DOCSLIB.ORG

Scientific American September 2009 ■ Volume 301 Number 3

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

SPECIAL ISSUE: UNDERSTANDING ORIGINS 57 INNOVATIONS and Insights That Shape the September 2009 www.ScientificAmerican.com World Today ORIGINS OF PapeR money • coRiolis effect • lsd scotch tApe • hiv • cookinG life love • bluepRints inteRnAl-combustion enGine THE UNIVERSE RecoRded music • AnthRAx • GAmmA RAys inteRmittent windshield wipeRs COMPUTING the web • AsteRoids mechAnicAl loom chocolAte GRAphicAl peRspective THE MIND photosynthesis • stiRRup bAll beARinGs • cARbon • liGht teeth • cAnceR buckybAlls & nAnotubes cupcAkes • clocks © 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. CONTENTS FEATURES ■ SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN September 2009 ■ Volume 301 Number 3 SPECIAL ISSUE 22 INTRODUCTION 21 In the Beginning By the Editors A powerful urge to understand the beginnings of the cosmos or even life itself fuels the scientific enterprise. 30 COSMOLOGY 22 Origin of the Universe By Michael S. Turner Cosmologists are closing in on the ultimate processes that created and shaped the universe. NEUROSCIENCE 30 Origin of the Mind By Marc Hauser The first step in figuring out how the 38 human mind arose is determining what distinguishes our mental processes from those of other creatures. BIOLOGY 38 Origin of Life on Earth By Alonso Ricardo and Jack W. Szostak Fresh clues hint at how ORIGINS the first living organisms arose from inanimate matter. 46 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ES G MA 46 Origin of Computing I By Martin Campbell-Kelly ; GETTY The information age began with Corbis the realization that machines could OLLINS emulate the work of minds. C HRIS C .; ORIGINS ROUNDUP HRISTIANSEN; 54 The Start of Everything C In the beginning ... what happened? ON ThE CovER More than 50 brief articles capture the Life, the universe and ... well ... everything are Photo Researchers, Inc dazzling moment of insight or key advance the subjects of this special single-topic issue on at the outset of a variety of things—from origins. We trace their beginnings and key insights OBERT GENDLEROBERT FROMTOP ON COVER: JEN flying cars to paper clips to love. into the physical and life sciences and technology. R www.ScientificAmerican.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 1 © 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS ■ 3 From the Editor 14 4 Letters 6 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago 7 News Scan MEDICINE & HEALTH 6 ■ Gene therapy: an interview with an unfortunate pioneer. 9 ■ Swine fl u? How about swine Ebola? TECHNOLOGY ■ Public safety bandwidth goes unused. ■ Quantum entanglement and photosynthesis. ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT ■ Conservation efforts pitted against human rights. ■ The airlines are having trouble recycling. RESEARCH & DISCOVERY ■ Animals have the ability to count. ■ Digging up valuable fossils in suburban New Jersey. 2 0 Critical Mass 1 5 Scientific American Perspectives By Lawrence M. Krauss Scientists studying fossils should learn to share. An update on C. P. Snow’s “two cultures.” 1 6 Sustainable Developments 8 2 Recommendations By Jeffrey D. Sachs Babies’ brains. Naming life. Fictional reads. Prioritize the carbon strategy: ambitious climate and energy legislation risks failure without better focus. 8 4 Anti Gravity By Steve Mirsky 1 8 Skeptic The Kindle and all of its contents. By Michael Shermer Paranoia strikes deep: why people believe in conspiracies. GO TO .COM “Origins” Online Want more information on origins? Go online for added stories, slide shows, details from the Origins Symposium this past spring, and other extras. 18 84 More at www.Scientifi cAmerican.com/sep2009 Scientifi c American (ISSN 0036-8733), published monthly by Scientifi c American, Inc., 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10013-1917. Copyright © 2009 by Scientifi c American, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this issue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for public or private use, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offi ces. Canada Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40012504. Canadian BN No. 127387652RT; QST No. Q1015332537. Publication Mail Agreement #40012504. Return undeliverable mail to Scientifi c A merican, P.O. Box 819, Stn Main, Markham, ON L3P 8A2. Subscription rates: one year $34.97, Canada $49 USD, International $55 USD. Postmaster: Send address changes to Scientifi c American, Box 3187, Harlan, Iowa 51537. Reprints available: write Reprint Department, Scientifi c American, Inc., 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10013-1917; (212) 451-8877; fax: (212) 355-0408. Subscription inquiries: U.S. and Canada (800) 333-1199; other (515) 248-7684. Send e-mail to [email protected] Printed in U.S.A. 2 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN September 2009 © 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. FROM THE EDITOR ■ Starter Menu The editors at Scientifi c Ameri- turn to page 21 for the start of “Origins”— can always look forward to we hope you will nd it candy for the cu- creating our annual single- rious mind. topic issues. These special edi- In an issue focused on beginnings, it