The Newest Threat to All Human Life on Earth: Solar Storms
“Oh man, ever since global warming came on the scene it seems like our apocalyptic scenarios are all rising sea levels and spreading tropical disease. Now NASA has come up with an awesome new way the earth might get destroyed.
In 1859, a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare swept over the Earth. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that “people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow.” Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun’s solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859. Get ready for space weather!
Next week, scientists will meet at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum in DC to talk about how to prevent civilization from being destroyed in the next few years by solar storms. The ability to monitor and predict so-called “space weather”—solar flares, interplanetary magnetic fields, etc.—is a relatively new capability. But what scientists have found is sort of unsettling. They predict a marked increase in solar storms over the next few years. According to NASA scientist Richard Fisher: “The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity.”"
Read more at Gawker
Richard Shilling – Land Artist
This incredible sculpture is from artist Richard Shilling. He creates his sculptures using only naturally occurring colours, shapes and objects. As he states in his bio “There are different forms of it, Robert Smithson famously created a massive spiral in the Great Salt Lake in Utah and coined the term land art. My work, however, mainly consists of small scale ephemeral sculptures using natural materials found near by. No glue or string is used, only what I can find in nature.”
More from Richard Shilling
Indonesian Toddler enjoys a 40 a day habit
Pictured above is little Ardi Rizal, a two-year-old Indonesian lad with an indomitable fondness for cigarettes. His cravings are so intense that he’ll bust into a full-fledged tantrum if not provided with at least 40 cigarettes of the same brand per day. Keep in mind that a typical pack hosts only 21 cigarettes, and his habit costs £3.78 a day, which is equivalent to almost 6% of Indonesia’s monthly minimum wage.
Ardi first took a drag when his father Mohammed offered him cigarette one-and-a-half years ago. He has since transformed into an overweight, 56-pound toddler so out of shape that he can barely walk. The Metro reports that Ardi “trundles round on a toy truck blowing smoke as he is too unfit to run with the other children.”
Local officials have tried to bribe the family into forcing Ardi to quit by offering them a car, but his father insists that there’s nothing wrong: “He looks pretty healthy to me. I don’t see the problem.”
The Big Debates
The president of American Atheists, Dr. Ed Buckner, the leading American atheist and secular activist will come to the UK in June to challenge Islam and religious thought. The debate series, organised by the independent platform The Big Debates, will discuss:
- “Islam or Atheism? You Decide” – REGISTER HERE
On the 19th June 2010, 6:15pm at Friends House, Euston Road, London.
With Dr. Ed Buckner and international lecturer and writer Hamza Andreas Tzortzis.
- “Is a Secular Society a Better Society?” – REGISTER HERE
On the 21st June 2010, 6:15pm at Friends House, Euston Road, London.
With Dr. Ed Buckner, director of the Clarity Institute Saleem Chagtai, Senior philosophy lecturer Stephen Law and international lecturer and historian Adnan Rashid.
- “A Tale of Two Histories: What Now for the Future?” – REGISTER HERE
On the 22nd June 2010, 6:15pm at Birmingham University.
With Dr Ed. Buckner and Adnan Rashid.
John Alexander: Paranormal Colonel
“Meet US Army Colonel John Alexander, a former Green Beret in Vietnam, world-renowned expert in non-lethal weapons technology, and explorer of fringe science and paranormal possibilities. In 1980, Alexander contributed an article, titled “The New Mental Battlefield,” to the Army’s Military Review, arguing that remote viewing and other psychic phenomena could be militarized. During his military career and after, Alexander has had his hand in research on remote viewing, UFOs, near-death experiences, zero-point energy, and a variety of other curious matters.
To some conspiracy theorists and self-proclaimed victims of mind control, he is Darth Vader. I first interviewed Alexander in 1994 for my Wired column “Reality Check” and found him delightful. (The online archive is here, but a chunk of the article is missing.) At the time, Alexander was head of the nonlethal weaponry program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I’ve followed Alexander since, and was delighted to read about him in Jon Ronson’s fun book The Men Who Stare At Goats. (For the record though, Alexander told me that the book is riddled with factual errors. For example, he says that it wasn’t staring that killed the goat but rather a karate chop administered earlier that day.) Science writer Jim Schnabel, author of the excellent book “Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America’s Psychic Spies,” recently interviewed Alexander for Fortean Times.”
Read more at Boing Boing
Drinking coffee doesn’t make you more alert, caffeine study reveals
“The millions of people who depend on a shot of coffee to kickstart their day are no more alert than those who are not regular coffee drinkers, say researchers. A cup of coffee, suggests a study, only counteracts the effects of caffeine withdrawal that has built up overnight. “Someone who consumes caffeine regularly when they’re at work but not at weekends runs the risk of feeling a bit rubbish by Sunday,” said Peter Rogers, who led the research at Bristol University. “It’s better to stick with it or keep off it altogether.”
Infrequent coffee drinkers who reach for an emergency hit fare no better, experiencing heightened feelings of anxiety – and withdrawal symptoms the next day. How genetic differences may influence response was also examined. Blood samples were taken from 379 volunteers who were asked to avoid caffeine for 16 hours. After that period, they were given either a caffeine pill or a placebo. Later, they took a slightly higher dose or another placebo.The researchers then used a standard questionnaire called the Mood, Alertness and Physical Sensations Scales (MAPSS) to measure the subjects’ emotional state and alertness.”
