The last time I went all number-crunchy on you, it was in response to the hyper-sensationalized media warnings of nuclear fallout from Fukushima, specifically in reference to dosage and radioactive iodine, NOAA Studies now show that radiation levels are well below the danger levels, even in fish swimming in contaminated water. Go Figure . We're going that route again, though on a slightly different subject, and now:
Everybody FREAK OUT!!! at least that's what the people in California and at NIH want you to do. They have found that a key ingredient in Coke and Pepsi causes CANCER!!
OK, now that I have your attention, lets dissect this headline a little. I heard this little tidbit while I was dutifully watching C-Span like every responsible citizen should (OK, so I'm a nerd, you did read the title of this blog right?) and there was a meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Women in Politics or something and one of them mentioned that regular people can have power too, just look at what the people were able to do concerning the cancer causing agents in Coke!
Now, this is of no small amount of concern to me since I usually have 1 coke per day, and I savor that moment. If my favorite carbonated beverage is causing cancer, I'm going to be a little put out. So I went and checked it out. I looked at the actual NIH Study and did some number crunching (this is the math part). Given certain facts like:
A. The cancer causing agent is in the caramel coloring (its called 4-Methylimidazole or 4-MEI)
B. There are about 130 micro-grams in each can (roughly the equivalent of a single grain of salt in your salt shaker)
C. The amount of 4-MEI given to test rats is ....large
D. Using their own dose numbers (30, 55 and 115 mg/kg per day), we can calculate that the average human (5' 8", 175 lbs.) would have to consume levels of 2.4, 4.4, and 12.3g of raw chemical, per day.
E. That amount of raw chemical is enough to color between 18,400 and 95,000 cans of coke PER DAY.
These numbers are shown not to cause cancer in laboratory test subjects (rats and mice). It not until we reach the extremely high dosage level of 24.6g/day (190,000 cans of coke) does the evidence of cancer shows up. Now, I like Coke, but I think that it is not physically possible for one to consume 190,000 cans of coke in a day, anyone?
Showing posts with label Odd Truths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Odd Truths. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Who would have guessed?
Apparently Peter Gabriel is a closet nerd. Two weekends ago The Boss went to a Peter Gabriel concert which was good according to him. But, the best part of the concert was not the music, the best part was a plug that Mr. Gabriel put in for something that is quite near and dear to the heart of The Boss and the soul of our company. These are not his exact words, but Mr. Gabriel said:
"Have you heard about some crazy scientists over in California? Apparently they are very close to making a fusion reaction in a laboratory setting, its something called the NIF project. They use these really big lasers and hit a small pellet of fuel to create Fusion. This is a really great thing, if they can get this to work this has the potential to create un-imaginable amounts of energy and could solve many of the earths energy problems, in addition to destroying many of the earths stores of nuclear material."
While I can not confirm the last portion of the statement, I can say that this is indeed what is happening, being intimately involved with this project my self. The science, physics and physical aspects of this project are really quite interesting. The premise is to use about 200 laser beams all focused on the same target. This target contains Fuseable material (usually an isotope of hydrogen), by increasing the temperature of the sample with those lasers it is possible (in theory) to force the atoms to fuse together. So what you say? Well Fusion has a much higher energy yield than Fission which is what happens in a Nuclear Reactor. Fission works by breaking apart unstable high Atomic weight atoms, Usually U235 or U238. When these atoms split They form two new atoms, BUT the weight of these two atoms when added together does not equal the original weight of the Uranium atom. The excess weight is converted into energy. Each split makes a set amount of energy dictated mostly by the mass difference between the uranium and its fission products, about 202MeV. There is another way to generate energy using the following Nuclear binding energy curve.
Uranium is far out to the right, and when it splits you move up the curve to the left. Fusion is better, it usually starts with hydrogen far to the left, when you fuse it you get a helium atom, some neutrons and energy. When you fuse an atom, you move up the energy curve to the right. At first look, at the released energy, it would seem fission is better (220MeV per reaction vs 4.03MeV per reaction for Hydrogen fusion). But if one takes into account the energy released per unit mass, the fusion reaction is about 5 times more energetic and doesn't have all the nasty nuclear waste products at he Fission does.
So the upshot is Fusion created a lot more energy using the same amount of fuel mass with less nuclear waste products than fission. This is not to say it is without its drawbacks, but if this works we'll have a limitless amount of energy at out disposal.
Thanks to Wikipedia for the chart above.
"Have you heard about some crazy scientists over in California? Apparently they are very close to making a fusion reaction in a laboratory setting, its something called the NIF project. They use these really big lasers and hit a small pellet of fuel to create Fusion. This is a really great thing, if they can get this to work this has the potential to create un-imaginable amounts of energy and could solve many of the earths energy problems, in addition to destroying many of the earths stores of nuclear material."
While I can not confirm the last portion of the statement, I can say that this is indeed what is happening, being intimately involved with this project my self. The science, physics and physical aspects of this project are really quite interesting. The premise is to use about 200 laser beams all focused on the same target. This target contains Fuseable material (usually an isotope of hydrogen), by increasing the temperature of the sample with those lasers it is possible (in theory) to force the atoms to fuse together. So what you say? Well Fusion has a much higher energy yield than Fission which is what happens in a Nuclear Reactor. Fission works by breaking apart unstable high Atomic weight atoms, Usually U235 or U238. When these atoms split They form two new atoms, BUT the weight of these two atoms when added together does not equal the original weight of the Uranium atom. The excess weight is converted into energy. Each split makes a set amount of energy dictated mostly by the mass difference between the uranium and its fission products, about 202MeV. There is another way to generate energy using the following Nuclear binding energy curve.
Uranium is far out to the right, and when it splits you move up the curve to the left. Fusion is better, it usually starts with hydrogen far to the left, when you fuse it you get a helium atom, some neutrons and energy. When you fuse an atom, you move up the energy curve to the right. At first look, at the released energy, it would seem fission is better (220MeV per reaction vs 4.03MeV per reaction for Hydrogen fusion). But if one takes into account the energy released per unit mass, the fusion reaction is about 5 times more energetic and doesn't have all the nasty nuclear waste products at he Fission does.
So the upshot is Fusion created a lot more energy using the same amount of fuel mass with less nuclear waste products than fission. This is not to say it is without its drawbacks, but if this works we'll have a limitless amount of energy at out disposal.
Thanks to Wikipedia for the chart above.
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