WEBVTT - Marshall Brain's News Roundup: March 18th, 2011 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.840 Welcome to Brainstuff from how Stuff Works dot Com, where 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:15.040 smart happens him Marshall Brain and welcome to this week's 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.120 Friday news roundup. And what a week it's been. Kind 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:22.360 of a sobering week is we've watched events unfold in Japan. 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.680 As you'll recall last Friday, we were just learning about 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.159 the massive earthquake in tsunami in Japan. This week, the 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.559 news cycle has been dominated by the Japan's story, particularly 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:36.320 because of all of the problems with the nuclear power plants. 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.160 We've all gotten a crash course in boiling water reactors, 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:45.120 reactor cooling systems, radioactive iodine and caesium, and the problems 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.199 with cooling pools that run out of water. Depending on 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.360 how events unfold and how the wind is blowing at 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.080 the time, this could evolve into a crisis that's potentially 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.920 bigger than Chernobyl. According to some experts, some of the 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.279 scenarios are not very pleasant at all for the citizens 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.640 of Japan. A number of scientists have warned that the 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.840 same kind of thing could easily happen in the United States. 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.800 Over in California, most people have heard of the San 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:16.320 Andreas fault, but the more worrying thing is the Cascadia 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.800 fault in the Pacific Ocean. It would cause a tsunami 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.200 just like the one in Japan, and it would be 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:26.440 hitting huge cities, most notably Los Angeles. And while some 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.560 buildings are earthquake proof, the United States is not nearly 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.480 as well prepared and well engineered as Japan is. Having 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.760 seen how badly things have unfolded in well prepared Japan, 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.760 it might be prudent for the United States to take 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:47.880 some steps toward better emergency preparedness. Or alternatively, you personally 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.360 could avoid the West coast of the United States for 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.920 the foreseeable future. If you google interesting reading numbers seven away, 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:59.440 you can get details on the California outlook, as well 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:04.480 as many of the Japan's stories. Hollywood is in Los Angeles, 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.400 and in theory, Hollywood could disappear from the face of 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:10.160 the earth if the tsunami is big enough. But we 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.000 will always have the movies from the past in the 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.000 form of Hollywood's DVDs. And there's a new company taking 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.880 advantage of those DVDs in a very interesting way. The 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.000 company is called zedva z E d I v A, 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.640 and I might be pronouncing it wrong, but it's a 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:33.359 streaming movie company that's delivering movies over the internet. In fact, 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.680 it's streaming movies that you can't get via a stream 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.360 from places like Netflix. Z Diva does this by putting 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:46.840 physical DVDs into physical DVD players and then streaming the 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:51.040 content from that pair from the DVD DVD player pair 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.800 to you. Your computer is a remote control for the 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:59.360 DVD player. By doing this, Zadeva apparently can get around 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:03.360 all the copyright laws and Hollywood restrictions that hamper the 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.960 ability of places like Netflix to stream movies, especially right 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.440 after a DVD is released, and the prices right at 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.520 the Diva. It's only two dollars to watch a movie. 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.840 You can google interesting reading number seven oh eight for details. 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.840 There's a really interesting article this week on the price 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.919 of solar cells and solar panels. Prices have been coming 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:30.920 down for years, but by two thousand and fifteen, prices 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.040 in sunny places are going to break below coal fired 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.800 electricity prices for the first time. Those are prices for 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:43.440 installed solar panels, so you can order them, get the panels, 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:47.120 get them installed on your house, and actually have electricity 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.600 being produced by those solar panels. That cost the same 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:56.040 as electricity from the power company, by installed solar panels 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.880 will cost less than coal across much of the United 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:03.240 States by twenty thirty if trends continue. The article predicts 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.320 that installed solar panels could cost half as much as 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:10.040 power from a power plant, which would be fantastic news. 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.280 Google Interesting Reading numbers seven oh eight for details on this. 