ChemBob @ChemBob@qoto.org
I am Robert M. Powell. My degrees are in Zoology and Environmental Science, with a lot of chemistry courses thrown in, which was fortunate because almost all my professional work has involved extremely detailed chemistry, including some chemical reactions in experiments that hadn't been described before. I’m also a consultant, so get in touch if my expertise matches your needs.
I currently teach environmental science courses at three colleges. I had a very long career prior to becoming a professor, with over 40 years of experience. Here are some highlights:
- Two years as a senior technician in a genetics research lab.
- Eleven years at the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) as an Analytical Chemist.
- Eleven years as a Researcher at USEPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Ada, OK.
- Twenty-four years as an environmental consultant via Powell & Associates Science Services.
- Seven years+ (so far) as a professor at three colleges.
My expertise includes aqueous chemistry, ground water geochemistry, contaminant remediation using permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) in the subsurface and other innovative in situ treatment technologies, ground water sampling, site characterization, contaminant transport and fate, including colloidal contaminant transport, analytical chemistry, exploratory data analysis, risk assessment, technical writing and editing, and providing expert witness support for clients on a variety of environmental topics under litigation. One of my fascinations is sorting out complex data using exploratory data analysis software.
At the OGS I analyzed large numbers of environmental samples, including rocks, coal, surface water, ground water, water from deep sea sediments, uranium levels in ore, and so on; I programmed computers to do the calculations.
At EPA, my emphasis was in surface water and subsurface systems including soil, the unsaturated zone above the aquifers, and ground water, including the transport of contaminants adsorbed onto colloidal particles and as chelates. I was involved in the research and development of low-flow rate and passive purging and sampling of groundwater monitoring wells. I also worked on the development and understanding of the geochemical mechanisms, reaction rates, costs and approaches to in situ contaminant remediation using permeable reactive barrier technology, authoring many reports and peer-reviewed papers in the process. Both these methods are now being used worldwide, for which I get nothing because my work was government-funded, LOL.
As a consultant I have had numerous clients from industry, legal teams, Native American tribes, other consultancies, and government, both local and federal. One of my favorite projects was serving as a member of the six-person External Advisory Group for the Hydrogeologic Workplan at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for seven years; I got to go to New Mexico at least twice per year and I love it there, both the scenery and the stupendously good Mexican food.
About three years ago, I was subcontracted to Michigan Technological University for the State of Michigan. Michigan Tech was contracted to develop a worst-case scenario risk assessment for the Mackinac Straits Line 5 pipelines owned by Enbridge, Inc., should they rupture and release large amounts of oil. I worked on the ecosystems part of the risk assessment.
I've authored 40+ publications, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles and lost count of my professional presentations at around 50 or so.
Joined Nov 2022
ChemBob
boosted
"America needs to know who Barre Seid is, what kind of country he wants, and just how massive an impact his $1.6 billion gift can have on our political discourse." https://newrepublic.com/article/172480/barre-seid-leonard-leo-dark-money-king
I would be very interested in a discussion of this article; whether anyone finds it compelling, sees problems with it, etc. In it are a variety of physics concepts, evolution, the genesis of time and what it is (the gist of the article), and more, including Legos.
There is all this worry about AI permeating the media and the government. Here is what I think about how to manage it:
There are thousands of predictive models of various sorts and for various purposes in use and there have been for years. AI is simply another type of predictive model. All the models of which I am aware have what are known as “boundary conditions” that are set in the model before it is run for whatever reason...predicting the movement of groundwater contamination for example.
These boundary conditions limit the range of predictions to avoid nonsensical results, to avoid the models running endlessly by trying to address too large a dataset, and because going further than a certain point in the calculations is unnecessary. Boundary conditions can be inserted into AI just as easily, set the code so that it simply can’t embark into certain areas, doesn’t allow it to go beyond where it is useful to humans to the point where it considers us to be stupid garbage.
Perhaps this is where regulations could come in, setting such boundary conditions. Having said that, there will still be the potential for rogue countries to ignore such safety protocols, so detection methods for that will be needed, possibly performed by the AIs themselves.
This is too important to ignore. The potential gutting of all our agencies by the Supreme Court. The EPA, FDA, OSHA, and on and on.
@TruthSandwich your concept is even more oversimplified than the Overton Window. I don’t have time to discuss it, unfortunately.
@TruthSandwich isn’t that what all politicians do? Besides, the Overton Window must gradually be pushed leftward.
@Drosmel I hope your kitty is OK.
I'm not normally political on here, but everyone on earth should read this article by Thom Hartmann. The title is a little misleading, because the primary topic is how fascism arises and takes over a government, precisely what the ignorant supporting Trump are slowly but surely doing.
https://www.rawstory.com/cnn-town-hall-trump/#comments_section_start
ChemBob
boosted
[emploi] La science ouverte se développe aussi grâce à des cabinets experts qui se mettent au service de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche pour accompagner cette transformation profonde ! Si vous avez une bonne expérience des données de recherche (si possible dans plusieurs contextes disciplinaires) et souhaitez travailler en remote au sein d'une société coopérative unique en son genre, n'hésitez pas à candidater chez Datactivist ! https://odoo.datactivist.coop/jobs/detail/consultante-science-ouverte-8
ChemBob
boosted
@freemo I thought we were talking about guns. So, I'm going to continue to talk about guns.
People don't need guns and shouldn't have easy access to them. Japan does not have a citizenry with access to guns, therefore, they do not have much gun violence. It's a simple argument.
