Dec 2, 08
Mining the Moon?
Someone please tell me if I'm missing something. The New York Times reported last week that on October 22, India launched its first unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon. The craft is expected to remain in space for two years. During that time, it will do something undeniably cool: prepare a 3-D atlas of the moon. The other part of its mission, however, is something I find pretty unsettling: and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for...
Dennis Meadows and Computer Modeling
Dennis Meadows, in an email discussing computer models, suggested that beyond their obvious functions, computer models often have one or more of the following purposes: #1: Provide useful information about the future behavior or the future coefficient values of some system. #2: Attract money that is mainly going to be used for purposes other than building a model - overhead, salaries, proposal writing. #3: Cause the model builder to become respected as an expert by others, so they will ask...
DNA Forensics May Prevent Elephant Poaching
A shipment of forest timber traveled around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean before it arrived at the Hong Kong dockyards two years ago. During a routine X-ray examination, customs officials discovered an even more lucrative cargo hidden behind a false wall: 605 elephant tusks. The $8 million seizure was the largest ivory catch in Hong Kong since a 1989 agreement banned the international ivory trade. Ivory seizures are on the rise, particularly in Southeast Asia; the...
How Do We Intelligently Discuss Politicized Geoengineering?
Ever since I wrote about my support for a ban on geoengineering research, I've found myself more involved in a debate about geoengineering, climate science and politics than I anticipated being. Mostly this has meant a bunch of email -- some supportive, some outraged -- and more than a few calls from reporters working on geoengineering stories. Now I find myself in a strange position, trying to find a useful stance in what has become an incredibly politicized debate. I'd be interested to...
Bonobos, Berkeley and Mars
Several things I've meant to blog on and haven't: The Bonobo Conservation Initiative, which is not only saving our awesome laid-back, sexed-up little cousins, but is being smart about it, by building a network of local bonobo-supported villages, with outreach, jobs, microenterprise programs, a local technical college, cultural preservation help and a free clinic. And it's working: they've been instrumental in the designation of the Reserve Naturelle du Sankuru, a new 11,803 square mile...
The Currency of Status
by Clark Williams-Derry Brain research suggests a link between money and social standing., from Sightline Daily I've been trying to work this tidbit into a post for weeks, but I haven't found an opportune moment. So here's the news straight up: new studies suggest that a single part of the brain evaluates both money and social status. Sadato and colleagues conducted fMRI scans of the brains of 19 subjects while they engaged in two different exercises. The first task...
Mapping the Inheritance
One of the Worldchanging slogans is "We've inherited a broken future." That is to say, mainly, that the direction in which we're headed leads right over a cliff. But it might be read a different way: that many of the biggest legacies left humanity by our parents, grandparents and more distant ancestors are broken systems, ruined places, vanished species, antique climates. Much of our inheritance is destruction. Perhaps the craziest part of this legacy is that we don't really have any idea...
What do you no longer believe? What do you now believe?
John Brockman has a new question: What have you changed your mind about? Why? Here are some interesting answers: LAURENCE C. SMITH Professor of Geography, UCLA [The Impossibility of] Rapid climate change The year 2007 marked three memorable events in climate science: Release of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR4); a decade of drought in the American West and the arrival of severe drought in the American Southeast; and the disappearance...
Discuss: Where to Study Environmental Sciences
The recent topics on where to study sustainable business, and where to study sustainable engineering and design have become chock full of information, recommendations and reviews thanks to the enthusiastic response by you, our readers. Thank you. Next up: where are the great programs for studying sustainability and the environmental sciences? With this broad a question, we start to move into a huge realm of research and field work that's as diverse as the organisms and ecosystems they...
Japan's Selene satellite aims to get best Moon views yet
I love space exploration -- the promise of new science and new information about the world(s) around us is so bracing! -- so I'm happy to note today's successful launch by Japan of a Moon exploration satellite around 10:30 local time from the Tanegashima Space Center. According to news@nature.com, "The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is calling it the biggest lunar mission since NASA's Apollo programme. The JPY 32 billion (US$279 million) satellite, called the Selenological and...
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