Happy Birthday to the Laser

On May 16th, 1960, the first laser was demonstrated. Google has a neat little image today for the laser, so if you haven't seen that yet, check it out. Wired has a collection of cool pictures and information of some lasers and uses of them, and a little background on the laser as well.

Study Says Cell Phones A Radiation Risk

An award winning cancer expert has concluded that cell phones will be a larger threat than smoking for the world wide population in the future. Cell phone usage is said to be at 3 billion users world wide, three times as many as smoking. The study, by Dr. Vini Khurana, has concluded that radiation risks from cell phones are a major risk, and that the amount of people diagnosed with brain cancer will significantly increase if there are no changes. The reason many studies have said cell phones are not a risk, is because they haven't looked at long term usage, that of 10 years or more, at least not on a wide scale.

I think most of us can assume the risks that are involved with cell phones, but decide to turn the other way and try to believe otherwise. I like Germany and France's moves, advising people to minimize handset use, and or use headsets. I think this is a step in the right direction, not taking too drastic of measures to significantly harm the mobile industry in the chance that studies are wrong, but also to warn people that their cell phones may not be safe.

Article: Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking'

Jules Verne ATV -- Europe's First Resupply Ship

Europe launched its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) resupply ship on March 12th, named Jules Verne after the author and dreamer. It will dock up with the International Space Station and resupply it, and then later on be burned up in the atmosphere upon re-entry. I'm not too enthusiastic about the last part, as it seems like a waste of a good ship, but I guess making a reusable one would have significantly impacted the complications encountered in developing it.

Check out this article from Science Daily for more information.

World's First Vertical Farm

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it doesn't sound far fetched. Apparently, the worlds first vertical farm is to be built in Las Vegas, costing 200 million dollars, and being able to feed 72,000 people per year. Annual revenue is estimated to be 40 million dollars. The farm would grow over 100 types of crops. According to the article, if all goes well, the doors could open in 2010.

Vertical farming is thought to be the next big, and logical step, in farming. The world's population is growing rapidly, and farm space is starting to become more scarce. Vertical farms have been dreamed of for a long time now, and recently have become of interest to many, including investors. Building up instead of across could solve many problems, and could be more environmentally friendly, using solar power to power the facilities, and of course, being engineered for efficiency.

Source: Next Energy News
More information on vertical farming: Wikipedia
Picture: Chris Jacob's Vertical Farm

Happy New Years

I would just like to wish everyone a happy New Years and hope that the year of 2008 brings more technological and scientific breakthroughs that push the boundaries of our society.

How Bacteria Nearly Destroyed All Life

Here's an interesting article on bacteria in the early days of the Earth, and how it nearly destroyed everything. It kind of sounds like humans are the new bacteria...

Link

The Final Frontier

Like it or not, space travel is here to stay. Traveling into the unknown is the ultimate risk, and has some foreseeable benefits in the future. With some large private sector entries into space travel, an unprecedented surge in space travel technology is on its way.

Forget about sky diving, that's for people with no adventure. Why not take a rocket into space and dive back from there? Or, if your not an adrenaline junkie like me, why not at least go to the edge of space with Virgin Galactic. These are two of many attempts to give anyone a trip into space. Of course prices will be out of range for the average person, but they will continue to drop as people continue to use the space services.

As for benefits, think asteroids. They have many valuable resources that are just sitting there waiting to be exploited. Nickel, iron, and platinum are some of the mineral deposits. Space Mining could some day be a major industry, and, if space travel is handled properly, in the future, we should have no mineral shortages. It is estimated that an asteroid with a diameter of 1 kilometer has aproxmately 150 billion dollars worth of platinum on it alone! (more info here)

Planets also are the key to our history. We can try to make educated guesses, but by examining our neighboring planets and other parts of the solar system and universe, we can find more clues to our past, present and future.

If we can break through a few barriers, the possibilities for space travel are almost endless. One of the largest barriers to overcome is speed. How can we possibly get anywhere with our current speed? Even 1 light year would take us a long enough time. Our major break through in space travel will come when we break that barrier. In my opinion, its not a question of will we achieve speeds close to the speed of light, but a question of when? And even light speed does not seem sufficient to explore all the realms of existence. I also believe that it is possible to travel at speeds faster than the speed of light. The private space companies popping up everywhere will surely expand our technologies and views of space. After all, slow advancements are slow profits!

So, with lack of major space advancements from NASA for many years, I say, give it a go private sector! Look what the private sector did for computers! And for anyone interested, theres a book about the great minds of our starting private space age. I haven't come across this book yet, but it seems very interesting. So check it out, and let me know how it is! Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots Is Boldly Privatizing Space