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Ecomedia
How the Natural World is Transforming the Nature of Media.
This weblog is not the usual blog of daily events. It contains a series of notes/thoughts designed to make connections between science and media art.
Sometimes these ideas are tied in with current events, but most of the time this blog is not in any particular order. It serves as a central area for a detailed examination of ideas first published in a 1999 Leonardo Journal article entitled 'Active Vision' that I hope to develop into a book that will discuss some of the current developments in science, ecology, media and society and how they inform and are informed by new technologies. The book will be written for artists working with digital media and anyone who is interested in future directions of the medium.
http://www.andreapolli.com
last modified Sep 7, 2006 at 13:00
The first hemispherical, three-dimensional optical systems to integrate microlens arrays - thousands of tiny lenses packed side by side - have been created by Berkeley bioengineers inspired by the structure of compound insect eyes.
Press release with an amazing electron microscope image
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/04/27_compoundeye.shtml
and more images on the project page:
http://biopoems.berkeley.edu/projects/projects-jeong-ACE.html
An interesting article from May 12th in the Science Journal of the Wall Street Journal answers this question. In the Heat and the Heartbeat of the City and Queensbridge Wind Power project videos, Dr. Rosenzweig talks about 'forcings', those factors, both natural and man-made that contribute to climate change. She talks about volcanos having a cooling effect and greenhouse gasses having a warming effect, but how do they know?
The WSJ article quotes climatologist Ben Santer of Lawrence Livermore Nation Lab in California talking about 'signatures' of forcings. For example, data shows that the upper atmosphere (stratosphere) has cooled over the past several decades while the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) has warmed. This is contrary to what would happen if, for example, the sun's energy output increased, but is consistent with what would happen from an increase of greenhouse gas.
Another example outlined in the article is warming in the oceans, that have seen an overall increase of 1 degree F over the past 40 years. Warming in the Arctic has been attributed to a normal oscillation, called the Arctic Oscillation, that happens every 10-30 years. However, Arctic and other natural oscillations combine warming in some oceans with a balance of cooling in others, keeping the overall energy of the oceans consistent. The warming being seen in the world's oceans presently is actually an overall increase, indicating that heat energy has been added to the system.
If this heat was being added to the system through an increase in natural geothermal heat, the warming would be greated on the ocean floor, but this is not the case.
The article goes on to point out several other areas where increases are either too great or too unusual to have been caused by natural oscillation. It uses the poker analogy of a 'stacked deck' where zillions of hands are analysed and a consistent anomaly that contradicts mathematical probabilty is found. The numbers suggest something other than a fair deal.
Begley, Sharon. 'Scientists Explain How They Attribute Climate-Change Data' WSJ Science Journal, May 12, 2006
In July 2001, a strange blood-red colored liquid rained over the Kerala district in Western India. First thought to be water filled with red dust from central Asian dust storms, samples were later identified to be filled with a biological material very similar to mammalian blood cells.
There have been rare occurrences of rain storms containing small frogs or fish transported from the sea through unusual circumstances. Could a large amount of mammals (bats, perhaps or sea mammals) have died and could their blood, without any other material, have been transported by rain clouds, finally pouring rain with living blood cells?
Seems fantastic, but the leading hypothesis is even more fantastic. Physicist Godfrey Louis believes that the biological material came from a passing comet, and is, in fact, extraterrestrial. Louis claims that the cells contain no DNA (mammalian blood cells do not, but fungus and bacteria do), reproduces in an unusual fashion, and can live through incredibly extreme low and high temperatures like those in space.
Proponents of the Panspermia hypothesis, that life on Earth was 'seeded' from outer space and actually originated in another location in the Universe, view Louis' work as more evidence of towards their cause. Panspermia cites the presence of 'extremeophiles' on Earth, or bacteria and other organisms that, like Louis' alleged red rain samples, can live through the extreme conditions of space.
Although the scientific community has been understandably very skeptical of Louis' theory, there is not yet a definitive explanation or identification of the material. The most current information I could find identifies the material as an unidentified kind of fungus.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1723913,00.html
Since the lengthy power outage in Queens several weeks ago, the necklace lights on the East river bridges have once again been darkened. To save money after 9-11, the city shut off the lights, the sole purpose of which is to add beauty to the city. After a few weeks, Con Ed stepped forward and donated the power to the city.
Now, in a move that could be interpreted as trying to prevent more summer power outages, Con Ed has turned them off.
What's strange about it is that power usage in the city peaks in the late afternoon and drops off substantially by 8PM, just the time when the lights would be turned on, so bridge necklace lights coudn't possibly play a role in power overloads. I wonder if there isn't a political standoff between the city and Con Ed about paying for this power?
If this is a power PR war, I'm afraid Con Ed is losing, since the dark bridges keep reminding us all of the company's failure to return power to many residents of Queens for over a week.
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