Better All The Time #18
Did you miss us as much as we missed you? Better All The Time is back with some good news to brighten up your week.
- Quote of the Day
- The Speculist Returns
- Cold Fusion to Make a Comeback?
- Planet Discovered
- Nanotech Vs Cancer
- Salvaging Genesis
- Gadget Roundup
- New Nickels
Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix.
-- Christina Baldwin, via ThinkExist
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Item 2
Cold Fusion Back from the Dead
Later this month, the U.S. Department of Energy will receive a report from a panel of experts on the prospects for cold fusion—the supposed generation of thermonuclear energy using tabletop apparatus. It's an extraordinary reversal of fortune: more than a few heads turned earlier this year when James Decker, the deputy director of the DOE's Office of Science, announced that he was initiating the review of cold fusion science. Back in November 1989, it had been the department's own investigation that determined the evidence behind cold fusion was unconvincing. Clearly, something important has changed to grab the department's attention now.
Behind the scenes, scientists in many countries, but particularly in the United States, Japan, and Italy, have been working quietly for more than a decade to understand the science behind cold fusion. (Today they call it low-energy nuclear reactions, or sometimes chemically assisted nuclear reactions.) For them, the department's change of heart is simply a recognition of what they have said all along—whatever cold fusion may be, it needs explaining by the proper process of science.
The good news:
It's this sort of thing that makes predictions about future energy capacity and capabilities so difficult to predict. (For that matter, it's this sort of thing that makes the future in general so difficult to predict.) Cold Fusion may yet be a long way off, but the fact that it could be back on the table only goes to show the risks involved in assessing the future based on present capabilities. Things might just be better than we think.
Interesting Implications:
We've seen a lot of discussion in the blogosphere recently about the viability of changing to a "hydrogen economy." The big problem with hydrogen is extracting it from water (or some other source, although water is probably the most likely.) A lot has been written about the impracticality of solar power, wind power, nuclear power, etc. But there hasn't been much written about cold fusion, either as a direct energy source or as a means of enabling hydrogen as an energy source. A while back, Steven Den Beste had this to say on fusion:
Wake me when it actually works.
Well, we won't nudge him just yet.
Item 3
Have We Seen an Exoplanet?
Astronomers may have taken the first ever photograph of a planetary system outside our own solar system. Gael Chauvin of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and colleagues in Chile, Germany, France and the US have taken images of what appears to be a planet orbiting a young brown dwarf about 230 light years away. The results could shed more light on how planetary systems form (Astronomy & Astrophysics in press).
The good news:
While we've known for some time now that planets exist outside our solar system — we can "see" them by the gravitational effects they have on the stars they orbit — this may be the first actual picture of such a planet. May there be many more.
The downside:
The problem is that planets, particularly earth-sized planets, are very dim bulbs located on astronomical scales right next to a very bright star. Even with a resource like Hubble at our disposal, they're never going to be easy to spot.
Luckily...
A couple of super geniuses have set their minds to the task of designing the next generation of space-based telescopes. Wow, somebody should be paying those guys a lot of money.
Item 4
Pinpointing Cancer Fight
In the fight against cancer, some scientists are thinking small. Really, really small.
The National Cancer Institute launches a five-year, $144 million project today to investigate using nanotechnology, the science of building devices on the atomic level, to fight cancer.
The good news:
The treatments that will be looked at include, among other approaches, the use of gold nanoshells that "cook" tumor cells to death and nanoparticles that deliver chemotherapy on a cell-by-cell basis. We've been tracking these developments over the past year (here and here, for example). It's gratifying to see these lines of research get additional funding. Moreover, with the blessing of the National Cancer Institute, it would seem that nanomedicine is well on its way to being mainstream.
More good news:
Meanwhile, research shows that a very different form of treatment also offers very real benefits to cancer patients:
Hypnosis can relieve suffering and improve the quality of life of cancer patients, researchers said on Thursday.
Although it has been used to help people to give up smoking, lose weight and overcome phobias, its real therapeutic potential is still untapped, they believe.
