Sustainability on Michael’s Domain

Space exploration

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When I was 10 years old, I wanted to become an astronaut. Not anymore. I still think space exploration is exciting, but given our chances of survival in space, I very much prefer to stay on planet Earth. We don’t even know yet how to protect humans on the way to Mars…

140% too much

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In Finland, the average person hit Earth Overshoot Day in 2024 on March 12th. If everyone on this planet lived like the average Finnish person, we would need 3.5 planets to sustain that level of consumption. This always has struck me as improbable because compared to many other developed countries I have visited, Finland is not particularly rich, nor is our lifestyle particularly extravagant or consumption-oriented.However, according to the statistics, our consumption has always been up there with the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other rich countries like Luxemburg and the United States. We are using more resources than many other well-off countries such as Sweden, Germany, or Switzerland. This year (2025), we did a bit better: we dropped from March 12 to April 6. Maybe it’s our new atomic power plant or the recession, but we are not damaging our planet with the same vigor as in previous years. My personal Earth Overshoot DayOthers do not always appreciate my frugal lifestyle, and to see whether I am truly exaggerating, I wanted to know on which date my personal Earth Overshoot Day falls. I took the test , and the result was a bummer: Despite

Review: Wenger Synergy rucksack after 5 years of daily use

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I am a fan of rucksacks with many pockets. No wonder I like the Wenger Synergy , which has been on the market for over 10 years with only minor modifications. However, I had my fair share of quality issues with this model. Unlike my >40-year-old Swiss knife, this rucksack kept breaking within its warranty period or soon after. It was never a problem exchanging it when it broke within the warranty period, but I got fed up with the exchange hassle after doing it twice. The rucksack’s failing part was always the same: the seams of the shoulder straps started to open. I reported the issue directly to the producer, hoping they would change something to improve the shoulder straps. However, when also the third rucksack developed the same problem, I decided not to exchange it but to fix it. My fix is optically not very pleasing, but it has lasted long enough that I can report the second point of failure: the bottom pane. It ripped where the bottom piece contacts the backplane of the rucksack. I also repaired that one because I was interested in which part would fail next. The upside: these repairs were quick and easy, and they have already lasted for 4 months without any sign of failure due to the high-quality material. The zippers limit the ultimate lifetime of perhaps all rucksacksNow I know: the zippers are starting to have problems. I am surprised that the zippers are still sort of working. The zippers have been the Achilles heel with almost all of my other rucksacks. And unlike a shoulder strap, it takes quite an effort to fix (= exchange) a badly failing zipper. This rucksack is now five years old. I have been using it literally every single day. I cycle or run with it to work, and I do my shopping with it. I travel with it and take it to the summer cottage. Am I expecting too much of a ~100€ rucksack? Is five years’ lifetime the maximum I can get out of a rucksack these days? Sustainability is mostly just lip service, whatever the industry. I am determined to keep this rucksack for another 5 years, but exchanging the zippers will cost me at least 2 to 3 hours of work. As a quick fix, I used pliers to tighten the top and bottom wings of the metal slider (like in this youtube video ). That has been working, but according to my experience, this tightening needs to be repeated in increasingly shorter intervals, and finally, the metal will break. To avoid replacing the whole zipper, you can add buttons to create a new closure , which is perhaps less work if you are not very skillful at sewing.

Cycling during the Finnish winter

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Finally, snow has arrived in Helsinki! So far I was using my summer bicycle and it does not look nice. My daily commute has only perhaps one kilometer of dirt road, but during the mud months, that’s enough to undo any cleaning in a few seconds and to remove any lubrication from the chain. The mud months are nowadays in Helsinki at least three - thanks to global warming: October, November, and December. Cyclists who advise cleaning one’s bike weekly have just too much time on their hands… Most of the bicycles that are sold are not really built to be used all-season and I am still looking for something, that is really low-maintenance also during the mud months. And I am getting worried about the amount of chain lubrication that I distribute into the environment. I have heard that some cyclists are using biodegradable chain saw lubricant, and I will probably try that out.

