#electrolysis
Research uncovers mechanism behind water-splitting catalyst
Caltech researchers have made a discovery that they say could lead to the economically viable production of solar fuels in the next few years.
For years, solar-fuel research has focused on developing catalysts that can split water into hydrogen and oxygen using only sunlight. The resulting hydrogen fuel could be used to power motor vehicles, electrical plants, and fuel cells. Since the only thing produced by burning hydrogen is water, no carbon pollution is added to the atmosphere.
In 2014, researchers in the lab of Harry Gray, Caltech’s Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry, developed a water-splitting catalyst made of layers of nickel and iron. However, no one was entirely sure how it worked. Many researchers hypothesized that the nickel layers, and not the iron atoms, were responsible for the water-splitting ability of the catalyst (and others like it).
To find out for sure, Bryan Hunter (PhD ‘17), a former fellow at the Resnick Institute, and his colleagues in Gray’s lab created an experimental setup that starved the catalyst of water. “When you take away some of the water, the reaction slows down, and you are able to take a picture of what’s happening during the reaction,” he says.
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Team creates map for production of eco-friendly metals
In work that could usher in more efficient, eco-friendly processes for the production of important metals like lithium, iron and cobalt, researchers from MIT and SLAC have mapped what is happening at the atomic level behind a particularly promising approach called metal electrolysis.
By creating maps for a wide range of metals, they not only determined which metals should be easiest to produce using this approach, but also identified fundamental barriers behind the efficient production of others. As a result, the researchers’ map could become an important design tool for optimizing the production of all these metals.
The work could also aid the development of metal-air batteries, cousins of the lithium-ion batteries used in today’s electric vehicles.
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Recently, I asked activist/all around badass Cecilia Gentili if she had any recommendations for electrolysis, and she she told me she DID, and boy did she ever.
She recommended a school of electrolysis out in Queens. Have you ever had your hair cut at a cosmetology school, where students are putting in clinical hours (under the supervision of an instructor) in order to obtain their cosmetology license? It’s the same principle here. But here’s the kicker:
ELECTROLYSIS: $10/30 minutes
FULL FACE LASER: $50-75 per treatment
!!!!!!!!
That is an extremely good price on both of these treatments, even at deep deep discount Groupon rates. The absolute LOWEST price I have found on trans-friendly electrolysis in Manhattan is $75/hour, and it seems that $110/hour is kind of average. Laser pricing is all over the place, what with all these crowdsource advertising schemes, but you never know exactly what you’re getting yourself into with those deals and that is still a very very good price.
But this is not merely an anonymous pass-on of information, offered in a Tumblr vacuum! No! Partybottom actually assembled a small coterie of brave trans woman friends, found a trans man with a car (thanks actual for-real IRL allies!) and trucked our ass out to Queens to see what the real deal was.
The school is in a very quiet residential neighborhood that is somewhat difficult to access via most forms of public transportation – this is really the hardest part about it, just the getting there. If you live in Queens and are super familiar with the bus lines, I suppose this is no big deal, but if you live in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island or the Bronx, it will be a bit of a schlep. I recommend buddying up, and finding a friend with a car, and arranging a car pool. It could be a fun afternoon or evening!
Everyone we spoke to there was very polite and respectful to us as trans women. They asked us several times who had referred us, and when I dropped Cecelia’s name, it seemed to make them happy. “Oh, she brings a lot of girls out here.” I get the feeling that they are very familiar with trans clients. One of my friends even asked about genital electrolysis – the man at the front desk said, yes, they did it, but just to remember that all the services were performed by students.
Their hours are a little spotty, and they are only open in the evening two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6-8pm. When we got there (about 6:30) all their electrolysis students were booked up for the evening, so my suggestion is, if you are interested in electrolysis (which I am, because my hair is mostly blonde/red) make sure to show up when they open the door in the evenings, or go in the daytime, when it might be a little slower.
HOWEVER, both of my friends had laser treatments by an instructor (hence the $75 – treatments by students are $50, but only offered a few days a month. The front desk guy said that in general, the larger the surface area treated, the deeper the discount) She was very nice, and asked us where we had gotten laser before, and who had done it, and it turns out she had trained an operator that had worked on one of my friends before. She used an Alexandrite laser (none of this wimpy IPL stuff) and I get the sense that they have a couple different lasers on hand to deal with different skin tones. She also asked us if we liked to gamble and what our favorite casinos were and gave us some good recommendations in that department, too. :)
All-in-all, it was a good experience. I was a little bummed that I missed my shot at electro, but I will certainly be back in the new year, jumping at my chance to take advantage of this opportunity.
