Monthly Archives: May 2011

An increase in salinity levels at the North Reverse Osmosis Water Plant in Kill Devil Hills (yes, that’s the town name) that had been creating stress for some local officials has been explained in a recent study. Researchers from nearby Duke University found that the rising salinity levels at this coastal aquifer are the result of fossil seawater and not seawater intrusion, as had been feared. Since the well’s installation in the late 1980’s salinity has more than doubled from about 1,000 mg/L to about 2,500 mg/L. There was much cause for relief however, when researchers were able to attribute the rise to fossilized seawater and not to seawater leaking in from the coast.

According to the director of the study, Duke Professor Avner Vengosh, knowing the source of the salinity increase is important because fossil seawater raises salinity, “At a relativelyf slow and steady rate that is more manageable and sus

If you haven’t taken a look at the semifinalists for the Google Science Fair you still have a few days left to view the submissions and cast your votes! At stake is a $50,000 scholarship from Google, along with an opportunity to apprentice with Google or one of their partner organizations. There are 60 very interesting entries spread across three categories and covering just about every discipline of science. Suffice to say that the projects went beyond the paper-mache volcano. Some examples include:

• A portable solar autoclave for easy sterilization of medical tools in the third world.
• A proposal to utilize gold nanoparticles for the treatment of prostate cancer.
• Building a conductometric biosensor from scratch to detect food-borne i