Now, nearly 36 years later, it seems it may have done exactly that. A paper published this week by New Mexico State University astronomer W.R. Webber makes the claim that Voyager has officially left the Solar System, though a contingent from NASA is arguing that Webber is jumping the gun. Given how important the answer to this question is – Voyager would represent the first manmade object to leave the confines of our Sun’s system, after all – let’s take a closer look at where the probe is and what it means to us back home.

What’s the Verdict: Has Voyager I Left the Solar System or Not?

Just like the competing opinions of NASA and Webber, the answer to this question is very difficult to obtain. The most difficult aspect of the question lies in determining exactly where it is that the Sun’s ability to gravitationally influence other bodies ends. While that is one possible determination of the “edge” of the solar system, another relates to the barrier at which the solar wind, the constant stream of charged particles emitted by our star that, finally finds itself blown out, with only light radiation carrying on.

Given its sheer distance from us, this barrier is largely unknown to us, with only the vague measurements offered by the very spacecraft whose position we wish to judge to guide us. Since August, Voyager seems to be no longer picking up obvious amounts of radiation from the Sun, suggesting that it is further away than that radiation can reach, and this fact is what gave birth to Webber’s conclusion that the Sun has been officially left behind.

For its part, though, NASA has repeated a report issued in December that says that Voyager remains within the confines of the Solar System, though it is traveling through a part of that system that was previously unknown, currently being dubbed the “magnetic highway” by scientists given the measurable change in the local magnetic fields surrounding the probe. These fields are generated by the Sun, meaning that Voyager is still very much under our home star’s influence, even despite being more than 18 billion kilometers away from it.

It’s NASA’s probe, leading me to think that we’ll need to trust their word on this until more and different data can be obtained, making the final verdict one that suggests that Voyager has still not reached interstellar space, though it is very, very close – relatively speaking, of course!

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Making sure that your home is energy efficient is an easy way to conserve energy that is easy on your wallet and the environment! Our third entry focused on checking and maintaining heating and cooling equipment; here is the final part of an on-going series showing you how to easily perform an energy audit on your own home, this time focusing on turning to a professional for help.

Professional Home Energy Audits

If you decide to get a professional to perform your audit, then know (and hope) that they will go into great detail. The auditor will perform a room-by-room systematic examination of your home, while also scanning through historical utility bills in order to determine where problems may exist. The tests performed by a professional home energy will vary widely, but you should expect:

• A blower door test which measures the air tightness of the home
• A thermographic test which measures surface temperature variations, which can in turn identify structure problems, moisture content, thermal bridging, and air leakage
• A PFT (pulmonary function test) air infiltration measurement test

Besides inspecting your home, appliances, and other physical aspects of your house, your professional energy auditor will also analyze the behavior of the home’s residents, looking at variables such as:

• Who is home during the day
• The average thermostat setting for winter and summer
• How many people live there
• Are all rooms in use

Preparing for an Energy Audit

Before the auditor is scheduled to arrive, you should make a list of existing problems that you have noticed, including trouble with condensation or drafty rooms. You’ll also want to have at least one year’s worth of utility bills on hand for the auditor to go over; information gleaned from your utility history will go a long way towards establishing what the auditor should look for during the audit.

While it is certainly possible to conduct your own inspection, hiring a professional is a sure way to ensure that you get an experienced set of eyes that can help you to save money – and the environment – with a few subtle changes to the way you manage your household, making the necessary investment a worthwhile one in every case.

Heating/Cooling Equipment

No matter what the manufacturer and seller tell you, all heating and cooling equipment in your home must be inspected at least once per year if you want to maintain it at maximum capacity and efficiency. If the furnace is of the forced air variety, be sure to check and replace your filters every month or two – more often during periods of heavy use. If maintenance is too big of a job to handle, there are many reliable and inexpensive professionals out there to choose from.

If your heating and cooling systems systems are more then 15 years old, you may want to consider replacing the equipment with more energy efficient models; modern systems can be astoundingly efficient, shaving up to 90 percent of your electricity costs in comparison to older models.

Lighting

It may be outside of the realm of heating and cooling, but your household lighting is worth mentioning, especially given that it accounts for roughly 10 percent of all household electric bills. While optimizing isn’t an option where the electrical system is concerned, there are steps that you can take to reduce your bill by saving energy.

1. Turn off the Lights

First, and most obvious, is the suggestion to simply use less light. Turn lights off when you’re not in the room, and employ dimmers in situations where they would be appropriate.

2. Tone the Wattage Down

Second, you’ll want to investigate the wattage that you’re using in each area; you’re likely to find many locations where a 50 or 75 watt bulb would do in place of a 100 watt bulb.

3. Consider Fluorescent Bulbs

Their lighting is a bit different than that produced by typical incandescent bulbs, but compact fluorescent bulbs are vastly more energy-efficient than their counterparts; in fact, a single incandescent bulb is equivalent in energy use to 13 compact fluorescent bulbs!

Checking Attic Insulation

If you have an older home, chances are that you do not have adequate insulation. The builder probably installed the amount of insulation that was recommended at that time – an amount often less than current suggestions and regulations. Energy loss through the ceiling and walls of your home can be a huge money loser, making an audit of your insulation situation a worthwhile endeavor.

In the attic, make sure the ceiling is heavily insulated in all areas; even the attic hatch needs just as much insulation as the rest of the area. Determine if chimneys, duct-work, and pipes are sealed and, if needed, seal them with expanding foam caulk or other permanent sealer.

When inspecting the attic, check if there is a vapor barrier beneath the attic insulation. It could be made of Kraft paper, tar paper, or even just a plastic sheet – but it is necessary. The vapor barrier reduces the amount of water vapor that can get through the ceiling – this means that the moisture cannot get through to diminish the effectiveness of insulation, and will not be able to harm the building structure. If there is not a vapor barrier in your attic, you may want to think about painting the interior ceiling with a vapor barrier paint.

Finally, identify any areas that have too much insulation, specifically attic vents. If you do find insulation inhibiting airflow where it shouldn’t, be sure to clear the area well, and seal if necessary.

Checking Wall Insulation

It’s a little more difficult to check the amount of wall insulation, for obvious reasons. Start by turning off all circuit breakers or fuses for the area being checked. When you are absolutely sure there in no electricity going to the outlets, remove their face plates and probe into the wall with a long stick or screwdriver; alternatively, you can make small holes in inconspicuous places like closets in order to get a peek inside.

Either way, if you feel some resistance, you have some insulation there, but there is no way to tell, other than a thermographic inspection, if the entire wall is insulated or if the insulation has settled. Some is better than none, but you should consider a professional audit if you think the insulation levels in your walls is suspect.

