Can we carbon-capture our way out of climate change?
6/3/202645 min
In this episode, hosts David Anderson and Gina Vitale travel back in time to understand how we are capturing carbon at the source and removing existing CO2 from our atmosphere. They also bring in C&EN reporters Alex Scott and Fionna Samuels to explain how CO2-scrubbing technology from a 19th-century submarine is still basically used today and how making the ocean more basic might help us mitigate our emissions.
C&EN's award-winning podcast Inflection Point leans on our 100-year archive to trace headline topics in science today back to their disparate and surprising roots. In each episode, we explore three lesser-known moments in science history that ultimately led us to current-day breakthroughs. With help from expert C&EN reporters, this show examines how discoveries from our past have shaped our present and will change our future.
Subscribe to Inflection Point now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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First 90 secondsGina Vitale· Host0:00
[instrumental music] So, David.
David Anderson· Host0:02
Yes, Gina. What's up?
Gina Vitale· Host0:04
What am I looking at right now?
David Anderson· Host0:07
Oh, you mean this, this kooky-looking machine- Yeah ... right in front of us?
Gina Vitale· Host0:10
Um, it looks kind of like a telescope on top of a ruler on top of a pipe?
David Anderson· Host0:16
Yeah, honestly, I, I don't know what any of those parts are- Okay ... but the machine itself is a bolometer.
Gina Vitale· Host0:21
Bolometer. That's not a real machine.
David Anderson· Host0:24
Yeah, well, it is, or it was. We use versions of it today. This is the very first one.
Gina Vitale· Host0:29
Hmm.
David Anderson· Host0:30
We're here in 1878, and a scientist named Samuel Langley has just invented it.
Gina Vitale· Host0:36
Okay, b- sorry to be, like, a little dense here.
David Anderson· Host0:39
Mm-hmm.
Gina Vitale· Host0:39
But what does a bolometer do?
David Anderson· Host0:42
Well, Langley here was trying to measure the surface temperature of the moon.
Gina Vitale· Host0:46
Surface temperature of the moon.
David Anderson· Host0:47
Mm-hmm.
Gina Vitale· Host0:48
Why?
David Anderson· Host0:49
Gina, come on. You don't wanna know what the temperature is on the moon? You've never wondered- [laughs] I don't know if it's- ... what the temperature- ...
Gina Vitale· Host0:53
like, top of mind for me.
David Anderson· Host0:55
Okay.
Gina Vitale· Host0:55
Like, oh, wow, I, like, I wonder- Sure ... what the temperature's like on the, on the moon. What's the humidity? What's the dew point?
David Anderson· Host1:00
Yeah, I get you. Maybe I think it's because nowadays we have a different perspective of the moon. Back then- Okay ... they thought it was made out of cheese.
Gina Vitale· Host1:07
Oh, well, that is not true.
David Anderson· Host1:08
And so they- They, they never at any point- May- maybe he- ...
Gina Vitale· Host1:11
really thought it was made out of cheese ...
David Anderson· Host1:12
wanted to know if it had spoiled.
Gina Vitale· Host1:13
David, what are we doing here in 1878? Why have you dragged me back to- Okay [laughs] ... the 18th century? Why does the moon temperature machine matter?
David Anderson· Host1:23
All right. Yeah. Enough fooling around. I will tell you exactly what's going on here. Armed with Langley's observations