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06May 2013

Why America Desperately Needs More Scientists & Engineers

Studies have shown that the number of jobs available in the United States is directly related to advances made in science and engineering. Education experts feel that if America has few leaders developing the technological advances that will create the jobs of the future, then the future will hold few opportunities for our young workers.

With only about 4% of college graduates receiving degrees in engineering or science (source), the United States is ahead of Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Cameroon. However, it is behind most other nations, and certainly at the bottom of the list of developed countries. Since 50-85% of job growth in the U.S. is dependent on scientists and engineers, our ability to turn out graduates in STEM-related fields is more important than ever.

[Note: STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, math.]

Consider this. It took 700 engineers to create the iPod, which then led to the creation of 14,000 more jobs in the U.S. alone (source). During the development of the iPhone/iPad, most of the engineering work was completed outside the U.S. Apple and its contractors currently employ over 700,000 people in other nations because of the availability of engineers in those countries. Prior to his death, Steve Jobs is said to have told President Obama that the reason Apple directly or indirectly employs these 700,000 people outside the United States is because it can’t find 30,000 engineers in the United States.

Some may claim that companies like Apple are using this as an excuse – that the U.S. does produce enough engineers/scientists, but are instead driven by profit (hiring overseas is cheaper). This may be the case in some instances, however the numbers don’t lie (source):

PhD Engineering Graduates (U.S.)
U.S. Citizens/Permanent Residents:
1998 = 53.39%
2009 = 42.78%

Temporary Visa Holders
1998 = 46.61%
2009 = 57.22%

It would be foolish to assume that the vast majority of temporary visa holders are remaining in the U.S. to fill jobs once they’ve completed their education. As indicated above, we’re clearly seeing a decline in U.S. PhD levels. While some companies may be sourcing jobs overseas for economic reasons, I think this is the exception rather than the rule. It stands to reason that if America successfully increases the number of STEM graduates it produces, thousands (if not millions) of new jobs will increase in direct proportion to the increase in technological advances these STEM graduates will produce.

A Broken Educational System

Training enough scientists and engineers in the near future will not be an easy task, since our educational system is not producing enough high school graduates who are prepared for demanding college courses. In fact, some college freshmen are actually advised to take easier classes in order to assure that they make good enough grades to graduate.

Several years ago (2005), the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine established a committee to study what needs to be done to encourage more young people to take tougher classes, both in high school and college. They issued a report called, The Gathering Storm, that made recommendations for fixing the nation’s K-12 public education system. They found that not only are we not producing enough scientists/engineers, we are also alarmingly bad at producing high school graduates. Most recently (2010), the organizations released a new report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited [PDF], which states that the situation in the U.S. has become even more bleak. Today, the U.S. has one of the highest secondary school dropout rates in the developed world. Even our top students are falling behind. American 15-year-olds have been ranked 17th in science and 25th in math when tested against the 34 most developed nations. In 2011, they dropped to 32nd in math against the same 34 countries (source). Meanwhile, it is estimated that of every 3,100 8th graders in America, only one will go on to get a PH.D. in engineering or science.

While we are falling further behind, other countries are stepping up their investments in science education. A $2 billion investment from the Russian government has opened up so many science and engineering educational sites in Tomsk that that Siberian town has become the center of Russia’s IT industry. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology opened in 2009 in Saudi Arabia with an endowment greater than that of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. China is providing scholarships for over 200,000 of its students to study abroad in the fields of science and engineering every year. The United Kingdom is increasing its investment in non-defense research and development by 25%. India is investing in nanotechnology education hoping to become a hub for that industry.

The original ‘Gathering Storm’ and the follow-up reports have attracted high-level interest and some steps have been taken towards making educational improvements that will lead to more job creation at home. Overall however, U.S. officials have largely ignored the reports in a rush to save money by defunding education. Instead of investing more in its students, we continue to see the closing of university departments in science fields. Officials justify their reasoning by claiming that few American students elect to take science courses in college anyway, so why waste funds on them?

Where We Are Today

In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama called for a $71B increase in Department of Education funding directly focused on STEM (source). While this is a step in the right direction, my guess is that this will have little/no significant impact on the numbers I outlined above if changes aren’t made in other areas as well. A recent report [PDF] by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) indicates that states are spending, on average, 28% less per student in fiscal year 2013 than they were in 2008 while college tuition costs continue to climb. While the CBPP indicates this is a result of states not raising taxes (not something I necessarily agree with), the chart below is indicative of a growing problem.

The Bottom Line

The U.S. needs to produce more scientists and engineers in the future. I don’t believe for a minute that our young people are to blame for the declines discussed above. Nor do I believe that closing doors to them in these fields in the quest to save money is the right approach either. This is a matter of readjusting our national educational priority.