Checking Basement Insulation

If the basement is unheated, you should have insulation under the living area flooring, using material with an R-value of at least 25, the recommended level is most parts of the world. An R-level value of 19 or greater is required for the top of the foundation wall and the perimeter of the first floor, as well. This rating also applies to the foundation walls if the basement is heated. The water heater, furnace ducts, and hot water pipes also need to be insulated, with you sealing each gap as needed during your audit.

Auditing for Air Leaks

Auditing your home for air leaks is as easy as roaming about and making a list of the leaks or drafts that you can identify by feel alone; with huge savings on the line, you’ll want to be sure to give the task your utmost attention. Pay particular attention to drafty areas such as electrical outlets and switch plates, window frames, baseboards, spaces or worn weather stripping around doors, fireplace dampers, attic openings, window or wall mounted air conditioners, and other areas where outside meets in.

Auditing Windows and Doors

As your last line of defense between the inside of your home and the outside air and weather, doors and windows should be a particular focus of your energy audit. If you can move or jiggle them, air is most certainly getting through; if you can see daylight around the frame air, there is no question of a leak. You can usually easily and cheaply fix this with caulk and weather stripping, although you may want to consider replacing them with high energy efficient products for maximum leak control.

On the outside of the house, you should also closely examine all areas where two different types of building materials meet, whether there are doors and windows involved or not. Exterior corners and areas where the foundation or chimney and siding meet are good examples.

Pressurization Tests

If you are having trouble locating leaks, you can do a basic pressurization test. Here are the preparatory steps that you’ll need to take:

• Close all the windows, outside doors, and fireplace dampers.
• Shut off all combustible appliances like gas burning furnaces or water heaters.

Now, turn on an exhaust fan, or use a large window fan to suck all the air out of the rooms. This method enhances the infiltration of air through leaks and cracks, making them easier to spot. If you use a burning incense stick to guide you, the draft will cause the smoke to waver; a damp hand also helps in this regard.

With your air leak audit complete, keep in mind that you’ll need to be careful in sealing your home. Be aware of indoor air pollution and combustion appliance back drafts. In homes where gas is burned, there is a standard 1 inch of vent opening required for each 1,000 BTU of appliance input heat.

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Leaving millions of dollars worth of damage and more than 1,500 people injured in its wake, that hurtling space object served to remind humanity just how vulnerable we are to the seemingly random flight paths of asteroids in our solar system, begging the question: is there anything that we can do to prepare?

NASA has been addressing just that question this week, as politicians in the United States debate and discuss the feasibility of improved asteroid monitoring efforts. From no-nonsense satellites that keep their eye on local object movement, to pie-in-the-sky ideas of diverting them with lasers shot from Earth’s surface, the dialog emerging from the discussions is not only interesting, but necessary if we are to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs.

How Likely is an Impact?

Speaking of the dinosaurs, we should probably take into account that the massive strike that is postulated to have ended their existence took place about 65 million years ago – no blink of an eye, to be sure. The question of how often we should expect to be struck by space debris is the most important one we can ask in the early stages of these efforts, and the answer is both reassuring and terrifying.

Our solar system’s asteroid belt contains many millions of objects, most of them held in sway by the competing gravitational forces of the Sun and giant Jupiter, but every so often a gravitational perturbation can send one or more of these asteroids flying away from their previously steady course. The sheer enormity of space and the vast distances between planets and other bodies suggests that we should always be mathematically unlikely to be struck by any one object, but a host of them in our immediate neighborhood raises the stakes dramatically, especially when long spans of time are taken into account, and this is what NASA hopes to better measure.

Right now, we know that NASA is actively tracking about 95 percent of local asteroids that are 1 km or more in diameter – big enough to have extreme effects around the world. While that may inspire some sense of safety, do note that of the 10,000 local objects of smaller size – big enough only to destroy a single city, NASA says – we are aware of the motions of about 10 percent of them.

Strikes by the bigger variety appear to be relatively rare in our geological history, with the last major hit taking place in the era of the dinosaurs, but the smaller objects have a track record of about one hit every 1,000 years.

NASA provides a really nifty Virtual Solar System simulation where you can test your theories.

What Can We Do About It?

As of today, there really is nothing that we could do, with or without notice, to avert disaster from above. Of course, with super-accurate measurements, we could potentially evacuate an area expecting a direct hit ahead of time, but we posses no technology capable of changing the orbital movements of any body, big or small. How exactly NASA will forge ahead with this idea remains to be seen, but rest unassured that we are many years – probably generations – from even attempting anything like Bruce Willis and company did in the film Armageddon.

On the other hand, knowledge is the root of all power, and better understanding, predicting, and tracking the motions of asteroids is the first step towards protecting ourselves from them, so we offer our thanks – and hope for the future – to NASA.

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The journal Current Biology published this week the results of a study aimed at identifying exactly what mechanism roosters use to tell the time of day, allowing them to crow promptly each morning. While the obvious answer is that they see the sun rise above the horizon and respond accordingly, get this: roosters placed in an environment with constant lighting still crow first thing in the morning, like clockwork. While they do crow in response to light – at the sight of car headlights, for example – light isn’t the only thing at play in this equation.

Besides being a bit counter-intuitive to what most would consider an obvious answer, this curious fact lead the researchers behind this study to take a closer look, and what they found is even more interesting: roosters boast the same kind of internal clock that we posses. Called a circadian clock, this internal time measurement system relies on biochemical mechanisms to oscillate with a period of 24 hours, allowing the creatures who have them to tell the time of day regardless of external stimuli like sunlight or temperature.

Playing a major role in many natural process, for humans and other animals alike, the circadian clock helps blind fish to navigate safely under the sea, mammals like us to sleep and eat – and roosters how to crow!

Click here to learn more about circadian clocks at Wikipedia!

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Both of those things are there for the taking with these two excellent solar system exploration websites, each offering a beautiful virtual model of the planets, moons, and other objects that are held in gravitational sway by the Sun, throwing out all of the facts that you could wish for in the process!

Solar System Scope

Using imagery from NASA and scientific data from satellites, landers, orbiters, telescopes, and other instruments, Solar System Scope starts you off well-distanced from our solar system, allowing you to click on and visit any planet instantly, and giving you a quick look at the latest photographs of each planet.

Besides offering you the ability to visit each planet individually, Solar System Scope also has a very handy distance feature built in, allowing you to find the distance between any two objects with a single click. Not only does this feature apply to local objects, but to hundreds of distant stars as well, bringing you the science of distance measured in light years in a visual package that is as fun as it is informative.

Sun Aeon

Very similar to Solar System Scope in its look and feel, the virtual learning tool called Sun Aeon takes things a step further by providing its visitors with textual and visual data over and above mere imagery. By visiting each planet, you’ll see a photograph alongside all of its basic data, from a textual overview to all of the measurements and other numbers that you could ask for. The additional ability to see visual representations of internal structure, local anomalies, and other significant features makes Sun Aeon an effort in true learning, turning every curious visitor into an amateur space scientist within minutes.

