I have seen a lot of change in my lifetime. Thanks to my profession which keeps me in touch with the latest science and technological trends, I think I am fairly well prepared for the even more radical change that lies ahead. I hope that I can give you a sense of the excitement and challenges of the near future through periodic updates here in the blog on some of the more pressing current trends. Some of the technological developments do not have direct applications toward weather and forecasting but they are interesting to contemplate none-the-less.

Let us start with a little history. The disruption by the relentless pace of technological progress over the last couple decades has left many compnies and whole product segments in ruins. One episode I recall in fair detail is the demise of Alden Electronics. Their business dissolved in a blink of an eye in. They were the main providers of the old-fashioned, much-referenced “weather charts” you often see in old pictures of weather forecasters in their offices. We called them “Di-fax maps”. Alden provided the printers and delivered the data to weather offices all over the U.S. and world. We used to have one of these printers in our weather office back in the 1990s. One of the most common sounds was that of the big printer nearly constantly printing new weather maps. We would tear them off the printer and hang them on the wall for analysis. It was a great business for Alden for many years.

Old Weather Charts on the Wall at the NWS

They had the market cornered. Of course, when the market for printed weather maps collapsed, so did Alden. I think it was in 1994 that Alden first started providing their maps over the internet. A short two years later and they were laying people off and losing millions of dollars per year. I can remember distinctly, the final days of the company (at that time with that business model). I was working the weekend and our maps were not being delivered. Sometimes the problem was with the printer. Other times the problem was with delivery of the data. I called Alden directly and spoke with a person who  was sincerely trying to help me but could not keep up with support requests. The company had fallen so fast that they only had 3 people working there (if my memory serves me right). It was a secretary, the president of the company, and one technician. He explained to me how the Internet destroyed their business. Instead of the NWS and other weather data providers going through Alden, they began distributing the “maps” and everything else, for free over the Internet. The fellow from Alden sounded distraught and I empathized with him. He used to work with hundreds of people delivering a product that people needed and suddenly the company was down to a shell of its former self. Everything seemed ok when the Internet first hit the scene but from 1994 to 1997/1998 time frame, Internet use exploded and everyone could now get the information delivered reliably and for free in most cases. There was no real need to pay Alden thousands of dollars per year for their service.

If you have any similar stories to share, please use the comment section. We would love to hear them.

A few other things I have seen are things that you are familiar with as well:

Typewriters. When personal computers with keyboards hit the scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, many people could see that typewriters were probably on their way out. However, the last typewriter company manufacturing company (Royal) didn’t stop making them until 1993 (according to some sources). Amazingly, there are some niche areas where typewriters are still in use. The New York City police department was billed about a million dollars as late as 2009 for typewriter repairs. As is usually the case, people are resistent to change, so a few typewriters survive (outside of museums).

The Phone: Raise your had if you grew up with a rotary dial phone. Eventually touchtone and cordless phones came along. Answering machines were a big hit. Then came cell phones and VOIP. Now most people carry their “phones” and “answering machines” in their pocket and can make calls almost everywhere they go.

Film and film cameras. Take a look at this image gallery of film’s past glory. Digital leads the way now.

On to the future.

One disruptive technology I have written about lately is the self-driving car. Just a few years ago, it still seemed like science fiction. Many people predicted that it would be many decades before the technology would be ready for prime time. It is now here and ready to go well ahead of schedule. The technology has arrived so fast that the main barriers holding back autonomous cars right now are legal and regulatory. The cars have performed nearly flawlessly in real traffic tests in the U.S. and many locations around the world. Before the day when self-driving cars prove their worth saving lives (even as some would argue they will take away our freedom), we will have a lot more automated “smart” technology built into the roads and into traffic systems. Even though the automated cars will continue to garner headlines, I think most people will be utterly suprised and few will be angry, when they find such vehicles taking over the roads and they find themsleves paying a lot more (for licensing and insurance) in order to drive a car themselves. Professional drivers should keep an eye on the topic. The day will arrive soon when you will have to adapt to the new reality.

Robots. Robots are rapidly becoming more capable and safe for use outside of highly restricted manufacturing environments. On the personal side, my wife’s former job (camera person and floor director) at the TV station was “taken-over” by robotic cameras just a few years ago.  The Jetson’s future of having a robot maid, is not that far off anymore. The Roomba is a successful robot vaccuming millions of floors around the world. The founder of I-Robot (the roomba’s manufacturer) Rodney Brook’s has now moved on to another company Rethink Robotics and is busy developing “safe” robots that are adaptable and can work alongside humans in many tasks. It could lead to another revolution in manufacturing, especially when you notice that 3D printing is coming on to the scene at the same time. Many robotics developers are also working toward opportunities in the home environment and on the farm. I have always wanted to build a weed-picking robot for my garden. Maybe I won’t have to wait much longer and I will be able to order one over the Internet. If you still think robots working and “living” side-by-side with humans is in the far off future, prepare to be surprised.