STEM needs to be a PRIMARY focus in education throughout our students’ K-12 years. I’m not claiming that important subjects such as art, music, literature, and language aren’t necessary components of a well-rounded education. Of course they are. I’m simply advocating a change in our approach to education and stating that the primary emphasis, moving forward, instead focus on better preparing our students for success in STEM-related fields. As long as we continue to force our teachers to “teach to a test” (Read: No Child Left Behind) however, we will continue to churn out a greater number of students that are woefully unprepared for the rigors required to complete collegiate-level STEM programs. This in turn will lead to a continuing decrease in the number of scientists/engineers in America. As this happens, the country will invariably continue to fall behind the rest of the developed world in technological innovation and leadership. Is that what we really want for our kids and future generations? I certainly don’t.

11Feb 2013

Cell Circuits Remember Their History

Jason Carr ⋅ 1 Comment

Engineers at MIT have developed genetic circuits in bacterial cells that not only perform logic functions, but also remember the results. (Credit: Liang Zong and Yan Liang)

MIT engineers have created genetic circuits in bacterial cells that not only perform logic functions, but also remember the results, which are encoded in the cell’s DNA and passed on for dozens of generations.

The circuits, described in the Feb. 10 online edition of Nature Biotechnology (citation below), could be used as long-term environmental sensors, efficient controls for biomanufacturing, or to program stem cells to differentiate into other cell types.

“Almost all of the previous work in synthetic biology that we’re aware of has either focused on logic components or on memory modules that just encode memory. We think complex computation will involve combining both logic and memory, and that’s why we built this particular framework to do so,” says Timothy Lu, an MIT assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biological engineering and senior author of the Nature Biotechnologypaper.

Lead author of the paper is MIT postdoc Piro Siuti. Undergraduate John Yazbek is also an author.

More than logic

Synthetic biologists use interchangeable genetic parts to design circuits that perform a specific function, such as detecting a chemical in the environment. In that type of circuit, the target chemical would generate a specific response, such as production of green fluorescent protein (GFP).

Circuits can also be designed for any type of Boolean logic function, such as AND gates and OR gates. Using those kinds of gates, circuits can detect multiple inputs. In most of the previously engineered cellular logic circuits, the end product is generated only as long as the original stimuli are present: Once they disappear, the circuit shuts off until another stimulus comes along.

Lu and his colleagues set out to design a circuit that would be irreversibly altered by the original stimulus, creating a permanent memory of the event. To do this, they drew on memory circuits that Lu and colleagues designed in 2009. Those circuits depend on enzymes known as recombinases, which can cut out stretches of DNA, flip them, or insert them. Sequential activation of those enzymes allows the circuits to count events happening inside a cell.

Lu designed the new circuits so that the memory function is built into the logic gate itself. With a typical cellular AND gate, the two necessary inputs activate proteins that together turn on expression of an output gene. However, in the new circuits, the inputs stably alter regions of DNA that control GFP production. These regions, known as promoters, recruit the cellular proteins responsible for transcribing the GFP gene into messenger RNA, which then directs protein assembly.

For example, in one circuit described in the paper, two DNA sequences called terminators are interposed between the promoter and the output gene (GFP, in this case). Each of these terminators inhibits the transcription of the output gene and can be flipped by a different recombinase enzyme, making the terminator inactive.

Each of the circuit’s two inputs turns on production of one of the recombinase enzymes needed to flip a terminator. In the absence of either input, GFP production is blocked. If both are present, both terminators are flipped, resulting in their inactivation and subsequent production of GFP.

Once the DNA terminator sequences are flipped, they can’t return to their original state — the memory of the logic gate activation is permanently stored in the DNA sequence. The sequence also gets passed on for at least 90 generations. Scientists wanting to read the cell’s history can either measure its GFP output, which will stay on continuously, or if the cell has died, they can retrieve the memory by sequencing its DNA.

Using this design strategy, the researchers can create all two-input logic gates and implement sequential logic systems. “It’s really easy to swap things in and out,” says Lu, who is also a member of MIT’s Synthetic Biology Center. “If you start off with a standard parts library, you can use a one-step reaction to assemble any kind of function that you want.”

Long-term memory

Such circuits could also be used to create a type of circuit known as a digital-to-analog converter. This kind of circuit takes digital inputs — for example, the presence or absence of single chemicals — and converts them to an analog output, which can be a range of values, such as continuous levels of gene expression.

For example, if the cell has two circuits, each of which expresses GFP at different levels when they are activated by their specific input, those inputs can produce four different analog output levels. Moreover, by measuring how much GFP is produced, the researchers can figure out which of the inputs were present.

That type of circuit could offer better control over the production of cells that generate biofuels, drugs or other useful compounds. Instead of creating circuits that are always on, or using promoters that need continuous inputs to control their output levels, scientists could transiently program the circuit to produce at a certain level. The cells and their progeny would always remember that level, without needing any more information.

Used as environmental sensors, such circuits could also provide very precise long-term memory. “You could have different digital signals you wanted to sense, and just have one analog output that summarizes everything that was happening inside,” Lu says.