Exponential growth

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Talking to people that are genuinely concerned about the survival of mankind, I frequently have heard the sentiment “It’s politically not correct to say so, but the Covid-19 pandemic is the best thing that ever happened to the green agenda”. If SARS-CoV-2 had turned out to be as infectious as measles and as deadly as Ebola, it would have been an inhumane solution to the problem of global warming.I predict that in the near future, a militant environmental activist with an excellent synthetic biology education will develop such a virus to rescue planet Earth. If this person does a good job, (s)he will replace Hitler as the incarnation of evil for all generations to come. SARS-CoV-2 was an accident, but perhaps already the next pandemic will truly be man-made, intentionally by a mad man. With PCR, Gibson Assembly, and CRISPR/Cas, all the tools are available to everybody on this planet.Exponential growth is understood by everybody, who has not been living under a stone for the last 9 months. Strangely enough, the only exponential functions that seem to be of interest at the moment are those of viral spread.Everybody with basic mathematical understanding knows that the description “% growth per year” denotes an exponential function. And every scientist knows that any exponential growth in the real world must level off at some point because everything is a limited resource. Therefore any economic model that requires constant economic growth to keep the system going is doomed in the long run. The question is not WHETHER, but only WHEN the collapse will happen and HOW it will happen.Exponential growth in nature levels off in different ways: It can gradually slow down approximating linear growth before coming to a standstill. But it can also almost instantaneously stop and fall back to the baseline. The first is true e.g. when bacteria grow in a test tube. The latter is true e.g. for the growth of cancer cells in an organism.Read more: http://www.igbp.net/globalchange/greatacceleration.4.1b8ae20512db692f2a680001630.html

Human versus bovine methane production

Sun, 19 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A while ago, a friend of mine argued that, for him, changing to a meat-free diet wouldn’t make a big difference for global warming. When some humans replace animal protein sources with plant protein sources humans, they’d start farting much more thus offsetting the benefits of reduced greenhouse gas emissions by life stock.I had no clue whether there was any merit to that argument, but finally, I made a rough calculation. Even under the most generous settings, this argument falls flat because the numbers for greenhouse gas emissions are vastly different for humans and cows. For the sake of simplicity, I only looked at methane as it is much more important in this context compared to carbon dioxide.It appears that on a fiber-rich diet, humans produce about 10 mg of methane per day ( http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gut.32.6.665) , while grass-fed cows produce about 250 g ( http://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e00.htm , https://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2019/01/09/scientists-breathalyze-cows-to-measure-methane-emissions/) . A cow produces 25 thousand times more methane than a human. Even if we assume, that a meat-eater does not produce any methane and that he eats only the equivalent of a single cow in his lifetime the argument falls short by the factor of almost 1000 (cow’s lifetime: 2 years, human’s lifetime: 80 years).However, the assumption that a meat-eater eats only the equivalent of one cow during his lifetime is very generous. In reality, this is highly unlikely as there are only e.g. 5 sirloin steaks in one cow but 85 pounds of ground beef.A cow weighs about 450 kg when slaughtered, out of which barely 200 kg is usable meat. If that is used to fulfill the meat hunger of the average person (80 years of 70 kg meat consumption/year, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_meat_consumption ) this translates into 30 cows during the lifetime if all the meat comes from cows. Therefore, the assumption of needing one cow over one lifetime is overly optimistic even for people with minimal meat consumption.Another interesting fact that I did not know was that freely grazing cows produce 3 times the amount of methane compared to cows in meat factories that are fed with maize/corn. So much for “organic meat”.

The evolution of garbage

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Disposable coffee cups have taken over beverage cans and bottles in the thoughtless littering competition a long time ago. That is true at least for Finland and those few other EU countries that managed to establish a somewhat sensible return system for cans and bottles. However, used face masks are becoming a strong competitor for coffee cups thanks to COVID-19.

Future-proofing

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Will the Covid-19 outbreak result in more than just temporary changes to the way our societies prepare for the future? Will we future-proof the way we organize our economies, our industry’s supply chains, our public health care, the way we travel, the way we consume? If history is of any guidance, I fear that not much will be learned from this crisis. Likely, our governments will make sure we have enough face masks and a better infrastructure to set up new virus tests for coming viral epidemics. Virologists and epidemiologists have been asking to prepare for a pandemic with less success than we wish now. Since the Spanish flu, it was clear that in a globally connected world viral pandemics are inevitable. The question was never if, but only when the next would happen. We had enough warning shots: SARS, MERS, ebola, and swine flue, just to mention a few.Other experts have been and are still warning to prepare for global crises of other types. Similar to a viral pandemic, the question is not if, but only when the next major asteroid impact or CME ( coronal mass ejection ) will happen. Similar to Covid-19, we got an ample amount of warning shots for both: The Tunguska event , the Chelyabinsk meteorite , the Carrington event , the 2012 solar storm just to name the more known ones. Despite this, we are not prepared for such disasters and I fear that governments don’t see the similarities between the Covid-19 outbreak and a CME. Unfortunately, astronomic events can be orders of mangitude worse than any pandemic.

