Super Solar Flares: Armageddon from the Sun?

Most people know what a solar flare is, but few know about a very rare and yet very powerful type of solar flare - a "super solar flare." A super solar flare is about as powerful as the nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) that occurs when a nuclear device that is detonated. A super solar flare or an NEMP could seriously set the world back many, many years as far as technology is concerned. Our earth's atmosphere protects us and our equipment from regular solar flares, but can be easily penetrated by a super solar flare. Which could damage everything from our modern electronics to the power grid.
The phenomenon of destruction from an NEMP was originally documented during World War II when nuclear bombs were new and undergoing testing and detonation. The two phenomenons - an NEMP and a super solar flare - are similar in that they both emit high concentrations of electromagnetic waves that can cause considerable damage to our environment. But there are two important differences. Usually super solar flares don't affect biological life unless it is highly concentrated, or unless that biological life is too close to conducting surfaces such as wires and metal structures. Unlike a super solar flare, the primary effect of a nuclear detonation is radiation, which is meant to destroy biological life.
NASA recently released a report detailing a study by The National Academy of Sciences entitled, "Severe Space Weather Events - Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts." NASA’s website contains a good synopsis of the findings of this study, which they funded. Our military and our government are very concerned about understanding these events, because the government needs to be able to operate if such a scenario should happen. The truth is, very little is known about the effects that a super solar flare or an NEMP attack might have on modern electronics and electrical systems. Speculation abounds, particularly in Internet forums, but the actual effects have never been experienced.
A super solar flare is many thousands of times more powerful than a regular solar flare, just as modern nuclear warheads are many thousands of times more powerful than the ones used for initial testing during World War II. Also keep in mind that if an NEMP should happen there will be almost no advance warning, maybe a couple of seconds to a minute or two, and that’s it. By contrast, in terms of a super solar flare, there are dozens of satellites in orbit around the earth that monitor solar output and many other details, including solar flare activity. Because it takes about 7½ minutes for light or solar activity to reach the earth from the sun, it is possible that we could get a little advance warning before a super solar flare hits. Just a little.
There is plenty of information on the Internet right now about super solar flares and NEMPs, some good and some not so good. Understand that most of the information available about how to mitigate damages or protect equipment is derived from mathematics, and is still only theory. Even though the math has been proven in other circumstances and situations, no one has actually tested it with a super solar flare or NEMP. And you can only do so much to "harden" your environment before your preparations become too much of a hassle and interfere with everyday living.
However, the popular belief is that you can construct a "Faraday cage" and put whatever you want protected inside of it, and it will be protected - such as radios, a small television, and communication equipment. A Faraday cage is nothing more than a metal box or mesh wire screen where all ends meet each other to form a tight metallic seal. Some theorize that even chicken wire with its very large open weave would work just as well as a solid metal box. Nothing you put inside the box should come in contact with the box itself or the mesh, and no metal wires should be run in or out of the box. A quick and easy approach would be to put what you want protected in a cardboard or wooden box and then wrap it with aluminum foil. Some people have lined rooms with chicken wire and are very careful about what goes into the room. Some say an airplane is a perfect example of a well-constructed Faraday box because of the high amount of static electricity generated on the exterior "skin," which is made of aluminum. Aircraft are actually struck by lightning fairly regularly, and nothing inside gets damaged.
There was a minor solar flare in the fall of 2005 that resulted in all GPS signals on one side of the Earth being noticeably degraded. When those results are scaled up to the power of the super solar flares that many people are expecting to happen sometime in the next few years, researchers say there could be massive outages experienced in GPS receivers located on the daylight side of the planet.
This is just a quick down and dirty primer to provide a little information and spark your interest in learning more. Now it is up to you to do a little research on your own, and devise a plan to protect yourself and your equipment should these events take place.

Coldest Place.... ANTARCTICA

You want to talk about world records, Antarctica is the land of extremes. It is the coldest, windiest, and highest continent anywhere on earth. With an average elevation about 7,544ft/2,300 meters above sea level it is the highest continent. Even though it is covered in ice it receives some of the least amount of rainfall, getting just slightly more rainfall than the Sahara Desert, making it the largest desert on earth. Most people have the misconception that a desert is a hot, dry, sandy, lifeless place, but the true definition of a desert is any geographical location that receives very, very little rainfall. Even though there's ice on the ground in Antarctica, that ice has been there for a very long time.


