"Multiverse" means "whoa......"

Gizmodo has a cool article about the "multiverse". Yeah, you got that right, it's not just the universe anymore. Scientists are theorizing that there may be multiple universes. And there's more, right here in our universe.... physical laws may change from place to place. Whoa!

"Mutliverse" subscribers believe there are other, crazier universes beyond ours that could potentially boast their own unique physics. That's one theory. Another, floated this week, is that the laws of physics in this universe aren't so constant either.

"The implications for our current understanding of science are profound. If the laws of physics turn out to be merely 'local by-laws', it might be that whilst our observable part of the universe favours the existence of life and human beings, other far more distant regions may exist where different laws preclude the formation of life, at least as we know it."

Whoa!

This reminds me.... don't forget to watch Fringe tomorrow night! Best show on TV, and they're battling it out with the alternate universe.

Scuderi Scoots

"Those models show the combustion in a Scuderi engine will be not only more powerful than conventional engines; it will also, surprisingly, be cooler. That means it will spew out far fewer pollutants than today's engines do.

The Scuderi engine could even boost mileage by recapturing energy normally lost during braking, as do hybrid cars. "Unlike current electric hybrids which store the energy in a battery, we are able to store energy in the form of compressed air," says Sal Scuderi. That can be done by simply adding a small air-storage tank, which costs far less than the generators and banks of batteries gas-electric hybrids need."

Yes! Radical new designs that can double efficiency...good stuff!

Jordi, can you give these guys a hand?

"A radical new project could permit human beings to create a "baby universe" in a laboratory in Japan. While it sounds like a dangerous undertaking, the physicists involved believe that if the project is successful, the space-time around a tiny point within our universe will be distorted in such a way that it will begin to form a new superfluid space, and eventually break off, separate in all respects from our experience of space and time, causing no harm to the fabric of our universe."

Um, yeah, can we maybe not do this? How sure are we about the "causing no harm to the fabric of our universe" part? That sounds important...

HumanCar for "Flintstones" of the future

Weeeee! This looks like fun and, bonus, it's enviro-friendly. Batteries included. Did I mention they're going over 60 MPH! Yeah, it's downhill, but still....
Click the link
and watch them row this thing...

Thanks Engadget

Transforming Grid

From CSM:

"" Long accused of dragging its feet on raising energy-efficiency standards for products, the Bush administration has proposed its first such standard.

Its proposal attracted little attention, since it didn't mean better dishwashers or more fuel-efficient cars. Instead, it deals with transformers - those ubiquitous gray canisters that hang from utility poles and could save the nation billions of dollars if they were upgraded."

Well thank goodness! This is a great way to save energy and upgrade the grid at the same time. Bush is brilliant....well, I've got to give him credit here, this is a smart step in the right direction.

Pre-fossil Fuel to the rescue?

"Farmyard animals are not being yoked together to pull cars but the fat in their bodies is being converted into biodiesel to drive fleets of the future.

The fat, or tallow, from one poor deceased sheep will produce about eight litres of biodiesel.

That's about 6 1/2 sheep to fill the tank of Holden's Astra diesel hatchback, meaning you'll get about 105km out of one animal on Holden's published fuel economy figures.

Pigs are better for travelling longer distances, with one unfortunate beast giving Astra drivers about 140km. "

This is pushing biodiesel to a whole new level.

Tidal Power

"How shall we ever slake our ever-growing demand for electricity? Even as concerns about global warming escalate, are we doomed to create more of the same old polluting, coal- and oil-dependent power plants? Or can common sense — and some radically new technologies — serve us better?

There's much talk of wind and solar power. But how about the oceans and their massive tidal and current patterns? Driven by the gravitational force of the sun and the moon, tides and currents represent a source that's as infinite and everlasting as any force on Earth."

This makes sense. There's plenty of "free" power out there to tap into, and that's why power storage (batteries) and delivery (the power grid) are integral to weaning away from fossil fuel.

Our Greatest Achievement...

"Call it "one small mistake by somebody, one giant loss for mankind."

The original magnetic tapes that recorded the iconic images of man's first footsteps on the moon are missing and scientists fear they are in danger of deteriorating into dust unless they are found quickly and converted to digital format.

Australian scientists at the Parkes Observatory and the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station in Australia have launched an intensive effort to find nearly 700 boxes of original, high quality slow-scan TV tapes used to capture the Apollo 11 landing on July 21, 1969. "

Um....hello? Mankind's greatest moment yet....and we lose the "original" video. At least we'll always have the rocks...

Ped Power

From Wired:

"We can harvest between 5 to 7 watts of energy per footstep that is currently being wasted into the ground," says Claire Price, director of The Facility Architects, the British firm heading up the Pacesetters Project. "And a passing train can generate very useful energy to run signaling or to power lights."

Like solar and wind proponents, vibration harvesters argue that abundant, clean energy is all around us and goes to waste. The challenge is how to store the power efficiently so it provides a continual output even if the vibrations from footsteps or passing trains temporarily taper off."

