carbon dioxide (Page 4)

If we need a plant to suck up excess carbon dioxide, we can plant lots of?.poison ivy?

In the July 17 edition of The New York Times, Anne Raver writes that when researchers pumped high levels of CO2 into an area planted in poison ivy, in a controlled experiment, the weed thrived AND the resin that causes the rash INCREASED. Raver quotes horticulturist Umar Mycka says that when people have strong reactions to poison ivy, it’s because “they got it under optimum conditions.” What are these conditions? Raver writes, “Picture a meadow or woods on a humid, overcast day, when those resins are pumping through the poison ivy vines ?” Sounds like the world of the future!

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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Andy Coghlan writes in New Scientist magazine about a marvelous way to clean up carbon dioxide?turn it into diamonds. “We are changing a waste gas into gems,” says Chinese researcher Qianwang Chen.

It’s even cheaper than the current method of creating manmade diamonds, which requires up five million atmospheres of pressure and ultra-high temperatures. Chen makes diamonds in only 12 hours by reacting CO2 with metallic sodium in a pressurized oven at a lower temperature and pressure.
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