Super-Earth shortens odds on finding life | News | News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,26086344-5014239,00.html)

What I say is if they can't do better than this, they aren't trying. So another planet like Mercury, only bigger, exists, well whoopdy do! I won't be making any plans to move yet.

Am I missing something or do those people in the media who monitor science have so little understanding they could laud the discovery of a fire ball?

Speaking of science:


Gene therapy fixes color blindness in monkeys - More health news- msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32879284/ns/health-more_health_news/)

Since this was an x-linked defect, imagine that one day, maybe this technique can cure human x- linked defects like hemophilia.



G&P

Hello clete:

Just this morning I read about a blind lady who had a lens installed in her TOOTH, and the tooth removed and installed in her eye. It worked. She has 20/70 vision and can read without a magnifying glass. THAT bit of news knocked my socks off.

Now, I agree with you, clete, that the discovery of an earth like planet is BIG. But, frankly, I expected it. I think they'll discover even MORE earth like planets in the near future too. I think they'll even find little green men. I'm kidding about the little green men part - but not so much...

excon

Clete doesn't think the investment is worth it . He's wrong .

Clete doesn't think the investment is worth it . He's wrong .Hello tom:

You're right. I missed it. His accent threw me.

excon

Clete,

Remember all that stuff about exhausting our energy resources... you know, all that talk about exploiting the planet's resources?

If we find new planets, even if they are not earth-like, but they have resources we can take advantage of, wouldn't that be helpful?

Then there's terraforming. We can already do a certain amount of under-water terraforming... why would we not be able to do interplanetary terraforming to make a place useable to human beings.

A planet doesn't have to be exactly like Earth for it to be useful to us.

Excon... is that story about the tooth-camera true? I'd be interested in the mechanics of it. How did they make the neural connections between the camera and the brain? How did they attach the eye? Can her eye get gingivitis? Does Collgate make eye-paste? Does her eye get bad breath? Would eye-wash help?

Elliot

Excon... is that story about the tooth-camera true? Hello El:

Nation & World | Lens inserted in tooth lets woman regain sight | Seattle Times Newspaper (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009882053_restoredsight17.html)

excon

Hello El:

Nation & World | Lens inserted in tooth lets woman regain sight | Seattle Times Newspaper (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009882053_restoredsight17.html)

excon

Cool. Thanks.

Elliot

Clete,

Remember all that stuff about exhausting our energy resources... you know, all that talk about exploiting the planet's resources?

If we find new planets, even if they are not earth-like, but they have resources we can take advantage of, wouldn't that be helpful?

Then there's terraforming. We can already do a certain amount of under-water terraforming... why would we not be able to do interplanetary terraforming to make a place useable to human beings.

A planet doesn't have to be exactly like Earth for it to be useful to us.

Excon... is that story about the tooth-camera true? I'd be interested in the mechanics of it. How did they make the neural connections between the camera and the brain? How did they attach the eye? Can her eye get gingivitis? Does Collgate make eye-paste? Does her eye get bad breath? Would eye-wash help?

Elliot

Seriously Elliot do you really think we have the resources to exploit another world light years away? We don't even have the resources to fix the problems we have here, let alone make over some other place. Science fiction has led you into science fantasy. When they start exploiting the resources of the moon, our nearest neighbour, you could consider they might be on the way to the stars and I don't see that happening any time soon. Even if humans reached another "Earth" it would be of no use to us here, it would just be the human race starting over again and, in well say 6,000 years, they could reduce it to the same state we see here.

By the way I think they might have used an eye tooth in ex's story

Clete doesn't think the investment is worth it . He's wrong .

Tom I like to look at the pretty pictures as much as the next bloke, and there may be spin offs from the search, but given the nature of what we face here, a few years delay in dreaming about the stars would be worth it to have productive minds focused on some problem solving. What we have here is someone in raptures over a "breakthrough". Why? I'm cynical enough to think it is so someone will throw some more money at the project, rather than that the research has yielded any advance in knowledge, On the laws of probability I could have predicated that such a planet existed, after all Mercury exists, but finding it is of no practical benefit to anyone on this planet. I could even predicate that another "Earth like" planet might exist in the vastness of the universe, but finding it won't provide us with a new home to rape and pillage like this one.

We went to the moon 40 years ago, we might as well have not bothered, because our interest was only political. What did we get as a result, bigger rockets? A greater ability to kill ourselves? And a suggestion it was all faked. Did we get a solution to our energy problems? Maybe, but it still sits up there 250,000 km away just as unattainable as ever and what did we find today, the coldest spot in the solar system is on the moon and not an astronaut in sight. I remember the hype of my childhood, space stations, exploration, but it all came to nothing because it was all political.

Yes I will say that to play around as we do today is not worth it.

We went to the moon 40 years ago, we might as well have not bothered, because our interest was only political. What did we get as a result, bigger rockets? A greater ability to kill ourselves? And a suggestion it was all faked. Did we get a solution to our energy problems? Maybe, but it still sits up there 250,000 km away just as unattainable as ever and what did we find today, the coldest spot in the solar system is on the moon and not an astronaut in sight. I remember the hype of my childhood, space stations, exploration, but it all came to nothing because it was all political.


