Diet Cherry Coke

[bloodline]

Karlos wrote:

Hyperspeed wrote:

And back to soft drinks - what is an emulsifier, what is acesulfame, how does a 'widget' work in beer cans and just who sells/regulates the E numbers?

Answers on a postcard!

Well, an emulsifier is simply any substance that allows you to mix two normally immiscable liquids, eg hydrophillic and hydrophobic. You'll find them in all sorts of things from ice cream to moisturising cream...

Acesulfame-K is a sweetner. The "Widget" is a small presurised liquid nitrogen canister, with a strees point at the top which breaks when the pressure outside gets too low (ie you open the can). The nitrogen then sprays through a tiny hole in the top releasing millions of tiny bubbles into the beer.

E numbers are regulated by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp

You really do ask very basic questions... :-(

[Hyperspeed]

So if you collected enough widgets you could theoretically make a very unpleasant potion that freezes everything on contact?

:inquisitive:

by bloodline:
You really do ask very basic questions...

Doesn't someone's signature say "The only stupid question is a question not asked?"

:-D

metalman: That drowning link appears to contradict the theory in the film 'The Abyss' that if you let someone drown you can resusciate them some time later. According to the stats most people get brain damaged and the best chances of recovery are resuscitation within two minutes!

On that subject, scientists were reported to have been working on a breathable liquid similar to that portrayed in The Abyss... is this what the illusionist David Blaine was breathing in that 'bubble' or did he have a pipe in his gob all the time?

[Karlos]

Hyperspeed wrote:

On that subject, scientists were reported to have been working on a breathable liquid similar to that portrayed in The Abyss... is this what the illusionist David Blaine was breathing in that 'bubble' or did he have a pipe in his gob all the time?

Nope. The Abyss borrowed an already developed idea. Heavy flurocarbons are used as breathing fluids already as they have excellent oxygen / carbon dioxide solvation/transport properties.

The liquids include derivatives of perflurocyclohexane (often anchored with a nice heavy bromine atom). These have densities greater than water and are quite difficult to breathe. A lot of research into these compounds was carried out at Durham Universitiy. Contrary to the movie's suggestion, most rodent subjects died afterwards due to the stress on their resparatory system when trying to evacuate the fluid.

Their main use, AFAIK is to assist people that have severe breathing difficulties from lung trauma where the substance is dripped into the lungs, inflating the aerioli with oxygen rich fluid.

[bloodline]

Hyperspeed wrote:
So if you collected enough widgets you could theoretically make a very unpleasant potion that freezes everything on contact?

:inquisitive:

by bloodline:
You really do ask very basic questions...

Doesn't someone's signature say "The only stupid question is a question not asked?"

The quote is wrong... "The only stupid question is one asked by an idiot." :-D

I never said your questions were stupid. And, statements don't need question marks ;-)

[Hyperspeed]

Slightly off-topic I know but haven't scientists worked out how a fish's gills extract oxygen from water and applied it to a device similar to that used by Qui Gon and Obi Wan in the Phantom Menace?

Is the level of oxygen in water sufficient to sustain a human without other heavy equipment?

Another thought would be that if humans exhale carbon-dioxide then isn't there a way to constantly recycle the oxygen atoms by filtering out the carbon? I saw some program where it said the Apollo 13 crew had to build a makeshift carbon dioxide filter using lime or calcium or something... a small, portable air recycler would prove very handy for a Mars mission or the construction of a lunar base.

[Karlos]

Hyperspeed wrote:
Slightly off-topic I know but haven't scientists worked out how a fish's gills extract oxygen from water and applied it to a device similar to that used by Qui Gon and Obi Wan in the Phantom Menace?

Is the level of oxygen in water sufficient to sustain a human without other heavy equipment?

No, not if you want to breathe air. Lungs and gills perform similar functions but you cant use some artificial gill to extract gaseous oxygen from water suitable for a human to breathe directly. Oxygen solubility in water is actually pretty low.

