Simple solution to the oil slicks

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to remove a telecommunications mast in Otley have carried out a cloak-and-dagger operation to covertly measure its length.

They claim it could be in breach of planning regulations, and have called for its immediate demolition.

The group used specialist engineering equipment, on loan to a campaigning resident who is a professional engineer, to measure the mobile telephone company One 2 One's mast, which is positioned at the Auction Mart in Leeds Road.

Hampered by the crowds of people at a car boot sale at the site on Saturday, the group returned the next day to take the measurements in more secrecy.

Now the group says according to their measurements the mast exceeds 15m - meaning it would have required planning permission.

Under current legislation, telecommunications companies can only escape formal planning permission if the mast - not including the antennae - does not exceed 15 metres.

Councillor Nigel Francis (Ind, Danefield), who is leading the protest, said the group now intended to send its findings to the director of planning at Leeds City Council.

He said: "We have measured the mast and to the best of our knowledge the head, the antennae and the concrete base is well over 15 metres. Measuring from where the antennae start it is still over 15 metres. It is 17-and-a-half metres all in all and the antennae are not that long."

A spokesman for Leeds City Council said: "If Mr Francis writes with his concerns to the director of planning he will read them and act appropriately."

Barrie Turner-Smith, of One 2 One, said: "It is the pole itself that has to be 15 metres and as far as we know all our poles are made at the same place so it is unlikely any would be over 15 metres. We think the rules exclude the base."

One of the other properties of the hydrogel in rubbery form is resistance to heat. Dr Crowther took a slab, like a packet jelly, and subjected a corner of it to a Bunsen Burner flame.

After a minute or two he removed it and held it up for examination: it was barely warm and showed no signs of burning.

Then he concentrated the floppy yellow flame into a blue tulip-shaped jet. The surface of the gel crackled like gravy in a hot oven. However, the consistency of the gel remained unaltered. It did not feel hot and only the barest fraction of the surface held in the jet had been affected.

And yet I could pull it apart in my fingers as easily as a child could a piece of plasticine.

In a pressure vessel generating heat of 120 degrees Celsius the gel won't melt but will be sterilised. Dr Crowther showed me some discs of sterilised gel in a beaker of saline solution which he took from a specially-controlled fridge.

These have a possible medical application: for the growth of skin culture, for example. In conjunction with the School of Pharmacy's Dr Stephen Britland the scientists are working on a project to see if the gel could be used in the treatment of burns.

Other possible applications listed in the laboratory on Floor K at the University's main building are wound-dressing, as in combat wounds: drug delivery: a medical adhesive for holding heart sensors in place: herbicides and pesticides: and coating seeds.

Take herbicides for example. At the moment Dr Crowther said these are sprayed on crops and much of the substance evaporates in the air. But coated with a layer of gel the herbicide molecules could be time-delayed for release. Would this prevent evaporation, though?

The process would be similar for seeds. Nutrients could be mixed with seed and gel and the time of inception and growth consequently controlled, if I understood Dr Crowther's meaning correctly.

I'm neither a scientist nor a horticulturalist, but you don't have to be Dr Steve Jones or Alan Titchmarsh to grasp the notion that this flubbery material - resistant to heat and attractive to oil - could be sensational.

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