Consumerism

Consumerism is something that we all have in us. It is the everlasting drive to consume. This would have proven very useful to early man making us more competitive and keeping us alive. Now this is more so the urge to get “newer” or “better” things, in most cases these are things that we don’t need and will only use for a short time before we throw them away. This is more of a problem in North America. Next time you go to a large box store say around Christmas (now) or any big holiday if you take a moment to look at all of the small  and large things that are waiting to be bought used and thrown out in less than a week. This in my opinion is disgusting not to say that I haven’t done this myself. We can’t keep consuming at this rate. There is simply no way that any of these habits are sustainable for any period of time. We can't be in denial!

Life in Arsenic?

Mono Lake California

All life as of 2 days ago contained 6 fundamental elements; hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, carbon, oxygen, and phosphorus. Yesterday researchers at NASA found a microbe in Mono Lake which is located in northern California. Mono lake gets its water from the Sierra Nevada mountains.  These mountains have relatively high concentrations of arsenic so when the water comes from these mountains so does arsenic. 

Mono lake is where the arsenic concentrates to 700 times what the EPA considers safe.

These are no ordinary microbes. In fact in the DNA of these microbes, arsenic is taking the place of phosphorus something that nobody has ever seen. 

This opens a whole new suite of planets when you are searching for life on other worlds. This is just 1 of 6 elements that may be replaced by other elements we might not have discovered yet.

Space Elevator

A space elevator is something that was first thought of in the mid 1890’s. So, its not a new idea but its a good one. Having something to decrease the number of costly rockets would be a huge leap towards the future of space exploration. If we had an elevator bringing space ships or space station parts into orbit we would send a human crew up to assemble it.  We would still need to send the human team up in a rocket because of the Van Allen Radiation Belt, but less rockets would be needed.  An elevator would save us millions if not billions per year. The initial cost would be great but the overall savings would be worth it. Unfortunately we have not created a material strong and light enough to reach space from earth. If we became organized enough to pool money and knowledge it would be possible.