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Deep Space start-up sparks race to the asteroid mines
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UPFRONT
Next stop: climate action AT LAST, the US looks set to tackle climate change head on, following promises this week by President Barack Obama to put it centre stage in his next term as president. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said on Monday in his inaugural address to the nation. With the horrors of superstorm Sandy a fresh reminder that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent – a trend predicted by climate models – Obama sniped at Americans who still deny that human activity is to blame. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgement of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires
and crippling drought, and more powerful storms,” he said. Obama flagged a transition to cleaner energy as an economic opportunity, one that would be lost to other nations unless the US stepped up. “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult, but Americans cannot resist this transition, we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries,” he said. “We must claim its promise.” Environmental groups responded enthusiastically. “President Obama’s clarion call to action on the threat of climate change leaves no doubt this will be a priority in his second term,” says Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
–Can we, this time?–
Higgs on Twitter IT’S official: Higgsteria was real. That is the message from an analysis of Twitter traffic around the time the Higgs boson discovery was announced last July. The analysis – of more than 1 million Higgs-related tweets – forms a neat reflection of mounting real-world excitement, starting with rumours and eventually erupting into a buzz of global Higgsteria. It might even help marketers predict how news about products will fly on Twitter. The discovery of the boson, or at least something very much like it, was the biggest science story of 2012. Mirco Musolesi of the University of Birmingham, UK, and colleagues, who study the
“In the retweet stakes, New Scientist was narrowly beaten to third place by TV presenter Brian Cox” relationships between social and geographic networks, saw it as an opportunity to gather data. On 1 July, when rumours were already emerging of a particle 4 | NewScientist | 26 January 2013
discovery, the researchers began collecting tweets containing the words “lhc”, “cern”, “boson” and “higgs”. They continued beyond the announcement on 4 July at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, right up until 7 July. The rate of tweets per hour on 1 July was just 36. It peaked at about 36,000 an hour on 4 July. Predictably, the CERN Twitter account got the most retweets. Second place, however, went to Colin Eberhardt, a software consultant who has relatively few followers. He struck a nerve with this, most retweeted, tweet: “Possibly the biggest scientific discovery of our time, the #Higgs Boson, announced in glorious MS Comic Sans Font” – a nod to the odd choice of font used by one of the two experiments that discovered the particle. New Scientist’s Twitter account was narrowly beaten to third place by that of TV presenter and physicist Brian Cox. Musolesi’s team also used the data to create a model that uses the number of new tweeters at a given time to predict future numbers, a pattern that could be very useful to marketers.
Asteroid race ONCE a wacky idea, commercial asteroid exploration has become a race, with the launch of a second company focused on mining nearEarth space rocks. As New Scientist went to press, Deep Space Industries of McLean, Virginia, was preparing to announce a “fleet of asteroidprospecting spacecraft”. It said it was “pursuing an aggressive schedule and plans on prospecting, harvesting and processing asteroids for use
in space and to benefit Earth”. Planetary Resources of Bellevue, Washington, launched last April with a similar mission: to send space telescopes to spot asteroids bearing precious metals, and to mine the best candidates. It took a step towards this goal on Monday, unveiling a prototype asteroidhunting telescope, Arkyd 100. “Having competition is generally good and it also validates the market,” says Alan Stern, a former NASA scientist now working with several commercial spaceflight firms.
Canada gets its maples mixed IS THERE a botanist in the house? Canada’s new $20, $50 and $100 bills appear to have the wrong maple leaf on them. Instead of a sugar maple leaf, one of the nation’s best known symbols, the bills feature the Norway maple, a native of Europe that is so invasive in North America that some US states have banned its sale and importation. The leaf shown on the banknotes has five major lobes, unlike any maple tree native to Canada, while
the sugar maple has just three lobes, says Julian Starr, a botanist at the University of Ottawa. The Bank of Canada says there is no error. Since no maple is native to the whole of Canada, the designers chose a “stylised blend” of leaves to avoid regional bias, says Julie Girard, spokeswoman for the bank. “This way it’s representative of all of Canada,” she says, adding that the bank even consulted a tree specialist to avoid species bias.