Some other technologies that used to seem “far out” that I mention once in a while in the blog, like quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and cloaking, continue to advance. See here, here, and here for some recent stories.

As I have written before, even I suspect my profession will be steam-rolled by technology. All of this begs the question “what will humans do as the world becomes more automated?”. Who should get the benefits of automation? I suspect there will be some consternation in the beginning, but most likely we will evolve along with all of our technology and things will end up ok. Then again, I am generally an optimistic person. Best to think about these issues and be prepared.

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Technology

When discussing technology and progress and how these might help us be a little more environmentally friendly in the future, I often bring to light developments in areas that most people are familiar with. Then there are those things that fly under the radar. One of those that could fundamentally change computing and science in general is quantum computing. There is just one company in the world selling a quantum computer and that is D-Wave (discussed previously here). They made news again by using their computer to solve a protein folding problem. It was apparently an error-prone process but they did manage to get the correct answer 13% of the time. While this is another achievement for the company, it is not yet a “killer app” for their computer. As Anthony mentioned in the comment section of the weather blog a while back, true quantum computing would be a huge breakthrough, but what matters most for D-Wave is that their computing solution is cost effective as compared to other methods.

One of the other under-the-radar technology trends I try to follow is the emerging field of cloaking. Cloaking as in Star Trek, as in Harry Potter, as is usually found in science fiction. It is rapidly becoming science fact. The latest developments are acoustical cloaking and plasmonic cloaking. The plasmonic-type cloaking developed at Stanford could eventually be turned into a method to see the outside world while not being seen (because you are inside the cloak). The acoustic cloak would block sound, which I know I could use many times in a crowded room.

Have a good Friday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Technology

We have already discussed the extreme March warmth quite a bit (here and here), but I just had to share one more comprehensive report (PDF) on the record-breaking month, compiled by Roy Eckberg of the National Weather Service in Green Bay. The one interesting fact that I learned from the report, that I had previously overlooked, is that here in Wausau we had our earliest ever 60 degree low temperature. It occurred on March 21st. The previous record for earliest 60 degree low temperature was April 16th.

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Since I started out with a follow-up, I might as well stick with the theme and update you on a few other trends I have been following in the weather blog. In the realm of our transportation and pollution problems many people have hopes for electric vehicles and even self-driving (or auto-pilot) cars to take over the roads. I have covered the self-driving car story for a couple of years now (“Driverless Cars in Nevada“, “Car-Take Me To Work“, “Driverless cars again”) and I am surprised by the rapid progress and the lack of mainstream culture acknowledgement at the same time. Here is an article that claims auto-pilot cars are here and ready to go (no doubt politicians and lawyers are still standing in the way). In tests, the cars have performed amazingly, even in heavy traffic. You won’t see them in showrooms anytime soon though because they are not yet economical. I was interested to learn that anyone who purchases and uses a driverless car in Nevada must post a $1 million to $3 million insurance bond. Considering that the auto-pilot cars have not yet been involved in any accidents and human drivers kill 1.2 million people every year around the world, you would think the insurance would be higher for human drivers. Once driverless cars are on the road, I am sure it will turn the other way. Insurance for a human driver will end up costing a lot more.

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Continuing with ground-breaking technology that is flying under the radar, how about quantum computing. This is a field that not many people understand and thus has the potential to be very disruptive. There is one company in the world that claims to be performing a special type of quantum computing and here is an update on their efforts.

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In what might seem like science fiction instead of science fact, progress continues in the pursuit of cloaking materials (just like what someone might find in Star Trek of Harry Potter). One of the pioneers of cloaking – Duke University – can now create holograms in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, using similar (meta)materials that are used in cloaking. Not to be outdone, researchers in France have created a method of thermal cloaking – or “hiding heat”. Even magnetic fields are being manipulated to hide objects. It is enough to make your head spin.

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Monthly Recap, Records, Technology

Good news! The price of solar panels continues to fall. Although I would temper this news with the acknowledgement that most solar panel producers around the world are supported by government subsidies. Remember what we found out during the Solyndra Scandal. They were selling their solar “panels” for half the cost it took to make them. No wonder they went bankrupt and taxpayers lost their loan money. So the true price of the panels remains unknown, but the trend is good.

