Imagine a scene from any of Hollywood’s disaster films. An eerie scene where mobile phones go on the blink, GPS is knocked out, TVs go blank and the world is plunged into chaos.
Looks like disaster flicks aren’t too removed from reality since all this could well be the potential result of a gigantic solar storm, according to a new report by NASA. The report, a warning, says Earth and space are coming together in a way that’s new to human history.
A solar storm, which is essentially violent eruptions in the sun, can eject destructive radiation and charged particles into space. These are closely connected to magnetic fields – which are hazardous for satellites and space stations.
There are reports of a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare that swept over the Earth in 1859. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that “people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow.” Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun’s solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859. (This content courtesy a post on Gawker.com)
High-tech systems are critical for life as we know it today. Everything that we depend on and take for granted – air travel, GPS navigation, banking services (even a credit card transaction uses a satellite) and emergency radio communications – can all be knocked out by intense solar activity.
To get an idea of scale, a massive solar storm could result in 20 times more damage than the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina which hit south-eastern US in August 2005. The storm killed 1,800 people and caused damages worth $81 billion.
Some good news is that some of the damage and destruction can be avoided with warning of an impending solar storm. There is technology to put satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnect transformers to protect them from destructive electrical surges.
The task of accurately forecasting a solar storm lies with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US. “Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress,” said Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.
The key for Bogdan lies in NASA and NOAA collaborating. “NASA’s fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment.”
Says Bogdon, “I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.”
So far, we’ve been lucky to escape any big solar storms. I guess we could send Bruce Willis (a la Armageddon) to save us from the Sun in true Hollywood style. But then I would rather wait for NASA and NOAA to save us from space weather.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
If you’ve had your fill of apocalyptic scenarios, earthquakes, volcanoes and global warming, here comes a new threat which may wipe out the world in 2
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Amazing the man who never sleeps
This man will not sleep
Thai Ngoc is a man that medical modern science says should have died in 1976 when he was robbed of the ability to sleep. The Vietnamese man, born in 1942 in a small village called Trung Ha in the Quang Nam Province said one of his greatest aspirations in life was to one day have a dream. And yet dreams have never come.
The man was the subject of two separate investigations looking into his strange condition. Some would say the potential for productivity one man can have utilizing all 24 hours in the day without sleep would be an immense boon while others say it is a cruel curse placed on him by nature. The investigations operating out of the United Kingdom and Thailand both independently concluded that Thai Ngoc was the genuine article as they followed him for several days independently with cameras around the clock. As the sun set, Ngoc continued to work tirelessly, tending to the small farm he lived on. Investigators even took the study a step further, hiding nine objects of Ngoc's around the house and asking the elderly man to describe them and indicate which objects were missing. He did so without missing a beat, demonstrating an incredible amount of alertness.
The brain needs what is known as "REM sleep" also known as "dream sleep." REM sleep is said to be one of the most powerful changes the human mind will undertake throughout a natural lifetime. And it is supposed to happen once every REM cycle in a 24 hour day. Without REM sleep subjects in sleep studies show a decreased level of performance in both cognitive functioning and verbal aptitude. And with time, a lack of REM sleep is often forcibly fought by the body with increased lethargy ultimately leading to a deep sleep lasting several hours. Studies where REM sleep was prevented often resulted in symptoms reminiscent of sufferers of schizophrenia.
And yet Ngoc, while observed, seemed perfectly reasonable and lucid. He would work around the clock with no ill effects. Since he never slept, he had no bed in his house. Visitors had to sleep on mats which Ngoc poured boiling water around in order to fight off the constant tide of ants in the area.
Though his lack of sleep was widely documented by news crews, he declined an invitation to travel abroad for 18 months in order to be studied, saying he was afraid of tests and had not left his home town for over 60 years. In addition, he says that no doctor has been able to help him thus far. Medicines intended to allow him to sleep have no effect on him. He has had several jobs playing drums at night in order to remind the other villagers that someone is still out there watching over the village in the dead of night. And yet no one is able to explain how Ngoc is alive or how he can sustain such long hours without sleep. He has been keeping his pace for a long time and wishes for nothing more than a half hour nap.
