Defining "what for" for one. Also the conquest of space is not a game for short attention spans. The distances are great and the challenges are monumental. The "game changing" technology that is needed is self replicating resource and infrastructure. We need to put a lathe on the moon and a robot to work the thing.
Maybe we should stop raising children to think that everything is fun. Impactful science is a heck of a lot of work. Guess it's more about doing rather than viewing. Listening to a musician is fun. Learning to play is not.
As in kidnapping cases the really hard part is getting paid. As soon as the FBI is involved all kinds of organization-tech can be deployed to catch the perp. Crime doesn't pay.
Interstellar travel of big masses at an appreciable clip should produce trails of IR signature heat on both legs of the journey; both jetting away and on deceleration. There should be long lasting contrails of this heat in case there is regular spaceliner service from Gliese 581 to Proxima centauri. Should SETI be looking for the smoke?
Engineers, space physicists and tech magnates are quite talented in delta V, derivative trading and the Lambert problem but are, unfortunately, very poor biochemists. In recent times there has been much excitement concerning extraterrestrial water and very little consideration of nitrogen -- the reduced form is literally the stuff of life. Given that 78% of the air you breathe is nitrogen, Mars has a paucity of 2% in its already tenuous atmosphere and that the Martian soil more closely resembles Clorox (TM) than anything what is your proposed Nitrogen source/budget? Note there is yet no evidence of vast subsurface nitrate deposits.
From Newman Craig J Nat Prod 2012 75 311-335 about 50% of FDA approved drugs (1940-2012) were derived from natural sources. It never totally went away but as you surmise the big Pharmaceutical companies cut back on these efforts when we went through the trend of combinatorial chemistry (which resulted in a decade long gap of FDA approvals with the consequence of sucky economic times for just about everybody). What this work demonstrates is that there is a big chemical universe waiting to be found using advanced technology and some clever experimental design. But to me I think these researchers embody what you are complaining about because the really hard work is isolating the low concentration metabolite and then testing it properly. Also the 30 K secondary metabolites they found sounds suspiciously like semi degraded peptides which will no nobody any good.
This is not a dim witted question. Actually it is a profound engineering question. The simple answer is to liken the fusion reaction to the coal burning in a steam engine; therefore in the end we could just be boiling water. The difficulty is that fusion occurs at temperatures of millions of degrees and any machine you can conceive of to capture the energy is necessarily going to make "contact" with plasma. There are a number of concepts about how to do this, google the "first wall" problem for a taste of the issues. In general though the engineering issue is not as important as learning how to make an excess of energy economically in the first place. A scientific problem ploddingly being picked at by very few concerted efforts.
Here are some relevant space object mean densities. Mars 3.93 g/cm3, Phobos 1.87 g/cm3, Deimos 1.47 g/cm3, Mercury 5.42 g/cm3, Luna 3.34 g/cm3, Earth 5.51 g/cm3, Ceres 2.07 g/cm3, Vesta 3.45 g/cm3, Europa 3.01 g/cm3, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko 0.47 g/cm3. If Phobos and Deimos formed from a violent collision it might be expected that they would be dense rocky objects like our moon or Vesta. However it seems that these moons more resemble the icy object end of the density spectrum. Did they form during a wetter Martian era? I think the take home message is that some exploring of the Martian moons is in order; a sample return mission would be much simpler than a Mars return with an interesting scientific purpose.
Could we go one step further? Do you think that the ability to adapt to our natural hand-brain writing motion represents the next wave of technology? Shouldn't this keyboard in front of me be replaced by an input device that is indistinguishable from pen paper? I do complex math, it begins as jumbled scriggles and ends up in Matlab.
The solar irradiance at Ceres is about 150 W/m2...1/9th that of earth. It is cold out there in the asteroid belt in comparison to the moon or Mercury where surface ice is exposed only in polar permanent shadow. As reference the moons of Jupiter have no trouble maintaining a coat of ice. My guess is that the surface of Ceres is like a charred marshmallow; organic long chain hydrocarbon on top forming a dark crust that protects a frozen interior of H20/CO2/Methane and ammonia. The white spot is a rupture out of which has gurgled up some salty water that is sublimating to space. The question is can we skate on it?
