen sixty four, Scientific American published a
competition launched by a billiard table manufacturing company, quote ten
thousand dollars for a substitute for ivory. The owners of

(00:49):
Phalan and Collander were pleased to see it. They wrote
to the magazine to elaborate on what they were looking
for in an hivery alternative that can be used to
make billiard balls, and hoped it would quote have the
effect of stimulating the genius of some of your numerous readers.
The real stuff from elephant tusks had become scarce, but

(01:13):
its elasticity, hardness, and density were hard to find in
any other material. A printer from Albany, New York named
John Wesley Hyatt came up with an answer in celluloid,
a moldable compound material made up of cellulose nitrate, a
polymer that held the ball together, camphor, an organic compound

(01:36):
that provided flexibility and durability, and ground up cowbone to
give the ball the right mechanics for play. Rather than
accepting the ten thousand dollars reward and signing away the
rights to his invention, Hyatt patented his object in eighteen
sixty nine and started his own company, selling celluloid billiard

(01:57):
balls that conservation scientist Arthur Neves, writing in twenty twenty three,
called the founding object of the plastics industry. The creation
of the first plastic was essentially an answer to a
sustainability problem. There were only so many elephants, tortoises, and

(02:18):
silkworms to go around, and their tusks, shells, and fibers
were increasingly in demand. Articles and advertisements from the early
era of the plastics industry portray such materials as relieving
pressure on natural resources. In a twenty twenty three paper

(02:38):
in PNAS, nexus Neives and his colleagues called Hyatt's celluloid
billiard balls one of quote the first successful efforts to
substitute materials to assist the survival of endangered animals. The
billiard ball and other reinforced polymer composit its were predecessors

(03:01):
to commercial plastics, but the term plastic was nebulous, more
marketing language than scientific category. Philip H. Smith, writing in
Scientific American in nineteen thirty five, defined it as quote
the name given to a more or less arbitrarily chosen

(03:21):
group of substances which, when properly compounded and treated, become
plastic and can be molded or cast to shape. In
American Plastic, a Cultural History published in nineteen ninety five,
Jeffrey Michael writes that the fear of an ivory shortage

(03:42):
that stimulated plastics development shifted in the twentieth century to
the idea of democratizing luxury items. Mass production of plastics
for a wide range of uses began in the nineteen forties,
when production in the US nearly tripled over the war years.
This expansion coincided with the replacement of bio based materials

(04:04):
such as cotton, soybeans, and sugar in polymer bases with
fossil fuels, which were promoted as an abundant resource to
give products specific properties. Additives such as colorants, plasticizers such
as thalates and bisphenol a, and flame retardants were included

(04:30):
in the polymers during manufacturing. You know where this story goes.
By the nineteen seventies, Michael writes in his book plastics
ability to transcend Nature often no longer seemed utopian, but
instead simply disastrous. Plastics had ushered in an era of
excessive stuff that was cheap to make. Materials originally celebrated

(04:54):
for their durability and longevity, became popular in single use items.
Ninety percent of plastics aren't technically recyclable anyway, and some
now argue that recycling campaigns only encourage people to feel
better about buying more plastic things because plastic is not biodegradable.
It simply accumulates, fragmenting into ever smaller pieces over hundreds

(05:19):
or thousands of years. In two thousand and nine, the
first comprehensive review of the impact of plastics on the
environment and human health was published, a collection of consequences
and warnings that have gotten only more dire. Now, researchers
are investigating the wide ranging presence and effects of microplastics,

(05:41):
tiny specs that leach toxic chemicals into the environment. Single
use items such as water bottles are an obvious part
of the problem, but there are many other culprits. Until
the mid nineteen nineties, natural fibers dominated the fashion industry.
In twenty twenty three, polymers made up sixty seven percent

(06:03):
of global fiber production, with polyester alone making up fifty
seven percent of global fiber production in new clothing, home textiles,
and shoes. These products shed microplastic fibers with every wash,
contributing to pollution and groundwater. These contaminants, which are basically

(06:26):
impossible to clean up, are not just present in soil
and water. A new study found the leaves of plants
absorbed microplastics from the air. All animals studied, including us,
are not just eating plastic in our food and drinking
it in our water. We now have plastic in our organs.

