FastForwardz

If not the sun...

The global thermostat

Serious students of climate change (starting with James Lovelock in the early 60') have repeatedly observed that the temperature of the Earth is remarkably stable over the entire history of life. In the face of sometimes dramatic changes in solar output, our planet has enjoyed a very stable average temperature throughout. Why? What keeps the Earth's surface temperature so constant?

Today there is no serious question that the Earth is undergoing dramatic warming; the question is not 'if', but 'why' this is happening. Skeptics of the idea that human behavior is the root cause of the current warming of the earth's atmosphere will often point to recorded fluctuations of the sun as the main culpret behind global temperature fluctuations; in this way they feel absolved from responsibility and any need to correct human behavior - hey, its the sun...its a 'natural' thing.

Leaving aside the wisdom of ignoring changes that will dramatically impact human existence on earth, natural or not, the evidence is acumulating that fluctuations in the output of the sun have nothing directly to do with observed recent global warming trends. Sure the sun heats everything on earth, but the linkage between the heat of the sun and the heat of the atmosphere is, as Lovelock tried to tell us 40 years ago, much more complex than we understand. The fact is that there has been a 25% increase in heat from the sun since life began but surface temperature has remained approximately constant until now. Why?

Absent a good theory of how atmospheric temperature regulation actually works, we are none the less confronted with the unpleasant possibility that we may have inadvertently changed something, in modern times, that is critically important to the ability of the system to self regulate; we may have broken the 'global thermostat'.

Climate doesn't swing to the rhythm of the sun

CLAIMS that increased solar activity could explain the world's warming climate are challenged by a study of Irish bogs. The research, which is a fresh blow to climate sceptics, shows that while there are cyclical changes in both climate and the sun's activity, there is no obvious link between the two.

...To deduce climate variations over the same period, the team used an archive of more than 750 excavated trees from the bogs, dating back 7648 years, to gauge tree cover. Periods of more abundant cover indicate relatively warm and dry spells, while sparser cover suggests the climate was wetter and cooler, since a higher water table makes it difficult for saplings to flourish.

"We find a clear cycle in wetting and drying phases, with shifts about every 800 years," says Turney. But the peaks in solar activity do not coincide with peaks in warmer conditions.

Climate doesn't swing to the rhythm of the sun

Don't blame the Sun for all global warming woes

Blaming the Sun for all the woes related to global warming looks less tenable an argument following the publication of a research paper on climate cycles in the latest issue of the Journal of Quaternary Science.

There have been several ideas as to what has been driving climate change over the past 10,000 years, according to the papers lead author and radiocarbon dating expert Dr Chris Turney from the University of Wollongongs GeoQuEST Research Group at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He and his international co-researchers have concluded in their paper titled, Testing solar forcing of pervasive Holocene climate cycles that solar activity is not the primary force.

Don't blame the Sun for all global warming woes

Moon discovered orbiting tenth planet

I'll give it a "ten" with a bullet!

While the academics at the International Astronomical Union debate the definition of "planet", a new breed of planetary astronomers is pressing ahead discovering more candidates for the title. It seems like only yesterday that the solar system was the sleepy backwater of astronomy, but in recent years the action in astronomic science has definitely moved to the solar court. And as is often the case with revolutionary science, the old guard can be found quibbling and weaseling over technicalities, trying to explain away the uncomfortable new facts that contradict their illustrious careers and their textbook articles. But the future seems clear to anyone who cares to look - we are about to discover a whole lot more "planetary" neighbors, and the odds are good that some of them will be more than big enough to satisfy even the graybeards. Of course the fun of it is that these exciting new worlds have been out there all along...Velikovsky was right!

Moon discovered orbiting tenth planet

The tenth planet in the solar system has a moon at least a tenth of its size. The discovery, made on 10 September with an adaptive optics system on the Keck II telescope, will allow astronomers to pin down the mass of both objects.

The tenth planet is not officially a planet - for now its only official designation is 2003 UB313. By convention, its moon - announced by the International Astronomical Union on Sunday - is designated S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1.

But Mike Brown, the Caltech astronomer who revealed 2003 UB313 in July and nicknamed it Xena after the television warrior princess, is calling the moon Gabrielle, after the princess's companion.
Moons of "trans-Neptunian" objects - which orbit farther from the Sun than Neptune - are very hard to see because they are faint and appear very close in the sky to the objects they orbit. But Brown began searching for a moon as soon as he found 2003 UB313. "Having a moon is just inherently cool," he says.

Moon discovered orbiting tenth planet

A revolution in planetary science

A swarm of small worlds discovered in recent years is remaking our view of the solar system, astronomers agree. Pluto, once an oddball, is now thought to be one of many round objects out there.

"It's really a revolution," says Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute. "We are finding out just how quaint our view of the solar system was."

Improved technology promises more discoveries. Some astronomers won't be surprised if something as big as Mars, or even Earth, is found way out there but still bound to the Sun. So far, only a fraction of objects thought to be in the Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune, have been found.

Stern, who is managing NASA's New Horizon's mission to Mars, points out that there is a billion times more space in our solar system beyond the Kuiper Belt compared to inside that region.

"Hold onto your hat," he said. "It's just going to get more bizarre."

