Posted in In The News, Informative Articles on Nov 14th, 2006
[Economics, Energy, Policy, RAND, Renewable]Perhaps you may have seen this story floating about: RAND (a non-partisan research institute, or think tank) released a study today concluding that the most likely scenario is that renewable energies will cost no more than nonrenewables in 2025. To be a little more explicit, if the nation gets 25% […]
Posted in Book Reviews, Informative Articles on Jul 27th, 2006
[1491, Amazon, Archaeology, Charles Mann, Rainforest, Soil, Sustainability, Terra Preta]Rarely does one see the words “Amazon” and “sustainable” in the same sentence, let alone the same title. To the modern mind, the Amazon is synonymous with two things: astounding ecological diversity and rapacious environmental degradation. As I’m learning from Charles Mann’s masterwork 1491, […]
Posted in Informative Articles on Jun 18th, 2006
[Aquaculture, Cod, Futurism, Marshall T. Savage, Millenial Project, Oceans, Population Bomb]Covering over 70% of the Earth’s surface, our Oceans are surprisingly unproductive. The vast majority of the caloric needs of the world’s population are met by land-based agriculture. Except for a few localized regions of the globe, seafood only provides a little dietary […]
Posted in Informative Articles on Mar 23rd, 2006
[Apollo, Lasers, LLRE, Lunar Laser Ranging, Moon, solar eclipse, Space, totality]While most folks remember Apollo for the videos and photos it returned of a foreign, desolate world, some of the science experiments left behind have gone under-appreciated. Two of the science experiments, the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment and the lunar seismometers (Passive Seismic Experiments), […]
Posted in Informative Articles on Mar 22nd, 2006
[Astronomy, Big Bang, CMB, Cosmology, Inflation, Science, Space, WMAP]In my undergraduate cosmology class my professor introduced this satellite as having brought about quantitative cosmolgy. While that’s probably just a bit of an exaggeration, this little craft definitely revolutionized the science. Prior to the launch of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) (and to […]
Posted in In The News, Informative Articles on Mar 13th, 2006
[Aviation Week, Blackstar, Dragon, Enceladus, SpaceX, The Space Review]While working on my new condominium (well not exactly while I was working, in the evenings more like), I enjoyed some great reading this last week, and some really terrific news from Enceladus. I’ll be writing a published research synopsis on the Science paper later today […]
Posted in Informative Articles, Opinion on Mar 1st, 2006
[Antarctica, Arctic, Exploration, NOVA, PBS, Space Exploration]Last night, PBS aired a two-part series on NOVA about the search for the Northwest Passage and two of the most famous Arctic explorers, John Franklin and Roald Amundsen. As I watched I realized something that helped to put much of the discussion about Martian exploration into perspective: […]
Posted in Informative Articles on Feb 27th, 2006
[Energy, Engineering, Fusion, Lasers, National Ignition Facility, NIF, Nuclear Weapons, Science]
When fully operational, the US Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) will focus 192 of the most powerful lasers ever constructed onto a target no larger than a BB. The lasers will combine to produce 2 MJ of energy in a split second–a […]
Posted in Informative Articles, Opinion on Feb 23rd, 2006
[Michigan State University, Nuclear Physics, Physics, Rare Isotope Accelerator, Science]I have been happily attending Michigan State University since the fall of 1999. It has awarded me undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Astrophysics, and is now hosting and funding my studies in the hydrological geosciences. Based in East Lansing, Michigan, MSU is only […]
Posted in Informative Articles on Feb 19th, 2006
[Education, Geography, Geosciences, GIS, Google Earth, Google Placemarks, Mapping, NASA, World Wind]Mapping has finally come to the masses, and its name is Google Earth. Last June, Google released a software capable of quickly displaying satellite, aerial image, and map data for the entire globe. Since then, Google Earth has been used to aid […]