(06:47):
The solution to one environmental sustainability problem has become one
of the biggest and most intractable environmental crises of our time.
As Rebecca Altman wrote in a twenty twenty one article
in Science, celluloid quote purportedly spared the elephant, especially from
the billiard ball industry, but market data show that celluloid

(07:09):
did not decrease ivory demand, which grew in the years
after celluloid's introduction. Celluloid, she adds, also accelerated the demand
for camphor, a product distilled from an evergreen tree prevalent
in Taiwan. Competition to control the camphor trade destroyed Taiwan's

(07:30):
forests and displaced its indigenous communities. The advent of synthetic
polymers didn't free humanity from the limits of natural resources.
What started as a competition to invent an alternative ivory
has turned into competitions for inventing methods to clean up

(07:50):
the Great Pacific garbage Patch and other sprawling plastic icebergs
in oceans the world over. In nineteen forty two, WILLIAMS. Haynes,
historian and promoter of the chemical industry, declared that synthetic
materials would have quote more effect on the lives of
our great grandchildren than Hitler or Mussolini. He couldn't have

(08:14):
imagined the biggest impact on future generations might be nanoplastic
fragments in their brains. Next up, we have an article
from USA today. Hurricane season isn't over. Here's the latest threats.
Forecasters are tracking. This is from September sixteenth. Specialists at

(08:38):
the National Hurricane Center are watching potential storms in both
the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, which appears to
be awakening from its unexpected extended quiet period. Forecasters are
awaiting the expected formation of a tropical depression or tropical
storm in the waters of the central Tropical Atlantic between

(08:58):
the Windward Islands and the African coast. The Hurricane Center
said on September sixteenth that storm expected to form later
on September sixteen or seventeen, would be named tropical Storm Gabriel. Quote.
It's the peak of hurricane season, but it's been three
weeks since we've had an active tropical cyclone in the

(09:19):
Atlantic basin, said Robbie Berg, the Center's Warning coordination meteorologist,
in a video published Tuesday. Quote that looks like it's
going to change, he added. In the Pacific, meteorologists are
watching to see how much rain the degenerating tropical Storm
Mario could carry into the San Diego region. The Hurricane

(09:42):
Center also is awaiting the forecast formation of another tropical
storm further to the south. The system expected to become
a tropical storm over the next day or so is
quote likely to pass northeast of the Lesser Antilles than
reach the western Atlantic sometime next week. Berg said, plenty
of time to watch this system for any potential impacts

(10:04):
in the United States or offshore end quote. On September sixteenth,
the Hurricane Center put the chances of storm formation at
ninety percent over forty eight hours. As the low pressure
area moves to the west northwest in the Atlantic. The
storm's eventual path may become more clear once it develops
into an organized tropical depression or storm. There's also plenty

(10:29):
of time to watch another wave off the western coast
of Africa, said John Cagelosi, a senior hurricane specialist at
the Center. Quote this one has a low shot of
development during the next week, but plenty of time to
watch that one end quote. That second area of disturbed
weather behind it is listed at a twenty percent chance
of development over the next seven days. For now, it

(10:52):
looks like neither of the storms expected in the Atlantic
will affect land anytime soon, and both could eventually oar
curve out over the open Ocean before reaching the Caribbean.
According to the array of computer models the Center uses
to forecast hurricane movement. Alan Gerard, retired meteorologist and author

(11:16):
of the Balanced Weather Substack, said Bermuda will quote need
to pay attention in quote to the storm expected to
become tropical storm Gabrielle, and added it looks unlikely to
have any other land impacts other than maybe some surf
and rip currents if it becomes a significant hurricane end quote.

