Author Archives: gaussling

About gaussling

Gaussling is a senior scientist in the chemical business. He occasionally breaks glassware, spreads confusion and has been known to generate new forms of hazardous waste. Gaussling also digs aerospace, geology, and community theatre.

Not-so-brave new world

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A blog called The Legal Satyricon has an excellent essay on the demise of Senator Russ Feingold. I am compelled to chime in and second the motion. Feingold understands the social equilibrium principle of civil liberty. But a growing population of voters apparently do not.  Feingold’s opposition to the Patriot Act was truly an act of integrity.  He understood the ratchet-like progression of governmental power and saw the Patriot Act, a piece of legislation that seemingly appeared overnight, for what it was. An overreach into the lives of American citizens. An overreach that involves weapons, surveillance, and more rigid control over citizens.

But fearful citizens wielding felt tip markers filled in the ballot bubble for the other candidate and Feingold is out. The fearful imagine they are for basic virtues like liberty, but in fact they pull the covers up to their eyes and vote away civil liberties.

Fear of terrorism is fear of an idea. The “War on Terror” is a blindingly stupid and misleading slogan. This kind of sloganeering betrays a basic educational deficit on the part of elected officials. The same applies to the “War on Drugs”. 

Al Qaeda and the extremisms born of Islamic fever are actions based on a philosophy. There are no armies to fight. There are no uniforms and no enemy insignia’s to put the cross-hairs on.  Only the civilian believers in a notion carry this fight forward.  You can’t hope to win a war on an idea by military invasion.  The War in Afganistan is a bug hunt.  As soon as the lights go off, the bugs come back out. The Soviets discovered this the hard way.

Al Qaeda, then based in Afganistan, slams civilian jets into architectual symbols of American power.  The US responds by lavishing massive invasion forces upon Iraq and sending modest forces to Afganistan.  America’s leaders, lead by that vacuous symbol of virtue, George Bush II, seemed bent on knocking somebody down .  So we went and knocked somebody down. 

We tipped the hornets nest of Iraq and unleashed a pornographic orgy of fratricide. Perhaps the tragedy of Iraq’s expression of rage was inevitable no matter how its evolution played out.  Political outrage fueled by inconceivable injustices and inhumanity brought into sharp focus by Iron age religious doctrines lead to a suicidal conflagration of Iraqi society.  In truth, as a Russian colleague once suggested while we sat in my living room drinking vodka and watching Gulf War 1 unfold on CNN, westerners have no business meddling  in that part of the world because we do not understand it. Its history and rythms are alien to us.  He was right. Meanwhile, Afganistan continues to produce most of the worlds morphine which, when acetylated, gives heroin.

America’s ability to project power is a wondrous thing to behold. We are genuinely good at it. Ask us to solve the problem of poverty or drug abuse and we’ll come up with some rheumatoidal public apparatus to throw money at some of it while the smug and secure bitch about socialism.

But ask us to deliver a missile payload of high explosives into a window from 12 thousand miles away, we’ll spare no expense and put the best minds on it.  We’ll put DARPA on the trail and devise new materials and electronics. Hell, we’ll even put up satellites just so’s we can watch a million dollar explosion on TV.  At least a part of the tragedy of 9/11 is the unleashing of our reflex to make war.  There is a dubious future in armed conflict and we should hold elected officials more accountable when they make war in our name.

Th’ Gaussling’s 14th Epistle to the Bohemians. Enjoy the Ineffable.

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Here is a great title for a post- “Effing the Ineffable“.  I wish I’d thought of it.  The author, Roger Scruton, a philosopher, attempts to circumscribe the indescribable and unquantifiable by revealing those who have tried to describe the ineffable. His conclusion is to relent and accept it.  

Having a brain and sensing the external world means that our sensory apparatus and our internal private monolog are interpreting a continuous stream of perceptual input whose format is based on the constraints of molecules and molecular orbitals. Is it possible that this organic object- the brain- is capable of  a broad enough spectrum of perception that it can understand its place in the universe?

