Technobabble

Sciency words… this video has them.

Cryogenics is Really Cool

Ellen Ripley from the Alien movies, Kahn Noonien Singh from Star Trek, and even Eric Cartman from South Park were all cryogenically frozen at one time or another.  Cryogenic freezing would be a nice way to travel through space.  Unfortunately, the ice crystals that would form in your blood would slice open all your cells, killing you while you slept.  However, thanks to scientists in Russia, there may yet be life after freezing.

Eric Cartman freezes himself.

According to a report in the New York Times (click here to read it), researchers were able to grow plants from seeds that had been frozen for roughly 10,000 years.  While this is not exactly the same as bringing a person back to life after 10,000 years in ice, it’s promising.  At the very least, it proves genetic material survives the freezing process.

Given more time and research, scientists may learn to extract DNA from frozen animals, like one of those woolly mammoths preserved in glaciers.  Who doesn’t want to see a woolly mammoth at the zoo?  They might even find a way to make this safe for humans, making long voyages through space a little easier.

Baby Steps

With all of NASA’s budget cuts, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture when it comes to space exploration.  Right now, we hear nothing but bad news.  But we have to remember the International Space Station is still up in the sky, astronomers are still finding lots of new planets, and private companies are very close to taking over where NASA left off.

At a conference for the advancement of science, Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield said humanity will look back on the 21^st Century as a series of baby steps into space.  Yes, we’ll fall down a lot and get a few bruises, but we’re still learning, and we have to take those baby steps before we can go a lot further.

Diagram showing which countries contributed which parts to the International Space Station. Click picture to enlarge.

Hadfield is scheduled to go to the International Space Station in December.  During his time aboard the ISS, he says he will be trying to solve basic problems about human space travel, like blood chemistry, nutrition, and waste.  Astronauts aboard the ISS are working on approximately 100 different experiments to make it safer and easier for humans in the future to travel beyond Earth orbit.

For about two months, Hadfield will be in command of the space station.  He will be the first Canadian to have that honor.

For the original article on Chris Hadfield’s statements, click here.

Stop Wasting NASA’s Money

Dear Federal Government,

Once again, you are cutting funding for one of NASA’s most exciting and promising projects.  This time, it’s ExoMars, a project done in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).  The ExoMars Mission was to determine if life exists or ever did exist on Mars.

Although I am disappointed, I do understand, and I certainly can’t say NASA is being treated unfairly.  The budgets of almost every government agency, at both the state and federal level, are being slashed, and with the national debt as high as it is the US must try to reduce spending.  As important as ExoMars is, I know other important programs are suffering too.

However, tens of millions of dollars were already spent on ExoMars, according to Dr. G. Scott Hubbard, a planetary scientist for NASA and a professor at Stanford University, in addition to a reported 200 million euros spent by ESA.  An estimated $10 billion was already spent on the Constellation program, NASA’s effort to return to the Moon, before that was cut last year.

So, Federal Government, whatever program you decide to let NASA work on next, give them a chance to finish it.  It is a far greater waste of money to cancel one program after another than to allow one of them run to completion.

Signed,

James S. Pailly

Science Enthusiast and Concerned Citizen.

Star Trek and Doctor Who: Together at Last

It’s been a long time since I’ve bought a comic book, but I might have to go get this one.  IDW Publishing has announced the first ever comic book crossover between Star Trek and Doctor Who.  These are the two longest running science fiction television shows of all time, and in my opinion they are two of the best.

According to the IDW website, the story will feature the Eleventh Doctor teaming up with Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D to defeat the Borg and the Cybermen.  Anyone familiar with both series should immediately see why these two enemies would join together.  The only thing that would make this even better is if Darth Vader showed up somehow.

There were rumors awhile back that Paramount and the BBC were talking about a crossover staring the Tenth Doctor and the crew from Star Trek: Enterprise.  But nothing ever came of it.

Click here to visit the IDW website and learn more about the Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover.

