Flight of the Torus

It’s quite hot outside today – 99°F by my last check. Although I enjoy warm weather, it can make one feel enervated from time to time In light of all of that, I decided to spend the afternoon putting my feet up and catching up on some reading I’d fallen behind on.

During my time off this summer, I’ve been taking a somewhat objective look at research possibilities after graduation. I’ve know for quite some time that my preferred program (Bioastronautics) is realizing a support crisis right now, due to low priority initiatives and a lack of funding. This is mostly due to the Shuttle program ending in 2010, with priority shifting away from the space life sciences to vehicle development and deployment. Getting to space takes precedence over living in space, for right now at least. Projections estimate that priorities will remain reversed for quite a number of years into the future – 15 or more, in fact. There are many exciting discoveries to be made, as clearly outlined in this interesting article published in the latest issue of Aerospace America; however, as the article also points out, there are several political hurdles to overcome in the next decade.

Keeping that bit of a reality check in mind, my thoughts turn to other interests I have in the areas of science, technology and public policy – namely, alternative energy and science policy. I’ve taken a particularly strong interest in nuclear fusion energy and international cooperation efforts toward nonproliferation. The idea of developing a virtually unlimited energy supply, coupled with the desire to use nuclear energy for peaceful applications, is an extremely attractive career option for me. In the future, with sufficient research and development, groundwork may be put into place for space applications, too.

Again, however, we are talking several years out before any significant developments are likely to be made. The plus side is that nuclear energy research is being heavily supported, at the domestic and international levels, and I have a strong desire to work on multilateral initiatives.

So, the deeper research has begun to see if this what I really want to pursue. I’ve been looking at published papers to see who is doing what and to update myself on what has already been done, and I’ve been brushing up on current technology – in particular, the lovely torus (the shape of the plasma chamber used inside tokamak fusion reactors).

I dare say, I’ve become fascinated.

New Moon

The clouds rolled away just in time for a perfect view last night. As the sun set, the sky was filled with red, orange and blue, which was awesome because it cast a rosy glow over everything in Boulder. By the time I reached home, I could also see a few long, dark clouds “lining” the sky that reminded me of the Milky Way. Just after dark, I saw Jupiter shining brightly to the south, and Antares (the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius) not far below and next to Lupus, slightly to the west. By about 21:15ish, Cassiopeia (one of my favorites) had cleared the horizon to the north, and Saturn was visible to the west. The star of the show, of course, was Venus, which shone brilliantly above Cancer, visible also to the west. It was a lovely night.

Saturday

It’s gorgeous outside–the sun is out shiny and bright, it’s a balmy 60 degrees and there isn’t a cloud (that I can see) in the sky. I woke up early and feeling tired this morning, but the thought of all the astronomy homework I have to get done this weekend snapped me out of bed pretty quickly To alleviate some of the foreboding gloom of doing school work on such a beautiful day, I decided I would treat myself to breakfast at the local tea house. Yummy.

After eating, I walked over to the library and reserved one of their study rooms–they’re gorgeous, have floor to ceiling windows that fill two walls, and are on the second floor (which means you can see most of downtown). The rooms are also sound-proof! The one I got this time also happens to face the train tracks, and it’s fun to watch the cars when they go by–lots of people gather around to see them. Unfortunately, despite the great view, the library’s wireless internet connection wasn’t working (grrrr) and I needed it to do some research. After muddling through limited or no connectivity for about an hour, I walked over to the librarian and told her about the problem. “Oh, yeah,” she said, “a few others have come to me about it in the last couple of days. I should probably report that to someone.” Huh?!?! I walked back to the room, gathered my things and went home.

Although we’ve got internet at home, the last thing I wanted to do was be in the house all day, so I considered other options. As it just so happens, days like this make me want to either open all of the windows and doors in the house and get to scrubbin’, or get under the hood and work on the car. Since I felt lazy this morning, I opted out of the cleaning bit and drove over to the nearest Auto Zone to check my fluid levels and buy a few things. I’m glad I did because the power steering fluid level was nearly bone dry (something I thought I could feel while out driving yesterday, so I checked it first). After topping that up and checking for leaks (there were none), I added a bit of washer fluid to the reservoir, checked the tire pressures and topped up on coolant. Everything else was in good shape. With a smile of mechanical satisfaction, I pulled off and headed to campus to get busy on astronomy.

Right now I’m working through a tutorial and a short essay on Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. I’ve been pretty surprised at how much I’m feelin’ this class. I always thought star-gazing was cool, but learning the deeper aspects of what we see when we look up at the sky has been very satisfying. Tonight I’ve work to begin on a constellation project, so I’m probably gonna head out after dark and find a mountain top somewhere. With the moon nearly new, it’ll be a perfect night for viewing.

Reporting Live from Green Building Techniques…Day One

I’ve just ended my first day in a three-day short-course on Green Building Techniques, given through the University of Colorado at Boulder. Our facilitator and main presenter is Dan Chiras, who, for many reasons, is fast becoming one of my personal heroes. He’s had a long and exceptional career, with roots in the biological sciences, and he is an expert in the fields of environmental science and green design. He is also living in a home he sustainably designed and built, and has lived off the electicity grid for over a decade.

