Usually when people get all four limbs cut off and then seconds later become a victim of a massive third degree burn from a volcano, they die. Unless your George Lucas, whose attitude of "screw logic" have made him a billionaire and sell out to the Disney Company. However, amputees can now access technology that look and operate in a similar function as the artificial limbs in Star Wars. Sith Lords, you will have to wait a little while before dangerous lightsaber fights on volcanoes can have you coming out alive after falling into the volcano.
An article recently posted on theweek.com discussed all of the applications of research into artificial limbs. It was interesting to note that many amputees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were actually able to serve another tour of duty after losing a limb. Interesting enough, researchers are as of now looking into ways where an amputee can have complete control of an artificial limb. Using wiring within the device and nerves and brain waves to have complete control of the device. Coming out of the world of science fiction this is truly remarkable. However, there are still significant risks that need to be considered.
For one, we know technology loves to break, and often times for no bloody reason. Anyone whose ever had anything made by Apple knows exactly what I'm talking about. What would be any potential implications of a broken electrical limb? How would you fix the problem? I mean you don't go to the emergency room if your computer breaks, but you don't go to best buy when you break your arm. Your limb would obviously fall on middle ground. But then we still have to consider what are the implications of any possible accidents.
Stuff breaks, like all of the time. Let's say your out and about minding your own business. You cross the street, and the idiot driver adjacent to you doesn't look and drives through you. You look down and there's your robotic limb, impaled by something on the car. Now before you go "Jake, you just bloody fix it" we need to consider what might happen. It might be totaled and unrepairable, and you still have to pay off the limb that is now broken. Regardless of populist health care plans, that limb is still gonna cost a chunk of change, and someone will pay for it. Looking at the grand scheme of this scenario, we need to examine whether or not the luxury of having it will offset the potential cost for replacement or repair while considering how durable these things might be. Looking back at when brand new technologies from lateral thinking first came to market, they were not very economically friendly, and experienced many problems and durability issues. The same goes for products that are a result of vertical thinking. Bottom line: when this stuff hits market will it be worth having over the potential risk of breaking?
Electricity=good. Water=good. Electricity+Water=very very very bad. Even though the human body contains a great quantity of water, I don't see that as the problem. Pacemakers, artificial hearts, and other electrical devices have been around for a long time and we haven't seen any large scale problems working within the body. However water exists in just about every other place, and when mixed with an active circuit, the result is never favorable unless that result was your intention. I'm a firm believer in individual responsibility, meaning that its the individuals job, and not the doctor, to take care of themselves and the hypothetical electrical limb. But stuff happens, water can get in anywhere, and I fear when mixed with an electric current running to your brain, your brain might become well, toast. It's very similar when my grandparents installed a new line of electric fencing, I was dumb enough to put the metal gate against the active fence, and the electricity ran right through me. Luckily it wasn't a potent current, and I doubt that the limb will be a giant microwave of energy, but there still needs to be concerns aired before we go through with human testing.
I personally believe that the benefits outweigh the risks, and that eventually the price of electrical limbs will go down like every other cool new thing out there. However, keep informed on the health care law. With all of the money going to insurance companies, and not to research, we might have a problem with innovation. Innovation is what brings costs down. Research allows us to find new and better ways to treat problems. Older but still effective ways then go down in price. That works for everyone. It creates jobs, and most importantly allows humanity to advance with technology.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Science of Star Wars Part I (Engineering Physics)
I've decided to do some soul searching these past few weeks. Nuclear Fusion is great, but what if we expand our borders a little bit? I mean who doesn't like the Star Wars series!? But in all seriousness I'm going to explain different aspects of science applied in Star Wars, from light sabers, to Darth Vader's bio-suit, and who can leave out the death star. While some of these things are a bit far fetched (Jar Jar Binks is one) technology seen in the movies is achievable today, and in some cases already achieved. If by the end of this series you don't think of me as an evil genius, than your likely in Neville Chamberlains company.
I'm going to start off with the Death Star, the most iconic weapon in American pop culture. The idea of building a massive battle station with the firepower to destroy a planet isn't so far fetched as it seems. Theoretically, it is possible, however not within the grasp of current technology, well at least for a super laser.
A study done by Lehigh University done in 2012 estimated that building the death star based alone on steel costs would be about $852 quadrillion dollars, and it would take roughly 833,315 years to make enough steel to start construction. Recently, a White House petition sprouted up to build the death star as an economic stimulus package. The petition garnered the 25,000 signatures necessary to force a white house response. The White House countered with the cost of 852 quadrillion, plus the 833,315 years of producing steel to begin construction. The White House added the moral argument that it doesn't support blowing up planets (I for one, am sick of Venus and wish it to go the way of the dinosaur) and the logical argument of producing a space station that can be blown up by a single star fighter. So by todays standards it can be built, just none of you will be alive to see it.
