Nature article on Stern report ...

While it is not advanced concept and directly space related, the Stern report (Stern report) is definitely a good reading...

How much will it cost to save the world?

The Stern Review won't be the last word on the cost of global warming. But it has upped the stakes in the debate. Jim Giles reports.He's a highly respected researcher and a former chief economist at the World Bank. He had a year and the help of more than 20 of Britain's brightest civil servants and academics. His work was commissioned by Gordon Brown, who controls Britain's budget and is likely to be the country's next prime minister. So could Nicholas Stern settle the debate about the economic impact of climate change?

news @ nature.com - How much will it cost to save the world? - The Stern Review won't be the last word on the cost of global warming. But it has upped the stakes in the debate. Jim Giles reports.

paper on smart paper ...

Smart paper may put lightweight spies in the skies

Paper aeroplanes could fly by flapping their wings thanks to smart paper that bends when bathed in an electric field. The material raises the prospect of swarms of tiny lightweight aircraft carrying sensors that act as the eyes and ears of a surveillance network.

Electroactive paper (EAPap) is ordinary cotton-based paper, similar to the material used to make US bank notes, coated on each side with a thin layer of gold. The smart paper has been made by researchers from Inha University, South Korea, and Texas A & M University, US

Smart paper may put lightweight spies in the skies - tech - 12 June 2006 - New Scientist Tech

Did we come across this in our Ariadna study on artificial muscles?

Blogged with Flock

A new type of battery substitution for small probes? Pulsing gels could power tiny devices

A gel that pulses regularly when doused with certain chemicals has been modelled in detail for the first time. The scientists behind the modelling say it may one day be used to power miniature robots or other devices.So-called Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) gels were first discovered in 1996 by researchers at the National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research in Japan. They consist of long polymer molecules containing a metal catalyst made from ruthenium – a rare metal similar in structure to platinum.

Pulsing gels could power tiny devices - tech - 02 November 2006 - New Scientist Tech

I have never heard about this type of gels - lets have a closer look at it ...

Blogged with Flock

Interesting article

Climate change special: State of denial - earth - 04 November 2006 - New Scientist

Kevin Trenberth reckons he is a marked man. He has argued that last year's devastating Atlantic hurricane season, which spawned hurricane Katrina, was linked to global warming. For the many politicians and minority of scientists who insist there is no evidence for any such link, Trenberth's views are unacceptable and some have called for him step down from an international panel studying climate change. "The attacks on me are clearly designed to get me fired or to resign," says Trenberth.

The attacks fit a familiar pattern. Sceptics have also set their sights on scientists who have spoken out about the accelerating meltdown of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica and the thawing of the planet's permafrost. These concerns will be addressed in the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global organisation created by the UN in 1988 to assess the risks of human-induced climate change. Every time one of these assessments is released, about once every five years, some of the American scientists who have played a part in producing it become the targets of concerted attacks apparently designed to bring down their reputations and careers. At stake is the credibility of scientists who fear our planet is hurtling towards disaster and want to warn the public in the US and beyond.

Blogged with Flock

lets get started ...

here we go ... waiting until we will finally be able to add the blog function to our wiki, I have created us this blog.
The easiest way to blog seems to be to use this new "social browser" called flock (www.flock.com) - you just have to right click on an article to add it to one of your blogs .... just try it out.
LS