Technology

There are countless reasons to go see the long-awaited Simpsons movie this weekend, but for geeks, one of the big draws of the show has always been the sometimes obscure, always intelligent references to science and mathematics. At least a few editors of this magazine are devotees of the famous Halloween episode in which Homer ventures into the third dimension. Its practically a primer on cosmology and extra-dimensional physics. And über-nerd Professor Frink is featured heavily, which is always a bonus.

The editors at PC World spent some time using Google Earth to scour the surface of the planet, and they turned up some incredibly strange sights. The giant portrait of Oprah cut through a field by an Arizona farmer is one thing you almost expect something like that but the apparently natural phenomena are the truly mind-boggling ones. The image at left, for example, is an overhead view of a natural geological formation in Alberta, Canada. Locals call it The Badlands Guardian, but based on the ear phone, Id prefer something more along the lines of The Early Adopter. And is it just me, or does that look like Sigmund Freud sitting atop the Guardians head?

In less entertaining news, Google Earth may have put the company on Chinas bad side after the circulation of a satellite shot of what appears to be a new Chinese sub made the rounds on the web, according to IDG News.—Gregory Mone 

(Image credit: Google Earth)

Director James Cameron, the man behind Titanic and the Terminator films, has selected a publisher to develop the game for his upcoming movie, Avatar. The $190 million, roughly half-CGI, half-live-action movie, which is about an ex-Marine who exists as a human mind in an alien body, has generated tremendous buzz over the last year—science fiction fans are excited to see Cameron step away from doomed romances and back to futuristic battles. The director is also going to shoot it in 3D, using advanced new technology that he has claimed is the future of the movies.

For the game, he took a year to choose from among four major publishers. The winner, Ubisoft, is also developing the game portion of the upcoming movie Beowulf. (Though one could argue that all hero-battles-the-monster games are based on Beowulf.) The only downer is that none of the Avatar-related material is going to be available for a while. The movie isnt scheduled for release until the summer of 2009.—Gregory Mone

Officials from Chinas space program have said before that they plan to develop gourmet food for their astronauts, known as taikonauts. Now theyve announced plans to sell the new line of meals to the general public, allowing the average citizen to eat like a space hero. The Scientific Research and Training Center for Chinese Astronauts joined with a Shanghai-based company to develop 60 different meals, including roast pork, stewed duck and taro-stuffed mooncake. The latter sounds especially suited for space travel.  Or more so than Tang, at least.

Chinas next manned mission is planned for 2008, but even if all goes well, and the stewed duck is perfect, the taikonauts meal probably wont measure up to the one that billionaire entrepreneur Charles Simonyi sampled on the International Space Station last year. The space tourist, who earned his cash by helping to develop Microsoft Word, prepared a French meal under the tutelage of friend Martha Stewart, and then shared it with all onboard.—Gregory Mone

Via AP

While some space officials are worrying about the fate of the Martian rovers as a giant dust storm continues to rage on the Red Planet, others are having a bit of fun. An astronaut spacewalking outside the International Space Station tossed a 200-pound camera mounting out into the void. Mission Control reportedly called it "a fantastic throw." The next toss will be a 1,400-pound ammonia tank that made its way up to the station in 2001. Meant to serve as a backup coolant in case of a leak, the ammonia never proved necessary, so the astronauts are jettisoning it soon. Both hunks of space junk will orbit Earth for a while before re-entering. The camera mount should disintegrate completely, but scraps of the much larger ammonia tank may make it through—and, according to researchers, will probably land in the ocean.

It might not seem like such a grand idea to add to the heaps of strange items orbiting the Earth, but apparently NASA decided that it needed to move the equipment, and there was no room on any of the remaining shuttle flights to take it down safely.—Gregory Mone

Via The Guardian
The BBC has video footage.

In two weeks, astronaut Barbara Morgan is due to board the shuttle Endeavour for a mission to the International Space Station a little more than two decades after she watched her friend and fellow teacher Christa McAuliffe, along with six other astronauts, perish in the fatal Challenger disaster. Morgan was the runner-up in the first-teacher-to-space contest won by McAuliffe, so they ended up training together for six months, and becoming close friends. Since NASA then instituted a policy barring civilians from shuttle flights, the determined Morgan entered the space-flight program, and, after a dozen years of training, officially became an astronaut in 1998. Watch a CBS piece on the driven, courageous teacher-turned-astronaut here.—Gregory Mone

