WATER FOUND ON THE MOON

On a recent expedition to the moon, a trio of spacecraft discovered the presence of OH and H2O molecules on the lunar surface. This shattered the long-held belief that the moon has always been a dry, barren wasteland and supports the theory that it was once a part of the Earth itself. 

This article caught my eye because of the exciting and new news that it offered. Finding water anywhere in space is something that should always be considered monumentous, because it is water that gives all life on Earth the ability to survive. Thus, finding water on a different planet indicates that at one point there may have been life on that planet that survived. Other than the possibility of life, finding water on the moon indicates that the moon could have been a part of the Earth at one point, which helps scientists to better understand the history of the planet as a whole, and the impact of certain events on the planet surface. Overall, this discovery is a very eciting development in our global history.

water on the moon

Parking Spots become Parks for the day

Turning parking spots into park spots was the day for many activists all over the country. Activists would take regular parking spots and transform them into mini parks complete with sod, potted plants, lawn chairs and barbeque grills to show America and the world that auto has grown so much that it has taken place of public land in big cities. A neighborhood association in Las Angeles made their “mini park” by taking up seven parking spots filled with a grill, a children's wading pool and a gardening workshop to teach people how to grow plants. Many other cities participated like Chicago where one group changed parking spots into a bicyclist pit stocked with food and drinks and New York City where college students put on a Shakespeare show all on parking spots. All these pocket parks were all done for The 'PARK(ing) Day' movement. ” This famous movement which started as a single installation four years ago has now become a worldwide event in 100 cities on four continents. The PARK(ing) Day movement is not only to show people that public land has been decreased but that parking on the side of the street and not in private lots where cost is a little extra can affect the environment we live it. By searching for a free parking spot than paying for one in a garage or private lot can be harmful. “… A study by Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles that found drivers spent an average of 3.3 minutes, or half a mile, circling the block in search of a parking space. Over a year, vehicles traveled 950,000 miles — the equivalent of 38 trips around the Earth — just looking for a parking spot. Shoup said many drivers would rather cruise for open spots on the street than park in higher-priced lots and garages.” Like the average person and myself no one wants to pay for parking so driving around an extra five minutes to squeeze into a free space is satisfactory, but that results in more traffic, wasted fuel and more population. Hopefully the “PARK(ing) day” movement will show people that driving around the lot 5 times looking for that extra spot can cause long term damage to future generations and the world.
I enjoyed the article a lot because “PARK(ing) Day” is something very creative, original, and it helps the planet which is something the world needs right now. I would have never thought that cruising around an extra five minute searching for a “free” parking spot could result in so much when added up. It is unbelievable how the automobile industry is taking over land and public spaces. I would like to know if “PARK(ing) Day” is being participated in my hometown of Philadelphia which is a much polluted city filled with major traffic and big industries. I thank the creators of PARK(ing) day to bringing this problem to the attention to society and myself. Hopefully this will spread and in the future population and traffic will decrease.


Prem Patel.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32916362/ns/us_news-environment/

New Computing Tool For Crops

Imperial College and Syngenta University have been working on the development of a new tool that will estimate the reaction that crops will have to different pesticides. Previous agricultural technology/research would have taken months/years to come to the conclusions that the tool calculates in a matter of minutes. The tool shows how the plant will react to different substances and environmental conditioins. Scientists are hoping that the tools will potentially help to create a drought resistant grain, and improve the shelf time/taste/quality of crops. The tool uses "machine learning", which basically means that the machine can learn and retain information from that of which it analyzes. Scientists will be using a tomato as the first test of the tool. They will be analyzing what genes affect the tomatoes flesh consistancy and color. The main goal is to create a better tasting strain of tomato. Another project that scientists are taking on is testing which pesticides are harmful to what plants. The tool will be very useful for these purposes.
I think that this tool will greatly improve the knowledge that scientists have about chemicals effects on plants, which ultimately leads to knowing their effects on humans. The thought of the tool having the "machine learning" application is a bit frightening, though. That entire concept does not stand on solid ground with me. Humans are becoming too reliant on machines to retain information for them. The idea of knowledge has shifted over the years from the idea of figuring out what you need to know and retaining it to figuring out how to develop a machine to tell you what you need to know-and relying on that machine to retain the information for you to reference. Some view this change as a positive thing, but I do not believe that it is a positive. If something disastrous happened and every computer blacked out and all information was lost, a large percentage of human "knowledge" would be gone--the "old fashioned way" of learning and research is always the way to go in my opinion.