(11:37):
Moisture from Mario is forecast to be picked up by
another area of low pressure, then interact with high temperatures
at averaging four to eight degrees above normal in southern
California and bring rain to the San Diego region. According
to the National Weather Service in San Diego, Mario's remnants

(11:57):
will bring increasing chances for showers on Wednesday the seventeenth
and into Thursday, September eighteenth. The second potential storm south
of Mexico and west of Central America could produce a
tropical depression or storm by the weekend of September twentieth.
The second tropical system could also bring tropical moisture to

(12:17):
the San Diego region. The to date, the Atlantic hurricane
season has seen its lowest storm activity since twenty fourteen,
with only one hurricane so far hurricane aerin that's the
fewest through September fifteenth since two thousand and two, says
Michael Lowry, hurricane specialists with w PLG Channel ten in

(12:41):
South Florida, but he pointed out the plentiful tropical activity
in late September twenty twenty four. In October twenty twenty four,
after a similar mid season lull, in a recent update,
the team of hurricane seasonal forecasters at Colorado State University
said dry and stable conditions in the Atlantic and shearing
winds have created unfavorable conditions for storms to form. The

(13:06):
team still expects conditions to become more conducive to storms.
And now we'll turn to the Wall Street Journal. They
have an article headlined, did NASA find signs of ancient
life on Mars? Or is it another false alarm? This
is from September sixteenth. If it pans out, it's a

(13:30):
big deal. Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
caused a stir last week when they announced they had
found potential signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. Quote
this very well could be the clearest sign of life
that we've ever found on Mars, which is incredibly exciting.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said evidence of ancient life

(13:55):
would suggest that the red planet was once habitable and
that life could arise elsewhere in the Solar System. But
this isn't the first time NASA has made such a
bold announcement. In nineteen seventy six, NASA's Viking one and
Viking two landers, the first US spacecraft to land on Mars,
conducted three experiments with Martian soil that hinted at the

(14:17):
presence of life. NASA scientists later determined that no biological
material was present. In nineteen ninety six, a NASA team
said it had found ancient microbial life within a four
billion year old of Martian meteorite that had landed in Antarctica,
including microscopic fossils, organic molecules, and mineral structures. After years

(14:41):
of debate, an international team determined the features were the
result of brackish water flowing through the rock when it
formed on Mars. The latest discovery was made by the
Perseverance Rover, which found an unusual arrow shaped rock in
twenty twenty four along the northern bank of the dried
up river bed. It once filled Jesio Crater, a twenty

(15:03):
eight mile wide feature on Mars. Initial tests performed with
onboard instruments found that the rock was covered with leopard
like spots that carried the signature of vivinite and greggite,
two iron rich minerals found on Earth in sediments, peat bogs,
and around decaying organic matter. Greggite is produced by some

(15:29):
microbes on Earth, leading the researchers to conclude it might
be a sign of ancient microbial life on Mars. On
the other hand, it might have nothing to do with microbes. Quote,
there are non biological ways to make these features that
we cannot completely rule out, says Joel Hurrowitz, a member
of the research team. If the finding holds up, it

(15:54):
would be the first compelling evidence that life can emerge
wherever water, organic compounds, and chemical energy intersect. According to
Mario Parente, professor of electrical and computer engineering at University
of Massachusetts Amherst, who wasn't involved in the study, Horowitz
and other researchers said the only way to confirm the

(16:16):
finding would be to bring the samples back to Earth
for more sophisticated tests. That isn't likely to happen. Soon.
A plan by NASA and the European Space Agency to
return about thirty cigar size sealed tubes containing rock and
sediment on Perseverance sometime in the twenty thirties is over budget,

(16:37):
with costs estimated to run to eight billion dollars or more.
The Trump administration scratched the mission from his twenty twenty
six budget proposal. Duffy said NASA is looking for cheaper
ways to bring the samples back or send astronauts to Mars.
Now turning to Scientific American, this article is headlined see

