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2012 may bring the "perfect storm" - solar flares, systems collapse

Alfred Lambremont Webre
Examiner.com
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:58 UTC
solar flare

SOHO/ESA/NASA - Solar flares

Long scorned as "mysticism" and "parascience," concern about the year 2012 has now surfaced in a mainstream NASA report on the potential impacts on human society of solar flares anticipated to peak in 2012. The Obama administration and other national governments are not aggressively focused on contingency preparations for the 2012 solar flare impacts, or on introducing available anti-gravitic, new energy sources that would transform centralized high-power electrical grid systems into de-centralized, anti-gravitic and quantum process energy sources. These new energy sources are less vulnerable to destructive solar storms, have no negative environmental impact, and could unleash unprecedented economic and social transformation.

Electrical grids & anticipated solar flares of 2012

Mainstream scientific concern about 2012 has grown since a recent National Research Council report funded by NASA and issued by the National Academy of Sciences, entitled "Severe Space Weather Events: Understanding Economic and Societal Impact" which details the potential devastation of 2012 solar storms on the current planetary energy grid and because of the inter-linkages of a cybernetic society, on our entire human civilization.
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Sherlock

Maya Intensively Cultivated Manioc 1,400 Years Ago


California Science & Technology News
Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:23 UTC
A University of Colorado at Boulder team has uncovered an ancient and previously unknown Maya agricultural system -- a large manioc field intensively cultivated as a staple crop that was buried and exquisitely preserved under a blanket of ash by a volcanic eruption in present-day El Salvador 1,400 years ago.

Evidence shows the manioc field -- at least one-third the size of a football field -- was harvested just days before the eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano near San Salvador in roughly A.D. 600, said CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Payson Sheets, who is directing excavations at the ancient village of Ceren. The cultivated field of manioc was discovered adjacent to Ceren, which was buried under 17 feet of ash and is considered the best preserved ancient farming village in all of Latin America.

The ancient planting beds of the carbohydrate-rich tuber are the first and only evidence of an intensive manioc cultivation system at any New World archaeology site, said Sheets. While two isolated portions of the manioc field were discovered in 2007 following radar work and limited excavation, 18 large test pits dug in spring 2009 -- each measuring about 10 feet by 10 feet -- allowed the archaeologists to estimate the size of the field and assess the related agricultural activity that went on there.
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Magnify

Punching Holes Into Herpes Viruses


ScienceDaily.com
Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:07 UTC
A joint international research effort by Dr. Wouter Roos and Dr. Gijs Wuite from the VU University Amsterdam and Dr. Kerstin Radtke and Dr. Beate Sodeik from the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover has led to the first description of the mechanics of so-called nuclear herpes virus capsids.

These viral particles are complex icosahedral protein shells covering and shielding the genetic material of herpes viruses, and are purified from the nuclei of infected cells. The results of this research were published online on June 1st, 2009 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
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Laptop

Study shows Americans' devotion to the Internet


CNN.com
Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:39 UTC
Americans would rather keep their Internet connections than keep their cell phone or television service, a new study found.

Despite the souring economy, more and more Americans are buying high-speed Internet service, the study found -- and the most dramatic increase in broadband adoption has been in groups that traditionally use it less than average.
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Cell Phone

Prototype Nokia phone recharges without wires

Christopher Null
The Working Guy
Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:31 UTC
wireless charging cellphone
© unknown
Cell phone of the future?
Pardon the cliche, but it's one of the holiest of Holy Grails of technology: Wireless power. And while early lab experiments have been able to "beam" electricity a few feet to power a light bulb, the day when our laptops and cell phones can charge without having to plug them in to a wall socket still seems decades in the future.

Nokia, however, has taken another baby step in that direction with the invention of a cell phone that recharges itself using a unique system: It harvests ambient radio waves from the air, and turns that energy into usable power. Enough, at least, to keep a cell phone from running out of juice.
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Rocket

New Mexico Breaks Ground on Commercial Spaceport


Reuters
Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:20 UTC
Phoenix - New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson broke ground on Friday on construction of Spaceport America, the world's first facility built specifically for space-bound commercial customers and fee-paying passengers.

The $198 million project, which is being funded by the New Mexico state government, is located on a remote high-desert range near the town of Truth or Consequences.

British tycoon Richard Branson's space tours firm, Virgin Galactic, will use the facility to propel tourists into suborbital space at a cost of $200,000 a ride.
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Telescope

Herschel's daring test: a glimpse of things to come


European Space Agency
Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:17 UTC
Herschel opened its 'eyes' on 14 June and the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer obtained images of M51, 'the whirlpool galaxy' for a first test observation. Scientists obtained images in three colours which clearly demonstrate the superiority of Herschel, the largest infrared space telescope ever flown.

Image

Herschel's test view of M51
This image shows the famous 'whirlpool galaxy', first observed by Charles Messier in 1773, who provided the designation Messier 51 (M51). This spiral galaxy lies relatively nearby, about 35 million light-years away, in the constellation Canes Venatici. M51 was the first galaxy discovered to harbour a spiral structure.
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Info

Research explores interactions between nanomaterials, biological systems


University of California - Los Angeles
Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:25 UTC
Review article calls for measures to enable safe design of nanomaterials.

The recent explosion in the development of nanomaterials with enhanced performance characteristics for use in commercial and medical applications has increased the likelihood of people coming into direct contact with these materials.

There are currently more than 800 products on the market - including clothes, skin lotions and cleaning products - claiming to have at least one nanocomponent, and therapeutic nanocarriers have been designed for targeted drug delivery inside the human body. Human exposure to nanomaterials, which are smaller than one one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, raises some important questions, including whether these "nano-bio" interactions could have adverse health effects.
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Laptop

Canada's monster computer roars to life

Omar El Akkad
Globe and Mail
Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:43 UTC
Toronto's supercomputer
© unknown
University of Toronto's $50-million supercomputer – the fastest such machine in Canada – goes online to improve research potential
It has taken a year and $50-million to put together, and its brain takes up as much room as a warehouse full of refrigerators.

Today, the monster finally opens its eyes, as the University of Toronto's newest supercomputer - the fastest such machine in Canada - goes online.

There's no shortage of beastly metrics by which this computer's power can be measured: It can perform more than 300 trillion calculations a second, simulate the Earth's climate 100 years into the future in four days and help researchers study cosmic background radiation, a calculation-intensive task that offers a glimpse into what the universe looked like 13 billion years ago.
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Camera

Light sensor breakthrough could enhance digital cameras

Joyann Callender
University of Toronto
Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:13 UTC
Toronto, ON - New research by a team of University of Toronto scientists could lead to substantial advancements in the performance of a variety of electronic devices including digital cameras.

Researchers created a light sensor - like a pixel in a digital camera - that benefits from a phenomenon known as multi-exciton generation (MEG). Until now, no group had collected an electrical current from a device that takes advantage of MEG.
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