Dry water a reality that could save world from global warming, say scientists

news.com.au ^ | August 27, 2010 | Peter Farquhar

[nickcarraway]

YOUR dad just lost one of his jokes.

Powdered water – a favourite among many bad dad jokes involving improbable concepts such as flameproof matches, inflatable dartboards and glow-in-the-dark sunglasses – is now a reality.

And not only is it not funny anymore, it may also save the planet from global warming.

In science circles, it's known as "dry water" and it seems those circles have kept it to themselves for quite a while, because it was actually discovered back in 1968, then forgotten about.

It was even "rediscovered" in 2006, purely for study purpose, but it's taken a group of scientists at the University of Liverpool in the UK to find a use for it. "There's nothing else quite like it," researcher Ben Carter, said.

"Hopefully, we may see 'dry water' making waves in the future."

"It" is actually tiny droplets of of water coated in modified silica, better known in nature as sand. They make up 95 per cent of the powdered water and the silica prevents the droplets from combining and creating the liquid version.

The result is a substance that resembles fine sugar and one that has the potential to provide a lucrative return for its powerful ability to soak up gases.

That makes it an ideal candidate for research into finding ways to absord and store a greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the Liverpool team told the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society this week.

In laboratory-scale research, the team found that dry water absorbed over three times as much carbon dioxide as ordinary, uncombined water and silica in the same space of time.

[arthurus]

We are messing with nature trying to solve scientifically a problem that does not exist i.e. the GW supposedly caused by CO2. We may just solve that problem, may just figure out how to reduce the CO2. But we know that CO2 levels rise before temperatures rise. So the CO2 does not cause the rise. So what is the effect of removing substantial CO2 from the atmosphere besides reducing the amount of food we can grow pretty drastically. There will be other effects that are, of course, not foreseen. Then we will have a huge new “condition” that will even more urgently require omnipotent government to solve the new far worse problems and create thereby even worse ones.

[Talisker]

And not only is it not funny anymore, it may also save the planet from global warming.

Global warming isn't funny any more, either. Especially since we stopped having summers.

[Steve Van Doorn]

If these idiots ever succeed in sucking up CO2 they could kill billions of people and even more animals from plants dieing. We are at around 350 ppm now if we drop down to 250 ppm plant growth slows to a crawl