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After negotiations with NASA to work together on the project fell through due to American budget constraints within NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to enlist the help of Russia and its Roscosmos space agency to see its ExoMars mission plans come to fruition. The two agencies will combine to spend upwards of 1 billion EUR (about $1.3 billion USD), with a target launch date of 2016.

The ExoMars Mission

Working in stages, the ExoMars mission will include both an orbiting satellite and two landers, all with the goal of identifying potential bio-signatures, especially in areas of the planet where methane has been detected. Typically either the result of modern life or geological activity, the presence of methane on what we believe to be a dead planet is curious, providing ESA and Roscosmos with a series of prime potential landing sites.

While NASA has already drilled on the Martian surface in the hunt for evidence of possible life, the depths reached are only about two centimeters – not nearly deep enough to reveal the wealth of evidence potentially resting below. Making matters even more difficult is the fact that samples taken by rovers on Mars must analyze and produce results in the limited confines of their tiny laboratories. In order to give scientists real, hands-on access to the secrets of the Martian soil, the ExoMars mission will deliver the samples back to Earth.

The ExoMars mission will attempt to drill up to two meters (about six feet) into the Martian surface, securing samples for analysis to be carried out both on the Martian surface, and back home once the second stage of the mission returns the soil to Earth.

The first stage of the project will see an orbiter and lander launched in 2016, with an additional lander with the capability to leave Mars and return to Earth to launch two years later in 2018.

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Still, between the heavy mathematics and unfathomable factors to run through your mind, sometimes the more human questions regarding the big bang are forgotten. One example is the question of whether or not the big bang actually “banged” at all.

Before we venture on to tackle that question, let’s take a moment to understand the difference between the event that we call the “big bang,” and the theory that attempts to describe that event.

The Big Bang

Through the magic of mathematics and the extensive data that we’ve been able to compile via the ingenious scientific instruments that we’ve been able to dream up, science has come to accept that there was a beginning to the Universe – that is, a time when all matter and energy resided in a tiny, but unfathomably dense, singularity. For reasons still unknown, it seems that this tiny point of matter began expanding rapidly, unleashing the energy needed for the birth of stars and other structures, eventually leading to life advanced enough to ask these sorts of questions to begin with – us!

This expansion continues today, a fact proven by Edwin Hubble in his study of the stretching of light and discovery of redshift

Visit Wikipedia for a full overview of the science and discovery behind our understanding of the Big Bang.

The Big Bang Theory

Given that we’re discussing events that took place in the realm of 14 billion years ago, exactitude is difficult, but modern mathematics has been able to step up to the plate and make serious predictions about the conditions of the early Universe.

This set of predictions, along with the mathematics and data that they are built on, has come to be known as the big bang. The term itself was coined by physicist Fred Hoyle, a scientist who was, ironically, entirely opposed to the idea of a creation event; instead, during the great physics glory days of the 1940s, Hoyle advocated what he called the “steady state theory,” an idea that presumed no beginning to the Universe.

It was during a radio interview with the BBC that Hoyle condenscendingly referred to the opposing scientists’ idea of a creation event as a “big bang,” and the moniker stuck, becoming one of the best known scientific expressions of our time.

Did the Big Bang Really “Bang”?

Those quick overviews bring us to the question posed in the title of this post: did the big bang make a sound?

The answer, interestingly enough, is yes.

As energy was violently released by the initial expansion of the Universe, any living thing on hand would have been privy to the moving of something like an atmosphere, particularly during the first 400,000 years or so, a time during which energy was still so condensed that the Universe itself was opaque; we can see this opaqueness still in the form of the cosmic microwave background, an all-pervasive field of radiation left over from the big bang.

If a pair of ears had have been there at the time – and somehow protected from the forces at work – the extreme movement of this energy, along with its stretching due to the effects of expansion, would have generated a unique sound. Thanks to the clever work of John G. Cramer, a Professor of Physics at the University of Washington in Seattle who turned the mathematics of the creation event into computerized sound, we can listen to the expansion of the big bang just as ears in existence 13.7 billion years ago would have heard it.

Click here to listen to the sound of the big bang!

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CERN Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are now confident that they found a Higgs boson particle.

“The God Particle”, the previously theoretical Higgs boson is the mechanism that gives elementary objects mass. Explaining their existence helps to explain the existence of virtually everything else. Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have been smashing atoms in the LHC for years hoping to find the stuff things are made of. On Thursday, at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, scientists say that their evidence fro the most part:

“The preliminary results with the full 2012 data set are magnificent and to me it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs boson, though we still have a long way to go to know what kind of Higgs boson it is,” said CMS spokesperson Joe Incandela.

Physicists remind us that it is not enough to simply be a Higgs boson (which is characterized by the absence of spin), that it has to behave like one too. Although a spokesman said the particles they are looking for the “spin parity” of a “Standard Model Higgs boson”, continued testing is needed to assert the verification of the Higgs.

Because odds of detecting a Higgs boson are trillion to 1, when the event happens its a monumental occasion.

What is a Higgs Boson, or The God Particle”?

The video above provides a pretty thorough explanation. For further reading on the subject, check the following links:

Higgs boson – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Higgs Boson – Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HowStuffWorks “What exactly is the Higgs boson?”

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According to scientists this Dark Matter and Dark Energy together account for about ninety six per cent of the Universe. And if we are able to uncover the secrets of these two phenomena’s we will to some extent be able to understand what eventually is going to happen to the Universe.

So, let us take a little journey towards the dark mysteries of the Universe and find out what Dark Matter and Dark energy mean.

Dark Matter: Though scientists have made a lot of observations regarding Dark Matter over the years, nothing can be stated to be a fact as of now. What scientists know is that:

• Everyday there are billions of these particles floating around in space.
• They pass through everything they come across.
• There are so huge in terms of weight that they determine how galaxies are formed as well as how fast or slow they spin.

The reason why scientists are not able to state things regarding Dark Matter to be a fact is because they have never been able to capture any of this information. Not being able to see it makes it even more difficult to be able to observe it. One thing all scientists are sure about is that it does exist.

Fritz Swicky, a Swiss scientist in 1933 was the first to discover that galaxies appeared to be moving at a much faster rate than they should have been. He was able to deduce this information by measuring the motion of the galaxies and stars to get an idea of the mass of the galaxy. He then compared it to the amount of mass that was visible while observing the galaxy. Due to certain differences at that time in the scientific community, his discovery was ignored and not given any importance.

Later on in the 1960’s another scientist Vera Rubin made the same discovery. She worked on this fact relentlessly and in the late 1970’s was able to convince the community that there was some substance to this observation. And now it has been accepted that Dark Matter is not just the visible baryonic matter that we are so familiar with but is made up of more mysterious particles.

