Free Republic

What do aliens, ghosts, and cow manure all have in common? Apparently, they’re all something to be shot with plasma. Yes, in an unconventional bid to tackle the ever-developing climate crisis, scientists have been shooting cow poop with plasma beams. The aim? To strip the matter of its most damaging components – namely ammonia and methane. The unusual experiment is unfolding on a picturesque farm in Buckinghamshire, UK, where cow dung is in no short supply. Using ”artificial lightning” made of a plasma bolt – a super-heated stream of atoms capable of shattering molecules – scientists got to shooting the...

It took man only 20 centuries or so to give up trying to transmute base metals into gold. How long will it take us to stop trying to turn our rubbish into gold? As John Tierney put it 23 years ago in the New York Times, “Recycling Is Garbage.” It may make sense to recycle a few items for the savings in carbon emissions — paper, cardboard, and metals such as aluminum from cans. Recycling a ton of these items saves about three tons of carbon dioxide. Glass, plastic, rubber, all the other stuff? Not really. We used to send...