SciGuy

February 19, 2010

A bold new plan for NASA: dirigibles and puppy powered rovers

The value of animals in famous explorations, we can comfortably say, is well established. Where would Louis and Clark have been without horses? And Roald Amundsen would not have reached the South Pole without his 97 Greenland dogs.

At the present moment NASA finds itself embroiled in a controversy over the use of monkeys to test space radiation. Already the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine has campaigned to stop NASA from exposing monkeys to radiation, and on Thursday the organization filed a complaint with the NASA Inspector General.

It needn't be so. Can't we all get along? Instead of using animals for lab tests, let's give them a more glamorous role than as lab animals. Let's use animals for propulsion.

Sure, you say, I'm crazy. But no.

Popular Science has already shown us, in a 1933 article, how this might be accomplished. First of all NASA's fine engineers might consider dogs as a propulsion system for a rover on Mars:

Popular Science

The brilliance of the cynosphere, invented in 1880, is that each wheel contains a housing for a dog, in which the animal can run on a circular, hamster-like track. I hear it is cold on Mars, so they probably need to employ St. Bernards.

Of course if NASA is going to design a vehicle to traverse Mars, they need to actually get the animals and humans to Mars. For this purpose, perhaps the space agency would consider a dirigible?

Popular Science

The genius of the this proposal, made in 1881, is that birds -- be they eagles, vultures or other types of fowl -- wear corsets so their path of flight can be controlled. (And if the animal rights people start in about the birds wearing corsets, simply point out in the photo above that the umbrella provides them shade and comfort from the elements).

We've already seen godwits fly 6,200 miles nonstop. What's another 55 million miles?

You may say, "But there's no air in space, how would the birds survive, or of what use would it be for them to flap their wings?"

To this I would reply that I'm sick and tired of naysayers when it comes to NASA. This is an organization that landed an eagle on the moon 40 years ago. They can, at the very least, fly an eagle to Mars with all of today's technology.

Posted by Eric Berger at 07:20 AM in Space | Comments (13)
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February 18, 2010

Come see NASA's new room with a view

Early Wednesday astronauts aboard the International Space Station (and spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick outside) finished installing the seven-window cupola, which will afford crew members a grand view of Earth and the cosmos.

The photos below were taken shortly after the shutters were removed for the first time.

This image shows the coast of Algeria featuring (in the cupola's round window) an area between the cities of Dellys and Algiers. The image was recorded with a digital still camera using a 28mm lens setting.

NASA

Astronauts Terry Virts (left), STS-130 pilot; and Jeffrey Williams, Expedition 22 commander, pose for a photo near the windows in the newly-installed cupola.

NASA

NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams (right), Expedition 22 commander; and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, flight engineer, pose for a photo near the windows in the newly-installed cupola.

NASA

NASA astronauts Terry Virts (left), STS-130 pilot; and Stephen Robinson, mission specialist, pose for a photo near the windows in the newly-installed cupola.

NASA

See full-size versions of the photos.

Posted by Eric Berger at 07:13 AM in Space | Comments (23)
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February 17, 2010

Where does dust come from?

It's everywhere. It's the bane of wooden floors. It's ... dust.

Humans lose an estimated 10s of thousands of dead skin cells every minute as the innermost layer of the epidermis continually makes new cells to replace those that are lost. Pets do likewise. Furniture, bedding and clothes release fibers when they are used. And then there's carpet, which releases fibers too.

But contrary to what I had believed -- the source of most dust in our homes comes not from such sources, but from the outdoors.

A new study in Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal, concludes that 60 percent of dust inside our homes comes from the outdoors. Much of this comes via airborne particles and tracked in soil.

The origin of dust? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

The scientists found that the lead and arsenic in homes typically comes from outside air and soil, and that this can collect on toys and other objects young children might put in their mouths.

So if your kids toys are dusty, clean them.