Worry the bottle Mamma, it's grapefruit wine Kick off your high heel sneakers, it's party time The girls don't seem to care what's on As long as it plays till dawn Nothin' but blues and Elvis And somebody else's favorite song... FM No Static at All -- Steely Dan
Not sure why this kind of cute 'inside baseball' research is being posted on Slashdot. Firstly there are many and better ways of screening for peptides -- the click chemistry trick is probably applicable only for this this proof of concept (toy) system. Good luck with a real protein. Secondly peptides are useful for research and totally useless as drugs. Thirdly the summary is really wrong here, the minimal in vivo data shown here does not come close to addressing the "complex milieu" of cells much less cancer much less Akt mutation driven cancer So which member of the Cal Tech research team posted this slashvertisement? Congratulations on your Nature Chemistry paper. By they way it has gone to your head.
You learn in Sci Fi and in dull HS Science that you are a carbon based life form. Now this is a very coal based thing to say; one could also very well say we are nitrogen based beings (or hydrogen/Phosphorus/oxygen etc). There's a whole lot of carbon in the inner solar system in many extractable forms but Nitrogen is the fixer. Why is it that acquiring enough nitrogen from the 78% that is in the air happens to be the one of the rate limiting steps for life? That 0.04% CO2 is not limiting. The outer solar system is different, fixed nitrogen ammonia is abundant. Titan, Europa, and possibly Ceres? Mars on the other hand had its Nitrogen blown away by the solar wind and since it is an essential ingredient for you nitrogen based life forms it would not be my first choice to set up shop. For that matter, why not truck water and ammonia from Ceres to the moon and live in a warm place with a great view?
Yeah and him smiling while grasping that wiggling plant is so really really wrong that I'm I'm pretty sure its an illusion concocted by the inhabitants of Talos IV.
How good was that character? It's difficult for me to watch Leonard Nimoy in other shows/films because when he cracks a smile my brain is hardwired to reject the emotional display as impossible. I'd sooner believe a pig flying than Spock smiling. Live long and prosper...
Not your imagination: unless the movie writers love the character enough to let them use their skills to solve problems (see any James Bond film for example) the cheapest story arcs that you will see over and over again in these blockbusters are 1) The origin Story 2) The origin story of the villain 3) The hero loses his powers 4) The hero goes bad. 5) Doomed love.
The X-files, Columbo, even Buffy...these shows feed off interesting plotlines in which the hero gets to be themselves in coping with situations.
The studios do not love their character properties enough to make art.
Take an average Joe, give 'em a glass of tea. Give them a sugar bowl and have them sweeten it to taste. Now unless you're in the south (they do things different down there) the subject will add a gram or so. Now show that person the contents of a Snapple, a whopping 41 grams. On so many levels this exemplifies everything. Premade food is diabetic by design.
The science job system is broken. The main problem is the federal subsidy of Graduate Student Stipends and Postdoctoral Fellowship salaries from grants. This has led to the situation of an oversupply of bright people in what amount to full time jobs with no benefits with little chance to achieve a rare faculty post. The fix is to stop the subsidy. Institutions need to take on fewer graduate students, pay them more and train them fully. Bolster the Master's degree for the less committed. The Postdoc should be eliminated and replaced with the term Contract Researcher which should be treated like a job. These people should be paid market rates so they can move to whomever is smart enough to get a grant. For the kids out there, the current system is a sort of feudal concoction built to maximize imperious egos and is fundamentally exploitive. Advise: go into science if you have the desire. Go to a good undergraduate school but if you do not get into one of the best institutions for grad school DO NOT GO. It's that bad out there and it's winner take all.
The Newtonian Physics was far more compelling than the Einsteinian Physics in that film. For example the space station link up scene and of course the part where Matt Damon punches Matthew McConaughey in the face. I only wish they could have had it that Matt Damon was punching Matthew McConaugheyin the face near the Event Horizon so it could last forever to an outside observer.
Slashdot Mirror
Defining "what for" for one.
Also the conquest of space is not a game for short attention spans. The distances are great and the challenges are monumental.
The "game changing" technology that is needed is self replicating resource and infrastructure.
We need to put a lathe on the moon and a robot to work the thing.
Maybe we should stop raising children to think that everything is fun.