Dark Energy: What is Dark energy? Till today scientists are still confused as to what it actually is. However the general idea is that it is a sort of negative energy that is forcing galaxies to move away from each other. Dark energy is said to constitute 73% of the space in Universe. According to science observations the universe should have been gradually slowing down over the years due to gravity. But this is not happening instead its speed is increasing making the universe expand faster which could lead to very disastrous events.

In conclusion, I would say that the study of the Universe is very interesting and expansive and what we require is more and more information.

This guest post is brought to you by NATHAN BROWN of buyatt.com, a site that offers savings and current information on ATT Uverse and ATT Uverse TV.

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Think of all the people who are utterly convinced that there is sentient life on other planets; who believe that in the sheer vastness of space we cannot possibly be the only planet that supports life. This group is subdivided into those who believe that we have yet to discover this life, and those who believe that we are regularly visited by aliens – who may or may not abduct people at random and insert probes in unpleasant places.

Then there are those who believe that the chances of there being another planet with exactly the right conditions to support life are slim to zero, with zero being the favoured option.

Either way, the world is full of amateur astronomers who keep a watchful eye on the night sky.

Amateur astronomy

Amateur astronomy includes people who are content to read some books and lie on their backs identifying the constellations and dreaming sweet space dreams. These would be your stargazers.

It extends to people who kit themselves out with telescopes, charts and software, who join astronomy societies and who carefully document the details of each night examining the sky.

This kind of commitment is becoming quite important to the field, as members of the public make groundbreaking discoveries. Naveena Sadasivam (scienceonline.org) gives the example of Robert Gagliano, who picked up a pattern around a star that resulted in a six-month test by Yale University astronomers, who then found a new planet with four suns.

Gagliano is not alone in his discoveries, but the interesting thing, according to Sadasivam, is that many of these recent discoveries have not resulted from astronomers spending long nights outdoors with sandwiches, coffee and blankets. Instead, a new type of amateur astronomer has emerged. These astronomers spend most of their time studying their computer screens, using freely available data to find new irregular and regular patterns.

Two fields collide

Professional astronomers are glad of the help. Basically, so much data comes in that professionals can’t even begin to process it all. Amateurs lessen the load. They are aided by websites such as planethunters.org and Uwingu, 3D software and a range of apps.

All of this technology doesn’t mean that amateurs have abandoned their telescopes for a desk. There are still plenty who stock their shelves with books and charts and invest small fortunes in binoculars and telescopes, and who join clubs and societies and make regular visits to every planetarium they can find.

After all, nothing really beats a clear sky, cold nights, blankets and a thermos of coffee

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source 

Sandy Cosser has lived most of her adult life in Cape Town, where she indulges her stargazer self with regular visits to the planetarium, which often makes the list of prime destinations for private and group day tours.

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Seven months into its planned two year stay on Mars, Curiosity drilled into the planet’s rocky surface, boring a 2.5 inch hole using a specialized hammering drill. The hammering action of the tool allowed Curiosity to analyze the resulting rock powder with its on-board chemical sniffing instruments, and it is these results that has NASA so excited. The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) tools found that the key chemicals needed for life as we know it are abundant in the Martian soil, including sulfur, phosphorous, hydrogen, oxygen, and all-important carbon.

Capable of detecting true organic chemicals – compounds containing carbon and acting as the building blocks of life – Curiosity also revealed two chlorinated organics during the experiment, but scientists interpreting the data urged caution until the experiment can be repeated at another location, citing the possibility that residual carbon on the drill bit could have made for a false positive.

With the relative positions of Earth and Mars making communications impossible through most of the month of April, the next drilling experiment is likely to take place in May.

Signs of Life

Possible life on Mars – just what does that mean? Unfortunately, this experiment doesn’t confirm that life did exist on Mars, only that some of the signs that we would expect to see if it had are present. For most scientists, the idea of life existing on Mars in its distant past is something close to a given. Unfortunately, Curiosity isn’t capable of detecting life itself, so a future mission will need to be planned in order to take the next step in confirming that we weren’t always alone in the inner solar system.

The post Mars Could Have Supported Life appeared first on 4sci.net.

The controls on this fantastic montage allow you to rotate, look up or down, and even to zoom in on some of the more fascinating aspects of the barren red sand plains below Greeley Haven. Unless you plan to audition for the role of wandering space couple on the upcoming Inspiration Mars mission, this is as close as you’re likely to get to Mars in the next 30 years or so.

Click here to visit the surface of Mars!

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You can have a look at the original hockey stick graph below:

Now, scientists have put together a new hockey stick graph, this one offering a schematic view of global temperatures over a period of 10,000 years. Published today in the journal Science, the graph retains its hockey stick figure and then some, providing a stark view of just how serious the temperature effects of industrial climate change are.

The updated graph shows that the Earth underwent a period of gradual cooling for about 7,000 years, with a minimum average temperature reached about 250 years ago. Since that time, temperatures have been increasing, but the real message lies in the shocking increases seen over only the past 75 years, undoing in a blink what had taken thousands of years to occur naturally.

While highlighting the many effects that our industrialization and use of carbon-based fuels have had on the planet over the past 100 years, we’re also reminded starkly of just how quickly those changes are taking place. In the end, we’re left to wonder – and hope – that plant and animal life on Earth can adapt quickly enough to survive and thrive over the coming centuries if drastic changes to our way of life are not made.

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Just what are stem cells, and why are they so controversial? Read on to learn more:

What Are Stem Cells?

Stem cells are built in a similar way to the trillions of other cells in living things, but they posses one characteristic that no other cell does: they are entirely unspecialized, giving them the ability to adapt into any number of different cells. Unlike other cells that are entirely specialized, such as blood cells or nurse cells, stem cells can adapt to form a variety of specilized cells, replicating at a rapid pace for long periods of time in order to replace damaged cells in the body.

Because they are so elastic in their ability to mutate into specilized cells, stem cells are able to aid specific organs and tissues by replacing damaged cells, and therein lies their great value to medicine. While the promise of the ability to repair damaged tissues may excite scientists on a quest to cure diseases such as cancer, it is the origination of stem cells that has given rise to such controversy.

Where Do Stem Cells Come From?

Unsurprisingly, stem cells are found most often in bodies involved in the creation of human life, namely pregnant women and developing fetuses. Different types of stems cells are present at different times of fetal development:

• Embryonic stem cells are present in embryos during their earliest stages of development, each prepared to differentiate into any type of cell required.
• Fetal stem cells are present in a fetus during the period of development after about nine weeks, residing in tissues, blood, and bone marrow. Like their embryonic counterparts, fetal stem cells are able to differentiate into any cell type.
• Umbilical stem cells reside only in the blood of the umbilical cord. While undeveloped, they are a specialized cell that do not posses the mutating abilities of embryonic and fetal stem cells.
• Placental stem cells are very similar to those found in the umbilical cord in that they, too, are specialized and limited in their ability to differentiate.
• Adult stem cells, found in mature humans, are no less proficient than their counterparts in creating new cells in order to repaired damaged ones, but they are entirely specialized and so cannot differentiate at all.

