Tag Archives: cool finds

In 1949, a Physicist Proposed Using Skyscapers And a Roof to Control NYC’s Climate

Image: San Antonio Light via Paleofuture

Long before we started worrying about global climate change, people were wondering how they could control the climate of major cities. Wouldn’t it be nice, they thought, to have a climate-controlled metropolis? No scorching summers, no freezing winters…just a nice pleasant time, all year round.

In 1949, Archibald Montgomery Low, an engineer and physicist, proposed a plan to keep New York City nice and temperate. It involved putting a giant roof over the entire city. He wrote about the plan in San Antonio Light, saying:

CLIMATE “TO ORDER” — One of the things to come, Professor A. M. Low points out, is likely to be the weather-controlled city. Using the famous New York skyline as a “model,” the artist’s conception, above, embodies some of the best scientific thinking of our time. “Roofs” like the one pictured may be constructed over cities and linked to skyscrapers to provide scientific control of weather. Open cross section of “roof” shows weather experts busy controlling temperature, etc.

This isn’t the first time someone has proposed something like this. In 1952, the Edwardsville Intelligencer ran a piece envisioning our climate controlled future, as Matt Novak at Paleofuture quotes:

Weather-conditioned” communities in the future are perfectly feasible, according to a professor of architecture.

Ambrose M. Richardson of the University of Illinois announced that his graduate architecture students already are working on a model of plastic pillows, helium-filled and joined to make a mile-high floating dome.

Next spring Richardson intends to try the idea with a small dome covering about an acre of land.

He said the next step may be covering 10 or 15 acre areas such as football stadiums and baseball parks. Larger domes – made of thousands of transparent pillows each only a few feet square – covering whole communities would be only a step away.

Obviously, roofing New York City—or really any major metropolis—isn’t exactly feasible. Today, we’re more focusing on keeping the global climate from running away from us than on keeping the citizens of New York nice and comfortable.

More from Smithsonian.com:

The Origins of Futurism
The Jetsons and the Future of the Middle Class

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In 1949, a Physicist Proposed Using Skyscapers And a Roof to Control NYC’s Climate

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How Many Birds Do Wind Turbines Really Kill?

Image: James Butler

One of the most commonly repeated criticisms of wind power is that it kills birds. The giant spinning turbines are basically bird death traps—and often they cut through prime flying space, making the carnage even worse. At least that’s the story. But how many birds really do die?

If you look around for statistics about bird deaths from wind turbines get you wildly different numbers. Some say just 10,000 birds a year meet their end at the hands (blades) of the wind industry. Others ramp that number up to 600,000. Now, a new study tried to actually use science to estimate.

Of course, they didn’t go to each turbine and count how many little feathered bodies they found at the base. Instead, they combed the literature for all the studies they could find on bird deaths, and tried to combine them into an estimate. This meant searching for fun things like “’bird AND wind turbine’ with ‘collision,’ ‘mortality,’fatality,’ ‘carcass,’ and ‘post-construction.’” And then—even more cheerful—searching all those terms again, but “with ‘bird’ replaced by ‘avian’ and ‘wildlife’; and ‘turbine’ replaced by ‘farm,’ ‘facility’ and ‘energy.’”

In the end, using 58 mortality estimates that met their criteria, they came up with an estimate. According to the current literature somewhere between 140,000 and 328,000 birds die each year from collisions with wind turbines. That’s not all, explains the blog Natural Reactions:

In addition, it appears that there is a greater risk of fatal collisions with taller turbines. This is a real problem, as larger wind turbines may provide more efficient energy generation. Consequently, it is expected that new wind farms will contain even bigger turbines, which will result in even more bird deaths. Future developments therefore will have to give very careful consideration to potential wildlife impacts when planning the type of turbine to install.

The estimate, and conclusions, don’t let wind turbines off the hook. And with recent rulings to try and protect certain species from the spinning blades, the scrutiny will probably continue when it comes to bird deaths due to wind power. But at least now there’s a scientifically derived number for those deaths.

More from Smithsonian.com:

Do Wind Turbines Need a Rethink?
Scientists Save Bats and Birds from Wind Turbine Slaughter

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How Many Birds Do Wind Turbines Really Kill?

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Watch From Space As the Moon Orbits Around Earth

What you’re looking at is a video of the Moon, in orbit around the Earth, as seen by a satellite that’s flying 87,000 miles per hour on its way to Jupiter. Science!

Back in October, NASA’s Juno satellite whipped past the Earth, using our planet’s gravitational pull as a slingshot to boost it up to speed for its long journey to the outer solar system. As Juno sailed by, its cameras captured this rare scene, a far-off look at the celestial dance shared by the Earth and the Moon.

