World-first: Bio-bricks from urine

Source - https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2018-10-24-world-first-bio-bricks-from-urine

Somebody needs to drink more water.

But clearly nobody needs to come up with a more awesome idea than making fertilizer and 'cement' blocks from urine.

Some civil engineering grad students from Cape Town, South Africa have developed a process of taking urine - currently only male urine because “At the moment we’re only dealing with urine collection from male urinals because that’s socially accepted. But what about the other half of the population?” - precipitating out a solid fertilizer, then using the liquid waste to produce bio-bricks  and a secondary fertilizer.

The initial precipitation at the fertilizer-producing urinal uses calcium hydroxide to precipitate out calcium phosphate, a solid fertilizer.

Source - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213343718306043

After that, the remaining liquid heads to a secondary processing.

The bio-bricks are created through a natural process called microbial carbonate precipitation. It’s not unlike the way seashells are formed, said Lambert’s supervisor Dr Dyllon Randall, a senior lecturer in water quality engineering.

In this case, loose sand is colonised with bacteria that produce urease. An enzyme, the urease breaks down the urea in urine while producing calcium carbonate through a complex chemical reaction. This cements the sand into any shape, whether it’s a solid column, or now, for the first time, a rectangular building brick.

And the strength of the material is simply dependent on time and concentration of urea.

The strength of the bio-bricks would depend on client needs. 

“If a client wanted a brick stronger than a 40% limestone brick, you would allow the bacteria to make the solid stronger by ‘growing’ it for longer,” said Randall. “The longer you allow the little bacteria to make the cement, the stronger the product is going to be. We can optimise that process.”

The liquid waste from the bio-brick production, then, is further processed into a second fertilizer.

That's amazing, turning a waste product into three useful. As the article says, "[t]he overall scheme would effectively result in zero waste, with the urine completely converted into three useful products."

I'm guessing there are a lot of scientists who are pissed that they didn't come up with this idea themselves.

(I'm sorry...)

This improbable membrane can trap flies in a jar - and odor in a toilet

Well that's just cool.

The membrane described above can block small particles but allow larger particles through, a thoroughly non-intuitive method of filtering.

Then again, water is weird. It holds together, 'healing' itself via intermolecular forces. In this case, the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate - something I've heard called sodium lauryl sulfate - allows the water membrane to be penetrated and then come back together.

In order to break through the membrane, particles need enough momentum (mass times velocity, natch) to break through the membrane, so larger particles have an easier time to get through. Smaller particles, then, have to be moving far faster if they're going to break through.

And automatically, people go straight to the possibility of keeping the poop smell in a toilet.

Because everyone poops.

ASM International "Roof-of-Sky" Video

I love visiting the ASM dome in Materials Park (or Novelty), OH every spring for summer camp training. It's an opportunity to see old friends, but it's also a chance to see one of world's largest free-standing geodesic dome (g'head, search out proof that it isn't). The ASM Headquarters is just a beautiful place.



Check out some beautiful photos or a video or two...

Source - Cleveland.com

ASM 100th Anniversary Video

Not a ton of material science content here, just a bit of background about ASM, the former American Society of Metals. (Now they're ASM like how Kentucky Fried Chicken was just KFC for a while.)

I'll admit that I don't use ASM in the same way that most of the ASM members do. I have a few of their reference book on my shelves at school, but they're not things I refer to with any regularity at all. I'm not looking for the detailed, professional, industrial knowledge that most of their members are. Instead, I'm thrilled to be a part of the ASM Materials Education Foundation, the branch that looks to share out its knowledge with K-12 students and teachers.

But that branch wouldn't exist without ASM International.

I'm a little late in posting this 100th anniversary video from 2013, but I'm game for a reason to eat cake even if I'm late to the party.

Monoclinic Sulfur demonstration

It's always fascinating to me to see video from a summer teacher camp that I am not running because I only, really know how my camps run.

I know my jokes, my patter, my schtick, my bits. I don't know how most other folks run camp - a few of them, admittedly, but not many (Rebecca Heckman, Caryn Jackson, David McGibney, Debbie Goodwin, Andy Nydam, Cynthia Hummel, Brian Wright - thanks to all of you, by the way).

Above, we see Priscilla Oshikiri and Justin Sickles (Priscilla is in the purple, by the way) performing the sulfur demonstration - at least the monoclinic part. The amorphous part is below.

I'm always open to sharing videos from our camps. If you happen to have any to share, please link to them.

Cave of Crystals | 100 Wonders | Atlas Obscura

Yes, there is are a couple of hour-long videos about Naica cave, but sometimes we just don't have an hour to devote to that world's largest monocrystaline growths.

That's kind of why a video like this one - just under 3 minutes long - can be nice. It's a quick exploration of the Naica crystal cave, drained and being explored as of the time of these photos (no video, just stills).

I'd been hearing for a while that the caves 'were going to be refilled', but I just found - in a quick research bit - that the BBC reported in 2014...

In her discussion with reporters [Dr Penelope Boston] lamented the fact that the crystal complex had become flooded following the recent cessation of mining activities, preventing any further access. 

"It is tear inducingly beautiful down there. I wrote several poems about it actually.

What is Materials Science and Engineering?

Dude, we're shooting here.

At 1:34, some guy starts to walk into the shot on the far left edge.

I don't know why, but that bothered me. I feel like they could have re-shot that clip easily enough.

And at 2:30, what purpose is being served by melting that penny?

The video is, admittedly, an advertisement for Iowa State's MS&E program, but it's a nice, general introduction to what material science students study at university.