Another thought would be that if humans exhale carbon-dioxide then isn't there a way to constantly recycle the oxygen atoms by filtering out the carbon? I saw some program where it said the Apollo 13 crew had to build a makeshift carbon dioxide filter using lime or calcium or something... a small, portable air recycler would prove very handy for a Mars mission or the construction of a lunar base.

That was a CO2 scrubber - the whole purpose was to filter carbon dioxide out of the air, rather than liberate oxygen from it. In an enclosed space, CO2 build up from breathing becomes toxic long before you run out of sufficient oxygen to breathe.

As for "filtering" out the carbon and liberating oxygen from CO2, see: plants/photosynthesis ;-)

[Hyperspeed]

But if Carbon Dioxide has 2x oxygen atoms for every 1x carbon then some kind of splitting of this would be really cool for air recycling. Pure oxygen though is probably a little dangerous for space missions.



And with water, if you had a small hydrogen fuel cell to propel you through the ocean a future technology could potentially split the H²O into 2x parts fuel, 1x part breathing.



I wonder if anyone will actually crack the problems of perpetual energy, or at least increase energy recycling. If the sun is a chain reaction lasting billions of years then who knows what could be done.

There's some guy already trying to create a black hole in a laboratory!

[bloodline]

Check out those double bonds on each of the Oxygens... that's one stable little molecule, photosynthesis is a complex process that requires a lot of enery... best leave it to the plants.

BTW, you do realise that the big orange thing under the space shuttle is basicly a big tank full of pure liquid oxygen (and hydrogen...).

[Cymric]

Hyperspeed wrote:
But if Carbon Dioxide has 2x oxygen atoms for every 1x carbon then some kind of splitting of this would be really cool for air recycling.

It costs exactly as much energy to break the bonds as making them freed. And since burning carbon gives off a lot of energy (look at your ordinary stove), you need quite a lot of energy to reverse the process. There's no shortcut, nor shall one ever be found.

I wonder if anyone will actually crack the problems of perpetual energy, or at least increase energy recycling. If the sun is a chain reaction lasting billions of years then who knows what could be done.

There is no perpetual energy---not even the Sun is perpetual. Besides, what the Sun is doing is nuclear fusion, and that is a completely different (and much more difficult) game. If ITER works as envisaged, then we are (literally) one step away from creating a commercial prototype of a device which at least is capable of sustaining a fusion reaction on its own. Then it's 'just' a matter of extracting that energy. I hope I live long enough to see ITER's successor in operation. Such a device would rank near the top in the Seven World Wonders of modern engineering.

As for more mundane energy conversion processes, tremendous advances have been made in the area of fuel cells. These turn chemical energy directly into electrical energy, instead of going through the wasteful bypass of burning fuel first, and using heat to generate the electrical currents. Unfortunately, in order to use normal fuel to extract the energy out of you require some fancy catalysts which do not tolerate sulphur very well; and if anything is a prerequisite, it is tolerance towards sulphur.

There's some guy already trying to create a  black hole in a laboratory!

Black hole's don't exist ;-)

[cecilia]

nicholas wrote:

There's some guy already trying to create a  black hole in a laboratory!

Black hole's don't exist ;-)

if it turns out that black holes DO exist, somebody quickly throw a bunch of politians down it and save us from their folly.

cecilia wrote:

nicholas wrote:

There's some guy already trying to create a  black hole in a laboratory!

Black hole's don't exist ;-)

if it turns out that black holes DO exist, somebody quickly throw a bunch of politians down it and save us from their folly.

Surely we'd have to do the same to anyone genetically related to them, and also anyone who has aspirations to be a politician and their relations too?  Just to be on the safe side. ;-)

[Hyperspeed]

Five Alive Berry Flavour quenched my thirst thrice yesterday.

Citric Acid, I salute you!

[Doobrey]

Well, almost on topic..

The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment with a new twist... a human container

[Ian-uk]

i'm hooked on the stuff since my girlfriend bought me a bottle by mistake.

[bloodline]

Ian-uk wrote:
i'm hooked on the stuff since my girlfriend bought me a bottle by mistake.

Yup... I think they must have put some good stuff in there...