Impactful science is a heck of a lot of work.
Guess it's more about doing rather than viewing.
Listening to a musician is fun. Learning to play is not.
As in kidnapping cases the really hard part is getting paid. As soon as the FBI is involved all kinds of organization-tech can be deployed to catch the perp. Crime doesn't pay.
Interstellar travel of big masses at an appreciable clip should produce trails of IR signature heat on both legs of the journey; both jetting away and on deceleration. There should be long lasting contrails of this heat in case there is regular spaceliner service from Gliese 581 to Proxima centauri. Should SETI be looking for the smoke?
Engineers, space physicists and tech magnates are quite talented in delta V, derivative trading and the Lambert problem but are, unfortunately, very poor biochemists. In recent times there has been much excitement concerning extraterrestrial water and very little consideration of nitrogen -- the reduced form is literally the stuff of life.
Given that 78% of the air you breathe is nitrogen, Mars has a paucity of 2% in its already tenuous atmosphere and that the Martian soil more closely resembles Clorox (TM) than anything what is your proposed Nitrogen source/budget? Note there is yet no evidence of vast subsurface nitrate deposits.
...genetic basis for the very SLOW sleep needs...
Please get more sleep...and I can recommend the fast kind.
From Newman Craig J Nat Prod 2012 75 311-335 about 50% of FDA approved drugs (1940-2012) were derived from natural sources. It never totally went away but as you surmise the big Pharmaceutical companies cut back on these efforts when we went through the trend of combinatorial chemistry (which resulted in a decade long gap of FDA approvals with the consequence of sucky economic times for just about everybody).
What this work demonstrates is that there is a big chemical universe waiting to be found using advanced technology and some clever experimental design. But to me I think these researchers embody what you are complaining about because the really hard work is isolating the low concentration metabolite and then testing it properly. Also the 30 K secondary metabolites they found sounds suspiciously like semi degraded peptides which will no nobody any good.
...when he decides it is in his interest to found Replicant Inc.
This is not a dim witted question. Actually it is a profound engineering question. The simple answer is to liken the fusion reaction to the coal burning in a steam engine; therefore in the end we could just be boiling water. The difficulty is that fusion occurs at temperatures of millions of degrees and any machine you can conceive of to capture the energy is necessarily going to make "contact" with plasma. There are a number of concepts about how to do this, google the "first wall" problem for a taste of the issues. In general though the engineering issue is not as important as learning how to make an excess of energy economically in the first place. A scientific problem ploddingly being picked at by very few concerted efforts.
Here are some relevant space object mean densities. Mars 3.93 g/cm3, Phobos 1.87 g/cm3, Deimos 1.47 g/cm3, Mercury 5.42 g/cm3, Luna 3.34 g/cm3, Earth 5.51 g/cm3, Ceres 2.07 g/cm3, Vesta 3.45 g/cm3, Europa 3.01 g/cm3, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko 0.47 g/cm3. If Phobos and Deimos formed from a violent collision it might be expected that they would be dense rocky objects like our moon or Vesta. However it seems that these moons more resemble the icy object end of the density spectrum. Did they form during a wetter Martian era?
I think the take home message is that some exploring of the Martian moons is in order; a sample return mission would be much simpler than a Mars return with an interesting scientific purpose.
Could we go one step further? Do you think that the ability to adapt to our natural hand-brain writing motion represents the next wave of technology?
Shouldn't this keyboard in front of me be replaced by an input device that is indistinguishable from pen paper?
I do complex math, it begins as jumbled scriggles and ends up in Matlab.
The solar irradiance at Ceres is about 150 W/m2...1/9th that of earth. It is cold out there in the asteroid belt in comparison to the moon or Mercury where surface ice is exposed only in polar permanent shadow. As reference the moons of Jupiter have no trouble maintaining a coat of ice.
My guess is that the surface of Ceres is like a charred marshmallow; organic long chain hydrocarbon on top forming a dark crust that protects a frozen interior of H20/CO2/Methane and ammonia. The white spot is a rupture out of which has gurgled up some salty water that is sublimating to space.
The question is can we skate on it?
Water and Nitrogen...pending Dawn Confirmation.
Guess the Norwegians don't seem to care...
