Science

At 8:30 PM your time, Earthhour.org is encouraging you to turn off your lights to say “Yes! I care about the Earth”. Is turning off lights the answer?

It’s all about global warming. We use too much resources which release Carbon emissions and therefore, warm up the planet. Our children will then be living in a ecological nightmare.

There are some that say there is no real proof to show we are affecting the planet from raising in temperature. There are others that will argue we are going through a cycle that will revert back eventually. Maybe it’s just the fact the Earth is getting older, the moon is getting a millimeter closer and we are orbiting the Sun at a Whopping 67,000 Miles per Hour.

So we set aside an hour to turn off lights. Will that make a difference? Well, it will until we turn back on those lights. At least it’s 8:30 PM in your timezone. Could you imagine the powerdrain if the world turned back on the lights at the same time?

Earth Hour says if you don’t turn off the lights, you are saying NO to the Earth and yes to global warming. But if you have switched all your lights to energy saving bulbs and done your part in other ways, will you be a hypocrite for not doing Earth Hour?

However you look at it, there is a statement there. Be aware of your environment. It saves you money and could possibly help with Global warming. Happy Earth Hour, everyone

Who knew that an ordinary roll of Scotch (TM) tape could be used to create Xrays?

Apparently, the Russians did in the 1950’s, but it was never developed. Researchers at UCLA have been toying with the power that comes from peeling tape from a roll in a vacuum. In fact, a mere piece of tape can produce an enormous amount of power, which surprised researchers. In an article being published in the Journal Nature, researchers are suggesting that the finding could lead to the production of inexpensive and easy-to-use equipment that could be used by paramedics on accident scenes or for places where electricity is not available.

The researchers have applied for a patent to protect their work. In this new research, a machine was used to peel ordinary Scotch tape off a roll in a vacuum chamber at about 1.2 inches per second. This caused rapid pulses of X-rays, each about a billionth of a second long, to emerge from very close to where the tape was coming off the roll. And that is where electrons jumped from the roll to the sticky underside of the tape that was being pulled away, As those electrons touched the sticky part of the tape, they slowed down, emitting readable Xrays.

So the question is, does this pose a danger for those of us slaving over wrapping paper this coming holiday season? Not so much. The research shows that this only works in a vacuum, and most of us are not wrapping presents in a vacuum.

So, no excuse for use geeks to not be wrapping presents this year. Dang it.

I may have reported on this before several months back, I’m not sure, but there have been some new advances in the potential manufacturing process for buckypaper.

Silly name for a product, but it has great potential for the future of planes, automobiles, and possibly even home construction. Buckypaper is 10 times lighter, but as much as 500 times stronger than steel. It is a composite product, but unlike other composites, it can conduct electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass. It’s potential is unlimited, but only if the manufacture of it can be developed so that it is cost-effective and less time-intensive.

Buckypaper looks like ordinary carbon paper, but is actually created from tube-shaped carbon molecules 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Because of its construction and conductivity, it can be used to lighten automobiles and airplanes, replace some functional components of computers and televisions, and even be used in the development of lower-cost solar options.

Researchers at Florida’s Rice University are working on revolutionary manufacturing techniques that may make the production of buckypaper much more cost-effective, as well as being less time-intensive. This new research is a major breakthrough on a project that has been taking shape over the last 15 years.

And if the name sounds funny, those that are science geeks like me will know right away that Buckminster Fuller had something to do with this. The discovery of “buckyballs” [buckminsterfullerene], soccer-ball-shaped molecules produced during an experiment with carbon, led to the development of buckypaper. Ah, the visionary and futurist Buckminster Fuller. He lives on!

Science daily has an article discussing a new book, “What Bugged the Dinosaurs? Insects, Disease and Death in the Cretaceous,” by George and Roberta Poinar. In it they discuss the effect that insect born disease and parasites possibly had on the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. Modern technigues have shown that diseases like malaria existed during the Cretaceous and were present in blood taken from parasites preserved in Amber.

I love the new information we can discover from materials that are so old, and build such complex pictures of what was essentially a completely different world. Well worth the time to read the full article. It sort of puts a damper on the Jurasic Park idea though, if there are parasitic organisms mixed up in the dino blood samples there is even less chance of sequencing dinosaur DNA than ever.