This platform could also allow scientists to more accurately control the fate of stem cells as they develop into other cell types. Lu is now working on engineering cells to follow sequential development steps, depending on what kinds of inputs they receive from the environment.

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Reference:

Siuti, P., Yazbek, J., & Lu, T. (2013). Synthetic circuits integrating logic and memory in living cells Nature Biotechnology DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2510

04Feb 2013

Adding Another Dimension to Computer Simulations

Jason Carr ⋅ 4 Comments

Four-dimensional space is a difficult concept but this idea is driving a new revolution in programming today. Individuals familiar with August Ferdinand Möbius’ research know that an additional dimension allows a three-dimensional form to be rotated over on top of its mirror image. This gives us the so-called Möbius strip. While computer algorithms that really simulate scalable four-dimensional space are still in their infancy, they’re already making a big splash.

Mobius Strip. Credit: http://paulbourke.net/geometry/mobius/

It’s important to remember that abstract mathematical concepts have no real bearing on the actual universe. Texts on theoretical physics use four-dimensional space as a term to describe the phenomenon caused by three-dimensional objects moving through time. Naturally, this concept of a fourth dimension is far different from that defined by computer scientists. While additional dimensions are valid mathematical constructs, they have little to do with the world around us. Software is merely producing two-dimensional output anyway, so its safe to assume that nothing a TV screen produces is going to break the space-time continuum.

Image Credit: John Hopkins

Computers provide mathematicians with the opportunity to produce very complex geometrical forms. In three dimensions, polyhedra are made up of distinct two-dimensional polygons. Four-dimensional space grants engineers the freedom to create polychora made up of three-dimensional polyhedra. While this might be complicated, it’s actually useful outside of the world of mathematical research.

Mapping Euclidean space gives scientists the opportunity to produce stereographic projection diagrams of theoretical objects like the Clifford torus. This could be useful in the construction of space colonies, for instance. Puzzles based around 120-cell hecatonicosachoron objects became popular for a time, and illustrate the advantages of constructing objects in a virtual world.

Average computer users probably aren’t too interested in this type of research either. They might be more pleased to hear that four-dimensional simulations are revolutionizing video games. While virtual reality might not actually be the future, a simulation of it very well could be.

Edwin A. Abbot popularized the concept of different dimensions in fiction, and Marc Ten Bosch’s new independent video game is taking it to the next level. Miegakure is a platform that is essentially set in a three-dimensional environment, but players can go through walls and inspect them by entering into an additional dimension. The game has yet to be released to the general public, but it illustrates the possibilities programmers have when they leave the confines of our limited universe. Just as an author isn’t limited when writing a novel, computer programmers can create simulations that aren’t defined by what real individuals can and cannot do.

23Jan 2013

Sending Odors and Tastes as an Email Attachment

Jason Carr ⋅ 9 Comments

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Andrea Danti

Research into cybernetic organs has been largely focused on replacements for disabled individuals who have lost a limb. Electronic noses and tongues are designed for a radically different purpose. Humans perceive different chemicals as various tastes and odors. Many types of additives are industrially manufactured to replicate certain flavors or scents. Electronic noses and tongues are examples of the way emerging technologies are set to change the way household products are made. Electronic noses have already shown their potential to identify people more reliably than fingerprints, sniff out bombs, and even detect lung cancer on a person’s breath. They also present an opportunity for Internet users to test products before they buy them.

An electronic nose is a tool that mimics human olfactory senses. While they’re not the best for deciding whether new odors are pleasing, they can repeat test trials over and over again. Routine analysis isn’t something that’s easy for a human test subject to do. People can only write down whether they feel a new scent is pleasant to them. Internet-based odor presentation machines are in their infancy, but may some day present computer users with smelly output.

Image Credit: Nature

Smell-o-vision was a home entertainment dream for many years, but researchers eventually gave up on the concept. Some consumers have even felt that it’s worthless. Most people wouldn’t actually want to sit down and smell what characters in a television show smell like. However, there are certain uses of this technology that could be quite popular. For instance, they might be used to sniff out a range of diseases. Or they could be used to check the quality of food in an effective manner. Electronic nose and odor delivery systems could even allow chefs to select ingredients without having to travel the world.

For instance, international produce distributors could take some fruit and digitize its odor into a certain type of file. Computer users would then download the file, and a peripheral device would synthesize the odor from existing chemical stores. This would be particularly useful for those who weren’t familiar with some sort of exotic plant. Unfortunately, the opportunity for misuse is quite strong as well. Trojan horse programs might cause a client computer to produce an odor that’s surprisingly unpleasant. It would be interesting to watch that play out.

Electronic tongues serve a similar purpose. Salt, sour and sweet tastes each correspond to a specific chemical makeup. The pH level of a substance, the presence of molecular polyhydroxyl groups and how many sodium ions are attached to the substance all play a part in deciding how it tastes. In fact, these would be easier to detect than olfactory sensations delivered to an electronic nose.

