Farther into Space; Farther into Debt

Over the past several decades we have come a long way in the study of outer space. Since the time of Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo we have discovered not only things in our galaxy, but we can begin to study others as well. On Wednesday November 10^th NASA announced that in 2014 they plan to launch their new telescope; The James Webb Space Telescope. This new telescope will use infrared light to find ancient galaxies that formed in the wake of the big bang.

“Webb will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open once Webb is in outer space. Webb will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth” (NASA).

Critics at CNET news propose that this new space telescope will cost upwards of about $6.5 billion and does not fit into NASA’s budget. CNET speculates that the close launch date of 2014 is too early, and would require NASA to come up with an additional $250 million in both 2011 and 2012.

On April 24^th 1990 NASA launched a space telescope into outer space called Hubble. In the past twenty years since then, it has led astronomers to estimate, with high certainty, the age of the universe at about 13.7 billion years old. It has also given photographic evidence that what Ptolemy thought was a star called Omega Centauri, is actually a cluster of about 10 million stars. Click here to watch what Hubble has recorded of the Omega Centauri.

Though one might argue that the US doesn’t exactly have enough pocket change to cover this hefty $6.5 billion bill, I would argue that it is something worth exploring. If Hubble, costing only about 4 million dollars, is any indication of what the James Webb Space Telescope can do, I would say it is worth the expense! During the Renaissance our ancestors spent a lot of their time and money into studying unknowns of nature on earth, and began to skim the surface of outerspace. Now with the technology we have access to, we are able to do what they never could. Looking deeper into space, to find something that can answer our questions about how we got here, why, and if there is life sustained somewhere else in the universe.

“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” -Copernicus

for more information go to NASA's website.

Harwood, William. "Management Blamed for Space Telescope Cost Overrun | The Space Shot - CNET News." Technology News - CNET News. 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

NASA - Hubble Data Used to Look 10,000 Years into the Future." NASA. 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

New and Scary Ways to Get Your Buzz On

I think it is very pertinent to discuss this new Four Loko fad and other new dangerous means of intoxication due to this college atmosphere. Naturally, many of you have probably heard of Four Loko and maybe even had a taste! Of course, the dangers of this drink are not surprising in the slightest. The drink is 12 percent alcohol, which means that one can is the equivalent to 5 or 6 drinks. It also contains the amount of caffeine in two Redbulls. The mixture of heavy alcoholic content and heavy caffeine results in blackouts and brain damage. Since the drinks come in a variety of delicious flavors and cost less than 3 dollars, the target audience that Four Loko seems to be marketing to teenagers and college students. And now, because of science there are even more ways for underage drinkers to pregame with ease.

Yes, what you are looking at is alcoholic whipped cream, or whipahol. As fascinating as the invention of Whipped Lightning is, I am nervous for the abuse, that I must say is inevitable. We see the same things over and over again from 30 racks of Natural Ice, to cotton candy flavored shots. The majority of college students are looking for a cheap, fast, easy way to get drunk, and science is making it more then possible. This final example is perhaps the scariest and makes me even more scared for the future of all this.

If you have ever heard of an alcohol vaporizer, I pray to the lord you haven't used it. It is a way to intake alcohol without actually drinking it. Instead, this machine uses an oxygen generator to vaporize the alcohol which when inhaled enters into your bloodstream through your lungs. The effect of the alcoholic vapor is extremely potent. One will feel the effects with only half a shot inhaled over a period of 20 minutes. Gotvape.com explains that inhaling more than two shots can be termed incredibly dangerous.

Now that you know all about science's advances on the way we drink, you should all stay safe, do your research, and have fun!

http://www.gotvape.com/vaporizer/alcohol-vaporizer.php

http://www.whippedlightning.com/

The Burlington Free Press

Robots that "eat"

We've all seen the movies, A.I., Terminator, I-Robot, where robots or cyborgs blend into society and wreak havoc. As we build smarter and smarter computers, this fantasy scenario becomes more realistic by the day. However, there has always been a limiting factor: energy source. In "The Matrix" humans blot out the sun by "burning the sky", therefore the robots can't use solar power to keep themselves running. Some robots just run on battery that end up running out after a while. In reality, our computer and robot of today are either tethered to a wall with an electrical cord, or run on a battery that runs out faster a laptop.