Let's start with things like microprocessing ,MRI imaging,advancements in solar energy, which have been generated for various space and satellite applications.NASA pioneered photovoltaic solar power systems for spacecraft applications... water purification systems.. Regenerable Biocide Delivery Unit, using iodine rather than chlorine to kill bacteria... home insulation advances from NASA developing Barrier to Radiation designed to reflect away 95 percent of the sun's radiant energy from spacecraft .Honeywell first developed a smoke detector for NASA .It is now standard application in most homes in America . NASA worked on lighter composite materials now beginning to be incorportated into travel vehicles both ground and air. Environmental-friendly lubricants have been designed for space travel and are now becoming common use in industry.
That's just off the top of my head . My father could've sent you pages of data showing how spinoff technology has made it to the consumer.

Edit : here are some sites that give a partial list of spinoff technology originally designed during space exploration.
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spinoffs2.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off

How to analyse the survey report

I could even predicate that another "Earth like" planet might exist in the vastness of the universe, but finding it won't provide us with a new home to rape and pillage like this one.



Yes I will say that to play around as we do today is not worth it.

And if we had followed up on manned space missions, by now we could be doing most of the exploitation of resources out there in the asteroids and moons instead of raping and pillaging our kitchen.

let's start with things like microprocessing ,MRI imaging,advancements in solar energy, Hello tom:

Don't forget Tang.

excon

Oh yeah Tang and dehydrated astronaut ice cream .

Actually, the VCR was also a product of NASA. It was created to help record telemetry. Telemetry was generally sent back to Earth via radio wave, but it required line-of-sight transmission, and quite a bit of telemetry was lost due to lines of sight being occulted. The VCR was able to record data and send the data back to NASA at a time when line-of-sight was established without losing any of the data.

Eventually they figured out that if they could record electronic data magnetically, it didn't really matter what kind of data it was. So picture and sound wa recorded too.

It eventually was brought to the public for general home use, and the porn-video industry was born.

Elliot

Actually, the VCR was also a product of NASA.

It eventually was brought to the public for general home use, and the porn-video industry was born.

Elliot

Yes Elliot we have NASA to thank for that and just think if they had harnassed the product they could have a budget as big as they like, so if NASA has done such good and created all these products why is their budget still constrained, could it be an ET plot to keep us Earth Bound

Clete , NASA is a government agency . Need I say more ?

Clete , NASA is a government agency . Need I say more ?

Does that stop them from holding patents and exploiting discoveries? What happened to american capitalism and enterprise or did they steal the discoveries as they steal everything else? Sometimes I don't think americans are as innovative as they seem

Here's the reality . NASA managed the project ;the hired contractors like Grumman Aerospace to do the innovation and because these private firms were permitted to unleash the creative energy of their employees expertise the mission succeeded .The Ruskies with their more central controlled system quickly fell behind after they got off to a quick head start.

So to answer your comment ;yes, American private industry was very innovative .

Here's the reality . NASA managed the project ;the hired contractors like Grumman Aerospace to do the innovation and because these private firms were permitted to unleash the creative energy of their employees expertise the mission succeeded .The Ruskies with their more central controlled system quickly fell behind after they got off to a quick head start.

So to answer your comment ;yes, American private industry was very innovative .

I'm not quite sure what mission you think was accomplished here, to go to the moon, or to beat the USSR at something. Yes, the US did pull ahead in the space race but where are they now, down to relying on the Russians less than superior technology once Shuttle shuts down. Not sure what that does for the ego trip, but it certainly doesn't see much of a space program. The US was always going to win because the USSR lacked the resources to sustain both the space and the military race. Now that Russia is oil rich they might be able to think about it again but there is no US to compete with on that ground. What you might have proven here is that there was a generation that was innovative, lean, mean and bent on getting the job done, but where are they now, down to star gazing through telescopes. Reality is a terrible thing, isn't it?

Not at all. As I have said before ,I don't think manned flights essential at this point. The best work being done in space exploration is in robotic . The Ruskies manage to keep men in orbit for extended periods . WE have sent robots to the edge of the solar system and those telescopes you mock find planets in distant galaxies . We have had an extended presence on Mars . The Rovers have performed well past their expiration date collecting data that even if humans were there could not have achieved .
http://img.freebase.com/api/trans/image_thumb/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000004bba400?maxheight=510&mode=fit&maxwidth=510http://images.spaceref.com/news/mer.b.logo.jpg

not at all. As I have said before ,I don't think manned flights essential at this point. The best work being done in space exploration is in robotic . The Ruskies manage to keep men in orbit for extended periods . WE have sent robots to the edge of the solar system and those telescopes you mock find planets in distant galaxies . We have had an extended presence on Mars . The Rovers have performed well past their expiration date collecting data that even if humans were there could not have acheived .
http://img.freebase.com/api/trans/image_thumb/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000004bba400?maxheight=510&mode=fit&maxwidth=510http://images.spaceref.com/news/mer.b.logo.jpg

Ah yes the robots, token presence. It isn't about saving money Tom it is about man going where no man has gone before. If man is ever, and that is a very big ever, going to inhabit another world it is necessary to leave Earth and experience the problems. Instruments do something but they are no substitute for man, otherwise let us create a race of robots and leave exploration up to them