Nontoxic wood treatment, Succulent roofing, Phenomenon explained

• Nontoxic wood treatment
• Succulent roofing
• Phenomenon explained

Nontoxic wood treatment

Bugs be warned: there may soon beglass in your food. A new, nontoxic lumber treatment incorporates sodium silicate to combat rot, decay, and other common lumber problems.

This treatment improves the durability of lumber and is designed for interior, exterior, aboveground, and in-ground use, including decks. The award-winning product, TimberSIL, is also fire-resistant and can be stained or painted. Sodium silicate has historic uses, such as hardening concrete and preserving eggs.

Environmental toxicologist Karen Slimak investigated the relationships between human health and chemical exposure for more than 30 years. She researched, developed, and patented the sodium silicate treatment for wood after a fire in her garage. She also helped found Timber Treatment Technologies to launch the product for homeowners and builders.

Retail prices for the product are expected to fall between those of traditional pressure-treated wood and composite decking material. Look for it this summer at lumber retailers and home retail chain stores in New England and the Midwest.

Succulent roofing

Chicago reigns when it comes tocitywide square footage of green roofs, but Washington, D.C., is next on the list. At the end of April, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) displayed its new green roof to the public in the nation's capital.

Touted as big energy savers, green roofs consist of more than just a couple of planter boxes. Most of the new, "second-generation," multilayer technology used for green roofs today originated in Germany, according to the designers for ASLA's roof.

Among their environmental benefits, green roofs can retain up to 75% of rainfall, thus alleviating pressure on a city's sewer system after a storm. The extra insulation provided by the green roof can also cut energy costs and extend the life of a roof to 40 years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that green roofs lower surface temperatures by up to 90 °F.

ASLA's roof design incorporates two metal "wave" structures that host many kinds of hardy plants such as succulents, perennials, and grasses. One structure also hides the building's relocated ventilation unit. Other plants reside under walkable, aluminum grating; this concept was inspired by greenery growing through subway grates in New York City. Monitoring equipment on ASLA's roof will provide data on environmental improvements in comparison with a neighboring, conventional roof.

Phenomenon explained

Looking for "lost" lab glassware? perhaps a study published in BMJ (British Medical Journal) about disappearing teaspoons will help with your hunt.

When researchers at the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research & Public Health in Melbourne, Australia, found "their tearoom bereft of teaspoons," they organized a covert, longitudinal cohort study. The epidemiologists placed 70 numbered teaspoons in the institute's tearooms and checked on them weekly for five months. In the end, 80% of the teaspoons disappeared, but the rate did not seem influenced by the value of the spoons.

They concluded that an estimated 250 teaspoons would be needed annually to maintain 70 teaspoons in the institute. "If we were to assume that the annual rate of teaspoon loss per employee can be applied to the entire workforce of the city of Melbourne (about 2.5 million), an estimated 18 million teaspoons are going to be missing in Melbourne each year," the researchers wrote.

They also note that people have no control over teaspoon migration and included in their paper an escape to a spoonoid planet and resistentialism (the belief that inanimate objects have natural antipathy to humans and that things increasingly control people) as plausible explanations for the disappearing spoons.

Several online responders commented about the published research. They wondered if the same principles apply to missing socks in the dryer. Other responders insisted that the complex issue of lost pens remains unrelated to any other lost object.