cafecuriosity

Flying Under An (Almost) Green Sky

A lot of claims for "green this" or "green that" are surfacing lately to justify research funding. CafeCuriosity a little unsure about one "green" claim coming from the Delft University of Technology. Delft's mavens have developed a unique aluminium fibre material fetchingly called CentrAl. Stronger than the carbon fibre reinforced plastic composites used on the latest generation Boeing and Airbus passenger jets, CentrAl weighs in 20% lighter, meaning less fuel burned in flight and sharply reduced maintenance costs - hence the claimed green credentials. Projected savings of $100 billion on fuel and maintenance costs also help get the airlines' attention. CentrAl is also claimed to be nearly immune to metal fatigue, the bane of commercial airliners with high repetition take offs and landing cycles which stress metal airframes. At the heart of CentrAl lies a central layer of fibre metal laminate sandwiched between multiple layers of aerospace quality aluminium. Being aluminium, it's supposedly less sensitive to damage caused by hail storms, collisions with ground vehicles and corrosion. Sounds like a conventional composites break-through wrapped in green marketing! Aluminium remains a highly energy intensive industrial process and guess where that energy comes from? Skeptical observers would also note Alcoa was one of the sponsors of the conference where CentrAl was unveiled!   http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=8c1d7d3e-175c-4c49-8820-8ead3bb86329&lang=en   Image: Detailed section of CentrAl sandwich, TU Delft, GTM

Ying and Yang of Space Science

We experienced the ying and yang of space science last week. It marked fifty years since the former Soviet Union put its tiny Sputnik 1 into Earth orbit - an event that shook the world, ushering in the space race to the tune of its mechanical beeps! Some physicists came over all misty eyed at Sputnik's memory and the contribution made by curious and well funded satellite pioneers (global telecommunications, GPS, Google Maps!), have made to our contemporary world. Others were less effusive about the unrealised potential of the International Space Station, marveling at its ability to such up prodigious amounts of funding. The grouches were also out in force over the hazards posed to those same satellites by fifty years of space junk  and the weaponisation of space (China destroyed an old weather satellite with a new anti-satellite missile, spawning 2,500 chunks of debris in the process).

Perhaps stimulated by the aftermath of that same Chinese missile test, researchers at Iowa State University unveiled their shiny new low cost sensor designed to detect leaks in spacecraft (a very useful thing you would think!). Fixing leaks thanks to experience gained with Spacelab and the IIS seems to be comparatively straightforward once you get past the ideas that your precious atmosphere is barreling out of the spacecraft! Finding the leaks in the first place is more elusive. The Iowa State U sensor detects minute vibration as they ripple down the hull of the spacecraft. A miniature computer analyses the pattern and identifies the direction of the leak. It's all a very long way from Sputnik 1 - or is it? http://www.iop.org/Media/Press%20Releases/press_26490.html   http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2007/oct/leak.shtml   Image: Sputnik 1, 2. New leak detection sensor, 3. NASA flight engineer working in the IIS's Destiny Laboratory, NASA

Tracing Polynesia's Luxury Trade

In the natural world, few things are as they seem on the surface, even amongst the tropical tranquility of Polynesia. An early ancestor of Rolex and Louis Vuitton has been confusing biologists for nearly 130 years. At first blush, it may not seem like a big deal. The tree snail Partula hyalina originated on Tahiti. Interestingly, its white form has popped up on the remote Austral and Cook Islands, but not on the inner islands of the Society archipelago such as Moorea. A distribution quirk? A clue to Partula hyalina's distinctive distribution pattern lies in the early Polynesian's fondness for its white shelled form. Supply and demand drove fashion then just as it does today. It appears residents on the outer islands imported live white Partula hyalina snails and bred them, while islands closer in simply traded for the shells and didn't bother with a captive breeding program. It's an early example of how scarcity drives prices up and acts as an incentive to find alternate sources of desirable products. Polynesians prized Partula hyalina for their aesthetic value, particularly in forming decorative necklaces. Genetic tests confirm a common origin for the Tahiti, Austral and Southern Cook island populations. Paradoxically, an introduced predator has largely wiped out Partula hyalina on its native Tahiti, so in importing a luxury item, the islanders inadvertently saved the species!  http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6047   Image: 1. White shelled form of Partula hyalina  2. Partula hyalina shell necklace, University of Michigan

Sunnier Future for the Fiant Whorled Sunflower

Increasingly the survival of a species can depend on the decision by one person to become involved. Just how perilous survival can be was illustrated last month by Vanderbilt University researcher Jennifer Ellis. For a while there, Vanderbilt's greenhouse held more specimens of the giant whorled than existed in the wild. Discovered in 1892, it was unclear whether the the giant whorled was a hybrid or a distinct species. The discussion proved academic as it was considered extinct until being rediscovered in Georgia in 1994. Serendipity then twice intervened on the giant whorled's behalf. Ellis didn't have a research project when she arrived at Venderbilt. A contact at the local Rare Plant Protection Program suggested the giant whorled. Then Ellis found she could use a library of genetic markers developed previously for commercial sunflowers by another biologist for the giant whorled. This saved years of development and thousands of dollars. Along the way, Ellis discovered the giant whorled reproduced by through clones in addition to setting seeds. What previous field observations had mistaken for massed stems of individual plants proved to be clones. Hence the hundred or so individual plants potted up in Vanderbilt's greenhouse represented a critical source of genetic diversity. Nothing like gardening under pressure to focus the trowel!   http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases   Image: Jennifer Ellis with giant whorled sunflowers, 2 |Giant whorled sunflowers, Christopher Brown.