Image Credit: Washington Post

On the other hand, bitter and savory tastes would be surprisingly difficult to distinguish. These tastes don’t correspond to exact chemical compounds, so they’re harder to track. Electronic tongues do have a real advantage over their smelly brethren, though. It would actually be easier to digitize taste and transmit different flavors in a file than it would be to electronically transmit different scents. Once again this would present a very interesting target for computer hackers.

Users might not even want to imagine what sort of weird tastes someone intent on misusing this technology could come up with. Restaurants would certainly like it, though. They could let people try a free sample of their product over the Internet. That offers a distinct advantage over a JPEG of a menu, but it’s doubtful that computer peripherals are going to replace cameras in the near future.

Reference:

Fujioka K, Arakawa E, Kita J, Aoyama Y, Manome Y, Ikeda K, & Yamamoto K (2013). Detection of Aeromonas hydrophila in Liquid Media by Volatile Production Similarity Patterns, Using a FF-2A Electronic Nose. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 13 (1), 736-45 PMID: 23296330

Schneider, J. (2006). Detection of fruit odors using an electronic nose SPIE Newsroom DOI: 10.1117/2.1200602.0137

Ciosek, P., & Wróblewski, W. (2007). Sensor arrays for liquid sensing – electronic tongue systems The Analyst, 132 (10) DOI: 10.1039/b705107g

Zakaria A, Shakaff AY, Masnan MJ, Ahmad MN, Adom AH, Jaafar MN, Ghani SA, Abdullah AH, Aziz AH, Kamarudin LM, Subari N, & Fikri NA (2011). A biomimetic sensor for the classification of honeys of different floral origin and the detection of adulteration. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 11 (8), 7799-822 PMID: 22164046

16Jan 2013

Show Some Love for the Data Glove

Jason Carr ⋅ 6 Comments

Data Gloves (or wired gloves or cybergloves), as the name implies, are computer input devices that are worn on the hand like a glove. They utilize motion trackers to translate finger manipulations into electrical signals. In the near future, this technology might revolutionize the way that disabled people are able to access computer resources. For instance, individuals who are currently unable to use a mouse or keyboard might have a better chance with a wired glove. As these products come down in price, it’s fair to assume that regular computer users will be able to afford them as well. Some USB standard devices are already out on the market today. There are other possible commercial applications for these devices as well…the market just needs innovators to lead the way.

The Past and Future of Data Gloves
It might be best to call these high tech gloves a reemerging technology. They actually came into vogue in the 1980s. A number of rather ridiculous contraptions were designed around these devices at the time – but this was of course due to the available technologies of the era. The VPL DataGlove was certainly one of the earliest virtual reality products regular people could buy. For a while, many believed they were the future of video games and virtual simulations.

Despite the early promise of the devices, people forgot about them for quite some time. There are a few reasons that wired glove technology has been downplayed in recent years. For instance, many virtual reality machines designed around data gloves were hazardous to people’s health. Certain types of displays caused headaches and seizures. Many wired glove consumer products were also poorly planned early on. Many of you may remember the ill-fated Power Glove for the Nintendo Entertainment System. So there have been some missteps in this field. However, there’s nothing to say that wired glove products need to use 3D displays for successful operation. For that matter, there isn’t even a reason to believe that their future success is dependent upon adoption in the consumer market.

Moving Forward – How Data Gloves Can be Used
Some of the most interesting research being done today lies within the field of human-machine interfaces. Rather than applications pertaining only to specialized fields (i.e. rehabilitation), many experts believe that the future for cybergloves is actually quite broad.

Machines or robots in the future might be designed specifically to include glove interfaces. For example, some organizations have focused on creating certain types of robots that lack sophisticated software for organizational tasks. Think of a robot that might be used to assemble a multi-ton piece of equipment that needs to be built to spec. In this type of application, humans would remotely control the robots, using data glove interfaces, as opposed to building software to control the robots. This can reduce the need for sophisticated software that has the potential to fail (and avoid the potential catastrophes that might follow) by allowing a human operator to take control of a system, through the use of a wired glove interface, while capitalizing on the advantages of robotics at the same time. Since computers currently lack the ability to discriminate between different choices, a human operator might actually be superior to a computer in these types of applications. These are the instances when data gloves may be useful.

Alternatively, data gloves can be used in telerobotic operations. For example, telerobotics could give organizations the option to control systems anywhere in the world using localized data gloves. This has significant implications when considered. For instance, what if companies could repair broken down equipment in the sea, space, or even the desert using the devices? Isn’t that better than risking the lives of humans for the same processes? There are lots of possibilities in terms of commercial applications in this area. I’m simply touching on a few just to illustrate the potential that these devices may have in the future.