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.800 But according to another article, this great development on the 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.440 solar energy front may come too late. The article is 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:27.440 called quote the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:33.000 is accelerating super exponentially end quote, and it contains this 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:39.400 ominous prediction. Quote. Notwithstanding a lot of discussions, international meetings, 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:44.960 prevalence in the media, atmospheric CEO two content growth continues unabated, 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.200 with a clear faster than exponential behavior. On the face 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:53.919 of this evidence, using data until two thousand nine, stabilizing 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:59.160 atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions at levels reached in for instance, 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:05.040 seems very ambitious, if not utterly unrealistic end quote. The 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.440 notion is that humans emit so much c O two 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.920 and the environment has soaked up a lot of it, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.760 but is now full of c O two, and parts 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.320 of nature are now starting to create positive feedback loops 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:21.039 as temperatures rise and so on, that things could get 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.719 very bad on the c O two front. If you 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.520 google Interesting Reading seven oh eight, you can find out 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.800 more about this phenomenon. There are several articles on space 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.880 junk this week. In one which you can find by 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.960 googling Interesting Reading number seven oh eight, there's a video 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.880 showing the incredible amount of damage that small pieces of 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.120 space junk can do when they run into spacecraft. What 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:47.920 they have is this huge hunk of aluminum that's several 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.279 inches thick, and it's struck by this tiny little sphere 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:55.240 of space junk that's traveling at six kilometers per second, 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.479 and it makes this huge crater in the aluminum. But 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:03.400 that same video also shows how and why lightweight shields 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.840 can protect against that kind of damage. One layer of 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.279 the shield breaks up the incoming particle, and then the 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.719 second layer absorbs the debris from that first collision. It 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:19.000 makes for a much much lighter package for shielding. But 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.360 space junk is still a big concern, so in Interesting 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.359 Reading number seven oh five, there's an article about a 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.840 ground based laser from NASA that may be able to 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.359 zap space junk out of the sky. The idea is 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:36.839 to use a five kilowatt laser that beams photons onto 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.320 a piece of space junk for a couple of hours. 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.520 The photons slow the object down, and once it slows 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.360 down enough, it falls out of orbit. If you google 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.280 interesting Reading number seven oh five, you can learn more 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:52.040 about this laser that could clean out low Earth orbits. 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:58.160 Do sperm whales call to each other by announcing their names? Maybe? 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.480 Scientists have noticed that there are changes in the vocal 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.080 patterns of sperm whales that might indicate that the names 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.719 of different individuals are being used. What's interesting about the 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.320 article is the idea of these animals having a level 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.880 of intelligence that would allow names to occur, as well 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:20.080 as the idea of underwater whale societies that are basically 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:24.000 invisible to human beings. Everything about whales is amazing if 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.280 you think about it. So if you google interesting Reading 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:28.800 number seven oh five, you can learn more about this. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:35.680 We would call the whale names a scientific conjecture. Scientists 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.800 have noticed something in the behavior of whales that's interesting 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.600 to them, and they have offered one possible explanation. They 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.120 could be names, but obviously could be something else. So 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.160 now what the scientists will do is more research to 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.520 see if that conjecture is true or not. Here's another 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:56.120 scientific conjecture that came to light this week. The Large 0:07:56.200 --> 0:08:00.040 Hadron Collider might be able to implement some form of 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.600 time travel. The first part of this conjecture is that 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.880 the Higgs boson actually exists. The Higgs boson is the 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:12.600 particle that the LHC was created to find. The second 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.920 part of the conjecture is that the LHC can create 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.640 a Higgs boson. And if both of those become true, 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:24.680 then there's a theoretical possibility that a Higgs singlet might 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:28.520 get created along with the Higgs boson, And if so, 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.360 the Higgs singlet might be able to go backward or 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.880 forward in time by escaping from the four dimensions of 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.440 our universe and re entering at some different point in time. 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:44.199 If this can happen, then it might allow for messages 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.319 to travel through time. But it'll be a while until 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.959 we find out. We have to actually discover the Higgs 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.079 boson first, and the Higgs singlet and figure out how 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.559 to make it transfer out of our four dimensions. So 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.520 if you google interesting reading number seven oh seven, you 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:03.199 can get details on this scientific conjecture. At the top 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.120 of Interesting Reading number seven oh six, there is a 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:10.520 really interesting piece of space video. What they've done is 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:15.160 they've taken high resolution photographs from the Cassini space probe 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.880 to Saturn and they've woven them together to make movies. