| EPA: Chemicals Found in Wyoming Drinking Water Might Be From Natural Gas Drilling Federal environment officials investigating drinking water contamination near the ranching town of Pavillion, Wyo., have found that at least three water wells contain a chemical used in the natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing. Scientists also found traces of other contaminants, including oil, gas or metals, in 11 of 39 wells tested there since March.The study, which is being conducted under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, is the first time the EPA has undertaken its own water analysis in response to complaints of contamination in drilling areas, and it could be pivotal in the national debate over the role of natural gas in America’s energy policy. [More] rss.sciam.com |
How Noise Can Help Quantum Entanglement Wouldn’t it be nice to be an electron? Then you, too, could take advantage of the marvels of quantum mechanics, such as being in two places at once--very handy for juggling the competing demands of modern life. Alas, physicists have long spoiled the fantasy by saying that quantum mechanics applies only to microscopic things.Yet that is a myth. In the modern view that has gained traction in the past decade, you don’t see quantum effects in everyday life not because you are big, per se, but because those effects are camouflaged by their own sheer complexity. They are there if you know how to look, and physicists have been realizing that they show up in the macroscopic world more than they thought. “The standard arguments may be too pessimistic as to the survival of quantum effects,” says Nobel laureate physicist Anthony Leggett of the University of Illinois. [More] rss.sciam.com |
The Death of a Playground Legend Billy Harris, who died on Jan. 3 at age 58, was a local basketball hero in the days before media overexposure. nytimes.com |
Keeping Coal Mines from Exploding Mining is the second most dangerous profession in the U.S., averaging 27 deaths for every 100,000 workers per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That safety record is now blown. On April 5th, 25 of the roughly 20,000 miners in West Virginia died in a tragic incident at the Upper Big Branch mine. Four remained missing as of Friday. The explosion appears to have been caused by a buildup of methane . An odorless, colorless, tasteless gas that you know as natural gas. It explodes at concentrations in the air of as little as 5 percent. The incident also could have been caused or exacerbated by coal dust, which is equally combustible. That's why we burn it to make electricity. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Readers Respond on "Revolutionary Rail" Digital Revolution Pathologists are traditionally seen as being detached from everyday clinical practice, which explains why we were so pleasantly surprised when we came across the interesting article “ A Better Lens on Disease ,” by Mike May. Even before the digital revolution, pathologists had developed rudimentary ways (mainly photographs) to capture histological images and submit them to one another for a second opinion. Nowadays such a procedure is adopted usefully at small hospitals in developing countries to refer unusual or difficult cases to internationally recognized European or U.S. pathology departments. [More] Pathology - Medicine - Histology - Health - Second opinion rss.sciam.com |