Energy is abundant, if we can harness the vibrations of feet walking, just think how much power we could generate from say ocean waves, gravity...even earthquakes....how about lightning? Energy is all around, it's just a matter of harnessing and storing it. Battery technology and the power grid are two areas where we should spend more money and make revolutionary improvements that will set us free from fossil fuel.

Truth, also inconvenient

From this article , titled " Greenland's Ice Sheet Is Slip-Sliding Away":


"From cores of ancient Greenland ice extracted by the National Science Foundation, researchers have identified at least 20 sudden climate changes in the last 110,000 years, in which average temperatures fluctuated as much as 15 degrees in a single decade."


Sudden temperature changes have happened scores of times before, without humans to blame.


That's a truth that's inconvenient for Gore and the in-liars he represents. (He kept referring to any dissenters as "out-liers" on a TV interview "There will always be outliers that refuse to learn the truth, the issue has been decided in the scientific community"....that term really bugged me because of its "liar" connotation. A-hole.) The thing is, I agree the planet shows signs of warming over the past 100 years. But I think it's not all bad news....only 1 degree despite burning half the planet's fossil fuel? Great! Would it be better for humans for the planet to be cooling? No. We've been fortunate with the climate for the past 10,000 years, but there are no guarantees for what the future will hold, no matter what we do.

Where are the holes?

Sprinkled throughout this article that looks to originate with the AP.

"...the last few decades of the 20th century
were warmer than any comparable period in the last 400 years," the
panel wrote. It said the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least
the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia," though
it was relatively warm around the year 1000 followed by a "Little Ice
Age" from about 1500 to 1850."

Yeah, things have been all normal, 'cept for those warm years and then the 350 year ice age.

"It had compared the sharp curve of the hockey
blade to the recent uptick in temperatures _ a 1 degree rise in global
average surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere during the 20th
century _ and the stick's long shaft to centuries of previous climate
stability." (since that recent ice age, that is)

1 degree rise in 100+ years of burning fossil fuel....ah, the instability of it all...

"Between 1 A.D. and 1850, volcanic eruptions and
solar fluctuations had the biggest effects on climate. But those
temperature changes "were much less pronounced than the warming due to
greenhouse gas" levels by pollution since the mid-19th century, the
panel said."

Yeah, except for that "Little Ice Age" and those "warm years". Climate changes, weather changes, and that IS normal. What, did the sun and volcanoes disappear in 1850? Yes, we've added a lot of CO2 to the atmosphere in the last 150 years....but we've only seen a 1 degree average temperature change....that is good news! But just because the sky isn't falling (you heard it here first), doesn't mean we can rest...there are many dire things that can happen to humanity.

Here's a good idea Smart, relatively small things like this will go a long way should we face some major "humanity squashing" disasters.

Gore-bal Warming Exposed

"The Inconvenient Truth" is indeed inconvenient to alarmists
By Tom Harris

"Professor Bob Carter of the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, in Australia gives what, for many Canadians, is a surprising assessment: "Gore's circumstantial arguments are so weak that they are pathetic. It is simply incredible that they, and his film, are commanding public attention."
But surely Carter is merely part of what most people regard as a tiny cadre of "climate change skeptics" who disagree with the "vast majority of scientists" Gore cites?

No; Carter is one of hundreds of highly qualified non-governmental, non-industry, non-lobby group climate experts who contest the hypothesis that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing significant global climate change. "Climate experts" is the operative term here. Why? Because what Gore's "majority of scientists" think is immaterial when only a very small fraction of them actually work in the climate field."

Most everyone accepts the global warming idea, and the fact that humans cause it and can correct it. Disagree, and they presume you're ignorant. But the more scientists know about the subject, the less certain they are about global warming and "weather" or not it is caused by the CO2 increase. Click through to read the whole article.

Global Warming? Beats the alternative..

From Walter Williams, WND:

"Hardly a day goes by without some kind of warning that mankind's use of fossil fuels, especially in the U.S., is causing global warming. Stossel looks at the numbers. Half of this century's global warming happened between 1900 and 1945. Stossel asks, "If man is responsible, why wasn't there much more warming in the second half of the century? We burned much more fuel during that time."

By the way, if there is global warming, it might be a godsend. According to Harvard astrophysicist Sallie Baliunas, added carbon dioxide helps plants grow. Warmer winters give farmers a longer growing season, and the warming might end the droughts in the Sahara desert.

There's another consideration. For the past 800,000 years, there have been periods of approximately 100,000 years called Ice Ages, followed by a period of 10,000 years, a period called Interglacial, followed by another Ice Age. We're about 10,500 years into the present Interglacial period – namely, we're 500 years overdue for another Ice Age. If indeed mankind's activity contributes to the planet's warming, we might postpone the coming Ice Age."

I think there is global warming, but to say that it's solely or even mostly man's fault is giving us too much credit, in my opinion. We've burned through almost half of Earth's fossil fuel in a little over 100 years, with only a small measurable effect. I'd bet we could finish off all the fossil fuel on the planet and it won't make much more of a difference. The problem will be....we're out of fossil fuel! How will we make plastics and all the beneficial things we make from oil? Just think of all the oil-based products we use and need....for medicine alone! Ah, but I digress. Look, I'm all about protecting the environment, but the whole global warming thing seems blown out of porportion to me....we can do more for the environment by targeting specific chemicals...look what success we've had with the ozone layer and DDT. Global Warming? Sure, it happens, but we probably don't have a lot to do with it, and it's better for humans to be it a warming trend than a cooling one, so let's celebrate! Of course, I 'm probably wrong, and our coastal cities will all be underwater in 30 years, AND we'll be out of oil. Won't this post look silly?