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:23.280 Because the photographs are high resolution, were able to fly 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.000 past the rings of Saturn, past different moons and so on, 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:30.680 and see things with incredible detail. If you play the 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.960 video at full screen, you get the full effect, and 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:38.080 it's pretty spectacular. The filmmakers hope to use this technique 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:42.040 to make an IMAX movie. Google Interesting Reading number seven 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.360 oh six to see this video. Also in number seven 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.800 oh six, there's an article about the drive to make 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:54.079 the world's strongest magnet that doesn't use neodymium. Neodymium is 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.720 a rare Earth element that is, as you might suspect, rare, 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:00.960 and China is really the only country you with significant 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.199 deposits and they aren't very inclined to share. So the 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.199 thing about neodymium magnets is that they are so powerful 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.599 compared to what came before them. They've made things like 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:18.240 Walkman headphones and then earbuds, possible. Before neodymium magnets, there 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.760 was no way to make a good speaker that's small. 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.720 The magnets have also made small hard discs and small 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:28.040 electric motors possible, as well as big things like electric 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:32.120 motors for cars and generators on giant wind turbines. So 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.760 if scientists can invent a better magnet that doesn't need 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.120 rare earth metals, it would be great. If you google 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.200 Interesting Reading number seven oh six, you can learn more. 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.959 Google announced a new feature this week that lets you 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.800 block certain sites from your search results. So you don't 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.000 like results from a particular website, you can add that 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.400 website to a list and it won't show up in 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.679 your Google listings anymore. It gives you more control over 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.679 what you see from Google and lets you reduce the 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.360 noise and Google's results based on your taste. You might 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.640 also notice that Google is also rolling out its best 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.199 Guess feature, where the Google search engine gives you a 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:16.520 Watson like best guests to the answer of certain queries. 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.160 For example, type in the CEO of General Electric into 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:25.240 Google and the first result is Google's best guess at 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:29.000 the name of the actual person. Google Interesting Reading number 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:33.400 seven oh four for details. Also in interesting Reading seven 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.120 oh four, there's an article looking at the iPad two 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:41.640 graphics performance, a new memory technology that could let cell 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.320 phones last much longer on a battery charge, a story 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.920 suggesting that the airport X ray scanners that look at 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.920 us through our clothing and may emit ten times more 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:57.200 radiation than they should, a new nanotech material that may 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.679 make it easy to store a lot of hydrogen in 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.480 a all space. And then a cryptic little article about 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.880 the lost City of Atlantis. Now we've all heard about 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.840 this city. Plato talked about it in his writings about 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:15.199 six hundred b CE, so twenty hundred years ago. Plato 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.600 was writing about the lost city of Atlantis, and people 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:23.640 have been hypothesizing and conjecturing about it ever since. Supposedly 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.600 it was an island nation that sank into the sea, 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:30.839 presumably because of a giant tsunami. It's been considered something 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.840 of a myth until this week. They'll have a lot 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.920 of digging and artifact finding to do to prove that 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.120 this is a real city and not something that they're 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.040 just speculating about. But it does raise the possibility that 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:48.640 Atlantis really exists. That's it for this week. If you'd 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.800 like to read more, you can google interesting reading number 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.920 seven oh four, seven oh five, seven oh six, seven 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:59.000 oh seven, or seven oh eight for details. Until next time, 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.040 let's hope that the news is just a little bit 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.360 better in the coming days. This has been a tough 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:09.120 week for the world. For more on this and thousands 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.440 of other topics, does that how stuff works dot com 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:13.640 and don't forget to check out the brain stuff blog 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:15.880 on the house stuff works dot com home page. You 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.839 can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter at 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:23.640 brain stuff hs W. The House Stuff Works iPhone app 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.320 has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.