Dear reader,
Welcome aboard for a flight on this week’s SciSchmooze. {Snacks optional.}
CLIMATE
¿Why is the climate conference taking place called “COP28”? Because it’s easier than calling it the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference Of the Parties #28. ¿And why is it being held in Dubai, a country where fossil fuels account for over 4% of its revenue? [The United States is the world’s largest producer of fossil fuels – Ed.]; a country that denies entry to travelers who ‘might’ protest government policies?; a country that does not confer upon its own citizens the right to protest? However, things change – at least temporarily. Dubai is allowing entry to foreigners expected to protest COP28. Dubai is allowing protests to proceed. Furthermore, fifty oil companies revealed their pledge to reduce the release of methane to the atmosphere. Those fifty companies are responsible for over half of the world production of fossil fuels. [Now if only we can get the world’s 940 million cows to stop belching methane.] Of course much of the promises at COP28 have been ‘hot air’, a.k.a. “Greenwashing”. The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, addressed greenwashing, the pledge by the 50 oil companies, and situations around the world.
Last week a jumbo jet (Boeing 787) flew from England to New York with carbon neutral fuel – sorta. The SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) itself was totally carbon neutral, meaning that the carbon dioxide released from the jet engines came from carbon extracted from the atmosphere by plants. It used SAF made from maize production waste and fat waste – no fossil fuel was used by the plane. However, the manufacture of the 50 tonnes of SAF on board used processes and electricity partially derived from fossil fuels.
GEOMETRY
Back in 1982, no one got the correct answer to the following question on the SAT:
Since the circumference is directly proportional to the radius, answer B seemed correct – but because no one got it right, then none of the above answers can be correct. Hint: Imagine circle A to be made of paper with the “A” written on it. Put a [mental] mark on circle A where it meets circle B. Now roll circle A around circle B until your ‘mark’ is again touching the big circle. The letter A is no longer upright; it’s tilted (by 120 degrees). It has rotated 1 and a third times. When A gets back to its starting position, it has ‘revolved’ four times, an answer that was not a choice! Let me recommend you watch the entertaining story of this glitch. Similarly, our Moon does not rotate at all from our perspective, but from a non-Earthly perspective the Moon rotates about once a month. Also, we consider a year to be 365.25 days, but from a cosmic perspective, the Earth rotates 366.25 times a year.
GEOLOGY
The town of Grindavik in Iceland is moving around as magma approaches from below. The town has been evacuated as a precaution. Well yeah. The whole town could become a volcano!
MEDICINE / HEALTH
Since the 70’s it’s been known that infants born to mothers who drank alcohol during pregnancy can suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorders or FASD. It now appears there is a fetal fentanyl syndrome associated with mothers who used fentanyl during pregnancy. While it is known that FASDs negatively affect lifelong learning and health, it is not known whether a person born with fetal fentanyl syndrome will suffer throughout life.
Due to COVID, life expectancy in New York City dropped precipitously in 2020 to 78 years. Now the City has embarked on programs to raise life expectancy to 83. The major issues they are confronting are:
– Heart- and Diabetes-Related Diseases
– Screenable Cancers
– Drug Overdose
– Suicide
– Homicide
– Maternal Mortality
¿Do you know how the U.S. compares to other large, wealthy countries with respect to life expectancy?
NERDY VIDEOS to enjoy!
¿Ginkgo benefits? – Cup o’ Joe – Joe Schwarcz – 3 mins
Future of fossil fuel refining – Just Have a Think – Dave Borlace – 15 mins
The surprising genius of sewing machines – Veritaseum – Derek Muller – 17 mins
Octopus vs Underwater Maze – Mark Rober – 17 mins
The Net Zero Myth – Sabine Hossenfelder – 18 mins
¿Is there life on K2-18b? – PBS Spacetime – Matt O’Dowd – 18 mins
It was a pleasure putting this edition of the SciSchmooze together for you. I hope you found some item(s) of interest.
Have a wonderful week,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics