Uncategorized Archives ~ Page 7 of 11 ~ From The Stratosphere

The Holiday is Upon Us

By hsrivney | September 2, 2016

books Labor Day Weekend. The unofficial end of summer in America. Time for picnics, barbecues, the last swim in the pool before we cover it up for the winter. Some people take that last long weekend vacation before we get serious about school and politics and the autumn harvest, but for many around the world, it’s just another day on the calendar.
Labor Day is about making sure we don’t spend our lives working ourselves to death. It’s about those who insisted that 40 hours was enough work for one week, because we have other things to do with our lives. Leisure things, family things, hobbies, puzzles, sleep, or my favorite: read.
As the carefree days begin to elude us, take some time to remember that this weekend is about enjoying your life, doing something you don’t often have time to do because of obligations, You will do yourself a favor if you recharge your batteries and turn the switch to the off position if just for this last summer weekend before the onslaught on Pumpkin everything and shorter daylight hours is upon us.

Newest Exoplanet

By hsrivney | August 24, 2016

If you haven’t heard by now, our intrepid scientists have found yet another planet orbiting a star, a nearby star, a very nearby star, in fact, the closest star to us – Proxima (part of the Alpha Centauri system) at just 4.25 light year from here. Still a bit of a journey, but the closest one yet. Being the star is a red dwarf, it’s not horribly hot or bright, but this planet is in the “Goldilocks Zone” for liquid water. Probably not life as we know it, because it’s like our moon – tidally locked so the same side faces the star at all times, making one side hot and radioactive, the other cold and dark. But it’s a start. Enjoy the graphic!

proxima_v5 — I stole this picture from sciencemag.org, they have really cool stuff on their blog.

Yesteryear’s Science Fiction

By hsrivney | August 23, 2016

https://t.co/VRLnUINSEI

The astronauts are loading supplies into the vehicle that will leave the space station and go to Earth. I had fantasies about this kind of thing as a child. I suppose I should have dreamed about the day they cure all cancers, end poverty, stop making war, but those seemed too realistic (in all honest, thought we would have done it by now). But space travel to anywhere, and space stations in orbit, and filling out an application to be an astronaut?

For those of us who dream that humanity will not only survive but come out better in the long run, reality can be sobering. But looking back at history, we’ve made progress, at least in the modern world. We no longer burn witches at the stake, and there’s probably enough food for everyone if we can just overcome the governments and get it there when it’s needed. We can control reproduction, and we have antibiotics (at least we do for a little while longer). Small Pox is extinct. So are Guinea worms. But then, a lot of species have gone extinct for utterly stupid reasons; rhino horns and ivory come to mind.

I think now, what can be so astounding, is that we have The Internet, and people have the world’s knowledge at their fingertips, and ignore it. We went to the moon, and back. We’ve created and sent robots to all the other planets we share our sun with. If that can be done on the puny budget our world commits to science (oh, about 3% compared to 50% for the war machine), then imagine our future if the budgets were well balanced and people valued the science brought to us by space programs. See, now we’re back to dreaming about touching those stars!

Free eBook

By hsrivney | August 22, 2016

Paradox will be FREE through Amazon this weekend, August 27-28. Get in a final read before school starts and immerse yourself in another world, the complexities of genetic splicing, chiral molecules, and a love that transcends the impossible.

Get It Free August 27-28, No String Attached

Gold

By hsrivney | August 18, 2016

Atomic number 79 and symbol Au, gold is one of the most incredible elements in the universe. It was brought to Earth by asteroids and meteorites, as it must be forged from the heart of a supernova. It’s the only metal that is, well, golden colored, and is soft enough when pure to leave a bite mark.We can flatten it to a sheet thinner than paper, but a chunk the size of a brick couldn’t be lifted over your head, weighing well over 300 pounds!

Gold is used to coat the visors of astronaut helmets because it is such an excellent reflective substance of radiation. It is found in the human bloodstream, and makes an excellent anti-inflammatory, sometimes injected with other substances into the body to combat the ravages of rheumatoid arthritis.

Gold is used in test strips to detect malaria, early detection of HIV, and gold nanoparticles can be attached to cancer cells in order to detect cancer early when it can be treated successfully. These same nanoparticles can target cancer cells and destroy them without damaging healthy cells, the holy grail of all cancer treatment methods.

The demand for gold is increasing while the supply is limited, and difficult to acquire. When I heard from Neil deGrasseTyson that 300 metric tons are contained in the average 500 meter metallic asteroid, I realized that it won’t be science fiction that defines how humans will mine asteroids for precious metals. When the applications of gold are fully realized, perhaps we can stop assaulting our planet and gather a harvest from the lonely zone between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid belt.

American government officials used to question the need for a space program once they’d planted a flag on the moon. Once they realize there is money to be made, and perhaps one of their ailments cured, we may again indeed see a robust space program, funding, support, and a return to aerospace education and industry. At least we can hope.

Category: Uncategorized