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
@august Interesting, thanks for the link. I’m inclined somewhat to agree with Yuval Noah Harari who thinks that such AI will eventually obviate the need for students to write reports. I suppose they will at least need to know how to formulate queries that get the informational response they need.
@august We’ve had a few discussions about ChatGPT within our faculty recently, to consider how it will impact student submissions.
ChemBob
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ChemBob
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McCarthy tapped 11 Republicans as committee chairs who voted to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election.
11 of the 17 new House committee chairmen are election deniers who were willing to overthrow the democratic process to put trump back in office.
Why isn’t this a bigger story?
ChemBob
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EXTREMELY RARE footage of the elusive box jellyfish Chirodectes. Larger than a soccer ball, this jelly is a true ocean mystery, and this video is one of the only in existence, filmed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2021.
📽️Scuba Ventures Kavieng bit.ly/3FE29tL
ChemBob
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If you’re still posting on Twitter then you’re actively helping a fascist achieve his goal of controlling the information so he can bend it how he wants.
@CathleenCrudden I’ve only been here for a few weeks and I already like it better than the bird site. Admittedly I haven’t posted much yet; I’ve mostly been enjoying the posts of others. BTW, although I’m not teaching chemistry, I’ve done a lot of it in my research. #chemistry #research #environmentalscience
ChemBob
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Nature Chemical Engineering, launching in January 2024, is looking for three Associate/Senior Editors.
For details of the broad areas of expertise we're looking for in candidates, please take a look at the job ad here: https://careers.springernature.com/job/London-Associate-or-Senior-Editor%2C-Nature-Chemical-Engineering/882724901/
Closing date for applications: Jan 16, 2023
Locations: London, New York, Berlin, Shanghai or Beijing
Boosts appreciated!
#Chemistry #Engineering #ChemicalEngineering #ChemiVerse #Editorial #Publishing #Jobs
ChemBob
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"Scientists want to use People as Antennas to power 6G" (Visible Light Comms)
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a42419268/6g-power-humans-antennas/
ChemBob
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A violent international fascist movement is gaining ground, and their American supporters—failed insurrectionists, still at large and rabble-rousing, like Donald Trump and Steve Bannon—have gained control of one house of Congress. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/08/world/brazil-congress-protests-bolsonaro
ChemBob
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Hey everyone. Just wanted to eliminate the confusion and let you know that this is actually me. 😂 Hope you are having an awesome Thursday!
ChemBob
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Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), iconic plant of the desert southwest, they look mostly dead throughout the year but following a rain they become covered with small leaves and they sprout long tubular flowers from the tips of their branches
ChemBob
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The longest serving Republican House Speaker ended up as a convicted child molester and they have the nerve to talk about ‘grooming.’
ChemBob
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Republicans are trying and failing to make a major January 6 accomplice Speaker of the House by January 6.
ChemBob
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#physics **The power of exponential growth**
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-evidence-covid-19-was-spreading-around-the-world-in-late-2019/
Covid was piddling around the world from the late summer of 2019. I got one of the first cases in Jan. 2020, from my brother-in-law who started the Bracebridge cluster. :) It was just a flu then. The article says that other viruses had a physics effect, but covid was under the noise. No philosophers in the media get the concept. The Chinese were just smart enough to type it first, as it blew up.
ChemBob
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Solid Earth Science Roundup from Hrvoje Tkalcic of @anuearthscience
Geo Down Under https://www.geo-down-under.org.au/2022-in-a-nutshell/#.Y7NXbJ_wvTs.twitter
ChemBob
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🇳🇱
I mentioned this in a private message to someone recently about why a small handful of servers block qoto. I wanted to reiterate it here for the new comers on QOTO who dont know the history:
So there are some servers out there that demand every server int he network block every instance they do, and if a server doesnt block an instance they block then they block you in rettatliation.
Their reason for this is quite flawed but it goes like this.. If we federate with a bad actor instance and we boost one of their posts then their users will see it and defeat the purpose of the block. The problem is, this isnt how it actually works. If they block a server and we boost it, they wont see the boost, thats how blocks work.
The issue becomes even more complicated when you consider the fact that these servers, by virtue of their policy, have huge block lists where they block tons of major servers. So in order to satisfy them we too would have to block a huge number of servers.
This means you have a choice, you either join a server that isnt blocked, but has a huge block list themselves, or, you join a server that doesnt block and be blocked by a small handful of servers. Obviously that means on QOTO you will have bigger view of the world than you would on any of these others servers. In fact QOTO has onne of the largest federation footprints of any server in the network.
I want to also explain why we choose the decision we did. Years ago when this controversy started and servers across the fediverse started blocking there was a divide of people taking sides. WOTO was one of the few servers that didnt take sides and allowed people read content from any server (but with strict hate speech rules). This caused a huge influx of people,s pecifically from the LGBTQ community, onto our server. It turns out many people relied on us not-blocking for their physical safety. There were big name biggots (like milo yanappolus) who were on the network. They used their accounts here to watch his account for doxing so they could warn themselves and their community and protect themselves accordingly. In fact we added a feature just for them called subscriptions which allowed them to monitor accounts without following them so they could do so anonymously.
In tthe end for the safety of the LGBTQ community here we refused to engage in mass server blocking and instead encouraged our users to block servers on an individual basis and provided access to block lists for them to do so. But some really misguided servers blocked us anyway.
Thankfully the servers blocking us are few and far between and are limited to only the most excessive and aggressive block lists. As I said, QOTO has one of the largest federation footprints on the fediverse,
ChemBob
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ChemBob
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You're not going to believe this latest George Santos lie - Palmer Report
That's what happens when you get in the crosshairs. Pretty soon we are gonna know if it was a dog or a cat that ate his homework in 3rd grade.
ChemBob
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Azelastine inhibits Infection by Major Variants of SARS-CoV-2 In Vitro. This is interesting!
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2022.861295/full
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
