After five years this blog is closing. The world is changing…. I am changing. It’s time to move on… new ideas,  new interests, new activities.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

In other words, Russell did not separate the mind from the body, and concluded the rich mental life of human beings, is chemistry through and through.

Reading: “The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements” by Sam Kean

UCLA ESS 15 ocean/climate science communication project by Thomas Li. Sung by Thomas Li and featuring Ryan Yoo on rap vocals. Parody of “Glad You Came”, by The Wanted.

Extra footage from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cqCvc…

I do not claim ownership to any of the clips from the above link, nor do I claim ownership to the instrumentals. Original lyrics by Thomas Li and Ryan Yoo.

Lyrics:

The shells will melt
The reefs will die
And all this time emissions rise
The ocean life will never be the same
It’s time to change

When I was just a young boy
My father used to tell me about the ocean and sh*t
I never listened…

But you know what?
Things are gonna change
As of tonight
Everybody put your hands in the air
Everybody put your hands in the air
MCGB, Thomas Li in the heezy
Yeah, yeah, yeah

It’s hard to calcify, calcify
Acidic water makes it hard to thrive, hard to thrive
So oceanic life can say goodbye, say goodbye
Thanks to CO2 that we provide, you and I

To the oceans now
Now we’re watching as the fish
Fish for another prey
Pray they’ll get their wish
Wish the coral reefs survive
Survive another day
Days will go on by
And they can’t swim away
Away from all the change

[Chorus]

Have you heard about this epidemic sweeping the nation?
It’s called two words: Ocean Acidification
CO2 plus water makes carbonic acid
You put that in the ocean and you got something’ bad kids

When the pH drops below 7
You better start praying to your god up in heaven
The problem is bad and it’s only getting worse
This is a process that must be reversed
Too much H+ impedes calcification
Shellfish with no shells is a bad situation
Half the coral reefs are already dead
And it’s coming back to us by my calculations

[Chorus]

It’s killing all the plankton and it’s killing the reefs
The food chain is splitting right along this weak link
Save our fishy friends before they meet their end
Think of all the seafood you might never eat again

(4x) It’s time to change

Being human, most scientists conferm to the psychological Principle of Certainty, which says that when there are evidence both for and against a belief, the result is not a lessening but a heightening of conviction on both sides.

Biologists have many problems to solve. For each of them they have clear answers — usually too many answers.

The difficult part is picking out the right one.

“If you’re the most intelligent person in the room . . . you’re in the wrong room.”

James D Watson.

The humble sea urchin could hold the key to turning harmful greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into chalk on an industrial scale, British scientists have revealed.

At the moment, pilot studies for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) systems propose the removal of CO2 by pumping it into holes deep underground, but it is both costly and has a long term risk of the gas leaking back out – possibly many miles away from the original downward source.

The Echinus melo or water melon sea urchin at Capo Caccia Alghero Sardinia. Source: Wikipedia

“We had set out to understand in detail the carbonic acid reaction – which is what happens when CO2 reacts with water – and needed a catalyst to speed up the process.

“At the same time, I was looking at how organisms absorb CO2 into their skeletons and in particular the sea urchin which converts the CO2 to calcium carbonate.

“When we analysed the surface of the urchin larvae we found a high concentration of nickel on their exoskeleton. Taking nickel nanoparticles which have a large surface area, we added them to our carbonic acid test and the result was the complete removal of CO2.”

Each year, humans emit on average 33.4 billion metric tons of CO2 – around 45% of which remains in the atmosphere. Typically, a petrol-driven car will produce a ton of CO2 every 4,000 miles.

Source and further reading: The Telegraph

Almost all of the major nuclear-decommissioning projects at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria are behind schedule and many of them are over-budget according to a Parliamentary inquiry into Britain’s “failing” nuclear-reprocessing industry.

The findings will reinforce concerns that the Government’s strategy for dealing with nuclear waste is unravelling following the refusal last week of Cumbria County Council to allow the drilling of a deep underground repository for high-level waste in the Lake District.

In a highly critical report the influential Public Accounts Committee said that of the 14 major projects at Sellafield, 12 are behind schedule and five of them are costing more than anticipated, yet the private companies running the plant are being paid handsomely without taking on any risk.

One project in particular, the plan to build a giant construction called Evaporator D to deal with liquid radioactive waste, has not been good enough and is 18 months behind schedule and almost £250m over-budget since 2009, it says.

At the same time, nuclear executives seconded from private companies are being paid “huge salaries”, averaging £690,000, by the taxpayer without any pay caps. One director was paid just over £1.2m, the report says.

Source: Independent

Then there is Scientists on the Road, an educational outreach project I coordinate and aims to engage with pupils and enhance their scientific understanding by providing hands-on interactive workshops at schools in the UK.  We are still at the beginning but the initial signs look very promising.

Snow days in the village. It was beautiful but railways were a mess for about a week @Athena Drakou

Finally, there is the Antarctic Ocean Acidification expedition. This takes most of my time at the moment, including weekends, but it is a very exciting project. The team on board RRS James Clark Ross sends material (posts, descriptions, photos, videos) every day. The wildlife in the Southern Seas is fantastic; we have posted in the blog some wonderful photos.

