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peach
Bon Vivant
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Lead water mains
There's a lining of mineral deposit and oxide on the inside of old lead pipes which forms a protective coating. They're being replaced with MDPE where
ever possible for the health aspects but also because it has a really small internal bore and punctures quite easily when a construction worker hits
it. It also requires soldering with a torch to reseal it, whereas the MDPE pipe can be sealed back together (and otherwise manipulated) using push fit
fittings. And there's A LOT of lead per foot of it (it has really thick walls), making it expensive.
Meth
There was a famous radio commercial by the DEA I think, which was the first geared against a specific drug on public radio stations, about meth. Where
they listed all the things used in it's synthesis, like mercury, with sound effects of things electrically sizzling or burning.
It's complete rubbish of coarse, but if there was one group of drug makers I'd expect to mess up and leave traces of that kind of thing in the
product, it'd be meth labs. "Washing? Fuck that!". If only they listed some of the things used to produce pharmaceuticals. Genetically modified
E.coli, cue image of guy dying in hospital, spewing his guts out of every hole and bleeding from his nose, eyes and ears. "Uuuuuuuuh!"
The radiations
I had a very interesting and unexpected chat with one of the technicians involved with nuclear power stations. Who was explaining to me how the vast
majority of their waste has to be labeled as nuclear waste, yet barely has a signature. That includes all the hand towels from the toilets, gloves,
overalls, stationary and just about everything in the building, regardless of whether or not it's been near the nuclear material. Of coarse, it all
has to go out as commercial waste. And, being from that industry, no normal carrier will touch it. Coffee beans actually have a higher signature than
a lot of the waste they have to label and store away, for Greenpeace to draw flowers on.
[Edited on 28-6-2010 by peach]
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psychokinetic
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Entrepreneurial druggie listening to the radio hears:
| Quote: | Meth
There was a famous radio commercial by the DEA I think, which was the first geared against a specific drug on public radio stations, about meth. Where
they listed all the things used in it's synthesis, like mercury, with sound effects of things electrically sizzling or burning.
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"Aw sweet, thanks DEA!"
Besides the fact that they're wrong, do they really think that listing ingredients to the general public is helping?
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found
the object of his search.
I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”
-Tesla
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peach
Bon Vivant
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Given how many people think Ecstasy pills have heroin and rat poison in them, it's probably working.
A funnier alternative of what you're talking about is a video of the DEA making meth on youtube. Stellar! 
They've cut a lot of the work out but they're showing how you can get things from OTC pills and bottles. And they're wearing Hazmats, to make it
dramatic. If you're running a reaction and need a Hazmat, you probably don't know what you're doing. Things dangerous enough to require a Hazmat
shouldn't be in the air in the first place. The DEA certainly shouldn't be releasing them, with it often being illegal and the kind of thing they'd
use to shut down a drugs lab. I'm not involved with the environmental agencies or DEA, and I wouldn't release anything that dangerous if I could avoid
it, so wtf are they doing releasing it an airborne format?
Hazmats should only be used when you're cleaning something up you haven't produced.
I can think of far more effective methods of discouraging meth production and use than I've seen from any government body.
Shulgin had a big picture of him shaking hands with the head of the local DEA. Irony knows no bounds.
[Edited on 4-7-2010 by peach]
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cnidocyte
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What kinda crazy bastard swims in NaOH?
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hissingnoise
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The kinda crazy bastard that doesn't need soap?
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psychokinetic
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Well the guy on CSI sure got a good facial.
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found
the object of his search.
I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”
-Tesla
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MagicJigPipe
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| Quote: | | Well the guy on CSI sure got a good facial. |
Gross...
Not that there's anything wrong with that... ... ... ?
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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arsphenamine
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blood
CSI has interchangeably presented ninhydrin and luminol as absolute
tests for blood, sometimes for human blood uniquely.
Nevermind that ninhydrin will react with any primary or secondary amine,
and luminol with adventitious iron/copper/peroxides/isothiocyanates,
to name a few.
I stopped watching after they used luminol on a knife blade.
(hard wince followed by facepalm)
I imagine, but will never see, a CSI mashup in which Marg Helgenberger
declares that a particular luminol test showed presence of horseradish.
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psychokinetic
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*uses ninhydrin on wet patch of floor*
Look! The perp obviously pissed himself right here!
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found
the object of his search.