This report about India claims that solar panels in that country are now cheaper than running a diesel generator. In fact, the solar panels are typically half the cost of diesel power, not to mention much cleaner. If this trend continues, it will be a no-brainer for Indians to buy solar panels over fossil fuel, and this could perhaps help maintain the fragile (subsidy-supported) industry. This article about solar panel adoption in Africa also hints at the positive trend. The combination of cheap solar panels and one of my other favorite subjects – LED lighting – has made solar electric powered lighting (and gadget re-charging) more feasible than using fossil fuel such a kerosene. Here is an older article about some of the various solar lighting tech employed in remote and poor areas of Africa. Solar/LED is not as cheap as using old plastic soda bottles for lighting, but it is becoming a better option in developing countries.

Remember too, that the efficiency of solar panels continues to increase incrementally year-over-year. Along with the lower manufacturing cost, efficiency gains will make solar even more attractive in coming years. The panel prices here in the U.S. have dropped dramatically as well. The main problem that remains is the installation cost. That is what prevents me from getting solar panels on my roof just yet. For anyone who can figure out a way to reduce the cost of installation there is some money to be made.

So what has driven the cost of solar panels down so much? More efficient manufacturing for the most part (and the aforementioned subsidies). Every day I hear or read about another incremental improvement in solar panel production. Recently, Astrowatt has developed a new method for creating silicon wafers which involves peeling the silicon off the inguts instead of sawing it off. This wastes less material and since polysilicon is one of the more expensive pieces of the solar puzzle, it should reduce the cost by a small percentage. On the power electronics side of things, Arraypower has invented a new type of DC to AC inverter that could cut the cost of big solar installations by 10%.

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Now a follow-up on a developing technology that seems to be flying under radar of popular culture but not under the radar of this blog. It is cloaking. The latest engineering feat comes from the University of Texas at Austin. They have created the world’s first 3D cloak to hide an object in free space. They have used surface plasmons on metamaterials to achieve this feat, which is a little too complicated to explain here. But don’t expect to wear a Harry Potter invisibility cloak anytime soon, this cloaking was again in the microwave range of the electro-magnetic spectrum, not in the visible range, but it is amazing none-the-less.

In a year or two I expect more cloaking developments in the visible range. Perhaps some large scale cloaking might be demonstrated in a decade. I don’t know if people appreciate how much this technology would change society. In the movies, it is usually just the protagonist or villain who has the invisibility cloak, which makes for simple drama. What if everyone had access to this? The ramifications would be immense and unsettling. It would certainly affect the power relationship between oppressive government and the people. It would affect warfare and crime. Like most disruptive technology it would likely be feared at first but accepted eventually.

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Lastly, another report about the attempt to drill into Lake Vostok. In this article, the Russian scientists are quoted as not being certain whether they will be able to complete the drilling before Winter sets in and might have to wait until next Summer (Summer in Antarctica, that is).

Have a good weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Alternative Energy, Technology

Yesterday I mentioned some of the science and weather themes I will be keeping track of in 2012, and I will continue with that today. But before getting into today’s themes, I want to again hearken back to the metrics of “growth” that I have been harping on. Yesterday I mentioned once again that happiness should be a part of what we consider “socio-economic growth”. For example, I would be quite happy with a new medical technology that improved the health of my aging parents or myself.

Huge U.S. Freeway

It would make me a lot more happy than seeing another strip mall and parking lot erected on the outskirts of town. I would consider better health and more happiness to be good metrics of how we are doing as a society. Some researchers have recently found the same thing in regards to happiness. Health seems to correlate most strongly with happiness. I suggest instead of building more 8-lane freeways and expansive cookie-cutter sub-divisions, we should focus more on medical technology that will extend our healthy lives. 

Now on to some other themes continue to appear in the blog.

Coal Power in China

One of the most common themes in my blog entries is the contrast between the possible threat of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and the hopes of technological progress. This subject could be even “hotter” in 2012 as technological progress is not slowing down, and a warm start to the year, potential continuing drought in the southern U.S., and increasing carbon emissions from China and India will drive a lot of angst in the climatology and environmentalist communities. So there should be plenty to talk about. Already this holiday season, there was an record all time high temperature set at the south pole on Christmas Day. The temperature was 9.9 degrees. The records go back to 1957. Besides potential weather machinations driving angst in some quarters, the fact that India is not going to sign any new climate treaties and that China is planning to build one of the biggest coal-fired power plants in the world will give a lot of people reason to worry.

