Space Elevator

Here's a (kind of) follow up to my earlier entry about Space Fountains.

Here's an article that contains a proposal to build a space elevator. It goes into quite a bit of depth about the construction of the cable and the elevator cars and even addresses failure scenarios. A great read.

Become a pastafarian

There's an amusing parody site here in response to the decision by the Kansas school board to teach Intelligent Design alongside evolution in schools.

I particularly like the graph of Pirates vs Global temperature :)

Stirling Engines

Stirling Engines are a wonderful technology to convert any heat (including waste heat from other processes) to power. They are completely sealed so there is no harmful exhaust and they're very efficient.

They've hit the press a bit lately and the latest news is that the world's largest solar array will use them to convert the gathered heat to power.

If you want to know more, click here for instructions on how to build your own.

Genetic Modification

I've often heard the theory that my generation is that last generation that will die. I've always thought that was a bit optimistic, but an article I read on The Australian yesterday has made me revise that opinion.

I've also long thought that my generation has missed the Genetic Modification (GM) boat because our genes are already set. Sure, future generations will be modified before they develop much, but I'm pretty much stuck with the genes I've got.

The Article talks about some scientists who have modified a mouse so that it can regenerate damaged legs, tails and even heart tissue. It can't regenerate the brain yet.

But the real kicker is that if they take liver cells from these GM mice and inject them into regular mice, the regular mice gain these regenerative abilities too.

Maybe there's hope for me yet...