In 1941, researchers
in Dow's Chemical Physics Lab found a way to make foamed polystyrene. Led by
Ray McIntire, they rediscovered a method first used by Swedish inventor Carl
Georg Munters. Dow acquired exclusive rights to use Munters' patents and found
ways to make large quantities of extruded polystyrene as a closed cell foam
that resists moisture.Polystyrene (PS)
is a synthetic aromatic polymer made from the monomer styrene.
Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. As a thermoplastic polymer, polystyrene is
in a solid (glassy) state at room temperature but flows if heated above about
100 °C, its glass transition temperature. It becomes rigid again when cooled.
Polystyrene is very slow to biodegrade and is therefore a focus of controversy
among environmentalists.
Styrofoam is a
trademarked brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam currently made for
thermal insulation and craft applications. It is owned and manufactured by The
Dow Chemical Company. Dow is no strange
to controversy ~ they were in news
recently and were subjected to so many memes – you
will realize this when you connect that a tradename for polystyrene foam is
Thermocol !
Science experiments
often go wrong but a lot of these turned out worse than you would imagine. Some
scientists don’t shy away from using extreme methods such as electricity and
large doses of hypo-tropics like LSD. Scientists may evenuse animal cruelty or abuse humans to
prove a hypothesis. The great Thomas
Alva Edison worked on many experiments throughout his life, but this is one
he’ll never forget as he experimented on the effects of xray. Clarence Dally an
American glass-blower and Edison assistant was poisoned in 1895 by the effects of the X-ray. In 1900 Clarence
was suffering radiation damage to his hands and face, and had to leave work.
All of Clarence’s multiple treatments were unsuccessful, Clarence lost his left
hand, and eventually died of Medicinal Cancer. Edison then abandoned his work
on X-ray !
Elsewhere, in the
World of Computers, Silicon Valley runs on failure. Its unofficial motto, after
all, is “Fail fast, fail often,” and it is the region that gave birth to
FailCon, where stories of entrepreneurial failure are badges of honour, wrote a
leading magazine. Wisdom of learning from failure is incontrovertible. Yet
organizations that do it well are extraordinarily rare. This gap is not due to
a lack of commitment to learning.
In Tamil Nadu,
Cooperatives play a prominent role in the day to day affairs of the common man.
They help the farmer to improve agricultural production by providing crop loans
and by supplying agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and insecticides. They
also enable the farmer to store and market his produce. In most districts,
cooperatives run the fair price shops which provide the rural and urban poor
essential commodities at highly subsidized prices ~ it was the turn of the
Minister for Cooperatives to hog limelight for wrong reasons and become centre
of media memes.
Many parts of the
State are under severe drought that requires immediate attention and scared of
being accused of failing to take any measure, the government is out of
slumber.Tamil Nadu Co-operatives Minister SellurRaju had a creative idea of
setting afloat sheets of thermocol taped together on the Vaigai dam to prevent
the water from evaporating.Sheets of thermocolreportedly worth Rs 10 lakh were
used to cover an area of 10 square kilometers. The plan was to hire many
coracles, take the sheets on it, stick them together with tapes and let it
float atop the river. And the plan was okayed by the ministers and two district
collectors. It was launched with big fan-fare with Minister and officials
coming in a convoy of vehicles.
Alas, it could not
last for minutes - whole lot of
thermocols, drifted away within minutes to the shore just making the ministers
and authorities embarrassed. Some
reports suggested that authorities tried to copy a method where 4 inch plastic
balls called 'shade balls' were used to avoid water from evaporating in
California's Sylmar Lake reservoir.
Immediately the
media was full of meme ridiculing the effort – one magazine wrote that the
Minister in his Physics class at school, had forgotten to read the chapter on
wind velocity. To those assembled at
Vaigai and the media, it turned out to
be a comedy show with Tamil Nadu threatening to become 'Thermocol Nadu'. As
Raju and Rao (Minister and Collector) found their experiment going down the drain,
concerns that thermocol which is made of polystyrene beads, would harm marine
life were expressed. Science journals point out that experiments to prevent
evaporation have been conducted with thermocol but they have been on ice or
static water in farm ponds, not on running water in an open area. Even though
Raju may claim political immunity by saying he was taking on the rising sun,
the symbol of the Opposition DMK, his carelessness in dealing with public money
has proved to be an embarrassment.
Clearly, very
clearly, experiments do go wrong ! ~ today’s wrong could later become success
stories .. .. but, such experiments are not launched with so much of
fanfare. The initial reports stated of
10 lakhs odd rupees being spent, the Minister himself appearing in a TV show on
the same day, put the value at much less @ Rs.8000/-
Sad state of affairs
!
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
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