Posted by Eric Berger at 01:40 PM in Environment, Health | Comments (26)
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Texas declares war on the IPCC, British climate unit

After Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Tuesday that the state will challenge the EPA's ruling to regulate carbon dioxide, I had a lengthy conversation with Greg Abbott, the state's attorney general. He had some pretty strong feelings about the IPCC in particular, and climate scientists in general.

The full petition for reconsideration can be seen here, but below I'll attempt to summarize the grounds upon which Texas takes issue with the EPA finding on carbon dioxide.

Abbott says the EPA did not conduct its own scientific review, but relied on the finding of the IPCC and Climatic Research Unit at East Anglia University.

"The reason why we have asserted this petition was because of the late-breaking revelations that the information and analysis relied upon by the IPCC and CRU has turned out to be faulty, unreliable and discredited," Abbott said.

Abbott.

He cited the familiar Himalayan error in the IPCC report. But he also referenced assertions about questionable Chinese data, Amazon rainforest losses and other potential issues with the IPCC report. (Real Climate argues that these latter three are non-issues).

Abbott also unloaded on the Climatic Research Unit.

"CRU admitted this past November that much of its original data has been destroyed. All that remains is the altered or manipulated data. As a result the accuracy of CRU's analysis can't be checked. All that we have left is the homogenized data. That's fine if you can trust the homogenizers. But the truth is we can't trust the homogenizers."

Abbott said the IPCC mistakes and hacked or deliberately released e-mails from CRU (i.e. ClimateGate) show clear malfeasance on the part of climate scientists.

"There clearly is lying, falsification, cover-ups, et cetera that are going on here. We're not saying the science is wrong, we're looking at this information and saying this information is troubling. The course of American commerce cannot be altered when there are this many faults with the underlying analysis."

I asked him how, as attorney general, he could build a case against the CRU when the e-mails had apparently been hacked, or stolen?

"For one, you use the key word apparently. I don't know how this information came to light. I've seen this may have been a release by someone with a guilty conscience. I don't know how the information came to light. What I do find troubling as AG is two things. 1. The EPA has relied upon information that is proven to be faulty. 2. Apparently Phil Jones and his colleagues seem to basically have a working conspiracy to evade and avoid open-government laws. I don't know about that, but what I do know is as the Attorney General I find it deeply disturbing that people who are supposed to be scientists in search of truth collaborate and conspire to hide information on which a trillion dollar decision will be made, and in doing so violate open government laws."

I noted that the state of Texas has a number of eminent climate scientists. Did he ask any of them about these issues before proceeding with a legal brief?

"Not yet and here's why. At this stage we're not focused on, nor need we be focused on, needing to prove anything from a scientific basis ourselves. An unceasing flow of waves in which the scientific information the EPA relied upon has been discredited. We need to be able to put to rest all the flaws in the information the EPA relies upon. There's an unmitigated taint to the information the EPA has relied upon. The EPA can't stick its head in the sand and ignore that, it must address that."

Abbott says he believes there is ample evidence for a court to decide that the EPA must reopen its scientific analysis of whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant.

Given that there appears to be little hope of passing a cap-and-trade bill in Congress soon, the political war in the United States over global warming may hence forth be fought in the courts.

And there can be no doubt which side Texas is on.

UPDATE: Texas state climatologist John-Nielsen Gammon has an overview of the state's petition here.

Posted by Eric Berger at 08:01 AM in Climate change | Comments (80)
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February 16, 2010

Texas to fight EPA on carbon dioxide: How climate contrarianism went mainstream

Two months after the Environmental Protection Agency decided to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant, Texas Gov. Rick Perry says the state of Texas will challenge the EPA in court.

You can see Perry's full statement here. More telling are the comments from Attorney General Greg Abbott:

"With billions of dollars at stake, EPA outsourced the scientific basis for its greenhouse gas regulation to a scandal-plagued international organization that cannot be considered objective or trustworthy. Prominent climate scientists associated with the IPCC were engaged in an ongoing, orchestrated effort to violate freedom of information laws, exclude scientific research, and manipulate temperature data. In light of the parade of controversies and improper conduct that has been uncovered, we know that the IPCC cannot be relied upon for objective, unbiased science -- so EPA should not rely upon it to reach a decision that will hurt small businesses, farmers, ranchers, and the larger Texas economy."