tions give us the opportunity also seems appropriate to inaugurate a set to more fully explore an area that is of deep of improvements to Scienti c American’s scienti c and public interest and to share pages. We’ve tightened the design of the ta- that comprehensive package with you. ble of contents, to make it easier to nd About a year ago, when the editorial what you are looking for in each issue. We board rst began discussing possibilities have organized the popular News Scan de- for the issue you now hold in your hands, partment by topic; the adjusted layouts are we decided to harness our ambitions in a easier to navigate, and the stories will con- different way. Instead of narrowly focus- tinue to provide the concise analyses of ing on one subject, we would think more news that you have come to expect. expansively. We settled on an all-encom- A new columnist’s pointed commentary passing topic that would provide the intel- will also sharpen the offerings in the front lectual charge we sought but also would of the magazine. Lawrence M. Krauss, an be fun. We decided to probe some of the astrophysicist, social critic and best-selling most profound questions that humans ask author of The Physics of Star Trek and oth- about our existence, such as, Where did er books, brings a scientist’s perspective Among Our everything we see in the universe today and practice of rational analysis to matters Contributors come from? How did life begin? What led of broad scienti c and policy concern. Fit- to the remarkable sophistication of the hu- tingly, his rst installment examines the MARTIN CAMPBELL-KELLY man mind? We knew we would want to unrealized vision of C. P. Snow, who 50 is a professor in the department of computer science at the University of Warwick in provide in-depth feature articles on key years ago wrote his famous “Two Cul- England, where he specializes in the history topics in technology and in the physical tures” essay. Snow noted the distressing of computing. He is editor of The Collected Works of Charles Babbage. and life sciences. To round out the issue, cultural divide between science and the we also wanted to take on a few dozen arts and hoped for a future that would MARC HAUSER other intellectual puzzles—from the ori- bridge the two. We share that hope. is a professor at Harvard gins of the paper clip to the placenta to pa- Last, Anti Gravity moves to a featured University, where he studies the evolutionary and developmental per money—in shorter pieces. position as the back page, where Steve foundations of the human mind. He is We dedicated extra pages to this issue Mirsky’s wry prose adds an entertaining author of Moral Minds and other books. to encompass the span of our questions, punctuation mark to each issue; ip the ALONSO RICARDO but it still was dif cult to winnow our pages to nd his look at Kindle’s foibles. is a research associate at the Howard wish lists to what could be accommodated As always, we welcome your feedback. ■ Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University. He has a long-standing interest in print. Naturally, more short stories and ) in the origin of life and studies other items of interest are available at MARIETTE DICHRISTINA self-replicating chemical systems. www.Scienti cAmerican.com. For now, acting editor in chief illustration JACK W. SZOSTAK is professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. His interest in the laboratory construction of biological structures dates back to work he described in the November 1987 Scientifi c American. ); BRYAN CHRISTIE DESIGN ( MICHAEL S. TURNER pioneered the interdisciplinary union DiChristina of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology and led the National Academy study that laid out the vision for the new eld earlier this decade. ETHAN HILL ( www.ScientificAmerican.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 3 © 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. LETTERS ■ [email protected] ® Global Famine ■ Big Government ■ Big Pharma Established 1845 ACTING EDITOR IN CHIEF: Mariette DiChristina MANAGING EDITOR: Ricki L. Rusting CHIEF NEWS EDITOR: Philip M. Yam “The only way to save SENIor wrITER: Gary Stix EDITORS: Davide Castelvecchi, Graham P. Collins, the human race Mark Fischetti, Steve Mirsky, Michael Moyer, George Musser, Christine Soares, Kate Wong is to reduce CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Mark Alpert, our numbers.” Steven Ashley, Stuart F. Brown, W. Wayt Gibbs, Marguerite Holloway, Christie Nicholson, —“Mithremakor” VIA Michelle Press, John Rennie, Michael Shermer, WWW.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM Sarah Simpson ASSOCIATE EDITORS, ONLINE: David Biello, MAY 2009 Larry Greenemeier News REPorTers, ONLINE: Coco Ballantyne, ■■ John Matson Crash of Civilizations grown only faster than population. On a ART DIRECTOR, ONLINE: Ryan Reid The obvious driver of the huge issues per capita basis, the United Nation reports, raised by Lester Brown in “Could Food annual grain yields are up 40 percent dur- ART DIRECTOR: Edward Bell Shortages Bring Down Civilization?” is ing the past five decades.
Recommended publications
  • For Immediate Release Contact: Jonathon Keats@Yahoo.Com ARTIST CREATES NEW UNIVERSE from URANIUM and CHEWING GUM Novel Technique

