They”re building a stairway to heaven – well, not exactly, but there are elevators to the sky in the works.
According to NASA, the Millennium-Two Space Elevator is an Audacious Space Elevator and described as this: “A space elevator is essentially a long cable extending from our planet”s surface into space with its center of mass at geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), 35,786 km in altitude. Electromagnetic vehicles traveling along the cable could serve as a mass transportation system for moving people, payloads, and power between Earth and space (Sept.7, 2000).”
Holy cow!
Similarly Japan”s “Elevator to the Stars”: ” The 22,000 mile-long (36,000km) cables – or flat ribbons – will run the elevator carriages, themselves requiring huge breakthroughs in engineering to which the biggest Japanese companies and universities have turned their collective attention,” according to Leo Lewis for the Times Online, Sept. 22.
A plastic solar cell developed by scientists boasts the ability to convert solar power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day because it makes use of the sun”s invisible infrared rays. According to Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News (Jan. 14, 2005), “Like paint, the composite can be sprayed onto other materials and used as portable electricity. A sweater coated in the material could power a cell phone or other wireless devices. A hydrogen-powered car painted with the film could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car”s battery. The researchers envision that one day ”solar farms” consisting of the plastic material could be rolled across deserts to generate enough clean energy to supply the entire planet”s power needs.””
Mother Jones magazine November – December edition addresses this cell in a fun article titled “Greens Gone Wild,” with a bra that powers an iPod. Also featured in the article is a dance floor that generates 60 percent of the energy that runs a London club through quartz crystals and ceramics in the floor. The brilliant minds of our time are putting in overtime, in my humble opinion.
For car lovers, there”s the Moto Ouzo, aptly named because the ultra-efficient machine will run on any fuel, even liquor.
My father directed me to a BBC broadcast about a new piece of technology called the “paperless paper,” a new kind of electronic newspaper. It looks like a table mat and it”s as light as a magazine. You can download hundreds of newspapers on to it at the touch of a button.
After sharing the information with my friend Patrick, he proceeded to describe a list of technological advances, which sparked the writing of this column.
These were all ideas I could not wrap my brain around at first. Emerging technology far surpasses the concepts of some early reading and pop culture references imbedded in my mind. What I thought of as science fiction is reality now.
Certainly most of what I saw on “The Jetsons” has come to pass. The little flying cars could have been Ultralight Aircraft. Rosie the maid has been a reality for awhile to some degree, or in some robotic form and we can see the folks we”re calling on the phone with a monitor. Airports have the same moving sidewalks.
Certainly if I have learned of the majority of this information in a week”s time; I am standing at the very tip of the technological iceberg.
To learn more about emerging technology visit the following reliable sites: www.nationalgeographic.com, www.newscientist.com, technologyreview.com, www.wired.com.
Mandy Feder is assistant managing editor/night desk for the Record-Bee. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 ext. 32. Opinions are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lake County Record-Bee or its management.