I too am tempted to eff the ineffable. Like my philosophical predecessors, I want to describe that world beyond the window, even though I know that it cannot be described but only revealed. I am not alone in thinking that world to be real and important. But there are many who dismiss it as an unscientific fiction. And people of this scientistic cast of mind are disagreeable to me. Their nerdish conviction that facts alone can signify, and that the “transcendental” and the eternal are nothing but words, mark them out as incomplete. There is an aspect of the human condition that is denied to them. –Roger Scruton

Scientists are reductionists by nature. Scientists naturally seek an irreducible representation of a phenomenon and attempt to describe it symbolically. The symbols may be words or mathematical constructs (what ever it takes to get through peer review).

I think where scientists are not so welcome is in the aesthetic domain of the human experience.  Perhaps our place in the universe is simply to be the conduit through which the broader universe is self-aware. We sentient beings should enjoy that role and have some fun with it.

Will Academics Ever Teach Industrial Chemistry?

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I’ve spent some of my time cheerleading for the profession of chemistry and offering some insights into non-academic career paths that are perhaps less well known.  I’ve tried to offer a positive view on the field, despite the name of the blog, and advance some arguments for why a practitioner of chemistry should be optimistic about the future.

There are some practical difficulties with chemistry as a lifelong field of endeavor relating to the matter of career growth and limitations therein.

Imagine that you are a brightly feathered bird with a very strict diet. Let’s say that you are an exotic bird who feeds on the fruit of a rare tree that grows only on the south facing bank along the headwaters of a minor tributary of a tributary of the Amazon river.  This is the condition many if not most PhD scientists find themselves in.  A company has to limit the number of PhD’s in the organization because they are expensive and can be a little particular about what they do. They are the generators of company technology and IP. It’s hard for a CEO who has come up the ranks through sales and marketing to win an argument with a scientist on matters of technology. That is why you have VP’s of Technology.

Scientists are problem solvers. Some scientists are well suited to industrial activity with a knack for rapid solution of applied science problems. Their work has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Others are, well, eggheads. Some PhD’s couldn’t close the loop on a project if both ends were tied with red yarn to their wrists. They are more interested in the elegance and texture of the system than the punctilious adherence to schedules and timelines.  There is a place for eggheads in industry as well.

I love the science of chemistry. It wraps around the peculiar topography of my consciousness nicely. It satisfies my need to understand the fine material mechanisms of the universe. I crave the next insight into the nuances and subtleties of the material world.  And I’m referring to the fraction of the universe that we can observe- Bright Matter. Dark matter leaves me cold and unmoved. I just don’t care about it at this point.

Realistically, to be in chemistry you need to be in an organization. A chemist without an organization is like a diplomat without a country. The act of obtaining raw materials, processing, and disposing of waste is a tangled mass of regulatory webbing requiring D&B numbers, permits, and money- lots of money. A chemist requires a place to work. At least experimentalists do.

But these issues still do not get to the heart of the question of alternatives to the laboratory. At the heart of the matter, is the question of the dreaded glass ceiling. Chemists have some omissions in their professional education that limit their access to the rarified hights of of industry. I’ve written about this before.

A BA/BS degree in chemistry is a course in science, not industry. The bachelors degree in chemistry is very much oriented to the Three Pillars of Chemistry- Theory, Synthesis, and Analysis. Graduate studies in chemistry are the same.  Chemistry graduates are versed in chemical problem solving because that is what the ACS curriculum demands and what the faculty are able to produce. This is perfectly reasonable.

However, the commercial practice of the chemical arts and sciences requires much more than what the ACS curriculum provides. Industrial chemistry requires managment of material and human resources. It requires the ability to lay out a timeline for multiple, parallel activities and meet deadlines. It requires knowledge of generally accepted business practices in the form of sales, accounting, shipping & receiving.

What are the duties that academia might have to the world outside the cloister? Is the role of academia limited to the continuation and purity of the profession or does it have any obligation to the pragmatics of the outside world? Faculty are always glad (or relieved?) to see their graduates find careers.

Go to the website of any chemistry department and look at the research interests of the faculty. Aside from the faculty who are not research active any longer, it is easy to see in every listing a snapshot of what was considered hot research at the time of hire. Research is a lifelong activity and we all have to pick a specialty to hope to retain some kind of comprehensive expertise.