-Lauren Null

Source--http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090922095808.htm

In order to protect the ancient city Venice from rising flood waters a massive engineering project has been undertaken to build massive mobile flood gates in hopes of stemming the rising water. Venice has long been subject to floods as rise sea levels, caused by global warming, threaten to sink this beautiful city. These rising flood waters are most dangerous during high tide, where water seeps into the ground floors of buildings. The massive flood gates being built will hopefully solve this problem. By placing 78 of these massive flood gates in the 3 inlets that lead to the lagoon where Venice is built they can be raised during high tide thus lowering the water level. This project, called MOSE, is already 54 percent complete. However there has been controversy over the long term effects such technology will have on the environment. Marine scientist Laura Carbognin fears that rising sea levels will cause the flood gates to be closed for long periods of time. This will cut off the lagoon from vital exchanges with the ocean, destroying its ecosystem. Laura Carbognin proposes a more expensive but more environmentally sound solution. It involves injecting salt water and carbon into the deep formation of Venice itself could raise the island up to 30 centimeters in 10 years.
This just shows how dangerous global warming is to us. These rising waters could possibly destroy one of the oldest and most culturally significant cities of our time. However the current solution that is being enacted will probably cause even more problems. If the lagoon which surrounds Venice is cut off from the ocean, much of the life that lives in it now will probably die. The loss of so much sea life would be catastrophic. I personally agree with Laura Carbognin’s solution of raising the Venice itself rather then trying to lower the water. Her plan seems to be more environmentally friendly with less long lasting consequences.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112995748&ft=1&f=1025
Ryan Cowen

THE OZONE LAYERR

Recently, there have been a number of studies done to examine the ozone layer in the atmosphere across the globe. Scientists from the European Space Agency have used the data collected from these studies to create a prediction of the future condition of the ozone layer in the future. According to the article, "the findings look promising". 

According to the scientists, the ozone above northern and southern mid-latitudes was declining by 7% for the past few decades. After the enactment of the Montreal Protocol, however, they noticed a dramatic decrease in the trend, which fell to a mere .8% per decade. Now that ozone depletion is down to a meager .8% per decade, they predict that it will drastically improve in condition in years to come. 

This is  huge victory for the environment, whose very existence is dependent on the stability of the ozone layer, which protects us from the harmful UV radiation emitted by sunlight, which in effect shields us from the full intensity of the sun. Now that the ozone layer is relatively safe, other, more pressing environmental concerns can be looked at more seriously. Not only is this a victory for the environment, but it is also a victory for the environmentalist movement. They currently have the attention of the entire world, and showing that they can in fact make a significant change on Earth will show the world that the environmentalist movement is a movement worth supporting. This could open up new paths to efficient energy usage and sustainable life.

http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/40507

"How to Spark an Energy Quest"

The article talk about the need for new energy in all areas of the world and more options. Of course the main problem would be, none other than a money issue. The author empahsizes the need for money to start the effort would be the first challenge, but new jobs and services would be provided from the new energy. Critics are saying that the need for more government run energy "quests" is the way to go becuase many others are over heard and often looked over. They stress them to be aggresive in their pusuit to finance a new energy quest and that the government would be the best way to do it. Also, reducing the production of oil products for fuel isn't the option because it only makes the price of coal and other resources cheaper, thus leaving out environment in the whole process. Many critics believe the answer lies in cutting energy costs in buildings, transportation and appliances...

I find this article to be pretty informing. The reason is because mostly every article and commercial talks about cutting the use of fossil fuels, and consumption, which for the most part is true, but also is a small part of it. I feel like the true answer for the energy problem of today is right in front of us, but is just waiting to be found... But for now we should all keep doing our part in recycling, using less energy and other environmentally based practices

-CH

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/how-to-spark-an-energy-quest/

Following Trash and Recyclables on Their Journey

Have you ever wondered where the trash you through away everyday is going? Well, Karin Landsberg decided to ask researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to come into her house and electronically tag some of her garbage with tracking devices. The researchers are now able to follow her trash and track it to its final resting place or the place in which it is recycled. M.I.T's Senseable City Laboratory is currently tracking 3000 similar pieces of trash through the disposal system for the next three months. The director of the lab, Carlo Ratti, said, "Our purpose of the project is to give people a concrete sense of their impact on the environment in a way that might lead them to change their habits." Trash collection and transport is very expensive for cities and this project may help understand the process and money involved in waste removal. The project should also show faults and ways to improve the system in order to make it more efficient and environmentally friendly. This project identifies the problems with the waste removal system and many solutions can be derived after the results come in. The results may evoke different thoughts in people about how they can make a difference and individual efforts are very important.

I found this article very interesting and I liked the idea behind it. This can pose many solutions in how we eliminate, recycle, or store everyday waste products. I like the idea of tracking the garbage because it shows people where their trash really goes and the route it has taken. I was very surprised that researchers could track and follow something so minuscule as a light bulb. I would like to read the results of the experiment and see what can be done to improve our removal system.

Brennan Weaver
Citation- http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/index.html