    For Immediate Release Contact: Jonathon [email protected] ARTIST CREATES NEW UNIVERSE from URANIUM and CHEWING GUM Novel Technique

    For Immediate Release Contact: [email protected] ARTIST CREATES NEW UNIVERSE FROM URANIUM AND CHEWING GUM Novel Technique Puts Quantum Theory to Practical Use. Automated Universe Factories Planned for Government and Industry. San Francisco Gallery to Begin Selling $20 D.I.Y. Universe Kits on November 20th. Universes Provide Alternatives to Recession October 31, 2008 - Following decades of effort by engineers to build quantum supercomputers and to master quantum cryptography, today quantum physics has spawned a far more powerful technology. Applying theory developed by deceased Princeton physicist Hugh Everett III, and using little more than a piece of chewing gum, a plastic drinking straw, and a bit of uranium, San Francisco conceptual artist Jonathon Keats has constructed the first machine for fabricating all-inclusive universes. "It was a product of my anxiety," admits Mr. Keats. "I'd recently had a couple museum shows, yet I was feeling that no matter what I made, it was hardly comparable to the creation of the cosmos. And though no one talks about it, the same issue faced Picasso, Monet, even Michelangelo. The Big Bang has artists beat." Taking on the cosmos as a creative challenge, Mr. Keats began researching an aspect of quantum mechanics proposed by Dr. Everett in the 1950s and later refined by scientists including David Deutsch at Oxford and Wojciech Zurek at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Everett's theory addressed the question of how a subatomic particle can exist in a quantum superposition - for example being in two places at once - until someone observes it, at which point the observer finds it to be in only one place at a time.
  • Download CV (PDF)

    Download CV (PDF)

    Anuradha Vikram anu(at)curativeprojects(dot)net About Anuradha (Curative Projects) Independent curator and scholar working with museums, galleries, journals, and websites to develop original curatorial work including exhibitions, public programs, and artist-driven publications. Consultant for strategic planning, institutional vision, content strategy, and diversity, equity, and inclusion work. Current engagements include Craft Contemporary, LA Freewaves, MhZ Curationist, LACE, X-TRA, X Artists’ Books, and UCLA Art Sci Center. Education M.A., Curatorial Practice, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2005 B.S., Studio Art, minor in Art History, New York University, New York, NY, 1997 Curated Exhibitions, Performances, and Public Art 2024 ▪ Co-curator, Atmosphere of Sound: Sonic Art in Times of Climate Disruption (with Victoria Vesna), UCLA Art Sci Center at Center for Art of Performance, Getty Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x LA, dates TBC. 2023 ▪ Unmaking/Unmarking: Archival Poetics and Decolonial Monuments, LACE, Los Angeles, dates TBC. 2022 ▪ Jaishri Abichandani: Lotus-Headed Children, Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA, January 30–May 8. ▪ Exa(men)ing Masculinities, with Marcus Kuiland-Nazario and Anne Bray, LA Freewaves, Los Angeles State Historic Park, dates TBC. 2021 ▪ Atmosphere of Sound: Sonic Art in Times of Climate Disruption, Ars Electronica 2021 Garden, September 8-12. ▪ Juror, FRESH 2021, SoLA Contemporary. August 28-October 9. 2020 ▪ Patty Chang: Milk Debt, 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA, October 19-January 22, 2021. Traveled to PioneerWorks, Brooklyn, March 19-May 23, 2021. ▪ Co-curator, Drive-By-Art (with Warren Neidich, Renee Petropoulos, and Michael Slenske). Citywide exhibition, Los Angeles, May 23-31.
  • 2013 Lyndenstoneleonardo46 5