What you will never (?!) see in a listing of chemistry faculty interests are topics related to industrial issues. Chemistry faculty hires are often chosen for their connection to what are considered cutting edge research topics of the time.  The rationale is that this kind of hiring brings vitality and modernity to the department. It’s perfectly reasonable as long as the hireling can teach the core classes as well. Chemistry faculty hires in the area of industrial science don’t seem to happen. Whether it is because of ignorance of industry or that industrial chemistry is seen as derivative and therefore not cutting edge science I do not know.

How to help students going into industry? Take some business coursework. A minor in business is an easy place to start.

Intro to business
Accounting
Finance
Management
Business Law

What about more industrially related chemistry topics, say, for grad students?   Well, that only works if their advisors are of like mind.  I do not see that happening in my lifetime.

Geology has a subdiscipline called economic geology. It is concerned with the discovery and analysis of economically viable ore bodies as well as the extractive processes involved in the recovery of value.

Perhaps chemistry needs a subdiscipline in the area of operations management. Process economics and engineering are certainly covered in the Chemical Engineering course of study. Why have we partitioned chemists away from this? Again, it is the academic culture that is the driver. If they do not conceive of curricula and hire industrial faculty members, then the thing never begins.

Economic chemistry (Chemeconomics)- covers the economics of chemical manufacturing and the global chemicals market.  It is a subdivision of industrial engineering.

There are some books out there that attempt to address aspects of this. One on my bookshelf is by Derek Walker, The Management of Chemical Process Development in the Pharmaceutical Industry. While Walker’s book does not delve into economics, it does try to bridge the gap from lab to business issues.

Opening Night

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Our production of Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take it With You opened Friday night to a packed house. Saturday evening was right near capacity as well.  All of the organizational machinery clicked along nicely. Lights and sound effects went off as expected. The cast showed up in good spirits and ready to perform.

A hilarious scene from The Moon Theatre Company production of You Can't Take it With You. (Photo Credit- Berthoud Recorder, 2010)

I have to say that it is exceedingly gratifying to fill a venue and have the audience laughing through the play. We were unsure of the laugh lines initially, but now have a better idea of where they are. In the photo above, Mr Sycamore restrains Mr DePinna who is waving fireworks near the Internal Revenue man. Grandpa and Essie prepare for the worst. Note: I’m not in the photo.

I play an uptight Wall Street businessman and father of the young man courting the daughter of Mr Sycamore.  My acting job is to make the emotional transition from being against the marriage to being in favor of it.  Acting is a real hoot and I’m grateful that others will consent to allow me on the stage with them. Of course, it helps to be on the board of directors.

The Three Pillars of Conservatism: Fear, Greed, and Anger

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Every election cycle, we get to have a lingering look up the skirts of conservative dancers who tease the audience with alternating glimpses of their puritan knickers and their pasty white backsides. It is at once revolting yet fascinating in a sick kind of way.  Where are those dollar bills I brought …

Conservative Americans have made a virtue of fear, greed, and anger. This is one of the pure, crystalline forces of history. The Three Pillars of Conservatism.

Liberals fail in politics because they inherently misunderstand power and how it works. Conservatives have an innate grasp of power and suffer little from its wanton and extravagant use.  One never hears conservatives praising the ideals of the Greek thinkers. Conservatives are much more like Romans. The Romans made a show of conquest and of alignment to the doctrine and virtue of empire. Romans understood the value of bread and circuses. And that is what we get today every election cycle. A circus.

Notes from the stage

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Our community theatre project has gone from a spare time activity to the Monster that Ate Philadelphia.  Producing, directing, and acting in a production is somewhat more strenuous than it looks. Much more so when you have little budget and multiple jobs. 

The off-stage activity requires some acting as well. You have to convince actors and crew to set aside their natural suspicions and work without pay. You have to coerce local media to cover your upcoming production for free. You have to find lights, props, and materials for stagecraft. And you have to compel the public to plant their ticketed backsides in the seats. All in exchange for an evening of what you’re proposing to call entertainment.

Rehearsals have been brutal.  We have a cast of 19 for You Can’t Take it With You. Turns out that the probability of everyone showing up at any given rehearsal is somewhat less than unity.  Set construction from bare lumber and recycled flats to assembled and decorated flats has taken perhaps a hundred manhours with all of the running around.