Another obvious use of these high-tech gloves lies within the area of rehabilitation. People recovering from injuries may be able to relearn how to use certain muscle groups by using these sorts of devices. Some modern rehabilitation systems have actually been built around the devices. Computing applications abound as well…especially in the quest to rid the world of input devices. While it’s far too early to claim that keyboards (or the mouse) are an endangered species, a diverse line of data gloves in the near future could potentially change the computing market in this area.

What are some problems you can imagine data gloves being able to solve in the future?

Reference:

Fahn, C., & Sun, H. (2010). Development of a Fingertip Glove Equipped with Magnetic Tracking Sensors Sensors, 10 (2), 1119-1140 DOI: 10.3390/s100201119

Yamaura H, Matsushita K, Kato R, & Yokoi H (2009). Development of hand rehabilitation system for paralysis patient – universal design using wire-driven mechanism. Conference proceedings : … Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference, 2009, 7122-5 PMID: 19963950

HOSHINO, K. (2006). Dexterous Robot Hand Control with Data Glove by Human Imitation IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, E89-D (6), 1820-1825 DOI: 10.1093/ietisy/e89-d.6.1820

Dalley, S., Varol, H., & Goldfarb, M. (2012). A Method for the Control of Multigrasp Myoelectric Prosthetic Hands IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 20 (1), 58-67 DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2011.2175488

Nattapong Tongrod, Teerakiat Kerdcharoen, N. Watthanawisuth, & A. Tuantranont (2010). A low-cost dataglove for Human computer interaction based on ink-jet printed sensors and ZigBee networks International Symposium on Wearable Computers – ISWC, 1-2 DOI: 10.1109/ISWC.2010.5665850

Additional Learning Resources:

07Jan 2013

New Path to More Efficient Organic Solar Cells

Jason Carr ⋅ 2 Comments

Image Credit: Harald Ade, NC State University

Why are efficient and affordable solar cells so highly coveted? Volume. The amount of solar energy lighting up Earth’s land mass every year is nearly 3,000 times the total amount of annual human energy use. But to compete with energy from fossil fuels, photovoltaic devices must convert sunlight to electricity with a certain measure of efficiency. For polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells, which are far less expensive to manufacture than silicon-based solar cells, scientists have long believed that the key to high efficiencies rests in the purity of the polymer/organic cell’s two domains – acceptor and donor. Now, however, an alternate and possibly easier route forward has been shown.

Working at Berkeley Lab‘s Advanced Light Source (ALS), a premier source of X-ray and ultraviolet light beams for research, an international team of scientists found that for highly efficient polymer/organic photovoltaic cells, size matters.

“We’ve shown that impure domains if made sufficiently small can also lead to improved performances in polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells,” says Harald Ade, a physicist at North Carolina State University, who led this research. “There seems to be a happy medium, a sweet-spot of sorts, between purity and domain size that should be much easier to achieve than ultra-high purity.”

Ade, a longtime user of the ALS, is the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in Advanced Energy Materials titled “Absolute Measurement of Domain Composition and Nanoscale Size Distribution Explains Performance in PTB7:PC71 BM Solar Cells.” Co-authors are Brian Collins, Zhe Li, John Tumbleston, Eliot Gann and Christopher McNeill [Citation below].

Solar cell conversion efficiency in polymer/organic photovoltaic cells hinges on excitons – electron/hole pairs energized by sunlight – getting to the interfaces of the donor and acceptor domains quickly so as to minimize energy lost as heat. Conventional wisdom held that the greater the purity of the domains, the fewer the impedances and the faster the exciton journey.

Ade and his co-authors became the first to simultaneously measure the domain size, composition and crystallinity of an organic solar cell. This feat was made possible by ALS beamlines 11.0.1.2, a Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering (R-SoXS) facility; 7.3.3, a Small- and Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS/) end-station; and 5.3.2, an end-station for Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy (STXM).

Says Collins, the first author on the Advanced Energy Materials paper, “The combination of these three ALS beamlines enabled us to obtain comprehensive pictures of polymer-based organic photovoltaic film morphology from the nano- to the meso-scales. Until now, this information has been unattainable.”

The international team used the trifecta of ALS beams to study the polymer/fullerence blend PTB7:PC71BM in thin films made from chlorobenzene solution with and without the addition (three-percent by volume) of the solvent diiodooctane. The films were composed of droplet-like dispersions in which the dominant acceptor domain size without the additive was about 177 nanometers. The addition of the solvent shrank the acceptor domain size down to about 34 nanometers while preserving the film’s composition and crystallinity. This resulted in an efficiency gain of 42-percent.

“In showing for the first time just how pure and how large the acceptor domains in organic solar devices actually are, as well as what the interface with the donor domain looks like, we’ve demonstrated that the impact of solvents and additives on device performance can be dramatic and can be systematically studied,” Ade says. “In the future, our technique should help advance the rational design of polymer-based organic photovoltaic films.”