The Future of Cameras

Mr. Cognis from The Tomorrow News Network is not just a regular cameraman.  He’s a cybernetic cameraman with his camera surgically attached to his head.  Of course, cybernetic cameras haven’t been invented yet, so we’ll have to make due with the technology we have.  Fortunately, camera makers have developed some pretty cool new ways to use what we have, and cameras are doing things no one would have expected just a few years ago.

Researchers at Stanford University have been working on an open source camera, nicknamed “Frankencamera.”  Most digital cameras are closed source, meaning you cannot alter the programming inside them.  An open source camera like Frankencamera allows clever computer people to change the way the camera works, potentially inventing new photography methods no one would have thought of otherwise.  The source code for Frankencamera has been released and is in use on Nokia’s N900 smart phone.

Another new camera technology on the market is called Lytro.  This is the camera for anyone who’s ever taken a photograph only to discover it was blurry afterwards.  The Lytro camera has an extra set of lenses inside, allowing it to capture more information than a traditional camera.  Using that additional information, you can go back later and change the focus so that your picture isn’t blurry anymore.  Click here to go to the Lytro website, and check out the photo gallery where you can try changing the focus of various sample images.

The Pelican Imaging Corporaion, headquartered in California, has developed technology even cooler than Lytro.  Not only can their camera allow you to refocus an image after you take it, but it can see through obstacles like fence posts or the branches of a tree (click here to see a video of how they do this).  Pelican’s camera is actually an array of 25 teeny, tiny cameras all working together.  Just like Lytro’s extra lenses, these extra cameras supply additional information so that images can be refocused or adjusted later.  Best of all, this array of cameras is small enough to fit inside a smart phone.

Digital cameras are changing rapidly.  Other tricks include seeing around corners and picking out images from the reflections in people’s eyes.  Click here for the full article on all the cameras I’ve mentioned and more from Science News.  Of course, no computer processes visual information as well as the human brain, an advantage cyborgs like Mr. Cognis still have over the rest of us.

Clara’s Molecule

The classic story of an inventor tinkering in his basement is a thing of the past.  Most new discoveries require NASA sized budgets, enormous research facilities, and the support of governments, large corporations, or major universities.  Except that isn’t always true.

Recently, a fifth-grade student named Clara Lazen invented an entirely new molecule.  Her science teacher had handed out the traditional ball and stick model pieces to make molecules, and she assembled a bunch of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in a completely new and unexpected way.  When she was done, she asked if she’d made a real molecule.

Clara and her science teacher.

Her teacher and a chemist at Humboldt State University have determined that it is an entirely new molecule.  Clara’s molecule, which has the catchy name of tetranitratoxycarbon, may even be useful for energy storage.  Now her name will appear on a paper in a major scientific journal.

Everyday people like Clara can still make major discoveries.  Science is not just for the well-funded.  Tetranitratoxycarbon might even help us solve the energy crisis, but most importantly, Clara and her classmates reportedly have a new enthusiasm for science, something that is rare in American children these days.

Click here for the original article from themarysue.com.

How Much of “99 White Balloons” is True?

February’s edition of The Tomorrow News Network is posted.  This month, time traveling journalist Talie Tappler goes back to July 4^th, 1947, the day a spaceship crashed near Roswell, New Mexico.  Turns out the weather balloon story wasn’t a complete lie.  Click here to read “99 White Balloons.”

So how much of “99 White Balloons” is true?  Probably not much.  I’ve never done a historical piece before, and in the course of my research on Roswell… well… let’s just say I’ve been to some pretty strange places on the Internet lately.

However, there are a few somewhat credible sources on Roswell.  In 1995, Congressman Steve Schiff of New Mexico launched an investigation into what really happened and forced the release of many documents concerning the recovery of what was described as a “flying disk.”

Two important terms uncovered in Congressman Schiff’s investigation were “Project Mogul” and “Majestic Twelve,” both of which appear in “99 White Balloons.”  The meaning of these terms—in fact, the authenticity of their existence—is open to debate.