Today’s lectures were nothing less than intense–A LOT of material was covered in our first session. We discussed topics on :

• The History of Green Building
• The Growing Popularity of Green Building (Guest Lecturer, Laura Bartels, GreenWeaver, Inc., Carbondale, CO )
• Why Build Green?: The end of cheap oil and natural gas
• Overview of Green Building Practices, Materials and Technologies: Part 1 (Site selection – Site restoration – Energy Efficiency – Renewable Energy – Healthy Building – Green Building Materials – Landscaping for Energy and Environment – Waste Recycling – Building a Healthy Home – Reducing Wood Use and Advanced Framing Techniques)
• Green Building Materials (Guest Lecturer, Jeff Scott, SolSource, Inc., Denver)
• Environmental Justice and Affordable Sustainability (Dignity Village, and The Intertribal Council on Utility Policy)

The class participants have arrived from all over the country to hear Chiras give this lecture; oddly enough, I’m the only one here from the engineering field (there were about 25 of us in today’s session). Most of the attendees are environmental designers, architects and builders, and several are would-be do-it-yourselfers who have dreams (or signed contracts!) to design and build green homes of their own. I fall into the latter category, as I’ve had big dreams of designing and building my own house for a long time. And this course is just encouraging me to dream bigger! Geez, just what I need! So far, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a young couple from Colorado, who are renovating their existing home, an architect in Denver, who works in commercial government contracts, a young woman who just bought land in the mountains, and is looking to build her first home from the ground up , and a retired gentleman from South Carolina, who is just beginning the process of designing a vacation home for him and his wife in the mountains of North Carolina (who couldn’t find a contractor in his area that would touch a green design project–unbelievable!).

The course is certainly designed for the self-starter looking to bring green building techniques into their home; also pointed out, however, were several segues into commercial applications and professional considerations. As an engineering student focusing (in the larger scope) on space, environmental and biological systems, I am totally geeked over how applicable these techniques are in the areas of sustainable life support systems and habitats–the subjects of energy, air quality, lighting, waste/water treatment, and heating and cooling are all extremenly relevant to the design of well-contained, durable and healthy environments, whether built on this planet or circling above it.

More from the from the scene, as it happens, tomorrow…

From Bones to Batteries

(aka, what I spend time thinking about when there are more important, even urgent, matters to attend to)

Systems Biology and Emergent Properties

During the course of this semester, I’ve had the pleasure of learning about recent advances made in the field of Biological Engineering. Many efforts are being made to link the fields of traditional science and engineering, with the hope that innovation and scientific discovery will be found where they meet. One promising junction is systems biology, or the study of how the order of living biological systems (from the macroscale down to the nanoscale) determines an organism’s function. Biological systems are all around and in us: the cells in our bodies are organized to function together as a heart, or a lung, and these organs in turn function together to allow us to breathe and use oxygen; individuals within a species together make up a population, that in turn functions as an entity within an ecological niche, which in turn builds an ecosystem…the levels of organization go as high as our solar system, and beyond.

The fascinating discovery seen within these layers of life is how, as one progresses up through the levels of organization from the least to the most complex systems, properties begin to emerge that aren’t seen at lower levels. This is the idea of emergent properties.

For example, when scientists observe nerve cells under the microscope, there are many parts of the cell one can distinguish. Each cell as an individual , however, remains fairly uninteresting. But, if one gathers together many cells and forms a specific tissue, say brain tissue, suddenly those uninteresting cells, collectively, exhibit new behavior. As a result of higher organization humans can experience thoughts, memories and emotions. Systems biologists ask, what biologcal mechanisms are responsible for emergent properties?

As one whose higher education has its foundations in biology and chemistry, and who now has transitioned into engineering and space systems, I’ve become really interested in learning about how this field can improve space science and engineering. A researcher by the name of Dr. Angela Belcher at MIT has pioneered some very interesting studies into the use of biological components (viruses, proteins), which already exist in every living thing, for the manufacturing of materials essential to us. For example, using cells that are already “programmed” (via their DNA instructions) to make bone tissue to instead make silicon composites for use in solar cells. The mechanism for manufacturing is already there, but by introducing the raw materials necessary to make other composites the cells become factories of a different economy, if you will.

The reasons I find this research so novel are: 1) as a global community our energy needs require new, innovative solutions; 2) naturally occurring systems are by design clean, efficient and self-sustaining, and thereby impose minimal environmental impact (they have to be to have survived these many billions of years); 3) by mimicking the mechanisms that already occur in nature we are following a well-established and time-tested model. There are many factors to consider here, that is for sure, but I think there really is something to all of this.

Even more interesting is the scale at which most biological systems fundamentally operate: nano. This means that as the “nano-age” continues to unfold even more opportunities for scientific discovery will emerge.