techhead21

Sadly there are still many people in the world that lack clean drinking water.  They have to drink water contaminated with toxic chemicals and waste and finding a more affordable way then traditional done (i.e. Polymer membrane water filters) is making it hard to change this.  But IBM researchers have made a new membrane material that resists problems that are common with polymer-membrane water filters such as clogging up and fouling.  The new membrane material is made out of a polymer developed by Allen’s lab and Central Glass called hexafluoro alcohols.  This new polymer works more effectively at a high pH while others simply don’t.  It should be more energy efficient since it does not clog or foul as often as traditional filters hopefully making up for it’s higher cost.

Yeah so there’s this article about a dog that was made to be fluorescent…I want one!  This one glows red under ultraviolet light and I wonder if you can program certain colors.  Maybe you can make it the color of the rainbow under fluorescent light?  I know there’s going to be animal rights groups up in a roar about this but it’s not hurting the dog so it shouldn’t be such a big deal.  What are your ideas on this and what color would you want your dog to be?

I don’t know about any of you but I think it’s about time we got off this planet.  It could only be the moon and that would be good enough.  I’m sure you’ve heard that saying about all your eggs in one basket…it’s just not a good idea if you ask me.  We don’t even need to leave the solar system to be safe.  Terraforming some of the other planets.  So it takes a few hundreds years to fully terraform them I think it’s worth it.  What do you think?

Well it seems like were finally becoming cyborgs!  They’ve now built cartilage that performs better then the real thing.  That’s so cool…I don’t know about you but I’m all for being a cyborg!  If they made a artificial arm and leg that is just as good as or better then what I’ve got now then I’d be the first to sign up!  I know that what most of what if not all of what I’ve just posted has nothing to do with the headline I want to know your opinions of cybernetics and artificial  limbs/parts.

The British company Reaction Engines Limited (REL) was awarded 1 million euros to develop an air breathing engine that could power the Skylon spaceplane.  The engine would run on hydrogen as the fuel and use liquid oxygen as a coolant instead.  It would also have a redesigned exhaust nozzle to get more force from the fuel which would increase it’s carrying capacity by 10% if it works.  One problem they have to sort out is to make sure that it doesn’t melt or deform the engines.  But overall this sounds like a great idea…I wonder why we haven’t tried coming up with this?

The Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) is designed to help soldiers carry large amounts of equipment with little effort.  A soldier can carry 200 pounds without trouble as the HULC transfers the weight to the ground from battery powered titanium legs.  The HULC also gives all the mobility the soldier would need by allowing him to to do deep squats, crawling, and upper body lifting.  LM also plans to have certain upgrades to improve operational effectiveness depending on what is needed. All I have to say is…WHEN CAN I GET ONE OF THESE!? 

A skeleton dug up from a grave in Venice is supposedly the first example of a “vampire”. During the time period that the women died most people believed that the plague was spread by “vampires” which spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of people they thought were vampires to stop them doing this.  Time’s were way different back then.  The superstitions and other things they believed are simply astounding to say the least.  The ignorance was also staggering.  I could never live in such times since I’m the kind of guy that likes to get down to the bottom of things.  I don’t just take peoples word for it I’m more of a “see it to believe it” kind of person.  

Well planetary scientist Pascal Lee is leading a NASA funded expedition out into the Haughton Crater in the Canadian Arctic which resembles mars… minus the no oxygen and it being on earth.  It’s training for the mars expedition that won’t happen for another fifty or so years but hey it’s better to find out problems now then later right?  I personally couldn’t stand dealing with the same five people for more then a year let alone two or three.  It’s like….having your annoying little brother attached to your leg 24/7 for three years.  Ehh…so do you think you could take a trip to mars in a little can with half a dozen other people?

Yes!  The Kepler Telescope has finally been launched!  For those of you who have no idea what that is or what it’s supposed to do here’s the basic idea.  It’s designed for detecting planets the size of earth and will be pointed at and observe a group of 100,000 stars.  Telescopes that we’ve used before just weren’t designed to spot things that small so we haven’t been able to find anything reaching the size of earth and the closest is several times.  Though we’ve found many interesting planets most of the have been gas giants that are highly unlikely to have any kind of life on them.  I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to see what it finds!

Yes, scientists have now found a drug to erase bad memories that could possibly help with

post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  They have found that when fearful memories are

changed they are in a process called reconsolidation, which is vulnerable to the blood

pressure drug called beta-adrenergic receptor blockers.  The drug works because

whenever a fearful memory is recalled the memory is remade by the brain.  The drug

blocks this process meaning that it will be less likely to be renewed and therefor

forgotten.    

Now as good as this may be for some people I'm sure the majority of us don't have this

problem.  It would seem more then likely that this new research could be used to target

any specific memory.  With this ability and being able to use it in pill form, things

could get pretty complicated.  If this is available to people commercially, people

would simply erase all bad things that happened to them from their memory.  Some of

you might not find that a bad idea but would you really be the person you are today

if you didn't go through hardships and learned from them?  Besides there are also

many other ways to better handle bad memories such as meditating, yoga, and just

slowing down in life.   

Your thoughts and ideas are more then welcome on this topic and I’d like to see

what others thought of this news.