Traditional spacesuits are bulky, heavy, unwieldy and, let's be honest, they just dont look all that cool. Now MIT aeronautics researcher Dava Newman and her team are developing the Biosuit, next-generation exploration garb that will enable astronauts to be more mobile, flexible and even runway-ready. The suit, which we first reported on here, will be skin-tight, but still easy to move around in. In contrast, suited-up astronauts expend about 70% of their energy just trying to bend their heavily-encased arms and legs. While Newman is primarily focused on designing the suit for missions to the Moon and Mars, and enabling astronauts to freely explore the surface without wearing themselves out, the sleek, swank design also looks perfect for space hotel nightlife.—Gregory Mone

Why they waited until after the big E3 gaming conference this weekend is a mystery to us, but a group of hard-line Iranian students unveiled a new game on Monday called Rescue the Nuke Scientist. Designed by the Union of Students Islamic Association, the same folks that hosted a Holocaust denial conference, the game is apparently a response to Assault on Iran, which was created by a U.S. company, Kuma Reality, and centers around a mission involving an Iranian nuclear facility. In Assault, your goal, as the central player, is to infiltrate the base, secure evidence of illegal uranium enrichment, rescue your man on the inside, and destroy the centrifuges that promise to take Iran into the nuclear age. Assault has drawn criticism in the past, and now this student group has issued its own response, creating a virtual scenario in which players rescue two scientists from facilities in Iran and Israel. Its designers say it is meant to promote defense, sacrifice and martyrdom.

Oddly enough, Reuters is also reporting the debut of another new Iranian video game, a first-person shooter called The Special Operation based on the story of four Iranian diplomats kidnapped in 1982. No word yet on whether either game will be available on Nintendos Wii.—Gregory Mone

Via AP

Early this year, Hu Jintao, Chinas president, ordered his government to start promoting a healthier online culture a move that applies to games, too. The official press agency, Xinhua News, reported that 500 players signed a petition saying they would no longer participate in the popular online game World of Warcraft because the company that distributes it in China has changed skeletons in the game into normal human bodies. A spokesman for the company, The9 Ltd., called the changes minor, and wouldnt respond to a reporters question regarding whether they were driven by the presidents official decree. But one newspaper quoted an anonymous source within the company as saying, Its to promote a healthy and harmonious on-line environment. That brave group of 500 probably wont carry much pull, either. The game has over 3.5 million players in China alone.—Gregory Mone

Via AP

Although its existence has long been suspected, scientists have finally found evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of an exosolar planet. The feat was accomplished by looking at the spectum of the Sun-like parent star (which is located in the constellation Vulpecula) as the light filtered through the planet's upper atmosphere on its way to Earth. Water vapor in the planet's atmosphere selectively absorbs certain frequencies of infrared radiation, and the tell-tale absorption spectrum was recorded by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The planet itself is one of a class called "Hot Jupiters"—large gaseous planets that orbit especially close to their parent stars—so chances are slim that it harbors any life. One of these days, though, we'll find evidence of life outside the solar system. For PPX players out there, keep an eye out for an upcoming IPO about Earth-like planets... this knowledge might come in handy. —Martha Harbison

After announcing that it will take a $1 billion hit due to Xbox 360 repairs, Microsoft spun some good news at this week's E3 Media and Business Summit. The company broke news of a new slate of games, including the much anticipated Halo 3, due out September 25th. But another interesting newcomer, the original yes, that means its not a sequel, and not based on a movie game Lost Odyssey has also been grabbing attention.

Kent Couch, a 43-year-old Oregon man, flew 193 miles last weekend in a lawn-chair, strapped to a cluster of 105 helium-filled balloons. Apparently, he hit speeds of up to 25 MPH, and was able to control his altitude, rising with a system of water-filled ballasts that dumped extra weight by opening spigots, and falling by gradually releasing helium from selected balloons.

Couch's feat is impressive, but he's not the first lawn-chair flier to traverse the Western skies: In 1982, Larry Walters rose three miles over Los Angeles in an ill-controlled balloon rig. And a couple years ago, PopSci covered the flights of John Ninomiya, an avid balloon hobbyist who described his helium system in our How 2.0 section. —Megan Miller 

NASA bounced back from the disappointing delay of the Dawn asteroid mission this weekend, reminding space fans that another exciting project is about to launch soon. At some point within a three-week window starting August 3, the Phoenix Mars Lander is slated to begin its journey to the Red Planet, ideally touching down in the northern plains sometime next spring. Once on the surface, Phoenix's two large solar panels will open up, and the lander will start to explore nearby ground with its nearly eight-foot-long robotic arm. A miniature weather station onboard will monitor the climate conditions, including the amount of water and dust in the atmosphere, while the arm will dig down beneath the soil, where scientists expect it will find ice. This isn't just wishful thinking: In 2002, the Mars Odyssey Orbiter uncovered evidence that big sections of Mars have water ice buried inches below the soil. The mission is only set to last for three months, but would be the first time that scientists actually use an instrument to come in direct contact with ice on Mars.—Gregory Mone