Category Archives: CounterCurrent

Thanksgiving Tofurky

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This year we tried Tofurky along with turkey for the thanksgiving meal. While my expectations were low, I have to admit that the Tofurky wasn’t quite as nasty as I had imagined. It is a seitan/soy product textured to resemble meat. Truthfully, in texture it resembles a firm bologna or salami lunchmeat. The package recommends that it be sliced thinly.

One plate holds a Tofurky. Can you tell which one it is?

Buried in mashed potatoes and real turkey gravy, the Tofurky was moderately edible. It is hard to say just how thankful the pilgrims might have been if Squanto had brought Tofurky to the feast. I’ll wager that the soiree would have gone badly.

Placer Gold Mining in the Wilderness

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I recently had the occasion to sit and talk to an independent gold miner. This fellow had spend many seasons in the Yukon doing placer mining and had a few useful things to say about it.

In my friends experience the Alaskan placer mining season is very short- just 100 days or 2400 hours per year.  In that time you have to get your operation in place and process enough gravel and sediment through the sluices or centrifuge to isolate enough gold to make the process profitable. Sluicing and centrifugation are just forms of classification and your system must be able to separate gold particles in a manner consistant with the particle size range prevalent in the claim.

It is not uncommon for gold to be heavily represented in the 400 mesh range, or ca 0.037 mm particle size. In the old days, miners recovered fine particulate gold using amalgamation. Some large operations like Ashanti Gold in Cripple Creek use cyanide heap leaching to isolate the fines.

Sluicing operations in Alaska require considerable cash input and preparation. Sluicing generates considerable suspended solid and turbidity in the streams and the EPA, BLM, and wildlife agencies will have to be satisfied that the environmental impact is understood and minimized. Permitting is therefore a major hurdle for potential sluicing operations beyond the small scale.

My friend said that continuous centrifugation was necessary to capture the 400 mesh gold fines in the district he worked. As the capital equipment requirements increase, the volume of sediment to be classified must be scaled up to bring a satisfactory return on investment. Manpower and ancillary equipment requirements increase correspondingly. Soon you have a camp to maintain, payroll, and a crew to feed. In remote locations, air cargo transport is necessary to bring in the machinery and supplies. There is no Home Depot down the road to supply duct tape. Just like on a trip to Mars, you have to anticipate all needs and haul it in ahead of time.

A modest mining effort soon becomes a large logistics and financing problem. It’s a wonder that anybody still does this kind of thing. But, yet, they do.

Hamthrax

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So, the slang name for the H1N1 swine flu is “hamthrax”. Pretty funny. I suppose it could be called spamthrax as well.

As a kid I lived for a time in an Iowa town that had a Hormel Spam processing plant. During the winter in particular, the town of Fort Dodge, Iowa, would smell like cooked Spam. Ft Dodge sits atop the Des Moines River valley. During the cold months the valley would fill to the brim with the odor of Spam. It was an odd experience to drive into town and be overwhelmed by the smell of potted spiced meat.

Ft Dodge was (is) also known for the vast gypsum deposit that sits underneath the area. The word was that hair from the hogs at Hormel was blended with the gypsum to add strength to the sheetrock that was produced. I don’t know if this is true, but it made a great story for countless toe-headed farm kids who drove by the gypsum plant and pondered how they got the hair from the hogs and into the wallboard.

Mole Day Thoughts on Lab Life

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I have come to the realization that, after a career of avoiding it, I really dig physical organic chemistry. While I do have the synthetikkers love for developing a synthesis, I really enjoy taking the rare opportunity to do a focused study on a single transformation or compound.  It is a stylized form of play that any developmental psychologist would recognize. Discovery is about learning, just like play, and many of the exploratory behaviors observed in play apply just as well to discovery (well, except for hitting and crying).

One way a scientist learns is by doing a search for boundary conditions. Where or how in parameter space does a thing change? What is the best solvent for the desired outcome? What effect does stoichiometry have? Does dry, inert atmosphere really make a difference? What are the best leaving groups? Yes, it’s just research. But there is more.

In order to claim that you have expertise with a substance or process, you must have an understanding of how a process or substance behaves under a variety of conditions. If faced with a product that is off spec and the prospect of having to rework or remake, it is very helpful to understand what conditions lead to the off-normal outcome. Either the chemist sleuths each upset for a cause, or the chemist goes in the lab and purposely exposes the process to off-normal parameters and analyzes the outcome, or both. After a while, patterns begin to arise and trends become apparent. This is play.

