Lunar Power Plant in the Works...

Japanese firm wants to transform the Moon into a giant solar power plant
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Shimizu Corporation, a Japanese construction firm, has recently proposed a plan to harness solar energy on a larger scale than almost any previously proposed concept. Their ambitious plan involves building a belt of solar cells around the Moon’s 6,800-mile (11,000-kilometer) equator, converting the electricity to powerful microwaves and lasers to be beamed at Earth, and finally converting the beams back to electricity at terrestrial power stations. The Luna Ring concept, the company says, could meet the entire world's energy needs.

Red Queen Theory

It has long been assumed that changes in evolution take place due environmental factors. That is, when environmental conditions change, evolution will adapt an organism to allow it to survive. Researchers at the University of Liverpool have announced this may not be the case at all. They point to results from their genetic research that seem to indicate that inter-species competition plays a much stronger role.

The theory, first proposed as the "Red Queen Theory", formulates that most evolutionary changes are a result of a sort of "tit for tat" result of combative interactions with other organisms. Small but relatively rapid changes occur due to competition for survival in their environment. It suggests that all creatures are in a constant race for survival, evolving new ways to counter threats to their existence over time.

The "Red Queen Theory" is named after a passage in the Lewis Carrol story, Through the Looking Glass in which the Red Queen tells Alice "it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place".

This theory plays more into our currently accepted notions of Chaos Theory than the earlier view of Evolutionary Change, and can also be applied to other evolutionary systems as well, for example international arms races.

I will let you Google this one yourself if you want to know more...

Climate Change Caused Mass Extinctions, not Asteroids?

A group of Climate Scientists and Earth Scientists are now proposing a theory that sudden climatic change, not asteroid collision, has been responsible for most of the mas extinction events which have occured throughout history. They are basing this off the partly off the geological record, and what is known to have occurred during the early periods of life on Earth.

Whether right or wrong, it is a fact that mass extinctions have occurred due to climate change. The extinction event at the end of the Permian period is a prime example, where a combination of glacial melt and volcanism is thought to have initiated the climatic change.

So, the question is, are we next? Are we condemned to repeat the past?

Read more about Earth's extinction events here...

More about Climate Change and the Extinction cycle can be found here...

Yellowstone's Plumbing Exposed

Researchers have confirmed that the source of the Yellowstone Super-volcano (which makes up the entire National Park, basically) comes from the Earth's Mantle more than 500 miles down. This is unheard of in the world of Volcanism, and shows that the caldera upon which Yellowstone Park sits, is basically a giant plug leading to the core of the Earth. Most Volcanoes are not supplied directly from the Mantle or the Core.

When this blows, it is going to be big...

Yellowstone's Plumbing Exposed

The Real Death Star?

Scientists are in disagreement over the threat a local star presents to our solar system. They do, however, agree that it will very likely explode in the near future. This star, T Pyxidis, is a pair of stars in close orbit, called a Binary Star. One of this pair, is a White Dwarf, and is siphoning off material from the larger star at a cataclysmic rate.

It is widely accepted that this smaller star is at or near what is known as the Chandrasekhar Limit. This limit is the absolute maximum of matter the small dwarf star can hold without collapsing under it's own gravity. When this star collapses, it will form a Supernova, and destroy everything in the vicinity in a blinding explosion that will light up the sky.

The trouble is some scientists feel we are within the danger zone for this explosion. It is located 3200 light years from Earth, but if the explosion is poweful enough, it could strip away elements of our upper atmosphere, such as our Ozone Layer, on the side facing the explosion. This can lead to a reaction within the atmosphere, wherein all life eventually fails on the Earth's surface.

The scientific community is in disagreement over the danger presented by this small star. But one thing is for certain, when it goes, it will be the show of a lifetime (possibly ALL lifetimes!).

Here is a Popular Science article on this issue...

Humans Might Have Triggered Climate Change Earlier Than Previously Thought...

Some new findings concerning climate change are making the rounds in Science-Land. It seems humanity cannot stop making the same mistakes of the past. It has always been assumed that early man could not have influenced his environment on a large scale, this is now known to be false. Early man's ventures into agriculture permanently changed the environment, with such practices as large scale slash and burn farming, and decimation of entire forested regions.

It is now becoming increasingly accepted by the scientific community that these early farming practices produced enough Carbon Monoxide to tip the climate scale into the current warming trend we are now experiencing.

Read more about this at The Examiner...

The Portents of Disappearing Seagrass

It seems that seagrass, the natural filter system of the seas, is disappearing at an amazing rate. It is estimated somewhere around 3 football field sized areas of seagrass disappears each hour. 58% of the world's seagrass meadows are said to be in decline. How this will affect the seas is not known, but does not seem to be a good sign.

Here is a link to a ScienceDaily article on it.

Staggering Images of our Public Mass Consumption

See the images at Chris Jordan's website. Their are truly eye opening. The amount of "stuff" produced by our consumer culture is perverse. His images place it all in perspective.

Stop the Insanity! Bottled water is nuts!

It is crazy that we keep producing bottled water, when it is free for the taking from the tap. The amount of oil going into non-biodegradable bottles is just mind-boggling. It has to end. We are going to find ourselves living on a heap of plastic bottles instead of a continent.

Read more HERE.

Fracking Earthquakes!

It seems a process called "Fracking" is suspected of causing a spate of earthquakes in the North Texas area. Fracking is a process used in gas well drilling, in which they inject a mixture of sludge and water into the gas holding shale to break up the rock and force the gas to the surface. Sounds environmentally friendly doesn't it? This region of Texas is known to be extremely geologically stable, and has not experienced any siesmic activity for literally hundreds of years. As of the recent economic downturn, gas drilling has been drastically ramped up in this area. The Fracking process is now suspected of destabilizing the region's supporting layer of shale.

This sounds an awful lot like the doom and gloom predictions from ten years ago concerning this process creating large cavernous regions with an explosive mix of leftover gas and chemicals, all waiting to explode and cause massive subsidence.

Who knows what the real cause is? It is very suspicious that these earthquakes are occuring shortly after a massive influx of new drilling. It is literally unheard of for this region to have earthquakes of any type. Twenty years ago, the Superconducting Supercollider was to be built here for this very reason; it's inherent geological stability.

You can read more about it here.