Source: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Reference:

Collins, B., Li, Z., Tumbleston, J., Gann, E., McNeill, C., & Ade, H. (2012). Absolute Measurement of Domain Composition and Nanoscale Size Distribution Explains Performance in PTB7:PC BM Solar CellsAdvanced Energy Materials DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201200377

01Jan 2013

Reaching E.T. Through Standardized Protocols

Jason Carr ⋅ 15 Comments

Image Credit: SPDO/TDP/DRAO/Swinburne Astronomy

Choosing a single telecommunications protocol has always been difficult for engineers on Earth, so it’s especially difficult for those who want to communicate with beings from another star system. While it’s nice to imagine that extraterrestrial beings would be able to interface with whatever protocol humans decide to encode a message in, that’s not a realistic way to think. Humanity has developed countless electronic communication technologies since the 19th century. There’s no reason to believe that extraterrestrial beings haven’t done the same thing.

SETI and METI organizations have developed a single protocol for sending messages to potential examples of intelligent life. There’s no way of knowing if another civilization could ever actually interpret these signals but the odds are at least a little better with standardized systems.

Imagine an engineer trying to decode a data transmission that no one had ever encountered before. They’d probably try to compare it to other transmissions sent with the same protocol, and then look for the symbols that appear the most. These symbols are probably encoding the most common glyphs in the written language that the transmission represents.

Now imagine that each transmission that the engineer encounters is in a different code. There’s no way for them to compare different messages, because there aren’t any similarities between the different protocols. By using a single system, Earthlings are giving extraterrestrial cultures a chance to decode messages by comparing them to one another. It wouldn’t have been possible for international communications to be achieved on Earth if everyone decided to use their own technology standards.

In fact, poor choices in the past have hampered many types of technological developments. If standardization had occurred between Earthbound transmission sites years ago, these problems would never have reared their ugly head. For that matter, extraterrestrials might very well have been able to intercept numerous types of incidental transmissions. If signals are as weak as one might expect them to be, every little bit matters when we’re talking about communicating across the universe.

If standardization is important, the types of signals sent are equally important (if not more so). Most scientists agree that radio waves are the best way to communicate with other planets/stars given our current level of knowledge. This is due to the fact that radio waves are able to traverse the vast distances involved in actually reaching other stars/planets outside the Milky Way galaxy. Even the closest stars are about 6 light-years away (each light-year is roughly 6 trillion miles). This means that any signals we send their way have to cut through enormous amounts of gas and other obstructions found in space. Radio waves are able to do this effectively (as opposed to say, lightwaves) while traveling vast distances at the speed of light. I have read the work of some scientists that believe lasers may be a good way to reach extraterrestrials as well. I personally feel this is a great alternative to microwaves alone.

While standardization and appropriate signal types are invaluable, they’re also practical because they help to reduce costs. While practicality isn’t something that most people like to discuss, it’s actually pretty necessary in the world of SETI/METI. Many of these organizations, such as the SETI Institute (SETI Institute listens for signals vs. transmitting signals), survive on public donations. They need to maximize what they get out of the financial resources that they’re given to work with. Developing a single standard algorithm helps to reduce the amount of money spent on research while maximizing the chances of success (choosing the right type of signal to send) are crucial to long-term survival. It also means that different pieces of equipment will always interface properly. This means that expensive converts/integrations won’t ever be necessary as long as everyone adheres to the existing standard.

From an engineering standpoint, these groups might want to look at their antennas and transmission sites next (in terms of standardization). Once protocols are standardized, they can begin to improve in other areas as well. Each little bit matters when trying to talk to someone that may exist on a planet that is trillions of miles away.

Reference:

Atri, D., DeMarines, J., & Haqq-Misra, J. (2011). A protocol for messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence Space Policy, 27 (3), 165-169 DOI: 10.1016/j.spacepol.2011.01.001

Edmondson, W. (2010). Targets and SETI: Shared motivations, life signatures and asymmetric SETI Acta Astronautica, 67 (11-12), 1410-1418 DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2010.01.017

27Dec 2012

Age of Sail 2.0

Jason Carr ⋅ 7 Comments

Wind power is free, which is why German engineers have been experimenting with a device they termed SkySails. They’ve proved that inflatable kites can actually haul freighters across the ocean. This mirrors research conducted over 20 years ago by a Japanese firm. Those who say that sails aren’t a new emerging technology should be careful, since the efforts are actually becoming popular with scientists.

Ships were never inexpensive to run in the glorious Age of Sail. They were under constant threat of attack, and crews were paid handsomely. As engines won out over sailing technology, crews received lower wages. Many ship crews are paid very poorly today. This means that shipping companies are actually spending a great deal more on fuel than on labor in many cases. Even if one were to take humanitarian concerns out of the equation, it doesn’t seem like internal combustion technology is sustainable.

