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Low-Grade Cotton Brings Top Value in Oil Spill Cleanup

May 22, 2013

Lab Manager - Seshadri Ramkumar, lead author of the study and manager of the Nonwovens and Advanced Materials Laboratory at The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH), said he and his colleagues found that low-micronaire cotton – one of the lowest-quality types of cotton – is most effective at picking up oil. A pound of the low-micronaire cotton can pick up more than 30 pounds of crude oil, and its natural waxiness helps to repel water.

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Why Aren't There More Storm Cellars in Oklahoma?

May 22, 2013

The Atlantic - Larry Tanner is the manager of the Debris Impact Test Facility for the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University. In that capacity, he focuses on the (relatively) optimistic side of devastating storms: sheltering people from them. One of Tanner's jobs is to test shelters and their components in his lab, creating several-hundred-mph winds and debris storms -- which can't be mathematically simulated -- to analyze those shelters' ability to withstand a natural storm. Another of his jobs is to work with FEMA to assess the performance of storm shelters after tragedies like the Oklahoma tornadoes of 1999. Or the Missouri tornado of 2011. Or, now the Oklahoma tornado of 2013.

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How Do You Measure a Tornado?

May 22, 2013

The New Yorker o in the early aughts, scientists from Texas Tech University proposed an Enhanced Fujita scale (hence the “E.F.” designation), in which tornado damage was calibrated by meteorologists and building engineers across twenty-eight different types of buildings, as well as natural structures like trees. The severe damage done to buildings like the Plaza Towers Elementary School and Briarwood Elementary School, as well as the near total destruction of many single-family houses, enables scientists to categorize Monday’s tornado as an E.F.4—a violent, intense storm that nevertheless is not as bad as the most extreme kind of tornado, an E.F.5. The Enhanced Fujita scale came into use in 2007, and is now the official way to judge the impact of a tornado—at least, of the physical damage it causes.

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Fossil amber challenges theories about glass

May 21, 2013

Qatar Tribune - “What we found was that in 20 million years, the amber changed density by only 2.1 percent. What we found challenges the way we look at glasses,’’ said Gregory McKenna, a professor of chemical engineering at Texas Tech University.

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