Hurricane Lane, Disposable Contacts, Brief History of Time. Aug 24, 2018, Part 1

Science Friday

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🗓️ 24 August 2018

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

This year was both the 30th anniversary of Stephen Hawking’s science blockbuster A Brief History of Time, but also the year the famed physicist himself passed away. In memory of Hawking and celebration of his work, Science Friday Book Club listeners joined up to read A Brief History of Time, ask questions, and explore the far reaches of what we know about the universe—how it began, how it will end, and what it’s made of in the meantime. In the final chapter of this summer’s book club, Yale astronomer and physicist Priya Natarajan and physicist Clifford Johnson of the University of Southern California join Ira Flatow and SciFri producer Christie Taylor to talk about the man, the book, and the science—and where the field has gone since. Unlike their reusable counterparts that are changed out weekly or even monthly, daily single-use contact lenses don’t need to be cleaned and stored at the end of the day. While these contacts are better for the health of your eyes, it also means throwing out little pieces of plastics every day—and some of these contact lenses are infiltrating our waterways. Research from Arizona State University estimates that 20 to 23 metric tons of contact lenses end up in waterways each year. Charles Rolsky, a Ph.D. student in the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University, joins Ira Flatow to discuss how contacts are polluting our water. Plus, a strong Pacific hurricane, fueled by unusually warm water, has Hawaii in its sights—and more short stories in science news.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. In the U.S. hurricane season, you know, usually refers to tropical weather activity in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico.
0:10.9	This week, however, a combination of unusual weather conditions and bad luck have set up a powerful Pacific storm.
0:18.4	You've heard it, and you've seen her hurricane lane bearing down on the Hawaiian islands bringing strong winds and heavy rains.
0:24.8	Although the storm has been downgraded to a category three hurricane, parts of the big island have already seen over 30 inches of rain from the storm with more on the way.
0:34.6	Joining me to talk about that and other selected short subjects in science is Rachel
0:39.2	Feldman, Science Editor at Popular Science.
0:42.1	Always welcome.
0:43.0	Thank you for having me, Ira.
0:44.3	You're welcome.
0:45.4	Okay, give us what's latest on the storm.
0:47.7	Yeah, so, you know, at least based on the last update I saw, Lane is actually now down
0:52.6	to category two and is, you know, continuing to
0:56.2	downgrade.
0:57.1	I think the general thought is that by Friday night, Saturday morning, the worst of it will
1:02.2	be over.
1:02.8	But, you know, the Hawaiian islands are not set up to get hurricanes.
1:07.1	They're just not.
1:08.0	And, you know, as you said, it's kind of a combination of weather patterns and bad luck.
1:13.2	You know, why don't we hear about Pacific hurricanes more?
1:15.5	Well, it's a much bigger ocean with less coastal landmass than the Atlantic.
1:20.9	You know, we really have set ourselves up in North America to just constantly be hit by hurricanes in major metropolitan areas, not as true in the Pacific.
1:31.6	And also, there's usually kind of an atmospheric pattern that keeps these storms that form around Mexico from making landfall in Hawaii.
	...

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