Complex Chemistry in Ocean Spray

 

Have you ever wondered why the ocean is so refreshing? Researchers in San Diego, California at the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment have some of the answers and are working on finding more. It turns out that ocean spray is quite complex and filled with all kinds of interesting things.

Chemists and co-directors of the UCSD Center, Kimberly Prather, Ph.D. (UCSD) and Vicki Grassian, Ph.D. at the Univ. of Iowa are recreating the ocean-atmosphere environment in the laboratory to study how chemical changes in seawater affect the composition and cloud forming ability of sea spray aerosols. The intent of the researchers' experiments is to obtain a more accurate example of aerosol chemistry in computer climate models. 

Ocean research in San Diego? My kind of science!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

CIBER Spots Outcast Stars

Data from the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment, or CIBER, provided support that background infrared light in the universe (seen by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope), comes from distant stars ejected from parent galaxies. 

"We think stars are being scattered out into space during galaxy collisions," said Michael Zemcov, Ph.D., experimental astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Using smaller suborbital NASA rockets, CIBER spotted two cosmic infrared (IR) wavelengths shorter than those measured by Spitzer. The light appears to come from a previously undetected population of stars between galaxies and CIBER measurements suggest the IR glow between distant galaxies is caused by orphan stars.

To test whether stray stars have been spun off from parent galaxies, future CIBER experiments will check to see if the stars are still located in roughly the same neighborhood. Go science!

Neuroprosthetics or Making Stuff Work with Your Mind

Recently I came across an article in New Scientist online about progress being made in the advancing area of neuroprosthetics. 

Put simply, a neuroprosthetic is a device that boosts the input/output of the nervous system (electrical brain signals). These initiated and/or amplified signals help replace signals that have been short-circuited by disease or trauma. Researchers are also designing bidirectional brain-computer interfaces that link a device (e.g., robotic arm) to sensory nerves and muscles.

Surgical implants are being tested that restore functionality in patients with severe sensory or motor disabilities. External non-invasive brain simulators are even being sold that improve attention span while gaming. I might buy one to boost my attention when I have to gather all the information to do my taxes every year. A major snooze fest activity.

Some devices collect external stimuli/input and convert it to a signal the nervous system recognizes (e.g., cochlear implant or retinal prosthesis). This would give many folks with loss of sensory function or disabilities much more independence. Go science!