{"id":368,"date":"2013-09-09T18:33:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T18:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/?p=368"},"modified":"2013-09-09T18:33:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T18:33:54","slug":"win-1-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/win-1-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Win 1 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Building A Better Ocean Acidification Detector Can Now Win You $1 Million<\/a><\/h1>\n

BY\u00a0JEFF SPROSS<\/a>\u00a0ON\u00a0SEPTEMBER 9, 2013 AT 12:14 PM<\/p>\n

\n
\"AA buoy for measuring ocean acidification.<\/p>\n

CREDIT: Matthew Alford \/ UW Applied Physics Laboratory<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The X Prize Foundationannounced<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0$2 million competition<\/a>\u00a0today to spur innovation in the equipment used to measure ocean acidification. Along with climate change, ocean acidification is a major ecological threat posed by humanity\u2019s carbon dioxide emissions. A portion of that carbon dioxide is naturally absorbed by the oceans, creating carbonic acid.<\/p>\n

The award is named the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health X Prize after its patron \u2014 the president of the\u00a0Schmidt Family Foundation and the wife of Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt \u2014 who\u2019s\u00a0already sponsored<\/a>\u00a0two $1.3 million prizes through the X Prize Foundation in 2011, which were given to teams for oil cleanup innovations. The Foundation has also funded multi-million dollar competitions for teams of scientists and engineers looking to build\u00a0better commercial spacecraft<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0energy-efficient cars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the goal of the prize is not just to improve the science, but to inspire public awareness and policy action as well.\u00a0The competition<\/a>\u00a0will span 22 months and the $2 million pot is actually broken up into two prizes, but teams can compete for and win both:<\/p>\n

A. $1,000,000 Accuracy award \u2013 Performance focused ($750,000 First Place, $250,000 Second Place):<\/strong>\u00a0To the teams that navigate the entire competition to produce the most accurate, stable and precise pH sensors under a variety of tests.<\/p>\n

B. $1,000,000 Affordability award \u2013 Cost and Use focused ($750,000 First Place, $250,000 Second Place):<\/strong>\u00a0To the teams that produce the least expensive, easy-to-use, accurate, stable, and precise pH sensors under a variety of tests.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIf a team comes up with the ability to be the most accurate and the most affordable at the same time \u2014 Holy Grail, that\u2019s phenomenal,\u201d Paul Bunje, a senior director with the X Prize Foundation and the lead scientist behind the ocean health competition,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0NBC News.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile ocean acidification is well documented in a few temperate ocean waters, little is known in high latitudes, coastal areas and the deep sea,\u201d the prize\u2019s website\u00a0notes<\/a>. \u201cMost current pH sensor technologies are too costly, imprecise, or unstable to allow for sufficient knowledge on the state of ocean acidification.\u201d Richard Feeley, a marine scientist and a leading researcher on ocean acidification at NOAA\u2019s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle,\u00a0also explained<\/a>\u00a0to NBC News that because ocean acidification is increasing at about 0.02 units per decade on the pH scale, instruments need to be quite sensitive, and robust enough to keep functioning in the ocean for many years.<\/p>\n

Because the pH scale is logarithmic, a drop of 1 unit in pH equals a ten-fold increase in acidity. Previous mass extinctions in the fossil record\u00a0have been linked<\/a>\u00a0to spikes in ocean acidification brought on by natural releases of carbon into the atmosphere. While the increase in acidification over the last hundred years has only reached 30 percent of those previous events, it\u2019s also occurred 10 times faster. Historical comparisons and models of humanity\u2019s likely future carbon emissions\u00a0suggest<\/a>\u00a0we may well cover the other 70 percent by the end of this century.<\/p>\n

A massive crash in oyster farm populations, which dealt a major blow to the economies of communities on the west coast from 2005 to 2009,\u00a0has already been linked<\/a>\u00a0to ocean acidification. The higher acidity levels\u00a0primarily threaten<\/a>the survival of the small shellfish \u2014 krill, plankton, snails, and others \u2014 that make up the foundation of marine ecosystems. Meaning there is practically no corner of ocean life \u2014 and no corner of the human livelihoods that depend on that life \u2014 which isn\u2019t threatened by ocean acidification.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Building A Better Ocean Acidification Detector Can Now Win You $1 Million BY\u00a0JEFF SPROSS\u00a0ON\u00a0SEPTEMBER 9, 2013 AT 12:14 PM A buoy for measuring ocean acidification. CREDIT: Matthew Alford \/ UW Applied Physics Laboratory The X Prize Foundationannounced\u00a0a\u00a0$2 million competition\u00a0today to spur innovation in the equipment used to measure ocean acidification. Along with climate change,Continue reading “Win 1 Million”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}