Best Time for the Citizen Scientist Conference

Editor,

I would like to suggest that the summer tourist season is not the ideal time to hold the annual Citizen Scientist Conferences. I think that the "off" season would be more economical for both air travel and hotel accommodations.

Ralph Coppola

Readers, Ralph is the author of the "Wanderings" column in The Citizen Scientist. Do you like his suggestion or do you prefer a summer date? Please send your thoughts here. Editor.

Chemical and Labware Suppliers

Editor,

Two suppliers were listed in Backscatter of 1 June 2007. Both links were to the same supplier. I don't know about the rest of the supplies they sell, but I looked at their chemical prices, and I did not think they were at all reasonable; nor was the selection all that good. If you are looking for chemicals and decently priced labware, try looking up www.elementalscientific.net. For small quantities of harder to find chemicals try www.unitednuclear.com.

One way of obtaining supplies is to simply form a corporation. I have done so and find it far easier to obtain supplies from most companies than before. Unfortunately, a lot of potential suppliers to labs have pretty high minimum order requirements.

Tim Kraemer

More About Chemicals

Editor,

In your 01 June 2007 edition, Harry Keller makes several good points in his Backscatter letter entitled: "Good Tips for Acquiring Science Supplies." E-bay may often be used as the source for some chemicals. Personally, I've purchased slugs of bismuth [1] there for a rather reasonable price.

However, there are a couple of other concerns raised by Harry's letter. The first is disposal of any chemicals ordered. Obviously, some of the non-toxic, non-reactive ones can be disposed of as garbage. However, reactive chemicals should not be just discarded as ordinary household waste. You obviously wouldn't want to toss something like a hunk of sodium in the trash can. It may be possible, though to
react such chemicals into a non-reactive (non-toxic) product, and then safely dispose of them. Others must be disposed of as hazardous waste, which can incur a considerable handling charge, as well as presenting a problem with transporting them to a suitable hazardous waste disposal
facility.

As for chemical companies only selling to industrial and/or academic institutions, part of the reason for this is, almost certainly, to prevent dangerous chemicals from falling into the hands of terrorists (even the "backyard terrorist" who only wants to make a neighborhood stink bomb). Part of the reason may also be due to disposal issues. Yet another part of the reason may be the liability issues involved with
selling potentially dangerous items to inexperienced people. By restricting sales to industrial and/or academic institutions, they're using the fact that these institutions are (mostly?) legitimate, and are concerned with their long term survival (e.g., They're not going to do something really dumb and dump a hazardous waste down the drain and incur a multi-million dollar EPA fine.).

Unfortunately, this makes things difficult for the amateur scientist.

David W. Glass

[1] Bismuth has several interesting properties. It's extremely diamagnetic, has a very low thermal conductivity for a metal, has a high electrical resistance (for a metal), a high Hall effect, reacts more like a semiconductor than a conductor when deposited in thin layers, expands on freezing, and produces interesting crystals. It is also one of the least radioactive of the radioactive elements, with a half-life of over 1,000,000,000 times the estimated age of the universe.

An Electric Automobile Challenge

Editor,

The challenges we face in regard to energy and environment seem overwhelming. Many people think we just have to face the consequences of our fossil fuel dependence, even if this creates severe hardships to everyone. Eventually there will be so little fossil fuel left, that the price will jump so high, that hardly anyone will be able to afford to drive.

Ideas for alternative energy often seem inadequate or expensive, so people are quick to point out the negative aspects. It is my premise that we have to start somewhere with these ideas and work to develop the potential. Any of the inventions that have radically changed almost everyone's life for the better started out as ideas that did not work very well at the start. The first powered flight of the airplane was only 120 feet, while today transcontinental flights are made many times everyday. Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb, but he improved it by experimenting with thousands of different filaments to find the right materials to create a bulb that would glow for hours without burning out.

It is my premise that like the great inventions of the past, electric powered cars can be perfected to greatly reduce pollution and provide a reasonable cost alternative to fossil fuel powered vehicles. There have been huge advances in batteries, electric motors, and corresponding electronics in the past few years. It has been demonstrated by prototypes of electric automobiles that lithium power can provide
acceleration rivaling the fastest gas powered sports cars and a range of at least 200 miles. With enough money, you will be able to purchase this car by next year.

The transition to electric vehicle will not happen overnight. It is quite possible that the majority of people will first own an electric commuter electric car for the majority of their short range trips and still retain a gasoline or hybrid car for longer trips.

My purpose in writing this letter is make people aware of what will be possible as the technology develops and to try to persuade people not to be turned off by what appears to be negative aspects at this point. This is the life cycle of an invention.

Bill Kuhl

Readers, Bill makes some good points. As he points out, this transition will not happen overnight, for the challenges are significant. What are your thought about electric vehicles? For example, what are the best sources for non-polluting electricity to charge the batteries? Editor

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