Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions show

Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions

Summary: Taking inspiration from trees, scientists have developed a battery made from a sliver of wood coated with tin that shows promise for becoming a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly energy source. Their report on the device — 1,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper — appears in the journal Nano Letters.

Podcasts:

  Promoting Public Health: High vitamin-D bread could help solve widespread insufficiency problem | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

With most people unable to get enough vitamin D from sunlight or foods, scientists are suggesting that a new vitamin D-fortified food bread made with high-vitamin D yeast could fill that gap.

  Supplying Safe Drinking Water: Don’t blame The Pill for estrogen in drinking water | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Contrary to popular belief, The Pill accounts for less than 1 percent of the estrogens found in the nation’s drinking water supplies, according to a recent analysis. The report in ACS’ biweekly journal Environmental Science and Technology suggests that most of the estrogens enter drinking water supplies from other sources.

  Future Cities: The right choices on transportation can shrink your own personal carbon footprint | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

A study published in the American Chemical Society’s journal, Environmental Science and Technology, offers new insights into how people can shrink their own personal carbon footprints by selecting specific modes of transportation.

  Our Sustainable Future: Biodegradable plastic from milk and clay | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

With continuing concern about plastic waste accumulating in municipal landfills, and reliance on imported oil to make plastics, scientists have created an ultra-light biodegradable foam plastic material made from two unlikely ingredients.

 Promoting Public Health: Black rice bran may fight inflammation | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Scientists are reporting evidence that black rice — a little-known variety of the grain that is the staple food for one-third of the world population — may help soothe the inflammation involved in allergies, asthma, and other diseases.

 Supplying Safe Drinking Water: Electrified nano filter promises to cut costs for clean drinking water | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Scientists are reporting development and successful initial tests of an inexpensive new filtering technology that kills up to 98 percent of disease-causing bacteria in water in just seconds without clogging.

  Our Sustainable Future: Saving energy by reducing food waste | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

A new study published in the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science and Technology journal provides a compelling new reason not to waste food. It saves energy, lots of money at home and fights global hunger.

  In the green of health: Just five minutes of green exercise optimal for good mental health | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

New research suggests that just five minutes of outdoor activities, such as exercising in a park, working in a backyard garden or walking on a nature trail, will benefit mental health.

  Future Cities: Nanotechnology promises more sustainable buildings, bridges, and other structures | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Bricks, blocks, and steel I-beams — step aside. That’s because scientists are reporting that a new genre of construction materials, made from stuff barely 1/50,000th the width of a human hair, is about to debut in the building of homes, offices, bridges, and other structures. The new report highlights both the potential benefits of these nanomaterials in improving construction materials and the need for guidelines to regulate their use and disposal. The report appears in the monthly journal ACS Nano.

  Developing new sources of energy: Producing cost-effective biodiesel from sewage sludge | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Existing technology can produce biodiesel fuel from municipal sewage sludge that is within a few cents a gallon of being competitive with conventional diesel refined from petroleum. Intro theme and music by Kevin MacLeod. Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu.

  Our Sustainable Future: “Smart” roofs that can save energy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Scientists are reporting development of a “smart” roof coating, made from waste cooking oil from fast food restaurants, that can “read” a thermometer and help save energy. Roofs coated with the material would reflect scorching summer sunlight and reduce sticker-shock air-conditioning bills. When chilly weather sets in, the coating would change roles and transmit heat to help warm the interior. Scientists described the sustainable material at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco. Intro theme and music by Kevin MacLeod. Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu.

  Promoting Public Health: Dusting off a hidden challenge | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Where does dust come from? Scientists in Arizona are reporting a surprising answer to that question, which has puzzled and perplexed generations of men and women confronted with layers of dust on furniture and floors. Intro theme and music by Kevin MacLeod. Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu.

  Promoting Public Health: Toward a fast, accurate urine test for pneumonia | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Scientists are reporting the discovery of the potential basis for a urine test to diagnose community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), a difficult-to-diagnose lung disease that is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. The test could save lives by allowing doctors to begin the right treatment earlier than they do now. The study appears online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research. Intro theme and music by Kevin MacLeod. Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu.

  New fuels: Biofuels: A more economical process for making ethanol from non-food sources | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Scientists in Wisconsin are reporting discovery of a way to lower the cost of converting wood, corn stalks and leaves, switch grass, and other non-food biomass materials into ethanol fuel. The process reduces amounts of costly enzymes needed to break down tough fibrous cellulose matter in biomass for fermentation into alcohol. Intro theme and music by Kevin MacLeod. Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu.

  Our Sustainable Future: Roadmap for preserving the planet | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

The United States could completely stop emissions of carbon dioxide from coal-fired electric power plants? A crucial step for controlling global warming? Within 20 years by using technology that already exists or could become commercially available within a decade, scientists are reporting. The scientists outline strategies to make the phase-out possible, including the use of renewable energy and advanced nuclear power plants. Their study appears in ACS’ semi-monthly journal Environmental Science and Technology. Intro theme and music by Kevin MacLeod. Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu.

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