Creature Feature #4

CafeCuriosity subscribes to abundance model rather than scarcity, so counting things has never been a priority. However, sometimes numerical sequences are telling. At the start of August, there were only 145 free flying condors in California. Then there were 144 when condor 245 died from the effects of lead poisoning - yet another victim of America's obsession with hunting and its failure to remove lead shot from the condor's range. I'm not exactly enchanted at undergoing blood tests myself, so I have some sympathy for these big birds who continually undergo the trauma of being trapped in nets, then have their blood tested. High lead levels in test mean the birds are then transported to a wildlife facility for expensive and painful chelation to detoxify their blood.

Another critically endangered bird tweaked my curiosity this week. Twitchers in the blogosphere will roundly abuse me, but until recently I blissfully unaware of the intrepid Bengal florican. I now know it is 67cm tall, and loosely resembles like a miniature ostrich with a black head and neck long white wings and dapper yellow legs. The florican is known as the 'parachuting bird' for its unusual courtship display. They were only rediscovered in 1999 and already their numbers are fading away. It's a drab world that can't find space for the likes of the Bengal florican.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070819153340.htm Image: 1 & 2. Californian Condor, Wikipedia, 3 & 4. Bengal florican, Wikipedia, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Seeing the Wood In the Trees!

Australians find it hard to see the gum trees for the forest. Ubiquity hasn't done them any favours although water restrictions have created a surge in interest amongst gardeners tired of lugging buckets of water about! Last week, it was tree DNA grabbing media attention. The CSIRO announced they were participating in an international effort to decode the Eucalyptus genome. Why you might well ask? Well, it turns out Eucalyptus occupies around 18 million hectares sprawled across 90 countries, making i tone of the most widely planted plantation trees in the world. The Eucalyptus genome is the key to identifying economically valuable properties such as; timber density, pulp yield, growth rates, salt and drought tolerance. It may even help countries cope with climate change and reafforestation efforts. A group of forest scientists from Oregon State University unveiled their ability to control the height of trees by manipulating their DNA. Their "proof of concept" took normal popular trees (at maturity height 150 feet) and tweaked them into growing to heights ranging from 50 feet to six inches. Nurserymen the world over were a whooping and a hollering - brace yourself for a flood of cute ornamental trees from the nursery association. While the Eucalyptus genome will be published on the web, I think the Oregon techniques will enjoy a different fate - assuming they can pass post-Monsanto consumer and regulatory hurdles!  http://www.csiro.au/news/EucalyptusGenome.html  http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2007/Jun07/treeheight.html   Image: 1. Eucalyptus tree, www.davidkphotography.com 2. Genetically modified trees, Oregan State University

Two for Twitchers

People it seems love to categorise. We have an inner need to impose order and structure on the environment around us in order to make sense of it. In 1963, the lower 48 states of the U.S. had just 400 nesting pairs of the iconic bald eagle, leading it to be classified as endangered. In Alaska however they were a bit confused by the bald eagle's changed status as they had up to 70,000 birds. What was a triumph of twitching in the lower 48 states was just another sighting in Alaska. We don't often look under the bonnet to think of the drivers of our classification schemes. For example, who would have thought in 1939 when the insecticidal properties of DDT was discovered that it would have such a ripple effect on the bald eagle population (it moved up the food chain, causing eagle to lay eggs with weak shells), leading to DDT being eventually banned in 1972 (post-Agent Orange!). Last week with a poulation of around 10,000 nesting pairs, the bald eagle was officially removed from the list of threatened and endangered species at a very fine ceremony in Washington, D.C.

An example of classification woe was the discovery of a new species of Frogmouth in the Solomon Islands in April. First trapped in the wild nearly 100 years ago, the bird was mistakenly classified as a subspecies of the Australian Marbled Frogmouth.  It wasn't until a visiting team from the University of Florida were shown the bird by local hunters that they realised it had been the victim of shoddy observations, passed down the duty colonial era. On average only one new bird species is discovered a year so this could be it for 2007. Now twitchers will have to update their field guides and start planning those field trips - there's another target of their sighting lust to be had! Plus, maybe scientists will pay a little more attention to the tropics around Melanesia - who knows what may still be out there if they show enough curiosity!   http://www.fws.gov/news/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=72A15E1E-F69D-06E2-5C7B052DB01FD002    http://news.ufl.edu/2007/04/19/frogmouth-genus/   Image: 1. Bald Eagle flares its wings for landing, Dave Menke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2. Solomon Islands Frogmouth, University of Florida

Carbon Gets that Soiled Sinking Feeling

Here's a word you're going to hear more of in the future - "pyrolysis". Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition of organic materials by heating green biomass without oxygen to create a carbon residue known as agrichar. In his riveting '1491', Charles C. Mann describes how pre-Columbian Amazon cultures, used a form of agrichar to sculpt chains of raised mounds for intensive agriculture. Today, we're interested in agrichar's potential to sequester carbon long term - even in Australia's carbon depleted soil. Agrichar also seems to boost yields, reduce the need for fertilisers and increase the soil's ability to hold water - making it one very attractive proposition. Given that performance, it's easy to understand why Australian of the Year Tim Flannery nominated "fostering pyrolysis based technologies" at #4 in his five steps for saving our planet. Soil biology improves, farm costs go down and the environment benefits from reduced carbon emissions. The NSW Department of Primary Industry have been trialling agrichar at its Wollongbar Agricultural Institute. So far results are promising for wheat and soybeans. Now all we need are a string of pyrolysis production plants and an assured supply of biomass feed stocks.   http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/research/updates/issues/may-2007/soils-offer-new-hope   Image: 1. DPI scientist Steve Kimber with one of the greenhouse gas monitoring chamber, NSW Department of Primary Industry 2. 1491 by Charles C. Mann

Creature Feature #3

The toothed snouts of sawfish have been making appearances in the felt lined drawers of the cabinets of curiosities of enlightened European gentlefolk for generations. Their distinctive snouts have been presented as curios, hawked as souvenirs and even served as tribal weapons in Asian and Pacific cultures. Few public aquariums or museums lack a dusty sawfish snout handing forlornly on display. Last week the CITES Conference banned all international trade in sawfish - action prompted by a dawning recognition that sawfish were lurching towards extinction. The sawfish's population crash is not just a European, Asian or U.S. problem. Australia's sawfish are making themselves scarce as commercial fishing and the traditional medicine trade reduces their numbers. Australia's sawfish made it into Appendix II of the UN wildlife trade convention which only allows for live animals to be sent to public aquaria for conservation purposes. Action at last, even if there aren't many votes and even less money around for saving the worlds sharks! http://www.traffic.org/RenderPage.action?CategoryId=1911   Image: Sawfish, www.iucn.org

Economics isn't the most romantic aspect of global conservation efforts, but it seems to be the swing factor. After more than a decade of study, deliberation and procrastination, the Russian government designated a 200,000 acre stretch of land 4,000 kilometres east of Moscow the Zov Tigra National Park ("Roar of the Tiger'). Zov Tigra is the first protected area of its type in Russia's Far East. Ironically, the Park only came into being after officials were confident of its ability to create a sustainable eco-tourism base. Tigers are amongst the most popular big cats and their feline grace is a drawcard for Zoos and Parks around the globe. We can only applaud the Russian government for giving the go ahead and congratulate the World Wildlife Fund for its decade-long resilient advocacy. Zov Tigra itself contains some of Russia's most impressive landscapes, from Milogradovka River's pink and blue canyons to the 6,000' Mt Oblachanaya overlooking the Sea of Japan. Just don't hold your breath waiting for a glimpse of these elusive felines.   http://worldwildlife.org/news/displayPR.cfm?prID=400   Image: Siberian or Amur Tiger, WWF-Canon/Vladimir Filonov

Now turtles aren't as sexy or as photogenic as big cats like the Tigers. None the lass, the Tennessee Aquarium allowed itself a blush of pleasure at the hatching of an endangered Sacalia bealei or Beale's four-eyed turtle (even the name is seriously dorky!). There are all of 18 Sacalia bealei in zoos across Europe and the U.S. so the arrival of even one Sacalia bealei is news for turtle aficionados. Once common in southern China, the slow reproducing species has been declining due to habitat loss and the rapacious demand of the traditional medicine trade. Cute as a button little Sacalia bealei may be, but I can't see it competing with the Berlin Zoo polar bear Knut, which has the advantage of being both white and fluffy. Human curiosity it seems responds to cultural cues, not need.   http://www.tnaqua.org/Newsroom/Four_eyed_turtle.asp   Image: Newly hatched Beale's four-eyed turtle, Tennessee Aquarium

Flushing Out A River

Bushwalkers enjoying the scenic wonders of Barrenjoey Headland at Pittwater witnessed the curious sight of a massive brown stain streaming out of the mouth of the Hawkesbury River earlier this week. Recent wild weather along the New South Wales Hunter Region and Central Coast flushed fine sediment, algae and weed from upper catchment areas downstream and out to sea. We're more accustomed to seeing this phenomenon from an Amazon or the Nile, not the languid Hawkesbury. It a curious way to clean up a river!  http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/index/0,,5013122,00.html  Image: John Grainger