May 2006 - Posts
Do Martians wear size-11 shoes? Or do we have evidence that the Mars rover missions are merely a hoax — an "X-Files" conspiracy as far-reaching as the fake trip to Mars portrayed in the movie "Capricorn One"?
One of the pictures in our latest "Month in Space" roundup led some readers to ask those kinds of questions.
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In the past, Bigelow Aerospace has been relatively hush-hush about its plans to test an inflatable space module that could someday be used as an orbital hotel. But in "Dispatches From the Final Frontier," Michael Belfiore provides lots of new details about Bigelow's plans for next month's test launch and beyond. And Bigelow's reworked Web site lays out the specifics for flying mementos in zero-G for less than $300, starting with its second test flight. The company even promises to post videos or photos that just might show your item floating inside the module — proving that you got what you paid for.
• Technology Review: Outward Bound for robots
• The Guardian: Top scientist gives up on creationists
• Christian Science Monitor: Evolution seen in a yogurt cup
• BBC: 'The Simpsons' as philosophy
Can we ever predict earthquakes? Seismic researchers are spending millions of dollars to get just a few seconds of advance warning of a major earthquake, and the catastrophic shock that hit Java over the weekend illustrates how much could be at stake.
With that background, Russia's launch of the Compass 2 satellite on Saturday promised to open up an avenue of research toward honest-to-goodness earthquake prediction, even though plenty of experts suspect it may be a dead end. The satellite was supposed to observe changes in Earth's magnetic field and determine whether those changes could serve as precursors of seismic events.
Researchers from NASA as well as Russia and China are debating whether such a seismo-magnetic connection exists. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as if Compass 2 will provide any evidence to settle the debate one way or the other. Russian mission controllers say they haven't been able to switch on the satellite's scientific equipment, and there are mounting reports that the loss is irretrievable.
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Last week's report on the quest for invisibility sparked some pretty intriguing comments, including numerous claims that the military has already developed real-life invisibility cloaks. It sounds a little too much like "The X-Files" to me — but hey, sometimes the truth really is out there. A couple of readers also noted additional limitations on invisibility technology. Read on for a selection of the e-mail feedback.
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Don't be surprised if Cosmic Log takes on a new look over the next few days — and a new Web address as well. The ID number for this old place may change, but even if you get lost, you can always find your way back to the log by typing in CosmicLog.com.
• Science News: A gripping tale of nanotubes
• N.Y. Times: Katrina was like four storms in one
• National Geographic: To hell and back in Peru
• Nature: Mini-fridge exploits molecular motion
Take one scary phenomenon, find the worst conceivable real-world scenario and scale it up a few notches … that’s the formula for disaster flicks ranging from “10.5” to “Armageddon” to “The Day After Tomorrow,” and now for the “Poseidon” remake as well.
This week, the subject is rogue waves — giant walls of water that dwarf even your run-of-the-mill storm swells. These are distinct from the 33-foot-high, earthquake-generated tsunami waves we came to know all too well in 2004. For ages, mariners have told of much bigger midocean waves, rising more than 200 feet to hammer the ships caught in their sights.
The plot of "Poseidon" posits a 150-foot-high rogue wave, big and bad enough to upturn a cruise ship. Although that's way over the top — kind of like Shelley Winters' acting in the original 1972 "Poseidon Adventure" — it turns out that real-life rogue waves can come closer to that mark than scientists once thought.
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