In light of the BP oil spill, this week’s installment of Chemistry of the Great Big Blue will be particularly relevant to current events and hopefully already on the minds of everyone reading. Where do petrochemicals in the marine environment come from other than oil spills? Road runoff, refineries, plastic production, plastic degradation, atmospheric deposition and ocean circulation from other parts of the world, natural seeps, and the list goes on and on. It is important to note, however, that oil spills are not necessarily the predominant source of petrochemicals. So what exactly is a petrochemical and what does it do?
Read More “Chemistry of the Great Big Blue: Petroleum Byproducts” »
Disclaimer: Both the Southern Fried Scientist and I received a media care package from the Discovery Channel containing a t-shirt, an adopt-a-shark packet, and DVDs of two of the premieres. While I still have some criticisms, I wanted to start this review by saying that this year’s Shark Week was a lot better than any from the past few years. Before I review each premiere I need to acknowledge that I watched all of them at their later air times, not when they originally aired. The content of each premiere is the same, but I did not see the same commercials as everyone else, I never saw the Oceana PSA, I saw very few Craig Ferguson interludes, and I don’t know if there were any pop-up ads during the shows. This was an unavoidable inconvenience and hopefully doesn’t bias my review too much.
