What’s The Anti-ice Substance Sprayed On The Highway?
Two different treatments, and a more complex subject that we anticipated:
Anti-icing is applying chemicals to roadways to prevent frost and ice. Liquid anti-icers are generally applied to the roadway before weather events occur, and prevent ice crystals from bonding to the pavement. We use different chemical anti-icers depending on temperature and humidity.
Anti-icers may be calcium chloride (CaCl2), sodium chloride (NaCl) (rock salt), magnesium chloride (MgCl2), calcium magnesium acetate (CMA), or potassium acetate (KAc). Rock salt is made perhaps four times more effective by treating it with magnesium chloride.
An unusual anti-icer is beet juice. The New York State Thruway Authority is one of several state authorities relying on a mixture of beet ‘juice’ and salt water to help keep highways ice-free. It is not the purple-red beet juice we might get at a veggie juice bar; it’s actually a brownish liquid, made in part from extract of the white sugar beet.
De-icer helps break the bond to keep it from compacting and bonding onto the highway. Solid de-icing chemicals look like sand and are used to keep accumulating snow loose and “plowable” so it can be removed with snowplows. If snow and ice become compact and bonded to a paved surface, the solid chemical de-icers can absorb into the compact snow or ice, melt it and break it up for snowplow removal.
Researchers at a Dutch university are looking into harvesting calcium magnesium acetate, a potent but costly de-icer, from organic waste like roadside grass and kitchen garbage. Also the liquid waste from gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is rich in chemicals, including salts. In the state of New York, this waste water is used to de-ice roads. Because it has a risk of contaminating water and soil, it can only be used after it has been tested and approved by the state’s environment department.
Is it harmful to the environment or my car?
WSDOT thoroughly trains all maintenance work force plus uses the latest technology and equipment. Each winter season, we conduct roadside soil, surface water, or groundwater monitoring at highway system locations. This ongoing effort ranges from academic research projects to less formal “before and after” water sampling and testing.
Most vehicles are made with a protective under coating that helps the vehicle resist damage and corrosion. WSDOT continues to strongly recommend drivers who drive on roads treated with anti-icer wash their vehicles to prevent build-up.
Partly excerpted from the Washington Department of Transportation (WADOT.)
Skipping breakfast may contribute to obesity
The importance of the body’s internal clock and the impact of meal times on the body were the subject of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Medicine, awarded for the discovery of molecular mechanisms controlling our circadian rhythm.
“Our study showed that breakfast consumption triggers the proper cyclic clock gene expression leading to improved glycaemic control,” says Prof. Jakubowicz, of Tel Aviv University, winner of the prize.
“In both healthy individuals and in diabetics, breakfast consumption acutely improved the expression of specific clock genes linked to more efficient weight loss, and was associated with improved glucose and insulin levels after lunch. Proper meal timing—such as consuming breakfast before 9:30 AM—could lead to an improvement of the entire metabolism of the body, facilitate weight loss, and delay complications associated with type 2 diabetes and other age-related disorders.”
Partly excerpted from medicalxpress.com.
Hypatia Stone Meteorite Mystery
The Hypatia stone, apparently a meteorite, discovered in southwest Egypt by geologist Aly Barakat in 1996, contains a combination of chemicals and minerals that stumps researchers trying to figure out its origin.
This stone is different from all stones and meteorites previously found; it had elements in the wrong proportions, or in forms not usually seen in the inner solar system.
A team of researchers at the University of Johannesburg concluded that it is definitely extraterrestrial. The matrix of the stone, inside which dust grains are embedded, contains a high amount of very specific carbon compounds, called polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH, a major component of interstellar dust, which existed even before our solar system was formed. Interstellar dust is also found in comets and meteorites that have not been heated up for a prolonged period in their history. The majority of PAH in the matrix turned into tiny diamonds, no larger than one micrometer, likely due to the immense heat and pressure when Hypatia made contact with Earth’s atmosphere or surface. However, the diamonds weren’t the only surprise that researchers came across when they analyzed the mysterious stone- it also included a rare form of aluminum, as metal, as tiny nuggets, though aluminum never occurs naturally in this form on earth.
The stone is named after the famous brilliant Western woman astronomer and mathematician, Hypatia, one of the last teachers in the Serapeum, a successor to the great Library of Alexandria, Egypt. She was very brutally murdered by misguided Christians in March, 415 AD.