Saturday, December 19, 2009

Bits and Pieces - Saturday Science Edition


A baby coelacanth was captured on video for probably the first time. Coelacanths are felt to be a link between fish and the first fishy organism that crawled out of the water.

Become a Facebook fan of your favorite chemical elements. Periodic chart with links here.

The West Bank and East Jerusalem Searchable Map includes lists of archaeological sites that have been surveyed or excavated since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. Palestinians and Israelis are working together on this project.

Clorox says it will no longer make bleach by reacting chlorine gas with sodium hydroxide. This will eliminate transport of chlorine gas by rail and truck for Clorox. But they plan to buy concentrated bleach and dilute it for consumer sale. They don't say who will be making that concentrated bleach, presumably by reacting chlorine gas with sodium hydroxide, or where it will be made.

The American Chemical Society and American Institute of Chemical Engineers say that we need a transparent, comprehensive analysis framework (pdf) for proposed energy solutions and give some of the characteristics such a framework should have. I have been griping about this for some time. Everyone does their own analysis, which never quite can be compared with any other.

Seven hundred of those squooshy maps that show graphically the relative sizes of, well, seven hundred variables. Also some animations to show how things have changed over time.

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