HERE IS THE 411:
BERKOWITZ SCHOOL OF ELECTROLYSIS
107-25 Metropolitan Ave
Forest Hills, NY 11375
(718) 544-4234
(800) 526-9334
Last I checked, they were open M-F, 9am-12pm and 2pm-4pm, and Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6pm-8pm. But I would also recommend calling before you go! I know millennials and trans women are two of the most actual-telephone-call-averse groups, and Tumblr is full of both, but really, I encourage you to pick up the phone and ask them questions. They are really nice!
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM PARTYBOTTOM
2014: BORED WITH PROBLEMS, ALL ABOUT SOLUTIONS
As I mentioned in my last post, I have been receiving all my health care from Big Gay Health, Inc., NYC (many of you know where I am talking about) for the last six years.
During the time I was there, they hired a case manager specifically to work with trans clients. Here’s the thing: I have known this person for several (12+?) years and am really not trying to shade them. I believe their heart is in the right place, but there are some institutional problems that lead to trans women getting bad care at places like this.
The trans care coordinator they hired at Big Gay Health, Inc was a white, female-assigned (FAAB, I believe, as the kids say these days) genderqueer with an advanced degree in divinity studies from an Ivy League university. They were friendly. They were overworked. They had had several social-work type jobs before, but never (AFAIK) stayed with the same organization for more than two or three years. (Turnover in social services is a BIG PROBLEM for people who depend on these services, but that is a blog post for another time.) (They have since left this position to go to div school. Again. This time, for a different religion.)
As part of their job, a few years ago it was this coordinator’s job to compile and release a “comprehensive” guide to trans health and wellness resources in the New York area. It was downloadable as a .pdf, so I perused it. I noticed that though it contained no resources for electrolysis, laser providers, or hair removal specialists of any kind, it listed no less than six birth doulas. I sent a FB message to the coordinator (again, we were/are friends) to say “Hey, um… did you notice..?” and the answer I got back was like, herp derp, we’re still searching, it’s a work in progress, non-pology.
(The resource guide has since been updated to include hair removal, but IDK anything about the practitioners in it.)
INCONTRAST, I recently switched health care providers to a smaller clinic whose main populations are men of color who have sex with men, HIV+ people, lesbians (LOTS of studs & AGs in the waiting room always), sex workers, undocumented patients, and trans people. I was able to get an appointment there very quickly.
The intake was nbd, but one of the best parts was getting to meet the trans care coordinator there. She is a bilingual Argentine immigrant trans woman (I learned this from her bio on a workshop flyer). She is so smart and friendly and awesome. Here is what she said to me:
Girl! You look good! And it looks like you got your name changed, your ID changed, your Medicaid straight, your hormones. (She looks at my chart) Oh and it looks like you got the orchiectomy too! That must be why you look so soft. I’ve been thinking about doing that too. So, what do you need from me?
I told her, well, sometimes I’m a little self-conscious about the facial hair I have left. Do you know any good electrologists? She said,
You know I get a little bit of this-this (points to her face) sometimes, too. Did you know there’s an electrology school way out in Queens? The girls that work there have had like 700 hours of training, they just need to get their last 300 clinical hours so they need people to work on. It’s free, or maybe $20 an hour or something like that. Hey, here’s my personal email - email me sometime and we’ll go together and make a day of it.
I was fucking agog.I have never had a provider be so sweet, kind, and real with me – not to mention giving me such USEFUL INFORMATION. (Speaking of which, I will be posting about that referral shortly.)
Point is, I think it all comes down to hiring practices. If you prioritize education and being able to speak a certain kind of social-work-y, tenderqueer vernacular, you will get providers who can provide services for white, FAAB, transmasculine people. If you prioritize hiring people from the communities you hope to serve – people who have lived the life – you will serve those communities, and, hopefully, serve them well.
(Nota bene: I did not invent these ideas, I just happen to be living them. Activist and artist Mirha Soleil-Ross has been talking about this kind of thing for years, and academic Viviane Namaste lays down the extended remix in her book Invisible Lives. Canadians, I tell you what.)
tl;dr: best trans care social worker story ever.
