Free Republic

You’re gonna love this. It turns out that two products that most of us use multiple times a day can trigger a false positive result for explosives during a TSA screening. The culprits? Soap and lotion. Don’t believe me? A few days after the Boston bombings, Linda, an Oklahoma native, was flying out of Port Columbus International Airport (CMH) in Ohio when she was randomly chosen for a hand swab at a security checkpoint. The TSA agent swabbed her hand and promptly informed her that she had tested positive for explosives, specifically nitrates. The poor woman was naturally befuddled and...

HOUSTON, June 25 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have developed a technology designed to convert waste glycerin from biodiesel plants into ethanol, another popular biofuel. Rice University Assistant Professor Ramon Gonzalez and colleagues identified the metabolic processes and conditions that allow a strain of E. coli to convert glycerin into ethanol. "It's also very efficient," said Gonzalez. "We estimate the operational costs to be about 40 percent less that those of producing ethanol from corn." U.S. biodiesel production is at an all-time high, but the industry is also facing a significant problem in how to deal with waste glycerin. One pound...