I also spend some hours a week (or at least I try) to Greek issues. So many things happen in Greece lately, I am really struggling to keep up with the news. The gold mining in Chalkidiki and the division it has created in the local communities it is one of the topics that interest me and try to learn more.  

In the meantime, …… I try to set aside some time to catch up with my reading and art, without sussess, I must admit! 

Press Release – 07 January 2013

To begin 2013 with a big bang, a team of thirty scientists, from eight of the UK’s top research laboratories, will be setting out on an oceanographic mission to study the effect of ocean acidification in waters near Antarctica. The five week long research cruise, aboard the Natural Environment Research Council’s RRS James Clark Ross, departs on 8^th January for some of the coldest waters on Earth.

The ocean is an integral part of the climate system. By absorbing large amounts of the carbon dioxide (CO₂), mostly produced as result of our use of fossil fuels, the ocean helps to slow the rate and severity of climate change. The global ocean has absorbed more than 30% of the total CO₂ produced by human activities in the past 200 years. While this can be seen as a benefit, the down side is that as the ocean absorbs more and more CO₂ its chemistry changes and the seawater moves down the pH scale towards acidity. This process is known as ocean acidification.

Cold waters provide best indications

Cold waters naturally hold more CO₂ than warmer waters so the icy Southern Ocean is expected to be especially informative for studying the effects of ocean acidification. Additionally, deep-water upwelling around Antarctica brings water to the surface that already contains very high levels of CO₂. For these reasons, the waters of the Southern Ocean are likely to provide a unique window into how the marine environment will respond to higher CO₂ levels in the future. This expedition will include a visit to the Weddell Sea, which has some of the coldest surface waters (-1.8⁰C) anywhere in the world.

During the expedition, scientists will study the impact of the changing chemistry on marine organisms and ecosystems, on the cycling of carbon and nutrients in the sea and on how the sea interacts with the atmosphere to influence climate.

James Clark Ross – Antarctic OA Cruise 2013

Parallel investigations

Firstly, the researchers will look at how ecosystems vary between locations where the chemistry of seawater is naturally more acidic and those where it is more alkaline. This approach will provide insights on how acidification may affect organisms living in their natural environment, where natural selection and adaptation have had time to play out.

A second approach is experimental, using tanks of natural seawater collected from the upper ocean and brought into controlled conditions on deck. This natural seawater will be subjected to various levels of carbon dioxide that are likely to occur in the future.

Dr Geraint Tarling, a British Antarctic Survey Researcher and the leader of this expedition says: “This is the most comprehensive investigation into the response of the Southern Ocean ecosystem to ocean acidification yet mounted. The investigative team encompasses some of the most experienced marine researchers from the UK. The team will not only look at how different parts of the ecosystem respond in isolation, but also see how effects interact to produce an ecosystem-level response. The work on this expedition will build on recent evidence of ocean acidification dissolving the shells of marine snails, known as pteropods, in the Southern Ocean that was recently published in Nature Geoscience (*for reference, please see notes).

Professor Toby Tyrrell from the National Oceanography Centre and coordinator of the UKOA Sea Surface Consortium added: “Another reason for visiting the Southern Ocean is that it is also an unusually stable environment, with surprisingly little seasonal variation. The sea remains extremely cold even in summer. As the local organisms are not exposed to much natural variation, they could be more susceptible to human-induced variations. It is important for us to find out whether this supposition is correct.”

Notes for editors:

The study is part of the UK Ocean Acidification research programme (UKOA), jointly funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Research cruise blog at http://www.antarcticoacruise.org.uk

Follow on Twitter @AntarcticOA

Research cruise led by Dr. Geraint Tarling (E: gant@bas.ac.uk)

Project Coordinator: Prof Toby Tyrrell (E: Toby.Tyrrell@soton.ac.uk)

Knowledge Exchange Officer: Athena Drakou (E: a.drakou@soton.ac.uk)

Participating marine research centres and universities

• British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
• Marine Biological Association (MBA)
• University of Southampton
• National Oceanography Centre (NOC) – NERC
• Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)
• Scottish Marine Institute (SMI)
• University College London (UCL)
• University of Essex

Information on 2012 research cruise: Comparable studies have already been carried out by UKOA researchers in Arctic waters, also using RRS James Clark Ross. That month-long research cruise (1 June – 2 July) involved 34 scientists from 8 different institutes. More information, including the research cruise journal, can be found at:

Arctic OA Research Cruise: http://www.arcticoacruise.org/

Sea Surface consortium website: http://www.surfaceoa.org.uk/

UKOA website: http://www.oceanacidification.org.uk/

* First evidence of ocean acidification affecting live creatures in the Southern Ocean: The shells of marine snails – known as pteropods – living in the seas around Antarctica are being dissolved by ocean acidification according to a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience on 25 November 2012. These tiny animals are a valuable food source for fish and birds and play an important role in the oceanic carbon cycle.

N. Bednaršek. (2012). Extensive dissolution of live pteropods in the Southern Ocean. Nature Geoscience. 5, 881–885. Doi:10.1038/ngeo1635