World's most accurate measurement of fundamental unit of light intensity achieved

Australian scientists have said that they have achieved the world's most accurate measurement of the fundamental unit of light intensity.
According to a report by ABC News, Errol Atkinson and colleagues from the National Measurement Institute have refined the measurement of the candela, the basic unit of brightness, to eliminate all but 0.1% of uncertainty. Atkinson told the 21st Congress of the International Commission for Optics held in Sydney, that they expect to have halved that uncertainty to 0.05% within months.
The candela has been the Systeme International d'Unites (SI) unit of luminous intensity since 1946.
As its name suggests, it was originally defined as the amount of light emitted by a candle, but recently a more precise definition has been taken up.The candela plays an important role in defining international lighting standards, and is used for a wide range of applications from household light bulbs, through to techniques to identify faults in the manufacture of jet engine components.
Scientists at the institute are also responsible for maintaining the Australian realization of the candela using a set of lamps in its Sydney laboratories.They set the standard by measuring the light from a mercury-xenon lamp shone through a set of filters, and finally through a small 5 millimeter aperture in a piece of metal.It was using them that allowed the institute to reduce the potential error in its standards to 0.1%. That uncertainty could be cut even further by taking into account tiny variations in the size of the aperture.The scientists are currently working to do that by using an optical laser scanning technique to measure the size of the aperture more precisely.According to Atkinson, because the amount of light coming out of a substance is also closely linked to its temperature, the advance could lead to a change in the way the SI standard for temperature is defined.

Water 'discovered on Moon'

A fresh analysis of volcanic glass collected during the Apollo missions in the 1970s has revealed that the Moon's parched surface has water hidden beneath it, a major finding that dispels the notion that the Moon is dry.
In fact, the researchers at Brown University have found that up to 50 parts per million of water are trapped in tiny spheres of volcanic glass, the 'Nature' journal reported in its latest edition.
In their research to find out how much water was in the magma, the scientists measured its concentration, as well as volatile chemicals such as chlorine at the core of glass spherules and compared them with levels at the outer edge to work out how fast each was lost.They discovered that the Moon's mantle has between 260 and 700 ppm of water.
According to Dr Saal, future crewed missions will not be able to wring any water out of the rocks. "There is, however, a slim chance that the vapour has accumulated in ice somewhere on the moon's surface."

US company turns CO2 emissions into "Green Carbon"

A small company in the US is developing an alternative for carbon sequestration that takes carbon dioxide (CO2) and tailings from mining operations and turns the mix into materials of a "higher order" for use in a variety of industrial, agricultural, and environmental applications, which has been dubbed as "Green Carbon".
According to a report in ENN (Environmental News Network), Carbon Sciences, founded by CEO Derek McLeish, has developed a relatively simple technology that puts the brew under pressure and temperature to create PCC (precipitated calcium carbonate).Traditionally, calcium carbonate is produced through an energy-intensive process using expensive materials such as limestone.
The "Green Carbon" technology takes this normally exhaustive process and simplifies it, thus producing a useful, benign material while transforming carbon emissions instead of simply sequestering it.Carbon neutral operations don't release any additional CO2 into the atmosphere, nor do they reduce CO2 levels either.When applying Green Carbon technology to a carbon neutral process, say an ethanol plant, that process actually reduces the amount of CO2, thus making it carbon negative.Not only is Green Carbon a method for removal and transformation (as opposed to storage) of CO2, McLeish contends that the Green Carbon technology can produce PCC at a lower cost than traditional processes and also points out that as carbon credit markets come online, users will automatically realize additional cost reductions when the CO2 consumed in Green Carbon is sold as carbon credits.From paper to plastic, wallboard to fertilizer, PCC is a common component of many everyday products, materials, and industrial processes.According to McLeish, there is a 12 billion dollar demand for PCC.
One of McLeish's first major target markets for the Green Carbon technology is the paper industry.