Why Are Stem Cells Controversial?

The most promising type of stem cell in regards to medical research is that found in the human embryo, and the process of creating a stem cell line suitable for medical use necessitates the destruction of that embryo. For obvious reasons, this idea does not sit well with much of the population, and that has resulted in a difficult-to-argue debate about the value of a human embryo as it relates to human life – a nearly impossible question and moral debate with no easy answer.

Recent research has shown that adult stem cells may hold more potential than previously thought, and so there exists the possibility that a resolution to this debate will not be necessary. Given their extreme promise, we can only hope that a consensus view can be reached for the good of humanity at large.

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Science is all around us, but many of us don’t see it. We are so caught up in our daily lives and busy work schedules that we miss out on the amazing aspects to life that are right in front of our noses. While many science-related phenomenon can only be seen with the proper lab equipment, there are many fascinating aspects to life that can be witnessed from your own backyard.

Slowing Down to Experience the View

While many things, such as the photosynthesis of plants and asteroids flying through outer space may only be visible with the proper equipment, not everything related to science is hard to see. Humans, animals and plants all begin as tiny atoms and molecules that grow into adult life – these events can be seen with the naked eye. There are many videos across the web that take such processes and allow you to see them sped-up, so you never miss a beat. You can literally watch a flower start as a tiny little seed poking through the soil, expanding in height, see those first signs of the leaves appearing – and finally the plant blossoms, within a matter of minutes. Creatures are born, they age and they move on from this life. You don’t necessarily need a lab coat and safety goggles in order to experience all of life’s treasures, although doing so wouldn’t hurt, either.

Some Things May Never Be Known

What’s so fascinating about science is that it’s a never-ending learning experience. We may never get to a point where we know everything there is to know about the world around us. Ever single year, more species of animals and plants pop up from what seems like thin air. There are always new medical advancements to be excited about. Most recently, doctors are saying they’re coming closer to the cure for deadly ailments, such as cancer.

Did you know we have only been able to explore about 50% of the world’s oceans to date? With around 1 million species of animals and plants currently known to reside there, can you imagine just how many more may be right underneath the surface? At this point in time, there are not the proper tools or vehicles to allow humans to safely access much of the ocean floor, leaving much of it completely unknown to us. The great news is, technological advancements are a main focus in today’s day and age, so robotics and ‘smart’ machinery may just be what allows us to discover completely new cures, creatures or knowledge about the world as a whole.

Education: Becoming One with Science

Even without being a scientist or having those expensive advancements in your home, the resources are out there. There are television shows, textbooks and an abundance of information on the internet that can be used to your disposal. It feels great to get lost in the amazing natural creations of the world, and feel as though we’re all part of a much bigger picture. Who knows, you could just be one of the next people to discover or recognize that next big change the world has been looking for.

Attached Images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source 
•  License: Creative Commons image source 
•  License: Creative Commons image source 

Linda Cornwall is a professor of psychology in a reputed university. She likes to analyze each and every aspect of human behaviour from a scientific point of view and feels that this way many existing problems in human nature can be overcome. Microscopes are one of her favourite instruments and admits that she gets amazed each time she looks into it and finds a whole new world not visible to the naked eye. She also blogs in her spare time about various issues.

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Beginning tonight, March 6, 2013, and lasting until March 24, Pan-STARRS will be inching its way across the heavens, with the potential for the development of a long tail possible as it continues to approach the Sun, making its closest pass on March 10. For the next few days, your best opportunity to spot the comet will be just over the western horizon for about 45 minutes after sunset. Pan-STARRS isn’t particularly bright, so you’ll need to make your way away from bright city lights to see it, even as you hope for clear skies.

Even better news for comet enthusiasts is that of comet ISON, the bigger, brighter comet that promises to light up northern hemisphere skies in a potentially major way later this year.

If you’d like to learn more about comet Pan-STARRS viewing opportunities for your particular location, EarthSky.org has a wonderful Pan-STARRS viewing guide online. In order to set the scene for Pan-STARRS and offer a few viewing tips, NASA’s ScienceCast also offers an overview of what to expect:

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A solid, difficult question, to be sure. A little miffed at myself for not knowing the answer, I went on a hunt in order to figure it all out – here’s what I found:

Why is Ice Clear?

Like water, ice is generally seen to be clear because most of the light that hits it is able to pass through. Now, in real life, most ice that we come across has a good amount of air trapped inside, not to mention curved edges, and this leads to a carnival mirror effect when we try to look through it, due mostly to the bouncing and bending of light as it passes through.

In the end, though, most of that light makes it through the ice in a more or less straight line, making it translucent to our eyes.

Why is Snow White?

Alright, clear enough, you may be saying (no pun intended, I’m sure) – but, then, why is snow white? Snow is made up of mostly clear ice crystals, after all, so we should expect it to be as translucent as the water ice of which it consists.

Not so fast. Again, we have to take into account the effects of bending light.

In the case of snow, light does a lot of bouncing when it hits the multifaceted ice crystals that make up each flake. Pack a bunch of snow together – and that’s the state in which we usually see the white stuff – and you’ve got a maze that light has a tough time weaving its way through.

As light hits accumulated snow, it is reflected in all directions, leaving no one wavelength to be dominant from the point of view of our eyes. In the end, most of the light that hits the snow is simply reflected upwards in the same state in which it arrived, leaving us to perceive the result as plain white instead of clear.

Why are Glaciers Blue?

When we see a picture of a huge chunk of polar glacial ice, it often has a blue tinge to it, raising the question of why glaciers themselves aren’t simply see-through. Again, light comes into play.

Necessarily huge, glaciers force the light that hits them to travel a long way into their depths, and this causes more and more of the red components of the light spectrum to be absorbed. With all of that red removed as the light breaks apart, our eyes are left to see only the opposite end of the spectrum that is being reflected back towards us; blue light. This gives glaciers (and other large masses of water ice) a blue tint from the perspective of our eyes.

So, in conclusion, we’ve got clear ice, white snow, and blue glaciers, all because of the funny dynamics at play with light. Now you know!

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Dennis Tito, a billionaire and former NASA scientist, announced his plans last week to send a spacecraft called Inspiration Mars to circle our neighboring planet before returning home, complete with a two-person crew – preferably a married couple with the fortitude and credentials to withstand being millions of miles from home in ultra-cramped conditions for more than 500 days.

Tito himself is probably best known for his 2001 trip to the International Space Station, complete with a $20 million ticket for his flight, courtesy of the Russian space program. While he continues to have faith in NASA’s slow and steady approach to Mars, Tito has made it clear that he wants to see humanity make it further out into the solar system before he dies, prompting him to spend more than $2 billion of his personal reserves in order to make it happen.