Why do it?  Well, it’s Show Business!  What kind of a question is that?

Plutonium Mining

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The WordPress blog website comes with a feature on the dashboard that lets you know what key words people are using to find your site. I just got two hits from people looking for “Plutonium Mining”.  Some folks out there are really confused.

My dear fellow: one does not mine plutonium. One mines uranium and breeds it into plutonium.  Plutonium may be had from two successive neutron absorption and beta decay events starting with U-238. Plutonium has two more protons than uranium, so two beta decay events have to occur to increase the proton count by two in the nucleus. And making certain actinide nuclei even more rich in neutrons is one way to encourage beta decay.

The age of the solar system is just too great for the heavy actinides to be left over from regional supernovae atomic weight building events. But imagine if plutonium was found in abundance in ore bodies. No doubt museum shelves would be full of artifacts fashioned from plutoniferous minerals. Glazed pots and fertility fetishes made from the pretty rock.  Perhaps the Egyptians might have had glow-in-the-dark burial artifacts and a hieroglyph for radiation burn or sudden hair loss.

The Illuminating History of Rare Earth Element Technology

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Until the invention of the electric lamp, the illumination of living and working space was very much the result of sunlight or of combustion.  Since the development of fire making skills in prehistoric times, the combustion of plant matter, fossil fuels, or animal fat was the only source of lighting available to those who wanted to illuminate the dark spaces in their lives.

From ancient times people had to rely on flames to throw heat and an agreeable yellowish light over reasonable distances. A good deal of technology evolved here and there to optimally capture the heat of combustion to do useful work (stoves, furnaces, and boilers) from readily available fuels.

Lighting technology also evolved to maximally produce illumination from flame.  High energy density fuels that offered a measure of convenience for lamp users evolved as well. Liquid fuels like vegetable oils, various nut oils, whale oil and kerosene could flow to the site of combustion and were in some measure controllable for variable output. The simple wick is just such a “conveyance and metering device” for the control of a lamp flame. Liquid fuels flow along the length of a wick by capillary action to a combustion zone whose size was variable by simple manipulation of the exposed wick surface area.

The first reported claim of the destructive distillation of coal was in 1726 by Dr Stephen Hales in England. Hales records that a substantial quantity of “air” was obtained from the distillation of Newcastle coal. It is possible that condensable components were generated, but Hales did not make arrangements to collect them.  Sixty years earlier an account of a coal mine fire from flammable coal gases (firedamp) highlighted the dangerous association of coal with volatiles. So, flammable “air’ was associated with coal for some time.

By 1826 a few chemists and engineers were examining the use of combustible gases for illumination. The historical record reveals two types of flammable gas that were derived from coal- coal gas and water-gas. Both gases came from the heating of coal, but under different conditions. Coal gas was the result of high temperature treatment of coal in reducing conditions. It is a form of destructive distillation where available volatiles are released.  Depending on the temperature, there was the possibility of pyrolytic cracking of heavies to lights as well.

Water-gas was the result of the contact of steam with red hot coal or coke. The water dissociates into H2 and CO. Water gas is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, both of which are combustible. The formation of water-gas is reported to have been discovered by Felice Fontana in 1780.

One of the properties of burning coal gas or water-gas was the notably meager output of light from the flame. Workers like Michael Faraday and others noted that these new coal derived gases provided feeble illumination, but if other carbonaceous materials could be entrained, then a brighter flame could result. It was during the course of investigations on illumination with carburized water-gas that Faraday discovered bicarburet of hydrogen, or benzene.

About this time, an engineer named Donovan also noted that if other carbonaceous materials were to be entrained into water-gas, then the light output was enhanced. So, in 1830, engineer Donovan installed a “carburetted” water-gas lighting system for a short run in Dublin.

Coal gas was first exploited for lighting by the Scottish engineer William Murdoch.  Murdoch began his experiments in 1792 while working for Watt and Boulton in England. By the late 1790’s, Murdoch was commercially producing coal gas lighting systems. His home was the first to be lit with coal gas.

The carburization of water gas eventually became an established industry in America in the second half of the 19th century. The treatment of gases, especially with the discovery of natural gas in Ohio, increased the commercial viability of lighting with gas. Carburization of water gas was aided by the discovery of hydrocarbon cracking to afford light components that could be used for this purpose.

