J. Alden Page
February 29, 2008
Science
No Comments
Today, the well known journal “Science” will be publishing an article about the possibility of using bacteria to alter the weather.
These bacteria actually lower the temperature at which ice crystals can form. This cycle may have evolved because the bacteria need to return to land in order to continue to multiply.
“Biological precipitation, or the “bio-precipitation” cycle, as Sands calls it, basically is this: bacteria form little groups on the surface of plants. Wind then sweeps the bacteria into the atmosphere, and ice crystals form around them. Water clumps on to the crystals, making them bigger and bigger. The ice crystals turn into rain and fall to the ground. When precipitation occurs, then, the bacteria have the opportunity to make it back down to the ground. If even one bacterium lands on a plant, it can multiply and form groups, thus causing the cycle to repeat itself.”
-MSU News
Some of the samples taken by David Sands’ team indicated that up to 85% of the precipitate was the result of bacteria.
Introducing more of these bacteria into drought areas could increase rainfall. Additionally, bacteria could be engineered that are better at increasing the temperatureof ice-crystal formation than the current bacteria. In our very water dependent world, this is an important discovery that is only beginning to be studied.
Apparently, David Sands proposed the idea of bio-precipitation 25 years ago. But at the time, few people accepted his view.
In a few years, this could be information found in our children’s textbooks.
Snow with a high chance of bacteria-MSNB
J. Alden Page
February 22, 2008
Technology
2 Comments
The U.S. military is working on creating a chip that mimics the human brain.
The key to achieving the vision of the SyNAPSE program will be an unprecedented multidisciplinary approach that coordinates aggressive technology development in the following technical areas: 1) Hardware; 2) Architecture; 3) Simulation; and 4) Environment. Hardware includes neuromorphic electronics with novel, high density, plastic, synaptic components; Architecture includes neuromorphic design from microcircuits to complete system; Simulation includes large-scale digital simulation of neuromorphic circuits and functional neuromorphic systems; and Environment includes virtual training, testing and benchmarking for neuromorphic systems.
-DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
It will be interesting to see how this research develops. One potential problem is that the human brain is very much built to function in a human body. A chip modeled after the human brain might need a human-like environment to manifest its intelligence. DARPA mentions virtual reality, while I’m sure we’ll get there, virtual reality still falls very short of replicating the human-body experience.
I found out about this through brain stimulant, and I have practically plagiarized the article. Brain Stimulant is a little known but very interesting blog that focuses on new developments in neuroscience.
J. Alden Page
February 16, 2008
Society
2 Comments
Super-delegates are a contingent of almost 900 elected officials, party insiders, and current DNC members and they aren’t required to follow the voters. In fact, after every Democrat has voted and the last delegates are assigned, super-delegates have the power to overturn the popular vote and crown a different winner.
- A petition by DFA (Democracy for America)
While this is not the typical sci-fi oriented post, this is something that I think is very important for the future. I believe that the biggest problem with America today is that we aren’t truly being represented. The withdrawal of troops from Iraq is just one of many examples where what the majority of Americans want and what the government is doing are not in sync. Whether or not you agree with the majority of Americans on issues like Iraq, if you support a true democracy you should still believe that decisions like these need to be made by the people.
Arguments can be made in favor of being ruled by the elite few, but I strongly believe that the government should be based on what the majority of people want. If you agree, you should sign this petition.
The only drawback to this petition is that it does not specify who it will be sent to. The most specific reference I could find said it would be sent to “Democratic Primary Voters.” I have emailed them inquiring about this, hopefully they will email me back.
The petitions linked to below have the same general goal as the one above and specify who they will be given to.
This petition will be sent to Sen. Cantwell and Sen. Murray for endorsing a candidate that the majority of Washington State Democrats do not want to represent them.
I think this petition is worded better than the other two petitions. It specifies how superdelegates should be rewarded and explains why they should be rewarded. It will be sent to Howard Dean, the chairman of the democratic party. Unfortunately I have doubts about it having any effect. It has way less support than the other two petitions, with less than 200 signatures.
J. Alden Page
February 9, 2008
Science
3 Comments
This week British scientists announced the creation of an embryo with genes from three parents. While most of the genes are from two of the parents, genes from a second mother were inserted. This was done to prevent a possible genetic defect from being passed on by the primary mother.
Curing genetic defects is a short step from outright enhancement. While we are not there, we probably will be within this century. With our increasing knowledge of which genes are responsible for what, I could see a future where parents create their child by selecting characteristics from a gene library. Limiting gene selection to two people would limit choices about the child’s characteristics. Future genetically engineered children could have genes from thousands of parents, or even have genes that are completely artificial.
