• Technology

    Bytes in the Air

    By Paul Adams Posted on 11.22.2008 9 Comments

    As I post this, I am thousands of feet above San Francisco, on a Virgin airplane, surrounded by press and partygoers celebrating Virgin's imminent roll-out of wireless internet to their passengers. The in-flight service is provided by a carrier called Aircell, which spectrum geeks may recall won an exclusive ten-year contract from the FCC in 2006 to provide air-to-ground broadband at 3MHz. Onboard, a standard 802.11 wi-fi network works with all standard devices.

  • The Environment

    The Amphibial Canary is Dead

    By taylorhengen Posted on 11.23.2008 7 Comments

    While canaries are yet to raise the red flag on pesticide exposure, new research from the University of Pittsburgh shows that "ten of the world's most popular pesticides can decimate amphibian populations when mixed together even if the concentration of the individual chemicals are within limits considered safe." 'Decimate', here, is not hyperbole.

  • Science

    Cramming: Not A Long-Term Study Strategy

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 11.20.2008 5 Comments

    I challenge you: Name one fact you still remember from the last test for which you crammed. Anyone? Any fact?

  • Technology

    Nuclear Moon Bases

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 11.20.2008 25 Comments

    When lunar astronauts flick on their televisions after a long day of prospecting, they’ll have a trashcan-size nuclear reactor to thank for their nightly dose of prime time. NASA, looking past the already daunting task of simply getting humans to the moon by 2020, recently started considering proposals for ways to power lunar habitats. Batteries and fuel cells provide only short-term solutions. Solar power would be limited where a single night lasts as long as 354 hours. So space-agency officials have started making plans to go nuclear.

  • The Environment

    Florida to Make Gas from Trash

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 11.18.2008 12 Comments

    Trash is a stinky topic. With 130 million tons of it hitting landfills annually, it is the nation's largest human-caused producer of methane gas. And now, residents in Florida's St. Lucie County are turning that stench to gold. Or at least to gas. The county has paired up with Atlanta-based company Geoplasma to implement a plasma gasification plant.

  • DIY

    Smart Coaster

    By Dave Prochnow Posted on 11.17.2008 3 Comments

    No matter your poison -- coffee, tea, hot chocolate, sake -- take a gulp too soon out of the pot and chances are good that you'll burn your mouth. But build this Smart Coaster and you'll always know when it's safe to sip. According to my thermometer, common coffee brewers produce a cup of perfect coffee that is positively molten to the tongue, at 160ºF. Even as this marvelous beverage fills your room-temperature cup, temps can still reach a blistering 137.1ºF. Finally, after a couple of minutes cooling, your coffee is safe to drink, at a lukewarm 116.5ºF.

  • Entertainment & Gaming

    Seven Bond Villain Schemes that Defy Science

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 11.13.2008 12 Comments

    James Bond's latest nemesis in the film Quantum of Solace sees more people on Earth needing more water, and he likes it. "This is the world's most precious resource," Dominic Greene says with eyes alight. "We need to control as much of it as we can." His plan has the ring of truth. Scientists and policymakers continue to warn about water shortages all across the United States and the world.

  • Science

    Cheating the Angels

    By Paul Adams Posted on 11.14.2008 2 Comments

    At the New York WhiskyFest this week, nobody wanted to talk much about technological innovations in the industry. Most of the whisky professionals I asked assured me that there was no such thing as innovation at their tradition-steeped distillery -- they were doing everything the same way it had been done for generations, thank you very much. Some distillers seemed put out that their companies had recently embraced such cutting-edge twentieth-century technology as labelling barrels with bar codes. The marketing side of the business is innovating to beat the band -- look for a new Irish whiskey called Feckin and a new rye called (rī)1 coming soon to bars near you -- but the production side remains defiantly old-fangled.

  • Technology

    Purchase a Lovely New Home On...Mars?

    By taylorhengen Posted on 10.31.2008 17 Comments

    Buzz Aldrin is fondly remembered as the second man to ever step foot on the moon, after his more famous compatriot Neil Armstrong. The former astronaut, now 78, is back in the spotlight after proclaiming that, should the United States space program send a mission to Mars, those astronauts should be prepared to stay there.

  • Technology

    A Look Inside Virgin Galactic's Flight Training

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 11.11.2008 4 Comments

    As early as next year, if you are one of a lucky few, you may find yourself strapped in a six-passenger rocket some 50,000 feet above the Earth’s surface, bracing yourself as it disengages from the specially designed jet plane mothership, and shoots cannon-like 60 miles up into suborbital space at three times the speed of sound. If all goes well, you'll then get to unbuckle and float in zero gravity for a full fifteen minutes, spying on the earth’s curvature, all of North America and the Pacific Ocean. This scenario is what Virgin Galactic is banking on. So much so that though the rocket is still unfinished they are already putting their first-picked passengers through flight training. And that is how Wilson da Silva, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Cosmos (the biggest-selling science magazine in Australia) found himself in Philly last month at the National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center strapped into one of the most advanced centrifuge simulators on Earth shouting words that we cannot print here as 6 Gs of force pressed down upon him. But first, some background.

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