    2013 Lyndenstoneleonardo46 5

    G e n e r a l a r t I c l e Re-Visioning Reality: Quantum Superposition in Visual Art a b s t r a c t The counterintuitive phenom- enon of quantum superposition requires a radical review of our ideas of reality. The author Lynden Stone suggests that translations of quantum concepts into visual art may assist in provoking such a revision. This essay first introduces the concept n philosophy, the usual definition of conven- a radical departure from the clas- of quantum superposition and I points out its divergence from tional reality is that it is independent, objective, meaningful sical conception of the fabric of and, in principle, knowable [1]; I adopt this definition for the reality” [7], and Karen Barad states conventional perceptions of real- ity. The author then discusses purpose of this article. My experience of reality generally ac- that we need a “reassessment of how visual art might provide cords with this definition, insofar as I perceive objects to exist physical and metaphysical notions insight into quantum superposi- independently of me and that objects have predetermined that explicitly or implicitly rely on tion. Finally she discusses the characteristics that are independent of whatever observations old ideas about the physical world” visual representation of quantum or measurements I might perform on them. In particular, I can superposition by contemporary [8]. Trying to understand a world artists Jonathon Keats, Julian unobtrusively observe and measure objects without affecting described by quantum theory, says Voss-Andreae, Antony Gormley their state or the dynamics of the system within which they philosopher Lawrence Sklar, re- and Daniel Crooks; the problem- exist.
  • Mccray CV Full Version

    Mccray CV Full Version

    W. PATRICK MCCRAY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA SANTA BARBARA, CA 93106-9410 CURRENT APPOINTMENTS Professor, Department of History, University of California at Santa Barbara Affiliate appointments at University of California at Santa Barbara: Global Studies Program; Media Arts and Technology Program EDUCATION University of Arizona, Ph.D. (December 1996), Materials Science and Engineering with Anthropology (minor), Dissertation topic – Glassmaking in Renaissance Venice. University of Pittsburgh, M.S. (1991), B.S. (1989), Materials Science and Engineering. SELECTED OTHER APPOINTMENTS 2015-2016 Lindbergh Chair, National Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. 2011-2012 Eleanor Searle Visiting Professor, California Institute of Technology 2005-2007 Associate Professor, History Department, UCSB. 2005-2007 Co-Director of Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UCSB 2003-2005 Assistant Professor, Department of History, UCSB 2000-2003 Associate Historian; Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics 1999-2000 Research Fellow, Department of History, The George Washington University 1997-1999 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Arizona MAJOR AWARDS, AND HONORS Invited Faculty Expert, World Economic Forum (Davos, Switzerland), 2016. Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize, History of Science Society, 2014. Fellow, American Physical Society, elected 2013. Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, elected 2011. BOOKS & EDITED VOLUMES Groovy Science: Knowledge, Innovation, and the American Counterculture, co-edited with David Kaiser (The University of Chicago Press, 2016). The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future (Princeton University Press, 2013). Winner: Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize, History of Science Society, 2014; Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award, American Astronautical Society, 2013.
  • Arxiv:1406.5253V1 [Astro-Ph.EP] 20 Jun 2014

    Arxiv:1406.5253V1 [Astro-Ph.EP] 20 Jun 2014

    Physical Properties of Near-Earth Asteroid 2011 MD M. Mommert Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northern Arizona University, PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA D. Farnocchia Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA J. L. Hora Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 65, Cambridge, MA 02138-1516, USA S. R. Chesley Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA D. E. Trilling Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northern Arizona University, PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA P. W. Chodas Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA arXiv:1406.5253v1 [astro-ph.EP] 20 Jun 2014 M. Mueller SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Postbus 800, 9700 AV, Groningen, The Netherlands A. W. Harris DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Rutherfordstrasse 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany H. A. Smith –2– Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 65, Cambridge, MA 02138-1516, USA and G. G. Fazio Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 65, Cambridge, MA 02138-1516, USA Received ; accepted accepted by ApJL –3– ABSTRACT We report on observations of near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We have spent 19.9 h of observing time with channel 2 (4.5 µm) of the Infrared Array Camera and detected the target within the 2σ positional uncertainty ellipse. Using an asteroid thermophysical model and a model of non- gravitational forces acting upon the object we constrain the physical properties of 2011 MD, based on the measured flux density and available astrometry data.
  • Detecting the Yarkovsky Effect Among Near-Earth Asteroids From

