SkepticLance

An article in Scientific American, written by two NASA scientists suggests that, within 500 years, humans will be able to travel between 10% and 20% of light speed. The biggest problem is not what we do in space, but how we get into space. Once we have close to zero gravity and air pressure, acceleration via ion engines can reach enormous speeds given time. There is a group of engineers working on a 'cable car' into space. If we make up a cable, 70,000 kilometres long, stretching out into space from the equator, then centrifugal force from the Earth's rotation will hold it taut, and cable cars can move up and down into space, using just a small cost in electricity. The material for the cable has to be enormously strong for its weight (tensile strength). However, we already know that carbon nanotubes have enough strength. The engineers working on this have already made a one mile long cable using nanotubes. They have lifted it into the air via a balloon. They claim they will have the space cable done by the year 2020. If so, the most important limitation on space travel will be overcome. Imagine a cable 70,000 km long, going from the equator up into space. Imagine an advanced magnetic levitation transport system running along that cable. Imagine a cable train/space capsule that has climbed above 100 km along that cable. For the next 70,000 kms it will accelerate in low gravity and effective vacuum. It will accelerate at one hell of a rate. If the timing is right (and with computers we have no excuse to get it wrong) when it gets to the end of the cable, at enormous speed, it will shoot off to its destination with no need for rocket fuel. Six months later, it is at Mars, or wherever we send it. Ion rocket fuel is then used only for deceleration. This technology is theoretically possible. It seems to be only a matter of time and money before the first cable into space is done. Then the sky, literally, is the limit.

About two thirds of our galaxy has already been roughly scanned for alien radio signals with no success. There are two possible reasons why. 1. Aliens do not use radio. In fact, people are soon to start scanning for laser light signals on the chance that this is how aliens communicate. 2. There are very few aliens (or none in our galaxy). This is also very possible. It is theoretically possible for a starship to travel between stars at up to 20% of the speed of light, according to NASA scientists. If an alien civilisation does this, it would take them no more than 10 million years to totally colonise our galaxy. This is a tiny fraction of the age of the galaxy, so we have to ask why it has not already happened. The easiest answer is that aliens are non existent or very rare in the Milky Way.

Every cell in your body has 46 chromosomes. Each chromosome has one DNA molecule that is ENORMOUSLY long for a single molecule (In fact, about as long as your thumb when unfolded). Along its length is the genetic information - like a very long sentence. It is broken into 'words' along its length. Each 'word' is a gene. Each gene determines a protein molecule in your body. Each protein molecule can be said to determine one of the characteristics that make you what you are.eg. blue or brown eyes. The sum total of all the genes, or words along the sentences that are the 46 DNA molecules, determine the way your body, and you, are put together.

We don't actually store every excess calorie as fat. The situation is more complex than that, and varies enormously from person to person. For example, a physically fit person does not seem to store as much. Some fat is just 'dumped'. On the other hand, if we fail to exercise and eat too much, we will put on weight. How much is to a degree determined by our genetics. Older people tend to put on more than younger.

Actually there is nothing strange about global warming. In the period 900 AD to 1400 AD, Nordic peoples colonised Greenland, and survived by growing 5 different crops. Many died, and the rest had to leave after 1400 as the Earth cooled and those 5 crops would not grow any more. We now appear to be getting close to the degree of warmth felt then. In Roman times, grapes were grown and wine made near the city of York. Can't be done today. It is too cold. We have a little way to go to get to the warmth felt in late Roman times. Then came the (cold) Dark Ages. 5000 years ago, it was even warmer, with temperatures at least 2 Deg. C. warmer than today. By comparison, total global warming in the 20th Century was 0.6 Deg. C. In the last inter-glacial period, 120,000 years ago, temperatures reached 5 Deg. C warmer than today. We need to keep alarmism about global warming in perspective.

I am a global warming skeptic. However, being a skeptic does not consist of denying reality. Yes, the world is warming up. That evidence is overwhelming and only a crackpot would deny it. However, other aspects of the climate change paradigm deserve querying. Consider the following for a start. 1. The world has been warming up since approximately the year 1760 (Fact). 2. Human released greenhouse gases have been increasing in a non-trivial way since approximately the year 1920 (Fact.). 3. Conclusion. Human released greenhouse gases cause global warming. ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????