Considered by many scientists to be the highest safe level for the concentration of the gas in the atmosphere – 350 parts per million (PPM) , CO2 levels are well in excess of that number today. Standing globally at 395 PPM, the most recent Arctic readings this spring measure mor

In Part 8 of this blog on space in the 21st century we reviewed current and potential technologies to go beyond the limits imposed by chemical rockets in our quest to reach neighbouring destinations in space. Now we will look at technologies that may seem improbable at present, some d

The proposal is called “trigeneration.” The city is Sydney, Australia. The plan is to use city roofs and basements to become local sources of power generation to supplement and eventually replace coal-fired power responsible for 80% of Sydney’s greenhouse gas emissio

In our last blog on space we looked at alternate methods of getting off the ground into low-Earth orbit. The goal is to lift larger and larger payloads into space so that humans can construct the engines that will allow them to explore the rest of the Solar System and even go beyond t

Chlorophyll molecules are clustered together in chloroplasts, complexes designed to absorb light and convert it to energy in the form of free floating electrons. Chlorophyll is extremely efficient in converting light energy. Our current photovoltaic solar cells on the other hand are n

In light of the dramatic achievement of SpaceX last week in being the first private company to successfully launch a payload into low-Earth orbit and rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station, let’s return to the challenges that lie ahead of us in the 21st century

Because I continually run across interesting inventions and discoveries that I cannot give my full attention to I thought I would create a weekly summary of items that have caught my eye. I’ll publish these headlines every Friday and hope, you,  my readers find them as interesti

Our oceans today are experiencing the highest mean temperatures ever recorded, up 0.59 degrees Celsius (1.1 Fahrenheit) since we started keeping records. True we have only been doing this since the 19th century, but during that period the warming appears to be consistent with higher i

In a recent study of the North Atlantic Ocean oceanographers took water samples to depths of 33 meters (+100 feet). The results surprised the scientists. Plastic garbage was evident not only in surface sampling but at all depths. We humans are creating an environmental nightmare in ou

Taking a break from the technology that has allowed us to explore near outer space we turn to inner space, our marine environment. I remember when I was very young and looking at a globe and asking my teacher “why do we call this planet Earth when it is mostly covered by water?&