Metal Melting Mirrors?

The concept of using a mirrors’ light reflecting properties to harness solar energy into a single point with enough heat to melt steel sounds like the plot device from some James Bond movie but according to some MIT students it seems possible.  As explained in this Discovery News article the students have already constructed a mirror that is capable of using reflected sun light to light wood on fire.  The student hope to use similar mirrors to produce cheap renewable heating sources sometime in the near future.

Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity

Boy, some good stuff today in science history.  Three years before the Tunguska Event, on June 30th, 1905, Albert Einstein’s paper entitled “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”  was published.  Now the title of the paper might not mean all that much to a lot of people.  But one of the key concepts contained within this paper later became known as the special theory of relativity, that theory that gives us the famous equation E=MC².

Currently I am about seventy-five, or so, pages in Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson.  This biography, which was just published a few years ago, is really awesome.  It focuses not only on Einstein’s scientific work and discoveries but also looks closely at his personal and private life through examination of multiple correspondences with people around him.  I love it.

Tunguska’s 100 Year Anniversary

On June 30th, 1908 something big exploded above the forests of Tunguska Siberia.  Fortunately there were no humans in the remote region but the event serves as a reminder to us all that our planet is not safe from potentially devastating meteor impact.  Time Magazine provides us with a Slide Show of meteor related images today on the 100th anniversary of the Siberian event.