Every year the Buckminster Fuller Institute gives away $100,000 to "support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity's most pressing problems in the shortest possible time while enhancing the Earth's ecological integrity." The 2009 Challenge begins this week on September 18th. The judges are looking for designs that follow the trimtab principle. That is, something that uses the smallest amount of energy and resources to produce the greatest result. Click here to find out more.

On September 10, 2008 the Large Hadron Collider will fire its first beam at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Live satellite broadcasts and webcasts from the CERN Control Centre will be available on the CERN website as CERN scientists attempt to circulate a beam of particles around the collider. In the U.S., scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago will be hosting a pajama party for visitors and the media as they participate in the experiment via videoconference. Short movies will be shown explaining the four planned experiments, LHCb, CMS, ALICE and ATLAS, which will each be managed and webcast from four separate control rooms. The LHC is expected to produce 15 million gigabytes of data every year and will be analyzed with the LHC global computing grid, which will be officially launched October 3 at the LHC Grid Fest.

• Large Hadron Collider First Beam Webcast
• Official U.S. LHC Website
• LHC First Beam Events in the U.S.
• Interactions.org - Particle physics and high energy physics news
• Quantum Diaries Survivor Blog

Pictured above is a comparison of Google search volumes for four alternative energy terms: solar energy, nuclear energy, geothermal energy, and wind energy. Solar beats them all.

Google is not trying to hide the roads in Georgia - At least that's what Googlers say on Google's Lat Long Blog. Google Product Manager Dave Barth writes that Google simply isn't satisfied with the quality of the street map data from Georgia to justify posting any of it to Google Maps. (Typing simply "Georgia" in Google Maps takes you to the Georgia in the southeastern U.S.. You have to type "Georgia Europe" to find the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia.) Satellite and terrain data are available, however, and we even found recent AlJazeera video of the Georgia-Russian conflict posted in the satellite map.

Gearthitecture - Semi-anonymous blogger Restless at Curbed.com posted an interesting collection of Google Earth photos of Manhattan skyscrapers. The photos were taken at various angles from the vertical, creating the appearance that the buildings lean into one another.

Climate studies of the "Great Shutdown" for the Beijing Olympic Games - While some people appear to be taking advantage of the distraction provided by the Beijing Olympics to fight a war, scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in LaJolla, CA and Seoul National University in South Korea are taking advantage of the government-imposed crackdown on pollution from industry and automobiles in Beijing to study the resulting changes in the regional atmosphere. V. Ramanathan, Director of the Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate at Scripps, is co-leading the study which will use autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to study air pollution and cloud interaction. The study, called CAPMEX, will combine UAV data with satellite and ground-based measurements to obtain a comprehensive picture of how carbon-rich dust from East Asia traps heat and affects various biological and geochemical cycles in the region. More information can be found on the CAPMEX website.

PBS has announced that they will soon be supplying PBS programs on Hulu, the YouTube killer created by NBC and FOX. The catch is that a single 30-second commercial will play before each episode and most programs will only be available weeks or months after they appear on TV or iTunes, where you can download them for a fee. You can already find PBS video programming online at the PBS website. However, Hulu's video technology is superior and will provide a better viewing experience with high-resolution, full-length video formats (that is, not chopped up into roughly 10-minute chapters as found on PBS.org). PBS science programs will include "Nova," "Wired Science," and "Scientific American Frontiers."

PLoS launched a new online, open-access journal last week: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. If you dedicate a journal to neglected diseases, are the diseases still neglected? [A Blog Around the Clock]

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so some less literary and more geeky bloggers have taken it upon themselves to declare November International Dissertation Writing Month and International acaDemic Writing Month, which both share the acronym InaDWriMo. Looks like we picked the perfect time to relaunch Element List. [What the Hell is Wrong with You?]

The uber web geeks at Nature.com are hosting science lectures in Second Life at their very own island, Second Nature Island. I attempted to view the island, but just trying getting into my Second Life account that I haven't accessed in nearly two years was too much of a hassle (I was forced to download a new version of Second Life, then they informed me that they had disabled my password, then I couldn't remember which email account I used with SL, which I needed to retrieve my new... grrr, I don't have time for this!!!). I applaud Nature.com's efforts, but maybe the difficulty of simply logging in has something to do with why people give up on Second Life. [Nascent]

Continue reading "Is Chris Anderson Aiding the Terrorists?" »

Continue reading "Scientific American Will Take Your Science Videos, Or Not" »

Drugs and Poisons - Blogger Chris, a grad student from Toronto, Canada, writes about, you guessed it, drugs and poisons. This kid loves poisons. And drugs. And gossip. In short, he's our kind of science blogger. He typically profiles chemicals such as sanguinarine, which is said to possibly cause cancer from toothpase and swollen limbs when found in mustard. Some of the best posts come from knowledgable readers who write about what drugs they have taken by prescription or over a hospital stay, not off the street as you might expect. A sample...

Since you ask, I am reminded of one time I was in the hospital for kidney stones, which ended up being one of the longest sedative drug-binges of my life. It began as what I hoped was a quick visit for some hydrocodone to dull the relentless visceral groin pain, but ended up in a 3 day hospital stay and a lithotripsy. What follows is the truly amazing list of substances I was on, and my personal opinion of them....

A Good Poop - In this blog the so-far anonymous author gives short, sharp commentaries on curious medical journal research articles. It's only been around since May. Here are a few sample postings on the problems with piercings:

Continue reading "Overheard in the Science Blogosphere: Medical Edition" »

Related:

• NASA Findings of Astronaut Health Reviews
• NASA Space Shuttle Mission STS-118 (Official Site with video links)
• NASA STS-118 prelaunch webcast video
• CNN launch coverage / CNN video