Recently some UK researchers have been working on developing a new sort of power source, one that we are all familiar with. They have developed a robot dubbed the Ecobot III that actually "eats" food and digests it and uses that energy converted from that to power itself. The way it works is by putting partially processed sewage into the robots digester. Bacteria within the digester breaks down the food and produces hydrogen electrons that are used in a fuel cells to create an electrical current that is then used to power the robot. Another interesting thing is that the robot can do is autonomously navigate to a nutrient rich feeding tube. Then once its done with the food, it excretes it in a similar way to how we do it (when were sick).

Currently there is a major downside to this technology. While it is working and an amazing technology with incredible potential, it is incredibly inefficient at the time. At the moment it is only able to produce 1% of usable energy for the robot. Eventually they will be able make the machine a bit more efficient and maybe allow for a robot to run exclusively on food that the robot ingests.

There is incredible potential behind this technology. This could be the new alternative energy source that houses run off of, or the new Mr. Fusion that allows us to power our time traveling De-Lorean when we don't have any lighting strikes to provide the 1.21 jigawatts to get it back to 1988. On a more sinister note, this could also allow for hyper intelligent autonomous robots to become more mobile. We have managed to create robots that learn and we have robots with incredibly realistic expressions. At this point we don't have to worry, but if all these technologies are perfected and combined, we may have a problem on our hands.

http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/uk-researchers-develop-autonomous-robot-that-eats-sewage/

http://www.energyharvestingjournal.com/articles/autonomous-robot-that-eats-sewage-00002529.asp?sessionid=1

NASA Probe Approaches Comet Spewing Deadly Gas

The probe Deep Impact is currently approaching the comet Hartley 2. Hartley 2 was discovered in 1986. It is a periodic young comet that passes by earth every 6.3 years. It is considered a dwarf comet at only 0.93 (1.5 km) miles across. It is a part of the Jupiter family of comets (comets with periods less than 20 years). The most interesting thing about this comet is that there is poisonous cyanide gas spewing from the comets core of ice and rock.

On Thursday November 4th 2010 at roughly 10:00 a.m. ET the deep impact prove will come within 435 (700km) miles from the comet making it the fifth time that a comet has ever been observed from a close distance. The deep impact spacecraft has been chasing Hartley 2 for months and has been taking pictures along the way.





Roughly 18 hours before coming into closest proximity with the comet the probe will begin the “encounter phase” of the mission. The probe will position itself so that its three imagers (two imagers that can see in infrared wavelengths, and one that can see in visible light as a back up) can lock onto the comet for 24 hours plus. However in doing this it will point the probes high-gain antenna away from earth resulting in a delay before the pictures can be delivered back to earth, instead they will be stored in two on board computers. As soon as the comet has passed, which will not take long because the probe will be moving at 27,000 mph, scientists will reposition the probe so that it can send the pictures back to earth. While doing this the probe will continue to take pictures of the tail end of the comet.

However there are some risks to this mission. Scientists have chosen to stay 435 miles away from the comet for numerous reasons. The gassy pores of the comet could harm the probe if it comes too close, the brightness of the comet could harm the imagers and there is also a slight chance that the comets luminous jets may fool its navigation system.

Astronomers hope to gain a lot of information from this mission. They have struggled to understand comets for years due to their highly unpredictable icy bodies. This mission will help scientists understand what these comets are made of and where they come from. Due to its unusually high activity a close study of its spewing jets and gas clouds could also give us clues about the behavior and build of comets. Overall studying this comet could give scientists a better idea about how the universe came to be.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39989774/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Sticks and Stones

As the great Albert Einstein said, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." I completely agree with this statement because as technology improves, as humans become better equipped and able to kill one another more efficiently and easily, eventually, with all the wars and fighting going on within this world, a nuke could wipe out an entire populous. It might not even be a nuke, it might be some new technology that could get out of hand during wartime and take the lives of many.

I just recently watched a film entitled "Waking Life" which supports Einstein's Quote and sums up my thinking quite concisely.