Now onto why we want this fella in the first place, because we want to blow stuff up and terrorize the universe. Lets face it, the creeps in Alpha Centauri don't have jack on our death star. The laser needed would need to be immensely powerful obviously, but how can it be achieved? And is there anything in the universe that powerful? Oh why yes, yes there is. Gamma ray bursts. When a massive star dies, and I mean MASSIVE. It collapses into a black hole, for active readers this is not a new concept, for new readers check earlier posts. Anyway, the energy from the star is then expelled from the collapsing star and pushed out in two directions, a lot like a tube of toothpaste. The energy forced out has the power to literally destroy anything in its path. And it will. Physicists estimate that if a gamma ray burst were to head toward Earth, it would take a fraction of a second to end us. At least in that regard it will be a very quick death. I wouldn't sweat that too much, the likelihood of that happening are 1 to several billion. Still I won't say its completely impossible...
Contrary to popular belief you can't just melt a planet, the mass will still be there and it will turn into a gas giant. You could try to break it into tiny pieces, but then there is still gravity. If you cut Earth in half, gravity will just bring the two halves back together. Both of these methods would cause extinction level fatalities but remember the goal here is to blow up a planet. But how do you do that? Using Gravity. If you want to destroy a planet you must scatter the mass of it so quickly its forces of gravity cannot overcome the process of pulling it apart. In order to do this you need to bring the planets mass up to escape velocity. But from there you can use math and calculus to determine just how much energy is needed to actually do the deed. I'll spare the details, because its a lot of math.
Where to get this energy still is another problem. Although the most likely would be through a large fusion reactor. If engineers can figure out to match the output of the sun, and keep the plasma within a vacuum safely, you have your death star laser. It would then be a matter of figuring out how to dispense the energy.
For those of you who have no idea what this might look like, let me enlighten you
And I just had to throw this famous scene in
For those of you who don't believe me, I find your lack of faith disturbing
I'm going to start off with the Death Star, the most iconic weapon in American pop culture. The idea of building a massive battle station with the firepower to destroy a planet isn't so far fetched as it seems. Theoretically, it is possible, however not within the grasp of current technology, well at least for a super laser.
A study done by Lehigh University done in 2012 estimated that building the death star based alone on steel costs would be about $852 quadrillion dollars, and it would take roughly 833,315 years to make enough steel to start construction. Recently, a White House petition sprouted up to build the death star as an economic stimulus package. The petition garnered the 25,000 signatures necessary to force a white house response. The White House countered with the cost of 852 quadrillion, plus the 833,315 years of producing steel to begin construction. The White House added the moral argument that it doesn't support blowing up planets (I for one, am sick of Venus and wish it to go the way of the dinosaur) and the logical argument of producing a space station that can be blown up by a single star fighter. So by todays standards it can be built, just none of you will be alive to see it.
Now onto why we want this fella in the first place, because we want to blow stuff up and terrorize the universe. Lets face it, the creeps in Alpha Centauri don't have jack on our death star. The laser needed would need to be immensely powerful obviously, but how can it be achieved? And is there anything in the universe that powerful? Oh why yes, yes there is. Gamma ray bursts. When a massive star dies, and I mean MASSIVE. It collapses into a black hole, for active readers this is not a new concept, for new readers check earlier posts. Anyway, the energy from the star is then expelled from the collapsing star and pushed out in two directions, a lot like a tube of toothpaste. The energy forced out has the power to literally destroy anything in its path. And it will. Physicists estimate that if a gamma ray burst were to head toward Earth, it would take a fraction of a second to end us. At least in that regard it will be a very quick death. I wouldn't sweat that too much, the likelihood of that happening are 1 to several billion. Still I won't say its completely impossible...
Contrary to popular belief you can't just melt a planet, the mass will still be there and it will turn into a gas giant. You could try to break it into tiny pieces, but then there is still gravity. If you cut Earth in half, gravity will just bring the two halves back together. Both of these methods would cause extinction level fatalities but remember the goal here is to blow up a planet. But how do you do that? Using Gravity. If you want to destroy a planet you must scatter the mass of it so quickly its forces of gravity cannot overcome the process of pulling it apart. In order to do this you need to bring the planets mass up to escape velocity. But from there you can use math and calculus to determine just how much energy is needed to actually do the deed. I'll spare the details, because its a lot of math.
Where to get this energy still is another problem. Although the most likely would be through a large fusion reactor. If engineers can figure out to match the output of the sun, and keep the plasma within a vacuum safely, you have your death star laser. It would then be a matter of figuring out how to dispense the energy.
For those of you who have no idea what this might look like, let me enlighten you
And I just had to throw this famous scene in
For those of you who don't believe me, I find your lack of faith disturbing
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