You want to talk about world records, Antarctica is the land of extremes. It is the coldest, windiest, and highest continent anywhere on earth. With an average elevation about 7,544ft/2,300 meters above sea level it is the highest continent. Even though it is covered in ice it receives some of the least amount of rainfall, getting just slightly more rainfall than the Sahara Desert, making it the largest desert on earth. Most people have the misconception that a desert is a hot, dry, sandy, lifeless place, but the true definition of a desert is any geographical location that receives very, very little rainfall. Even though there's ice on the ground in Antarctica, that ice has been there for a very long time.
Antarctica is the only continent that has never had an indigenous population of humans because it has always been such an extreme environment. Just the boat ride getting to the continent is over the most treacherous seas anywhere in the world. The inaccessibility of the place and the lack of reliable food and means for constructing shelter has kept humans away for thousands of years. But the new technologies developed over the last 200 years made it possible for people to reach these icy shores to explore and study the Antarctic for the first time in human history.
Since there are no people who claim Antarctica as their homeland, exploration of the continent has been shared by all nations of the world. Scientists from all over the world - Russia, Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and many others - come to this place in an internationally cooperative agreement to study the truly unique qualities of Antarctica. Many scientific stations have been constructed on Antarctica to provide shelter and supplies for scientists doing field work there.
Some scientists actually live on Antarctica for part of the year to conduct their research. Very few scientists stay there more than six months at a time. The sun rises and sets only once a year at the South Pole, which means there are six months of daylight, followed by six months of darkness. During the winter when there is no sun, the Antarctic becomes an even more hostile place to be - colder than cold, BONE-CHILLING cold, and no daylight. Can you imagine living in darkness 24 hours a day? That would almost be like living out in space! Hey.....

The World's Biggest Laboratory
At first, the scientific value of studying the Antarctic was just for the sake of understanding this strange place. Recently, scientists have theorized that the conditions in the Antarctic are similar to those on Mars. Because of the similarities exploration of the Antarctic has taken on a new meaning for the search for signs of life in the most extreme environments. Antarctica is not only fascinating itself, but serves as an excellent laboratory for studying the effects of space travel, developing new technologies for exploring other planets and finding extraterrestrial (yeah, alien) life.
Many, many fascinating things have been discovered in the Antarctic that have challenged some of our most basic ideas about what life on earth means. Some really cool factoids:
Deepest Earth Depression: The lowest point on earth is located in the basin of the Bentley Subglacial Trench. At -2,555 meters (8,325 feet) below sea level it is the world's lowest elevation not under seawater. It is not accessible because it is buried under the thickest ice yet discovered.
90% of the ice on earth is located in Antarctica. There is so much ice there you could carve up a block of ice the size of the Great Giza pyramid for every human being on the planet! 98% of Antarctica is covered in ice.
Marine Life: Some species of fish that live in the waters around Antarctica are specially adapted to life in near-freezing waters. Most living creatures on this planet have hemoglobin in their blood, which gives it that red color we all know so well. These particular species of fish, however, have extremely low levels of hemoglobin in their blood. So low that their blood isn't even red! They also have natural antifreeze in their bodies to protect them from freezing to death. (Even if you're a fish and the water in all the cells of your body freezes and turns to ice crystals, you die. 'Nuff said). If you were to catch one of these fish and cut it open the blood, gills and all the organs would be WHITE.
Weather: Yes, the Antarctic has the coldest temperatures on the earth, but that shouldn't surprise you. (Coldest reported temperature ever was -89.4°C/-129°F.) What most people don't know is that the South Pole has the clearest, calmest weather anywhere on earth. Most of the wickedly high winds that everyone associates with the cold and the ice of the Antarctic are around the edges of the continent at the shores. These winds are so fast and so fierce they are world-famous and they have a special name, too - katabatic winds - and they can blow with hurricane force up to 304kmh/190 mph!
Believe it or not with all the ice in the Antarctic, there is very little actual snowfall or precipitation. It does snow on the ice during the austral winter, but measured on an annual basis the Antarctic is as dry as the Sahara Desert.