Seems bloody obvious. But in a production environment the opportunity to explore  parameter space is often not possible. Favor almost always finds the more practical, though short term, fixes. Production managers are not always chosen for their focus on the long term. They are short term oriented- a necessary predilection for timely delivery of product on a tight timeline.

Part of a good process development program is a study of how the process behaves in various upset conditions. This is important for understanding the thermal safety issues, but it also is a good time to take snapshots of how the composition of the process system behaves when it is out of whack.  A reaction profile under conditions of reagent mischarges or off-temperature can give many clues as to the operating window of the process. It can also tell you something about the best way to do an in-process check and define flags for particular types of upsets.

Many companies do this, but a good many find a way to gloss over such work.

Balloon Boy Still Missing

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So the breaking news in my neighborhood is that the Colorado Balloon Boy’s craft has landed, but the 6 year-old boy is missing. The balloon lifted off from a residence in Ft Collins and landed near Prospect reservoir, a few miles NE of Denver International Airport. He drifted at least 50 miles. Reportedly, the basket that was affixed to the balloon was not present at the landing site.

I can only say that as a former six year-old boy, I might not have been able to resist climbing into the balloon either.

Afghan Talibanistan

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Afghanistan is a country that spontaneously generates Taliban like the USA generates bowling leagues. Afghanistan is a country that produces most of the worlds opium (morphine) and depends heavily upon this form of produce. In case you’ve forgotten, heroin is acylated morphine. 

Afghanistan is a tribal confederation. The country has a very complex history of bloody invasion and occupation. Afghanistan is still gripped by fundamentalist religion and fierce tribalism- a fulminate and gunpowder combination. 

The USA exists as a democratic state today only as the result of a lengthy and self-imposed European evolution from medieval monarchy to democratic constitutional government over, say, 7-800 years from the signing of the Magna Carta to the US constitution. This is one metric. 

Afghanistan has not produced what the rest of the world would recognize as modern institutions and democratic ideals. Afghanistan did not produce a Magna Carta nor an intellectual renaissance producing steam power, electricity, metallurgy, or modern concepts of economics. In fact, much of Afghanistan outside of Kabul shows precious little interest in modernism of any sort.

So, the question is this- What do we hope to accomplish by our invasion of Afghanistan? Exterminate Al Qaeda? At its core, Al Qaeda is an idea. You cannot redirect intrenched ideas with an army.

Other than whack-a-mole military operations fighting insurgents who are armed by powers hostile to the US, we are left with trying to instill a sense of national identity by the installation of basic democratic ideals and institutions in what is little more than a tribal confederation. Afghans have no discernable history of gladly adopting western ideals. And the Afghans adhere to a religion that is poorly compatible with western ideals as well. How do US troops know if the bullets flying by are from the Taliban or from Al Qaeda guns? Just like Viet Nam, much of the indigenous population supports the insurgents either naturally or by coercion.

So, realistically, what does minimally acceptable success in Afghanistan look like? Would we recognize it if we saw it? How much residual Talibanism is acceptable to the occupying powers?

Retrocurricular Translocation of Post-Modern Emphasis in Chemical Pedagogy

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I couldn’t resist a sarcastic allusion to post-modernism, whatever the hell that is. What could possibly be under such a bullshit heading? Well, all of my tramping around chemical plants from Europe, Russia, North America, and Asia as well as local mines and mills keeps leading me to an interesting question. Exactly who is being served in the current course of chemistry education? Is it reasonable that everyone coming out of a ACS certified degree program in chemistry is on a scholar track by default? Since I have been in both worlds, this issue of chemistry as a lifetime adventure is never far from my mind.

What are we doing to serve areas outside of the glamor fields of biochemistry and pharmaceuticals? There are thriving industries out there that are not biochemically or pharmaceutically oriented. There is a large and global polymer industry as well as CVD, fuels, silanes, catalysts, diverse additives industries, food chemistry, flavors & fragrances, rubber, paints & pigments, and specialty chemicals. There are highly locallized programs that serve localized demand. But what if you live away from an area with polymer plants? How do you get polymer training? How do you even know if polymer chemistry is what you have been looking for?

Colleges and universities can’t offer everything. They attract faculty who are specialists in areas of topical interest at the time of hire. They try to set up shop and gather a research group in their specialty if funding comes through. Otherwise, they teach X contact hours in one of the 4 pillars of chemistry- Physical, inorganic, organic, and analytical chemistry- and offer the odd upper level class in an area of interest.

