CO2 cuts, plutonium chaos, plasmas defeat superbugs

Posted on | November 26, 2009 | No Comments

Chinese CO2 cuts promised

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8380106.stm

Beijing said it will aim to reduce its “carbon intensity” by 40-45% by the year 2020, compared with 2005 levels.

Carbon intensity, a measurement unique to China, is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of GDP.

But experts say it will not necessarily mean an overall emissions cut as China’s economy is growing so rapidly.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says this is a commitment to make Chinese factories and power plants use fuel more efficiently and get better results, producing fewer greenhouse gases.

But that does not mean that the absolute levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will start falling, he adds.

China also announced on Thursday that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao would be attending the climate talks in Copenhagen, which aim to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gases.

Plutonium Cuts chaos

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8379956.stm

The British Pugwash Group (BPG) says the way 100 tonnes of the deadly powder is being stored is “ludicrous”.

Its experts fear the stockpile at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria – the largest in the world – could be a target for terrorists.

The government said the plutonium was stored safely and securely but recognised the need to make progress.

Sir Hugh Beach, said: “It’s a total absurdity that we should have 100 tonnes of separated plutonium sitting up at Sellafield in tin cans… that is manifestly ludicrous.”

The report also said the failure of a taxpayer-funded facility to make nuclear fuel from the plutonium was “scandalous”.

It said the UK had no policy to deal with the deadly material, which was reclaimed from used nuclear fuel by reprocessing, because there are no UK reactors which can use it.

anti-viral (and superbug) plasma

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8379604.stm

Writing in the New Journal of Physics, the authors say plasmas could help solve gum disease or even body odour.

Plasmas are a soup of atoms that have had their electrons stripped off by, for example, a high voltage.

It has been known for some time that the resulting plasma is harmful to bacteria, viruses, and fungi – the approach is already used to disinfect surgical tools.

“It’s actually similar to what our own immune system does,” said Gregor Morfill, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, who led the research.

“The plasma produces a series of over 200 chemical reactions that involve the oxygen and nitrogen in air plus water vapour – there is a whole concotion of chemical species that can be lethal to bacteria,” he told BBC News.

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