Japanese Company Aims for Space Elevator by 2050
Tokyo-based Obayashi Corp. wants to build an operational space elevator by the middle of the century, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported Wednesday (Feb. 22). The device would carry passengers skyward at about 124 mph (200 kph), delivering them to a station 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth in a little more than a week.
In Obayashi’s vision, a cable would be stretched from a spaceport on Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 60,000 miles (96,000 km), or about one-quarter of the distance between our planet and the moon. A counterweight at its end would help “anchor” the cable in space.
Artist's concept of a space elevator system, looking down at Earth from 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) up. CREDIT: NASA
An artist's illustration of a space elevator hub station in space as a transport car rides up the line toward the orbital platform. Solar panels nearby provide power. CREDIT: Obayashi Corp.
The Obayashi Corp. is banking on advances in carbon nanotubes to use as the building material. Such elevators have been imagined for years to replace the expensive and dangerous space rockets now in use. nanotubes could be the answer in terms of super strong yet lightweight materials. Aiming for the year 2050 gives them 38 years to overcome the hurdles posed by materials. Now they just have to figure out the feasibility in terms of costs.
The final installment of the dinosaur sex series
Male dinosaurs must have had the equipment for internal fertilization. This was a mode of reproduction passed on by their ancient ancestors. Around 375 million years ago, the first vertebrates with limbs, the early tetrapods, began to crawl along the water’s edge. These amphibious creatures had to stay wet to survive, and like their fish ancestors, they reproduced in the water. Females probably laid soft eggs in aquatic cradles and males squirted sperm over the egg clusters to fertilize them. By about 315 million years ago, however, the early radiation of amphibious vertebrates had produced a lineage of creatures capable of reproducing away from the water.
Some good science mixed with some dinosaur geek humor. Worth a read.
Underwater ‘Seaview’ lets you explore coral reef
An underwater variant of the Google Street View service will from today begin giving web users an unprecedented photographic tour of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – and another reef in Bermuda will soon be getting similar treatment. ‘Seaview’
Still in the development stage, though still fun to navigate. By no means do they have the entire Barrier Reef, at least not yet.
Mutated Trout Raise New Concerns Near Mine Sites
Photographs of variously mutated brown trout were relegated to an appendix of a scientific study commissioned by the J. R. Simplot Company, whose mining operations have polluted nearby creeks in southern Idaho. The trout were the offspring of local fish caught in the wild that had been spawned in the laboratory. Some had two heads; others had facial, fin and egg deformities.
Yet the company’s report concluded that it would be safe to allow selenium — a metal byproduct of mining that is toxic to fish and birds — to remain in area creeks at higher levels than are now permitted under regulatory guidelines. The company is seeking a judgment to that effect from the Environmental Protection Agency. After receiving a draft report that ran hundreds of pages, an E.P.A. review described the research as “comprehensive” and seemed open to its findings, which supported the selenium variance for Simplot’s Smoky Canyon mine.
But when other federal scientists and some environmentalists learned of the two-headed brown trout, they raised a ruckus, which resulted in further scientific review that found the company’s research wanting.
Now, several federal agencies, an array of environmental groups and one of the nation’s largest private companies are at odds over selenium contamination from the Idaho phosphate mine, the integrity of the company’s research, and what its effect will be on future regulatory policy.
The implications extend beyond Idaho. Selenium is a pollutant at 200 of the 1,294 locations designated by the federal government as toxic Superfund sites. And even though its effects on wildlife have been known for decades, federal agencies have not been able to agree on what level should be prohibited. The E.P.A. is currently reviewing federal selenium rules.
After hearing about the mutant trout, Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the Democrat who heads the chamber’s Environment and Public Works Committee, asked the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to step in and vet the mining company’s scientific research and conclusions.
The pictures at the link are very disturbing. They look like something out of a horror movie about some experiment gone terribly wrong. I have previously seem local fish with cancerous lesions on their bodies and fish weakened by toxin covered with marine parasites. That was nothing in comparison to these selenium infused fish. never have understood people who describe themselves as outdoorsmen/women who enjoy camping and fishing who vote for people who weaken environmental protection and take away a little more of the places where one can be a outdoorsperson every year.
I read about this yesterday and my reaction was, yea sure, another crazy idea, but the more I think about it, the more I can see where they would come in handy. Especially when you’re in an unfamiliar part of your local city, hiking or traveling. Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year’s End
People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.
According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.
The people familiar with the Google glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS.
One blogger thinks the glasses will be based on this Oakley model
The glasses will have a real-time built-in camera so that the wearer would get almost immediate feedback on where they are. Google is said not to be that interested in profits with this first generation of glasses. That a revenue generation model would be down the road if enough people adopt the technology.
