Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Microwave Heated Water: Deleterious To Houseplants?



Even though this curious assumption went viral once microwave ovens became a common household appliance, is microwave heated water deleterious to houseplants? 

By: Ringo Bones 

It is important to point out that water heated to a temperature of 70 to 100 degrees Celsius by whatever means – gas range electric oven, induction oven, microwave oven, etc. can kill any plant-life if poured at them at that temperature, this topic deals with the idea that water heated with a microwave oven to its boiling point can have a deleterious effect on houseplants after the microwave heated water is allowed to cool to ambient room temperature then used to water houseplants. Anyone with a working knowledge of homeopathy, the Peter W. Belt effect of polarized water in high fidelity audio and Rupert Sheldrake’s Morphic Resonance Theory will probably be very curious of the idea that microwave heated water having deleterious effects on houseplants whether or not their “preconceived science” behind their explanation of the phenomena seems suspect from the viewpoint of current mainstream science, they would, nonetheless, try this in a well-controlled experiment if their busy schedules will allow. 

Fortunately for those who might not have time to perform such a well-controlled science experiment first hand in order to find out if microwave heated water has a deleterious effect on household plants if used to water at them after it has cooled down to ambient room temperature, an episode of Mythbusters had performed such experiment and – inexplicably – the plants watered by microwave heated water has shown the most growth, Mythbusters’ Adam and Jamie were at a loss to explain their results and only suggested their fans to perform the same experiment to find out whether or not their results match theirs. Based on the Mythbusters’ experiment, Is microwave heated water be healthier for houseplants than either ordinary tap water and rainwater? 

Back in 2007, a Microwave heating system intended to be installed in the ballast tanks of bulk cargo ships and crude oil tankers to kill invasive organisms lurking in their ballast tank’s water that could have ecologically disastrous effects on the ships’ various ports-of-call became one of the years top inventions. Since the end of World War II, scientists have known that an average 250 ml. glass of tap water contains about 250-million bacteria and other microorganisms, could using microwaves to heat tap water then cooling it down to ambient room temperature to water it to houseplants be a healthier option to your houseplants because your microwave oven might have killed deleterious microorganisms present in tap water that could hinder the health and well being of your houseplants? 

To those with a “quirky phobia” with microwave radiation might beg to differ, their concerns over the deleterious effects of microwave radiation on living things does have “scientific credibility”. Even though the jury is still out on the link between deleterious health effects on urban dwellers on our current ambient microwave radiation exposure standards, everyone in the United States got neurotic on this very issue during the late 1980s and early 1990s when they found out that the then Soviet Union – once the socialist states’ occupational microwave radiation exposure standards became accessible by the West – has a more stringent microwave exposure guidelines in comparison to late 1980s era United States' OSHA microwave radiation exposure guidelines.     

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Pseudomonas Syringae: Mother Nature’s Cloud Seeding Agents?



Even though the Bergeron-Findeisen theory of rain had been the widely accepted working principle on what causes rainfalls, is there another yet to be discovered mechanism behind precipitation? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Though this microorganism’s role in how rains form has just been discovered relatively recently, it may provide an explanation on why a rainforest or other regions on our planet is an inexplicable magnet for rainfall. Microbiologists and climatologists had just relatively recently found out that the microorganism Pseudomonas syringae that tends to hover above rainforests and other places with dense patches of vegetation has a protein structure that allows water vapor in the atmosphere to freeze just above zero degrees Celsius. The microorganisms themselves act as the nucleating agents that allow rain to form out of atmospheric water vapor that will trigger a rainfall if enough of them coalesce and the Earth’s gravity will do the rest. 

The working principle behind how rains form has been discovered by Swedish meteorologist Tor Bergeron in his white paper published back in 1935 proposing the astonishing theory that most rain begins as snow in the colder parts of the upper atmosphere. This theory was later elaborated by German physicist Walter Findeisen and is now widely accepted as the Bergeron-Findeisen theory of rain which is the working principle behind how rains form and artificial cloud-seeding. Dust blown up into the upper parts of our atmosphere where clouds form, ultrafine dry ice, silver iodide crystals, and even common table salt had been used in artificial cloud seeding with varying degrees of success. Now we can add Pseudomonas syringae to that list. 

Recent studies have shown that Pseudomonas syringae is a more potent nucleating agent for rain formation than dust or ultrafine solid carbon dioxide, silver iodide crystals and table salt. The microorganism has also been employed for awhile now as an ice or snow making bacteria to lower the operating costs of snow machines during the Yuletide season in places that normally don’t get snowfall during that time of the year.
Pseudomonas syringae is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative bacterium with polar flagella. Despite its desirable rainmaking and snowmaking properties Pseudomonas syringae is a potent plant pathogen. As a plant pathogen, it can infect a wide range of species and exists as over 50 pathovars seen as bacterial speck in tomatoes. Ice nucleation induced by Pseudomonas syringae that earned it the nickname the “rainmaking” or “snowmaking” bacteria – depending on the local prevailing atmospheric ambient temperature.