Category: Science

The second man to walk on the moon has some comments on the future of space travel, and some inspiring words about courage and bravery. By Gill Robb Wilson:

Somebody has to give himself
As the price of a new frontier.
Somebody has to take a course
and climb to a rendezvous
where a lonesome man with a will to learn
can make the truth shine through.

Scientific American is reporting that a suit in San Francisco involving “Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the cities of Boulder, Colo., and Oakland, Calif., as plaintiffs, seeks to force two government agencies to assess the total impact on climate of the projects they finance. Rather than treaties and regulations, litigation may soon be the weapon of choice for those concerned about human-induced global warming.”

Along the same lines as Duncan Steels article in the Guardian, Max Boot talks about past ages of discovery, and the fatalities that occured then. He also argues that our exploration must continue.

Duncan Steel makes the case for the continuing of space exploration, and that human space flight should be at the forefront of such adventures into the skies. I can only agree with him.

From what I have read on the net since the disaster it now appears to me that the reason the accident took place at all was simple – NASA cutbacks. Since Bush came to office cutbacks have had a serious effect safety, indeed Bush received a report not too long ago warning of a potential disaster due to lack of funds. This article by Richard Feynman also demonstrates a flaw in NASAs thinking.

As well as that the reusable launch vehicle intended for the ISS was cancelled due to budget overruns.

Bush is keen to spend up to $100 billion on war with Iraq, but cannot spend $5 billion to revamp NASA.

The space shuttle Columbia, with 7 crew aboard, has been lost over Texas. It broke up while coming in to land. Very sad news indeed.

It appears that there was a small problem at take off that may suggest a reason for the accident. Spaceflightnow.com says

During a mission status news conference yesterday, Entry Flight Director Leroy Cain was asked about any possible damage to the shuttle’s thermal tiles during launch. The tiles are what protect the shuttle during the fiery reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Tracking video of launch shows what appears to be a piece of foam insulation from the shuttle’s external tank falling away during ascent and hitting the shuttle’s left wing near its leading edge.

But Cain said engineers “took a very thorough look at the situation with the tile on the left wing and we have no concerns whatsoever. We haven’t changed anything with respect to our trajectory design. It will be a nominal, standard trajectory.

Apparently a 120 million year old stone with writing on has been discovered in the Ural mountains. This would turn all ideas about humans evolution on their head and as you might imagine I remain extremely sceptical, if not cynical about this story.

ITN is reporting that shark populations are down by over 50% on the last 15 years, a staggering figure by any means. Hammerhead sharks are worst affected with an estimated 75% reduction in stocks. This is truly amazing reading, the full report will appear in the journal Science.

The celebrated economist, who wrotes some excellent stuff in the Atlantic a while back writes a riveting piece in the Guardian. I had thought that markets can also be based on mob or herd mentalities, but he also gives us several other ideas. A good primer on ecomomic psyhcology – if I can call it that.

The planned vaccination of millions of US citizens against smallpox will likely lead to death of some according to New Scientist. With so many being innoculated it is thought that some people will have adverse reactions and may die. You can read the story here.