Author: Hao Yang Xu

As we learned in class, game theory involves the reactions of its players. One of the biggest problems we are currently facing is climate change. Even though almost all factions around the globe have realized this issue, no one is working to actively solve this problem because of the negative financial effects. This is a problem that involves a global effort, yet no players are willing to take action because it is clear a dominated strategy.

After the recent earthquake in Kutch, a district in India, the government decided to involve NGOs for rehabilitation purposes. The withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement has dealt a serious blow to the recovery of the Earth. As India’s economy continues to grow, the importance of its problems grows along with it. Climate change is one such problem.

India is witnessing changes in weather patterns that might be here to stay. Rains and floods are happening in October when they should be stopping in mid-September, and there is data to show that it is not an anomaly. Even so, some are still arguing about the existence of climate change. It is clear that something needs to be done now.

A suggestion is to explore a different way to use game theory to acquire the best environmental results. Large countries, huge firms, and more generally, groups that have a large impact on climate change can be asked to adopt this approach. The idea is the create simulations to find the best policy for supporting climate change. Game theory is all about tradeoffs. If we include valuable resources in this game such as land, water, and energy, it will result in a competitive yet intriguing paradigm.

A definite positive for this strategy is that this type of cooperation might make these entities think a bit more long-term. No one wants to stay in a zero-sum game. At the end of the day, we all want a greener planet. Solving problems such as water shortage, inefficient irrigation systems will greatly reduce the effects of climate change. One of the benefits of globalization is the potential ability to tackle climate change, and I have hope that we can work together for a better future.

Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/climate-change-game-theory-holds-a-solution/1757991/

We know that graphs exist everywhere in the world and on any scale. Unsurprising, even minerals have networks and graphs at a cellular level. We are going to explore graphs of a particular mineral, zeolite, and how an MIT team managed to apply graph theory to predict the transformation of zeolite types.

Zeolites are microporous, aluminosilicate minerals. It is a very powerful mineral, and it is most commonly used as adsorbents, which hold molecules of a gas or liquid, and catalysts, which increases the rate of a chemical reaction. Examples include speeding up the “cracking” of petroleum in refineries, as well as freshening up your cat’s litter box.

Zeolites eventually turn into quartz. However, before that happens, this mineral is always in a metastable state. It can transform into other metastable states, some of which are already known. They can be produced with organic chemical compounds as well, but because organic material is expensive, it would be more economical to produce it through transformations.

What the researchers wanted to find was pairs of zeolites that are readily able to transform into one another. They used AI to read 70,000 research papers on zeolites. The results from this research and analysis were that a topological description based on graph theory identifies the relevant zeolite pairings. The graph-based descriptions were based on locations and numbers of chemical bonds. These descriptions not only confirmed existing pairs but also helped discover unknown pairs, and it is proven to predict forms of zeolites that can intergrow.

The findings can also help explain theoretical transformations that do not seem to exist.

It is amazing that graph theory could find itself in the obscurest of places. These findings could lead to the production of a whole new set of zeolites, expanding its ever-growing practical usage.

References

https://phys.org/news/2019-10-mathematical-approach-zeolites.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20090215184310/http://www.grace.com/EngineeredMaterials/MaterialSciences/Zeolites/ZeoliteStructure.aspx