Christopher Hedges » science

Phoenix Lander Tweets From Mars

Christopher C. Hedges — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:26:30 +0000

Spotting the power of Twitter to keep people up-to-date in a concise format, scientists at NASA have programmed the Phoenix Mars lander to send Tweets with updates from the red planet. Actually, the Phoenix Mars lander is sending the info back to NASA where an employee updates Twitter. It would be pretty cool if the posts were coming directly from Mars.

The New York Times’ Kenneth Chang writes about the Phoenix Mars lander using Tweeter:

Whoever thought a NASA spacecraft could be so adept at social networking and Web 2.0?

For users of Twitter, a Web microblogging service, the Phoenix Mars lander has been sending pithy news “tweets” to the cellphones and computers of interested “followers.”

Excellent use for this new technology.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Phoenix Mars lander, science

Go Inside A Wind Turbine

Christopher C. Hedges — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:33:57 +0000

The future of American energy might be a blast from the past — windmills. All too often, it is easy to just think of the old fashioned farm windmill used to pump water out of a well. But, today’s windmills are high tech creations that are designed to produce huge amounts of energy by converting the power of wind into useful electricity for our homes.

Windmills are producing power in Indiana right now and in other locations around the nation.

Windmills. Photo by Anh Quan

Wouldn’t it be cool to take a closer look at what’s happening inside and around these giant windmills?

Luckily for us, the award-winning video below gives us a tour of these high tech energy generators that might be the solution for our desire to be energy independent.

Video: Take A Tour of Modern Windmills

Video: Earl Park Wind Energy Farm

‘Death Star’ System WR104 Threatening Earth With Its Imminent Supernova?

Christopher C. Hedges — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:57:11 +0000

Just when we thought the worst problems facing us were a sluggish economy (which should pick up in a couple of months or so, if previous recession cycles are any indication) and a protracted Democratic party nominating battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, comes news that a “death star” is now threatening the Earth.

The death star system is called WR104 and is only 8000 light years away, reports Ian Steward for New Zealand’s The Press.

A Sydney University astronomer has warned this week that the Earth could be destroyed when an unstable neighbouring star explodes.

Dr Peter Tuthill said that observing WR104, a star system in the Sagittarius constellation, made him feel like he was “looking down a rifle barrel”.

One of the stars in the WR104 spiral system is what scientists call a Wolf-Raynet type star — an imminent supernova.

Tuthill has discovered that the pole the spiral spins on points almost exactly at Earth.

It recently has been discovered that gamma rays are fired out along a star system’s polar axis.

Tuthill said the star was a “ticking bomb”. “It’s worrying enough. We do live on a fragile planet and this is one of the things that could be harmful. I used to appreciate this spiral just for its beautiful form, but now I can’t help a twinge of feeling that it is uncannily like looking down a rifle barrel.”

If the WR104 star system emitted gamma rays directed at earth, it could burn off the ozone layer, according to scientists.

There is good news, before we get too worried and start burrowing into the ground or building shelters to hide from WR104′s gamma rays, other scientists say the risk is small.

Canterbury University astronomer Associate Professor Peter Cottrell said the death star theory was “nice speculation”, but “I wouldn’t get too worried”.

Technorati Tags: astronomy, death star, gamma rays, imminent supernova, Peter Cottrell, Peter Tuthill, sprial system, wolf-raynet, WR104

Recreational Autism?

Christopher C. Hedges — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:10:49 +0000

Scientists may have worked out a way to turn people autistic, then turn them back.

Reports i09:

Need to finish that work project, and wish you had the mental intensity to do it? Just take a synapse-regulating inhibitor, induce temporary autism, and you’ll want to ignore your friends and do nothing but number-crunching for days. Autism-inducers could become as popular as Provigil among the geek set by 2020. Last night, in fact, a group German researchers announced they’d perfected the method for inducing autism. (They can also cure it.)

Don’t let the bosses know about this or they’ll be putting this medication into our morning coffee!

Let’s hope that the research into autism creates a cure that will work.

Technorati Tags: autism, medicine, neuroscience, provigil