Allen Lew's Thoughts » Science

Understanding climate change and weird weather

Allen Lew — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:36:25 +0000

No, you cannot blame individual events like [the tornado in Brooklyn] on climate change, as it was possible for them to occur even without the human-made changes to the atmosphere. However, it is fair to ask whether the human changes have altered the likelihood of such events. There the answer seems to be yes. Storms driven largely by latent heat, and that includes thunderstorms, are expected to become stronger as the air becomes warmer and contains more moisture. Global warming does cause just such a tendency.

-James Hansen, scientist at NASA

Turning food wrappers into fuel

Allen Lew — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 22:19:30 +0000

NY Times:

“Dr. [Richard] Gross, a professor of chemistry at Polytechnic University, in Brooklyn, is turning plant oils, of the kind already used to make biodiesel, into “bioplastic.” The plastics can be films or rigid, as are commonly found in food packaging. Then he uses a naturally occurring enzyme to break down the plastic into fuel.”

Probably the closest thing we got to a Mr. Fusion yet. (via Treehugger)

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An Inconvenient Truth

Allen Lew — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 07:00:17 +0000

I finally got a chance to this movie and all I can say is wow. It’s been said this movie will terrify you, and it will. It puts together so much information on global warming. After seeing this movie, I feel as though I am more equipped to talk about global warming. Al Gore’s presentation is terrific; as others have described, he is funny, passionate, and not how he was seemingly portrayed in the 2000 election. I went with my friend to this movie, a global warming skeptic. While it did not make him as passionate about global warming as Gore, it did convince him that global warming is real and is a problem. That makes it all the more easier to see the power of An Inconvenient Truth and to recommend it.

Take your friends to see it, especially the skeptics. You can even get help paying for tickets or if you want to donate for others to see this movie, check out Sharethetruth.us (via Lessig).

Top 10 Accidental Discoveries

Allen Lew — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 05:11:07 +0000

The 10 Greatest Accidental Discoveries- Proving that even accidents produce great results. (via Digg)