Intelligent River

My friends over at OrangeCoat launched a website called “Intelligent River” this week.  The site was built for a collaboration between Clemson University, the Center for Watershed Excellence, and the Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy.  The site allows users to examine watershed stake holds in real time for the purpose of research, education, and conservation.  Intelligent River is essentially a network of sensors that are being used to monitor the watershed throughout South Carolina.  As population and development increase in the state it will be important to document changes in the available water so as to provide to the most people without negatively impacting the surrounding environment.

Save Clemson’s Sustainable Farming

Clemson University’s Student Organic Farm has had a critical source of it’s grant money withdrawn.  Without continued funding the 15 acre farm will likely have to shut down which would be a great tragedy.  Not only does the farm provide Clemson students with learning opportunities in regards to sustanable and organic farming but it also but it also makes organic produce available to local communities through Campus Supported Agriculture.  Continuing efforts of sustainable and organic farming are of great importance in the fight to promote healthy environments while continueing to provide food for the people of the world.  If this is a matter of interest to you please sign the online petition to help secure further funding for Clemson’s Student Organic Farm.

Thanks,

Nathaniel 

Soyuz Spacecraft

Ever wondered about the Russian Soyuz Spacecraft, like how they work and what they look like?  Personally I have.  I am pretty familiar with the US Space Shuttle but know next to nothing about the Russian space vehicle which will likely be the only spacecraft bringing astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station once the Space Shuttles are retired in 2010.  For the curious amongst us the New York Times provides this wonderful interactive look at the Soyuz today.  Very nicely done and informative.

Mushroom Hunting Sunday (Oct. 12th, 2008)

Evan and I went up to Paris Mt. yesterday afternoon to do some mushroom hunting.  We found a lot of success, probably gathering at least fifty mushrooms all together (albeit not fifty different species, but still pretty good).  All and all I would say this was a very successful mushroom hunt.  I brought my camera along to take some pictures of the mushrooms where they were growing.  The pictures aren’t the best quality (my camera is about six years old and doesn’t have the best pixel count) but they are good enough for looking at.

After collecting and bringing back to Evan’s place we worked on ID-ing our finds.  Several were too generic, light colored, and  gilled mushrooms, making them near impossibly to identify.  We did find a good number of boletes though and are pretty confident about the types they represent.  

Here are some pictures.

 

Probably the coolest mushroom we found, a type of bolete with a sticky red cap and hairy stem

 

The Destroyer Angel a very lovely and also very deadly mushroom

 

Not a mushroom but a Green Carolina Anole, I saw about six or seven of these lizards throughout the mushrom hunt

 

Another beautiful but poisonous mushroom

 

Evan and I with our finds, enjoying a drink of Pastis

Solar Cylinders For Power on Roof Tops?

30 Billion square feet of flat roof top can be found in the United States.  Imagine if there was a way to turn all that space into a viable means of collecting solar power.  According to this Scientific American articlethere might actually be.  The solution could come in cylindrical solar cells that may reduce installation and maintenance cost and could possibly provide a significant chunk of electricity. 

Personally I think it would be great to see flat roof top space be used in such a way.  It might not solve all the nations energy problems but it could be a way for businesses and building owners to lower their dependency on carbon producing energy such as coal.  Of course only time will tell whether or not this is a solution that is actually practical.  Still I like the idea and look forward to hear more about it.

Congrats for the Nobel Prize in Physics

Congratulations to Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi, and Toshihide Maskawa for winning this years Nobel Prize in Physics.  The American (Mr. Nambu) and two Japanese (Mr. Kobayashi and Mr. Maskawa) scientists have received the prize for their work on investigating hidden symmetries between elementary particles.  For more information on their work check out this New York Times article.

These Trees are Electric

One might not have considered that trees could produce electricity, but they actually can.  Differences in pH levels between a tree and the soil in which it grows can create small electric charges (very small really, measured in millivolts).  Still some scientists at MIT are using these small charges to develop sensors that can take readings (like temperature or humidity) from within forests.  Read about their work and more about tree electricity in this Discovery
News Article.