SPACE.com -- Defining 'Planet': Newfound World Forces Action

Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found

IN THE dark reaches of the solar system lurk swarms of hidden worlds. Too small and too distant to reflect sunlight, they have remained under the cover of darkness for billions of years. But now the outer solar system is giving up its secrets. And with them comes an astonishing claim: "It's quite possible that there is a halo of planets surrounding our solar system, just waiting to be found," says Eugene Chiang, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

What makes Chiang's claim so surprising is the sheer number and size of these planets. Weighing more than Mars, they dwarf Sedna and Quaoar, the largest rocky bodies spotted circling the sun beyond Pluto.

The evidence comes from a source closer to home: the discovery of a 100-kilometre lump of ice and rock circling the sun in the same orbit as Neptune. This frigid asteroid was chalked up as a mere curiosity when it was first spotted in 2001. Now astronomers realise it could point to an undiscovered world on the edge of the solar system.

Chiang is not the only one to think that the nine planets we know of are only half the story. Alan Stern, a planetary astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, is convinced there are more sizeable planets out there. "I think it is a 100 per cent certainty," he says. "Definitely there are Earth-sized objects out there and some will be larger than the Earth."

New Scientist SPACE - Features - Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found

The Googleplex

The Googleplex is up to something

When I was in high school the term "google" meant the number '10 to the 100th power'. A "googleplex" was an even larger number, '10 to the power of 10 to the hundredth power'. In those days Bill Gates was in Junior High. Today 'Google' is the biggest search engine on the web; 'The Googleplex' is the name of the home office of the Google company, the hottest place in tech; and Bill's company Microsoft is the incumbent computer software monopoly on planet earth, but things are changing fast.

The Googleplex is embarked on a number of initiatives that are making old Bill look over his shoulder; some say he simply doesn't understand what is happening. Not Apple, not Linux, but Google is keeping Bill awake nights. Bill's right hand man, and MS CEO, Steve Balmer has vowed to "kill Google". Is Microsoft about to get "IBM'd"? Just as Micorsoft out maneuvered IBM at the start of the desktop revolution, is Google about to out maneuver Microsoft and take over the top spot on every computer desktop? Bill and Steve may be mad as hell, but do they "get it"? Stay tuned.

Google, the internet's leading search company, is expected to build on NASA property at a now-vacant site in the heart of Silicon Valley, which will include offices, housing and roads, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing unidentified sources.

At 1 million square feet, the new campus would put Google in the same league as other Silicon Valley tech companies such as Oracle and Yahoo.

The new facility would be larger than filmmaker George Lucas' new complex in San Francisco's Presidio and nearly as big as the 52-story office tower in the Bank of America Center in San Francisco's Financial District.

Wired News: Google Plans Lavish Campus

Nasa and Google have agreed to work together on a variety of projects, including large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and the "encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry".

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said: "Imagine having a wide selection of images from the Apollo space mission at your fingertips whenever you want it.

"That's just one example of how this collaboration could help broaden technology's role in making the world a better place."

The work will build on Google Maps which includes charts of the moon. Google recently hired Vint Cerf, known as the 'father of the internet' and a promoter of the concept of an interplanetary internet.

Google to set up Nasa base - vnunet.com

Google ended months of speculation late Friday afternoon by submitting a proposal to offer a free wireless Internet service to the city of San Francisco.

In recent months, speculation about Google's plans as an Internet service provider has reached a fevered pitch. However, the company said Friday that it did not yet have plans to roll out free nationwide Internet services.

Google Bids to Help San Francisco Go Wireless - New York Times

Google's Patents Reveal Strategy To Beat Microsoft

According to “The Google Legacy,'' history is about to repeat itself. Microsoft today is where IBM was years ago. And Google is in a position to do to Bill Gates what he did to IBM. The result could be a new industry kingpin.

..Some filings in the patent portfolio point to an accelerated use of high-speed fiber and wireless that could be used to deliver Google technology. “Google already has some number of data centers where it’s good to have high-speed connections,” he said.

With Wi-Fi currently working its way into communities across the world and with wide area WiMAX ready to be deployed in a big way next year, it could be a natural fit for Google to deliver its technology over these high-speed links, free of charge. Noting that Google is moving to VoIP via its recently-announced Google Talk, the high-speed connections appear tailor-made for delivering streaming video,

Google's Patents Reveal Strategy To Beat Microsoft

Sparks flew--along with accusations of flying chairs--in one of the first hearings last week in Microsoft's lawsuit against Google Inc. over the hiring of former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee. In written testimony, former Microsoft engineer Mark Lucovsky claimed that CEO Steve Ballmer threw a chair in anger when Lucovsky said he was going to Google, and Ballmer vowed to bury Google CEO Eric Schmidt and kill the search company. (Ballmer says Lucovsky's account isn't accurate.)

Google Is Getting Under Everyone's Skin

Nano News

The World’s Smallest Robot

Researchers have built an inchworm-like robot so small you need a microscope just to see it.

In fact about 200 hundred of them could line up and do the conga across a plain M&M.

The tiny bot measures about 60 micrometers wide (about the width of a human hair) by 250 micrometers long, making it the smallest untethered, controllable microrobot ever.

"It's tens of times smaller in length, and thousands of times smaller in mass than previous untethered microrobots that are controllable," said designer Bruce Donald of Dartmouth University. "When we say ‘controllable,' it means it's like a car; you can steer it anywhere on a flat surface, and drive it wherever you want to go. It doesn't drive on wheels, but crawls like a silicon inchworm, making tens of thousands of 10-nanometer steps every second. It turns by putting a silicon 'foot' out and pivoting like a motorcyclist skidding around a tight turn."

The World’s Smallest Robot