Stimulus

Hey sciencers,

we will have to wait and see, but from what i gather there is a opportunity for the U.S. to finally get some renewable energy infrastructure built. This blog is not for politics, so i will not discuss the political junk behind it, but included in the bill is some 80 billion dollars for new science and production of clean energies, which will have a hopeful impact on the dismal state of our energy economy. And I add, if nothing is done now, the planet will not be a fun place to live, unless you like more lightning.

So the government is finally realizing that markets alone will not fix the greenhouse gas issue. I don't know what will happen or when it will happen, but we could be at a cross roads for lowering the human impact on the planet. Being trained in meteorology, I have a unique perspective in this debate. Naysayers use manipulated scientific studies and lack of evidence to justify their position. The fact of the matter is that reducing the impact that humans have on the globe is the smartest thing that we can do right now, even if no doom and gloom scenario exists in the future. Preserving our planet is the best way to ensure that humans will thrive for years to come, for we evolved on this planet and are uniquely tied to the well being of the planet, no matter what technology arises to combat environmental challenges. So, I say, for the first time in my life, yeah! gov't for giving a damn about the planet while trying to fix the economy.

naked singularities

In this month's issue of Scientific American, there is an article postulating the possibility of having a singularity without having a event horizon. This has many, many implications to our knowledge of black holes, which are singularities that are shrouded by an event horizon, or boundary or point of no return for things being pulled into a black hole. The mechanism for creating these naked singularities arises from solutions to Einstein's General Relativity equations, that take density variations in account during star collapse. These solutions still do not take pressure against gravity, the force that keeps a star from collapsing. There are also other mechanisms that could cause a singularity to loose it's event horizon, by either adding spin or an electric charge to the singularity, but these solutions prove even MORE complicated than the already insanely complicated solutions. This also means that humans may finally be able to directly detect singularities, where as as of now the only means we have of detecting black holes is by watching the material and celestial bodies that are gravitationally bound to said black holes. We may also be able to create a singularity that we could see and detect, depending on how much mass and/or energy is required to make a singularity. Seems pretty cool to me, and it could shed light on a otherwise dark topic.

Mars Alive?!?!?!

NASA has recently discovered methane in the martian atmosphere. This is significant because methane arises from either biological or geological activity. Mars has been long thought to be geologically inactive, and of course devoid of life. Could we see the evidence of life outside our planet, or disprove our long thought beliefs about Mars? Either way, the solar system became slightly more interesting.

Miniaturization of Motors Catch up with the 21st Centur

As this BBC article explains, the miniaturization of mechanical motors has not evolved at nearly the same pace as their electrical counterparts. Combustion is pretty much out of the question and as the the article states, the resistance of electrical motors when scaled down that small is almost more than can be overcome. So, take a tiny piezoelectric element, send a charge through it, incorporate a little bit of nature's design for microscopic propulsion and there you have a good recipe for modernizing one of humanities most influential creations.

Hey Science Update

We've been recording. I would like to pose a public opinion poll.

1. Do you think that we will discover the higgs boson when they turn on CERN?

2. How do you feel about nanobots?

3. Will the cosmological constant be negative, positive or 0?

4. Will we discover a planet that is relatively earth like?

5. Will Mad Cow disease become a pandemic in the upcoming decades?

6. Do you think that there is a cure to cancer?

7. Do you think that consciousness has the ability to transmit through extra dimensions?

8. Who is your favorite band?

9. Are there things that quarks can be broken up into?

10. Has or does the Himalayan Yeti exist or existed?

11. Does pi have an ending?

12. What is your favorite number, excluding 5, 7, 11, and 19?

13. Will you see a tornado sometime soon?

14. Howz' bout Thundersnow?

15. Who's your favorite Scientist?

Music in the ether

So, I was playing music last night and a friend of mine helped make a connection in my mind. What if dark energy, which according to theorists exists throughout everything and is in a plane that is beneath our level of understanding, is a material that can connect consciousness. I find this thought extremely fascinating, I implore this internet community to explore this concept and provide evidence of these connections, ask more questions and theorize the way these connections materialize in every day life.