Dr Christina Liossi, of the University of Wales in Swansea, said there is medical evidence that hypnosis helps to relieve the depression, nausea, vomiting and pain suffered by cancer patients.
There have also been suggestions that hypnosis could increase survival in patients with the disease, but she added there is not enough evidence to support them.
Still more good news:
RNAi treatment, touted as the next big thing in biotechnology is now being given its first try:
The first clinical trial of a therapy based on the much-heralded technique of RNA interference, or RNAi, will begin within several weeks to treat a condition which can lead to blindness.
If the results of these tests prove fruitful, RNAi treatment may soon be used to help cancer patients as well as those afflicted by a host of other medical problems.
Item 5
Scientists Recover Critical Genesis Parts
NASA scientists said they have recovered some critical pieces of the Genesis space capsule intact and are optimistic the wreckage will yield valuable information about the origins of the solar system.
"We should be able to meet many, if not all, of our science goals," physicist Roger C. Wiens of the Los Alamos National Laboratory said Friday.
The good news:
Apparently, the individual compartments that were used to gather sample atoms from around the solar systm got fused together pretty well, but atoms are kind of hard to destroy. So it's possible that just a few of them will be sufficient to give the scientists the information they're looking for.
Here's hoping.
Also, NASA is envisioning future missions that avoid the problem of parachute malfunctions altogether:
As currently envisioned, the Mars Sample Return mission uses a completely passive entry vehicle. A return craft holding the specimen canister would be aerodynamically stable throughout its landing on Earth. The MSR entry craft would not require a parachute...
In other Space News...
As the age of space tourism draws ever closer, some some would-be amateur astronauts are likely to prepare themselves by taking one or more zero G flights, which are about to be offered on a commercial basis:
The Zero Gravity Corporation has been given the thumbs up by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct "weightless flights" for the general public, providing the sensation of floating in space.
Tickets are on sale for around $3,000.
A specially modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft, called G-Force One, will be used during a nationwide tour Sept. 14-24.
Hmmm...at $3000 a pop, these flights will not only make the passengers weightless, they should go a long way towards lightening their wallets as well.
Item 6
Better Living Through Gadgets
Here's a small sampling of recent gadget news. How did we ever get by without these things?
- Sony Handheld Computer with Electroluminescent Display
Who even knew that liquid crystal displays were on the way out? The display is 48-x320 pixels, and has a 1000:1 contrast ratio. The unit saves power by not turning on black pixels. Good thinking! You can get anywhere from four to eight hours of video viewing on it. - P2P Phones
It looks as though the inital version will only enable sharing of photos and text, but audio and video files are reportedly on the way. - In-Flight Mobile Phones
Airbus is working on plans that will allow passengers to use their mobile phones in-flight by the year 2006. That's good news because, by then, we should have full audio and video P2P available on mobile phones (see previous item). - Tiny Robotic Helicopter
When a big, bulky, non-robotic helicopter just won't do. - Follow Your Nose
Picture this: rather than having to move a mouse around on your desktop, you simply point your nose where you want the cursor to go. Need to left-click on an item on screen? Just blink your left eye. Need to right-click? You get the idea. It may sound frivolous, but this invention promises to offer profound benefits to disabled computer users. And if it revolutionizes computer gaming in the process, well that's just gravy.
Item 7
Nickels to Get a New Look
There's change in store for Thomas Jefferson — on the nickel that is. He's getting his first makeover since being put on the coin in 1938.
The good news:
The new nickel looks better and includes the word "liberty" in Thomas Jefferson's handwriting. Plus, Jefferson is featured more prominently. Moreover, for the nostalgic, the new coin has a buffalo on the back.
The downside:
The changes to the nickel comes on the heels of other currency updates, which include adding color the to $50 bill. Change is good and all, but we're not sure how we're going to feel about swapping greenbacks for Monopoly money.
Better All The Time is compiled by Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon.
More good news: Arthur Chrenkoff gives the latest good news from Iraq. And here's the latest edition of Winds of Discovery.
Live to see it!