Could the exploitation of space solve the earth's environmental crises?
The Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I fifty years ago on October 4th, marking the beginning of our use of space for political, military, technological, and scientific ends. Since then we have launched hundreds of satellites, space probes, telescopes, moon missions, and planetary landers. Now, political scientist Rasmus Karlsson suggests that space could provide us with a sustainable future not possible from an earthbound only perspective.
Writing in the October issue of Inderscience publication, International Journal of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Karlsson, a researcher at the University of Lund, Sweden, explains that over the years, two strands of thought on sustainable development have emerged. They are ecologism and environmentalism. Ecologism offers a solution by emphasizing the need for major socioeconomic reform aimed at a post-industrial era. Environmentalism, in contrast, focuses on the preservation, restoration, and improvement of the natural environment within the present framework.
Science & Technology
It can take your pulse, check your body fat, time your jogs and tell you if you have bad breath. It even assesses stress levels and inspires you with a pep talk. Meet your new personal trainer: your cell phone.
The prototype Wellness mobile phone from Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. (DCM) targets users with busy lives who want a hassle-free way of keeping track of their health, according to company spokesman Noriaki Tobita.
The prototype Wellness mobile phone from Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. (DCM) targets users with busy lives who want a hassle-free way of keeping track of their health, according to company spokesman Noriaki Tobita.
Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
The announcement, which is expected within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global warming.
The announcement, which is expected within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global warming.
Children selected for Inca ritual sacrifice were "fattened up" with high-protein diets in the months leading up to their deaths, a new study has found.
Researcher Andrew Wilson and his team conducted DNA and chemical tests of hair samples taken from four child mummies found in the Andes mountains in the 1990s. (See a photo gallery of the frozen Inca mummies.)
Researcher Andrew Wilson and his team conducted DNA and chemical tests of hair samples taken from four child mummies found in the Andes mountains in the 1990s. (See a photo gallery of the frozen Inca mummies.)
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| ©National Geographic |
For more than 40 years, an asteroid believed to be potentially dangerous to Earth has been essentially lost to view. But no more.
The so-called 6344 P-L was first spotted in 1960, and given the designation Potentially Hazardous Asteroid - meaning that its orbit took it within .05 astronomical units (about 4,650,000 miles) of Earth's orbit. But astronomers lost track of it; left behind was only a number and a vague sense of threat.
However, meteor researcher Peter Jenniskens of the SETI institute now argues, with confirmation from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory' Minor Planet Center, that this wayward wanderer is in fact the same thing as the recently discovered 2007 RR9, making a reappearance this year as part of a 4.7-year orbit.
The so-called 6344 P-L was first spotted in 1960, and given the designation Potentially Hazardous Asteroid - meaning that its orbit took it within .05 astronomical units (about 4,650,000 miles) of Earth's orbit. But astronomers lost track of it; left behind was only a number and a vague sense of threat.
However, meteor researcher Peter Jenniskens of the SETI institute now argues, with confirmation from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory' Minor Planet Center, that this wayward wanderer is in fact the same thing as the recently discovered 2007 RR9, making a reappearance this year as part of a 4.7-year orbit.
With atoms and molecules in a gas moving at thousands of kilometres per hour, physicists have long sought a way to slow them down to a few kilometres per hour to trap them.
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| ©Image courtesy of Institute of Physics |
| The coils used to slow the atoms. |
Researchers achieved the unlikely feat by vigorously vibrating the droplets. The force created when they bulged upwards as the surface they were on dropped was enough to make them trickle up a steep slope.
Watch a vibrating droplet flow uphill HERE
Watch a vibrating droplet flow uphill HERE
Scientists have developed a transparent new plastic as strong as steel and as thin as a sheet of paper, according to a study published Thursday in Science magazine.
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| ©Unknown |
| The plastic could be used to reduce the energy required to separate gasses in chemical factories, improve microtechnology such as microchips or biomedical sensors and even one day produce lighter, stronger armor for soldiers or police and their vehicles. |
DT Solar and Hall's Warehouse Corporation have announced an agreement to build a 2 MW solar electric power system to supply electricity to their facility in South Plainfield, New Jersey. When completed, this project will be the largest rooftop solar electric system serving a private company in the United States.
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| DT Solar will design, build and operate the system, and work with an investment partner to finance the cost of the installation. Revenue from electricity sales to Hall's, and the sale of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) to New Jersey electric utilities, will pay for the investment over time. |
An object from space, possibly a meteorite, recently plummeted to earth and landed in a remote region of South America, creating a crater 30m wide and 6m deep. People living in the Andes mountainous of Peru claimed to have witnessed a fireball falling from the sky. The event has highlighted the need to find out more about natural space debris and their trajectories. The European Space Agency (ESA) has always expressed an interest in such events and has carried out a number of studies into what action should be taken.
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| We need to know more about natural space debris and their trajectories. |