Repairing our refrigerated centrifuge

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Refrigerated tabletop centrifuges are quite expensive. Although discontinued, a refurbished Eppendorf 5415R (the model we use) still sells for $1-2K. The second of our two Eppendorf 5415R broke already more than a year ago and since then, we have been either centrifuging in the cold room or using the neighboring lab's cold fudge. But having two broken centrifuges of the same type, but different failure symptoms begged to assemble one functioning out of the remains.One of the centrifuge rotors was stuck (could not be turned even by hand) and the other fuge was giving sparks and smoke when starting a run. I had postponed this repair since I thought it might take much time. However, when I opened the first centrifuge, I immediately could identify the part that I needed to graft from the other fuge. The whole repair lasted less than one hour. There was a blown resistor next to the cooling fan, which was easily replaced with the part from the second fuge. You can see the broken brass-colored resistor (CGS HSA50 resistor, available from Amazon for$ 13) in the front of the picture left to the rotor.The failure of both centrifuges was apparently caused by liquid getting into the inner workings of the fuge. The rotor of the second centrifuge could not turn anymore because it was corroded from the salt and water. Also, the resistor had apparently been soaked (it is located immediately below the cooling grill on the top back of the fuge).The centrifuge works again including the cooling. I do not know for how long we will enjoy it, because it was already 2nd hand when we bought it in 2014. But even if it lasts only for another year, the repair was worth it.This type of repair might become easier in the future because if I am not mistaken, the EU is planning to mandate that manufacturers make service and repair manuals available to third party repair shops (this mandate exists already for car manufacturers to ensure that independent car repair shops can survivce).Depending on the coronavirus, I will perhaps get around repairing even more broken lab equipment. Next in the queue is the fraction collector of our old FPLC (GE Healthcare Äkta Explorer Frac-950).

HSL indirectly increases ticket prices

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

According to the news, the most popular point of sale for HSL tickets (the R-kioski chain) will start to take a commission for loading travel cards. Travel cards are the RFID cards that you need to use Helsinki public transport.However, in reality, this is a hidden price increase, because HSL decided in 2019 that they will stop paying their distribution partners a fee for their service of loading the travel card. No commercial enterprise can offer services for free, hence this is an indirect price jump initiated by HSL.According to changes mandated by the law, HSL had to start competing the sales of their tickets. However, in their call for tender, HSL announced from now on not to pay any commission to any of their distribution partners. This was entirely their own decision, and hence, it is justified to regard it as a covert but deliberate price increase. Besides, there is not much information about these service fees. I could neither find any specific service fee lists from the S-group nor from the K-group. Only R-kioski’s information was easy to find and concise: R-kioski: kausi: 3.5% of ticket price, max. 5 €; arvolippu: 1€/kpl, kertalippu/vuorokuasilippu 3€ 40 cents.The K-group (K-citymarket, K-market) had announced that the fees would range between 0.5-2€, but still, as of today, I could not find more specific information. I even contacted the S-group, but - typically for such companies - they take their time. I would be surprised to get a reply within a week. Considering the big picture, the negative aspect of making environmentally-friendly transport more expensive is dominating the small improvement of increasing the amount of POS for HSL tickets.Read about it in Finnish in Helsingin Sanomat: https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/art-2000006355404.htmlRead about it in English on the HSL pages; https://www.hsl.fi/en/news/2019/hsls-ticket-sales-network-set-expand-beginning-next-year-18242UPDATE (01.07.2020): Meanwhile the number of HSL-operated ticket vending machines has increased. These machines support topping off the balance of your travel card WITHOUT taking a commission. Additionally, you can also now (something that had been promised for years) top off your balance online . The system has still lots of bugs (according to HSL still about 1% of transactions fail), but hopefully HSL will work out these kinks over the next few decades.

