Wednesday 6 July 2011
The ' new geography' of the 21st century
Exploration and mapping of details in nanospace awaits our 21st century adventurers. In the late 1400's through to the 1700's Europeans set sail in their wonderful new ships to explore the new world with sextant and cartography equipment in hand. In the 20th century astronomers, astronauts and cosmonauts ventured to discover what lies out beyond our little planet in space to explore the other moons, planets, star systems and galaxies. Today as a global society we are just setting out on humanity's next big exploratory adventure. The world of the molecule and the atom has been described as the 'new geography' of the 21st century. What wonderful new worlds will we find 'down there' at the nanoscale? And how well will we choose to use our new found treasures? This exploration is already progressing at an ever accelerating pace. At this stage many fear that in nanotechnology 'there be dragons'.
Explaining global warming needs thinking with the idea of molecules
Try to explain global warming and you necessarily come to a point where you must use terms such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These are the gases that are increasing in the atmosphere due to our human activity. Molecules of three or more atoms capture the incoming energy of the sun in what is known as the greenhouse effect. That is why oxygen is not a greenhouse gas - it has only two atoms in a molecule.
Without the greenhouse effect the Earth would not be warm enough for life as we know it. But increasing the natural greenhouse effect by changing the balance of molecules in the atmosphere is the biggest global issue of our times. Capturing more of the incoming heat from the sun's rays means that the Earth is warming. A few degrees increase on averagemay not seem like much, but it will have disatrous consequences if we do not act promptly. Climates are changing all over the globe, with more extreme weather such as giant hurricanes are now occurring worldwide as predicted. This type of global temperature change has happened many times in the Earth's geological past, but today an increasing effect is racing out of control at a pace much faster than seen before.
To understand global warming, and judge the scientific evidence about it and what can be done to slow the effect, requires people to be able to think about molecules that act as greenhouse gases. Where do they come from? How do they influence temperatures?
To understand how methane captures about 25 times more heat than a carbon dioxide molecule is not hard - once you begin thinking with molecules.
Without the greenhouse effect the Earth would not be warm enough for life as we know it. But increasing the natural greenhouse effect by changing the balance of molecules in the atmosphere is the biggest global issue of our times. Capturing more of the incoming heat from the sun's rays means that the Earth is warming. A few degrees increase on averagemay not seem like much, but it will have disatrous consequences if we do not act promptly. Climates are changing all over the globe, with more extreme weather such as giant hurricanes are now occurring worldwide as predicted. This type of global temperature change has happened many times in the Earth's geological past, but today an increasing effect is racing out of control at a pace much faster than seen before.
To understand global warming, and judge the scientific evidence about it and what can be done to slow the effect, requires people to be able to think about molecules that act as greenhouse gases. Where do they come from? How do they influence temperatures?
To understand how methane captures about 25 times more heat than a carbon dioxide molecule is not hard - once you begin thinking with molecules.
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Everyday molecules
Last week I saw a kid walking down the street with a beautiful image on his tee-shirt - of a carbon nanotube molecular structure. Recently created complex molecules such as carbon nanotubes and buckyballs, along with carbon dioxide , methane and other greenhouse gases and DNA and are just a few of the molecules entering our everyday experience in this culture, at this time in history. You can even buy a tee-shirt online with your name written in molecules.
My research is showing children as young as six yesrs old today 'know' that H2O is water. They tell me, surprised I do not know already 'H2O is a brand of water'. This knowledge of the molecular is a major change from the recent past. Molecules have moved house. They are nolonger just in residence in scientists minds, they are moving into our everyday world. This is a major cultural change happening now in 21st century across communications rich societies.
And the knowledge is needed. We need to know what carbon dioxide is to think about issues of global warming. And just what are those nano-particle things that some people are so frightened of?
Unfortunately our education system does not seem to be keeping up with the times. Ideas of molecules and atoms, that material 'stuff' of the world is particulate is not included in school curriculum until early secondary years, in many places as late as Year 10. What does that leave our children thinking about and explaining ' the nature of stuff'.
My research is showing children as young as six yesrs old today 'know' that H2O is water. They tell me, surprised I do not know already 'H2O is a brand of water'. This knowledge of the molecular is a major change from the recent past. Molecules have moved house. They are nolonger just in residence in scientists minds, they are moving into our everyday world. This is a major cultural change happening now in 21st century across communications rich societies.
And the knowledge is needed. We need to know what carbon dioxide is to think about issues of global warming. And just what are those nano-particle things that some people are so frightened of?
Unfortunately our education system does not seem to be keeping up with the times. Ideas of molecules and atoms, that material 'stuff' of the world is particulate is not included in school curriculum until early secondary years, in many places as late as Year 10. What does that leave our children thinking about and explaining ' the nature of stuff'.
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