…too bad it will be in 2029 and I will be gone!

I’m sure a lot of people have already heard about the asteroid named Apophis, but this near earth object (NEO) was discovered back in 2004. Originally, it was said that there was a 2.7% chance that this asteroid (approximately 690 to 1,080 ft in diameter) would impact the earth. Fortunately, authorities later stated that those odds were very small. But, the asteroid will pass VERY close by the earth. To really make you get an idea how close, the preliminary estimates show that Apophis will pass about 29,470 km away from the earth. Sure, that sounds like a pretty good distance away…but consider that the moon is 385,000 km. So, Apophis will pass VERY close indeed! Maybe we should hurry up with that research on how to avoid NEO. Unfortunately, we won’t know much more until 2011 or 2013 as to the more exact path the asteroid is following. Until then, go ahead and build that debt and wait for the end of the world!

Retrieved from -NASA-

…but this time, not with cement, but with asphalt!

So, as I mentioned earlier this month, the Dutch town of Hengelo has started to utilize the pollutant-cleaning cement that I first found out about in early June. Well, Madrid is paving a road with asphalt that has a coating that claims to capture and convert 90% of the pollutants on a sunny day. Once this is captured and converted, it can then be washed away. This coating could definitely have a better name, but they ended up calling it “noxer”. Let’s hope initial tests of this asphalt coating work out well!

As an extra side note, Madrid is also placing asphalt made from recycled tires on another road in an effort to reduce road noise. If that really works, we should pave all highways around the country in that!

Retrieved from -Engadget-

…but this rap about the Hadron Collider definitely puts him to shame!

This video, with the lyrics written by one of CERN’s science writers, Kate McAlpine, definitely covers quite a bit of ground and actually explains quite a bit. I will admit this up front. I may be an engineer, but the first time I have heard about this collider has only been in the past few months leading up to the first test. The Hadron Collider is located in a concrete tunnel about 17 miles in length and located between 150′ and 450′ underground between the border of France and Switzerland. Some very beautiful pictures can be found at the Boston Globe.

I am going to try and understand this in the next few weeks, but until then, you can read the description of what the Hadron Collider does here (quoted from the ever reliable Wikipedia):

The LHC is being built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and lies under the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC will become the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is funded and built in collaboration with over two thousand physicists from thirty-four countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.

The collider is currently undergoing commissioning while being cooled down to its final operating temperature of approximately 1.9 K (−271.25 °C). The initial particle beams are due for injection in August 2008, the first attempt to circulate beam through the entire LHC is scheduled for September 10, 2008, and the first high-energy collisions are planned to take place after the LHC is officially unveiled, on October 21, 2008.

When activated, it is theorized that the collider will produce the elusive Higgs boson, the observation of which could confirm the predictions and “missing links” in the Standard Model of physics and could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass. The verification of the existence of the Higgs boson would be a significant step in the search for a Grand Unified Theory, which seeks to unify three of the four known fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, leaving out only gravity. The Higgs boson may also help to explain why gravitation is so weak compared to the other three forces. In addition to the Higgs boson, other theorized novel particles that might be produced, and for which searches are planned, include strangelets, micro black holes, magnetic monopoles and supersymmetric particles.

So, most people fear that this may create a black hole which could be the undoing of all that we know. The physicists claim they have this under control, but I still have concerns over theoretical physics and how we determine what can happen.

…since it only will take a pill to convert them to a jock!

Researches at the Salk Institute have discovered two drugs that can increase endurance by tricking the muscles into thinking they have been working out.

One drug, known as Aicar, increased the mice’s endurance on a treadmill by 44 percent after just four weeks of treatment.

A second drug, GW1516, supercharged the mice to a 75 percent increase in endurance, but had to be combined with exercise to have any effect.

“It’s a little bit like a free lunch without the calories,” said Dr. Ronald M. Evans, leader of the Salk group.

The results, Dr. Evans said, seem reasonably likely to apply to people, who control muscle tone with the same underlying genes as do mice. And if the drugs work and prove to be safe, they could be useful in a wide range of settings.

So now, all of those MMO players or avid console players can get their workout by clicking the mouse instead of going to some gym and dealing with the sweaty muscleheads! I’m there!

Retrieved from -Gizmodo-

…but you have to live in the Netherlands to be able to enjoy the clean air.

Back in June, I mentioned the self-cleaning cement that was used in Rome. Now it appears that the the Dutch town of Hengelo is debating about paving their roads with it. The new type of air purifying cement developed by the University of Twente is already being used on half of a road under construction. Before creating the whole road with it, they will just do the first half and then wait a year. Testing will be performed to see if there is any change in the air quality. They will then decide whether to continue paving the rest of the town.

Here’s to hoping that it makes a world of difference. With all the infrastructure improvements over here, it would be wonderful to incorporate this technology to help out with the environment.

