Medical-membrane technology was used by Dr. Yuichi Mori to grow agricultural crops with minimized water and soil consumption which he presented at TEDx. Seeing this “hydromembrane”, a gel plastic wrap looking material interestingly enough supports plant growth so that they are safe for consumption.
A video of Dr. Mori with the Imec membrane and cress that grew from it can be seen here:
Bill Nye Did a Reddit #AMA (ask me anything) on Tuesday along with two others to talk about Jupiter’s moon Europa which might have had, or might still have extraterrestrial life! Bill fans have been talking all week about his inspiring answers, the way that he got them interested in science as youngsters, Europa and much anticipated new Bill shows that he hinted at!
The entire AMA conversation is here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2arlx5/i_am_bill_nye_the_science_guy_and_ceo_of_the/
Bill tells hilarious jokes, like this one:
And really sheds light on how important it is to discover more about Mars.
Bill also let people know what he’s been up to lately. Bill is the CEO of the Planetary Society, he’s talked about having another Science Guy show, his new book that comes out in November, and many more highlights that can be seen here:
Bill is a beloved teacher who’s series lives strong in classrooms. We’re eager to see what Europa has up its sleeve.
Source: http://www.themarysue.com/bill-nye-europa-ama/
Another great Green article from WasteTracking.com
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This video shows astronauts playing soccer from the International Space Station (ISS) and astronauts answering fan submitted questions.
You can watch the whole video downlink here:
( Source: http://time.com/2970293/time-space-station-video/ )
Recently, a NASA “mega-rocket” and a spacecraft video was posted on the web and it explained that NASA plans to test this new rocket later this year. This would be the “largest and most powerful rocket in history” so Orion will fly farther than any other spacecraft has in 40 years. Experts say that Orion has a somewhat old-fashioned design which is reliable as well as cost effective. Orion can also stay in space for over 6 months.
Orion is designed to deliver up to four astronauts even further into the solar system than ever before. Orion might go to the moon, asteroids and eventually Mars. For those familiar with the Space Launch System (SLS) seen here:
This is an artist rendering of an SLS that is planned to launch the MPCV.
“NASA scientists have been conducting research focused on harnessing the power of biology to create useful things out of what seems to be nothing”. Rob Verger of Newsweek sums it up perfectly and his article “Recycling on Mars” covers everything from reliable space trips, to human waste not going to waste, and mainly- the technology that is being carried into space.
In “Recycling on Mars”, Verger quotes Michael Flynn, an engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center who spoke about how important it is that the space stations have regular maintenance so that they won’t inevitably fail. Flynn’s point about maintaining the spaceships segue into an analogy to the human body which he explains as a more dynamic system that includes “the ability to repair itself”. The stunning abilities of the human body and biology is why, the Ames center is trying to “integrate the lessons learned from biological systems into mechanical systems”.
This is why a 3-D printer is being sent to the ISS of the SpaceX4 mission and why scientists on the mission will also bring yeast cells that could produce pigments. Making pigments is a test, and if it succeeds all sorts of materials such as cotton, bone and adhesives could be utilized so that a Mars mission is sustainable.
(Source: http://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/30/recycling-mars-251740.html)
NASA asked people from around the globe to upload a selfie on Earth Day on social media so that a mosaic of the images with the globe could be created and posted on GigaPan at: http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/155294
This spectacular image was built using 36,422 photos that were tagged #globalsefie in five humongous social media platforms around April 22, 2014. Here, people from more than 100 countries are all organized in a high quality rendering that people can zoom in and out of to see the selfies large or small.
3D printing may be all the rage in design, but for Big Tech, drones are where the money is. On Monday, web giant Google beat out Facebook in a race to acquire Titan Aerospace, a solar-powered drone manufacturer. Although Google claims the drones will be used for the forces of good, such as broadcasting Internet signals to remote areas, some worry that the high-flying drones may pose troublesome consumer privacy implications.
New Mexico-based drone maker Titan Aerospace specializes in the creation of high-altitude solar-powered drones. “It’s still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring Internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation,” said a Google spokesman in an email to AFP. Google also plans to use the high-flying drones to assist their ongoing Project Loon, which uses giant balloons to broadcast Internet signals, as well as Makani, a project to build an energy-efficient airborne wind turbine.