@mattl it’s available in the App Store for Mac, iPhone, and iPad and they all sync. It has tons of features that are easy to use. I just checked, I have 780 drafts in it.
ChemBob
boosted
Zakaj vidimo auroro borealis? https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/geomagnetic-storm-continues
ChemBob
boosted
I couldn't be happier that Fox apparently threw out Tucker Carlson, but that does not in any way absolve them of any of their crimes - fraud, defamation, sedition and others counted amongst them.
ChemBob
boosted
Very good news.
"The EU is planning a compulsory licensing system to allow it to take control of the manufacture of drugs and vaccines during a public health emergency, despite calls from pharmaceutical groups to protect patents"
https://www.ft.com/content/b777f019-ff02-41c3-8645-3d06e865f7fd
@medigoth Data sufficiency, quality, values near detection limits, collection methods, and so on and so forth are real issues for environmental investigations as well. More attention needs to be paid to these concerns so we can have increased confidence in the statistical confidence that results.
ChemBob
boosted
There are two philosophies in #programming toward handling questionable #data. The first is to check the #integrity of the data every time it's used. This takes a fair amount of #programmer time, and depending on the size of the data may also take a fair amount of #computer time. It's a PITA to write, test, debug, and run.
The second is to say "I've already checked this data a bunch of times in the program, it's fine" and skip the integrity checks after the first time. In #scientific programming, this is particularly tempting: the data sets are huge, and writing checks is annoying. The whole thing feels like a waste of time when you're reasonably sure your code will never run on anything except this particular data set which you already see more of than your family and your pets and you just want to get the damned thing done.
About 95% of the time, I take the first approach. Every time I do it, I'm grumbling to myself. Just finish it, already! And I am uneasily aware that those who take the second approach get their work done faster than I do.
Yes. This is true.
They also get a lot of #garbage results—many of which don't look like garbage at all. Here comes the ritual chest-thumping ... in #bioinformatics, and #biomedical #research generally, those mistakes don't just lead to flawed publications, as bad as that is. Garbage results kill people.
I just received a lesson in why the first is a really good idea. Let's be careful out there.
ChemBob
boosted
A heads up on the #CDC updates on the variant proportions of #SarsCoV2 through April 22, 2023. It shows that Arcturus (XBB.1.16) is at about 10% prevalence nationally with some areas as high as 19%. Region 6, which includes Texas and the surrounding states, is showing the highest average with nearly 15% prevalence. That is almost double the 8% reported last week. The pace of spread will likely increase towards the 5 1/2 to 6 day doubling rate seen in India. https://open.substack.com/pub/tactnowinfo/p/covid-update-april-23-2023-arcturus?utm_source=direct&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
@ryuichi I think possibly a game. It’s one of those images that elicits a memory that I can’t quite recall.
@ryuichi I’m trying to figure out why this image seems so familiar to me somehow.
I am Robert M. Powell. My degrees are in Zoology and Environmental Science, with a lot of chemistry courses thrown in, which was fortunate because almost all my professional work has involved extremely detailed chemistry, including some chemical reactions in experiments that hadn't been described before. I’m also a consultant, so get in touch if my expertise matches your needs.
I currently teach environmental science courses at three colleges. I had a very long career prior to becoming a professor, with over 40 years of experience. Here are some highlights:
- Two years as a senior technician in a genetics research lab.
- Eleven years at the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) as an Analytical Chemist.
- Eleven years as a Researcher at USEPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Ada, OK.
- Twenty-four years as an environmental consultant via Powell & Associates Science Services.
- Seven years+ (so far) as a professor at three colleges.
My expertise includes aqueous chemistry, ground water geochemistry, contaminant remediation using permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) in the subsurface and other innovative in situ treatment technologies, ground water sampling, site characterization, contaminant transport and fate, including colloidal contaminant transport, analytical chemistry, exploratory data analysis, risk assessment, technical writing and editing, and providing expert witness support for clients on a variety of environmental topics under litigation. One of my fascinations is sorting out complex data using exploratory data analysis software.
At the OGS I analyzed large numbers of environmental samples, including rocks, coal, surface water, ground water, water from deep sea sediments, uranium levels in ore, and so on; I programmed computers to do the calculations.
At EPA, my emphasis was in surface water and subsurface systems including soil, the unsaturated zone above the aquifers, and ground water, including the transport of contaminants adsorbed onto colloidal particles and as chelates. I was involved in the research and development of low-flow rate and passive purging and sampling of groundwater monitoring wells. I also worked on the development and understanding of the geochemical mechanisms, reaction rates, costs and approaches to in situ contaminant remediation using permeable reactive barrier technology, authoring many reports and peer-reviewed papers in the process. Both these methods are now being used worldwide, for which I get nothing because my work was government-funded, LOL.
As a consultant I have had numerous clients from industry, legal teams, Native American tribes, other consultancies, and government, both local and federal. One of my favorite projects was serving as a member of the six-person External Advisory Group for the Hydrogeologic Workplan at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for seven years; I got to go to New Mexico at least twice per year and I love it there, both the scenery and the stupendously good Mexican food.
About three years ago, I was subcontracted to Michigan Technological University for the State of Michigan. Michigan Tech was contracted to develop a worst-case scenario risk assessment for the Mackinac Straits Line 5 pipelines owned by Enbridge, Inc., should they rupture and release large amounts of oil. I worked on the ecosystems part of the risk assessment.
I've authored 40+ publications, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles and lost count of my professional presentations at around 50 or so.
Joined Nov 2022