Antarctic Ice - The Ultimate Cool

Many scientists study Antarctic ice because it is more than just ice. It has accumulated over time, layer upon layer, building up over the millennia to create a type of sedimentary rock. Yes, rock. Ice crystals can be considered a type of mineral, and glacial ice is composed of crystals of the "mineral" water. Just like sedimentary rock is created over time by the repeated layering of particles of clay or sand, glacial ice builds up over millions of years by the build up of snow that never melts.
Scientists drill down deep into the ice with a drill that works kind of like a cookie cutter, only it cuts out some really deep cookies of ice. These core samples contain many layers of ice that represent what the earth's atmosphere was like at the time each layer of ice was formed. By studying the layers of ice in the core samples scientists can learn about how the earth's atmosphere has changed over geologic time.
In the winter time the ocean around Antarctica freezes for thousands of miles in all directions. This vast expanse of ice surrounding the already immense Antarctic ice sheet covers over eleven million square kilometers. The annual freezing of the ocean around Antarctica generates deep ocean currents worldwide. Differences in ocean temperature are what cause weather all over the globe. Some scientists fear that if the global climate gets too warm or too cold it could affect the formation of Antarctic ice, changing the climate as we know it all over the world.

The field of computer science and engineering concerned with creating robots, devices that can move and react to sensory input. Robotics is one branch of artificial intelligence.
Robots are now widely used in factories to perform high-precision jobs such as welding and riveting. They are also used in special situations that would be dangerous for humans -- for example, in cleaning toxic wastes or defusing bombs.
Although great advances have been made in the field of robotics during the last decade, robots are still not very useful in everyday life, as they are too clumsy to perform ordinary household chores.
Robot was coined by Czech playwright Karl Capek in his play R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots), which opened in Prague in 1921. Robota is the Czech word for forced labor.
The term robotics was introduced by writer Isaac Asimov. In his science fiction book I, Robot, published in 1950, he presented three laws of robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans. The term was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Artificial intelligence includes
# games playing: programming computers to play games such as chess and checkers
# expert systems : programming computers to make decisions in real-life situations (for example, some expert systems help doctors diagnose diseases based on symptoms)
# natural language : programming computers to understand natural human languages
# neural networks : Systems that simulate intelligence by attempting to reproduce the types of physical connections that occur in animal brains
# robotics : programming computers to see and hear and react to other sensory stimuli
Currently, no computers exhibit full artificial intelligence (that is, are able to simulate human behavior). The greatest advances have occurred in the field of games playing. The best computer chess programs are now capable of beating humans. In May, 1997, an IBM super-computer called Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a chess match.
In the area of robotics, computers are now widely used in assembly plants, but they are capable only of very limited tasks. Robots have great difficulty identifying objects based on appearance or feel, and they still move and handle objects clumsily.
Natural-language processing offers the greatest potential rewards because it would allow people to interact with computers without needing any specialized knowledge. You could simply walk up to a computer and talk to it. Unfortunately, programming computers to understand natural languages has proved to be more difficult than originally thought. Some rudimentary translation systems that translate from one human language to another are in existence, but they are not nearly as good as human translators. There are also voice recognition systems that can convert spoken sounds into written words, but they do not understand what they are writing; they simply take dictation. Even these systems are quite limited -- you must speak slowly and distinctly.
In the early 1980s, expert systems were believed to represent the future of artificial intelligence and of computers in general. To date, however, they have not lived up to expectations. Many expert systems help human experts in such fields as medicine and engineering, but they are very expensive to produce and are helpful only in special situations.
Today, the hottest area of artificial intelligence is neural networks, which are proving successful in a number of disciplines such as voice recognition and natural-language processing.
There are several programming languages that are known as AI languages because they are used almost exclusively for AI applications. The two most common are LISP and Prolog.

The NASA Space Telerobotics Program

Note: the NASA Space Telerobotics Program was shut down in 1997, and the research and technology development task supported by the program were transferred to other efforts. This site is kept on line for historical purposes, and as a reference for the robotics community. It reflects the state of robotics technology as it was at the end of the program in 1997, and not the current NASA efforts in robotics technology and space system development.
The NASA Space Telerobotics Program is an element of NASA's ongoing research program, under the responsibility of the Office of Space Science. The program is designed to develop telerobotic capabilities for remote mobility and manipulation, by merging robotics and teleoperations and creating new telerobotics technologies.
Space robotics technology requirements can be characterized by the need for manual and automated control, non-repetitive tasks, time delay between operator and manipulator, flexible manipulators with complex dynamics, novel locomotion, operations in the space environment, and the ability to recover from unplanned events. To meet these needs, the program is focused on the following goal:
To develop, integrate and demonstrate the science and technology of remote manipulation such that by the year 2004, 50% of the EVA-required operations on orbit and on planetary surfaces may be conducted telerobotically.
The Space Telerobotics Program consists of a wide range of tasks from basic scientific research to applications developed to solve specific operations problems. The program is focused on three specific mission or application areas: on-orbit assembly and servicing, science payload tending, and planetary surface robotics. Within each of these areas, the program supports the development of robotic component technologies, development of complete robots, and implementation of complete robotic systems focussed on the specific mission needs. These three segments align with the application of space telerobotics to the class of missions identified by the potential space robotics user community. The objective of each of these program areas, from base technology development through systems applications, is to provide the technology for space telerobotics applications with sufficient validation that the designers of future spacecraft can apply the technology with confidence.