THE PAOMNNEHAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it
deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,
the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer
be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses
and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh?

Viral Power

"...once we've altered the genes of the virus to grow the electrode material, we can easily clone millions of identical copies of the virus to use in assembling our batteries.

"For the metal oxide we chose cobalt oxide because it has very good specific capacity, which will produce batteries with high energy density," meaning it can store two or three times more energy for its size and weight compared to previously used battery electrode materials. And adding the gold further increased the wires' energy density, she added.

Equally important, the reactions needed to create nanowires occur at normal room temperatures and pressures, so there is no need for expensive pressure-cooking technology to get the job done.

The work is important, too, because energy density is a vital quality in batteries. A lack of energy density - meaning the amount of charge a battery of a given size can usefully carry - is what has hampered development of electric cars, since existing batteries are generally too heavy and too weak to compete with gasoline as an energy source. Still, battery technology is gradually being improved and may someday even become competitive as the price of oil escalates.

"The nanoscale materials we've made supply two to three times the electrical energy for their mass or volume, compared to previous materials," the team reported.

Zephyr in the sky at night

Solar Powered Plane Might Fly Continuously For Weeks
"Called the Zephyr, it's an aircraft that can fly continuously using nothing but solar power and "low drag aerodynamics". The combination of solar panels on the upper wing surface and rechargeable batteries allows Zephyr to be flown for many weeks and even months. The first flight trial of the Zephyr were conducted recently by QinetiQ in White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico."

It's Borg-tastic!

LiveScience.com - Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip:

"The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed 'neuro-chips' in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together....

The proteins allowed the neuro-chip's electronic components and its living cells to communicate with each other. Electrical signals from neurons were recorded using the chip's transistors, while the chip's capacitors were used to stimulate the neurons.

It could still be decades before the technology is advanced enough to treat neurological disorders or create living computers, the researchers say, but in the nearer term, the chips could provide an advanced method of screening drugs for the pharmaceutical industry."

Resistance is fu-tile.

Battery Wattage

Wired 14.03: START: "The M1, based on the same lithium-ion technology used in your cell phone and laptop, is the first product from MIT spinoff A123 Systems. Cofounder Yet-Ming Chiang, a materials science professor, succeeded in shrinking to nanoscale the particles that coat the battery's electrodes and store and discharge energy. The results are electrifying: Power density doubles, peak energy jumps fivefold (the cells pack more punch than a standard 110-volt wall outlet), and recharging time plummets. Going nano also solves a safety problem. Regular high-capacity Li-ion batteries tend to explode under severe stress, like if they're dropped from a ladder."

This was a big advance...if we can keep coming up with more solutions like this, we may never need hydrogen-driven cars....straight from gas to 'lectric.
5 minute plug-in for a 90% charge? Takes about that long to pump gas....

Progress at light speed | csmonitor.com

Progress at light speed | csmonitor.com:

"That humans will alter their bodies, or commune with artificial intelligence, won't seem so strange when we get there, Kurzweil says. 'We're not going to make this grand leap into the world I describe,' he says. 'It's going to be one small incremental step at a time - thousands of little steps, each one of which is benign, small, modest, conservative, and market-tested. But you get thousands of these coming at increasing speed, and you get some profound changes.'

One such change will be a profoundly different attitude toward the human body as our identity. 'Ultimately, the nature of our identity is going to change,' he says. 'When you get a new computer, you don't throw all of the files away. The software has a longevity that transcends the hardware.... The hardware can die, but the software lives on.'"

Sounds like a Celine Dion song... and reminds me of the "Lawnmower Man" movie. Hear that phone ringing?

interstellar 'chocolate'

"To solve the mystery of life's origin, scientists can no longer focus solely on Earth. They must take the entire universe into account. Reason: the discovery of nitrogen-carrying aromatic hydrocarbons throughout the universe.

Prior to their recent discovery in space, scientists had thought these biologically important molecules were unique to Earth. One type is the main ingredient in chocolate. Others carry genetic information in DNA.

The existence of these molecules in interstellar space "was considered impossible" 20 years ago, explains Louis Allamandola, who carried out this research with colleagues at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "Now, we know better.... As a class, they are more abundant than all other known interstellar polyatomic molecules combined."

The finding has profound significance for the occurrence of organic life. These kinds of molecules are key ingredients in the primordial chemical soup from which scientists think organic life may have arisen.

"Seeing their signature across the universe tells me they are accessible to young planets just about everywhere," says Douglas Hudgins, lead author of the report on this research published in the Astrophysical Journal earlier this month.

In fact, you don't even need a planet to get the organic-life game going."

And, chocolate is health food, yay! We all win (until the aliens come and take our chocolate, boo!)