I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”
-Tesla
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MagicJigPipe
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Just saw an episode of CSI where one of the researchers poured acetone onto the hood of a car (bonnet for you UKers) and it bubbled and fizzed like he
had just poured an acid onto some bicarbonate salt.
The things we will do just to be dramatic...
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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psychokinetic
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The makers of CSI must go through so much vinegar ad baking soda.
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found
the object of his search.
I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”
-Tesla
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The WiZard is In
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Heated to 800o C.
Bomb-making for beginners
Bangers
An explosive cat-and-mouse game
The Economist
Nov 4th 2010
CONFLICT creates arms races. As in the struggle against computer hacking or drug
detection, stopping bomb-makers is a race between two kinds of innovation: creating
the bad stuff and detecting it. Intelligence agencies regularly draw up lists of
“substances of interest” and pass them on to firms that design and supply detection
technology, says Kevin Riordan, of Smiths, an aviation-security firm. But once a
substance can be routinely detected, terrorists will either attempt to conceal it better, or
make something else.
A dog’s nose is still a good detector for many explosives. Some have suggested bomb-
sniffing bees as a further step. But technology is the basis of the explosive- detection
business and it usually works either by examining the density of material using X-rays
or by using spectroscopy to detect the mass and mobility of molecules. For more
advanced machines, detecting a new explosive can be as simple as upgrading the
software. First, the new target is characterised, then an algorithm (a series of rules
programmed into a computer) is devised to detect it in scanned samples.
John Wyatt, a terrorism expert at SDS, a security company, says that only the most
advanced X-ray machines can flag up the pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) used in the
Yemeni cargo bombs. Other X-ray machines may find it if the operators know what to
look for (it should show up orange instead of blue). Swabs should pick up it up too
(removing traces of most explosives requires thorough scrubbing) but poor training
means that operators often use them incorrectly.
As military high-explosives have become harder to get hold of, terrorists have moved to
commercially available materials. Counter-terrorism experts fret about home-made
high explosives. But made in any useful quantity, these require large amounts of
suspicious substances. They are tricky to concoct and more likely to kill their makers
than their targets.
PETN, for example, is found in military devices such as landmines, and it is sold
commercially as a heart drug. But making it yourself requires two nasty acids to be
heated to 800°C. “If you don’t know what you are doing,” says Keith Plumb, of Britain’s
Institution of Chemical Engineers, “you have a 100% chance of death”. PETN is also
not particularly easy to detonate. That stymied the “underpants bomber” on a Detroit-
bound plane at Christmas.
Although American and British authorities have said the devices dispatched from
Yemen were intended to blow up aeroplanes and were capable of doing so, experts in
explosions and explosives are more cautious. Whether a bomb of this size could bring
down a plane would depend on the size of the aircraft and where in the hold it was
placed (next to the hull would be ideal). The bomb-maker has no control over either.
Hans Michels, a professor of safety engineering at London’s Imperial College, estimates
that about 1.5lb (0.7kg) of PETN could be packed into the kind of printer cartridges
used in the bombs. That is around a tenth to a fifth of the power of the bomb that blew
up a London bus in the bombing in July 2005. Something of this size, he reckons, would
destroy two rooms in a suburban dwelling. Or a synagogue.
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hissingnoise
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| Quote: | Some have suggested bomb-
sniffing bees as a further step. |
When you become proficient in bee-speak and they alert you of an explosive device they can also give you the correct spelling?
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MagicJigPipe
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMpXAknykeg
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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The WiZard is In
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Quote: Originally posted by hissingnoise  | | Quote: | Some have suggested bomb-
sniffing bees as a further step. |
When you become proficient in bee-speak and they alert you of an explosive device they can also give you the correct spelling?
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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Robomoths
The Economist 4iii00
NSECTS are not nearly as biddable as dogs or horses. Although they can perform
amazing feats of strength and dexterity on their own scale, that scale is so much
smaller than humanity's that it is not surprising they have been overlooked. With rare
exceptions, such as bees and silkworms, the insect world is a source of pests rather
than of pets or pack animals.
in an age of miniaturisation, however, a few researchers are wondering if more in-
sects might be harnessed to the service of man. one is John Hildebrand, a neurobiol-
ogist at the University of Arizona. As part of a project run by America's Defence Ad-
vanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), he and his colleagues have been working
with the giant sphinx moth to create a "bioot"--an animal that can be controlled
electronically by a human. They have designed a radio transmitter small enough to
attach to a sphinx moth without impairing its ability to fly. The next stage is to add a re-
ceiver to tell the moth where to go.