If you were wondering what the ultimate effect of ClimateGate will be, here it is. Climate change is now firmly a plank of the Republican party, that is, I believe it is now something of a litmus test for Republican candidates. ClimateGate has legitimized climate contrarianism.

It -- or at the very least opposition to doing anything meaningful to reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- is now nearly as Republican as tax cuts.

There was a time, even a very few years ago, when Republicans spoke openly about addressing climate change and worked with scientists on the issue. Now, especially after ClimateGate gave a veneer of legitimacy to those who claim climate scientists are scamming the public, those Republicans have largely gone away.

For example U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is running against Perry for the Republican nomination for Governor and has been a great friend to Texas scientists, supported Perry's step today, saying, "This overreach by the EPA is nothing more than an attempted end-run around the many who have rightfully stood up against cap and trade legislation also being pushed by this administration."

What does all this mean? Well, even if every country met its pledge from Copenhagen, according to the Sustainability Institute global temperatures would still rise by 3.7 degrees Celsius.

Clearly all of those global proposals aren't going to be fulfilled. And just as clearly a meaningful bill to limit U.S. carbon dioxide emissions isn't going to pass Congress any time soon.

One wonders if the climate science, and perhaps more importantly the environmental science community, will realize this and change their strategy.

Posted by Eric Berger at 11:22 AM in Climate change | Comments (58)
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Love at first cite in the Texas Medical Center

Unless you subscribe to the print edition of the Chronicle, you may have missed a story I wrote for Valentine's Day about the co-directors of the Arap-Pasqualini laboratory at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

They're married, and they've got quite a story to tell:

The story of how Wadih met Renata and fell in love needs only a good screenwriter to become a guy-meets-girl romance on the silver screen.

Except that Wadih Arap and Renata Pasqualini are scientists, and Hollywood typically casts scientists as brilliant but wild-haired, half-crazed social misfits.

Although definitely brilliant, the couple is neither unkempt, crazed nor bent on taking over the world. Rather, they're outgoing, humorous people who merely seek to cure cancer and end obesity. The only crazy thing about them is they just might succeed.

The couple works at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and represent a rarity in scientific research: the husband-and-wife team are co-leaders of their laboratory.

In writing the story I could not find any data on just how rare it is for married couples to co-direct a laboratory, but I do believe it's quite rare.

Michael Paulsen / Chronicle

In any case check it out. This is one science lab where there's definitely chemistry going on.

Posted by Eric Berger at 07:26 AM in Medicine | Comments (8)
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February 15, 2010

What's the most indispensable invention of the last 100 years?

This weekend, as I gave my daughter a thimbleful of antibiotic that calmed her inflamed tonsils, I marveled at the power of these few drops of pink liquid. What a wonder antibiotics are.

And how cheap, and how much we take them for granted.

The most indispensable?

How do antibiotics rank, I wondered, among the great inventions and discoveries of the last 100 years? Phrased another way, what invention of the last century would you be most loathe to give up?

Some options:

Television (circa 1926)

Antibiotics (circa 1932)

Computers (circa 1943)

Mobile phones (circa 1984)

The World Wide Web (circa 1990)

You're free to suggest others. I considered adding air conditioning to the list, but as it was invented circa 1902 it fell just outside the 100-year boundary.

Posted by Eric Berger at 03:14 PM in Great questions | Comments (94)
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Heat, humidity & humor: Your weekly weather

Welcome to your Monday morning weather update in which I'll attempt to sum up the immediate past, present and future of weather on the bayou. Below you'll find a look at a pleasant warm-up later this week and an outlook for March.

PAST

All I can say is that I hope you enjoyed Sunday afternoon. Now that's the kind of winter Houston should have. As for the rest of the week, it was wet and cold.

