Naked Mole Rats are able to live in Acidic Enviroment!

Naked mole rats are making a steady progress on being able to live in an acidic environment where other mammal’s even humans would not be able to do! In African naked mole-rats burrows the carbon dioxide levels build up where the air become too toxic for other mammals but for the naked mole rats they go on with their daily business, the air does not do any harm to them. As scientist Thomas Park said, ‘Much of the lingering pain of an injury for example is caused by acidification of the injured tissues.’ He also said that Acidification is an unavoidable side effect of injury. So these animals feel no pain from air of the environment they are living in. He said there should be new ways in which humans could be able to have that effect. In the nose of the naked mole rat it has nerve fibers that are then activated by the fumes, triggering the nucleus, of the nerves in the brain stem. The scientists then tried a few different tests putting the naked mole rats into different cages of different acid fumes, the animals could do what they wanted and the scientists kept track of what they were doing. They also compared their behavior with mice, rats, and other rodents related to them. Park said, ‘the naked mole rats spent as much time exposing themselves to acidic fumes as they spent in no fume areas’ but other species avoided the fumes. 

So this news was really cool and interesting because I guess I never really hear information about rodents and smaller creatures.  But when they talk about them being able to live in an environment with toxic fumes where humans and other mammals cannot, is very interesting. 

Bibliography

"Naked Mole-Rats May Hold Clues to Pain Relief." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120921180752.htm>.

Otters protecting the Kelp Forest

Researchers in Santa Cruz have discovered the big population of sea otters eating sea urchins which then you see the sea urchins eat the kelp and with the sea urchins being eaten there is more kelp to grow which absorbs 12 times the amount CO2 (carbon dioxide). As scientist Wilmers said, ‘The animals can have a big influence on the carbon cycle.’ The sea otters have a big affect when they are out and around the sea urchins are hiding and eating little bits of kelp scrap but when the otters are not there they graze a lot on the living kelp. Carbon dioxide has increased 40 % ever since the industrial revolution, which causes global warming. Scientist Wilmers and Estes say ‘that spreading the otter population will not do anything but just managing the populations can affect ecosystems.’ Because you see many animals in the world all work differently so they all impact the carbon cycle.  If ecologists can get a better handle on it then it could be good for both ways, animals can be protected, can both eat and carbon could still be absorbed. And that could be hard because there is no easy solution. So the otters are protecting their kelp forest.

 In my opinion this is cool because I never would have thought that only humans would have effected the carbon cycle with their fuels and gases creating global warming, where as animals like sea otters can help take out some of the carbon dioxide. 

Bibliography

"How Sea Otters Can Reduce CO2 in the Atmosphere: Appetite for Sea Urchins Allows Kelp to Thrive." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 07 Sept. 2012. Web. 09 Sept. 2012. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120907161437.htm>.

Super Fuel Cell Material

Scientist have found a way to use fuel cells to change it into a source of electricity for technology. It can power electronic devices, vehicles, and even military aircraft equipment! The fuel cells convert the energy from hydrogen fuel into electricity by reacting with oxygen. It can produce electricity continuously as long as it has a fuel supply. They would use platinum as the catalyst to speed up the chemical reaction but because it costs so much instead they use other fuel cells. A team of researchers have discovered that if you replace the center of the catalyst with gold and copper and having the outer layer in platinum, it is 5 times higher activity and better stability than the platinum catalyst. So the company is coming up with new alternative that uses less platinum.  ‘They have designed the core of nanocrysytalline material to be a gold- copper mixture and slightly smaller lattice spacing than the platinum coating on the nanocrystals surface’, said professor Ying. This then makes it compressive on the surface of the platinum atoms. This then makes the atoms more active, then reducing the oxygen for the fuel cell. But replacing the core with the nanoparticle the cuts down on the platinum, which is very expensive. So because of this we can make advance fuel cell development, and make it better for technology.  

I think it is really cool how they can use fuel cells to change into a source for technology. And making it just by reacting Hydrogen with oxygen. So this is my current event hope you enjoyed it!

Bibliography

"Superior Fuel Cell Material Developed." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 Aug. 2012. Web. 02 Sept. 2012. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120824103022.htm>.