
As ocean waves crash, they generate aerosols — tiny liquid and stable particulates — that work together with the environment. Curious concerning the chemistry of those tiny drops, researchers got down to measure their acidity. That’s simpler stated than carried out. Over time, aerosol droplets acidify as they work together with acidic gases within the environment and capturing recent aerosols within the subject is subsequent to not possible.
To sort out these challenges, researchers as a substitute moved the aerosols to the laboratory, filling a wave channel with seawater and agitating it to generate aerosols they might then measure. They discovered that the smallest aerosols turn out to be 1,000,000 instances extra acidic than the majority ocean in solely two minutes! Discover out extra about their experiment and its implications over at Physics Right now. (Picture credit score: E. Jepsen; analysis credit score: Okay. Angle et al.)