Indian Scientists Develop World’s First Low Temperature Thermal Desalination Plant

Scientists at the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai have developed world’s first low temperature thermal desalination plant, which could address drinking water problems in India’s ocean island territories and even offshore urban centres along the coastline.

Low temperature thermal desalination (LTTD) is one process that uses the availability of a temperature gradient between two water bodies or flows to evaporate the warmer seawater at low pressures and condense the resultant vapour with the colder seawater to obtain fresh water. 

“The 12-13oC cold water available at about 400m depth within 600m from the island is used along with the surface water at about 28oC to produce potable water in the Lakshadweep Islands,” Dr Ramana Murthy, Scientist at NIOT told Indian Science Journal.

Magic Mushrooms

A psilocybin mushroom is one of a polyphyletic group of fungi that contain any of various psychedelic compounds, including psilocybin, psilocin, and baeocystin.

Common, colloquial terms for psilocybin mushrooms include psychedelic mushrooms, magic mushrooms, shrooms, and mush.

Psychedelics and ecology ?

Researchers have noted the relationship between psychedelics and ecology, particularly in relation to the altered states of consciousness (ASC) produced by psychedelic drugs and the perception of interconnectedness expressed through ecological ideas and themes produced by the psychedelic experience. This is felt through the direct experience of the unity of nature and the environment of which the individual is no longer perceived as separate but intimately connected and embedded inside.

Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, the first person to synthesize LSD, believed that the drug made one aware and sensitive to "the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom" and the role of humanity in relation to nature.Stanley Krippner and David Luke have speculated that "the consumption of psychedelic substances leads to an increased concern for nature and ecological issues". As a result, American psychologist Ralph Metzner and several others have argued that psychedelic drug use was the impetus for the modern ecology movement in the late 1960s.

Medical Cannabis

Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana, is cannabis and cannabinoids that are recommended by doctors for their patients.The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production restrictions and other governmental regulations.Limited evidence suggests that cannabis can reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS, and reduce chronic pain and muscle spasms.

Shrinking Ice cap - Time lapse video by NASA

NASA posted this video to YouTube with this description, “Arctic sea ice has not only been shrinking in surface area in recent years, it’s becoming younger and thinner as well. In this animation, where the ice cover almost looks gelatinous as it pulses through the seasons, cryospheric scientist Dr. Walt Meier of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center describes how the sea ice has undergone fundamental changes during the era of satellite measurements.”

https://youtu.be/Vj1G9gqhkYA

New Water treatment inspired through sea creature

Inspired by Actinia, a sea organism that ensnares its prey with its tentacles, a team of researchers has developed a method for efficiently treating water.

The research, a collaboration of the labs of Yale's Menachem Elimelech and Huazhang Zhao of Peking University, used a material known as a nanocoagulant to rid water of contaminants. By removing a broad range of contaminants in a single step, the discovery promises to significantly improve on the centuries-old use of coagulants for water treatment. The results are published today in Nature Nanotechnology.

When added to water, conventional coagulants such as aluminum sulphate and other metallic salts remove larger particles from water by causing them to group together into larger formations and settle. Because these coagulants don't remove smaller particles dissolved in water, additional treatment methods are necessary. Employing multiple technologies for water treatment, however, is costly, energy-intensive and can require a large amount of land. Creating an efficient and easy-to-operate technology to remove all contaminants from water is key to addressing global water scarcity..

Newly discovered deep-sea microbes gobble greenhouse gases and perhaps oil spills.

Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin's Marine Science Institute have discovered nearly two dozen new types of microbes, many of which use hydrocarbons such as methane and butane as energy sources to survive and grow -- meaning the newly identified bacteria might be helping to limit the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and might one day be useful for cleaning up oil spills.

In a paper published in Nature Communications this week, researchers documented extensive diversity in the microbial communities living in the extremely hot, deep-sea sediments located in the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. The team uncovered new microbial species that are so genetically different from those that have been previously studied that they represent new branches in the tree of life. Many of these same species possess keen pollutant-eating powers, like other, previously identified microbes in the ocean and soil.

New federal climate assessment for U.S. released Report highlights impacts, risks and adaptations.

A new federal report finds that climate change is affecting the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, and human health and welfare across the U.S. and its territories.

Key findings of the NCA4, Vol. II Communities

• Human health and safety, our quality of life, and the rate of economic growth in communities across the U.S. are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• The cascading impacts of climate change threaten the natural, built and social systems we rely on, both within and beyond the nation's borders.
• Societal efforts to respond to climate change have expanded in the last five years, but not at the scale needed to avoid substantial damages to the economy, environment, and human health over the coming decades.
• Without substantial and sustained global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and regional initiatives to prepare for anticipated changes, climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century.

Seismic study reveals huge amount of water dragged into Earth's interior

Slow-motion collisions of tectonic plates under the ocean drag about three times more water down into the deep Earth than previously estimated, according to a first-of-its-kind seismic study that spans the Mariana Trench.

The observations from the deepest ocean trench in the world have important implications for the global water cycle, according to researchers in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

"People knew that subduction zones could bring down water, but they didn't know how much water," said Chen Cai, who recently completed his doctoral studies at Washington University. Cai is the first author of the study published in the Nov. 15 issue of the journal Nature.

"This research shows that subduction zones move far more water into Earth's deep interior -- many miles below the surface -- than previously thought," said Candace Major, a program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the study. "The results highlight the important role of subduction zones in Earth's water cycle."