Fukushima update.

So apparently the report that radiation levels where 10 MILLION times above the acceptable level.. Well this was unfortunately a miscommunication error and new tests are being taken to confirm levels, however two employees where sent to hospital yesterday after stepping in a puddle that was well over 10,000 times and subsequently received severe beta radiation burns.

They should be released next Monday based on how well treatment is going though..

Sure 10 MILLION times is highly unbelievable, but if a puddle is at 10,000 times then shit..

on related news those of you in Boston look out for the rain as it has been tainted with "non lethal" doses of iodine from the Fukushima meltdowns fallout.
Boston.com's Iodine story

Lets hope this mess gets cleaned up soon.. and thank the hard workers at the plant that made this catastrophe considerably less bad than it could have been, anyone remember Chernobyl??? well that is what this could have been if it hadn't been for the hard workers who worked through an earthquake and a tsunami stop it from happening.

Hungover.

Got a killer hangover so I am going to have to postpone todays post till tomorrow, but I assure you my drunken escapades have many many new stories too be told, expect a double feature tomorrow!


Till then, how do I cure this terrible terrible hangover..

My usual way is to eat greasy food drink allot of powerade (I love powerade when im hungover) and then just hope i dont die..

What are your secrets?

-Moxy

Radiation chart.

The guys over at XKCD have designed this clever radiation chart to give people a realistic idea of how radiation really affects you. Click the picture for the large version, or click the link too see the article.

XKCD Radiation chart

FUN SCIENCE!

So its Saturday, lets do some fun science today..

My favorite age old question, Belly button lint!

So first off, why do we get belly button lint?

Well you see Belly button lint is fibers collected from your tshirt boxers even pants, all depending on how hairy you are, now most people understand that Hairy chest = Belly button lint, however this is because pubic hair (no pubic hair is not just crotch hair, it is all hair that you grow after you hit puberty hence pubic hair) has a rougher texture which rubs off fibers from your clothes, the static electricity makes them stick together. WOAH HOLD ON I hear you cry, where did the static electricity come from?? Well it comes from rubbing fabric against hair, simple!

Now the reason it builds up in the navel is that it is the only crevice on your body that can physically hold lint, unless you are extremely hairy in which case the static electricity can cause lint to build up nearly anywhere.

Now why is it blue?
This is the easy part, what type of shirt are you wearing? Black, blue, navy??
Well thats an easy explanation, but what if you are wearing a red shirt or a green shirt?? Well it still usually comes out blue and thats because, most dyes are based heavily on blue or black to get the right color.
Sometimes however the dye is not based on blue, and in that case you get different color lint!

Thanks for tuning in too fun science day!

Robonaut

ROBONAUT HAS LANDED
The robonaut has finally been unpacked aboard the ISS.
Unfortunately he will not be activated until May.
Robonaut as I see it is the next step too an evil robot army.

For those of you who are curious what the robonaut is well he (it?) is one of four current robonaut models, they are basically robot astronauts designed to help astronauts in their daily tasks, and eventually on too things astronauts can't do, like go outside... which is something astronauts often have difficulty with what with the ISS being in space and all.

Astronauts are still able to go outside with suits, but robots could be ready much faster, and lets face it we dont mind risking robots as much as we mind risking humans.

Reference:
http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp

MESSENGER

Only a few hours ago the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging or the MESSENGER space craft for short, entered orbit around Mercury, and is unique in being the only spacecraft ever to do so!

Now I know some of you out there are thinking, how did we make a spacecraft that can survive the extreme temperature that is found that close to the sun? Well it all starts with the orbit, the MESSENGER flies in as close as 200 kilometers to the surface of mercury and then flies away more than 15,000 km from the surface, it does all of this every 12 hours. The flying away is what keeps it cool enough to continue working its sensors.

The MESSENGER will look for chemical signs of volcanic activity on mercury.
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY ON MERCURY?? I hear you cry, well indeed, scientists believe that there is volcanic activity on the surface and the MESSENGER is at the end of its 6 and a half year journey to discover if this is true.

References:
www.Sciencenews.org

www.CTV.ca

Feel the love for the eco dome?

Mars,

We spent billions of dollars getting up the ISS, why not the same funding to get to mars.

TerraForm or Eco Dome?
_____________________
A common debate and question..I say, why not both?
We start with the eco dome to get colonists on the planet and then we terraform from there.
Think about any colonization what do you do?
you build a base of operations..
The eco dome could serve as that base and provide a place for scientists to study martian conditions and work out possible means of terraforming.

Power
______
The planet like earth can support geothermal energy and solar energy..
for building an eco-dome that would be enough energy and then if teraforming is going to happen then nuclear is a cost effective and simple solution.


electric rovers can charge of stations that connect to these power supplies.

Oxygen
_______
We can then set up a processing plant which can take the natural Oxygen/Carbon mix that is in the atmosphere of the planet, and convert them into breathable air. This processing plant filters air into the eco-dome which we fill with high oxygen producing plants. Alternatively to taking oxygen and combining it with carbon, we could take water from the ice caps and via electrolysis take out the oxygen, the remaining hydrogen can then be used as fuel.

Modulation
_________
I firmly believe that the eco-dome will need to be modular to allow for expansion if it is non-modular then the eco-dome will remain the same size and colonization cannot happen, it will fall into a purely research based facility, although this is all well and good, the eventual goal should be colonization and eventually a strong human presence on mars.

Pressurization
____________
Any colony on mars pre teraforming needs to have a high pressure, but this allready happens with most structures that go beyond surface earth, IE Submarines and Space shuttles.

Transport to mars
________________

The current journey to mars takes between 6-9 months, which is relatively long time to wait to get anything done, if we want to be there in ten years almost 1 year of that is transporting there, so we only have 9 years planning and construction time..
However at the same time, America to the moon took from 62-69 not even ten years..

I strongly believe we can make this happen, im no engineer I cant give you schematics or details, but I see no reason we cant be there before 2020, accept money..

Its still a long way off.. But if everyone had these ideas then we very well could be there..

The known universe

I love this video, always good to watch when feeling down, puts the whole universe into perspective.