Kate Rauner's Blog, page 25

Drat #sciku #haiku

Room temperature
Superconductivity
Only in Earth’s core

Since I can’t add “drat” to the haiku, it’s my title

Moon Holds a Surprise #NASA #MoonWater #sciku #haiku

Lunar H Two Oh
Stored in tiny glass bottles
Awaits our future

Reported in many outlets, including the BBC, the Moon stores more water in more locations than previously thought, just waiting to shepherd humanity into space. (Assuming water and glass can “wait” or “shepherd.” Hey, we humans can anthropomorphize anything.)

Holidays are Here – Get Ready With Free Reads You Can Share #scifibooks #giftideas

The 2020 holiday season is going to be… different. You can find and share good reads – how’s that for love at a safe distance? Subscribe now to my newsletter and you, your friends, and family can join me on Mars, Saturn’s moon Titan, and more: throughout December receive free eBooks in favorite formats (Kindle, EPUB, PDF and more) plus something special for signing up now.

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Click here now – right this minute – and subscribe so you don’t miss out. Happier Holidays!

Will Chem-puters Make Drugs Accessible? #chemicals #drugdiscovery

Are we on the brink of a “future where researchers can distribute and produce molecules as easily as they email and print PDFs?” CNBC

I bet setting up the equipment takes more effort than this video implies, but suppose synthesizing life-saving drugs was within the reach of any competent chemistry lab anywhere in the world?

That rig doesn’t look like it will supply millions of flu shots (or COVID vaccines,) but everything starts somewhere. Download the recipe from a journal article and go.

Of course, I can also see the potential for abuse – for easy manufacture of illegal or crackpot drugs. But, considering how the War on Drugs has fueled crime and terror, maybe the world needs a game-changer.

This could change everything: a technology that could take regulation of drugs, pesticides, and other chemicals out of the hands of governments, for better AND for worse. We’d all have to get a lot smarter.

The work of chemists still resembles the work of scribes, who once painstakingly copied and corrected the writings of others. Researchers like Cronin hope that with the chemical equivalents of the printing press, word processor, and autocorrect in hand, tomorrow’s chemists will spend less time recreating, and more time composing. CNBC

When Satellites Collide #space #satellites

Experts worry about what could happen up in low-Earth orbit. Popular Mechanics

[image error] Proposed craft to sweep up space junk

We were just talking about this! LeoLabs is a company that tracks space junk in Earth’s orbit, and they’re watching two defunct objects, an old Soviet satellite and a discarded Chinese rocket stage, with a combined mass of approximately 6,000 pounds, that may collide and kick off a series of collisions. Useful satellites are in danger.

Remember the movie Gravity? Yeah, like that, though this time no astronauts are threatened. That’s not always true. Last month, astronauts huddled inside a Soyuz capsule attached to the ISS as a particularly scary piece of debris careened by – safely, this time.

LeoLabs’ objects will come within 80 feet of each other and the risk of collision rises to 10%. That may not sound like a big risk. You may wonder what all the fuss is about. But an “impact could spread a network of debris throughout low-Earth Orbit.”

Earth is increasingly shrouded in space junk. That’s a futuristic sounding dilemma but reminds me of an old parable, the tragedy of the commons. When something belongs to everyone, each user takes as much as they can and no one tries to preserve the resource. That seems to apply to global warming and also to near-Earth space.

This morning, I don’t see any news items about a collision, (UPDATE: no collision) the USA election and UK’s Brexit top my feed. But what’s on top under “science?” A Japanese satellite studying isles in the East China Sea and Australian intelligence agencies preparing to deploy small satellites. Space will only get more crowded.

So, forgive me for repeating myself…

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What if we don’t solve this problem? What if so much junk accumulates that we can’t launch more satellites? Sounds like a great premise for a scifi book, and that’s what I’m working on now. Subscribe to my email and stay updated on my progress, as well as receive offers for free reads.

Or, if all you’d like is a notice when I release a new book, follow me on Amazon. In 2021, join Winnie Bravo, a newly minted junk-sweep pilot, and Orbital Services, LLC.

Junk Threatens Our Future in Space #space #satellite

The European Space Agency has a warning for us:

Swirling fragments of past space endeavours are trapped in orbit around Earth, threatening our future in space. Over time, the number, mass and area of these debris objects grows steadily, boosting the risk to functioning satellites. ESA

Space seemed so big when Sputnik launched sixty-three years ago this month, even just the bit of space in Earth’s backyard. Tons of objects have been launched since then, and not always with much thought of what would happen when the crafts went defunct.

