Update: June 27, 2007

A HOLEY PROBLEM and SWATTING A KILLER

By Pam Eastlick for THE DEEP on line

Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond.

Driving on Guam more closely resembles a trip through a pinball machine (remember those?) than a trip down a motor speedway.  You first swerve this way to avoid that big hole along the shoulder and then into the other lane because there’s a gigantic pavement hump and hole in yours.  Guam certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on potholes.  They’re extremely common in areas that are subjected to extremes in temperature and I’m not sure there have ever been any potholes on Guam that were big enough to fish in.

But that’s not to say that we don’t have lots of tire-destroying holes in the asphalt.  And if the feds ever shake loose the money to fix them, then you have to deal with long periods of road construction and lane changes.  Well, your days of pothole dodging may soon be reduced.  A Dutch researcher has determined that you may actually be able to prevent potholes in the first place.  At least the ones that are caused by the most common problem here on Guam; water infiltration.

According to a story released by Holland’s Delft University, “within the asphalt industry there is little insight into the fundamental processes leading to water damage.”  Well, I would have thought that if a river runs under it, damage would be inevitable, but Niki Kringos, a PhD candidate at Delft is doing her PhD thesis on modeling the damaging influence of water and traffic on asphalt.

Part of her research has already shown that water has a negative effect on the material properties of asphalt components and their binding.  Shucks, I could have told her that just by looking at where the damage occurs here on Guam’s roads.

She has developed her own computer program to model the deterioration in asphalt and she has determined that there are several variables, like whether the asphalt retains water, how the water moves through the asphalt and the binding strength of the various asphalt components (in case you don’t know, asphalt is a real stew of components including bottom-end petroleum products like naphtha, gasoline and diesel [yep folks, you burn it AND you drive on it], sometimes tar, and rocks).

Fellow scientists say that Kringos’ computer program can make a significant contribution to developing an improved and structured material selection, which should lead to asphalt types which can last longer.  Her approach is entirely new in the asphalt world and in the future we all fervently hope it will lead to better material selection, better maintenance planning and longer lasting asphalt mixture.  Last year Kringos was honored as the first European scientist to receive an annual award from the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT) in the United States, for her pioneering work. 

My question as I drove to work this morning, dodging the potholes coming down the hill from Yona and remembering the hassles of the recent repaving near my house and in Yona proper is, “What took so long to figure this out?”

DEADLY LADIES
I am a gentle soul, and I don’t kill things.  If I had the courage of my convictions, I would be a vegetarian.  But I make three very strong exceptions.  I wage war on every cockroach, ant and mosquito that crosses my path and I have different reasons for my dislike.  Cockroaches are simply vile and disgusting and they also eat and destroy books, my very favorite things in the whole world.  I have personal issues with ants ever since a colony of army ants decided that my newly blistered feet would make a lovely meal while I slept.  There are no scars on my feet but there are lasting scars on my psyche!
But there are genuine reasons to swat that mosquito that just landed on your arm.  Mosquitoes are killers and they killed three million people last year, more than died in all our wars combined.  Mosquitoes carry diseases like malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever. 

And now we have a new mosquito-borne threat in our area.  The Zika virus has landed in Yap.  This virus is related to dengue fever but lucky for us is a very mild disease.  It causes conjunctivitis (Pink Eye) and minor pains in the joints.  This is a far cry from dengue fever, which causes very high fever and intense pain in the joints.. They don’t call dengue “Bonebreak Fever” for nothing.

So do as I did this weekend.  Make a trip around your property and overturn anything that holds water.  Take those old buckets and flowerpots inside or get rid of them.  Ditto with the old tires and the kids toys.  Upend those pretty lawn ornaments and pour the standing water off them.  You’ll be surprised at what you find.  And those black ‘worms’ in the water that move sort of like inchworms aren’t worms.  They’re mosquito larvae and if you give them a place to grow up, the ladies will be coming after you soon.

Only female mosquitoes suck blood (the males live on nectar and other plant materials) and a female mosquito has to have a blood meal to lay more eggs.  Don’t let her make a meal of you and deprive her of a place to lay her eggs if she makes a meal of somebody else.  Zika fever isn’t deadly.  The next mosquito-borne disease to roll into our island could be.