No quantum leap towards a car-free city

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The public transport company of the Finland’s capital region (HSL) has moved to a new fare system . The system was previously based on the city borders. This was unjust: A one-kilometre trip cost you more than 4 Euros if it happened to cross a city border while a 20-km trip (e.g. from Lauttasaari to Vuosaari) might have been only 2.2 €. Now the capital region is divided into concentric zones around the city center of Helsinki and the fare is determined which and how many zones you are entering during the trip. The trips are paid with an electronic travel card, which can be loaded with “time” (weekly, monthly or seasonal ticket) or “value” (to pay individual journeys).Insignificantly cheaper for most, but not allThe implied promise was that the system does not get more expensive, but this is obviously not true for everybody. For those people that use single tickets, the rise is noticeable. The price of a single ticket within the AB zone rose from 2.2€ to 2.8€ which is more than 27%. On the other hand the ticket is now valid for 80 minutes (instead of 60 minutes) and the region that can be travelled with the new ticket has expanded (mostly into the Western direction to Espoo). However these additional improvements are relevant only for a limited number of customers since the bulk amount of journeys stay within 60 minutes and within the Helsinki area of the AB zone. Moreover, the single tram-only tickets have been abolished. These tram tickets were much cheaper then the regular tickets that entitle you to ride any type of public transport. There are several media stories about the loosers of the ticket reform in the Finnish press, e.g. at Talouselämä: https://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/hsln-lippu-uudistuksen-haviajat-ratikkamatkustajat-kolmannen-vyohykkeen-kautta-kulkevat-ja-vain-helsingissa-matkustavat/703ca51a-c6b8-3b71-9804-9f35ad89eeaa . PromisesMy own public transport expenses have been sharply rising (by about 25%) as I primarily used single tickets within the Helsinki part of the AB zone. This wouldn’t be a big issue if HSL had kept its promise to offer a substantial discount on users that keep the auto-renewing subscription ticket valid for a year or longer. However, I cannot even find this promise any more on the HSL website. When I asked the customer support of HSL, they told me that they are working on the implementation of such a discount, but they cannot say when it will be ready. This reminded me of the previous fare system update, when HSL promised to introduce a supplementary ticket for owners of monthly tickets valid within Helsinki in order to extend its range without the need to buy a full-price ticket for the whole greater Helsinki Region (“seutulippu”).No quantum leap towards a car-free cityWhile overall perhaps a tiny step into the right direction, the fare-system renewal is far from an attractive offer for car drivers to become public transport users. Much more courage and bigger steps are needed if Helsinki seriously wants to make private car ownership pointless by 2025 . For families with children living in the C zone, the car is even financially still too competitive compared to public transport (ABC ticket for 2 adults & 2 children for one year: ~3500€).

Increased resilience

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I strongly believe that companies are genuinely interested in getting critical feedback. At the very least, it should be part of their corporate survival instinct. When dissatisfied customers simply switch to an alternative vendor without giving feedback, the damage is already done. That’s why I always give feedback if a product does not meet my high-quality expectations.However, this time I am writing about a product I have been very satisfied with, namely the new GE Healthcare Superdex 75 Increase 10/300 GL . It is a gel filtration column and an iteration of the previous Superdex 75 10/300 GL , which we have been using for the last 30 years. The biggest advantage of the “Increase” is the higher pressure-resistance. A few weeks back an overworked grad student forgot to close the column after use and returned it to the fridge, where the 20% ethanol slowly evaporated over the following 2 weeks. The fridge is ventilated and when I needed the column, the damage was already done: There was a perhaps 8 mm gap and a dry zone of approximately once inch had been developing. I immediately filled up the dead volumes with degassed 20% ethanol and started a very slow run (0.05 ml/min) for several hours, after which is switched to degassed water and then to buffer. After letting it run for about 2 days the gap was reduced to about 3 millimeters. The remaining gap was removed by adjusting with the top adapter (I needed to screw it down as much as possible).Now I needed to test the “repaired” column. I did both a functional test (separating two proteins in PBS) and the acetone test (injecting 100 µl 2% acetone in water). I was massively surprised when the aceton test showed about 19000 theoretical plates (which is more than we ever got with our old Superdex 75 columns). And the separation of the two proteins (RNaseA and BSA) showed that the column is still fully functional. However, we cannot tolerate any gel compression, since the ability of the adapter to correct for it is maxed out (GE Healthcare used to produce a longer adapter, which would allow us to compensate even further, but they chose to discontinue this product).Both the grad student and myself were relieved after getting these results because buying a new column would have set us back by 2200€ and since we have no dedicated funding to operate our core facility , I would have been forced to offload this expense to the grad student’s laboratory. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the damaged column as my instinctive reaction was to immediately start the rescue. However, the column in the picture below is the damaged column after the rescue operation was complete.