The drones may also be used to enhance Google Earth’s aerial imagery capabilities. According to Titan, its drones can stay airborne for up to five years without the need for routine maintenance. The search engine giant’s continued foray into drone investing mirrors similar gambits by other high-profile consumer-based businesses such as Amazon’s proposed drone delivery service and Facebook’s similar plans to deliver Internet via drones to third-world countries.
A newly released NASA satellite image taken from space shows the extent of California’s worst drought since record-keeping started in 1885 and potentially the region’s driest period in 500 years. The data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites vividly displays green areas that are supposed to be white with winter snow cover and brown areas that are supposed to be green with plant growth this time of year.
The evergreen vegetation near the Sierra Nevada mountain range is usually covered with snow in a normal year. Most of the rest of the state — from the San Joaquin Valley to San Francisco to Los Angeles and beyond shows areas suffering from drought stress or left fallow because of lack of water to grow crop seeds.
“If you showed me this image without the date, I would say, ‘This is California in early fall after a long, hot summer, before the fall and winter rains and snows arrived,’” said Bill Patzert, a climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This is no California winter postcard.”
While recent rainfall and snowfall have brought temporary relief to parts of the state, it is not enough to mitigate the worst effects of the drought that is now in its third year. David Miskus of the NOAA Climate Prediction Center wrote that “even though this storm was welcome, the central Sierra still needs 3 to 4 more copious storms to bring this wet season close to average. Unfortunately, little to no precipitation fell on southern California and the Southwest.”
On a recent visit to California to tour the damage, President Obama pledged $183 million in federal aid and blamed the drought on climate change, saying “we’re going to have to stop looking at these disasters as something to wait for. We’re going to have to start looking at these disasters as something to prepare for.” The president added that “we have to be clear. A changing climate means that weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, floods, are potentially going to be costlier and they’re going to be harsher.”
James Law has designed a different office building commissioned by Vijay Associate. This project is entitled Cybertecture Egg and is supposed to be completed by the end of this year. The Cybertecture Egg is a Cybertecture building that brings together iconic architecture, environmental design, intelligent control systems, and evolutionary engineering to create the most innovative building for the city of Mumbai and for India in the 21st Century. It comprises 33,000 square meters of office space stacked in 13 stories with highly intelligent building management systems and 3 levels of basement providing 400 car parking spaces.
The Cybertecture Egg adopts a diagrid exo-skeleton, which creates a rigid structural system and thus allows for huge spans of column-less floors. Everything about this ridiculously high-tech office building is cool. A sky garden for “thermolysis” – a natural process where growing plant dissipate heat from the building, cooling it naturally; PV farms for electricity source providing; Water recycling system to recycle up to 20% of the water supply consumption. Moreover, advanced systems as intelligent glass facade, underground water cooling system, building management systems are all equipped so that inhabitants inside will enjoy a perfect environment.
There are tons of perks for people who will be working in this building. Office workers will be allowed to customize the views from their desk to show anywhere in the world and see real-time scenery from across the globe. Innovative health monitoring systems will also be installed in all the bathrooms that will keep track of worker’s blood pressure and weight, and if there are any significant changes a doctor is automatically notified. Maybe a touch invasive, but it seems like the architects have their hearts in the right place when it comes to looking out for the office workers.
Google has just unveiled a new online tool called Global Forest Watch that allows organizations and everyday people to monitor deforestation around the world. More than 40 organizations are collaborating on the site, which tracks the gain and loss of tree cover around the world using a combination of satellite data, crowdsourcing, and open data to show the state of the world’s forests in near real-time.
The site is designed to be easy to use and understand, showing separate maps of forest loss and gain over the present and past fourteen years, as well as maps of global tree cover, protected regions and conservation efforts, and more. Visitors to the site can view a map of the world for an idea of the big picture, or zoom in to see what’s happening in their own backyards.
There’s more the the site than simply giving visitors the ability to sit back and watch the world’s forests change, however. Global Forest Watch also wants to empower individuals, governments, companies, and NGOs to monitor logging operations. Corporations can use the tool to ensure their supply chain is sustainable, governments can identify illegal clearing operations, and residents in affected areas can report violators in their communities.
Check out this video on Monitoring Forests in Near Real Time:
Find out what is happening in forests right now at Global Forest Watch
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