While we do have a launch date – January 5, 2018 – there is little else in the way of details available at the moment. The group working on the project currently has a call out to couples who are willing to volunteer, with the only requirements being that they represent both genders, are physically able, and of particularly sound mind – sound enough to spend more than 500 days cooped up with another person in exceptionally tight quarters.

Details or not, this is an exciting development in not only space exploration generally, but the willingness of private citizens to spend their cash on space-based initiatives. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story as it develops, so be sure to keep an eye on our astronomy section for updates!

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If you’ve ever wondered what exactly a sonic boom is, read on for a clear and concise answer:

What is a Sonic Boom?

When an object moves through the air, whether it’s you out for a stroll or a passenger plane soaring through the sky, it pushes air ahead of it in waves, similar to those produced in water at a ship’s passing. When such an object moves faster than the speed of sound – about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) per hour at normal atmospheric pressure at sea level – the pressure waves that it is pushing ahead of itself necessarily compact ahead of it, producing shock waves which then begin to travel behind it.

As these shock waves release their pressure, the effect reaches our ears and is interpreted as the booming of rushing, condensed air – a sonic boom. As the object continues to fly through the atmosphere at speeds exceeding that of sound, it will continue to leave shock waves, and thus sonic booms, in its path.

What Does a Sonic Boom Look Like?

As you’ll see in the photograph above, there is also a visual phenomenon associated with a sonic boom. Appearing as a vertical, flattened cloud, this extraordinary sight appears courtesy of water vapor, but the “why” of the cloud is the more interesting topic. While theories abound, the one most accepted postulates that, when a plane reaches supersonic speed, the sudden drop in air pressure associated with the crunching of sound waves causes the surrounding atmospheric moisture to suddenly condense into water droplets, forming a strange portal-like cloud around the plane itself.

Whatever its cause, the cloud caused by a sonic boom is visually amazing – you can have a look at a few other choice pictures below:

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• A Little Farfetched for Our Times

The plan to mine the asteroid was announced by DSI sometime in January and was repeated again. More than the feasibility of such a mission what baffles readers is the way it has been sensationalized. Probably, the mission planners were to attract attention than doing something practical. If things go as planned and DSI is able to attract enough sponsors there will be at least two spacecrafts flying out to space beginning 2015 for bringing back materials worth billions of dollars. How DSI calculated the worth in money terms is itself a little baffling.

• Too Many Presumptions and Too Little Evidence

According to DSI’s presumptions the mission will bring back $65 billion in water assets alone which they hope to break into oxygen and hydrogen that can be sold as rocket fuel. The other assets they hope to bring to earth are nickel, iron and other unspecified metals collectively valued at $130 billion.

According to NASA, the asteroid is about 50 meters wide and possibly has a mass anywhere between 16,000 and one million tonnes, and that itself is something difficult to register. If there is such a vast difference in the estimated mass, then the asteroid could be 5 or 10 million tonnes as well. It is significant the NASA did change its stance at least once on its estimated mass.

• Is it Really worth the Effort

Still another angle in which the whole thing needs to be considered is whether the whole operation is worth at all. For now, however, that may not be an issue, but feasibility is. According to DSI they plan to send a fleet of smaller spacecrafts they call Firefly to probe the asteroids’ surface. If all works out well then they may send a larger one called Dragonfly, which again is only a sampler that will bring back materials from the asteroid. The whole operation may take a couple of years DSI says.

• Managing such a Large Inventory and Selling can be a Problem

Presuming that all is well with technology and transportation arrangement, how does DSI plan to offload such huge inventory in the market place? Chances are prices will drop drastically when such large amounts of metal are made available over short periods. It would do well if DSI can come out with a practical marketing plan.

Though conceptually everything is fine, there are some loose ends that need to be tied before DSI can deliver on its grand plans. Financing their venture may require the support of governments and the involvement of many departments.

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In general, planetary science studies the planets, their moons, all the bodies and radiations of the solar system, the various force fields and interactions between the several components of the Solar System.

Because our solar system plays host to the only bodies that we can physically reach with current technology, much of our knowledge and assumptions about the way single-star systems evolve is derived directly from observations made closer to home. New forms of spectrum-analysis and gravitational lensing, among other methods, are beginning to offer the ability to study planetary systems around other stars but the vast bulk of our knowledge comes directly from our local planets, moons and other bodies.

With the oft-delayed James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the vastly popular and useful Hubble Space Telescope, set to take orbit and begin its work later this decade, we may finally be able to see extra-solar planets for the first time, a boon not only for planetologists, but for all of humanity, as well.

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From cosmology, the study of the origins and large-scale shape and structure of the universe, to astrobiology, the study of potential life in other areas of the universe, astronomy is primarily concerned with the evolution, chemistry, motion and physics of celestial objects.

So what does that mean for the average person, exactly? While the detailed mathematical motions of stars, planets, moons, and other objects may not be of particular interest to the public at large, our use of incredible imaging instruments, such as the famed Hubble Telescope, has made the study of astronomy a more personal one, allowing us to get a glimpse of our galactic neighborhood, and even revealing objects that existed mere hundreds of thousands of years after the big bang, aiding in our attempt to answer the question of where we – and everything else – come from.

Besides getting us all excited enough to allow a small portion of our tax dollars to fund agencies like NASA, these advanced astronomical observation methods have given us all a taste of the sheer size of space and the matter it holds, bringing a previously unseen level of humility to most of us, even while amazing us with its beauty and wonder.

If you have an interest in the heavens at large, astronomy is your subject – click here to check out more from our astronomy section!

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A new report entitled “The Occurrence Rate of Small Planets around Small Stars” reveals that there may be millions of Earth-like worlds circling red dwarf stars.

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, using publicly available data gathered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, have determined that up to six percent of the red dwarf stars in the galaxy could have planets that are able to support life.

Red stars raise red flags

Most of the searches for habitable extrasolar planets have focused on stars in the K, G, and F spectrums – stars most similar to our own Sun. Since red dwarf stars are smaller, cooler and dimmer that our Sun, they have been considered unlikely candidates to have habitable worlds. Because of their low temperature and luminosity, red dwarf stars have very limited habitable zones. A planet inside this zone would orbit so close to its parent star that it would become “tidally locked”. One side of the planet would always face the star, while the other side would experience an endless night. This would create extreme environmental conditions that could make any planet virtually uninhabitable.

Another reason that red dwarf stars were considered poor candidates for having Earth-like planets is the fact that most red dwarf stars are also flare stars. A flare star is a type of variable star that produces unpredictable and dramatic bursts of radiation across the entire spectrum, from visible light, (which causes the star to increase in brightness, hence the label “flare”) to ultraviolet radiation, radio waves and X-rays. It is believed that the flares are triggered by intense magnetic activity within the atmosphere of a stars. Any planet circling one of these flare stars would be blasted by these periodic outbursts of intense radiation.