The mixed bag of the EU organic food label

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Many people assume that organic production of food results in healthier food with a higher nutritional value. Hence they buy food produced according to EU rules of “organic farming”. The first set of rules was introduced in 1991 and it was amended a couple of times. If you want to market your food as “organic” within the EU and use the EU organic food logo , you need to adhere to these rules.Often the same people that usually are very critical towards EU legislation take it for granted that the EU did a good job with its organic farming directive. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The main purpose of the legislation was to unify and to enable EU-wide trade of organically grown food and not to make sure that the food was more healthy or of higher quality than non-organic food.The directive also emphasizes the avoidance of “non-organic” chemicals, but for most foods this is only a minor factor contributing to how “healthy” the food is. I shake my head over organic refined flour on the supermarket shelves. If you want to use healthy flour, you should use whole meal flour. Refined flour has much less fibers and therefore is simply not a good choice if your goal is healthy eating. It is practically irrelevant whether the wheat has been grown organically or not if you strip out the fibers. Organic refined flour is only topped by by organic sugar, where everything healthy has been stripped away and its source - organic or not - is 100% irrelevant.The organic label is actually a hodge-podge of very different practices that aim to reach very different goals. Among these are animal welfare, sustainable farming and the avoidance of some practices that are perceived as “non-organic” (e.g. GMO, “non-natural” pesticides*). But if the health value of the final product was one of it aims, than it has utterly failed.I am all in favor of treating animals well, but if I am forced to buy organic milk, I support many practices that I do not want to support. For example the rage against GMO or non-natural pesticides and fertilizers. I have no problems with cows eating GMO plants. It is clear that GMO is one of the key technologies that we need to rescue this planet (the alternative is to reduce the amount of people on this planet). And without pesticides and fertilizers, we cannot feed the planet without cutting down the last remaining rain-forests and converting them into farm land (see e.g. https://ourworldindata.org/yields-and-land-use-in-agriculture) . By buying organic food you support a political compromise and not scientifically sound rules how best to produce high quality food or to save the planet. Did you expect anything else from an EU directive? The EU was founded as “European Economic Community” and economic interests were the primary forces at work. Since I drink probably a liter of milk any given day in form of caffè latte, I should be perhaps interested in using high quality milk. Comparisons of e.g. the fatty acid profiles of organic and conventional milk have been done. Clearly, for the quality of the milk (e.g. levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, ratio of omega-6:omega-3 fatty acids), the most important factor was not, whether it confirmed to the EU rules for organic food, but rather whether the cows were eating their greens! https://www.google.fi/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj1qOuJtIDZAhVJwYMKHfH9D2QQFggrMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Forgprints.org%2F28133%2F1%2FForschung_2011-1.pdf&usg=AOvVaw31A0-ma28xQ0oXlBpxAF6U . Conventional low-input* cow farming was superior to organic high-input** farming and the differences between conventional low-input** farming and organic low-input farming were likely not significant, although I cannot be sure about this, because the significance levels compared only organic low input farming to conventional high-input farming (I requested the original publication, but did not receive any reply yet). Whether these differences translate into measurable health effects for milk consumers is still another question and probably depends on the level of milk consumption.Interestingly, the organic vs. non-organic problem has been well recognized (see e.g. here in the German daily newspaper “Die Zeit” https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article147993831/So-wird-Bio-zur-schoenen-Illusion.html) . The need for differentiation has led the Finnish diary producer Juustoportti to market its milk not under the organic EU label, but under the “free-ranging cow” label ( vapaan lehmän maito ). If you want healthy milk and care about animals, but don’t want to support the anti-scientific organic lobby, this could probably be your choice. Sadly, Juustoportti also rides on the anti-GMO bandwagon. Organic (Finnish: “luomu”) milk might also come from free-ranging cows (and even conventional milk occasionally does), but the certification doesn’t necessarily require it.*Sadly, the primary principle in the distinction between allowed and non-allowed pesticides in organic farming is whether they are of “natural” origin. Safety and efficacy are only secondary. It should be obvious to any educated person that being natural does not equate being safe to eat: Botulinum toxin, the death cap mushroom and and the mineral cinnabar do all occur naturally, but they belong to the most poisonous substances known to man. **Low input farming meaning that the cows were kept outside eating grass, while high input farming means cows being mostly inside. Both types of cow farming are compatible with “organic” and “conventional” farming according to the EU directive, which shows already that something is perhaps wrong with the EU directive.