You know you're in trouble when the week's mean high temperature, 52.7, was below the historical average temperature (55 degrees) for the week, which factors in daily highs and lows.

With an overall average temperature now around 47 degrees this February appears likely to be one of the five coldest Februaries in city history.

Anyway, let's do the numbers:

Date	High T	Low T	Average	Departure	Rainfall
Monday	69	46	58	4	0.77
Tuesday	51	38	45	-9	0.00
Wednesday	48	32	40	-14	0.01
Thursday	43	37	40	-15	1.31
Friday	41	36	39	-16	0.19
Saturday	49	35	42	-13	0.00
Sunday	68	36	52	-3	0.00
Average	52.7	37.1	45.1	-9.4	2.28

PRESENT

Anyone who ventured outside for dinner last night to mark Valentine's Day probably noticed a marked change upon leaving. That heralded the arrival of a strong cold front that will bring freezing temperatures to most of Houston tonight and Tuesday night.

Here's a National Weather Service map showing lows tonight:

National Weather Service

A strong high-pressure system will settle across Houston in the wake of the front, leading to clear skies but very cool temperatures, especially overnight.

But the forecast has taken a warmer turn later this week, with highs reaching 60 degrees beginning Wednesday or Thursday and remaining there through the weekend.

Rain chances pick up late Thursday or Friday, but forecasters say a surface low that's expected to bring showers to the area should remain further south than previously expected. They've accordingly dropped rain chances from around 50 percent on Friday to 20 to 30 percent from Thursday through Saturday.

All in all there's a chance this weekend will be fairly pleasant, and Sunday might reach 70 degrees.

FUTURE

We're looking warm at week's end because the next cold front appears to have been delayed until Sunday night, forecasters say, and it's expected to be Pacific in origin rather than Canadian, which means more moderate temperatures.

If the forecast holds we will see warm temperatures next week with highs in the low 70s and lows in the 50s. We'll have to wait and see.

Looking a bit longer term, the outlook for March is for continued overall cold. According to the latest estimates from MDA EarthSat Weather, nearly all of Texas is slated to get temperatures an average of 1 to 2 degrees below normal:

MDA EarthSat

I'm not sold on monthly outlooks but it certainly wouldn't surprise me to have a cooler March considering how December, January and February have gone this winter.

SUMMARY

If Gene Norman can have a number to describe the daily weather, I can have one for the week. But my scale, instead of 1-10, is going to change every week. Sometimes it won't even be an integer. Sometimes it will be irrational. This week's scale goes from 0 to 7 (the number of windows in the International Space Station's spectacular new cupola).

My number: 5.6

Posted by Eric Berger at 06:44 AM in Weather | Comments (16)
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February 13, 2010

Endeavour's flight, at night, in photos

With six days of flight nearly completed by the crew of space shuttle Endeavour, here's a look at some of the best images captured so far during the vehicle's mission.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, standing left, and other NASA mission managers monitoring the countdown of the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour from Firing Room Four of the Launch Control Center at NASA Kennedy Space Center.

NASA, Bill Ingalls

Liftoff! Against a black night sky in what is perhaps the program's last night launch, space shuttle Endeavour and its six-member crew head toward Earth orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station. The launch occurred at 3:14 a.m. CT from launch pad 39A.

NASA

And Endeavour climbs higher early Monday.

NASA

Up from the launch pad and into the clouds, which were fortunately thinner Monday morning than those early Sunday, which forced a scrub of the first attempt to launch Endeavour.

NASA

After reaching orbit Monday the shuttle's payload bay is opened to reveal the new Tranquility node as the shuttle is backdropped by mountainous terrain below. The photo was taken from an aft flight deck window.

NASA

On Tuesday a member of Endeavour's crew captured this image of the rising sun. The thin blue line is Earth's atmosphere.

NASA

Here's the continued success with the mission, during which one of the three spacewalks is already in the books and the Tranquility node has been installed (although they're troubleshooting a problem with the node's insulating cover.)

Posted by Eric Berger at 07:58 AM in Space | Comments (8)
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