On the positive side of things, even though computing (data centers) continue to take up more of the world’s power, computing efficiency is currently following Moore’s law and we should expect more efficient computer chips to become more prevalent in 2012. Increasing computer presence in cars (while potentially having some downsides) has the potential to dramatically change transportation in the western world, making it more efficient with less pollution. In addition, my favorite alternative energy – solar power – while taking some significant lumps in 2011, is still progressing nicely. Check out the start-up Natcore and their three new technologies that could increase efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs.

No doubt the positive and negative stories will continue to arrive fast and furious in 2012.

I will also continue to follow up on some older stories that continue to evolve or are in need of updates including (but not limited to) a few exciting space exploration milestones coming up this year, LED lighting, and cloaking.

In the coolest new technology category of cloaking, a recent paper has described a way to make it more practical for large scale production. It involves joining many small tiles.

In LED lighting, I expect more $10 or less bulbs to arrive in 2012, but no new news recently in this regard.

In space exploration I will be closely watching the progress and landing of the latest Mars rover Opportunity. It is scheduled to land on Mars in August. I will also continue to provide short updates on commercial/private spaceflight. Companies such as Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and Bigelow Aerospace should hit some major milestones this year. Also don’t forget that the Lunar X-prize is still in heated competition.

Have a fine Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under AGW, Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Records, Science, Space, Technology

I have got a couple of updates and follow ups for you today. It is that time of the week for the Drought Monitor update and that time of the month for the all important ENSO diagnostic discussion.

First the least interesting update for our area - the Drought Monitor. The conditions have improved since last week but not all that much. Plus, the growing season is over, and we just had a lot of rain at the end of September so we are not in too bad of shape. The worst drought conditions continue in the southern part of the country. Luckily, there has been some rain in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma during the past week but not enough to dent the drought classification much. Here in Wisconsin about 65% of the state was drought free last week and now that number is closer to 70%.

The more interesting update is the ENSO diagnostic discussion. La Nina strengthened a little in the past month but is still classified as weak. CPC forecasters still expect La Nina to continue into the Winter months but are not certain how strong it will get. The majority of the computer models and the computer model average indicate La Nina weakening and disappearing during the Winter. However, the 2 NCEP models that have been “on the mark” over the last couple of months are forecast a moderate La Nina to develop. The CPC forecasters are leaning toward the stronger La Nina scenario, but they made sure to say that while La Nina can sometimes bring specific effects to different parts of the country, there is no guarantee these will happen.

ENSO Computer Forecasts

What are the “effects” we would notice from a moderate La Nina here in Wisconsin? During each of the last three La Nina Winters (or periods centered around winter-time) here in Wisconsin, we have experienced below normal temps and above normal snowfall. That is why I am leaning in that direction for our Winter forecast. I am officially forecasting temps a little below normal and snow (through the entire cold season including late Fall and Spring) to be above normal.

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I don’t do regular space news updates anymore but here is an interesting follow up to a story I mentioned a couple of times this year. The simulated Mars mission taking place in Russia is nearing its end and apparently the astronauts are getting exhausted or perhaps anxious. I can imagine the mental torture is worse because they “know” that they are not flying out in space. I wonder if the “mission is essentially done, why don’t we end it early” thought keeps popping into their head. If they were really out in space, they couldn’t entertain that thought and would have to stay focused. It will be interesting to hear how they feel once the project is finally done.

Another follow up is on invisibility cloaks. Many scientists and engineers are working on making this a reality, not just a Star Trek fantasy. The most recent example is one using the classic “mirage” effect to hide a thin film in water. Check out the cool video of the cloaking device here.

Also, for all of those in the snowfall contest, it doesn’t look like much chance of snow for the next 5 or 6 days, so if you guessed early in October, you are probably out of luck. More update next week.

Have a fun weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, ENSO Update, Space, Technology

I cover a lot of weather and science topics here in the weather blog and regular readers know that I have been closely following the news and research surrounding one of the most interesting recent engineering developments – cloaking. It was first developed back in 2006 and progress is happening rapidly.

When I say “cloaking” most people ask, “Do you mean like in Star Trek or like the invisibility cloak in Harry Potter?” The answer is yes. Real cloaking. While large scale cloaking is probably still many years away, scientists and engineers have made some big breakthroughs in just the last couple of years with small scale devices. Here are a couple of recent headlines:

Scientists develop a cloak that more closely fits the object (very tiny) being cloaked. Prior cloaking devices were much larger than the object being hidden.