Retrieved from -Engadget-

…if it costs so much to produce?

Early yesterday, I read an article in Dvice talking about hydrogen cars being a fraud. Briefly, I will list the points that were made.

1. Hydrogen cars (Honda FCX Clarity) are not for sale, only for lease. Production cost of cars is supposedly in the hundreds of thousands.
2. Hydrogen is not a fuel, but an energy storage medium that is converted back to electricity to power a car.
3. Right now, only oil companies are supplying the hydrogen refilling stations.

When I first read this, it made a lot of sense. Why buy hydrogen that has been produced by electricity to create electricity? Wouldn’t you be better off to just use an electric car?

But then, I read an article that was talking about a cleaner and greener method of producing hydrogen that could really start to make this a smart decision in the future. Gizmodo reported aobut a new of storing solar energy, which essentially breaks up water into hydrogen and oxygen. Once these are broken up, they can be easily stored into a fuel cell to be used as an energy source. This will not use any carbon to provide power and therefore be a big help to the environment. This could really help with points 2 and 3 listed above, since it can start to make more sense. I can’t help point 1, and would hopefully think that the high cost would be due to the research that had to be done, and once people realize that hydrogen can be a viable power source, can start to reduce production costs.

Something to think about for sure!

Retrieved from -Gizmodo-
Retrieved from -Dvice-
Retrieved from -PhysOrg-

…and it seems that must of the disgusting things involves their digestion.

So, a few years ago, scientists wanted to investigate how cows are digesting their food and also have an easy access to providing different vitamins and medications to make them healthier and to also perform research. Now, what better way to do that then to provide a “portal” that can be sealed by a plug directly into one of the cow’s stomachs? Sounds tasty, right? How does it sound that people can go in to the university, slap on a glove and have anyone just go in there and play around with the contents of the stomach? Sounds lovely to me, sign me up!

Now, with the rising concern of greenhouse gases, one of which is methane, scientists are now measuring the methane produced by cows. So come on now class, where does methane come from on the cows? Two answers….that’s right, burps and farts. So, scientists are placing a bag on the back of the cow so they can “collect” the methane produced and measure how much is being produced. The main goal, to adjust the cows diet to see which produces the least methane.

Wow, makes me enjoy my job!

Retrieved from -Dvice-

…or is it just a cover-up for their “Nuke the World” campaign?

Alright, so most of my friends make fun of me for really liking Armageddon…the wonderful movie with Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler in which they take ocean platform oil drillers and throw them in outer space so they can drill in an asteroid that is expected to impact the Earth so they can plant nuclear bombs to split it in pieces to miss the earth.

Rusty Schweickart, a former astronaut, has spoken against NASA’s motives for their placing nuclear weapons in orbit to blow asteroids to smithereens if they get near the Earth. The government’s plans completely contradict the verdict that was arrived at in the Armageddon movie. Nuclear weapons will have very little impact on asteroids if fired when in space, so Schweickart claims that NASA (under pressure from our government) is really just planning on placing the bombs in space for future defensive launches. I thought those days were over and done with (at least when it comes to the USA).

Anyways, Schweickart’s group, the B612 Foundation, has a much more rational approach to protecting us from asteroids. It relies on building more powerful telescopes that can identify asteroids at a much earlier stage and then use probes or unmanned spacecraft to “nudge” the asteroids to miss the Earth. At a far enough distance, only a slight movement is needed to miss us by quite a bit.

Chalk one up for ex-NASA astronauts, and zip for NASA itself.

Retrieved from -Gizmodo-

…but I’m sure slower people will still make the rabbits feel the road rage!

I’m sure this will never make its way over to the good ol’ US of A, but it appears that Audi has started a pilot program on 50 traffic lights to make them “smart lights”. The lights have been equipped with sensors that send information to a netowrk that “adapts to traffic patterns to deliver optimum light switching” but supposedly also lets drivers know when the light will change so you can speed up to get through the intersection.

With the way I have seen people around here drive, it won’t amount to a hill of beans. People already run red lights, I just think this will make them run it more frequently. And most drivers won’t pay attention to the “speed up to make the light” sensor…they’ll just plod along.

Who knows though?

Retrieved from -Engadget-

…especially when it could cause loss in sales.

As I reported back on July 4th, it had been reported that the manufacturers of flat panel TVs used a compound called Nitrogen Trifluoride which was found to be 17x more harmful to the ozone layer than carbone dioxide.

Now, the Linde Group, the main manufacturer of LCD panels for popular brands, has said that they will start using Fluorine which is much less harmful than Nitrogen Trifluoride. I hope their motivation wasn’t only a potential loss of sales (which I doubt since most people probably didn’t read any of these articles), but merely a way to make up for the harmful chemicals they have been using.

Retrieved from -Gizmodo-