Despite these harsh conditions, it could be possible for life to develop on a planet circling a red dwarf star. Deep oceans or a carbon-dioxide rich “hothouse” atmosphere could create an environment conducive to the development of life. Also, red dwarfs are among the longest living stars, so life would have plenty of time to develop on a planet circling one of these stars. In fact there’s the possibility that life on these red dwarf Earths could be older and more advanced than life on our own Earth.

“We thought we would have to search vast distances to find an Earth-like planet. Now we realize another Earth is probably in our own backyard, waiting to be spotted,” says Harvard astronomer and study co-author Courtney Dressing in the Center’s recent press release announcing the team’s findings.

So how did Dressing and her team arrive at their six percent figure?

Dressing searched the Kepler project’s catalog of 158,000 candidate stars, noting all the red dwarfs listed. From this list they identified 95 planetary candidates orbiting red dwarf stars. 60 percent of these stars have planets smaller than Neptune. Closer examination eliminated most of these planets from consideration because they didn’t possess either the right size or temperature. This left them with only three planetary candidates were both warm enough and large enough to be truly Earth-like. This means that statistically, six percent of all red dwarf star systems should include an Earth-like.

Some of our closest neighbors

The Sun is surrounded by a swarm of red dwarf stars; they comprise almost 75 percent of the closest stars. Here’s a list of the ten closest red dwarf stars and their distance from Earth:

• Proxima Centauri                   4.2 l.y.

• Barnard’s Star                     5.9 l.y.

• Wolf 359(CN Leonis)                7.8 l.y.

• Lalande 21185                      8.3 l.y.

• Luyten 726-8 (BL Ceti and UV Ceti) 8.6 l.y.

• Ross 154 (V1216 Sagittarii)        9.7 l.y.

• Ross 248 (HH Andromedae)           10.3 l.y.

• Lacaille 9352                      10.7 l.y.

• Ross 128 (FI Virginis)             10.9 l.y.

• Gliese 866 (EZ Aquarii)            11.2 l.y.

This Center for Astrophysics’ report has revealed exciting new possibilities in the search for extraterrestrial life. If their data is correct then the nearest Earth –like planet may only be 13 light years away!

For more information, go here to read the press release and go here to read a draft of the report.

James O’Donnell
works for Screen Tek, a US based company that specializes in providing its customers with high quality replacement screens for laptop computers, tablets and smartphones.

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MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course and offers a new kind of classroom for students looking to learn outside of the ivory tower. Lectures are broken down into easily digestible 15 minute videos. Students can “attend” lectures weekly, or take in all of them in one big chunk. Just note that if you aren’t following along in the course in real time, you might have a tougher time getting help in the online forums associated with your course.

So what does this have to do with science? Through MOOCs like Coursera, EdX and Udacity, you can take courses from Ivy League professors on topics like astronomy, galaxies, electromagnetism. Here are three worth checking out:

Introduction to Astronomy, taught by Duke University’s Ronen Plesser

If you’re an amateur looking to learn more, Introduction to Astronomy is a great one to check out. As the professor puts it in his course description, “in this class, we will be studying, quite literally, everything in the universe.” Beginning with classical astronomy — how to describe the night sky, how to organize what you see — the course will then take students on a journey through the cosmos. First stop: earth. From there, guided by your instructor, learn about the solar system, black holes, quasars and supernovae.

Galaxies & Cosmologies, taught by CalTech’s S. George Djorgovski

Ready for a more in-depth exploration of galaxies? Then make sure to enroll in this intensive course. The class is an introduction to “ the part of astrophysics that deals with the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole, and its major constituents: dark matter, dark energy, galaxies, quasars, large-scale structure, and intergalactic gas.” Intergalactic gas? The class assumes prior knowledge of both physics and astrophysics, so if it’s been a while since your physics 101 class in college, it might make sense to spend some time on Khan Academy brushing up before diving in.

Electricity & Magnetism, taught by MIT’s Walter Lewin

Not specifically an astronomy or cosmology course, this class is an MIT hallmark – it’s the second in the physics sequence all physics majors take. The professor in the videos, Walter Lewin, was proclaimed a “Web Star” by the New York Times after first putting his lectures online. This course supplements those original lectures with newer, more interactive content. Topic covered include electric fields, magnetic fields, electromagnetic forces, conductors and dielectrics, electromagnetic waves, and the nature of light.

Even if you don’t have the prerequisites or prior experience these courses recommend, you can easily “audit” a course by simply watching the lectures and taking in the information. If you don’t want to relearn calculus in order to ace a free online course, don’t bother; just focus on taking in the information and learning as much as you can! And the good news is, if a class gets hard or you don’t have time to complete it, there’s no mark on a transcript or academic record.  That’s the beauty of free online learning.

The author works in San Francisco at an online tutoring company.

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The coolest catch? Chris Hadfield recorded his part perched aboard the International Space Station, more than 370 km above the Earth’s surface. The whole thing comes together into something very special, capturing the essence of what it’s like to be one of the few people who have left the Earth behind.

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Who’s your wireless carrier sharing your data with?

Several carriers will keep a record of where you are, where you’ve been and all that jazz. T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and AT&T are all tracking every step you take, and while they’re offering up the intel on your whereabouts to government agencies, the authorities and even advertisers, they won’t let you take a peak. Oh so many strings attached We live in a world where every digital move we make is mapped, tracked and mined before being shipped off to some data center where it is further analyzed and probed. One doesn’t even have to worry about being infected with a cell phone spy or pc monitoring software because our browsers, social media accounts and phones are legally tracking us anyway. So the idea that your location is being tracked and processed for review by third parties by your cell phone carrier shouldn’t really surprise people. What does surprise them though is the fact that their own location cannot be shared with them if the need arises. This particular million dollar question was raised by Pro Publica and in response all the major carrier did was nothing but fumble through their less than eloquent words.

The big question

All four major carriers had excuses like it’s not our policy, we don’t offer the service or it’s simply not legal enough for us to do it. Data sharing in terms of consumers could lead to a new wave of paranoia which could potentially result in a large amount of hoopla against data tracking. Carriers may be compelled by the government and authorities to share such data but them sharing it with advertisers only benefits them. In the event that such details are released it will release a wave of panic when people realize how much of their day is mapped out in the tracking data. Often this is done by third-party mobile advertisers.
Another blow to privacy
Most malicious cell phone tracking software is installed without a user’s knowledge. It doesn’t always have to be spyware or malware; there’s a plethora of apps and software readily available to anyone who wants to keep a check on a target, ranging from ones employer to your spouse and even parents in many cases. The Location Privacy Protection Act is a countermeasure introduced by Senator Al Franken and Richard Blumenthal to fight against data carriers who sell customer data to third parties without their permission. The rollover effect would be that tracked data’s auctions would be places in consumer terms and conditions which unfortunately many users don’t really bother reading.
Data tracking and data sale are issues that have been plaguing people for a while now, this is only the latest in problems that users have to learn how to deal with. But do they have a choice in the case of their carriers? Sure you can turn off your browser cookies on your cell phone and your computer so you’re not as easy to trace, but can you afford to just fall off the grid and turn your phone off?

