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June 2012: Invent Your Own Anything
The 6th annual Invention Awards are here, from an inflatable tourniquet to a better lobster trap to spring-loaded hocket skates. This issue is all about the celebration of invention.
Plus: Making synthetic biology breakthroughs in a garage, building a constantly-moving ping-pong table, and a ridiculously overpowered barbecue.
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As usual, PopSci shows completely deceptive images. In this article, image 2 of 6 says:
"Sharpest Image Yet of Star-Birthing Factories
M. Kornmesser/ESO
About 10 billion light-years away, SMMJ2135-0102 appears in such great detail because of a cosmic alignment that allowed researchers to capture it 16 times larger than it usually appears."
Next to this description is a breathtaking image...that is an "artist's impression" (though it is not billed as such). If you'd like to see what the image really looks like, visit this site:
astro.dur.ac.uk/~ams/Nature/
Look at image c) "Hubble Space Telescope plus far-infrared colour composition," then look at the portion in the lower right corner labeled "SMA." That's what the article is talking about. No doubt it's a really awesome image of something 10 billion light-years away, but it resembles an image from a weather satellite of a snake that didn't quite make it across a back-road in Texas.
The constant use of these "artist's impression" pictures, especially without labeling them as such, is obscene. Just show the actual pictures! Why show us an "artist's impression" that in no way resembles the actual image? Oh, right...it's 'cause they're pretty!
Image 4 producing 1,000 - 4,000 stars a year -- does that mean we can look at it and see 30 new stars each day?
If there are thick clouds of dust in space, does that mean if we could produce a vehicle that would travel at a high percentage of the speed of light, it would smack into dust that would tear it apart?