Many of the new concepts don’t focus merely on pulling a ship by wind alone. Conventional diesel propulsion will still be quite useful. However, some researchers have suggested that sails could end up cutting the amount of fuel a ship uses in half. Even if wind never replaced internal combustion technology, these high-tech sails would do a lot to cut down on fuel consumption.

As shipping costs are decreased, consumers can enjoy lower prices for various goods. Shipping is one of the most expensive parts of the production chain, and global economics have made it that much more vital. State-of-the-art sailing ships could cut costs as well as reduce the need to import energy. Tug-kites also solve the problem of finding streams of wind, since they soar high above an actual vessel.

Interestingly enough, some of the research isn’t just being aimed at the industrial markets. Some people feel that these futuristic kites will be useful for yachters as well. Individuals would naturally want to keep their own costs down as well.

As well as tug-kites, other ship designs are being discussed. Large rotary sails could generate electrical power, which would then be used to turn a ship’s screw. While this doesn’t seem to be a tested technology as of yet, it’s based on off the shelf components that shipyards can use immediately.

Windjammers were used in some parts of the world well into the 20th century. In fact, some of the fastest sailing vessels were constructed relatively late in time. A few clippers have even been built in the last few years. These designs all relied on tested engineering. New emerging shipbuilding techniques could blow even the fastest windjammers out of the water, in a manner of speaking.

Reference:

M. Canale, L. Fagiano, M. Milanese, & V. Razza (2010). Control of tethered airfoils for sustainable marine transportation IEEE Conference on Control Applications – CCA IEEE Conference on Control Applications – CCA , 1904-1909 DOI: 10.1109/CCA.2010.5611085

20Dec 2012

Will We Ever Really Travel to the Stars?

Jason Carr ⋅ 16 Comments

Image Credit: Paramount

Interstellar space travel is one of the most common themes of science fiction, but the question is, will it ever become reality?

With our current understanding of physics, propulsion methods and the limits of our technology, there is currently no practical way to travel to other stars and solar systems. NASA terminated its Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program in 2003, stating that no further breakthroughs appeared to be imminent. What this ultimately means is that we should not be expecting to see travel to other stars become reality any time soon, if ever. NASA did recently announce that they will begin work on a Warp Drive…whether anything will come of that, only time will tell. I personally would like to see this happen in the private-sector but that’s certainly unlikely for the immediate future.

In most sci-fi stories, starships zip around the galaxy at speeds far exceeding that of light, the universal speed limit of 182,282 miles per second. The problem however is that the laws of physics state that absolutely nothing in the universe can travel faster than this (even though folks are trying to prove otherwise).

The Primary Issue – Distance

We know our own star simply as the Sun. The Sun is a star no different to billions of others in the Milky Way galaxy. To provide some important figures for reference, the Sun lies 93 million miles from away from Earth and it takes light eight minutes and twenty seconds to reach us.

Source: R. Mewaldt & P. Liewer, JPL

The nearest star to Earth, other than the Sun, is Proxima Centauri of the Alpha Centauri triple-star system. It lies 4.24 light-years away, meaning that it takes 4.24 years for the star’s light to reach us.

The fastest launch speed achieved by mankind was that of the New Horizons robotic spacecraft which was launched at 36,373 miles per hour on its mission to the dwarf planet Pluto. The fastest man-made object is currently the Helios 2 solar space probe, travelling at 157,100 miles per hour. This speed was achieved by using gravitational assistance from the Sun. If the Helios 2 solar probe were to be sent directly towards Proxima Centauri, it would reach the star in approximately 18,000 years.

How Fast Can We Go?

There are technologies that exist which can achieve far greater speeds than those of space probes like Helios 2 or New Horizons.

One of these is nuclear pulse propulsion which basically uses nuclear explosions to power a rocket to incredibly high speeds. It seems plausible that such a spacecraft could reach speeds of around 5 percent of the speed of light, yet this would still take about 85 years to reach the nearest star. As demonstrated by the Project Orion effort of the mid-twentieth century, it is possible using only currently available technology. Of course, this speed is still too low, making it highly impractical. It is generally considered that, if a journey cannot be completed in considerably less than a human lifetime, it should not be started at all.

The only thing that is possible is to send out radio waves, traveling at the speed of light, to the stars. This allows us to send a message to Proxima Centauri for example, which would arrive in 4.24 years. Perhaps some day we will be able to send physical objects there at this rate.

Faster-than-Light (FTL)

Image Source: Nextbigfuture

Nothing can travel faster than light, as dictated by Einstein’s theories on relativity. 182,282 miles per second is the absolute speed limit. If practical interstellar travel is ever to become a possibility, we need to find a way around this speed limit.

To get around the FTL issue, sci-fi shows/movies/books often use things like warp drives that are capable of warping spacetime in such a way that it folds space. If this were possible, it would effectively enable FTL travel between two points. The Alcubierre drive, proposed in 1994, is the only serious attempt at theorizing a starship which travels faster than light. It does this by expanding space behind it and contracting space before it. The spacecraft travels in its own bubble at speeds slower than light. To put this in perspective, imagine a piece of paper with a point marked at each end. The shortest distance between these two points is a straight line, unless you fold the paper in half so that the two points meet each other directly.

