The 2009 Seamounts cruise blog says they have discovered another two new species of squid. Amazing what still can be found in the wild:

More than 70 species of squid have been identified from the seamounts [six week] cruise samples thus far. Incredibly, this represents in excess of 20% of the global squid biodiversity!

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) press release gives more detail on how squid are differentiated:

“For ten days now 21 scientists armed with microscopes have been working through intimidating rows of jars containing fishes, squids, zooplankton and other interesting creatures,” says Alex Rogers, Principal Scientist and Marine Biologist at the Zoological Society of London. “Many specimens look similar to each other and we have to use elaborate morphological features such as muscle orientation and gut length to differentiate between them.”

Einstein proved in 1905 that a photon of light can activate metal oxide (photocatalytic oxidation or PCO). Studies in the US have shown the process can create toxic side-effects, yet a company in the Czech Republic says they have created a powerful air-cleansing paint for indoor use

In a small, rather dilapidated factory on the outskirts of Prague, a company called Advanced Materials is putting titanium dioxide to use in something called photocatalytic paint, an incredibly clever, virtually translucent paint that actually cleans the air in your living room of everything from bacteria to cigarette smoke.

“Even in a concentration of one cigarette per cubic metre, you see very high degradation rate,” said Jan Prochazka, Advanced Materials’ co-owner. In one hour, he said, a cubic meter box used to test the paint is clean of cigarette smoke.

“We say [the paint will oxidize] ninety percent of all contaminants in 24 hours, but it’s much faster. It’s just to stay on the safe side,” Prochazka added.

There are two risks to this kind of solution. First, the paint has to sit on a base that can resist it and second, the byproduct of the paint has to be non-toxic.

Air-Cleansing cement for outside use has been available for nearly ten years and paint was introduced five years ago.

In 2002, after 7000 square metres of road surface in Milan, Italy, were covered with a catalytic cement, residents reported that it was noticeably easier to breathe – with the concentration of nitrogen oxides at street level cut by up to 60 per cent. […] The paint could cover a much greater surface area than cement, since every building and piece of street furniture could be painted with it. Photocatalytic cements and paving slabs are already used in Japan, where the market for such building materials is growing.

These outdoor solutions have proven the first risk has been controlled. The second risk, however, is not settled. Science labs in the US report increases in formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. They propose air-ducts or standalone units be setup with PCO, instead of used as an indoor paint, so the flow of air is controlled and then filtered with “chemisorbent oxidizer—sodium permanganate—downstream of the PCO device”.

Small, stand-alone active PCO units are available commercially, but Destaillats warns buyers that the performance of current products is uncertain. It is possible that some units produce harmful aldehydes and that catalysts become deactivated.

Berkeley Lab’s current research addresses only the large systems that can be incorporated into a building’s HVAC system. These systems are still in the experimental phase. Ideally, in-duct air cleaners should include several stages (such as the use of a chemisorbent after the PCO), but the cost of a multi-stage system may be cost-prohibitive for some.

The BBC has an interesting look at how Columbia has changed to a safe and prosperous country. They call it “Colombian rebel comes in from the jungle”

You may have heard of [Medellin] as one of the most dangerous cities in the world, the former stronghold of the notorious drugs lord Pablo Escobar.

But Pablo Escobar was shot dead by police back in 1993, and that was when the tide of violence began to turn.

Today, Medellin is a very different place.

It is a bustling city, with a population of 2.5 million and it is now said to be one of the safest cities anywhere in Latin America.

Seventeen years is a whole new generation. With opportunities and even equality comes a good life in the city, which makes it hard for rebels and terrorists to recruit into a high risk and tough life in the mountains.