Here is where the subject of this post comes in. Since thorium is frequently associated with rare earth elements (REE)  the connection of REE’s to the issue of illumination begins in the laboratories of Berzelius in about 1825. Berzelius had observed that when thoria and zirconia were heated in non-luminous flames, the metal oxides glowed intensely.  But this was not a new phenomenon. Substances like lime, magnesia, alumina, and zinc oxide were known to produce a similar effect. Goldsworthy Gurney had developed the mechanism of the Limelight a few years before. In the limelight, a hydrogen-oxygen flame played on a piece of lime (calcium oxide) to produce a brilliant white glow.  This effect was soon developed by Drummond to produce a working lamp for surveying.

The work of Berzelius was an important step in the development of enhanced flame illumination. He had extended the range of known incandescent oxides to include those that would eventually form the basis of the incandescent mantle industry.  Thoria (mp 3300 C) and zirconia (mp 2715 C) are refractory metal oxides that retain mechanical integrity at very high temperature. This is a key attribute for commercial feasibility.

Numerous forms of incandescent illumination enhancements were tried in the middle 19th century. Platinum wire had the property of glowing intensely in non-luminous flames. But platinum was not robust enough for extended use and was quite rare and consequently very expensive. By 1885, a PhD chemist named Carl Auer von Welsbach patented an incandescent mantle which was to take the gas light industry to a new level of performance. Welsbach studied under professor Robert Bunsen at the University of Heidelberg.

Welsbach fashioned the incandescent mantle into the form that is familiar to anyone today who has used a Coleman lantern. The original mantle was comprised of a small cellulose nitrate bag that had been impregnated with magnesium oxide, lanthanum oxide, and yttrium oxide in the ratio of 60:20:20.  The mantle gave off a greenish light and was not very popular.

By 1890, Welsbach produced an improved incandescent mantle containing thoria and ceria in a ratio of 99:1. This mantle emitted a much whiter light and was very successful. Many combinations of zirconia, thoria, and REE metal oxides were tried owing to their refractory nature, but the combination of thoria-ceria at the ratio of 99:1 was enduring.

Welsbach made another contribution to the commercialization of REEs. Welsbach had experimented with mischmetal and was interested in its pyrophoric nature. He had determined that a mixture of mischmetal and iron, called ferrocerium, when struck or pulled across a rough surface, afforded sparks. In 1903 Welsbach patented what we now call the flint.  In 1907 he founded Treibacher Chemische Werke GesmbH. Today Treibacher is one of the leading REE suppliers in the world.

See the earlier post on REE’s.

REE’s in Greenland.

REE Bubble?

REE’s in Defense.

REE’s at Duke.

Mole Day Benediction. Gausslings 13th Epistle to the Bohemians.

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10/23/10.  Th’ Gaussling is spending a safe and sane Mole Day at an undisclosed location in Colorado. The gaity and frivolity of this years madcap festivities will be left to others. Th’ Gaussling has instead chosen to mark the date with a period of introspection and solemn meditation rather than the customary secular bacchanalian festivus.

Mole Day Benediction

Yea, followers of the Morse Curve and the illuminati Willard Gibbs, be true to the fundamental science and fear ye not. For, while ignorance is all around us, ye shall be rewarded for your toils in our beloved endeavor. Ye shall be granted deep insight and freedom from the terrors suffered by those who follow the ways of mysticism. Fear is not the way of science.

So it was and so it shall be. Thus spake Th’ Gaussling.

Wherein the Vagaries of Rare Earth Elements are Considered

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Th’ Gaussling was interested to read the August 30, 2010 issue of C&EN regarding the market situation with the rare earth elements. Or, at least certain rare earth elements (REE). The staff at C&EN has finally picked this matter up on their radar. Significant ore bodies are located in countries prone to reflexive autocracy, i.e., Russia and China.

More sgnificantly, as a friend and colleague recently pointed out, China has decided to exercise its Lanthanide fist in by slapping an embargo on rare earth materials available to much of the global market. The affected technologies include those using neodymium (or rare earth) magnets for power generation or motors. Rare earths are used in optics, ceramics, fuel cell membranes, and catalysts as well. It’s a pretty big deal for the rest of us. Lots of American R&D resources have gone into this technology.