Collisions and explosions of old batteries and fuel systems have spread debris all around Earth and the situation is getting worse. Search for “space debris around Earth” and you’ll find that videos litter You Tube almost as thickly as junk litters space. Here’s one by NASA:

What if we don’t solve this problem? What if so much junk accumulates that we can’t launch more satellites? Sounds like a great premise for a scifi book, and that’s what I’m working on now. Subscribe to my email and stay updated on my progress, as well as receive offers for free reads.

Or, if all you’d like is a notice when I release a new book, follow me on Amazon. In 2021, join Winnie Bravo, a newly minted junk-sweep pilot, and Orbital Services, LLC.

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Daily Life with Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs in your backyard…

Planet Pailly

Hello, friends!

There’s an important science fact that I wish more people were aware of.  Birds are not merely the descendants of dinosaurs.  According to a taxonomic system called cladistics (also known as phylogenetic systematics), birds are dinosaurs.  To quote this article from DinoBuzz:

Using proper terminology, birds are avian dinosaurs; other dinosaurs are non-avian dinosaurs, and (strange as it may sound) birds are technically considered reptiles.  Overly technical?  Just semantics?  Perhaps, but still good science.

So with that in mind, the following statements are 100% true:

I often wake up to the sound of noisy dinosaurs outside my window.I sometimes see dinosaurs swimming in the river near my house.I hate it when dinosaurs poop on my car.I enjoy eating dinosaur meat.  Sometimes I put dinosaur meat on sandwiches or in salads.

Anyway, what sort of experiences have you had with dinosaurs in your daily life? Please…

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Ever Laugh at Someone Who Says They’re With You 130% ? Well… Maybe #solarpower #solarenergy #science

“When we saw the results, we could hardly believe our eyes.”

[image error] Look at that sad little blip of usable energy

Please forgive me for my hashtags above, since this discovery is a detector, not a solar panel. But hashtags don’t cover everything as precisely as I’d like.

Aalto University researchers have developed a black silicon photodetector that has reached above 130% efficiency. Thus, for the first time, a single photovoltaic device has exceeded the 100% external quantum efficiency limit at UV. Aalto

What this means is, 100 photons from a certain UV frequency are generating 130 electrons. Not just 100, which sounded impossible all by itself, but more. The results have been replicated (thank you, science.) Apparently, the appropriate high-energy photons trigger a process inside special silicon nanostructures.

The phenomenon has not been observed earlier in actual devices since the presence of electrical and optical losses has reduced the number of collected electrons… In practice, the record efficiency means that the performance of any device that is utilizing light detection can be drastically improved. Light detection is already used widely in our everyday life, for example, in cars, mobile phones, smartwatches and medical devices. Aalto

Okay, this isn’t going to goose your solar panels anytime soon. But since you already know that solar conversion efficiency is limited to a pitiful 33.7% in photovoltaic cells (assuming typical sunlight conditions per Wikipedia,) news about improvements in any photovoltaic device is sure to catch your attention.

Watch your subscription to Physical Review Letters for the upcoming paper, “Black-silicon ultraviolet photodiodes achieve external quantum efficiency above 130%“.

There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills, and We Don’t Know Why #poetry #astronomy

[image error] Neutron stars merging (artist concept, University of Warwick/Mark Garlick)

“Neutron star collisions
Release showers of gold,”
But such cosmic events
Are rare to behold.

They make all the strontium
That is observed,
But our planet’s bright gilding
Is hardly deserved.

Carbon makes sense,
Uranium’s explained,
Europium was tricky
But now ascertained.

So why so much gold?
Why all the bling?
That’s still a mystery
You wear as a ring.

Thanks to Live Science for their article and the phrase quoted above that launched this poem.

Colonizing Mars? Take Insects With You – eat the bugs, build with their shells #mars #space

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Okay, I’m here. Now what?

Long-term human occupation of Mars requires habitats to hold in a livable environment and shield from radiation. But hauling anything to Mars is expensive, so don’t expect your ship to be filled with bags of Quikcrete.

Chitin is the fibrous “organic polymer found in the cell walls of fungi, scales of fish and amphibians, as well as in the exoskeleton of anthropods.” sciencetimes

Chitin also comes “from insects. Given their high protein content, insects could form part of the diet for a crewed Mars mission.” CNN

Javier Fernandez and his team from Singapore University of Technology and Design present an interesting idea of what to do with chitin in the open-access journal PLOS ONE (September 16)

Food production and life support systems
Form transparent objects similar to plastic
Combine with Martian soil and water to make a very light rock like concrete
Manufacture everything from buildings to tools using 3D printing and mold casting

[image error]Will it work? How about on the Moon while we’re at it? Shoot, I don’t know, but it’s great to see smart people tackling the problem. Until we colonize the Red Planet in real life, travel with me and the first settlers in science fiction. Buy Book 1 now and then read on through generations.