Worry the bottle Mamma, it's grapefruit wine
Kick off your high heel sneakers, it's party time
The girls don't seem to care what's on
As long as it plays till dawn
Nothin' but blues and Elvis
And somebody else's favorite song...
FM No Static at All -- Steely Dan
Not sure why this kind of cute 'inside baseball' research is being posted on Slashdot. Firstly there are many and better ways of screening for peptides -- the click chemistry trick is probably applicable only for this this proof of concept (toy) system. Good luck with a real protein. Secondly peptides are useful for research and totally useless as drugs. Thirdly the summary is really wrong here, the minimal in vivo data shown here does not come close to addressing the "complex milieu" of cells much less cancer much less Akt mutation driven cancer
So which member of the Cal Tech research team posted this slashvertisement? Congratulations on your Nature Chemistry paper. By they way it has gone to your head.
You learn in Sci Fi and in dull HS Science that you are a carbon based life form. Now this is a very coal based thing to say; one could also very well say we are nitrogen based beings (or hydrogen/Phosphorus/oxygen etc). There's a whole lot of carbon in the inner solar system in many extractable forms but Nitrogen is the fixer. Why is it that acquiring enough nitrogen from the 78% that is in the air happens to be the one of the rate limiting steps for life? That 0.04% CO2 is not limiting.
The outer solar system is different, fixed nitrogen ammonia is abundant. Titan, Europa, and possibly Ceres?
Mars on the other hand had its Nitrogen blown away by the solar wind and since it is an essential ingredient for you nitrogen based life forms it would not be my first choice to set up shop.
For that matter, why not truck water and ammonia from Ceres to the moon and live in a warm place with a great view?
Yeah and him smiling while grasping that wiggling plant is so really really wrong that I'm I'm pretty sure its an illusion concocted by the inhabitants of Talos IV.
How good was that character? It's difficult for me to watch Leonard Nimoy in other shows/films because when he cracks a smile my brain is hardwired to reject the emotional display as impossible. I'd sooner believe a pig flying than Spock smiling.
Live long and prosper...
There could be an active scene of comet swapping going on with these wandering stars.
Who is to say Halley's comet is one of ours?
Not your imagination: unless the movie writers love the character enough to let them use their skills to solve problems (see any James Bond film for example) the cheapest story arcs that you will see over and over again in these blockbusters are
1) The origin Story
2) The origin story of the villain
3) The hero loses his powers
4) The hero goes bad.
5) Doomed love.
The X-files, Columbo, even Buffy...these shows feed off interesting plotlines in which the hero gets to be themselves in coping with situations.
The studios do not love their character properties enough to make art.
This screed is also very non scientific and non technical. You are right, this article reads like slashvertisement.
Take an average Joe, give 'em a glass of tea. Give them a sugar bowl and have them sweeten it to taste. Now unless you're in the south (they do things different down there) the subject will add a gram or so. Now show that person the contents of a Snapple, a whopping 41 grams. On so many levels this exemplifies everything. Premade food is diabetic by design.
"Those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it, or so they say."
That's why they call it RE-SEARCH.
The science job system is broken. The main problem is the federal subsidy of Graduate Student Stipends and Postdoctoral Fellowship salaries from grants. This has led to the situation of an oversupply of bright people in what amount to full time jobs with no benefits with little chance to achieve a rare faculty post. The fix is to stop the subsidy. Institutions need to take on fewer graduate students, pay them more and train them fully. Bolster the Master's degree for the less committed. The Postdoc should be eliminated and replaced with the term Contract Researcher which should be treated like a job. These people should be paid market rates so they can move to whomever is smart enough to get a grant.
For the kids out there, the current system is a sort of feudal concoction built to maximize imperious egos and is fundamentally exploitive.
Advise: go into science if you have the desire. Go to a good undergraduate school but if you do not get into one of the best institutions for grad school DO NOT GO.
It's that bad out there and it's winner take all.
The Newtonian Physics was far more compelling than the Einsteinian Physics in that film. For example the space station link up scene and of course the part where Matt Damon punches Matthew McConaughey in the face. I only wish they could have had it that Matt Damon was punching Matthew McConaugheyin the face near the Event Horizon so it could last forever to an outside observer.