Well i guess that “working on” is a bit of an understatement, as they already have a working hand-held device capable of identifying various bacteria and fungi already in use at the international space station. They are however still working on getting it even better. You see, the current version can detect some bacteria, and a recent upgrade to it allows it to detect some fungus as well (which is good, as it can damage equipment). They are working on getting even more capabilities on it (detecting more types of bacteria), and hoping that the end-product will actually perform much like a medical tri-corder from Star Trek, capable of detecting what ails a crewman who has fallen ill and such. If you look at the picture to the left here, you can even see that it kind-of looks like a tri-corder (post-original series anyway).
Now don’t get me wrong, i don’t have anything against health/medicine or anything (in fact i rather enjoy my own), but if you’re trying to copy star trek you could’ve picked something cooler then a medical tri-corder. Be that as it may, more Star Trek inspired technology can never be bad, although I’m sure we’d all prefer the holo-suite for some depraved fun.
If you read my post from yesterday, you might remember that i called Phi Plait a bit of a rockstar when it comes to science blogging, well this guy Brian Cox, is an actual rockstar (having toured with Jimmy Page) who is a legit physicist working at CERN. Funnily enough he was the one inviting Phil to Europe (perhaps a secret movement for a super-nerdy rockband is in the making?).
I wanted to bring you this great video of him doing a talk at TED, where he explains the Large Hadron Collider, why it was built, what it hopes to find, and what he thinks it may find. I thought it was great, because, to be honest, i don’t know much at all about particle physics, and Brian Cox is excellent at explaining things in a very pedagogic way. I honestly can’t think of 16 minutes better spent then getting up to snuff on what the greatest science experiment of all times is all about.
On a slightly different note, the TED talks are simply great, and there’s a great variety of things discussed there. Their basic idea is “Ideas worth spreading” and the best talks given each year are presented in their youtube account. I highly recommend going there and checking out some of the videos that catch your fancy.
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Well, now we just needs to get our hands dirty and start writing. Hope to see you regularly on reducedmass.com.
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Well i guess that “working on” is a bit of an understatement, as they already have a working hand-held device capable of identifying various bacteria and fungi already in use at the international space station. They are however still working on getting it even better. You see, the current version can detect some bacteria, and a recent upgrade to it allows it to detect some fungus as well (which is good, as it can damage equipment). They are working on getting even more capabilities on it (detecting more types of bacteria), and hoping that the end-product will actually perform much like a medical tri-corder from Star Trek, capable of detecting what ails a crewman who has fallen ill and such. If you look at the picture to the left here, you can even see that it kind-of looks like a tri-corder (post-original series anyway).
Yay, the blog is finally underway!