100 Years of Quantum Mysteries

“In a few years, all the great physical constants will have been approximately estimated, and . . . the only occupation which will then be left to the men of science will be to carry these measurements to another place of decimals.” As we enter the 21st century amid much brouhaha about past achievements, this sentiment may sound familiar. Yet the quote is from James Clerk Maxwell and dates from his 1871 University of Cambridge inaugural lecture expressing the mood prevalent at the time (albeit a mood he disagreed with). Three decades later, on December 14, 1900, Max Planck announced his formula for the blackbody spectrum, the first shot of the quantum revolution.
This article reviews the first 100 years of quantum mechanics, with particular focus on its mysterious side, culminating in the ongoing debate about its consequences for issues ranging from quantum computation to consciousness, parallel universes and the very nature of physical reality. We virtually ignore the astonishing range of scientific and practical applications that quantum mechanics undergirds: today an estimated 30 percent of the U.S. gross national product is based on inventions made possible by quantum mechanics, from semiconductors in computer chips to lasers in compact-disc players, magnetic resonance imaging in hospitals, and much more.
In 1871 scientists had good reason for their optimism. Classical mechanics and electrodynamics had powered the industrial revolution, and it appeared as though their basic equations could describe essentially all physical systems. But a few annoying details tarnished this picture. For example, the calculated spectrum of light emitted by a glowing hot object did not come out right. In fact, the classical prediction was called the ultraviolet catastrophe, according to which intense ultraviolet radiation and x-rays should blind you when you look at the heating element on a stove.
The Hydrogen Disaster
In his 1900 paper Planck succeeded in deriving the correct spectrum. His derivation, however, involved an assumption so bizarre that he distanced himself from it for many years afterward: that energy was emitted only in certain finite chunks, or “quanta.” Yet this strange assumption proved extremely successful. In 1905 Albert Einstein took the idea one step further. By assuming that radiation could transport energy only in such lumps, or “photons,” he explained the photoelectric effect, which is related to the processes used in present-day solar cells and the image sensors used in digital cameras.
Physics faced another great embarrassment in 1911. Ernest Rutherford had convincingly argued that atoms consist of electrons orbiting a positively charged nucleus, much like a miniature solar system. Electromagnetic theory, though, predicted that orbiting electrons would continuously radiate away their energy and spiral into the nucleus in about a trillionth of a second. Of course, hydrogen atoms were known to be eminently stable. Indeed, this discrepancy was the worst quantitative failure in the history of physics—underpredicting the lifetime of hydrogen by some 40 orders of magnitude.
In 1913 Niels Bohr, who had come to the University of Manchester in England to work with Rutherford, provided an explanation that again used quanta. He postulated that the electrons’ angular momentum came only in specific amounts, which would confine them to a discrete set of orbits. The electrons could radiate energy only by jumping from one such orbit to a lower one and sending off an individual photon. Because an electron in the innermost orbit had no orbits with less energy to jump to, it formed a stable atom.
Bohr’s theory also explained many of hydrogen’s spectral lines—the specific frequencies of light emitted by excited atoms. It worked for the helium atom as well, but only if the atom was deprived of one of its two electrons. Back in Copenhagen, Bohr got a letter from Rutherford telling him he had to publish his results. Bohr wrote back that nobody would believe him unless he explained the spectra of all the elements. Rutherford replied: Bohr, you explain hydrogen and you explain helium, and everyone will believe all the rest.