    Detecting the Yarkovsky Effect Among Near-Earth Asteroids From

    Detecting the Yarkovsky effect among near-Earth asteroids from astrometric data Alessio Del Vignaa,b, Laura Faggiolid, Andrea Milania, Federica Spotoc, Davide Farnocchiae, Benoit Carryf aDipartimento di Matematica, Universit`adi Pisa, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 5, Pisa, Italy bSpace Dynamics Services s.r.l., via Mario Giuntini, Navacchio di Cascina, Pisa, Italy cIMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universits, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Lille, 77 av. Denfert-Rochereau F-75014 Paris, France dESA SSA-NEO Coordination Centre, Largo Galileo Galilei, 1, 00044 Frascati (RM), Italy eJet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, 91109 CA, USA fUniversit´eCˆote d’Azur, Observatoire de la Cˆote d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, Boulevard de l’Observatoire, Nice, France Abstract We present an updated set of near-Earth asteroids with a Yarkovsky-related semi- major axis drift detected from the orbital fit to the astrometry. We find 87 reliable detections after filtering for the signal-to-noise ratio of the Yarkovsky drift esti- mate and making sure the estimate is compatible with the physical properties of the analyzed object. Furthermore, we find a list of 24 marginally significant detec- tions, for which future astrometry could result in a Yarkovsky detection. A further outcome of the filtering procedure is a list of detections that we consider spurious because unrealistic or not explicable with the Yarkovsky effect. Among the smallest asteroids of our sample, we determined four detections of solar radiation pressure, in addition to the Yarkovsky effect. As the data volume increases in the near fu- ture, our goal is to develop methods to generate very long lists of asteroids with reliably detected Yarkovsky effect, with limited amounts of case by case specific adjustments.
  • Actafutura Fax: +31 71 565 8018

    Actafutura Fax: +31 71 565 8018

    Acta Futura Issue 8 GTOC5: results and methods Advanced Concepts Team http://www.esa.int/act Publication: Acta Futura, Issue 8 (2014) Editor-in-chief: Duncan James Barker Associate editors: Dario Izzo Jose M. Llorens Montolio Pacôme Delva Francesco Biscani Camilla Pandolfi Guido de Croon Luís F. Simões Daniel Hennes Editorial assistant: Zivile Dalikaite Published and distributed by: Advanced Concepts Team ESTEC, European Space Research and Technology Centre 2201 AZ, Noordwijk The Netherlands www.esa.int/actafutura Fax: +31 71 565 8018 Cover image: solution submitted by The University of Texas at Austin team ISSN: 2309-1940 D.O.I.:10.2420/ACT-BOK-AF Copyright ©2014- ESA Advanced Concepts Team Typeset with X TE EX Contents Foreword to the special issue on the GTOC5 competition 7 Dario Izzo and Luís F. Simões GTOC5: Problem statement and notes on solution verification 9 Ilia S. Grigoriev and Maxim P. Zapletin GTOC5: Results from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 21 Anastassios E. Petropoulos, Eugene P. Bonfiglio, Daniel J. Grebow, Try Lam, Jeffrey S. Parker, Juan Arrieta, Damon F. Landau, Rodney L. Anderson, Eric D. Gustafson, Gregory J. Whiffen, Paul A. Finlayson, Jon A. Sims GTOC5: Results from the Politecnico di Torino and Università di Roma Sapienza 29 Lorenzo Casalino, Dario Pastrone, Francesco Simeoni, Guido Colasurdo and Alessandro Zavoli GTOC5: Results from the Tsinghua University 37 Fanghua Jiang, Yang Chen, Yuechong Liu, Hexi Baoyin and Junfeng Li GTOC5: Results from the European Space Agency and University of Florence 45 Dario Izzo, Luís F. Simões, Chit Hong Yam, Francesco Biscani, David Di Lorenzo, Bernardetta Addis and Andrea Cassioli GTOC5: Results from the National University of Defense Technology 57 Xiao-yong Jiang, Zong-fu Luo, Yi-jun Lian and G.Tang 5 6 Acta Futura 8 (2014) 7-8 Acta DOI: 10.2420/AF08.2014.7 Futura Foreword to the special issue on the GTOC5 competition Dario Izzo ,* Luís F.
  • Mr. Edward F. Sproat III Director Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management United States Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585

