Open Science Thread

A new article in Time Magazine Online explores what a number of us math-physics geeks have been harping on from time to time: Existing biofuel technology is not an ideal solution to our energy dilemma. There are three primary obstacles and one stubborn but irreducible consequence of our pay for play political system. 1) In our petroleum based economy where most farm machinery, processing, and distribution systems are built around petroleum, biofuels made from corn or other high end crops consume as much or more oil as they replace. 2) The former combined with the loss in photosynthetic carbon sinks because of the land cleared to grow these crops is equal or greater to the carbon savings produced by the biofuel itself. 3) There is a food shortage looming and if we really commit the kind of acreage needed to put a dent in our national energy budget it will make matters much worse. The political consequence is that those agricultural industries which stand to gain the most from biofuels, Big Corn or Big Sugar, are among the worst offenders of the three concerns outlined above. But they are the ones with the political power to lobby and divert any well meaning funds away from other ideas and into their bulging pockets, efficiencies be damned.

Direct solar energy either from panels or simple heating, wind energy, tidal basins, nuclear energy, and even biofuels produced either as a byproduct of existing agribusiness or from wild plants growing in conditions that won't support high yield domesticated crops, will work. The easiest low hanging fruit to grab right now is on the shelf fuel efficiency and fuel saving technology. The bottom line, literally, is if we can hand Exxon-Mobil massive tax breaks or spend hundreds of billions securing dwindling oil supplies in Iraq, we can give US automakers incentive to build more fuel efficient cars, stimulate the solar energy and wind industries, and provide small business owners and individual taxpayers with reasons to incorporate all of it and begin to get this nation off the unsustainable, fatal, energy treadmill.

• You've heard of black-holes and super giant stars. But an object that draws little attention is a brown dwarf. Brown dwarfs are thought to be failed stars that wander around all by their lonesome something like a rogue Jupiter or Saturn. Astronomers have detected the coolest one yet only forty light-years from earth.
• Apologists for Bush's ban on stem cells often point out that there is no law against private research or commercial development. Sounds good, except while they're saying that to us, they're quietly working to put up any obstacle they can think of against private or commercial development.
• And finally, here's one for you legal theoristes: did this right-wing radio host commit an illegal act? Does it qualify as a terrorist threat?
• The Times (UK) covers the recent well-documented human-to-human transmission case of H5N1 from son to father in China, but notes how difficult it is to catch still.

  It is now five years since the present outbreak of H5N1 avian flu first infected people. Though 379 people have since contracted the virus, of whom 239 have died, it has yet to start a pandemic.

  As its name suggests, bird flu remains predominantly an avian disease. While it is very dangerous to humans who catch it, this has happened only rarely, after close contact with infected birds.

  What would we do if a pandemic broke out? We'll discuss that tomorrow when we talk about hospital surge capacity. – DemFromCT