For the first time, a 3-D cloak using metamaterials has been able to cloak an object in the visible wavelengths of light. Prior to this development all cloaks of this type worked only in microwave wavelengths or infrared. This type of cloak could be scaled up but it requires etching very fine structure into the cloaking material which is not yet available for larger scales.

These types of cloaking are not yet quite what was dreamed of in Star Trek, but they are steps in that direction. In Star Trek, it was a “field of energy” that produced the cloak, not an actual physical material.

What would you do with an invisibility cloak? Hide your stuff? Play pranks on your friends? Use it for protection?

Have a pleasant Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Science, Technology

Does anyone have any theories on the “missile” launch in southern California yesterday? After briefly reviewing the video and hearing a few explanations from others, I am 40/60 on whether it was a missile/rocket or anairplane. I can certainly understand the optical illusion argument of how a jet contrail could look like a missile launch (and this has happened before) but this is one good illusion if it is a contrail. Seeing is believing and it looks enough like a missile/rocket launch for me to give it a 40% chance. Since the government and independent sources have not come to a definitive answer yet, I doubt we will ever have anything near 100% confirmation either way.

The rest of today’s blog post is going to be follow-up material on several subjects I have been discussing over the past few years. Every once in a while, I just have to throw in a pile of continuing stories.

1. Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (BCCD). I came across this story a few years ago when the BCCD was blamed on anthropogenic global warming (AGW), just like most every negative event or change in contemporary times. Since then, more people have studied it and have nearly ruled out AGW, pesticides, and a few other things. The latest theory is that a combination of a viral and fungal infection in the bees causes the mass die-off.

2. When discussing AGW, I often bring up the point that it is very difficult to factor progress and innovation into future predictions because technology is changing so fast. Thus climate predictions often assume an unlikely ”business as usual” scenario for fossil fuel usage over the next century. Finally, more people such as Dutch technologists Rutger van Santen and Djan Khoe are promoting the idea of how we can use technology to address the most pressing problems here on earth. Their new book 2030: Technology that will change the world addresses the climate as well as many other social problems. I was happy to see someone else thinking about technological progress recently and I hope it makes it into the discussion increasingly in the future.

3. Since I brought up electric vehicles yesterday I might as well mention that there was a new record for distance driving on one charge set in Germany a little while back. The Audi car with an electric engine drove from Munich to Berlin, a total of 373 miles, on one charge. That is quite impressive. When I think about purchasing an electric car, I think about some of the longer drives I might make, home to the Chippewa Valley, or to Madison for a Badger game, and these are all well under 200 miles one way. If electric cars can routinely achieve 300 miles per charge, I think they will be much more likely to be adopted in the U.S where driving distances are generally a bit longer. Staying on the EV subject, Mitsubishi has announced an American version of the i-MiEV that will go on sale next year. It won’t be in my price range but with government rebate incentives, the price should be under $30,000.

4. Peak Oil: Here we are nearing 2011 and there is still no sign of Peak Oil disrupting the world economy. In fact, there appears to be a current glut of fossil fuels with increasingly ingenious ways to extract and use them. This has not stopped talk about Peak Oil. This recent study used a new metric to assess whether Peak Oil is a disaster waiting to befall modern society – the stock markets. Looking at long term market investment and sentiment, the study determined that investors do not think alternative fuels will arrive before traditional fossil fuels will run out. Markets are usually a superior way of forecasting future trends but I think this study has too far of a time horizon to be useful.

5. Cloaking. If you haven’t heard, scientists in a few different labs around the world have create real honest-to-goodness cloaking devices, similar to what Gene Roddenberry imagined for Star Trek. So far the devices can only cloak objects in single wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation (such as microwaves) but they are getting better at it and should someday be able to cloak in visible wavelengths. The latest development is a cloaking material that is flexible.

6. Queue up Gordon Lightfoot. Today is the anniversary (1975) of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Some blog references here and here.

For those of you waiting to see if we will have a winner in the First Snowfall Contest, it still looks like a possibility of an inch or 2 of snow on Saturday the 13th which 5 people predicted. The latest computer models indicate slightly warmer air with this storm and thus there might be a bit more rain than snow and we might have to wait a bit longer to find out the winners.

For all the hunters, earlier this week I took a stab at the opening weekend (gun deer) forecast. At that point it looked like quite chilly conditions with gusty winds and perhaps some light snow or flurries. The current forecast has backed off a bit on the cold air but it still looks like there could be some precipitation on or around the 20th.