    Mr. Edward F. Sproat III Director Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management United States Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585

    5.)6%23%35.,)-)4%$ v v 00-!+).'.%77/2,$33).#% Mr. Edward F. Sproat III Director Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management United States Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585 November 19, 2008 Dear Mr. Edward F. Sproat III, It has recently come to our attention that you’re planning to build the nation’s largest nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in the State of Nevada. Please first allow us to extend our congratulations to you and your team. We are impressed by the scope of your ambition. It is clear that your governmental division, the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, United States Department of Energy, is particularly farsighted. Second, we want to offer our services, which we can state with confidence are uniquely suited to your special project. Universes Unlimited is the foremost purveyor of equipment for macrocosmic fabrication. Our quantum decoherence engine is the only machine purpose-built for all-encompassing creation. On behalf of government and industry, we design state-of-the-art factories to mass-produce full-scale universes. And we are pleased to inform you that the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository is a premier site for the largest universe factory in the world. You should know that your planned facility need be modified only slightly to serve this valuable secondary purpose. Because our quantum decoherence engines are atomic, a universe factory can recycle your unwanted gamma rays, as well as your decaying alpha and beta particles. In other words, Mr. Edward F. Sproat III, your nuclear waste need not go to waste.
  • Why Atens Enjoy Enhanced Accessibility for Human Space Flight

    Why Atens Enjoy Enhanced Accessibility for Human Space Flight

    (Preprint) AAS 11-449 WHY ATENS ENJOY ENHANCED ACCESSIBILITY FOR HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT Daniel R. Adamo* and Brent W. Barbee† Near-Earth objects can be grouped into multiple orbit classifications, among them being the Aten group, whose members have orbits crossing Earth's with semi-major axes less than 1 astronomical unit. Atens comprise well under 10% of known near-Earth objects. This is in dramatic contrast to results from recent human space flight near-Earth object accessibility studies, where the most favorable known destinations are typically almost 50% Atens. Geocentric dynamics explain this enhanced Aten accessibility and lead to an understanding of where the most accessible near-Earth objects reside. Without a com- prehensive space-based survey, however, highly accessible Atens will remain largely un- known. INTRODUCTION In the context of human space flight (HSF), the concept of near-Earth object (NEO) accessibility is highly subjective (Reference 1). Whether or not a particular NEO is accessible critically depends on mass, performance, and reliability of interplanetary HSF systems yet to be designed. Such systems would cer- tainly include propulsion and crew life support with adequate shielding from both solar flares and galactic cosmic radiation. Equally critical architecture options are relevant to NEO accessibility. These options are also far from being determined and include the number of launches supporting an HSF mission, together with whether consumables are to be pre-emplaced at the destination. Until the unknowns of HSF to NEOs come into clearer focus, the notion of relative accessibility is of great utility. Imagine a group of NEOs, each with nearly equal HSF merit determined from their individual characteristics relating to crew safety, scientific return, resource utilization, and planetary defense.
  • Observation Campaign Status

    Observation Campaign Status

    Observation Campaign Status Paul Chodas (NEO Program Office) December 17, 2013 1 Observation Campaign Status • Discovery of NEOs continues at the same pace as in the last few years (~1000 per year). • Observation campaign discovery enhancements are in work but have not yet come online. – The DARPA Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) carried out NEO testing in this fall. More tests will be carried out in January, possibly leading to more regular operations starting in March. • Radar characterization of NEOs continues at a slightly faster pace than last year, due to higher priority for asteroids. • NEOWISE has been reactivated and is cooling down. The spacecraft will start surveying soon. • Three new ARM candidates for the Reference Mission were discovered in the last 6 months (2013 LE7, 2013 PZ6, 2013 XY20): – First two were too distant for radar characterization; the third was also distant but Arecibo will attempt to characterize it this week. – All three were too distant for ground-based IR characterization. • An attractive potential candidate was found for the Alternate Mission last month (2013 WA44), but it also was too distant for radar characterization. 2 Observation Campaign Enhancements for Discovery In Work or Potential Ops Facility V FOV lim (deg2) Improvements Date Catalina Sky Increase ML field of view 4x Late 2013 Survey: Mt. Bigelow 19.5 8 Increase MB FOV 2.5x Late 2014 Mt. Lemmon 21.5 1.2 Retune observation cadence Mid 2014 Increase NEO time to 50% Early 2014 Pan-STARRS 1 21.5 7 Current Surveys Increase NEO time to 100% Late 2014 DARPA SST 22+ 6 Additional NEO detection tests Early 2014 Palomar Transient Improve software to detect 21 7 Early 2014 Facility (PTF) streaked objects Pan-STARRS 2 22 7 Complete telescope system Late 2014 ATLAS 20 40 Entire night sky every night x2 Late 2015 FutureSurveys Vlim = limiting magnitude , FOV = Field of View 3 Nomenclature Guide • “Potential Candidate”: – Orbit parameters satisfy rough constraints on launch date, return date and total mission delta-v.
  • Press Release: the New Look of Neuroscience

