Green Tea Cleans Hard Drive Heads

mprindle writes "Wired.com has an article announcing that a 'study of the use of green tea extracts for polishing the magnetic heads in hard-disk drives has yielded a compound that works three to four times faster than conventional compounds. If the findings can be reproduced in an industrial setting, the compound could reduce the cost and environmental impact of hard-drive manufacturing.' And you just thought that green tea was good to drink."

Comments

Bio-active materials LESS polluting?

[ObviousGuy]

Considering that bio-active materials like green tea (yum!) decay and eventually become unusable and must be disposed of properly, doesn't it make more sense to stick with chemicals which, though bad for the environment, do not decay or degrade and can be used in a specific task indefinitely?

Add to this the fact that landfills are full of "biodegradable" waste which because of the lack of oxygen in the area are unable to break down. It makes far more sense to go with a material which can be reused and/or recycled. Bio-degradable sometimes ain't.

Re:Bio-active materials LESS polluting?

[THotze]

The problem is that the chemicals involved in any chemical reaction aren't infinately reusable. As one of the posters above noted, green tea works because it's an anti-oxidant, meaning it removes oxygen (oxides) from the hard drives. The industrial chemicals would also undergo reaction, and after so many uses, become unusable (assuming that 'so many uses' doens't mean once). While it's true that some industrial chemicals can undergo a reverse reaction relaviely easily, and therefore be 'regenerated' and reused, many cannot, and many that can are so cheap that they're disposed of anyways.

While it's true that bio-degradABLE doesn't mean that they're bio-degradED, it does open the door. Also, its probably more environmentally friendly to PRODUCE green tea than it is for other industrial chemicals, which may produce waste products that end up in the water supply, require high temperatures and therefore require lots of energy, etc.

So yeah, you're right that there is NEVER a magic-bullet. But if green tea is easier to produce, easier to refine, and can be broken down with a little simple composting, etc., then its a step in the right direction.

Tim

Re:antistrontidant?

[TildaBang]

This is true. If overbrewed, the tea tannins will attatch to the strontium-90, and pass through your system, instead of it being depositied into your bones because of the likeness to calcium.