Winter Weather Awareness Tip: Always bring your cell phone when you have to drive through a winter storm.

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under AGW, Alternative Energy, Climate Change, First Snowfall 2010, forecast, Peak Oil, Science, Technology, Winter Weather

I was contemplating a new blog entry about AGW and the sometimes contradictory or surprising results from various studies, coupled with a look at how life and human society might adapt in a hypothetical situation where the temperature of the earth would go up a couple degrees, but I have too many other things going on today (school talk and filing snowmelt contest entries). It will have to wait until tomorrow or Friday.

Instead, I’ll share an article reviewing some of the possible technological marvels coming our way over the next decade or so. This piece is a review of a Michio Kaku speech given at ESC. Kaku highlights many of the things I have talked about in the blog as well as some medical advancements we can expect. Seeing that he mentioned cloaking, I might as well link to news of a recent research effort in this area - this time working in the visible range of light. Science fiction is becoming reality.

Another science fiction theme that is becoming reality is cryonic suspension. From the article:

Kaku also predicted that seriously injured people will, in the future, be treated by emergency medical technicians pumping ice-cold fluids into their bodies, placing them in suspended animation or “reversible death,” until surgeons can intervene to repair damage that would otherwise be fatal.

It hasn’t advanced to the point of being reversible, but cryonic preservation technologies have matured quite a bit. Many doctors now prefer to perform “cold surgeries” (cooling the patient down) – such as heart surgery - in order to increase the odds of survival. I was at a cryonics technology conference recently and even I was amazed at how close we are to Kaku’s vision.

On to the present weather. It still looks like our best chance of significant rainfall will be on Friday – a 60% chance. There is a slight chance of rain over the weekend but overall Saturday and Sunday should be decent with high temps in the 60s. If we don’t get any significant rain in most of the area, then the drought situation will of course get worse, especially for the northern half of the state. I have been speculating that as El Nino weakens that we will see an increase in rainfall, and that is still a possibility, but the US Drought Outlook is a bit more pessimistic, saying the drought in northern Wisconsin will persist. Keep your fingers crossed for more rain.

Have a nice Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Drought, Science

I cover a wide range of science topics here in the weather blog – some more than others, such as solar and electric vehicle issues – but I still like to make sure everyone is aware of things that are going on at the edge of science, the latest technology and theory that is rather speculative but might generate big benefits for society in the future.

One of those is cold fusion. It is a topic I covered a few months ago when some new research arrived. I mentioned that I was yet very skeptical that it would be a major source of clean energy anytime soon which brought out a couple reader comments about the progress that is being made. It is a good thing that progress is being made and that more people are willing to give it the light of day at scientific conferences such as the ACS – where there will be several presentations on the topic. It is nice to see some incremental improvements and more discussion, but it still looks like a very, very tough problem to crack. The original experiment in 1989 produced a whirlwind of media coverage and a lot of support. When hardly anyone else could produce the same results, “cold fusion” fell into disrepute. It turns out, that you can’t just put some metal alloys into a beaker of water and – viola – get useful nuclear energy. 21 years later and we have yet to see a commercial application. I hope that with the advance of nanotechology fabrication of sensors and materials, we will eventually get to the bottom of how the anomalous energy that has been detected from time-to-time in “cold fusion” experiments is produced.

Another futuristic topic I have monitored over the last couple of years is cloaking. That’s right, cloaking very similar to what is seen in Star Trek. Using metamaterials, some scientists have been able to create microscale two-dimensional cloaks. Now scientists in Germany have taken it one step further and created a three-dimensional cloak. Don’t get too excited yet, it only works on the nanoscale at this point int time. The researchers were only able to cloak one tiny speck of gold.

Lastly, a follow-up on lasts week’s discussion about vertical farming/greenhouses. I mentioned that using rooftops as gardens would be an easier short-term interim solution to produce food within cities. A few places do this and one building in California (JPL)  just won an award for using their roof to grow desert plants. Now they just need to plant some vegetables, put in a few pavers, and it could be a park as well as a garden.

Lastly, lastly, I have often mentioned a good new invention would be to have roof shingles that changed color from dark to light between winter and summer in order to maximize energy efficiency in the home. One company now makes shingles that turn from black to white while another announced that it has developed a coating that changes reflectivity depending on temperature.

So there is your random collection of science news and leading edge technology stories for the day. Feel free to leave comments.

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Environment, Science