    Press Release: the New Look of Neuroscience

    For Immediate Release contact: [email protected] NEW WEARABLE TECHNOLOGIES BIOCHEMICALLY OPTIMIZE WEARERS' PERSONALITIES Fashion-Forward 'Superego Suits' Developed By Jonathon Keats At The LACMA Art + Technology Lab Will Debut In San Francisco This March February 27, 2017 – Applying cutting-edge neuroscience to millennia of costume history, a multidisciplinary research initiative has achieved simultaneous breakthroughs in both fields, pioneering the next generation of wearable technology. Building on research from laboratories at Harvard and Florida State University, experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats will introduce 'Superego Suits' to the public in San Francisco next month. Fully modular and customizable to all body types, Superego Suits boast multiple features to alter self- perception, augmenting wearers' personalities for work and social life. "Today's wearables can supplement wearers' memories and knowledge and interactivity by connecting them to the internet," says Mr. Keats. "But psychologically you still remain your same old self. Glassholes will be Glassholes." Superego Suits get to the root of the problem by altering biochemistry and brain/body communication. They can make wearers more confident and enchanting, and even connect with other Superego Suits to manage interpersonal relationships. Four major innovations will be showcased at San Francisco's Modernism Gallery, where prototypes will be on view together with fashion photography by Elena Dorfman, featuring the Wilhelmina International model Anna Sophia Moltke. Mr. Keats has engineered sunglasses with irises designed to open and close in time with the wearer's breathing – augmenting her presence by increasing awareness of her internal state – a phenomenon known in neuroscience as interoception. He's also developed bracelets that can position the wearer in a 'power pose', causing the release of testosterone, a hormone associated with self-assurance.
  • Cathedral Thinking

    Cathedral Thinking

    Cathedral Thinking : Cathedral Wealth (/partner/future- ADDED 10 OCT 2016 • BY THE FUTURE LABORATORY (/PARTNER/FUTURE-LABS) labs) We are entering an era of Cathedral Wealth, where the most meaningful thing that you can hand down to the next generation is no longer a watch or family estate, but a grand challenge, a life’s work or a multi-generational task. Timmerhuis, by OMA architects, Rotterdam. Photograph by Sebastian van Damme, Courtesy of OMA (In this report, we examine the ways that Cathedral Wealth and long termism are beginning to permeate our society in three pivotal ways.¹) In the Middle Ages, building a cathedral to honour God was considered one of the greatest works that a community could undertake. Everyone from heads of state and religious leaders to architects, craftsmen and labourers joined together to create these monumental structures. Building a cathedral was an endeavour of such scale that they would often take decades or even centuries to finish. The people that laid the foundations would do so in the almost certain knowledge that they would never live to see the finished product. Today, at a time when the future of mankind has never looked more complex and uncertain, we are increasingly realising that our biggest questions may require multi-generational answers. ‘Modernity has pulled us into an era of short-termism and individualism,’ says Rachel Armstrong, senior TED fellow and founder of Black Sky Thinking. ‘However, the biggest issues facing humanity, such as climate change, over-population and energy and resource shortages, require us to think in terms of solutions that will span generations.’ Like the craftsmen that laid the first stones at St Paul’s, St Basil’s and Notre Dame, today’s leading scientists, business leaders and creative innovators are beginning to think in terms of a new kind of wealth – the handing down of purposeful and life-affirming projects that only their grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren, will see bear fruit.