The most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

According to this study from the University of Lund, the most effective ways to tackle climate change are largely not being discussed. Not surprisingly, they touch such the things dearest to our hearts: our car, our holidays, our children and our favorite foods.

Helkama Jääkäri - everything but the frame broke within the first 3 years

Thu, 07 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

For one last time, I have to write about the Finnish bicycle company Helkama . I own the Helkama Jääkäri , which is a military style bicycle and marketed as extremely tough. The frame has 25 years warranty. However, pretty much everything else has been braking within the first 3 years, which ridicules the whole concept. During this year’s spring overhaul, I had to replace three parts: The stand, the saddle and the bell. And I see already signs of future trouble… In none of my previous bikes, saddle or stand have been breaking that fast. And that includes cheap bikes for half the price that I paid for the Jääkäri. Apparently, Helkama does not vet its component suppliers sufficiently. My Jääkäri’s rear wheel had to be replaced already after the first winter and the carrier meanwhile two times. When it broke the third time, I did not even bother to get it replaced again, instead I repaired and reinforced it myself . I really hope that Helkama’s advertisement is just a lie and that the Finnish Army does not use this bicycle.

Washing off the dirt from the dirty dozen

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

There has been much talk about the dirty dozen , a list of the 12 fruits and vegetables most contaminated with pesticides, that was assembled by the Environmental Working Group . Although I sympathize with many goals of the EWG, the EWG is nevertheless an organization with an agenda.Apples were leading the list of the dirty dozen and because apples are probably the number one fruit I eat, I decided to look closer at the methodology of the EWG’s study. The EWG states on their site: “Nearly all the studies on which the guide is based tested produce after it had been washed or peeled.” The data the recommendations are based on was not generated by the EWG themselves, but by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) . The USDA has Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Laboratory Operations and looking at the relevant SOP ( PDP-LABOP Sample Processing and Analysis, Rev. 4, 07/01/12 ), I found the following: 5.3.3ApplesWash each apple under cold running tap water for approximately 15-20 seconds to assure that allsurfaces of the apple have been rinsed. Allow to drain for at least 2 minutes on paper towels on aflat surface. Do not peel. Remove the stem, if present. With a commercially available applecorer remove core or, using a clean, dry knife, cut each apple in half or quarters and remove thecore portion. Mechanically chop just until a visually homogeneous mixture is attained. Unitcounting is required. Refrigeration may not exceed 120 hours from the arrival time until thesample is homogenized.Now, from this it appears as if the apples were analyzed with the peel. Maybe apples are the exception that the EWG means when they write “nearly all”. Could it be that conventionally grown apples contain much of their pesticides on their peel? Yes, that is a possibility, since “… peeling the apples significantly reduced all pesticide residues” ( Rasmusssen et al. 2003: Distribution of multiple pesticide residues in apple segments after home processing ). Actually, lots of research has been done to address the question of whether pesticide residues can be removed from fruits and vegetabled by washing. The results point all into the same direction: with few exceptions (systemic pesticides) a majority of the pesticide residues is located in or on the peel. Water temperature is important: the hotter, the better the pesticide residues are removed. Detergents and rubbing improve the result just as is the case for washing your hands ( Holland et al. 1994: Effects Of Storage And Processing On Pesticide Residues In Plant Products , Chavarri et al. 2005: The decrease in pesticides in fruit and vegetables during commercial processing , Keikotlhaile et al. 2010: Effects of food processing on pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables: A meta-analysis approach ).I guess that’s why many people routinely remove the peel and still others wash and rub apples under hot water. And if you like to eat the peel, just buy organic. At the very least, you feel better.Image based on Red Apple by Abhijit Tembhekar.