This is the political chemistry of the REE’s. China is doing what China does- exercising national industrial policy through an emphasis on development of its natural resources. The USA, with its deep preference for free markets, is doing what it has done the last few decades- waking up surprised after a night of riotously drunken merrymaking in the marketplace. That is, responding to shortages well after the momentum has begun.

While US technologists were busy inventing things with REE’s, China was busy anticipating the upcoming demand for its REE’s. Why? Because raw mat sourcing is what R&D people do afterwards. They develop a widget and then ask how they will source the thing. Just natural. 

While the US was busy shutting down mining operations in the last decades of the 20th century, China has been systematically developing its resources.  China has an abundance of journals and workers devoted to REE technology.  The big corporate mind set in the US recoiled from investment in mineral wealth at home. A great many of the mining operations in the US are operated by Australians, Canadians, and South Africans. Somehow they are not afraid to extract minerals here, but the sons and daughters of the pioneers seem to be shy about it.

China seems more focused on developing its industrial base rather than its consumer base.  While there are some industrial policy lessons for the west here, the fact is that China is as China does.  We should not be surprised at this behavior.

The signals of a tougher Chinese trade stance come after American trade officials announced on Friday that they would investigate whether China was violating World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing its clean energy exports and limiting clean energy imports. The inquiry includes whether China’s steady reductions in rare earth export quotas since 2005, along with steep export taxes on rare earths, are illegal attempts to force multinational companies to produce more of their high-technology goods in China.

Despite a widely confirmed suspension of rare earth shipments from China to Japan, now nearly a month old, Beijing has continued to deny that any embargo exists.

Industry executives and analysts have interpreted that official denial as a way to wield an undeclared trade weapon without creating a policy trail that could make it easier for other countries to bring a case against China at the World Trade Organization. [Keith Bradsher, 10/19/10, NYT. Italics by Th’ Gaussling]

It’s not all doom and gloom. Molycorp has announced an IPO to raise funds for expansion and modernization of its Mountain Pass REE mine.  The geology of this ore body is described at this Cal Poly link.  One of the issues complicating the extraction of ore from this massive igneous and metamorphic carbonatite complex is the proximity to the Mojave National Preserve.

REE’s in geological context

In the cosmochemical bingo of hadean Earth, the landmass that we now refer to as Asia filled in the abundance bingo card with the rare earth group of elements. The combination of plate tectonics, crystalline partitioning of cooling magma, and erosion have lead to surface occurrences of rock rich in REE’s.   This group of metals is commonly defined so as to include Sc, Y, and the lanthanide metals. Others will include the actinides. All have a valency of  +3 in their natural compositions. A few of the lanthanides can attain +2 (Eu) or +4 (Ce, Pr) oxidation states, but these are unusual.  Sometimes scandium is left of the list. In other instances, both scandium and yttrium are left off the list.

A graph of lanthanide element abundance vs atomic number will show a saw tooth curve where the even atomic numbers will be represented with greater abundance. This phenomenon isn’t limited to the stretch of lanthanides and is referred to as the Oddo-Harkins rule.  One reference translated from Russian lists it as the Oddo-Kharkins rule (Ryabchikov, Ed., Rare Earth Elements, Extraction, Analysis, Applications; 1959, Academy of Sciences, USSR; Chapter by V.I. Gerasimovskii, Geochemistry of the Rare Earth Elements, p. 27).

It is not uncommon for REE’s to occur as a group in the same mineral, though Sc is often absent.  I’m aware of at least one mineral occurrence of Sc that is impoverished in lanthanides.  Among odd-numbered REE’s, Eu is especially low in abundance.

Within the REE group, two subgroups are often defined: the cerium subgroup (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, and Eu); and the yttrium subgroup (Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Ln, and Y).

The REE’s show some interesting attributes. According to the Goldschmidt classification, the REE’s are lithophiles, literally “silicate loving”. More to the point, lithophiles are oxygen loving. The REE’s are known to form refractory oxides.  REE’s are commonly associated with pegmatites and, according to Gerasimovskii,  have a genetic connection with granites and nepheline syenites.

See the later post on the illuminating history of rare earth elements.