According to the government, Project Mogul was a top secret experiment in the late 1940’s which used weather balloons to listen for the sound of Russian nuclear tests.  Scientists supposedly believed sound waves might become trapped in the upper atmosphere the way they sometimes become trapped in thermal layers of the deep ocean.  We now know that is not true.  In fact, the idea is a little silly when you think about it (air in the upper atmosphere is too thin to transmit sound well), which is why conspiracy theorists say Project Mogul was invented after the fact to cover up the truth about the UFO crash.

The Majestic Twelve (sometimes referred to as MJ 12) is an even more mysterious term, and people have interpreted it in many different ways.  In “99 White Balloons,” I have chosen to present it as a group of twelve experts on extra terrestrial affairs who arrive at Roswell Army Air Field shortly after the crash.  They serve as the stereotypical men in black characters.

The rest of my research focused on the US military of the late 1940’s.  1947 was the year the Army Air Force transitioned into the modern Air Force.  Much of Roswell Army Air Field, the base where the UFO wreckage was supposedly taken, is still there.  It was renamed Walker Air Force Base and remained in use until 1967.  It is now an industrial airport.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of UFO conspiracy theories.  I’m a science enthusiast, and very few UFO sightings come with hard, scientific evidence; however, I know people who say they’ve seen spaceships in the sky and are pretty adamant about it.  Whether any of these stories are true or not, I’ve enjoyed studying them and writing about them.  I hope you’ll enjoy reading my interpretation of the Roswell Incident over at tomorrownewsnetwork.com.

Why Newt Gingrich’s Moon Base Matters

Newt Gingrich has been widely ridiculed by both the media and his fellow Republicans for wanting to return to the Moon and establish a lunar colony by 2020.  What hasn’t been discussed is that the Moon and the rest of the Solar System are packed full of untapped natural resources.  The Moon in particular has plentiful helium-3, which could be used as a carbon-free, radiation free fuel source.

Moon Base Alpha as seen in Space: 1999.

In the last decade, the Chinese government has engaged in an aggressive space program.  They’ve sent men into space, done spacewalks, and are now building their own space station to compete with the International Space Station (ISS).  At the rate they’re going, experts believe China could establish a permanent presence on the Moon as early as 2022 and claim it as their territory.

A new space race is on, whether the American public knows it or not, and I for one do not want China to call dibs on the Moon’s helium-3.  We should take Gingrich’s proposal seriously, not mock him (at least not for this).

The good news, especially for anyone who doesn’t want to vote for Gingrich, is that his proposal is not the only one.  According to a report from Space.com, the Russian space agency is talking to NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency) about building a Moon base as a project of international cooperation, just like the ISS.

I’d prefer to see an international Moon base rather than the Americans only one Gingrich proposes so that the Moon’s resources can be shared by all of humanity and not hoarded by one country.  The important thing right now is that we’re talking about it.  The more the public learns about this issue, the more they’ll understand it and the more they will want to see a permanent outpost on the Moon.

Links

• Russia Eyes Possible Moon Base with NASA: Reports from Space.com.
• China will Own the Moon, Space Entrepreneur Worries from Space.com
• China May Set Up Moon Base Camp by 2030 from China Daily.
• Experts say Gingrich Moon Base Dreams Not Lunacy from Newsvine.

Talie Tappler Gets Interviewed

Time traveling journalist Talie Tappler is usually the one interviewing people, but today she’s the one being interviewed.  The blog Reality Skimming does a regular feature called “Continuing Characters” where they interview a recurring character from a fantasy or science fiction series.  They usually ask the author a few questions too.

Talie is the main character in my Tomorrow News Network series.  Each month, I’ll be publishing a new short story about her and her adventures.  The first story, “The Medusa Effect,” is already up.  The next will be published Monday, February 6^th.

See what Talie has to say for herself at Reality Skimming by clicking here.

You can also check out Talie’s adventures with the Tomorrow News Network by clicking here.