Chances are that you’ll find more opportunities to learn polymer chemistry as an undergraduate in Akron, OH, than in Idaho or New Mexico.  Local strengths may be reflected in local chemistry departments. But chances are that in most schools you’ll find faculty who joined after a post-doc or from another teaching appointment. This is how the academy gets inbred. The hiring of pure scholars is inevitable and traditional. But what happens is that the academy gets isolated from the external world and focused on enthusiasms that may serve civilization in distant ways if at all. The question of accountability is dismissed with a sniff and a wave of the hand of academic freedom. Engineering departments avoid this because they are in constant need of real problems to solve. Most importantly, though, engineers understand the concept of scarcity in economics. Chemists will dismiss it as a non-observable.

One often finds that disconnects are bridged by other disciplines because chemistry is so narrowly focused academically. It would be a good thing for industry if more degreed chemists found their way into production environments. I visited a pharmaceutical plant in Taiwan whose production operators were all chemical engineers. Management decided that they required this level of education. But, why didn’t they choose chemists?  Could it be that they assumed that engineers were more mechanically oriented and economically savvy?

Gold mines will hire an analyst to do assays, but metallurgists to develop extraction and processing. Are there many inorganic chemistry programs with a mining orientation? Can inorganikkers step into raw material extraction from a BA/BS program or is that left to mining engineers?

In my exploration I am beginning to see a few patterns that stand out. One is the virtual abdication of  US mining operations to foreign companies. If you look at uranium or gold, there are substantial US mining claims held by organizations from Australia, South Africa, and Canada.

So, what if? What if a few college chemistry departments offered a course wherein students learned to extract useful materials from the earth? What if students were presented with a pile of rock and debris and told to pull out some iron or zinc or copper or borax or whatever value may happen to be in the mineral?

What if?? Well, that means that chemistry department faculty would have to be competent to offer such an experience. It also means that there must be a shop and some kilo-scale equipment to handle comminution, leaching, flotation, and calcining/roasting. It’s messy and noisy and the sort of thing that the princes of the academy (Deans) hate.

What could be had from such an experience? First, some hours spent swinging a hammer in the crushing process might be a good thing for students. It would give them a chance to consider the issues associated with the extraction of value from minerals. Secondly, it would inevitably lead to more talent funneling into areas that have suffered from a lack of chemical innovation. Third, it might have the effect of igniting a bit more interest in this necessary industry by American investors. The effect of our de-industrialization of the past few generations has been the wind-down of the American metals extraction industry (coal excluded).

If you doubt the effect on future technologies of our present state of partial de-industrialization, look into the supplies of critical elements like indium, neodymium, cobalt, rhodium, platinum, and lithium. Ask yourself why China has been dumping torrents of money into the mineral rich countries of Africa.

I can say from experience that some of the most useful individuals in a chemical company can be the people who are just as much at home in a shop as in a lab. People with mechanical aptitude and the ability to use shop tools are important players. Having a chemistry degree gives them the ability to work closely with engineers to keep unique process equipment up and running efficiently.

Whatever else we do, and despite protestations from the linear thinkers in the HR department, we need to encourage tinkerers and polymaths.

This kind of experience doesn’t have to be for everyone. God knows we don’t want to inconvenience Grandfather Merck’s or Auntie Lilly’s pill factories. Biochemistry students wouldn’t have to take time away from their lovely gels and analytical students could take a pass lest their slender digits become soiled. Some students are tender shoots who will never have intimate knowledge of how to bring a 1000 gallon reactor full of reactants to reflux, or how to deal with 20 kg of BuLi contaminated filter cake. But I hasten to point out that there are many students with such a future before them and their BA/BS degree in chemistry provides a weak background for industrial life.

A good bit of the world outside the classroom is concerned with making stuff.  I think we need to return to basics and examine the supply chain of elements and feedstocks that we have developed a dependence upon. American industry needs to reinvest in operations in this country and other countries, just like the Canadians, South Africans, and Australians have. And academia should rethink the mission of college chemistry in relation to the needs of the world, rather than clinging to the aesthetic of a familiar curriculum or to the groupthink promulgated by rockstar research groups. We need scholars. But we also need field chemists to solve problems in order to make things happen.

Linkenschmutz

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Links found whilst thrashing about the internets on my computer machine.

RCS Rocket Motor Components supplies, well, rocket motor components for the serious “non-professional”. RCS offers propellants, casting resins (i.e., polybutadiene), bonding agents, tubes, and other pieces-parts for the rocket builder. Good stuff, Maynard.

It turns out that my fellow Iowegian and former US President Herbert Hoover published a translated and annotated version in 1912 of De Re Metallica by Georgius Agricola (1556). Hoover’s translation can be found on the web and a copy is on display at the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, CO. This work by Agricola is nothing short of amazing. A series of images of the text in the original Latin can be found as well.