This is not the first time we’ve watched from afar as Moon passed by Earth.

Back in 2008, the Deep Impact spacecraft, fresh off its main mission to smash into a comet, turned its camera back towards Earth to capture this, a gorgeous view of the Moon transiting in front of our planet.

Astronomer Phil Plait’s enthusiasm back in 2008 holds just as true for the new look offered by Juno, too.

Take a look at that, folks. It’s us, seen from 50 million kilometers away. I’ve seen many images of the Earth and Moon together as taken by distant spacecraft, but this, seeing them in motion, really brings home — if I may use that highly ironic term — just where we are: a planetary system, an astronomical body, a blue orb hanging in space orbited by a desolate moon. This is a view that is literally impossible from the ground. Only a spacefaring race gets the privilege of this view from a height.

More from Smithsonian.com:

Eclipses Look Even More Gorgeous From Outer Space
A Solar Eclipse, As Seen From the Surface of Mars

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Watch From Space As the Moon Orbits Around Earth

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China Is So Smoggy You Can’t Even See Beijing From Space

Can you find Beijing in this photo? Or anything, really? Photo: NASA Earth Observatory / Jeff Schmaltz / LANCE MODIS Rapid Response

China’s smog problems have been all over the news, with the air pollution to blame for bringing massive cities to a snarlforcing the shutdown of factories and transportation, and wreaking havoc on people’s health. But a new photo captured by NASA’s Terra satellite really puts China’s smog problems into perspective: the smog over Beijing is so thick that it obscures the view of the city from space.

On December 7th, says NASA’s Earth Observatory, the day this photo was captured, “ground-based sensors at U.S. embassies in Beijing and Shanghai reported PM2.5 measurements as high as 480 and 355 micrograms per cubic meter of air respectively. The World Health Organization considers PM2.5 levels to be safe when they are below 25.”

PM2.5 refers to particles of air pollution that have a diameter below 2.5 micrometers.

“Fine, airborne particulate matter (PM) smaller than 2.5 microns (about one thirtieth the width of a human hair) is considered dangerous because it is small enough to enter the passages of the human lungs. Most PM2.5 aerosol particles come from the burning of fossil fuels and of biomass (wood fires and agricultural burning).”

For reference, here’s what the region is supposed to look like from space, a snap captured by Terra in January of last year. Beijing is the city in the top left, nestled among the mountains. The port city in the bottom right is Tianjin.

A smog-free look at the region, taken January 3, 2013. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory / Jeff Schmaltz / LANCE MODIS Response Team

More from Smithsonian.com:

Most of China’s Infamous Black Carbon Smog Comes From Cars And Cook Fires
Air Pollution Closed Schools in China

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China Is So Smoggy You Can’t Even See Beijing From Space

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New York Might Never Top the 1949 Rockefeller Center Tree

Image: LIFE

Every year, the giant tree in Rockefeller Center is unveiled to some fanfare. But no tree is likely to top the tree that the city had in 1949. After years in which war-time trees stood stoically without lights, New Yorkers got a tree to remember. The Bowery Boys describe the spectacle:

Perhaps knowing the mild temperatures that awaited that season — it would only snow two inches between November 1949 and January 1950 — the Rockefeller Center holiday designers decided to spray paint the gigantic 75-foot tree in hundreds of gallons of whimsical silver paint.  It was then engulfed in 7,500 electric lights in pastel colors — pink, blue, yellow, green and orange, described as “plucked from a sky in fairyland.”

Not only was the tree covered in silver paint and lights, the walkway leading up to it was lined with 576 snowflakes that whirled dizzily. In fact, the display was so bright and wild that it caused one of the worst traffic jams the New York Times had seen in years. Cars were reportedly trapped between 72nd Street and 41st Street for hours.

Although this years tree has far more lights (45,000 in total) and induce plenty of traffic, it won’t be quite the silver, spinning whirlwind of 1949.

More from Smithsonian.com:

“Holidays on Display” at American History Museum
Dreaming of a Green Christmas

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New York Might Never Top the 1949 Rockefeller Center Tree

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With 502,165 Bulbs, Australian Man Retakes World Record for Most Christmas Lights on a Single Home

David Richards, an Australian father and lawyer, just took the title of Guinness World Record for most decked-out, Christmas light-strewn home. Over the month of October, he strung up 29 miles of wire, consisting of 502,165 single bulbs, the Atlantic reports.

