Global Warming and Ice Core Analysis

The Earth is rapidly warming-up. This is what the news media telling us everyday. The scientific journal also presents scientific data that shows the Earth temperature has increased about 1.5 C over the last 100 years.

Being a chemistry professor, I am very curious on how this data is collected and why this 1.5 C temperature rise is such a big deal

First, this is about data analysis: How do scientist know the Earth temperature profile over thousand or hundred of thousand years ? It turns out their data are based on ice-core isotope ratio analysis. Let me explain how this is done.

First, they drill and take ice core over a frozen lake out of Greenland. The depth of the ice core will correspond to the years-past that the ice were formed; assuming the ice never melted and new snow would cover over the old ice and snow-ice were accumulated over million years. Then take the ice sample at a particular depth which corresponds to the years that the ice were formed, scientists measured their hydrogen isotope ratio. Well, a question is what this isotope ratio is going to tell us about the temperature.

This has something to do with the difference of the vapor pressure-temperature profile between H2O and D2O. Being heavier than H2O, at a given temperature, the vapor pressure of D2O is lower than that of H2O. So, there will be more H2O vapor than D2O vapor at any given temperature. As the Earth temperature gets warmer, then H2O vapor will be even more abundant than D2O vapor; thus a smaller H/D ratio in the condensed phase of the ice core sample. Thus by measuring the H/D ratios over different ice core depth, scientist can reconstruct Earth temperatures over million of years of past history.

This would be a great problem exercise for a physical chemistry student to put their knowledge of vapor pressure concept into the context of the real-world problem-solving.

A Very Good Old Man

I heard this story from the National Public Radio. It has a funny twist which I would like to share with my readers.

Once upon a time, there was a very good old man. He was so good that he would not hurt any animals not even a mosquito which sucked his blood.

There was such a mosquito which sat on his arm sucking his blood. The old man said that such a poor mosquito who must be very hungry. Let the mosquito fed with my blood.

The mosquito fed on his blood for a while then felt satisfied and flew away.

But, then the mosquito told his mosquito friends. So, a hundred mosquito came to suck this good old man's blood.

These hundred mosquito then told their mosquito friends. So a thousand mosquito came to suck this good old man's blood.

Pretty soon, a million mosquito came. By the time, these million mosquito were fed, the very good old man died.

The end.

Ms. Taku's Rhyme and Tune was Such A Pleasant Surprise At Appleton Library

It was a rainy day on Sunday of April 25, 2010. We went to Appleton Library for an Austria movie, "Revenge". We were at the library about half an hour earlier than the show time. There was a free music performance at the library atrium. It was Ms, Taku's Rhyme and Tune show. Ms. Taku led us singing folk songs from all over the world including Buddhist chanting, Islam's prayer and Israel's melody. The audience, most of them are children then played the percussion instrument following the rhythm of the songs. It was such a great joy.

Concerning about movie, we did not finish watching the movies; we were turned off by the beginning sexual explicit scenes between the main character and the prostitute.

Ms. Taku's "Rhyme and Tune" experiences were much better. She has the following web site. Ms.Taku.com.

An Old Photo Brings Up Old Day Joy of Raising Kids

Raising children is expensive counting about all the child care, medical care and educational expenses. However, for Meeilei and I, raising Victor and Leo was such a joy and blessing. The happiness that we have received from Victor and Leo are far greater than all the hard work we have done for them.

Our church friend gave us the attached photo few days ago. It was taken on November 24, 1988, during church's Thanksgiving celebration. Victor was 11 years and Leo was 8 years old. Victor played cello while Leo played violin in the celebration. I say in a chair across them with a black sweater and a light jacket. I don't remember which music they were playing at the celebration.

In 1988, Meeilei's mother died. She flew back to Taiwan for her mom's funeral in November. She was not in the photo.

Renard Recorder Consort will Play in Appleton Library in September, 2010

Here is some exciting news for Dr. Chen's friends in Appleton. Our recorder group will play in Appleton library in September, 2010. We have about 1 hr. repertoire of music to perform.

The Appleton recorder group has been in existence since we moved to Wisconsin in 1984. There were some interruption during last 27 years. about 5 years ago, 2 music faculty from UW-Oshkosh and Lawrence University together with several very high quality musicians joined us, the Appleton recorder group has a face-lifting experience. Since then, the group has a name, called the Renard Consort, and has an unofficial music director, Dr. James C who is the music professor at UW-Oshkosh.

Since we moved to Wisconsin in 1984, I have taken many hobbies and sport. Many of them such as judo, and down hill ski, I did not keep up. But recorder is the hobby I still keep today. My wife joined the recorder group in 2009. Now, I am more motivated to practice at least once per day. It is even more fun to play duet with my wife.

Attached is the photo for the Renard Recorder Consort. Back row from the left:

Caroline, H., (a librarian), Frank C (Professor, UW-Green Bay), Bruce (Chemist, George-Pacific), Dona D (Professor, Lawrence University), Becky (Teacher, Menasha High school), James, C (Professor, UW-Oshkosh)

Front-row: Judy (Musician), Dee (Musician), Barbara (Consort mother), Meeilei (Retired programmer), Miriam D (Chemistry instructor, Fox Valley Technical College)

At the First Sign of Spring...

At the first sign of spring in Wisconsin, the tree is budding new leaves and UW-Green Bay faculty has a celebration in the name of promoting scholarship. Photos show the budding leaves and fellow faculty musicians at the celebration. My friend (in the middle), Dr. Craig Hanke, plays the base guitar.

Keith White Prairie-My UWGB Retreat

The place I am working as a professor doesn't pay me very much. However, UW-Green Bay does have a beautiful campus. Circling around the campus is a 6-mile long walking, bicycling or cross-country-ski trail. I was too busy to visit them during my early career at this campus. After experiencing long illness in the last year, I realize everyday's life is God's gift and I need to find time to appreciate God's creation of nature and bauty.

This 6-mile long trail winds through a 16 acre grassland of the so-called Keith White Prairie. This prairie was established in 1972 under the guidance of Professor Keith White, who continued the site even after his retirement in 1989. Professor White's students assisted with site preparation, planting, and burning, a tradition that is continued today by faculty and students at UW-Green Bay.

Early explorers called the vast North American grasslands "prairie" after the French word for meadow. Prairies were once home to bison, elk, wolves and badgers. They extended from central Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, through part of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

The dominant grasses at the Keith White prairie are big blue stem, switch grass, and Indian grass. They develop enormous root systems, sometimes growing as deep as 3 meters. Prairie plants are well adopted to fire, drought, and grazing.

Pictures show summer and spring view of the Keith White prairie.