And Science for All

Sam Alito--not the town across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, that's Sausalito--is the new nominee for associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Harriet Miers had been the nominee, but she thought Marbury v. Madison had something to do with New York Knick point guard Stephon Marbury and his home court of Madison Square Garden.
Despite her lack of experience in constitutional law, Miers was defended by some commentators who posited that corporate law experience would come in handy when the court hears business cases. Fair enough. But surely the court will hear more and more cases involving science and technology, too. Therefore, I'd like to suggest a few science-related questions that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee might ask Supreme Court nominees:
1. What's the difference between RNA and the NRA?
2. It has been said that gravity is not just a good idea, it's the law. Is gravity indeed the law? Is gravity indeed a good idea in a land of rampant obesity?
3. What's the second law of thermodynamics? What's the third law of motion? Who's on first?
4. A related question. In his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts compared being a judge with being a baseball umpire. Is it time for the instant replay in baseball? And does antediluvian refer to baseball prior to the Flood decision?
5. Do you believe in spontaneous human combustion, or do you refuse to answer on the grounds that you might incinerate yourself? (The kids, they love that one.)
6. In commenting on the death penalty, Justice Antonin Scalia said, "For the believing Christian, death is no big deal." Is death, in fact, a big deal? And if death isn't a big deal, why is murder?
7. Original Law and Order, or Law and Order: Criminal Intent?
8. Le Chatelier's principle holds that if you kick a chemical system that has settled into a dynamic equilibrium, it will react by adopting a new equilibrium. Is kicking a system in equilibrium a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment?
9. How can you have deregulation that lowers product safety standards at the same time as tort reform that limits awards for injuries from unsafe products and still keep a straight face?
10. Are you a strict constructionist, holding that the Constitution is a "dead" document? If so, would it be unconstitutional to transport the original Constitution across state lines in a car but constitutional to do so by horse? Also, the element helium was discovered after the Constitution was written. Can I still use it in balloons?
11. If Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves Washington, D.C., heading west at 60 miles per hour and Justice Anthony Kennedy leaves Los Angeles heading east at 70 miles per hour, will they meet before Justice Clarence Thomas asks a question?
12. Einstein showed with relativity that different observers, depending on their relative motion, may see two events as being simultaneous or as one preceding the other. Does that, like, blow your mind? And how should it come into play when evaluating eyewitness accounts?

Who Will Profit from Climate Change?

In the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, city officials and Wall Street executives are talking about turning the battered U.S. financial center into a global hub of green finance and environmental commodities trading.
The spark: draft energy and climate legislation unveiled by two senior House Democrats in Washington this week.
The cap-and-trade proposal from Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts has been the talk of the Wall Street Green Trading Summit, which wraps up today. Most of that talk has been positive, with investors and analysts viewing the measure as a kind of blueprint for the nation's economic future.
"It gives us some certainty about what the markets are going to look like," said Randy Lack of Element Markets.
To be sure, there are provisions that financiers are wary of – in particular, those concerning a federally mandated carbon market. Neil Cohn, senior vice president at MacQuarie Bank, complained that the bill "has made it pretty tough to find domestic offsets." Carbon offsets require low capital intensity and promise guaranteed returns.
What stands out to many here is that the bill reflects the position on cap and trade for greenhouse gases outlined by the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a green coalition heavy on corporate membership.
"It's very heavily influenced by that," said Rubén Kraiem, a partner with the energy law practice Covington & Burling.
The Waxman-Markey proposal seems to offer confidence to many here that Congress is poised to pass a bill that offers more business opportunities than costs. New York is hoping to put itself in a position to capitalize on those opportunities.
Insiders say Michael Bloomberg, New York's independent mayor, has an explicit plan to encourage Wall Street to pull itself out of the dumps by financing renewable energy, "smart grid" technologies and other green innovations. As the city and state rely heavily on the financial sector for revenue, the move seems to be as much about survival as about helping to promote a U.S. shift toward sustainable energy.
Bloomberg's vision of New York becoming the center of a national clean energy movement was confirmed by Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber, who is in charge of economic development. Lieber's speech at the start of the green trading summit was designed to assure the financial community that the city was standing behind it at a very bad time.
"One of our key goals is to make sure that we can redeploy talent here in the city," Lieber said. "We just can't turn our backs on the financial services sector."
And money managers are lining up for the challenge.
"All of us here are playing a key role in bringing America back strong," said Andy Ertel, president of Evolution Markets.
'Huge playground
There are signs that banks, fund managers and investors here are preparing for the next big thing.
Though unemployment is expected to continue to rise and the deep recession is seen lasting throughout 2009, analysts say the stock markets appear to be ending their wild swings and are bottoming out. Those who have cash on hand are looking to environmentally friendly asset plays for places to invest.