Adam Clare

Robots That Ride Waves for Science and Understanding

New surfboard sized robots are riding the waves and doing science! They’re autonomous robots called Wave Gliders and they are being used to monitor shipping and more importantly they are tracking information on the oceans that have traditionally been too costly to gather.

Researchers are warming up to the technology too. NOAA is testing a Wave Glider named Alex in the ocean north of Puerto Rico this fall, hoping to gather crucial hurricane data to improve forecasting. Meanwhile, the Ocean Tracking Network is using gliders to track fishâ€”a difficult task. Unlike aquatic animals that breathe, fish donâ€™t surface often (maybe never) to ping tracking satellites.

Typical Wind Farm Supports Nearly 1,100 Jobs

A recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the USA has shown that in the country wind farms generate not just energy but 1,000 jobs at a ‘typical’ site. Other countries have found that incorporating renewable energy into their electricity grid can help generate power efficiently while helping to revitalize areas that have not found economic success in the modern world.

A new 250-megawatt wind farm will create 1,079 jobs throughout the many steps of building that wind farm, according to the NRDC report â€œAmerican Wind Farms: Breaking Down the Benefits from Planning to Production.â€ These are positions in manufacturing, construction engineering and management, among other areas.

But the benefits donâ€™t end there, a separate NRDC study on the secondary impacts of the wind energy industry shows.

Wind farms also are helping revitalize communities across the country by generating new taxes, lease payments to landowners and economic development revenues, in addition to creating new job opportunities, the NRDC report â€œAt Wind Speed: How the U.S. Wind Industry is Rapidly Growing Our Local Economies,â€ shows. The report profiles four communities from Ohio to Oregon that have benefitted from the wind industry.

Natural Sunblock: Beards

Above is an excellent example of beautiful facial hair that does a good job of blocking the sun. That’s right, for those of you who can grow beards – you should. Not only do beards look good they also can serve as sunblock.

But how much sun does a good beard block if a good beard could block sun?

Answer? It blocks the sun that a good beard could block if a good beard could block sun.* At least, depending on the angle, and the thickness of the beard. But how to find out PRECISELY?!

Well for that you need SCIENCE. Science and fake heads with beards on them. On a weathervane. Really.

Parisi et al. “DOSIMETRIC INVESTIGATION OF THE SOLAR ERYTHEMAL
UV RADIATION PROTECTION PROVIDED BY BEARDS AND MOUSTACHES” Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 2012.

Great Lakes get More Protection

In a demonstration of the usefulness of having an embassy in another country, Canada and the USA have renewed a pact to protect the Great Lakes. This is a good thing as the Great Lakes need more protection and better environmental care from both sides of the border. The pact also implies a reversal of the destructive anti-science policies that the Canadian government has had this past year.

The updated Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement binds both nations to continue a cleanup and restoration initiative begun when the freshwater seas were a symbol of ecological decay. Many of their beaches were littered with foul algae blooms and dead fish. The Cuyahoga River, which flows into Lake Erie in Cleveland, was so choked with oil and chemicals that flames erupted on its surface in 1969.

The pact calls for further action on problems that inspired the original agreement three years after the embarrassing river fire and a second version in 1987. It pledges to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity” of the five lakes and the portion of the St. Lawrence River on the U.S.-Canadian border.