Contamination

Why Scientists Have Been Scared of Space Germs for Almost 50 Years

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty was one of the few things the U.S. and the Soviet Union managed to agree on at the height of the Cold War. Among other things, it forbid both nations from bringing space microbes back to Earth, or spreading Earth germs to other planets. Article IX of the treaty says:…

One Super Common Bacteria Is Wasting Labs Millions in Research Money

Unless you’re a biologist, the bacterium Mycoplasma probably will not strike fear in your heart. Our mouths are teeming with this tiny and usually harmless microbe. But when Mycoplasma finds its way into a petri dish of cells, it becomes a big and expensive headache. A new study finds that 11% of samples in gene-expression…

Scientists Make Bricks With Sludge Filtered From Arsenic-Laced Water

Arsenic-contaminated water is a massive problem in the developing world. But, even when you filter it out, the toxic sludge that the process produces often gets dumped right back into the water supply. It’s tough to dream up a use for arsenic soup, but one research team finally has: They’re making bricks out of it.…

A new report says that chemicals used in fracking may be causing serious hormonal disorders in humans, including those linked to cancer, low fertility rates, and decreased sperm quality. So, in addition to causing earthquakes and spewing radioactive water, fracking also appears to mess up our endocrine system.

White Graphene: The New Supermaterial That Sucks Up Pollution

There’s a new supermaterial in town, and while it might be known as white graphene, it doesn’t contain a single atom of carbon. But that doesn’t make the new form of boron nitride any less useful—because it can suck chemicals and oil out of contaminated water in a jiffy. Like its namesake, this form of…

Playing In the Sand Could Make You Pay On the Toilet

Some people go to the beach but eschew going into the water because it’s “gross”. If that’s you, then you are a sucker. According to a new EPA study, playing in the sand more than doubles your chances of getting sick. The study, which was a collaboration between the EPA, UNC Chapel Hill, and Johns…

Oh Great: Chunks of Fukushima’s Corroded Radioactive Uranium Could Survive in the Ocean for Years

Last march when the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant was disastrously damaged by a tsunami, plant technicians used seawater to cool the meltdown situation. At the time, that was probably the best way to avoid an even worse situation. Unfortunately, a new study shows that seawater can actually corrode nuclear fuel. No big deal? What if it…

Old People Line Up To Clean Radiation in Japan

Talk about a sacrifice that will warm your heart. A group of older Japanese folks are asking for permission to clean up the contaminated nuclear power station in Fukushima. https://gizmodo.com/japans-nuclear-problem-explained-in-an-easy-to-understa-5782537 More than 200 retirees are volunteering to take the place of young people who are exposing themselves to high levels of radiation. The group figures…

TEPCO Dumping Radioactive Water into the Ocean

Well, I guess there’s only so much room in that “mega-float,” as TEPCO says they’ll be dumping over 11,000 tons of Fukushima’s iodine-131 contaminated water directly into the Pacific Ocean—enough to potentially expose the public to a quarter of their recommended yearly dose. [BotAS] https://gizmodo.com/fukushimas-radioactive-water-to-be-pumped-into-mega-fl-5788202

The ultimate 1980s scifi and fantasy movie mixtape

Science fiction and fantasy films of the 1980s were filled with a ton of memorable, iconic, and patently ridiculous music. Here are 30+ of the decade’s finest (and most painful) movie tunes for your listening pleasure. NOTE: I tried to focus on singles from films or songs that scored memorable scenes. There are a ton…

How Did One Man Contaminate Half a Billion Eggs, and Why Wasn’t He Stopped?

A single man—poultry tycoon Austin J. DeCoster—was responsible for this year’s salmonella outbreak that sickened almost 2,000 people across 22 states, and forced a recall of half a billion eggs. How did it get to this point? DeCoster’s egg operations were, perhaps, anomalous in terms of their pure grossness—reports from one of his plants cite…

This Is What Happens When You Don’t Vote For Kodos

Kodos comes to a coffee plantation to lay hundreds of alien eggs, so his offspring can bust out of people Ridley Scott-style. And women can’t resist walking towards Kodos’ glowing eye. It all leads to the funniest death scene ever. This piece of awesomeness comes from Contamination aka Alien Contamination, the masterpiece by Luigi Cozzi,…

Fart Tanks Fight Methane, Give Al Gore Weird Ideas

Being the world’s largest beef producer with 55 million cows, Argentinian scientists tested claims about bovines being one of the worst polluters on the planet thanks to the methane they produce. To do this, they used big pink tanks on top of the cows, connected to their intestines with a tube inserted into their rear…