The Alcubierre drive is highly theoretical and has one deal-breaking flaw – it requires something called exotic matter with negative mass, and this isn’t even known to exist.

The Bottom Line

If you could go back in time to the mid-nineteenth century and tell people that humanity was going to land on the moon in 1969, they would probably laugh at you. Since then, we have launched probes all over the Solar System and landed robotic spacecraft on the surfaces of Venus, Mars and Saturn’s moon, Titan. One thing is clear: Humanity’s potential is immense and science and technology are full of surprises. Interstellar travel may seem like a very long way off, but it will never become a reality if we don’t try.

One thing that is preventing many scientists from taking interstellar travel seriously is also the fact that we don’t really know where to start. There are countless stars out there, but until something truly interesting and worth visiting shows up, interstellar travel will remain a thing of science fiction. That being said, more than 850 planets have been discovered orbiting other stars and more are being confirmed every week. We are now learning that every star “up there” likely has a number of planets rotating around them (the same thing that happens in our neck of the universe). That’s a very, very large number of planets. It is likely just a matter of time before we find an Earth-like world out there in the lonely depths of space. Perhaps that will truly give humanity something to aim for resulting in a renewed interest in reaching the stars.

Reference:

Ford, L., & Roman, T. (2000). Negative Energy, Wormholes and Warp Drive Scientific American, 282 (1), 46-53 DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican0100-46

Hill, J., & Cox, B. (2012). Einstein’s special relativity beyond the speed of light Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 468 (2148), 4174-4192 DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2012.0340

González-Díaz, P. (2000). Warp drive space-time Physical Review D, 62 (4) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.62.044005

Hansson, A. (2003). Project Orion: The Atomic Spaceship 1957–1965 Space Policy, 19 (2), 149-150 DOI: 10.1016/S0265-9646(03)00011-0

Endl, M., & Kürster, M. (2008). Toward detection of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of our closest neighbor: proxima Centauri Astronomy and Astrophysics, 488 (3), 1149-1153 DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200810058

16Nov 2012

Airships: The Future of Air Travel?

Jason Carr ⋅ 4 Comments

Considering the fact that airships have been around for a while now, it’s hard to believe that they are thought of as emerging technologies today. But that’s exactly the case given recent advances in this arena. Hydrogen airships have a troubled history due to several significant historical disasters. However, new technologies could help reduce this risk drastically.

A Closer Look
Helium is a resource that’s starting to run low. On the other hand, any industrialized country can cheaply manufacture all the hydrogen it could ever need. In fact, hydrogen is a byproduct of some industrial processes. This means that researchers are turning to it as a cheap lifting gas. The benefits of hydrogen airships might outweigh the perceived risks, and they produce relatively little pollution. In some ways, airships are actually much safer than jet aircraft.

One organization in the UK has planned a visionary vertical airship powered by renewable energy. This proposed vessel would be a sort of floating hotel, transporting passengers on transoceanic voyages in decadent splendor. Speeds could allegedly reach 150 Km/hr, which means that one could fly to Shanghai from California in around 90 hours. Transatlantic trips would take under 38 hours. While these speeds don’t necessarily seem competitive with jet aircraft, airships have some other advantages.

Plans show that they can be built in ways that don’t use fossil fuels. Fuel cells and photovoltaic panels would generate more than enough power for a craft like this. Airships can fly extremely low and get around obstacles without much threat to people on the ground. They aren’t nearly as sensitive to the weather as heavier-than-air flying machines are either. They might even be a great way to bring the advantages of flight to people who otherwise couldn’t fly because of a medical condition. After all, airships are gentler than the competition.

With fuel prices spiraling out of control, these craft could be seen as a way to cut back on imported sources of energy. In the future, once we’ve worked our way through fossil fuels, they might be an alternative to consider. Mechanical systems would harness the power of the wind to make flight particularly easy. While this might seem like a technological regression, new polymers and engineering schemes have helped to make it a real possibility.

Hydrogen’s flammability still poses a major risk. Researchers are studying buoyancy control methods that would help to reduce the risk of ignition. By maintaining certain relative concentrations of gases within the airship’s internal volume, crews wouldn’t be dealing with the same mixtures that caused the Hindenburg disaster.

Structural ties would reduce weight as well. Those familiar with the R-101 disaster wouldn’t have to worry as much about repeating it. Even if these developments never replace regular aircraft, they might very well carve out a new niche industry in the future. What do you think? Would you fly in an airship?

Reference:

Michele Trancossi, Antonio Dumas, Mauro Madonia, Jose Pascoa, & Dean Vucinic (2012). Fire-safe Airship System Design SAE Int. J. Aerosp. , 11-21 : 10.4271/2012-01-1512