One of my fantasies is for Phoenix to photograph itself getting more and more buried in solid water/carbon dioxide. Apparently we’re starting to get a little taste.

“An international, three-year study involving collaboration between scientists from Australia, Russia, the US, the UK, Canada and Europe has estimated that the amount of frozen organic carbon locked away in the world’s permafrost regions—a major potential source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4)…is more than double prior estimates of the world’s high-latitude carbon inventory, and more than twice the size of the current atmospheric carbon pool….” Full Slice

“Researchers…have developed a solid carbon-based catalyst for the hydrolysis of cellulose into glucose, with performance comparable to that of sulfuric acid, but with lower environmental and financial costs…The researchers developed a catalyst consisting of amorphous carbon bearing SO3H, OH, and COOH groups. Although the carbon material has a small surface area, and the acid density is only 1/10th that of sulfuric acid, they found that the catalyst was as effective as sulfuric acid in hydrolyzing cellulose…use of the new catalyst could lower the cost of producing cellulosic ethanol by more than 30%.” Full Slice

Just ruminating:

What happens underground when oil is pumped out?  Does anything collapse?

Do beautiful people have beautiful internal organs?