Live data from Hacker News

Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

physics-astronomy.org

121–130 of 141 posts

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#121
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what happens to society as a whole when we abandon a person's right to own the products of their labor? What happens when highly productive people decide they have better things to do than go to work and get taxed at 70%? A lot of people like a carbon tax because it will lower carbon emissions, if you tax productivity it has the same effect. A lot of people like clean energy subsidies because it makes clean energ…

>A lot of people like a carbon tax because it will lower carbon emissions, if you tax productivity it has the same effect. It's not the same situation, so there's no reason to think it'd have the same effect. A carbon tax's effect would come from opportunity cost. A company stops a behavior because of a carbon tax when they've found something more profitable. The tax just shifts the line of "more profitable." But wha…

Taxing something makes it less common. Doesn't matter if it's carbon, cigarettes, sugar, productivity, or investing.

Tax investing and that shifts the line just like a carbon tax, except in this case the people investing are more likely to start buying politicians or sending their money overseas. Those things don't benefit society like having them fund the research and diligence necessary to find and invest in the next Google, the next Target, or the next energy revolution.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#122
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re not alone there. Ontario is battling it out over this (once again). It’s regretful that it’s even a question anymore.

A few years ago, we were considering relocating to Toronto. We went to a school and had a meeting with the principal of the local school. This principal said to us in no uncertain terms that if we can afford private school, to not send our children to public school in Toronto. Now, could this be a selfish reason on his part? Sure, but I doubt it. He walked us through why. Toronto is huge. What you see with the teenag…

> What you see with the teenager in question is a small town with decent enough resources

Everything bar the geo-specific things (sailing,planeterium) come from the same money pot for every school in Ireland (ROI) and are pretty much the same for most schools countrywide. The more disadvantaged an area your school is in, the more resources(a la funding/support) it gets.

This extends outside school to community. The most disadvantaged/crime-ridden communities get the most government funding(local sports/after-school activities/local community centers etc.)

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ireland's per capita level of funding for research has been lagging badly behind the European average, though. It's really a cultural problem: R&D doesn't happen here, except in rare cases. It's not really down to the size of the population: in the 19th C we had Hamilton and Boole, the world's largest telescope in Birr, Grubb telescope manufacturing in Dublin, and the Titanic was built in Belfast in the early 20th C.…

I would also argue that the successful way that Ireland has brought big companies to the country hasn't yet resulted in the spin off of benefits that the presence of such companies has had in other areas.

> brought big companies to the country

Unfortunately, these companies were brought over by accountants, not engineers..

In so far as, Ireland gave them an opportunity to target EU market (& tax deals) which meant their staff is mostly non engineering (customer service/finance/legal).

The big mistake Ireland made (back then) was not ensuring some of their core business functionalities _had_ to be present in Ireland (i.e. engineering)

A lot less new tech companies built by accountants and customer support staff compared to engineers.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#124
post #34

"Ferrier sat his Leaving Certificate exams last month at Schull Community College and is due to attend university in the Netherlands. The teenager works as a curator at the Schull Planetarium, has won 12 science fair awards, speaks three languages fluently, plays the trumpet at orchestra level, and had a minor planet named after him by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory." Anyone else feeling somewhat inadequate in comparison…

nah. grats to this guy but one person's accomplishments does not diminish the value of our own accomplishments. All the time i spent fucking around and getting into trouble as a youth has led me to this lovely place I am now and wouldnt trade it for the world.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to this [1] source, only about 2% of microplastics are due to cosmetics. The majority are from synthetic textiles (35%) and tyres (28%). [1] https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documen...

I felt good about buying cotton tees which need less laundry due to hydrophobic and silver ion coatings. But they contain a bit of lycra. And they are hard to recycle. What should I buy instead?

Maybe could consider hemp clothes? Do your own research though as this could be a terrible suggestion. Hopefully others will comment on the (in)correctness of this suggestion

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#126
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because in reality the teenager's mental output isn't higher than a random adult engineer. But people just think "amazing" when a teenager does something, because people now have very low expectation for teenagers.

There's also good societal reason to encourage teenagers like this to undertake another 4-8 years of difficult education to become those random adult engineers. Showing them "hey what you can do with your mind is valued by society" might help do that.

So the product that they are tring to sell here to adolescents is "science courses" and science itself is just an excuse (in those cases). "See? You could be like this guy and be a happy tuba player, sportsman and superscientist all in one" and all of that. This would explain a lot of things... :-)

... and for most of the participants, here comes the surprise...

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#127

> At present, no screening or filtering for microplastics takes place in any European wastewater treatment centres. This seems to be a hole that needs plugging. Regulations that prohibit the use of this stuff altogether would be even better.

I think it's messed up that soaps shampoos and other items are even allowed to contain micro plastics when we know the damage they cause.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#128

Tangent: I have a hunch that the Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube, or something based on it, could be used to separate or just concentrate microplastics from water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube > The vortex tube was used to separate gas mixtures, oxygen and nitrogen, carbon dioxide and helium, carbon dioxide and air in 1967 by Linderstrom-Lang. Vortex tubes also seem to work with liquids to some extent...

[deleted]

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#129
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up on the other side of that coin—a small town without enough resources. It wasn’t the worst of them, but when school boards were amalgamated it sparked internal politics as to where funding was allocated. I was a kid, so I wasn’t directly involved, but looking back on it—it was sad. Rural regions basically battling each other to keep textbooks up to date. And even in that state there were kids winning nation-…

Sounds good but it's that kind of thinking that leads to the current situation (I mean this literally) . School is basically glorified babysitting at this point.

I’m sorry. I don’t follow.

I was advocating for more funding to public education so that more children have access to more learning experiences.

I hope that’s more clear.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#130
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds good but it's that kind of thinking that leads to the current situation (I mean this literally) . School is basically glorified babysitting at this point.

I’m sorry. I don’t follow. I was advocating for more funding to public education so that more children have access to more learning experiences. I hope that’s more clear.

Sorry, I was trying to say that that people have been adding more funding for generations and it keeps getting worse.

Example: declining student enrollment, increased spending https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/per-student-spending...

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/quickfacts/2016...

Post reply on HN