This is not Richards’ first time at the Christmas light record rodeo, however. He claimed that title back in 2001, with a paltry 331,038 lights, according to the Atlantic. He lost the title last year when a family in New York slapped up 346,283 lights. The price of bright, shining victory is steep, however. As the Atlantic reports, Richards’ electricity bill will increase by some $2,000 per month until it’s lights out for the display.

Besides reclaiming the Guinness gold, Richards said he put up the display to raise money for charity, NPR says. Proceeds will go to SIDS and Kids Act, groups that fight and raise awareness about sudden infant death syndrome. In 2011, NPR writes, a smaller light show he put on generated around $70,000 in donations.

More from Smithsonian.com:

A Twinkling Christmas Tree Powered By an Electric Eel
Dreaming of a Green Christmas 

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With 502,165 Bulbs, Australian Man Retakes World Record for Most Christmas Lights on a Single Home

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Here Are NASA’s Top 19 Typography Tips

For some people, like Staff Sgt. Dana Fernkas, having access to crucial information depends, in some part, on the typography and design of checklists and manuals. Photo: U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Jeremy Lock

Whether you’re printing posters for your church raffle or unveiling one of the most important discoveries in modern physics, design matters. For pilots and early astronauts, with their elaborate manuals and checklists telling them how to set controls, or how to deal with emergencies, having clear, legible fonts was literally a matter of life and death.

NASA cares very much about the lives of pilots and astronauts. NASA also doesn’t like to screw around. You don’t get to put one-ton nuclear cars on another planet by screwing around. So, NASA doesn’t screw around with type design.

In 1992, NASA researcher Asaf Degani released a report outlining, in detail, all the ways typography can go wrong, and the very best ways to get it right. Degani didn’t care so much about whether this or that font would capture the identity of a hip business—he cared about near-perfect legibility, under a range of strange conditions.

Degani goes into the rationale and reasoning behind his recommendations, pointers that address everything from x-height and kerning to case and color luminosity. If you want to see the research behind Degani’s tips, it’s all in the report. At the end, Degani summed up his recommendations, and while some of them are a little technical, the best ones—”avoid using long strings of text set in italics” or “avoid using black over dark red, green, and blue”—are solid advice that local leaflet-makers would do well adhere to.

Here’s the full list:

1. Sans-serif fonts are usually more legible than fonts with serifs.

2. Avoid using a font that has characters that are too similar to one another, as this will reduce the legibility of the print.

3. Avoid using dot matrix print for critical flight-deck documentation.

4. Long chunks of text should be set in lower case.

5. If upper case is required, the first letter of the word should be made larger in order to enhance the legibility of the word.

6. When specifying font height, or accessing graphs to determine the size of a lower-case character, the distinction between “x” height and overall size should be made.

7. As a general recommendation, the “x” height of a font used for important flight-deck documentation should not be below 0.10 inch.

8. The recommended height-to-width ratio of a font that is viewed in front of the observer is 5:3.

9. The vertical spacing between lines should not be smaller than 25-33% of the overall size of the font.

10. The horizontal spacing between characters should be 25% of the overall size and not less than one stroke width.

11. Avoid using long strings of text set in italics.

12. Use primarily one or two typefaces for emphasis.

13. Use black characters over a white background for most cockpit documentation.

14. Avoid using white characters over a black background in normal line operations. However, if this is desired:

1. Use minimum amount of text.
2. Use relatively large typesize.
3. Use sans-serif to minimize the loss of legibility.

15. Black over white or yellow are recommended for cockpit documentation.

16. Avoid using black over dark red, green, and blue.

17. Use anti-glare plastic to laminate documents.

18. Ensure that the quality of the print and the paper is well above normal standards. Poor quality of the print will effect legibility and readability.

19. The designer must assess the age groups of the pilots that will be using the documentation, and take a very conservative approach in assessing information obtained from graphs and data books.

More from Smithsonian.com:

What if Newton’s Principia Mathematica, Published Today, Had Been in Comic Sans?
How New Fonts Are Helping Dyslexics Read and Making Roads Safer
Cosmic Sans: a New Font Space Geeks Will Love to Hate

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Here Are NASA’s Top 19 Typography Tips

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This Floating Marine Laboratory Aims to Make Ocean Exploration Cool Again

In the 1960s and 70s, ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau and his Calypso crew served as heroes for many an intrepid youth. Ocean exploration was coming to a head with the recent development of the aqualung—the first personal scuba system—and underwater habitats were popping up around the world. In the years since, however, the ocean has lost a bit of its mystique for funders, governments and would-be explorers. Space became the sexy new frontier, causing nearly all the existing underwater labs to shut their dive pits for good.

