Short Takes – 4-3-24

White House directs NASA to create time standard for the moon. Reuters.com article. Pull quote: “Defining how to implement Coordinated Lunar Time will require international agreements, the memo said, through "existing standards bodies" and among the 36 nations that have signed a pact called the Artemis Accords involving how countries act in space and on the moon. China and Russia, the two main U.S. rivals in space, have not signed the Artemis Accords.”

California emits more of this little-known greenhouse gas than all other US states combined. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “The researchers were able to attribute the vast majority of California’s sulfuryl fluoride use to a practice called “structural fumigation” — sealing an [termite] infested target with an airtight tent, pumping the gas inside to eliminate the pests and then venting it into the atmosphere.”

Wound Treatment Gel Fights the Battle Against Antibacterial Resistance. NewsWise.com article. Pull quote: “The experiment worked, and the hydrogel can be cured under a UV lamp for 30 seconds instead of curing by repeatedly freezing and thawing for up to 8 hours.”

'It's had 1.1 billion years to accumulate': Helium reservoir in Minnesota has 'mind-bogglingly large' concentrations. LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “Resource exploration company Pulsar Helium, Inc. announced the discovery of helium stores in late February, after a drill just outside of Babbitt, in northern Minnesota, located gas deposits at depths of 2,200 feet (670 meters). Initial measurements showed helium concentrations of 12.4% — which "is just a dream," Thomas Abraham-James, the president and CEO of Pulsar Helium, told CBS News at the time. But new laboratory readings have surpassed those results.”

Largest U.S. egg producer detects bird flu at Texas plant. WashingtonPost.com article. Pull quote: “Cal-Maine Foods said it culled about 1.6 million hens and 337,000 pullets (young hens) after some of its chickens at a Parmer County, Texas, facility tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), caused by influenza A viruses that spread widely among wild and domestic birds.”

Warming Is Getting Worse. So They Just Tested a Way to Deflect the Sun. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “She [Sarah Doherty] said there were potential side effects that still needed to be studied, including changing ocean circulation patterns and temperatures, which might hurt fisheries. Cloud brightening could also alter precipitation patterns, reducing rainfall in one place while increasing it elsewhere.”

National Chemical Transportation Safety Advisory Committee; Vacancies. Federal Register CG notice. Summary: “The U.S. Coast Guard is accepting applications to fill six vacancies on the National Chemical Transportation Safety Advisory Committee (Committee). This Committee advises the Secretary of Homeland Security, via the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard on matters relating to the safe and secure marine transportation of hazardous materials.” Nominations due date: June 3^rd, 2024.