Old City Museum Power Plant

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Ever since we have moved into our new apartment, we have been subscribing to environment-friendly electricity (“Ympäristöpennisähkö” from Helsingin Energia ). We decided to “receive” the energy from a hydropower plant which is located near our house at the rapids of Helsinki Vanhakaupunki . The Vanhakaupunki hydropower plant started its operation in 1876 and operated about 100 years before it was shut down about 40 years ago. Supported with EU money the power plant was restored and resumed operation in the year 2000 as a museum power plant which is free for visitors during the summer months.Buying environment-friendly electricity is mostly a statement towards your electricity supplier. All what it means is that your supplier is buying some certificates that guarantee that somewhere electricity is produced environment-friendly. Electricity is electricity is electricity. Once it is in the grid, there is no way to distinguish between electricity from nuclear power plants or coal-burning power plants and wind- or water-generated electricity. Physically, you get most of the power from the closest source. If you buy ecological electricity and you live close to a nuclear power plant, you’ll get most of your power from there whether you like it or not. Thus we have actually real chances to get some of our electricity from the museum power plant next to our house. That is: if it was working.The generator broke about two years ago and a spare part had to be ordered from Austria (the generator axle needed to be custom made). The spare part had been delivered in 2009, but for some reason, the generator was still not fully operational.The power plant’s operation is dependent on the water level in the Vantaa river. Low water levels were to blame e.g. during summer of 2010, but the generator has mostly not been operating even when when water levels did permit its use (the statistics can bee seen here ).I visit the power plant frequently together with my son and thus I can say that during the approximately 10 visits during 2010 we have never found the generator turning. In 2007 it was turning almost every time we visited. Even more disappointingly, the museum staff was only able to confirm that something must still be wrong with the machine despite the replacement axle; but they were not able to tell us any details.Most surprising is the fact that nobody from the operating company told us anything, although we were allegedly receiving our energy from this power plant. Therfore on August 24th I wrote a e-mail to Ulla-Maija Alander from Helsingin Energia asking about the situation and encouraging to make more information available for their customers. After not receiving any answer for three weeks I resent the mail on Sept. 15th and after waiting for another three weeks I finally phoned. During the phone conversation I was promised an answer which came via e-mail:Dear Mr Jeltsch,first I would like to apologize for not responsing to your feedback earlier, and also thank you for your interest in Vanhankaupunginkoski power plant.The reason why the generator is not operating at the moment is - as you correctly assumed - the lack of water, as it often has been. However, there has also been technical problems since the generator was repaired in May 2009. This year, the lack of water caused “zero production” in January and February. In May and June, unfortenately, there were problems in the turbine that prevented the use of the generator. After these problems were solved, the water level sunk again in August.I don’t know if the demonstration use has been a daily procedure, but I will get back to you as soon as I find more information about that and the reasons why this may have been changed.You are absolutely right about the lack of information on our website and towards our valuable Ympäristöpenni customers. And you are right that it is inexcusable. We clearly have to improve our performance. We will.Thank you for the feedback!Best regards,Anna-Maria AsellProduct ManagerHelsingin Energia00090 HelenKampinkuja 2, HelsinkiTel. 09 617 3168anna-maria.asell@helen.fiwww.helen.fi

Glass versus plastic

Sun, 23 May 2004 00:00:00 +0000

More or less, all laboratories in life science have been moving or are moving from glass pipettes to plastic pipettes. I am not talking about the small-volume pipette tips (10-1000µl), which have been always made from polypropylene, but the so-called serological pipettes. Traditionally glass pipettes have been used, but most of the labs have been moving to the disposable type. Our lab is using the disposable type with volumes of mostly 5, 10 and 25 ml for cell culture (and occasionally 2 and 50 ml). These are made from polystyrene and I have seen the old glass pipettes being thrown away. I rescued one big batch of such totally functional glass pipettes from the waste assuming that sooner or later, we might decide to go back to glass pipettes for environmental reasons. But the glass pipettes need to be washed and sterilized, which also uses chemicals, water and energy. Maybe plastic is environmentally the better choice? I guess nobody really knows…