Category Archives: Science

Feb 22 2012

Happy Birthday Hertz!

Heinrich R. Hertz born in 1857 was a genius of his time. He is what many of us invasion as a steampunk scientist.  He proved that there are these unseen things called radio waves.  We wouldn’t have FM, AM, SW or XM without him. He used a series of experience to prove it.  You need to think for a moment, this is before the gasoline engine, electric light and everyone still ride horses.

-[From Christian Science Monitor] In his lab, the German scientist rigged up two tiny brass spheres, placed very close to one another. When he electrified them, sparks leaped from one ball to the other. If Maxwell was correct, these sparks should send invisible waves radiating through the air. To test the theory, he needed to build a receiver. This second instrument consisted of a curved wire that almost made a full circle, except for a tiny gap at the top. He placed the transmitter and the receiver several yards apart and made sure that nothing connected the two. Sure enough, when sparks shot through the transmitter, invisible waves traveled through the air, lighting up new sparks on the receiver.

By allowing the world to finally see these invisible forces, Hertz became famous. The International Electrotechnical Commission decided in 1930 that his name would become a unit of frequency. The hertz (or Hz) measures “cycles per second.” For example, a 60 Hz TV runs at up to 60 frames per second.-

So take some time and thank Hertz for the modern world.

 

Feb 14 2012

NASA Cutback

I am always saddened by the reports steps backward in recent years we’ve taken in the space program the following is from Scientific American about NASA’s budget.

“NASA just released its presidential budget request for 2013 and, as expected, the space agency’s planetary science program takes a big hit. The budget document (summary pdf) is merely the first volley in an often drawn-out exchange between the White House and Congress, but still sets the general direction for the space program. Although the Obama administration’s proposal would slice less than 1 percent from NASA’s current budget, it proposes some major shifts of funds within the agency.

The planetary science program, which received $1.5 billion for 2012, would take a 20 percent cut. NASA would still fly the Mars MAVEN atmospheric mission in 2013 but would back away from two joint missions with the European Space Agency:

NASA is terminating further activity on the formulation activity for the NASA/ ESA ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter 2016 (EMTGO) mission and planning for the previous NASA/ESA Mars 2018 mission concept.

The latter mission would have included the first direct search for life on Mars since the Viking landers of the 1970s. With NASA bailing out, ESA is now casting around for another partner.”