(17:02):
how fusion energy could power the future. Nuclear fusion promises
a green and infinitely renewable supply of energy if we
can harness it. Fusion happens all the time inside the Sun,
but to recreate the process on Earth, we must control
incredibly hot chaotic matter in an exceedingly dense state. Prototypes

(17:26):
of several different fusion reactor designs are being tested around
the world. The National Ignition Facility in if at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California, for example, uses lasers to
spark fusion in a small pellet of fuel tookeomacs such
as the International Thermonuclear experimental reactor. The Iteer in France

(17:52):
use electromagnetic fields to confine plasma and heat it to
the temperatures and densities necessary to ignite fuel fusion, and
stellar rators such as the Windelstein seven X experiment in
Germany add a twist to the magnetic field concept of tokomax.

(18:13):
It's too soon to say whether any of these technologies
can overcome their challenges to become a reliable energy source,
but the motivation to make that happen is clear. Quote.
Necessity is the mother of invention, says Laura Burzak Hopkins,
Associate Laboratory director at the Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma

(18:34):
Physics Laboratory. Quote. We have increasing energy demands and a
changing climate, and fusion is the way we can address
both those needs. In quote, nuclear fusion is the process
by which two atoms combine to form a larger atom
minus a bit of mass plus energy. To achieve sustained fusion,

(18:57):
the atoms must reach a certain temperature and density, and
they must stay in these states for an extended period.
There are three general ways to meet these conditions. Gravitational
confinement within stars. Gravity is intense enough to hold particles
at the right heat and density for long enough to

(19:19):
sustain fusion. Inertial confinement and magnetic confinement On Earth, Inertial
and magnetic confinement are two strategies to reproduce the conditions
in stars. Both methods, however, still struggle to extract more
energy from fusion than they use to produce it. The

(19:41):
goal is to get more sustained energy out of the
system than goes in. Experiments in twenty twenty two at NIF,
the most famous inertial confinement facility, provided proof of concept.
The project did release more fusion energy than its lasers
used to create the reaction, but charging those lasers incurred

(20:03):
and energy cost. Recent experiments using magnetic confinement have also
demonstrated progress. Two different concepts, a stellar rator and a tokomac,
have each held superheated plasma at the right temperature and
densities for nearly one minute, achieving new records. Why is
this significant? Containing the fuel for sustained times is a

(20:26):
huge challenge to understand why. Let's dive into an example.
Totomac reactors such as the massive Iter project, which is
still under construction, use a doughnut shaped container. Here's how
they work. First, remove all gas from the vacuum chamber,
then charge the magnetic system around the vessel. Next, inject

(20:49):
a small amount of deuterium and tritium gas into the vacuum. Third,
switch on the coil of wire called a solenoid at
the center of the tocomac to start up the magnetic
field that will keep the gas contained. Run a powerful
electric current through the vessel. This current strips electrons off
the gas particles, which collide with other particles to kick

(21:12):
off more electrons. The atoms become an ionized gas called
a plasma, in which charged particles follow magnetic field lines. Fourth,
heat the plasma to thermonuclear temperatures one hundred fifty million
degrees celsius by injecting electro magnetic radiation and beams of

(21:36):
high energy neutral atoms. Fifth. As the temperature rises, the
density and energy within the plasma increase, causing particles to
collide and immediate fusion. Some of the energy released from
each reaction is used to heat additional incoming fuel, perpetuating fusion.

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The goal is then transfer most of the heat out
of the reactor and use it to generate electricity by
way of for example, steam turbines. What's the problem. The
process seems straightforward, so why is it so difficult When
left to its own devices. Plasma is turbulent, with pockets

(22:21):
of temperature variations that create convection currents. This turbulence also
moves heat from the plasma core to the edge, dampening
diffusion reactions. Scientists want to encourage collisions between particles within
the plasma to promote fusion, but they also need to
avoid particle collisions with the reactor hardware itself. Powerful magnetic