Moths may not be that bright, but Dr Hildebrand believes they can be manipulated in
rather the same way as a donkey is by dangling a carrot in front of its head, The "carrot"
he proposes is a sex pheromone-a mixture of chemicals that female sphinx moths give
off to attract males. It is potent stuff. Previous research has shown that a few molecules
are enough to attract a male's attention, and that, given a favourable wind, an amorous
male can find a mate who is several kilometres away.
One of the team's ideas is to fit male sphinx moths with small, radio-controlled
pheromone dispensers. A moth's pheromone-detectors are its antennae. It can work
out where pheromone molecules are coming from by comparing the signals from each
antenna, in the same way that a person works out the direction of a sound by
comparing signals from each ear. A moth's senses could be subverted by puffing
suitable molecules from a dispenser to steer it towards a chosen target.
That is a rather crude approach. Dr Hildebrand hopes to be more subtle. He has spent
much of his career examining how a moth's nervous system responds to the
pheromone, and he thinks he knows enough to steer a moth directly, without the need
for the chemicals themselves. He plans to do it by attaching electrodes to the nerves
involved and stimulating them appropriately-turning the moth into a genuine,
radio-controlled biobot.
That would be an interesting demonstration of mankind's powers over nature. Could
it also be useful? Brian Smith and his colleagues at Ohio State University have recently
shown that sphinx moths can be manipulated like dogs as well as donkeys. Pavlov's
early experiments on reflexes trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, by ringing
one every time they were fed with meat. Dr Smith's team has mimicked Pavlov by
training moths to stick their tongues out in response to a chemical called
cyclohexanone, which was puffed at them while they were fed sugared water.
The reason that this trick might be useful-and the reason for DARPA's interest-is that
cyclohexanone is a volatile component Of TNT, an explosive often used in landmines.
By releasing a swarm of trained moths over a minefield, and observing where they
stuck their tongues out, it should be possible to locate mines without risk either to
people or to expensive mine-detecting machinery.
It is hard to see if a moth is sticking its tongue out at a range of several hundred
metres. But Dr Smith has thought of a way round that. He can sense when a moth is
blowing a raspberry by attaching a wire to the muscle that controls the insect's tongue,
and using it to transmit a signal via one of Dr Hildebrand's tiny electronic backpacks.
If lepidopteran mine detectors work, they could be the start of a new industry. The
rate at which video cameras are being miniaturised means that they, too, may soon be
light enough for insects to carry. That would have obvious military applications, even if
one countermeasure is obvious, too: surrounding sensitive installations with giant
candies.
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hissingnoise
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| Quote: | | It is hard to see if a moth is sticking its tongue out at a range of several hundred metres. |
Wow! Several hundred metres?
I had no idea their tongues were anything like as long as that!
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The WiZard is In
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For your information — amusement
Detecting landmines
Ratting on mines
Most mine detectors make a buzzing noise. Some go squeak, squeak
PEOPLE who think of rats as vermin may wish to reconsider. With proper
training, the animal could turn out to be man's best friend, at least if the man in
question lives in an area with unmapped minefields. Apopo, a Belgian charity, is
exploring the use of African giant pouched rats-prized hitherto only for their
meat-as "biosensors" capable of locating landmines.
The idea of using animals to find mines is hardly new. Researchers have
studied ways to harness bees' and cockroaches' keen senses of smell to detect
explosives, and dogs are already used in de-mining work. But according to Ron
Verhagen, the chief scientist at Apopo, rats offer a number of advantages when
it comes to locating mines.
First, despite their impressive size for a rodent (25cm from nose to tail when
full grown), they are too light to set off mines if they tread on them. They are also
faster learners than dogs, and their behaviour is easier to decipher and control
than an insect's. Unlike dogs, rats do not require the care and attention of a
dedicated trainer. Since they live on a diet of nuts and fruit, they are cheaper to
feed than their canine competitors. They are easier to house and transport than
dogs, and being African animals, are immune to most of the tropical diseases
that afflict imported dogs. The rats' only weakness is that they are nocturnal, and
therefore prone to heat stroke.
To train their rats, Apopo's scientists blow air containing explosive traces at the
animals. Using food rewards-bananas and avocados-the researchers have
taught their rats to signal what they sniff by pushing levers. The 80 or so rats,
known as Victor, Stefan, Nicholas and so on, are able to detect smaller amounts
of explosive than most existing biosensors.