Read more at The Guardian
Largest Supercomputers to Simulate Life on Earth
“Scientists are planning to use the largest supercomputers to simulate life on Earth, including the financial system, economies and whole societies. The project is called “Living Earth Simulator” and part of a huge EU research initiative named FuturIcT.
Supercomputers are already being used to explore complex social and economic problems that science can understand in no other way. For example, ETH Zurich’s professor for transport engineering Kay Axhausen is simulating the travel activities of all 7.5 Million inhabitants of Switzerland to forecast and mitigate traffic congestion. Other researchers at the ETH — all working within its Competence Center for Coping with Crises in Complex Socio-Economic Systems (CCSS) — are mining huge amounts of financial data to detect dangerous bubbles in stock and housing markets, potential bankruptcy cascades in networks of companies, or similar vulnerabilities in other complex networks such as communication networks or the Internet.
In the past, supercomputers have been used mainly in physics or biology, or for difficult engineering problems such as the construction of new aircrafts. But now they are increasingly being used for social and economic analyses, even of the most fundamental human processes. At the CCSS, for example, Lars-Erik Cederman uses large-scale computer models to study the origin of international conflict, and is creating a large database documenting the geographic interdependencies of civil violence and wars in countries such as the former Yugoslavia or Iraq. In sociology, simulations at the CCSS have explored the conditions under which cooperation and solidarity can thrive in societies. They show that the crust of civilization is disturbingly vulnerable. These simulations reveal common patterns behind breakdowns of social order in events as diverse as the war in former Yugoslavia, lootings after earthquakes or other natural disasters, or the recent violent demonstrations in Greece.”
Read more at Science Daily
Hope of pill to banish bad memories
“The prospect of developing a new type of pill to help banish painful memories has moved a step closer following a new study. In laboratory tests, scientists harnessed the effects of a natural chemical which works on the brain to reduce fear and anxiety. They gave lab rats a protein known as called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), to help them “relearn” painful association from stressful situations.
It is hoped that the discovery will lead to new treatments to help people with phobias as well as soldiers left with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), known as combat stress. In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a couple played by Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey undergo a procedure known as a targeted memory erasure to wipe out recollections of each other after their relationship.
The study, published in the journal Science, shows how BDNF can work in a similar way to a psychological technique called extinction training in which phobia sufferers are repeatedly exposed to the source of their fears to help them overcome them. Eventually the brain is “rewired” to overwrite painful associations from stressful situations in the past, although it does not extinguish them altogether.
Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Medicine created stress “triggers” in rats by giving them small electric shocks which loud music was played. They came to associate the music with the pain and froze when they heard it. But the effect was reversed when they were given doses of BDNF.”
Read more at The Telegraph
UK’s First Water Desalination Plant Opens in London
“You wouldn’t think it at first glance, but London is a ‘water-stressed’ city. According to the UK Environmental Agency, with an ever-growing population, climate change and occasional ‘drought conditions’ (yes, they can happen in the UK), the capital is often short on drinking water.
However, there is now a solution, and it’s one generally favored by more arid countries than old, wet Blighty – a desalination plant. Opening this week, the Thames Gateway Water Treatment Works will, if called upon, convert saltwater from the Thames into drinking water. It will only be used in times when water production falls to a certain level during ‘hotter-than-usual’ months, but when fired up it will be capable of producing around 140 million liters a day – enough water for 1 million people.
Operated by Thames Water, the East London-situated plant has cost £270 million but will utilise renewable energy to power itself. Using a biodiesel made from used cooking oil, the plant will, in the words of Thames Water, provide “much-needed backup for the seriously water-stressed capital in the event of drought conditions.”
Speaking at the plant’s opening, Thames Water chief executive Martin Baggs said, “The 2005 to 2006 drought was too close for comfort, with only a very wet May saving the day, and we never want a repeat of that . . . It highlighted what we already knew: additional water sources are needed, as well as a lot more work on reducing leakage, to be sure we have sufficient supplies in the long term.””
Read more at Inhabitat
Could life survive on Mars?
“Researchers at McGill’s department of natural resources, the National Research Council of Canada, the University of Toronto and the SETI Institute have discovered that methane-eating bacteria survive in a highly unique spring located on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada’s extreme North. Dr. Lyle Whyte, McGill University microbiologist explains that the Lost Hammer spring supports microbial life, that the spring is similar to possible past or present springs on Mars, and that therefore they too could support life.
The subzero water is so salty that it doesn’t freeze despite the cold, and it has no consumable oxygen in it. There are, however, big bubbles of methane that come to the surface, which had provoked the researchers’ curiosity as to whether the gas was being produced geologically or biologically and whether anything could survive in this extreme hypersaline subzero environment. “We were surprised that we did not find methanogenic bacteria that produce methane at Lost Hammer,” Whyte said, “but we did find other very unique anaerobic organisms – organisms that survive by essentially eating methane and probably breathing sulfate instead of oxygen.”
It has been very recently discovered that there is methane and frozen water on Mars. Photos taken by the Mars Orbiter show the formation of new gullies, but no one knows what is forming them. One answer is that there could be that there are springs like Lost Hammer on Mars. “The point of the research is that it doesn’t matter where the methane is coming from,” Whyte explained. “If you have a situation where you have very cold salty water, it could potentially support a microbial community, even in that extreme harsh environment.”"
Read more at Physorg