It is interesting to note that Agricola (1494-1555)  and Paracelsus (1493-1541) were contemporaries in central Europe. Agricola, a Saxon, spent much of his time in Joachimsthal and Chemnitz whereas Paracelsus,  Swiss, is famous for being a bit of a wanderer. While I have not encountered a reference indicating whether these two polymaths had any knowledge of one another, they very much exemplify the meaning of Renaissance.

This USB temperature logger is pretty cool. I can hear it calling for me.

Here is a collection of links to monographs on Radiochemistry from LANL.

Missiles of September

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I’m writing to applaud the Obama administration in its decision to stand down the long range anti-missile defense deployment in Poland and the Czech Republic. Naturally that pillar of conservatism, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), lambasted the Obama administration for this decision. Playing to its fearful audience in the military-industrial-congressional complex, it pouted that

“The decision is a slap to America’s Polish and Czech allies, who had braved Russian intimidation in agreeing to host the sites.”  WSJ Sept 20, 2009.

Hmmm. Let’s see. The strutting roosters in the Bush Administration put Poland and the Czech Republic in the awkward position of hosting an American/NATO missile base within spitting distance of mother Russia. And who was surprised when Russia pitched a fit over this?  Irrespective of the stated purpose, real or not, the Russians went ape over the possibility of anti-ballistic missile capability being planted near its borders. Could it be that part of Russia’s strategic defenses include ICBM’s?

What tortured logic was used in coming to the decision that a missile base in former eastern-bloc countries would not set back US-Russian relations to 1960’s era levels of tension? Or did the Bush Administration people take this into account or even care?

“That is only one aspect of Mr. Obama’s mistake, however, because the Third Site was only partly about missile defense. No one ever believed that the basing of radars in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptors in Poland was a masterstroke of defensive strategic geometry … ” [italics by Gaussling]

“Rather, a central purpose of missile defense in Europe, on the doorstep of Russia, was alliance building. Its virtue was that it persuaded America’s allies that our common defense included a global ballistic missile defense system. In the near term it was to demonstrate that when it came to the threat posed by Iran, the U.S. and its NATO allies would stand together: Iran—aided and abetted by Russia—would not hold Europe hostage and the NATO powers would confront the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of a radical Islamic regime. Mr. Obama’s biggest mistake is that, just as the Third Site was meant to build alliances, its cancellation will undermine them.”  WSJ Sept 20, 2009.

I am hearing consistently that the proposed missile shootdown capability is hardly robust or proven effective. So we proposed to put a questionable system on the doorstep of Russia in the hope that the payoff would be better relations with the former eastern bloc states? What if Russia put a similar system in Venezuela or Cuba to protect these states from hostile aggressors? Oops! They tried something like that in Cuba a while back and it went badly.

Notice how the WSJ even admits that the proposed placement of the missiles was less than a master stroke. The fact is that US forces can pound Iranian targets from offshore or other locations if it comes to that.

The WSJ then goes on (below) to tie in strategic questions in Asia, fanning the flames of fear amongst its legions of wealthy and Calvinistic  subscribers. The Iranian issue is a unique European strategic question so the connection with the Chinese power calculus in Asia stretches credulity. The WSJ has chosen to use the issue as a prosthetic with which to assert that this one decision collapses US credibility in general.  US credibility in power projection is afloat 24/7 in the form of the US Naval men-of-war, it’s long range airpower capability, and substantial military intelligence capacity. Nonetheless, the WSJ already extrapolates a US failure to control Asian security.

“The simple reality is that, absent a missile defense that can stop Chinese ballistic missiles, the U.S. will be hard pressed to maintain security commitments in Asia given the advances China has made to its offensive nuclear forces. The U.S. Seventh Fleet, however capable, cannot withstand the kind of nuclear missiles and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that China could employ against it. And because America lacks adequate conventional military means as well, the U.S. would have to resort to full-scale nuclear war to defend its Asian allies from an attack by China. [italics by Gaussling] While no one would ever envision hostilities rising to this level, no serious policy maker can prefer this state of vulnerability to the kind of stability a robust defensive system provides. And this isn’t even to discuss the threat posed by nuclear weapons in the hands of an unstable, unpredictable regime like Pyongyang.”  WSJ September 20, 2009.

Good lord. What a bunch of cowards.

They’ve already predicted our demise in the Eastern Pacific.  I guess we have to increase military spending.  No wonder we can’t afford to tend to our own sick and infirm citizens. We have to prepare for an inevitable conflict in Asia.  Shit. What was I thinking?