No this is not an electronic music DJ, it's a scientist doing science things: Christoph Gruber of e-Conversion Cluster of Excellence Nano Energy Group at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich - Jun 2024 [link]
There's so many different kinds of fakes. Some fakes are just for fun. Some fakes are made with the purpose to trick people. Some are simply so stupid they don't know they're fake.
We're reaching back here, to October of 2023, because this story has so many levels:
“Real Water” that poisoned dozens contained chemical from rocket fuel
Oct 2023, Ars Technica
Just here for the Reals:
A jury this week awarded $228.5 million to seven plaintiffs in their case against Nevada-based water company Real Water, which sold alkaline water tainted with hydrazine, a highly toxic chemical found in fuel for rockets and spacecraft (and which caused liver failure in people).
And there's more:
Two other defendants, Hanna Instruments and Milwaukee Instruments, which were alleged to have made faulty water testing meters that contributed to Real Water's toxicity, were also found liable for compensatory damages but not punitive damages.But I can't help but follow this story, because this why it's so hard to talk about these things, and to explain to people why they're dangerous -- because not only do they not do what they say they do, the stuff they do to create their magical products is itself completely removed from any scientific basis in reality:According to the DOJ's 2021 complaint and testimony in the trial over the last few weeks, Real Water processed municipal tap water "by carbon filtration, reverse osmosis filtration, ultraviolet light filtration, and ozone filtration." Then potassium chloride is added and the water goes through a proprietary "ionizer" apparatus to apply an electrical current to the water. [The ionizer is later described as "titanium tubes electrified with what looked like jumper cables used to charge a car battery."] This allegedly created positively charged and negatively charged solutions. Real Water employees would discard the positively charged solution and keep the negatively charged solution.That initial batch of negatively charged solution would then go through the "ionizer" apparatus and be separated again. The resulting negatively charged solution would then be treated with potassium hydroxide (a form of lye), potassium bicarbonate (sometimes used in baking powders), and magnesium chloride (a salt used in nutritional supplements and for de-icing roads); this formed an "E2 concentrate" product, which, when diluted, formed their alkaline water product.Environmental engineer and expert witness Issam Najm said that in the charged water, nitrogen gas naturally found in air could have reacted with water to form hydrazine (N2H4), or, during the electrolysis, ammonia (NH3) was formed first, before reacting with hydroxide to form hydrazine.
And let's not forget that the companies they paid to test their bogus product were in fact themselves bogus; you can't make this stuff up.
Chinese network behind one of world’s ‘largest online scams’
May 2024, The Guardian
76,000 fake websites created.
That's all.
Finally, because we just can't tell anymore what's real and what's fake; is this article even real?
A fully edible robot could soon end up on our plate, say scientists
Jun 2024, phys.org
RoboFood - a project which aims to marry robots and food.
Robotic food could reduce electronic waste, help deliver nutrition and medicines to people and animals in need, monitor health, and even pave the way to novel gastronomical experiences."Bringing robots and food together is a fascinating challenge"For example, gelatin can replace rubber, rice cookies are akin to foam, a chocolate film can protect robots in humid environments, and mixing starch and tannin can mimic commercial glues."There is a lot of research on single edible components like actuators, sensors, and batteries"In 2023, Italian Institute of Technology researchers realized the first rechargeable edible battery using riboflavin (vitamin B2) and quercetin (found in almonds and capers) in the battery poles, adding activated carbon to facilitate electron transport and nori algae, used to wrap sushi, to prevent short circuits, and packaged with beeswax.After integrating all components, scientists need to miniaturize them, increase the shelf life of robotic food… and give robots a pleasant taste.
via Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Laboratory of Intelligent Systems: Dario Floreano et al, Towards edible robots and robotic food, Nature Reviews Materials (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41578-024-00688-9
