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> The discovery comes from a team of Yale chemists who found a way to combine atmospheric nitrogen with benzene to make a chemical compound called aniline, whic
by TedShiller 6y ago
> The discovery comes from a team of Yale chemists who found a way to combine atmospheric nitrogen with benzene to make a chemical compound called aniline, which is a precursor to materials used to make an assortment of synthetic products.
Ok, great. This is stated in a fairly neutral way. But one wonders if we are considering the negative effects of those synthetic products. That was the problem with plastics -- although revolutionary, there was a dearth of discourse about its negative effects, which we are feeling now.
- maxerickson 6y agoAniline is already a widely used industrial compound (used to make polyurethane). The novelty here is making it from atmospheric nitrogen.
- MertsA 6y agoNitrogen also makes up 2.6% of the Martian atmosphere and Nitrogen gas will likely be an important feedstock for future Martian ISRU plans.
- refurb 6y agoThose products already exist. This is just a new route to them.
- TedShiller 6y agoSometimes it's bad to have more routes to something, for example when the end result is plastic.
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoI'm not gonna lose any sleep over third world farmers realizing better crop yields using newly affordable fertilizer.
- SturgeonsLaw 6y agoIt's curious that plants haven't evolved to fix their own nitrogen, given their need for it and its abundance in the atmosphere
- thaumasiotes 6y agoThey have. Legumes are an important way to fix nitrogen (while simultaneously growing food!). Why haven't ALL plants evolved to fix nitrogen? It's abundant in the air... and also in the ground. You don't manufacture your own vitamin C, but you could. But there's no need. Humans specifically evolved the inability to do so, where almost all animals can and do.
- maxerickson 6y agoSymbiotic microorganisms fix nitrogen. Plants don't.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoSymbiotic microorganisms digest food. Animals don't. Wait, that makes no sense. Symbiotic microorganisms are part of the macroorganism they live in.
- maxerickson 6y agoHuman teeth, saliva and stomach acid do a whole lot more to digest food than beans do to fix nitrogen. Or do legumes chew the nitrogen before it gets to their roots?