"But that's only the beginning of the evolutionary cycle... because as the next cycle proceeds, the input is now this new intelligence. As intelligence piles on intelligence, as ability piles on ability, the speed changes. Until what? Until you reach a crescendo in a way... could be imagined as an enormous instantaneous fulfillment of human and neo-human potential. It could be something totally different." (Like World War IV)

Basically, this quote is saying, we evolve. We get more intelligent. The more intelligent we become, the faster we evolve and eventually we will reach some sort of peak or 'crescendo.' And, I believe that this 'crescendo' will be some sort of new technology that will backfire or in the case or war technology, do exactly what it was designed to do: kill a lot of people, quickly, and efficiently.

In the article I read from Popular Science, the Air Force is working toward an advanced type of weaponry that targets the human brain. Not only will this technology allow for the Air Force "to modulate an airman’s emotional state but it strives to use mind-altering drugs or biochemical pathway techniques" to essentially create super soldiers.

On the flip side, this new 'bioweapon' technology could "include methods to degrade enemy performance and artificially overwhelm enemy cognitive capabilities.”

All of these new bio-weapon technologies, weapon improvements, and advanced wartime strategies, make wars easier to win, faster to fight, and make killing more efficient. And as the 'Waking Life' quote states, a crescendo is bound to happen and in my mind it WILL be a World War IV as this wartime technology drastically and exponentially improves.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-11/air-force-seeks-neuroweapons-enhance-us-airmens-minds-and-confuse-our-foes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243017/

Robot Suit

From Japanese cartoons to summer blockbusters robot suits have been the stuff of dreams for years yet now these dreams are coming to life. Suit’s are currently being developed to accomplish two things strengthen the elderly and strengthen soldiers. Although, the idea of having the elderly running around stronger than Stonecold Steve Austin but the goal is to have those weakened by age to rejoin the workforce with the augmented strength provided by a robotic suit. The suit halves all the work done by a farmer in half. The other robotic suit being worked on is the Raytheon Exo2 which is lovingly compared to the Ironman suit. This suit at this point is meant for loading and unloading supplies from vehicles. The other application for the suit is to be used to support soldier’s legs as the fight on the field. This will allow them to carry more and be able to move things faster.

Human’s wont change in our life time or even or children’s children’s lifetime. Yet our technology changes greatly generation-to-generation and even during a generation. My own great-grandfather someone I knew went across the planes in a covered wagon. Think about the vast changes that can happen and now that we can actually augment our abilities brings great hope for mankind.

" 'Iron Man' Actor Clark Gregg Spends a Day With the Raytheon Sarcos XOS 2 Exoskeleton ." Youtube. Web. 4 Nov 2010. .

Ridder, Knight. "Robot Suits to Aid Elderly Japanese Farmers with Toiling in the Fields." AARP International 21 Aug 2010: n. pag. Web. 4 Nov 2010. .

If you can't beat them, copy them

It is no secret that plants are very good at converting sunlight into energy. Ever since solar cells were invented, scientists have been struggling to achieve just a fraction of the efficiency of photosynthesis. One of the major problems has been that direct sunlight is inherently destructive. Solar panels have to be sturdy enough to last for long periods of time, which comes at the cost of efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. One of the reasons that plants are so efficient is that they simply let their cells burn out and recycle them, sometimes as often as every 45 minutes. Scientists at MIT believe that they have managed to recreate this process with synthetic materials.

These synthetic chloroplasts are able to form themselves into crude solar cells under certain conditions. When they inevitably become damaged from exposure to the sun, they can be broken back down into their components by having a surfactant or solvent sprayed on them. Once the solvent is removed the components will once again assemble into functioning solar cells. Researchers say they they can currently get the cells to work at 40% efficiency, and they do not degrade over time as they can be automatically repaired.

These cells are still very far away from any practical use, but they show that the concept is feasible and has the potential to be much more efficient than current solar panels. Should we ever get something like this into production, it may actually be able to make fully-renewable energy production a reality. Current solar panels are great for powering a single structure, but are too bulky and inefficient for the large-scale power production that we require. These highly-efficient, regenerating cells could allow solar energy to become practical and competitive with other types of power, particularly fossil fuels.

Sources:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-09/mits-self-assembling-pv-cells-recycle-themselves-repeatedly-just-plant-cells

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/miot-mrc090110.php