A French team of ocean lovers and explorers, however, wants to change all of that. They are creating the SeaOrbiter, a new state-of-the-art floating marine laboratory. Two-thirds of the lab will be submerged in the water, giving divers an easy exit and reentry point and allowing guests and researchers to observe the underwater kingdom from their living and working quarters. SeaOrbiter will give scientists a 24-hour platform to conduct marine research, both above and below the water. Up to 22 people can live aboard the 170-foot tall vessel at one time, the Daily News reports, and it will be fueled by a combination of wind, solar and wave energy. Construction will begin in May 2014.

The SeaOrbiter’s primary purpose is for research, but more than that, the creators say they hope it will inspire young people to once again look towards to ocean for inspiration in their future careers and lives. As one of the creators lamented to Wired, “We have lost our sense of vision.”

More from Smithsonian.com:

Artist Explores the Deep in Underwater Wheel Chair 
Astronaut Scott Carpenter, the Second American to Orbit the Planet, Dies at 88

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This Floating Marine Laboratory Aims to Make Ocean Exploration Cool Again

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Pollution May Be Crippling Chinese Men’s Sperm

Photo: Lu Feng

A Chinese physician is raising concerns about the poor quality of men’s sperm, which he attributes to decades of exposure to pollution in the country. According to the Telegraph, the doctor, Li Zheng, told local newspapers that he was “very worried” about the falling quality of sperm, and that two-thirds sperm at Shanghai’s main bank did not meet standards set by the World Health Organization.

A 2012 study, coordinated by Dr Li, concluded that over the last 10 years worsening environmental conditions had closely mirrored the falling quality of sperm. Low sperm counts and aspermia, a condition that causes a man to produce no semen at all, were among the problems.

Oftentimes, it’s women’s rather than men’s reproductive problems that are at the center of reproductive health discussions. For example, the Wall Street Journal called a hospital in Beijing to inquire about their take on pollution and reproductive health, but the hospital spokesperson told them, “Our (obstetrician and gynecologist) chief refused the interview, because there is no data or document to explain the pollution’s impact to pregnant women.”

Still, there is evidence that environmental pollution is a double-edged sword impacting both men and women. As the Journal writes: “Previous studies have shown exposure to high levels of pollution can reduce the success rate of in vitro fertilization and drawn a link between toxic air and reduced fertility in men.”

The problem likely reaches beyond China, too. Some researchers have reported a worldwide decline in average sperm counts. Others, however, point out that the issue is far from settled and may be a case of not enough data. As researchers pursue more studies to unravel this tangled subject, however, couples in China, at least, are experiencing the very real impacts of falling sperm quality and availability. As Quartz reports, sperm goes for around $4,900 on the Chinese black market these days.

More from Smithsonian.com:

Female Squid Uses Sperm for Both Reproducing and Snacking 
American May Be the World’s Top Exporter of Sperm 

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Pollution May Be Crippling Chinese Men’s Sperm

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The Most Isolated Tree in the World Was Killed by a (Probably Drunk) Driver

The Tree of Ténéré, circa 1961. Photo: Michel Mazeau

For around 300 years, the Tree of Ténéré was fabled to be the most isolated tree on the planet. The acacia was the only tree for 250 miles in Niger’s Sahara desert, and was used as a landmark by travelers and caravans passing through the hostile terrain. The tree sprouted when the desert was a slightly more hospitable place, and for years was the sole testament to a once-greener Sahara.

In the 1930s, the tree was featured on official maps for European military campaigners, and a French ethnologist Henri Lhote called it, ”an Acacia with a degenerative trunk, sick or ill in aspect.” But he noted, as well, that “nevertheless, the tree has nice green leaves, and some yellow flowers.” The hardy tree, a nearby well showed, had reached its roots more than 100 feet underground to drink from the water table.

But then, in 1973, the centuries-old survivor met its match. A guy ran the tree over with his truck. The Libyan driver was “following a roadway that traced the old caravan route, collided with the tree, snapping its trunk,” TreeHugger reports. The driver’s name never surfaced, but rumors abound that he was drunk at the moment that he plowed into the only obstacle for miles—the tree.

Today, the tree’s dried trunk rests in the Niger National Museum, and a spindly metal sculpture has been erected in the place it once stood. The loneliest tree in the world is now this sad spruce on New Zealand’s subantarctic Campbell Island.

More from Smithsonian.com:

Things Are Looking Up for Niger’s Wild Giraffes
Born Into Bondage

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The Most Isolated Tree in the World Was Killed by a (Probably Drunk) Driver

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