Apopo is exploring two ways of putting the rats to work. One would be to use
the rats directly to detect landmines: they would be taught to scratch at the soil to
indicate a mine. The alternative is the opposite idea, having the rats confirm
areas to be free of mines. This would involve using mobile field laboratories,
keeping the rats caged-and cool-and collecting soil samples for them to sniff for
explosives.
Following two years of laboratory work in Belgium, Apopo scientists have now
moved to Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, where they are con-
ducting field tests with local scientists. The charity is also planning to conduct
tests in Angola, in conjunction with Menschen gegen Minen, a German
de-mining organisation. if all goes well, Victor, Stefan and their colleagues could
graduate from providing protein to sweeping for mines within the next two years.
The Economist 11 viii 01
djh
---
It has been said that —
in traditional Arab culture
the wife walked 3-paces
behind her husband. During
WW II they walked 3-paces ahead!
---------
c. Another antipersonnel device invented by the Germans and called the pistol
ground spike (fig. 127) was nicknamed the "castrator" by American soldiers. Device was
easy to plant and hard to detect, as little ground was disturbed. Operating as a
miniature mortar, the six inch hollow spike of a castrator was driven into the ground
flush with the surface. The projectile consisted of a small arms cartridge which was
dropped in the hollow spike, nose up. Stepping on the bullet exerted enough pressure
(4 pounds minimum) to release a spring that drove a striker against the cartridge cap
firing the round. Traveling upward, the bullet can penetrate foot, leg, or thigh.
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bquirky
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To be fair though i think a lot of Docters think medical TV shows are full of bolocks.
and alot of lawers & cops think law tv shows are bogus.
and I know that IT & Computer science is badly represented on TV.
and im sure the military and inteligence comunity are bemused too..
TV & movies are stylised fantasy designed to be fun and require a 'suspension of disbelife"
and id be willing to seriously put forwared the argument that the more chemistry on tv (no mater how Kewl) the better.
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12AX7
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I was watching Bones the other day and saw some truely despicable chemistry presented, associated with cyanoacrylates. Usually the show is somewhere
between good and tolerable.
Tim
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The WiZard is In
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Bad science in the comics
http://comics.com/ripleys_believe_it_or_not/
For 30 March 2011
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Neil
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Fun note, You spend hours upon hours making an experiment not only safe but idiot proof and the guy who yells at the guy who holds the camera will
find a way to make it look dangerous and out of control, and so is 'science TV' delivered to the drooling masses.
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hissingnoise
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I seem to remember a Roy Scheider movie thriller in which he played a businessman involved in the explosion-welding industry, but I can't seem to find
it on google . . .
Does anyone remember such a film?
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The WiZard is In
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| Quote: Originally posted by hissingnoise | I seem to remember a Roy Scheider movie thriller in which he played a businessman involved in the explosion-welding industry, but I can't seem to find
it on google . . .
Does anyone remember such a film?
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No, however, there was one where he was transporting "sweating"
dynamite through the jungle.
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/movie-dvd/sorcerer-dvd/1419993/
[Boy I am on the top of Google Robot list... I have to do the
CAPTCHA challenge-response test 5x to get in!]
The Analogue guy shelves —
Bernard Crossland
Explosive Welding of Metals and its Application
Clarendon Press 1982
JS Rihehart & J Pearson
Explosive Working of Metals
Macmillian 1963
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Mr. Wizard
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| Quote: Originally posted by hissingnoise | I seem to remember a Roy Scheider movie thriller in which he played a businessman involved in the explosion-welding industry, but I can't seem to find
it on google . . .
Does anyone remember such a film?
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"The Sorcerer" was a movie in which Scheider played a European exiled in search of money and a job. He and some other desperate people agree to
transport some 'sweaty' dynamite in three different trucks through the jungle to extinguish an oil well fire. I enjoyed the movie.
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hissingnoise
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I believe that one was a re-make of the French classic; "The Wages of Fear" in which nitro was transported in tankers over rough terrain to deal with
a misbehaving oil-well.
It really was a cracker - the remake, I'm told, a damp squib . . .
In the one I'm looking for I seem to remember Scheider striding across desert to a large flat-bed arrangement which was loaded with powder on a tray,
roughly smoothed over.
The FX, IIRC were nothing 'special' to put it mildly!
Oh, well . . .
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