You Could Win $1.5 Million

July 31, 2009

Could you use $1.5 million? Easy. Just develop an aircraft that can average at least 100 mph over a 200-mile flight and burn just 200 miles per gallon.

Oh, and win the competition sponsored by NASA and the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation.

Today they announced the Green Flight Challenge. Be sure to use some cutting-edge technology (cardboard and pulleys are not recommended by me, anyway) and help advance climate mitigation
initiatives in efficiency, conservation and zero-carbon energy sources.

Get going. You only have until July 2011.

Photo: NASA?Ames

Track or Sponsor Sharks for Science

I've learned a few things about sharks since working on the Wide Angle about Shark Technology. The first is that the despite the fact that sharks have been around for millions of years, not much is known about them. And the other is that a lot of scientists are worried about the rapid decline of sharks in the ocean.

And as a result, researchers around the world are tracking sharks to try to learn more. One project, among many, that I found quite impressive is called TOPP, or Tagging of Pacific Predators. It's managed by NOAA’s Pacific Fisheries Ecosystems Lab, Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Lab and University of California, Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory. It's a 10-year project involving 80 nations to track sharks, whales, seals, sea birds and turtles and eventually produce a  Census of Marine Life that will attempt to explain the diversity and abundance of life in the oceans, where that life has lived, is living and will live.

What I like about this site is that anyone can view interactive maps or animations of the animals as they move around the ocean. The image at right shows the path of Mako sharks. The site is user-friendly and a good way to get the everyday person to care about the research.

TOPP also has a widget you can put on your blog to keep track of a particular ocean animal, such as a shark or turtle.

Get This Widget!TOPP.org

I love this thing.

And by the way, if you need a simple explanation about how how shark tracking works check out the one from the folks at Shark Tracker. If you're feeling particularly generous, you can adopt a Great White shark from them and help buy a satellite tracking kit that will help scientists study it.

Jellyfish Inspires Robot

July 28, 2009

This week on the Discovery Tech site, I'm featuring technology that's used to study sharks and technology inspired by sharks. (What can I do? It is Shark Week on Discovery Channel, after all.) It's the latter category that has inspired today's blog post. Technology inspired by nature, or biomimetic technology.

Engineers Sung-Weon Yeom and Il-Kwon Oh from Chonnam National University in the Republic of Korea have taken inspiration from the jellyfish and turned it into a robot. The scientists used a polymer (plastic) metal composites that is flexible but can also respond to an electrical charge. It was used to make moving parts that behave like biological muscles.

Sharks Inspire Tech

July 27, 2009

Think "shark" and chances are images of technology are not the first to dance in you're head. But technology abounds. It's used to study sharks -- from satellite tracking to DNA analysis -- and plenty technologies are inspired by sharks. So pull up a beach chair and read what we have in store for you with this Wide Angle series: Shark Technology.

• IM Interview: Sharks in the Emergency Room
  Sharklet Technologies is developing the world's first surface pattern inspired by sharkskin. The surface resists the growth of organisms such as bacteria and could be used in hospitals to reduce disease.

This Email Will Self-Destruct in 8 Minutes

July 22, 2009

One of my first jobs in journalism was as an editorial assistant at Astronomy magazine, located in Wisconsin. One of my responsibilities was to read and answer reader letters and emails. Back in 1999 there was a big controversy about the Cassini spacecraft doing a flyby of Earth, to gather up some gravitational energy and slingshot out to Venus. The rockets are nuclear-powered and lots of people were nervous about that, thinking that some radiation could find it's way to Earth.

The magazine had a story about the controversy coming up in a future issue. We advertised that upcoming story in the magazine and someone wrote a letter railing against us for even thinking about publishing such a piece. And also criticized the article and the author.

Three Must-Reads

July 16, 2009

This week on the web site, I have three must-reads. The video explains all.

Generate Some Negawatts

July 15, 2009

While researching for the Wide Angle on the Smart Grid, I came across a term that I had never seen before: Negawatts. Nega what? Immediately I g=Googled and discovered that this term dates back to at least 1989, when experimental physicist and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Amory Lovins gave the keynote address (The Negawatt Revolution: Solving the CO2 Problem) at a Green Energy Conference in Montreal. I can't believe I never came across the word, but it's an important one to have as part of your volcabulary.

6 Myths About the Smart Grid

July 14, 2009

This week, I have a ton of articles, video, blogs, opinions, podcasts, etc related to the Smart Grid. But here's one thing I don't have: Top 6 Myths About the Smart Grid. Michael Kanellos at GreenTechMedia has a nice, digestible piece laying out some of the assumptions people are making about the future of power in our country and then giving us reasons why those assumptions are wrong. For example, some folks think a smarter grid won't save money or reduce energy use, or that consumers are c ontrol freak and won't want smart appliances automatically turning off during peak times.

If you're more interested in the business end of things, there's also a piece about the top 10 companies expected to be leaders in the smart grid industry.

Smart Grid FAQs and As

July 10, 2009

We're focusing on the smart grid this week with lots of articles, interviews, podcasts and blogs. There's a ton of stuff out there on this topic. I have my Google Alert set to "smart grid," and my mail box is inundated with news and stories daily. It's a bit overwhelming. There are so many components, including hardware, software, infrastructure, standards, protocols, etc. Hardly any of it has been implemented, but the country seems to charging forward and most of us are sitting around thinking, "What the heck does it mean for me?"

One of the stories that popped up in my in box today helps answer that question and others about the smart grid with a short Q&A. It's from CNET and it answers the following seven questions:

1. What is the smart grid?
2. What would a smart grid be able to do that today's not-so-smart grid can't?
3. What are some examples?
4. Who are the companies participating in the smart grid?
5. OK, so the smart grid is supposed to reduce wasted energy, give consumers better information, and allow the grid to use more solar and wind power. What's the hold-up?
6. Is the smart grid more secure?
7. So when will I have my smart grid?

It's a short article and worth reading to get a solid understanding of what this is all about.

Expert Comments on Our Fascination with 123456789

July 09, 2009

Yesterday I posted a blog about how the time and date was 123456789.  While I writing the blog, I also emailed a math expert at Harvard, Oliver Knill, and asked him why humans are so fascinated by numerical sequences such as this. Here is his reply:

This type of numerology is not so much done by professional mathematicians, more by amateurs, but that does not diminish its surprise.

Mathematicians look at it rather as a curiosity. But there an be some interesting combinatorial problems as you mention like how many times do such situations occur in dates. One also bent the rule a bit in this case: the date 12:34:56.7.8.9 certainly occurred in 1909 and will again in 2109. To make the date surprising, we have taken the centuries out when counting the years.