UPFRONT
Next stop: climate action AT LAST, the US looks set to tackle climate change head on, following promises this week by President Barack Obama to put it centre stage in his next term as president. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said on Monday in his inaugural address to the nation. With the horrors of superstorm Sandy a fresh reminder that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent – a trend predicted by climate models – Obama sniped at Americans who still deny that human activity is to blame. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgement of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires
and crippling drought, and more powerful storms,” he said. Obama flagged a transition to cleaner energy as an economic opportunity, one that would be lost to other nations unless the US stepped up. “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult, but Americans cannot resist this transition, we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries,” he said. “We must claim its promise.” Environmental groups responded enthusiastically. “President Obama’s clarion call to action on the threat of climate change leaves no doubt this will be a priority in his second term,” says Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
–Can we, this time?–
Higgs on Twitter IT’S official: Higgsteria was real. That is the message from an analysis of Twitter traffic around the time the Higgs boson discovery was announced last July. The analysis – of more than 1 million Higgs-related tweets – forms a neat reflection of mounting real-world excitement, starting with rumours and eventually erupting into a buzz of global Higgsteria. It might even help marketers predict how news about products will fly on Twitter. The discovery of the boson, or at least something very much like it, was the biggest science story of 2012. Mirco Musolesi of the University of Birmingham, UK, and colleagues, who study the
“In the retweet stakes, New Scientist was narrowly beaten to third place by TV presenter Brian Cox” relationships between social and geographic networks, saw it as an opportunity to gather data. On 1 July, when rumours were already emerging of a particle 4 | NewScientist | 26 January 2013
discovery, the researchers began collecting tweets containing the words “lhc”, “cern”, “boson” and “higgs”. They continued beyond the announcement on 4 July at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, right up until 7 July. The rate of tweets per hour on 1 July was just 36. It peaked at about 36,000 an hour on 4 July. Predictably, the CERN Twitter account got the most retweets. Second place, however, went to Colin Eberhardt, a software consultant who has relatively few followers. He struck a nerve with this, most retweeted, tweet: “Possibly the biggest scientific discovery of our time, the #Higgs Boson, announced in glorious MS Comic Sans Font” – a nod to the odd choice of font used by one of the two experiments that discovered the particle. New Scientist’s Twitter account was narrowly beaten to third place by that of TV presenter and physicist Brian Cox. Musolesi’s team also used the data to create a model that uses the number of new tweeters at a given time to predict future numbers, a pattern that could be very useful to marketers.
Asteroid race ONCE a wacky idea, commercial asteroid exploration has become a race, with the launch of a second company focused on mining nearEarth space rocks. As New Scientist went to press, Deep Space Industries of McLean, Virginia, was preparing to announce a “fleet of asteroidprospecting spacecraft”. It said it was “pursuing an aggressive schedule and plans on prospecting, harvesting and processing asteroids for use
in space and to benefit Earth”. Planetary Resources of Bellevue, Washington, launched last April with a similar mission: to send space telescopes to spot asteroids bearing precious metals, and to mine the best candidates. It took a step towards this goal on Monday, unveiling a prototype asteroidhunting telescope, Arkyd 100. “Having competition is generally good and it also validates the market,” says Alan Stern, a former NASA scientist now working with several commercial spaceflight firms.
Canada gets its maples mixed IS THERE a botanist in the house? Canada’s new $20, $50 and $100 bills appear to have the wrong maple leaf on them. Instead of a sugar maple leaf, one of the nation’s best known symbols, the bills feature the Norway maple, a native of Europe that is so invasive in North America that some US states have banned its sale and importation. The leaf shown on the banknotes has five major lobes, unlike any maple tree native to Canada, while
the sugar maple has just three lobes, says Julian Starr, a botanist at the University of Ottawa. The Bank of Canada says there is no error. Since no maple is native to the whole of Canada, the designers chose a “stylised blend” of leaves to avoid regional bias, says Julie Girard, spokeswoman for the bank. “This way it’s representative of all of Canada,” she says, adding that the bank even consulted a tree specialist to avoid species bias.