(22:44):
fields steer the plasma around the doughnut in a roughly
circular path, but a closer look reveals that the particle
trajectories aren't that simple. Different plasma shapes each have benefits
and drawbacks in maximizing temperature and density within the suspended plasma.
Inside of a totomac, particles move in two general patterns,

(23:08):
helical motion called ion gyro motion and a banana shaped path.
Different reactor shapes and sizes result in different plasma trajectories
and have different pros and cons. All totomacs confine the
plasma using a central electric current that can make fusion

(23:29):
reactions difficult to maintain. Traditional doughnut shaped totomacs have more
space in the middle. This space makes room to shield
a central electromagnet from the heat of the plasma. Spherical totomacs,
such as pppl's National Spherical Torus Experiment, have narrower central

(23:53):
areas than traditional totomacs. They're more compact, can more efficiently
confine plasma particles. Can be more economical to build, but
the smaller central area requires a skinnier central electromagnet that
can make the generation of the plasma current more difficult.
Stellar rators, which take a twisted shape don't require a

(24:18):
central current to keep plasma trajectories in shape. Magnets along
the winding tunnel wall do the trick, but getting up
to temperature can be tricky. Because our energy demands are
high and getting higher. It's likely that there is room
for multiple models to succeed. Quote. I'm confident that we
need fusion, ppl's Burzak Hopkins says, so that makes me

(24:42):
very confident that we will solve fusion. End quote and
now from Scientific American deep sea salination pulls fresh water
from the depths from Cape Town to Tehran to Lima
to Fien, dozens of cities across the globe of recently

(25:03):
experienced water shortages. In the next five years, the world's
demand for fresh water could significantly outpace supply, according to
a United Nations forecast. Now, several companies are turning to
an unexpected source for a solution, the bottom of the ocean,
called subsea desalination. The idea is to remove the salt

(25:26):
from water in the deep sea. If it worked at scale,
the technology could greatly alleviate the world's water access problems.
Costs and energy requirements have kept desalination from going mainstream
in most of the world. Early desalination involved boiling sea
water and condensing the steam, a purely thermal method that

(25:46):
used loads of energy. This approach was later replaced by
multi stage flash distillation, in which temperature and pressure flash
salt water into steam. In the past twenty five years,
revert verse osmosis has become more common. This process uses
high pressure to push sea water through a membrane with

(26:07):
holes so small that only water molecules squeeze through, leaving
salt behind. Reverse osmosis is more efficient than distillation, but
it takes a lot of energy to pressurize millions of
gallons of sea water to force it through filters. What
if we could let that movement happen naturally by harnessing
the pressure hundreds of meters under water. That's the concept

(26:30):
behind subseed desalination. Reverse osmosis pods are submerged to depths
of around five hundred meters or sixteen hundred feet, where
immense hydrostatic pressure does the hard work of separating water
from salt. Purified water is then pumped back to shore.
Far fetched as the setup may sound, there are multiple

(26:52):
prototypes already at work. The companies behind them aim to
make cheap, large scale desalination from pipe dream to reality.
One of these companies is Oslo based Floation. Its founder
and CEO says there's no revolutionary new technology behind his business.
It's quote essentially a subsea pump cleverly coupled to existing

(27:16):
membrane and filter technology. Quote. What's new is the energy savings.
Floation uses forty to fifty percent less energy than conventional
plants and modular systems that can be deployed to many
deep sea locations without special engineering. The seafloor has other
benefits to the region. Harbors fewer bacteria and microorganisms that

(27:42):
shallower depths do and there's little local variation in temperature
or pressure. The deep sea is really predictable. They say,
it's the same three hundred and sixty five days a year.
This isn't the case at land based plants, which you
have to deal with algae blooms, river runoff, storms and

(28:04):
seasonal temperature changes. Plus less chemical pretreatment of the water
is needed at depth because this equipment is all underwater.
There's no not in my backyard controversy over putting big,
unsightly infrastructure near the seashore. Well, that's all for today's
Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader was Kelly Taylor.

(28:26):
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