Author Bio: Jessica Carol has been in the business of providing quality information on spy software for iPhone for a while now. She’s an expert at all things spyware, but her main forte is blackberry spy which has captured the interest of many.

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Proving this point is the CELESTRON Powerseeker 50 Refractor Telescope, a beginner’s telescope that comes in with a price tag under $40 while still delivering technical features like 50mm aperture, a focal length of 600mm for clarity, and a 5×24 finderscope to help you to better navigate the sky. Offsetting these features is a quality build that may even surprise you given the low price, and the entire kit is easy to set up and maintain, even for young people.

On the usability side of things, customers have long known about the general quality offered in CELESTRON astronomical products, and this telescope is no exception. From following the easy-to-understand instructions in setting it up, to using it to scan the skies as you never have before, this telescope offers the ease that relative beginners will want, with the power true amateur astronomers will crave.

Click here to check out the CELESTRON Powerseeker 50 Refractor Telescope on Amazon.com!

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So many people believe that religion and science cannot co-exist. They feel that you must believe one or the other and that the existence of one disproves the other. But still there are others who question this thinking and those who believe that science explains how God did things.

There are many reasons why people believe the two cannot coincide but this wasn’t always the case. In very early days of science, it was the Catholic church that often financially supported scientific discoveries and astronomy. They wanted to know what was in the heavens and they funded many projects that marked historical moments in human history.

Does Science Disprove a Creator?

But today, too many people have the belief that science sets out to disprove a Creator or that the creator will not want us to believe in science. This really has no logical meaning. It’s something that man along the way somehow started to think and that has been carried on and on in many generations.

You can believe the words of the Bible to be true and still believe in science. You can believe that dinosaurs existed and that Jesus performed miracles. In fact, some people believe that many miracles of the Bible were really science at work but the people of those times had no other way of explaining it. Think about when the walls of Jericho came down.

Does Science Explain the Bible?

Those people did not have the science knowledge that we have today so they may not have understood or believed that all the marching and loud noises on already unsettled ground could cause those big walls to crumble. So instead they were told just to trust. And they did. And the walls fell.

Just because we have some of the answers today does not mean that God does not exist or that the Bible isn’t true. If anything, science can help show us how many stories in the Bible really took place.

Bridging the gap between science and faith is not easy in a society where so many people believe it must be one or the other but there are many intellectual minds out there set on doing just that. So if you believe in a god and also believe in science, or if you are a science fan who thinks there can be a creator, you’re not alone. Keep an open mind on your quest to learn the truth. 

Hugh Ross believes that religion and science can go hand in hand. He is the founder and president of Reasons To Believe, a ministry team devoted to bridging the gap between science and faith.

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However, not everywhere in the world has the luxury of being able to enjoy energy at the press of a button and in some of the circumstances, the need is much more pressing than a craving for a hot drink.

If you’ve never thought about how ships are powered or how the troops manage to cope in base camp in the middle of the desert, this article explains everything you need to know.

All at sea

If you have ever been on a cruise you will know how vital power is as without it you would be left just drifting in the middle of the ocean. And the problems don’t stop when you reach the shore; for those visiting foreign countries, ships can’t simply plug in to the local network as different types of power supplies often means the two are incompatible.

Having a reliable central battery system whilst at sea which guarantees an uninterrupted power supply means that passengers are never at risk of floating around in pitch black, with no lights, power or energy.

In the harbour, frequency converters help to make local energy accessible for all ships, allowing them to turn off any diesel generators and thereby reducing pollution and noise for local residents. These converters work by transforming the voltage and frequency delivered on the local grid into a stable power supply. Some converters also have a built in battery which means that if the national grid power supply is interrupted, the ship will not suffer a power outage.

These types of converters are suitable for any type of ship from small boats to cruising yachts and even military vessels, and provides protection against spikes, dips and surges which can often occur in temporary hook-ups.

Any military ships which dock unsurprisingly have a vast power and energy supply and it is critical that there is no interruption to service. Custom frequency converts provide a robust energy supply which is suitable for all kinds of Naval and Defence vessels, including submarines.

Wands and whisky

Whilst the need to be able to harness power in extreme circumstances can sometimes be a matter of life or death, particularly for those serving in the Forces and stationed in bases in remote locations, this isn’t always the way.

Alternative power supplies can provide energy for situations which are somewhat less critical in nature.

One of the most well-known names in the power supply industry, Effekta, was called upon to provide a bit of wizardry for the production team of the blockbuster Harry Potter film. The power company was called in after the power unit owned by the production team was found not to be compatible with the supply…meaning the images were stuck in Watford and couldn’t make their way via satellite over the Atlantic. To save disappointing wizard fans worldwide, a frequency converter unit made communication possible.

Making whisky is a serious business and for those in the industry, nothing is more critical than a secure storage facility which can be maintained under the right conditions around the clock.

What better location than the Scottish hills to create a new warehouse unit, with six separate units, each capable of holding a mere 50,000 barrels of whisky in each? This created some logistical problems whereby a power unit with a low input current distortion but a good input charger module was required. With a 10 year guarantee, a fault clearance facility and a night switch, those barrels of whisky are now safe and secure with round the clock lighting and ambient conditions.

The power everyone takes for granted in their own homes is actually an incredibly valuable commodity. For countries where the supply is volatile or sporadic, the reliance on converter systems and central batteries is huge to make sure that equipment is not damaged by surges whilst at the same time delivering much-needed energy, whether that’s to troops in the middle of nowhere, a ship at sea or even a film crew in a fix.

An article by Technology enthusiast Alan Horton, choose Effekta UK to help with you technology power needs.

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Following in the footsteps of animals like the mouse, turtle, and worms that Iran has previously sent into space, the monkey was apparently launched up to 115 km from the Earth’s surface, before being safely returned home, alive and well.

With many countries able to claim the dubious honor of sending non-human animals into space, including the United States and Russia, you may be surprised to hear that this Iranian endeavor is causing quite a fuss in military and political circles, and it all boils down to what exactly the Middle Eastern country wants to accomplish with its effort. Americans, and the United Nations at large, suspect that the launch is related to continued testing of surveillance and intercontinental ballistic technology, though Iran is denying that accusation fervently.

Assuming there are untoward implications related to the Iranian launch, that country will join North Korea is flouting their lack of recognition of the power of both the United States and United Nations in limiting the exploration of nuclear and other military capabilities around the world.

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