Althouse: "Seventy percent of the world is coated with goo."

April 9, 2015

"Seventy percent of the world is coated with goo."

"At the very top of oceans and inland waters lies a distinct micrometer-thick microbial habitat. It influences climate change, fosters unusual and deadly bacteria, and is made of jelly. It is the surface microlayer."

27 comments:

rehajm said...: I've always heard it that the world is covered in a thin layer of poo.; 4/9/15, 7:22 AM
rehajm said...: Surface Microlayer is better at breakfast.; 4/9/15, 7:23 AM
Bobber Fleck said...: 93% of all statistics are made up.; 4/9/15, 7:25 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Seventy percent of the Internet is covered with goo, too.; 4/9/15, 7:44 AM
Tank said...: Is it medicated?; 4/9/15, 8:13 AM
Fritz said...: Old news.; 4/9/15, 8:32 AM
Henry said...: From one of the meta articles:

This so-called sea-surface microlayer is important, scientists say, in part because it influences the chemistry of the ocean and the atmosphere. “One of the most significant things that happens on our planet is the transport of gases in and out of the ocean,” said Michael Cunliffe, a marine biologist at the University of Warwick in England. The ocean stores a large fraction of the global-warming gases we produce; at the microlayer, the gases are pulled down.

So how many climate models take the goo coating into account?; 4/9/15, 9:11 AM
Todd said...: It influences climate change, fosters unusual and deadly bacteria, and is made of jelly. It is the surface microlayer."

Well don't everything these days? It is the "butterfly effect" writ large...; 4/9/15, 9:11 AM
traditionalguy said...: Everyone needs Krud Kutter, available by the gallon from the Amazon portal of your choice.; 4/9/15, 9:13 AM
Crimso said...: "It influences climate change"

Finally!! Something other than CO2 that influences climate change rather than results from it. I'd say we're making progress now. Wonder what else might be cause rather than effect...; 4/9/15, 9:16 AM
Crimso said...: "Seventy percent of the world is coated with goo."

I blame the internet and its easy access to pr0n.; 4/9/15, 9:19 AM
Kylos said...: The article states that the goo absorbs CO2 into the ocean thus reducing global warming.; 4/9/15, 9:21 AM
Crimso said...: I am somewhat fluent in phase equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. I was being sarcastic.; 4/9/15, 9:39 AM
Crimso said...: Let's do a Burroughs cutup of Althouse headlines.

"Seventy percent of Rand Paul has a problem with sex education coated with goo in the wake of Rolling Stone's problem with women."; 4/9/15, 9:42 AM
Jason said...: LASLO SPATULA, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!; 4/9/15, 10:43 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: doesn't warm milk get a layer after it's been sitting? We call it 'nata'.; 4/9/15, 10:49 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: Good Lord--wait till these writers figure out how many bacteria, viruses, and protozoa of all types inhabit the human body! They'll run shrieking in horror.; 4/9/15, 11:07 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: Just how big is "tens of micrometers deep"? Take an inch, then divide it into one thousand equal parts. One of those parts is 25 micrometers.

There is an old biology joke(?), "How may cells are in an average human body?" Answer: 100 trillion, of which only 10 trillion are human.; 4/9/15, 11:19 AM
Rusty said...: Roger
One micron equals .00003937 of an inch. About 4 millionths of an inch, Tens of microns doesn't even equal .001(one thousanths) of an inch.; 4/9/15, 1:11 PM
rhhardin said...: Polar bears survive on goo.; 4/9/15, 2:00 PM
Roger Sweeny said...: Rusty,

0.00003937 of an inch is about 4 hundred-thousandths of an inch, not 4 millionths of an inch.

25 x 0.00003937 inch = 0.00098425 inch. That's just under 0.001 inch.

If I had been exact and said that one thousandth of an inch is 25.4 micrometers, and used a more precise micrometer to inch conversion factor, 25.4 x 0.00003937008 inch = 0.001 inch.; 4/9/15, 2:21 PM
Sam L. said...: Seventy percent of the world is coated with goo:

Oh My God, we're all gonna diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!; 4/9/15, 3:01 PM
RecChief said...: I was mildly interested until I saw the words "climate change"; 4/9/15, 4:44 PM
Wince said...: "Well, I'd guesstimate it's a sex thing.
It's the only way I can figure it.
High velocity impact, twisted metal, busted glass, all four souls taken at exactly the same time...

Probably the only way that diabolical degenerate
can shoot his goo."; 4/9/15, 5:13 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I am especially thankful for the thirty percent.; 4/9/15, 6:43 PM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: Downwelling infrared as enhanced by CO2 penetrates only a few millimeters into the ocean, based on tests done. These results show that heating of the ocean in this manner is a very very very slow process.

Obviously this layer of goo affects the process as well. It is certain that the climate models do not include it.; 4/9/15, 8:12 PM
jr565 said...: My friend Goo has a real tattoo; 4/9/15, 9:37 PM